|
Romanian folk costumes or folk clothing has remained unchanged for centuries. We are not yet sure about the origins and the time line here. There seem to be some similarities with peasant styles throufgout the Balkans. Some of the outfits seem to show a Turkish influence, but we are not yet sure how the Ottoman era affected folk costumes. The basic garment for both men and women is a shirt or chemise cut similarly. It is traditionally made from hemp, linen, or a woollen fabric. It is only in the 19th century that inexpensive coitton fabrics become available. The basic shirt or chemise was secured around the waist with a destinctive fabric belt. The basic shirt/chemise did vary in length. Women wore the garment long at ankle-lengths. Men tended to wear short lengths ahd with pants or leggings fashioned from fabric strips. Women wear an apron over their chemise to protect the garment below the waistline. These aprons vary somewhat. Im nuch of Romania this apron was a simple cloth worn at the front of the skirt with a waist band. In Transylvania and the southwest it is common to wear two of these aprons with one protecting the back of the chemise. As is common with folk costumes, there were no destinctive garments for children. A HBC reader has noted that one item of folk costume in Romania and the Balkans were strap shoes or sandals. We are not sure when this footwear first appeared. We can not yet establish any connection with the strap shoes and sandals that became popular for children in Western Europe and America during the early-20th century.
Romanian folk costumes or folk clothing has remained unchanged for centuries. We are not yet sure about the origins and the time line here. There seem to be some similarities with peasant styles throufgout the Balkans. Some of the outfits seem to show a Turkish influence, but we are not yet sure how the Ottoman era affected folk costumes.
We have very limited chroinological information on Romanian folk costumes. We do not know just when they developed, we suspect in the 18th century, a time line that would be comparable to other European countries. And while urban clohing was influenced by fashion changes in other countries, fashions in rural areas were much less ikely to change. We have no information from the 9th century yet. We suspect that we now call folk citumes were still very cimmon, especially n the early-19th century. We have some information on the 20th century. By the 20th century, we mote Romanian boys in cities wearing contemporary European styles. We note folk coistumes beng worn in rural areas as late as World War II, in part because the German soldiers who poured into Romania were such avid photographers. Folk styles as everyday clothing disappeared after the War. A conination of land reform and the outfut of state owned clothing factories pronbly exolain the rapid demise. Some Romanians do still dress up in folk costumes for special occasions.
The basic garment for both men and women is a shirt or chemise cut similarly. It is traditionally made from hemp, linen, or a woollen fabric. It is only in the 19th century that inexpensive coitton fabrics become available. The basic shirt or chemise was secured around the waist with a destinctive fabric belt. The basic shirt/chemise did vary in length. Women wore the garment long at ankle-lengths. Men tended to wear short lengths ahd with pants or leggings fashioned from fabric strips. Women wear an apron over their chemise to protect the garment below the waistline. These aprons vary somewhat. In nuch of Romania this apron was a simple cloth worn at the front of the skirt with a waist band. In Transylvania and the southwest it is common to wear two of these aprons with one protecting the back of the chemise. As is common with folk costumes, there were no destinctive garments for children. A HBC reader has noted that one item of folk costume in Romania and the Balkans were strap shoes or sandals. We are not sure when this footwear first appeared. We can not yet establish any connection with the strap shoes and sandals that became popular for children in Western Europe and America during the early-20th century.
The basic white garments worn by men and boys could be very plain. This was especially the case for the everyday wear of people in villages and rural areas. These white outfits were still very common in the 19th century. There were also garments for special days and celebrations. This included folk outfits for city people who normally dressed in standard Eueopean garments. This increasingly became the general pattern after World War I. Some city people would by a folk outfit for their children for both notagic and patriotic reasons. Adults also had these fancy, decocrated outfits, but they were especially popular for children.
There are regional differences associated with Romanian folk outfiits. We do not yet know much about the topic and can not describe the differences. This is complicated by the fact that the borders of Romania have varied widely, both the modern country and the medieval provinces that ultimately formed Romania. Historically the core of Romaniawas what what is known as the Old Kingsom, meaning Walachia and Moldavia. The most significant additional province was Transylvania which hve been fought over by Hungary and Romania and which included both Romanian and Hungarian populations. Hungry because of its powerful association with the Hapsburg monarchy was able to dominate Transylvania, desoite the fact that the diminste population was Romanian. This was not so much an issue for most of European history when multi-ethnic polities were common. This chnged in the 19h century with the rise of nationalism. Possession of Tranyslvania changed in the 20th century, but was finally settled by Stalin after Wotld War II. Its long histirical relstionship with Hungry meant siome mixing of Romanin and Hungarian styls. Banat in the west has been disputed with Serbia/Yugoslvia. Bessarabia and Bukovina in the northeast were seized by the Soviet Union (1940) and are now Moldavia. Dobrudzha in the south was disputed wih Buklgaria. There seems to be many similarities in the folk outfits. The primary regional differencs seem to be the decoration more than anything else.
What we call folk styles are esentually the ckithing worn by the population in the countryside. These styles and decoration developed over time, primarily dating back to the 18th century. A factor here was tat there were differences between the countryside and cities. In some cases there were ethbic differences. As Romania emerged from the Ottoman orbit in the 19th century we begin to see Western dress appearing and even becoming dominant in the cities while people in the country side continued to wear the traditional styles which came to be known as folk styles. From a very early point we begin to see cities familes dressing up their children in folk styles for special occassion. This was one expression of nationalist sentiment which was rising tghroughout Europe. We see this in quite a number of European country. Only after World War II and the Communist era did folk styles disappear in the countryside. This happened so rapidly thatwe suspect it was a policy adopted by Communist officials, but we have no details. The Communist decesion to attempt to rapidly industrialize may be part of this proceess
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[The 1880s]
[The 1890s]
[The 1900s]
[The 1910s]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
Related Style Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Return to the Main Folk Costume page]
[Smocks]
[Long pants suits]
[Knicker suits]
[Short pants suits]
[Socks]
[Eton suits]
[Jacket and trousers]
[Blazer]
[School sandals]
[School smocks]
[Sailor suits]
[Pinafores]
[Long stockings]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Page
[Return to the Main Romanian page]
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Images]
[Links]
[Registration]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
