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THE FOLK COSTUME OF MEHEDINTI

The folk costume represents one of the most complex fields of the Romanian folk art. By the role it has as a garment, it represents a document of life and by the deciphering and the analysis of the elements which form it, there can be elucidated important problems of ethno genesis.

On the Romanian folk dress we have few historical documents, and from the genuine material there has been but little preserved from the 18th century and some more from the 19th. However, some archaeological remains (figurines from the Bronze Age), funerary monuments etc. are of great use to us. The most precious documents for the Romanian costume are the Roman monuments: "Tropaeum Traiani" from Adamclisi (Romania-Dobrogea) and 'Trajan's Column" of Rome. The images of the monuments representing the Dacian people, the ancient inhabitants of Dacia and the ancestors of the Romanian people, show us elements of dress preserved till nowadays in the Romanian costume.

The archaeological researches have brought to light also fragments of textiles — from the feudal period — which show us ornaments and techniques perpetuated to the present day in the peasant costume.

Valuable documents are the wall paintings of the churches where the peasant founders appear dressed in the native attire.

There follow the writings of the Romanian and foreign chroniclers and the documents concerning the peasant dress. Precious testimonies are the travel notes of the foreign travelers, which inform us on some important elements on the history of the Romanian folk dress.

The prints and the paintings of the fine artists in the past help us also to decipher some aspects of the costume. But the most valuable source of information for the knowledge of the dress is the original material, discovered in the ethnographical researches through the villages, where we also have the direct information oi the peasant.

The folk costume lives also today in Romania being worn in a constant way in some regions, or as ceremonial dress in others.

Although the Romanian dress has a unitary basic structure, it has received in the course of time various aspects from one region to the other. On Romania's territory there have been made conspicuous, along history, certain territorial units, with their distinct economic and political life and with their own art. The variety of the folk costume from these distinct areas is however inscribed in a strong unity of essence, which is maintained by the unitary structure of the Romanian costume and is present in all its essential aspects, namely :

1. The use of the white textiles, produced in the peasant household.
2. The unity of cut, which has as a basic law the cutting in straight widths of material, without cuts.
3. The ornamentation which is characterized by a particular weight and balance of values. In the adornment of the folk costume, the decoration is placed on the visible and unwearing portions. The disposition of the ornament follows a straight line; the ornamental motifs come after one another in a rhythmic succession, in rows, which cross the textile of the articles of dress.

The level, to which the adornment of the folk costume has reached it, is the result of a long experience, handed down from generation to generation. The Romanian folk adornment has two ways of expression: the geometrism and the representation of the elements from nature. The geometric decoration is a genre of ornamentation generalized in the Romanian folk art. It itself is the result of the stylization and it was created through the analysis of the elements from the nature. From the stylization of these, up to the schematic form of straight lines, it has rezulted the geometric motif. By the nature of the material and the technique of the execution of the fabrics and the sewing, the realization of the geometric ornament represents a natural operation.

4. The coloring, the fourth element of unity of the folk costume, is characterized by freshness and harmony; although looks rich, it is very simple and consists only of primary colors, being harmonized by major tones.

5. An important element of unity is the composition of the costume. Both the woman's costume and the male one are made up of the same pieces with' similar forms. The woman puts on directly on the body the shirt, which is long. At the waist she ties the articles of dress from the familiar apron which in the Romanian costume constitutes some rectangular fabrics of various widths, but always split (open) and not closed, as a skirt. The waist is girded with the belt, which presses the shirt on the middle, and over, on the aprons “the betele" (narrower belts) are put. On the head the woman wears a fabric in the shape of a towel, which covers the hair.

With the male costume the uniformity is so high, that only some details of cut, or adornment peculiarities determine a differentiation from one region to the other. It is made up of shirt which is usually worn over the trousers and reaches up to the knees. The trousers are always white and long. The waist is girded with woolen or leather belt. Over the shirt it is worn either a waistcoat of peasant cloth, or of sheepskin. On the head the man wears fur cup, during winter and a felt or straw hat, in summer.

In the cool seasons, the costume is completed with fur coats, short or long, or with garments of peasant cloth, which are of a great variety of shapes.

The ancient footwear of the peasant is opinca (peasant's sandal), in different variants from one region to another. Today industrial footwear is worn.

On this basic structure the costume has evolved in various shapes from an ethnographical zone to the other; each of Romania's countries-with certain conditions of life — has imposed its dominant note in the character of clothing. Thus, there were created the types of costume characteristic to the various regions of the country, and in the limits of these regions, the zone variants, of the main type, which led to a great variety of shapes in the peasant's clothing.

The woman's costume, in comparison with the male one presents a much more varied typology, hence it will be justified our unfailing preoccupation in describing the woman's costume.

