Visit to the Muzeul Taranului Roman (Romanian Peasant Museum)

This post is directly connected to the previous one about the details of two costumes at Bucharest's Muzeul Taranului Roman (the Romanian Peasant Museum).

Opened in 1990, located in a building inspired by the old Brancovan tradition and designed by architect Nicolae Ghica-Budeşti, the museum preserves around 90,000 exhibits (30,000 items belong to the costume and textile sections, so there is a lot to see, explore and discover for fashion researchers) and is therefore considered as the richest folk art collection in Romania.

Among the most interesting items displayed at the museum there are intricately embroidered costumes, masks, accessories and adornments.

Adornments always had a symbolic magic function, being worn as lucky charms to provide people with health, good luck and prosperity.

Accessories and adornments are usually different according to sex, age, ethnic group, georgraphic area, social differences and occasion (holidays and special ceremonies) and come in different materials from precious metals to pebbles, shells or filigree (in a nutshell, the same variety displayed in the masks made using unexpected materials like wood, animal horns, beads, bells, pieces of mirror, tinsel and fringes).

There are head adornments and accessories for the neck, arms, feet and legs such as bells, spurs or polychrome tassels.

For what regards the costumes (but also the home textiles), there is a prevalent use of woollen (especially white coarse woollen fabric woven by women), linen or cotton textiles.

The white background of the Romanian costume is an important characteristic not only from a historical standpoint as proof of the maitenance of the Dacian traditions, but also from an aesthetical viewpoint since it imparts distinction to the peasant dress.

All the garments are characterised by a rather basic cutting technique (especially in straight pieces) justified by a desire to save as much material as possibile (this often results in the integral use of reactangular pieces of cloth or fabric).

The decorative elements are usually located in ornamental areas such as neck, shoulders, sleeves, chest and near the skirt's hem.

I'm embedding here a 5-minute preview of a longer video that shows the exhibits on the second floor of the Muzeul Taranuli Roman (you will have to install Veoh Video Compass to watch the full video in your browser or download it to your PC) – quality is not great, but it was shot on purpose like that for a personal project (more about it in another post).

http://www.veoh.com/swf/webplayer/WebPlayer.swf?version=AFrontend.5.7.0.1311&permalinkId=v25574875DEW5rATt&player=videodetailsembedded&videoAutoPlay=0&id=anonymous

Watch MuzeulTaranuluiRoman.MP4 in Entertainment | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

My research trip to Romania was made possible through a journalistic grant from the Institutul Cultural Român (ICR – Romanian Cultural Institute), Bucharest.

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