National Costume Research Articles

Clothing Borders

Clothing Borders

Moral Integrity in Costumed Identity: Negotiating "National Costume" in 19th-Century Bavaria

Maximilian II of Bavaria's wedding plans for 1842 illustrate the layers of moral and political intent that dress was made to carry. The administrative correspondence on folk costumes and their wearers reveals how locals and royals collaborated in the creation of regional types. Instead of a clear-cut nationalist or royalist agenda, the discourse reflects divergent political and economic allegiances within a monarchy struggling to appropriate national icons. RUSTIC LEDERHOSEN, THE BEER-HAPPY Oktoberfest in Munich, and the exploits of Mad King Ludwig are among the likely images associated with Bavaria abroad. Surprisingly, these three present-day representations are deeply interrelated. It was the Mad King's grandfather Ludwig I whose wedding initiated the Oktoberfest, and it was his father who began an overt politics of costume of which the lederhosen are the most lasting remnant. Both initiatives attempted to transform the nationalistic upsurge in the wake of French revolutionary wars into a tool to bolster a faltering monarchy. The success of their cultural initiatives, coupled with the failure of their politics, forged the Swan king Ludwig's demise. It was under his reign that Bavaria, at the high point of celebrating its national uniqueness, lost its independence to Prussia-a paradoxical situation that might have driven people of lesser descent into madness as well. The monarchs invested excessively in a politics of cultural representation, not least in the hope to divert the political revolution transforming the face of Europe throughout the 19th century. Their investment neglected the population's overt needs both financially and administratively. The case examined here illustrates the ambiguity that emerges whenever expressive culture-from song to dress-is made to carry ideological weight, as ideological intent diversifies when migrates from one broker to the next, acquiring new meanings and monetary value along the way. The politics of culture may ultimately detract from their goal-empowerment and selfdetermination-and instead undermine rather than strengthen the polity.

Nationalism, gender and the body in Icelandic nationalist discourse

The main focus of the article is on the use of women's dress as means of constructing a new national body in 19th and 20th century Icelandic nationalist discourse. The article will show that in Icelandic nationalist discourse Icelandic women were carriers of double difference. The women were not only the different sex, they also embodied the national features that made Icelanders different and distinct from the Danes. Through the construction of a national costume for women, Icelandic men created a new national body within which they could stake their claims for power and political independence from Denmark.

Effects of Sewing Condition on Seam Stiffness and Softness.

The effects of mechanical properties of sewing thread and stitch length on seam stiffness and softness were investigated. Bleached sheetings were chosen as a sample assuming the seam sewing of Japanese national costume (Kimono). Mechanical and surface characteristics were obtained by KES system, using seamed samples prepared by various sewing methods, such as hand sewing, machine sewing and bonding with a adhesive tape. The seam stiffness was evaluated using the data obtained by mechanical and surface properties using the data obtained by mechanical and surface properties. Using these mechanical values, rigidity, softness, stiffness and drape coefficient of these seamed samples were quantitatively calculated. The machine sewed seams showed high stiffness in tensile, bending and shearing mode and lacked smoothness on the surface. Samples bonded by adhesive tape showed rigidity higher than that of machine seamed samples. The bending and shearing rigidity decreased with decreasing stitch length and diameter of threads. Softness of bonded samples showed the lowest softness and machine sewed samples the highest softness. Machine sewed seams have higher value of rigidity and, flatness and drape coefficient compared with those of hand sewed seams.

Persistent Memory: Central European Refugees in an Andean Land

Persistent Memory: Central European Refugees in an Andean Land

Slovak national costume and its role in the ethno-identification process

Les origines du “costume national” en Europe centrale et de l’Est sont liées aux mouvements d’indépendance des années 1840. Son rôle était – et va rester – celui de mettre en évidence une identité nationale à défendre. L’histoire du “costume national slovaque” permet de suivre les emprunts réciproques entre “costume folklorique” et “costume national” aussi bien que les métamorphoses de celui-ci selon les enjeux politiques du moment. Le “costume national slovaque” va changer ainsi plus d’une fois pour avoir des connotations anti-hongroises au temps des Habsbourg, anti-allemandes au temps du Troisième Reich, etc.

Identifying national costumes: searching for clues in words and images

Identifying national costumes: searching for clues in words and images

From strength to strength – a short history of museums and women in Portugal

The relationship between museums and women in Portugal streiches back much further than might be imagined, beginning (paradoxical bough it may sound) some three centuries before the first institution called a ‘museum’ was created in that country. The author holds an M.A. degree in museology, is the author of Os primeiro museus criados em Portugal. The First Museums Created in Portugal, 1984, and is at present director of the National Costume Museum Lisbon. Her address in Museu National do Fraje, Parque do Monteiro Mor. Largo Júlio de Castilbo, Lumiar, Lisbon (Portugal).

