Belgian costume maker hopes for carnival growth after COVID ‘black gap’

BRUSSELS : Large ostrich feather headpieces are one of many costumes made by the Kersten household for Belgium’s celebrated Mardi Gras carnival, and after the occasion was cancelled on account of COVID in recent times, the 120-year-old household enterprise is hoping for a revival.

Rooted within the Center Ages, the Binche carnival, a UNESCO World Heritage occasion, is one in all Europe’s oldest surviving avenue carnivals and the largest in Belgium.

The oldest and predominant individuals within the carnival are the as much as 1,000 Gilles, who put on medieval costumes within the black, purple and yellow colors of the Belgian flag and who parade within the centre of Binche, a city of some 30,000 inhabitants southwest of Brussels close to the French border.

The costumes embrace ostrich-feather hats, picket clogs, bells and wax masks, parts which the Kersten household have been designing and making for 5 generations.

“This 12 months, we’re celebrating the one hundred and twentieth anniversary of the beginning of the ‘Gilles de Binche’ costumes manufacturing”, mentioned 57-year-old Fanny Kersten, who has been making costumes together with her father for 33 years.

“My great-great-grandfather determined to make a Gilles hat following a guess together with his mates … It mustn’t have been straightforward for him nevertheless it labored out,” she added.

The Binche carnival’s cancellation in 2021 and 2022 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic was a “black gap” for the enterprise, Kersten mentioned, including “we could not even think about a future for the carnival.”

It was the primary time the carnival was cancelled since World Struggle Two, considerably lowering costume makers’ earnings from renting out their items.

“Now (the return of the carnival) is a good aid. Nonetheless, each morning we have a look at the COVID numbers,” Kersten mentioned.

Her ostrich feather hat weighs 4kg (8.8 lb) and sustaining it takes 85 hours a 12 months. The costume itself requires 13 hours of labor. Kersten mentioned the household could make 300 costumes per 12 months.

The carnival is because of happen from Feb. 19-21.

(Writing by Marine Strauss, enhancing by Vin Shahrestani)