The Schröderheims are wearing the black-and-red everyday court version of the Swedish national costume. One of the portraits is dated 1778, the year Gustav III introduced his dress reform. The cut was the same for everyone, but colours and fabrics varied according to the wearer’s position in society. The aim was to reduce textile imports and be free from the fluctuations of fashion, but the early-17th-century features of the costume reveal that the king who created it was also inspired by historical romanticism.