To the outsider’s eye, the folkwear ensemble might signal belonging to the ethnographic area it originates from — perhaps even the specific region of Transylvania, Moldova, Muntenia Oltenia, Crisana or Banat, as well as membership to an ethnic community — whether Romanian, sasi (german community settled in Romania), secui (Hungarian community settled in Romania), roma, tatăr (Turkish-originating community) and so on.
To the peasant’s eye — and heart — folkwear signals gender and age differences, kinship relations, marital status, wealth and social status, occupation — and of course, style. Folk outfits were — and still are — vehicles of functional and as well as symbolic communication.
Traditionally, the composition of the Romanian folk outfit ensemble is the following:
— The body of the blouse — usually referred to — with regional differences — as stan, denoting both the front and the back side of the shirt.
— Originally, the stan came together with the lower side of the dress, poale — which essentially acts as an underskirt, but became a separate item with time. In certain areas of Romania, such as Tara Oașului, northern Transylvania, the upper body has always been separated from the poale, which go by the name of pindileu.
— The covering of the underskirt — by catrințe (two rectangular straight aprons), fote (wrap-around rectangular skirt) and vâlnice (pleated or gathered wrap around skirt) — or combinations of the above.
— Headwear and subsequently, special hairstyles. Headdressing was never random — in fact, it is one of the quintessential signs in reflecting the marital status of a woman — as well as social and economic status, depending on the addition of silver or golden coins in the headdress (such as the conci cu monede — bonnet with coins, specific to certain areas of Banat).
Types of Romanian blouses:
The word ie originated from the latin tunicae lineae, and the alternative name cămașă, cămeșă, from the Gaelic camisia. While cămașă can refer to both a woman’s and man’s blouse, “ia” strictly refers to the woman’s.
Traditionally, ia is made out of 4 rectangular folds of fabric – thus producing no waste – and 4 more additional smaller rectangular pieces that will serve as gussets. The tailoring scheme for the ie changes only slightly across time.
The front side of the blouse, pieptul (the chest) of the shirt, is usually decorated with either subtle vertical rows of motifs (Transylvania and Moldova areas), either more complex, stuffy ones (such as in the case of Muscel, Arges, Valcea, Mehedinti ones).
Depending on the local traditions and canons, there are certain ornamental systems that help build the picture of different types of blouses – when it comes to ii, it’s all about the sleeves. Traditionally, the visual composition of a sleeve is made out of: altiță+ încreț+ râuri, ending with either an open bell-type sleeve, an embroidered cuff, or with ruffles flaring out at the wrist.
The altiță used to be a separately embroidered piece of rectangular cloth added to the shoulders of the blouse, whose function was to cover the addition of another cloth fold to the sleeves. Altița was initially a very thin band (and it has so been preserved in some Transylvanian ethnographic zones, for instance, in southern Transylvania where it is also called pui peste umăr, umeraș) but with time evolved into a complex decorative section of the sleeve (predominately in the areas of Muntenia, Oltenia and Moldova).
The symbols embroidered onto the altiță were unique, not to be found anywhere else on the blouse – as opposed to the râurion the sleeve, which used motifs repeated on the front and backside of the blouse. Judging by the presence and form of the altițăon various local folk blouses, one can differentiate between folk blouses with altiță, and folk blouses without altiță.
The încreț initially served the functional role of gathering the wide pieces of fabric together in a subtle crease underneath the altiță. The type of symbols embroidered unto the încrețare geometrical: rombul (diamond-shaped), cârligul ciobanului, (the shephard’s hook, S-shaped), coarnele berbecului (the ram’s horns). Both the altițăand the încreț lose their functional roles throughout the 19th century but are preserved as decorative elements. Colours of the încreț vary between white, light yellow, or red – with light blue as a later addition.
Literally, rivers. Refers to the ornamentation embroidered on the sleeves, flowing down from the încreț all the way to the lower edge of the sleeve. There are two types of distribution of the decorative rows: they can be displayed vertically, drepte (straight) or diagonally: oblice, săbiate, costisate, chiezuri etc.
Judging by the distribution of these rivers on the sleeve’s surface, two types of sleeves specific to the Romanian folk blouse have been distinguished:
— cu tablă: literally, panel-like — all the râuri are compactly gathered within a rectangular panel that begins at shoulder length and continues to the cuff. Usually, the same vertical lines of motifs are repeated. Specific to the ethnographic areas of Banat, Hunedoara, parts of Bihor (Crișana) — these folk blouses display no altiță. There is, however, a combination of altiță and tablă-like embroidered râuriin parts of Muntenia — especially Muscel and Argeș.
The areas where one could find such blouses extend from the Aries Valley of the Apuseni Mountains, (ethnographically inhabited by a community called buciumani) all the way diagonally across the plains of Transylvania, to the land of Năsăud& Lăpuș. This is also a type of stitching and sewing on top that one can observe at the Saxon communities in Transylvania, albeit executed in a different technique.
LOWER BODY ENSEMBLE
As time went by and villages would come into more contact with the neighbouring urban folk, the catrință started being worn in all kinds of combinations:
A.1 Catrință in the front and opreg covering the rear (specific to Banat, with time has spread to western parts of Oltenia
A.2 Sorț (wider apron, at times creased) + catrința in the back (southern Transylvania
B. One catrință over a fotă (parts of Muntenia)
C. Catrință (pestelcă) + vâlnic (partsof Oltenia, Vâlcea, Gorj, Mehedinti)
D. Catrință + Pesteman (in Oltenia, Vlașca county)
The catrințe are normally composed out of horizontal rows (vrâste), alternating between simple lines and lines with decorative embroideries. In the ethnographic zone of Oltenia, southern Romania, the aprons are brightly coloured with red, blue, green – whereas in Transylvanian villages they tend to be either black with golden embroidery or dark violet. In Oltenia, the catrințe worn in the front and back follow certain rules: they come in pairs, one with horizontal stripes (catrințoi, opreg) and that is to be worn in the back, and the other with vertical stripes (fîstîc) – worn in the front.
Fota is normally hand woven into the loom – made from woolen or a cotton and wool blend fabric. It is around 1.60 m long and 0.80 m wide. The type of fotă worn in Moldova is simple, dark coloured with vertical reddish stripes whereas the ones specific to Argeș and Muscel are heavily embroidered, at the beginning only around the lower edge of the skirt, but gradually covering the front side of the wrap as well – embroidered with gold and silver metallic thread.
Up to 4m long, gathered at the waist and held in place with a woven brâu, the vâlnic is decorated with narrow red vertical rows (vărgături). The vâlnic was particular to colder season and it was embraced by wealthier families. It was worn in combination with catrințe for a long time.
There are sensible differences in the texture, the width of the pleats and the chromatic palette between the vâlnice characteristic to the ethnographic microregions located beneath the Carpathian chain and those of the south of Oltenia
A curious addition is a vâlnic referred to as the zăvelcă cu betea (apron with tinsel), present in the heart of the Oltenian ethnographic area, a black or dark violent pleated skirt with heavy metallic work at the lower end of the skirt.
Broboadă or velitură
Pomeselnec or polmesenec
Ceapsă or conci
Ceapsa cu coarne
Șaptă and cârpă
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