Until 2011, the "Beautiful Netherlands" series from PostNL was dedicated to cities. For 2012 and 2013 PostNL has opted for a new coherent thematic approach and has chosen historic country houses and regional dress respectively. On 21 May, PostNL issued the last Regional Dress stamp sheet, this time with the Northwest-Veluwe regional dress, and the collective sheet.
The stamp sheet "Beautiful Netherlands Regional Dress Northwest-Veluwe" consists of five identical stamps. The silhouette of a woman's head is shown in profile on the stamps in a vivid green colour (tone-on-tone) to make the black-and-white head cover stand out even better. The woman wears a "knipmuts" (goffered bonnet), a closely fitting headdress with a lappet covering the nape. The sheet consists of four stamps in portrait position – two older photographs in monochrome and two more recent photographs in colour. On the photographs from left to right: the church in the village street in Nunspeet, an old picture postcard and a woman from Nunspeet with a "droefmuts", a bonnet that came into fashion in around 1920 to be worn on special occasions on weekdays.
The collective sheet "Beautiful Netherlands Regional Dress Northwest-Veluwe" consists of five different stamps. On or next to each stamp, the name of the village, town or region refers to the respective regional dress: Bunschoten-Spakenburg, Marken, Staphorst, Northwest-Veluwe and Walcheren. The silhouette of a woman's head is shown in profile on the stamps in a vivid colour (tone-on-tone) to make the black-and-white head cover stand out even better. These colours return in the place names printed elsewhere on the sheet. The sheet consists of eight photographs in portrait position – four older photographs in monochrome and four more recent photographs in colour. On the photographs from left to right: the harbour of Spakenburg, a woman in Spakenbrug dress, a view of typical Marken houses, a present-day photo of a young woman in Marken dress wearing the so-called girl's bonnet, a woman from Staphorst in regional work dress at a washtub, the church in the village street in Nunspeet in Northwest-Veluwe, a woman from Walcheren wearing a casque hat, head brooch, striking forehead needle and a necklace made of red coral, and a portrait of a young woman from Walcheren with a linen bonnet, curling head brooch ends and a garnet necklace.