Felt Hatmaking in Ceredigion

The most distinctive feature of the so-called Welsh national costume is th e ‘chimney pot’ hat or cwcwll tal as it was known in Welsh. In fact th is fashion was only popular for a few decades in the middle of the nineteenth century and was largely th e creation of Lady Llanover who, during the 1830s, promoted the wearing of a national costume. High-crowned hats, though consistently portrayed in prints and early photographs of Welsh women, had no legitimate historical claim to be part of a Welsh national costume but Welsh women had worn hats similar to men's hats since the eighteenth century.

Historical Source Material for the Karagkiozis Performance

Karagkiozis, or Greek shadow puppet theatre, is a theatrical form that reflects nineteenth-century Greek oral culture. It utilizes a variety of national and regional costumes, dialects, and manners. Having developed in Greece during the period of that nation's modern history, it expresses the continuity of Greek culture and carries its themes, scenes of daily life, and characters. It retains, moreover, vestiges, or perhaps more accurately resurgences, of the pagan as well as the Christian past. Folk characters and types from folk plays and tales – the quack doctor, old man, old woman, devil Jew, Vlach, Moor, Gypsy, swaggering soldier, old rustic, jesting servant, trickster, parasite, stuttering child, ogre, dragon, bald-chin, and the great beauty – are its types as well. Popular folk dances, regional songs, and heroic poetry and ballads appear throughout Karagkiozis performances.

The "Barbarian Princes" in the Ara Pacis Procession and the origin and development of the so-called "Camillus Coiffure".

The procession on the Ara Pacis includes two young boys whose identity has been disputed. Their long curly hair and short tunics set them apart from the other participants. Various explanations for their presence have been given, the most popular hypotheses being that they are either barbarian princes living as hostages at the Augustan court, wearing their national costume or that they are Augustus' grandsons Gaius and Lucius Caesar, dressed as participants in the Trojan game. It is here proposed that they are Lucius Caesar and his younger brother Agrippa Postumus, dressed up as sacrificial servants. Their dress and coiffure influenced later representations of sacrificial servants in public and private contexts and determined the development of the so-called Camillus coiffure.

The Traditional and the Borrowed in the Contemporary Material Culture of the Japanese City

During the entire period of existence of ethnography, ethnographers, in describing the daily life and material culture of any people, have as a general rule been concerned only with what is specific to that people - the traditional national costume, the folk dwelling, manners (in eating, sitting), and so forth. Even when borrowings are being discussed, the matter at issue is the borrowing by a given people of analogous phenomena belonging to the national tradition of another specific people.

Welsh Peasant Costume

AbstractWelsh Costume is something about which it is more usual to have a general idea than exact information. The fact that this form of dress is variously described as Welsh, or national, or peasant, indicates that there is some confusion of thought concerning it. It also indicates possible lines of enquiry into its history and suggests some of the questions that it would be desirable to attempt to answer. They are, in fact, the main questions, namely, did this form of dress originate in Wales, was it a national costume worn by Welsh people in general, or was its use confined to a section of the community?

Magical and Medicinal Woods in Old Chinese Carvings

IN Old China charms and amulets were usually made of various auspicious substances which, according to old folk beliefs, had inherent magical qualities that could protect the wearer, as well as medicinal powers that could serve him in emergencies. This was true not only in the case of the purely religious plaques and small portable images, but also of the more practical belt toggles (called chui-tzu) which served as protective amulets too, although this latter fact has not previously been recognized. Toggles for fastening personal possessions to the belt were a practical necessity in Old China. The national costume had no pockets, nor any provision for carrying things on the person except by attaching them to the belt or girdle. During the Ming and Manchu dynasties, covering the period from 1368 to 1911, and perhaps long before, men customarily secured to their cloth girdles such things as purses, pouches, knives, fan-cases, and later, spectacle-cases and smoking sets by means of a cord ending in a lump of wood, stone, or ivory. The latter object, which was the toggle, could be passed up under the belt or girdle, and by its bulk or counterweight held the cord in place, keeping it from slipping out. The nobles and officials of the Manchu Dynasty had leather belts with metal rings at the side, to which they could tie pendant objects; but even they, when dressed more informally, secured things to their cloth belts with toggles. Probably from the beginning of their use in China, the toggles not only had this practical function of fastening possessions to the belt, but for the peasants, the commoners in towns and villages, and even for the country gentry who wore them, they also served as lucky or protective amulets. This fact becomes very apparent when we study the materials that were used to make them. The belt toggles of the nobles and wealthier commoners were often of jade or other hard stones, or of various kinds of ivory, but the great majority of Chinese toggles were made of wood. Most of the examples in Occidental museums and private collections happen to be those in the richer substances, because the foreign tourists and collectors in China generally ignored the ordinary ones. However, a few discerning collectors like Miss C. F. Bieber of Santa Fe, New Mexico, felt an appreciation for the intrinsic qualities of the wooden ones as well. The Bieber Collection alone has over a hundred examples in various kinds of wood.' Considering the great variety of trees in China proper, and the numerous tropical woods that were regularly imported from the lands to the south, the Chinese carvers had a vast number of possible woods to work with. Therefore, at first, the identification of the woods that were used to make the toggles in the Bieber Collection seemed to present a formidable problem. Fortunately, we were saved from the