“Mihai Eminescu” National Highschool, Buzau, Romania.

From the very beginning, the conformation, the cut and the embroidery of the Romanian folk costume did not change too much in our area, including our Dacian origins, fact that certifies the conservatory spirit of Romanian nation. Romania is one of the few countries from all over the world, where in the 2000's, some country people still wear folk costumes daily, not only at special events.

As the historical sources certify, Romanians had a daily folk costume and one for special events. The difference between them was the folk costume for special events which had a more complicated seam and it was decorated with zoomorph and vegetal symbols, whereas the daily one was simple- white and black. In some areas there are interferences of other cultures, for instance the Turkish, Macedonian, Russian or Hungarian. Simple costume for man Simple costume for woman

Folk costumes for special events

Men's traditional clothing throughout Romania comprises a white shirt (cămaă), white trousers, hat, belt, waistcoat and or overcoat. Women wear an embroidered white shirt (ie), white underskirt (poale), a straight or wrap round skirt (fotă/catrină) sometimes a waistcoat or an overcoat and a silk veil (maramă) or square scarf (basma) or a large square scarf (broboadă). Depending on the social position and financial resources, every woman wears coins made into necklaces (salbă) or an embroidered necklace. The coins from the necklaces can be gold or silver ones and the embroidered necklace can be made from velvet with different types of insertions with gold or silver thread. Embroidered white shirt (ie)

Men's folk costume is less adorned than the one of women, because this clothes required a lot of work, meticulousness and imagination to come up to the standards of those times. One exception here is the men's folk costume from Mure and Bistria- Năsăud, where, at a folk costume for special event, men had little bells and colorful tassels at footwear, an overcoat, adorned with tassels, usually green and red and a hat or a straw hat (clop), which is adorned with peacock feathers. The more colorful and impressive is the feather, the more the man has a higher position in society. The white leather belt (chimir) has many little pockets and other accessories, being adorned with colorful seams and colorful beads. The women from this area are assorted with the men with an impressive clothing, predominating: red, green, yellow, and isolated black, especially at straight aprons (catrină). The underskirts (poale/jupon) are white with handmade embroidery in the lower part. The wear large black square scarfs (broboadă) with very complicated broidery.

Ethnographic areas in Romania are easily recognized by folk costumes and music. Thus, the men from Maramures wear boots (cizme), wide summer trousers (gaci), waistcoast (bundă) and clop. Women wear boots or leather peasant sandals (opinci)- specific for leather peasant sandals are bicolor foot wraps (obiele) black and white or gray- straight apron (catrină), the same waistcoast (bundă) richly ornamented and square scarf (basma). Each of them wear a kind of bracelet made of multicolored beads, called pumnar.

In the area of Apuseni Mountains the folk costumes is more sober, dominated by black and white.Men wear wide leather belts (chimir) with a tricolor rosette in the chest; they also wear boots or leather peasant sandals (opinci). Women have almost the same predominant colors and the same shoes. Exemplifying this, we find that the folk costume from Apuseni is the closest to the Dacian folk costume, as illustrated on Trajan’s Column (Columna lui Traian) which is in the center of the Rome. The outfit consists of leather peasant sandals (opinci), tight winter trousers (cioareci), wide leather belts (chimir), sheepskin hat (caciulă de oaie) and an overcoat made by sheep skin suede (cojoc din piele de oaie intoarsa/tundra). Folk costume for woman Folk costume for man

The folk costume from Moldova is characterized by the simplicity of folk costume for men, which has as reference point the overcoat (cojoc), richly ornamented at cuffs and collar and the embroidery that is on it. The female folk costume is richer, represented by wrap round skirt (fotă) which bends below the knee in the left side, so as to see the white underskirt (poale). The overcoat (cojocul) is the same, richly adorned and the large square scarf (broboadă) which is characteristic by the richness of ornamentation.

Banat has a multitude of influences of Serbian origin, exemplified by music and dances. The male folk costume is made of white linen trousers (pantaloni), black waistcoast (vestă), white shirt (camasă) and a black fabric belt (brâu) and straw hat (pălărie de paie); the pants are loose, resembling those of land of Oa or those of Pădureni from Bihor. The female folk costume (port) consists of underskirt (poale), black straight aprons (catrine)-usually embroidered with yellow-, white shirt with embroidery at cuffs and collar, a richly embroidered waistcoast (vestă), and on the head a crown (coroniă)- usually made of velvet- or a headband, very ornate too.

The Oltenian folk costume with Bulgarian or Greek influences, shines also because of its colors: white, black and yellow. This area has its characteristics, like the men's embroidered trousers (pantaloni brodai) on the front and on the back with black embroidery and women's silk veil (maramă), a hat usually made of silk. Also, in Oltenia, by the geographic area and the influences of the other areas, at special events, the men have a cape (pelerină) made of embroidered wool and on the head they have round hats (căciuli rotunde) with flat bottom. Usually, they wear leather peasant sandals (opinci). The folk costumes of Căluari is one of the most ornated, shining because of its special hat and bells, which are on the shank. Remarkable is that they have two tricolor bands crossed over the chest, which show very well the people's patriotic spirit.

Oltenia – woman folk costume

The area of Dobrogea, which includes a lot of cultures (Romanian, Bulgarian, Turkish, Greek), has a large variety of colors on their costumes. The most important are white, red and blue, by the influences. Remarcable is the silk veil (maramă), which is, by the financial possibilities of the owner, more ornated at the women, and the men do not have anything on their heads. The shoes, which are characteristic for Romania, are the leather peasant sandals (opinci).

The area of Muntenia, which has the most countable influences of limitrophe areas, is characterised by the simple costumes, white on men, with a tissued fabric belts (brâu esut), usually red or yellow. Women are wearing the same underskirt (poale), embroidered with red and yellow. The wrap round skirts (fotă) are different, by the proceeding, depending on the areas that they belong to, plain or mountain: red and black, red and yellow or yellow and black embroidery. Shoes are usually the leather peasant sandals (opinci) and the women do not have anything on the head as the men, but they ornate their hair with different floral ornaments.

Nowadays, fashion design gets more and more influential. In this area, Romanian designers had managed to promote the traditional folk costume, the peasant woman's embroidered blouse (ia) and a single piece of cloth wrapped round the lower part of their bodies (fotă) and secured by a belt at the waist. Famous designers as Yves Saint Laurent, Kenzo or Tom Ford had dedicated entire clothing collections to the Romanian white shirt (ia) after Nadia Comăneci had appeared several times wearing a traditional ie; this Romanian ie being a source of inspiration for the Romanian designers, as Adrian Oianu, Andra Andreescu or Sandra Galan.

Students:  Berindei Andreea  Doni Alina  Manolache Adina Coordinating teachers:  Vlad Mihaela (English)  Dobre Florentina (French)