Tradition vs. Modernism

Women’s clothes respected the same code; unmarried girls would wear costumes with floral motifs and wore their hair in braids without having to cover their heads. After a woman would get married she would wear only a simple strip sawn on the sleeve, they were expected to wear a scarf on their heads or a kerchief with tassels. Women with a higher social or financial status would saw that strip with beads, while poorer women would only have a colored one. After the birth of a child, women would give up their costumes for a sober, white and black costume characteristic to the region they would live in.

Different generations wearing the same costumes

Today the traditional Romanian costume became an inspiration source to the wholesale fashion production industry designers, both Romanian and international. Adrian Oianu is a very appreciated Romanian designer who launched two collections inspired by his native’s country traditional costumes: “Suflecata pan’ la brau” (“Turned up ‘til the belt”) and “Bucurie” (“Joy”). Both collection conquered fashion enthusiasts around the world. Dorin Negrau had as inspiration for his “Lost” collection the traditional costume from the Bihor region. Other designers influenced by the Romanian folk costume were Olah Gyarfas, Corina Vladescu and Ingrid Vlasov.

Philippe Guilet's collection

French designer, Phillippe Guilet, launced the collection “Prejudices 100% RO” which focused on the traditional uniforms of the “Callus” (Calusarii), folk dancers from the south western part of Romania. Yves Saint Laurent had a collection inspired by the Romanian traditional flax blouses called “La blouse roumaine”. Other international designers that included Romanian folk costume elements in their collections were: Tom Ford, Joseph Altuzzara and the American brand Anthropologie.

Source: http://artifexlohn.com