In the classification of types of the woman's dress there serves as criterion the shape of the pieces which cover the body from the waist downwards. Thus, we distinguish three main types of woman’s costume:

1. The costume with "fota" (rectangular skirt);
2. The costume with "vâlnic" (pleated and flared skirt);
3. The costume with two "catrinţe” (aprons).

The costume with iota represents one of the most ancient types of Romanian dress. Fota is a rectangular fabric, which covers tightly the body from the waist downwards, with the ends superimposed in front. It is worn all over the territory of Moldova province and in the sub-Carpathian areas of Muntenia (Wallachia).

The costume with vâlnic is characteristic to Oltenia province, originating from the lowland areas of the Danube. The vâlnic has the shape of a pleated skirt, but which is split and it is worn with superposed ends.

The costume with two catrinţe, of ancient tradition, is the most widely spread : over all Transylvania, in Oltenia and in the Danube Plain in Muntenia. Catrinţa is a rectangular apron ; it is worn one piece in front and the other at the back over the white hems of the shirt.

The woman's costume of Mehedinti — the subject of the present work — makes part and parcel both of the typology of the costume with vâlnic, as well as of that of the costume with two catrinţe.

The costume with vâlnic belongs to the festive wear and to the cool seasons, while that with two catrinţe is worn in summer and at work. However before presenting each piece which makes the costume, we mention that Mehedinti county, which lies in the south-western corner of Romania, includes in its limits both the zone of the Carpathian Mountains, as well as the Danube Plain, a fact which has determined on this territory — although restricted — a pronounced differentiation and variety of sub-zone types of the folk dress.

Beginning with the mountains from the northern area, which by the conditions of life created have dic¬tated certain forms of clothing to the isolated population here, and passing over the central area of the county — where the main costume type specific to Mehedinti has been developed — we reach to the Danube Plain, where the costume is making part and parcel under all its aspects of culture of the Danubian space.

For a better knowledge of the articles of dress making the garment, we will present each category, with the role it has in the composition of the costume.

The head-dress in the woman's costume

A woman covers her head with a fabric, as she is subjected to an ancient habit, which does not allow her to show her hair — the ornament of the head — after she got married. The forms of wrapping one's head are different; we detect however the same basic piece, a long width of cloth, called "ştergar" (towel), which lies at the origin of all the systems of wrapping up the head.

The hair is tightly braided in two queues, curled under the crown into a loop, which in the moun tain area is covered and tied with a cone-shaped "conci” (bonnet), made of a cattle horn, or of tree bark. In the Danube Plain the hair tied up into a loop is wrapped up with a triangular kerchief.

Over these it is put the long width of cloth, of about 2.50 m in length and 0.45 m in wide which was initially woven of hemp or flax and more recently of cotton. Starting from the 19th century, the woman wraps up her head, in the festive attire, with "marama"(kerchief) of cocoon silk ( domestically produced natural silk) with vaporous aspect and a great preciosity. The domestically woven “marama” is ornamented and the ends with motifs selected in the loom, at times polychrome.

The way of wrapping up one’s head with the “marama” is different, imposed besides the zone typology also by the age of the woman, season and occasion. In the mountain area the “marama” tied to the “conci” (with some decorative pins) gives to the head a conical shape, and in the Danube Plain the “marama” is tied in big wrinkles, giving to the head a round shape.

The woman's shirt

The shirt, which is put on directly on the body is the main piece in the composition of the folk costume. It is made of vegetable fibers: „ hemp, flax — in olden times — and cotton more recently. In the Danube Plain the cocoon silk is also used, due to the growing of silkworm in this area. The linen is horizontally woven in the loom in two shedding harnesses, which allows the sewing on the thread. In the southern area we come across the streaked linen with white stripes, made of thicker cotton, or cocoon silk, which constitutes a characteristic feature of the shirts here.

With the woman's costume we find two main types of shirt: 1) the shirt pleated round the neck and 2) the straight shirt. In its archaic form, the shirt is long, being cut in one piece from the shoulder downwards.

In the county of Mehedinti it has a higher frequent occurrence the shirt pleated at the neck. It consists of straight widths of cloth (the body and the sleeves) which are pleated round the neck, from where the sleeves start too. In exchange with the straight shirt the width of cloth in the front passes over the shoulders, stretched, towards the back, whilst the sleeves are fastened from the shoulder. Due to the equal spreading of the two types of shirts mentioned above, in the Romanian folk dress, the cut cannot serve as a criterion of diffe¬rentiation of the types of shirt from the various regions of Romania. The types of shirt are determined by the system of ornamentation of the sleeve, system which appears in five formulas with the Romanian peasant shirts. From among these, the adornment with "altiţă" (stream of ornaments) and that with "blana" (compact rectangular ornamentation) are most widely spread and we also come across it with the shirts of Mehedinti.

