The feestrok has been described as "a female mode of political expression ... [which] explicitly linked gender to the reconstruction of a ravaged country and the general striving for 'breakthrough' and social renewal.

"[1] Boissevain-van Lennep had been imprisoned in 1943 for her involvement with the Dutch resistance to the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands during World War II.

[2][3][4] As a member of a post-war women's committee intending to celebrate the rebuilding of the Netherlands and inspired by her memory of that scarf, she devised a skirt to represent "unity in diversity" (eenheid in veelheid); "new from old" (nieuw uit oud); "building from the broken" (opbouw uit afbraak) and "one garment makes unity" (één dracht maakt eendracht).

To ensure that all feestrok were handmade, the International Archives for the Women's Movement was assigned responsibility for registering and numbering each skirt.

[4] On 2 September 1948, some 1500 women wearing feestrok took part in a parade in Amsterdam marking the Golden Jubilee of Queen Wilhelmina's coronation and coinciding with the exhibition ''The Dutch Woman 1898–1948'' [nl].