Hello all,
Today I would like to talk about the Folk Costume of the region of Mezőség in Transylvania. This lies east of Kalatoszeg, and similarly is not recognized as a political unit. It lies in the eastern part of Cluj County, the western part of Mureș County, and the southern part of Bistrița-Năsăud County. I have once again plotted some of the communities of this region.
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mez%C5%91s%C3%A9g
This region is called Mezőség in Hungarian, Câmpia Transilvaniei in Romanian, Die Siebenbürgische Heide in German, and The Transylvanian Plain, or Transylvanian Heath in English. It is very mixed ethnically, with Hungarians, Romanians, and Roma. The Saxons which inhabited the northeast of this region have mostly emigrated to Germany.
During the folk revival of the late 20th century, the music and dances of this region were rediscovered and are now held in great esteem, being of a high level of artistry.
Here is a slow song from this region, by Marta Sebestyen and Muzsikas.
Here is a video of two couples from this region, starting with lassu and going to friss.
Here is a video of an ensemble doing dances from this region, with good costuming. For some reason they skip the slower dances that would normally be done in this cycle, jumping from the mens' dance directly into the friss, with just a tiny bit of the lassu at the end, and no akasztos at all. The judges then comment on the costumes.
The Hungarian Folk Costume of this region is relatively uniform, with the exception of the village of Szék, Sic in Romanian, which has its own unique tradition.
The original shirt had a round collar, embroidery on the front, and full sleeves with cuffs or gathered embroidered ends.
Sometimes embroidery was also done down the sleeves.
Later, there was a fashion to make the sleeves narrow, with no cuff, but edged with crochet or other lace, usually in a zigzag.
Blouses made of calico, similar to those in Kalatoszeg are sometimes seen.
Today the shirt is plain, and usually made of cotton. It would be nice to see these older styles used again.
A minimum of 2 underskirts were worn. The basal one quite narrow, and succeeding ones increasingly more full. As the local dance tradition had a lot of turning, this was necessary.
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The main garment consists of a bodice and skirt sewn together in one piece. The entire garment matches, being made of the same cloth. Heavy wool in one rich color, damask, wool with vertical stripes or plaids, and flowered prints are all used. This garment is trimmed with velvet, ribbon, rickrack and braid. The bodice is hooked or buttoned closed in front. The neck and arm holes are usually trimmed with prairie points. The hem is relatively long, generally reaching mid calf or boottop length.
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Outer garments are not much seen in the modern stage costume, but they do exist.
A fitted, embroidered, waistlength sheepskin vest similar to that worn in Kalatoszeg is known.
A long sleeved jacket, often made of the same cloth as the vest, may be worn in colder weather or by older women. They come to the waist, and have a short but full gathered peplum.
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Married women wear kerchiefs, unmarried girls wear their hair in a single braid, sometimes quite elaborate.
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The parta worn in this region by single girls and brides is relatively simple, consisting of a hair band and maybe ribbons in the back.
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Overcoats of wool or sheepskin, as well as shawls were undoubtedly worn, but I have found no record.
Men's clothing is quite basic, with little ornamentation.
Shirts are linen and full sleeved, with fancy ones having tucks and stitching, but no embroidery.
Summer pants were full and made of linen. These are seldom seen today.
In addition, narrow pants of white wool were also worn, as you can see in these images.
As you can see, these were accompanied by simple vests of cloth cut straight across, felt or straw hats, and boots or shoes. Sometimes decorative strips of dark cloth were worn around the neck.
In the days of the Austrio-Hungarian Empire, all young men served for a time in the armed forces. As a result, military jodphurs were often continued to be worn by men afterwards, and were later often incorporated into the folk dress.
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Besides the plain wool vests cut straight across the bottom, like we see above, Sheepskin vests were also worn here, as in so many places in the Carpathian basin.
There is a particular style of ornamentation found only in the men's sheepskin vests of this region.
I have one old photo of a folk jacket from this region.
Here are a couple images showing vests with decorative topstitching, as on the bujka of Kalatoszeg.
And just a few more images from this region.
Roman K.
email: rkozakand@aol.com
I would like to thank Lipinka for making such excellent information available online.
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