Through its arrangement, the decoration with "altiţă" is made of three distinct categories of orna¬ments : "altiţă" disposed on the shoulder in an oblong way, compactly, formed of horizontal rows, "Increţul" (the pleat) under "altita", sewn with specific dots and under the pleat there are stretching, on the arm, the "râurile" (embroidered motifs) in 1 or 3 or 5 vertical (or aslant) strips, that cross- the sleeve from the pleat downwards. Occasionally these embroidered motifs draw near, forming a compact ornament.

The second system of decoration of the sleeve is with "blana" which represents a compact rectangular ornamentation, disposed in a uniform way from the shoulder downwards.

On the breast piece and the back of the shirt there appear also vertical rows, which way the shirt of Mehedinti are very broad across the chest.

The decoration of the Mehedinti shirts is sewn by hand on lines (not according to the design). Both the character of the ornamentation, as well as the sewing technique keep certain elements specific to Mehedinti, such as the minute, compact motifs, which are called "nisipit" (sand arrangement). More recently the shirts are also ornamented by selection in the loom.

The straight shirt is ornamented in a simple way : one row at the shoulder, at the mouth of the shirt and sleeve, this shirt being worn at work, or by old women in the mountain areas; it is more appreciated in the Danube Plain, where is frequently worn in the Sunday dress too.

The vâlnic and catrinţe. In Mehedinti the woman wears " vâlnic " in the festive and winter attire, but in parallel, she wears also the costume with two "catrinţe", at work and in the summer attire. Both the pleated and the flared skirt as well as the aprons are worn being tied to the waist, over the shirt.

All these articles of dress are domestically woven of wool (cotton more seldom) and decorated also in the weaving, in a rich polychrome, in which red is the dominating background.

The " vâlnic ", looking like a skirt, derives from a rectangular fabric of about 3.50 m long and 0.75 m wide, which, although pleated, as a skirt, it is worn split, owing to the fact that in the Romanian dress there does not exist closed skirt. In the ornamentation of "vilnic" the adornment follows a straight line, in vertical way: "selected rows" cross the background fabric, from one brim to the other.

The variety of the pleated and flared skirts, which is determined by the ornamental system, is exceptional. From simple colored strips in the mountain area, up to the rows made of complicated motifs in the lowland area, the pleated and flared skirts present a rich gamut of decoration, made also charming by the polychrome and opulent color.

As an exception, we mention the " vâlnic with beteala", from an isolated eastern area of the county, which is ornamented by sewing with "beteala" (silver locks) on black background. This represents one of the most interesting artistic creations in the woman's costume.

Catrinţele — the second type of costume, are worn one hung in front, as an apron and the other at the back.
Ornamented also with selected rows, we notice that those in front have vertical rows and those at the back horizontal. The variety of the aprons is emphasized by their size (narrower in the mountain and wider in the plains) and by the repertoire of the ornamental motifs, as well as by coloring.

Briul (the belt), bracira. The woman girds her figure over the shirt with the red belt, then she attaches the "vilnic" (or "catrinte") which are tied to the waist with the narrower "bracira" and ornamented in a linear, polychrome way. Both the belt and "bracira" are girded several times on the waist, these having no buckles.

The male costume is more unitary in its composition.

The head-dress consists of the fur cap of lamb skin in winter and the peasant hat in summer.

The shirt presents two forms: 1) straight (the ancient one) and 2) with inset, the new one. As with the women, the width of cloth is woven of hemp, flax and cotton in the mountain area and of cotton and cocoon silk in the lowland areas, where it appears also the cloth with strips made in the weaving. The ornamentation of the shirt is scarcer in the mountains and richer in the plains, where we also find the "bibiluri" ornament, a needle lace, at the hems, specific to the Danube Plain. The exceptionally broad and long shirt is also specific to the plains.

The trousers are worn white. In winter of "dimie" (rough homespun passed through the fulling-mill) and in summer of cloth. The cut of the trousers presents a great variety of shapes, as well as the ornamentation: in the mountain area being narrower, decorated with black cords and braids and in the lowland broader and without ornament.

Briul (the belt) of the man is red and is girded at the waist, over which a "bracira" (narrow) with linear polychrome motifs is tied too. In some places only a wider "bracira" is worn.

The waistcoat, of white rough homespun is worn over the shirt.

Mentions should be made that with the male costume the shirt is usually worn over the trousers, but in Mehedinti it is specific the wear of the shirt put into the trousers, with the winter costume.

The folk costume is completed with the rough homespun coat and sheepskin coats, which, are currently worn in the same form both by men, as well as by women.

The coats are white, long, having a very complicated cut with gussets, specific to Oltenia province. The black cord and braid ornament is disposed on the breast piece and with the hems.

The sheepskin coats are used on traveling, or in the pastoral life and they show more rarely artistic preoccupations of adornment.

The folk costume of Mehedinti makes part and parcel of the family of the folk dress in Oltenia and represents one of the most varied zone typologies owing to the fact that the county of Mehedinti covers ethnogra¬phical areas with distinct local character and very unlike between them.

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