December's object of the month is a women's folk costume from Sândominic, added to the institution's ethnographic collection in August, this year, along with other pieces of clothing from the Ciuc and Ghimeș region.
Before they became the property of our museum, these garments had an interesting journey. The last owner, the last to wear them, was Matild Irén Döményi, born in Budapest, but who lived her life in France after marrying a French gentleman from Paris, named Michel Archawski. As a performer, Irén Döményi was passionate about Hungarian folk costumes and Hungarian folklore. She travelled with her husband through the Carpathian Basin and on their travels, they collected ethnographic objects - mainly folk costumes. Being good friends with János Pál, one of the former directors of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc, the Archawskis joined athim on his collecting tours in the Ciuc and Ghimeș region. At that time, they also bought the clothing items which now enrich the collection of our institution. Irén Döményi not only collected folk costumes, but also wore them during her various performances in Paris. As a result, for ease of wearing, several buttons and velcro-straps were sewn onto the clothes.
In accordance with the wishes of the couple, the 258 objects of the Dömény-Archawski collection were returned to Hungary, to the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest. As this museum keeps many similar costumes, the donor agreed that some pieces of folk costumes should be returned to the museums from whose collection area they came. Thus, through a donation from the Ethnographic Museum of Budapest, 20 valuable pieces of costume have come into the property of the Szekler Museum of Ciuc, including the women's clothing from Sândominic, now exhibited as the object of the month of December.
Sîndominic was a special area in terms of folk costume, where the strict rules of making and wearing folk costumes were applied for the longest time, although as in other places too, the bourgeois fashion influenced and changed the clothing continuously. The women's folk costume from Sîndominic, exhibited as the object of the month, consists of six pieces: shirt, vest, petticoat, skirt, apron, boots. The shirt is made of linen, with a ruffle at the neck, on the chest and the cuffs as well. It fastens with white buttons, but has stitching also.
The waistcoat is made of handcrafted fabric, its color and decoration are similar to those of the skirt. The round neck and shoulders with underarm, are bordered with the specific ornament, the so-called "wolf's teeth", which are red and black. A wide velvet band can be seen at the bottom. Embroidered blouses were not worn much in Sândominic, they are more common in the south of the Ciuc region.
The woven skirt is in red and black stripes, with a wide velvet band sewn at the bottom. (The widest velvet bands on dressing gowns and aprons were worn in the Sîndominic). Three more narrow decorative bands were sewn on the upper third of the skirt. Beneath these were sewn devouring buttons, wrapped with black velvet. Although the exposed skirt is in red and black, in the past, in Sîndominic, multicolored skirts were also worn. Under the skirt was worn a simple petticoat (porcelain skirt). As it appears in different marriage paraphernalia, until the 1920s and 1930s, a girl getting married had at least 2 to 9 skirts.
The apron (also called a petticoat) is made of a thinner fabric than the skirt, but it is also decorated with red and black stripes (strips thinner than those on the skirt). At the bottom of the apron is a wide strip of velvet, and above it there are two narrow stripes, also of black velvet. It's cinched at the waist, with a straight, red hem left long so the apron can be bind over the skirt.
The exposed wear is completed with a pair of black boots with a high and solid carom. In addition to boots, were also worn some over-the-ankle shoes with laces and buttons.
