The Speaker of Parliament declared it not respectable to wear lopapeysa, woolen sweaters, during a session at Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, last week, ordering three MPs to take their sweaters off.
Photo by Dagmar Trodler.
“It was just a friendly request but one must always obey the speaker,” Minister of Education Katrín Jakobsdóttir, one of those asked to take off her sweater, told visir.is.
“It started when Oddný [G. Harðardóttir of the Social Democrats] was asked to take off her sweater, then she pointed at us,” Katrín said of herself and MP for the Independence Party Árni Johnsen, who was also wearing a lopapeysa.
Katrín said she had been wearing another sweater underneath, so she didn’t mind taking off the warm lopapeysa. “But Árni went home to pick up a jacket,” she added.
The origins of ‘Icelandic’ woolen sweaters have been up for debate in recent months but the minister stated with certainty that her sweater had been made in Iceland.
“It is a very nice sweater with a Westfjordian lopapeysa pattern,” she explained. “And now I will just wear it at home.”
There’s a strict dress code in parliament, although women are given more liberty than men. However, it is now clear that lopapeysa are off limits.
Click here to read more about the lopapeysa controversy.
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