Monday, October 1, 2012

New Lithuanian Costume Calendar

Two years ago, the Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre published a beautiful two-year calendar with photographs of reconstructed costumes from early in Lithuania's prehistory up to the end of the Middle Ages. I bought a copy from Baltic Shop.com, and blogged about it here

I just learned that the Folk Culture Centre has published a new calendar for 2012/2013. This one is based upon seasonal costumes, though I can't tell from the description at Baltic Shop.com what historical period is involved.  Baltic Shop.com's write up about the calendar, along with a photograph of the calendar's cover, appears here

2012 is nearly over, but I still need a calendar for 2013, and I'd been hoping that a second Lithuanian costume calendar would be produced. So I'm planning to buy this calendar, and will describe it as soon as I receive it.

EDIT: After reading Patricia's comment, I went to the Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre's website, which confirmed her guess that "national" (i.e., "folk") costume from the 19th-early 20th centuries is what the calendar depicts. Their description of the calendar reads, in relevant part:
The variant of the national costume, which is becoming more and more dominant in present Lithuania, is precisely reconstructed traditional festive clothing of Lithuanian peasants of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th centuries. Such garments are usually reconstructed with the help of surviving ancient pieces of clothing, the drawings and descriptions of those times, and, naturally, the scientific research on this historical heritage. The largest collection reflecting systematically the reconstructed costumes of all five ethnographic regions of Lithuania (i.e. Aukštaitija, : Žemaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija, and the Region of Klaipėda) was developed at the Lithuanian Folk Culture Centre in 2004. The initial collection was comprised of eighty-seven national costumes and was supplemented annually with newly reconstructed garments. This calendar has been illustrated with the pictures of clothing from the aforementioned collection.
Most photographs of "folk" or national costume feature festive garb that would only be wearable in the spring or summer, so a collection of photographs of such garb from all seasons of the year should still be interesting.

SECOND EDIT (10/3):  I ordered the calendar today.  I'll provide a representative collection of photographs of the images from it once I receive it (BalticShop.com states that it will be delivered in 2-3 weeks).

2 comments:

  1. That does look like a very nice calendar! From what I've read about "national costume," though, the whole concept of "national costume" arose in Europe around the time that romantic nationalism surged -- end of the 18th century toward the middle of the 19th century. So I think this calendar might feature outfits that are much later than the ones you're most interested in. (I come across this problem a lot when attempting to study medieval Lithuania in the SCA.)

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  2. Patricia: I am fairly sure that the "seasonal" outfits shown are, as you say, "national" costume. Still, I'm curious, and it's not as though there are a lot of other sources of costume-related calendars these days.

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