Sheepskin skirts with delicate bead embroidery shone on a Bucharest catwalk in a one-of-a-kind ethnic fashion show blending French design and centuries-old Romanian handicraft.
The recent vibrant display was meant to counter some of the negative labels stuck on Romania, often dismissed as a drab post-communist outback, but in fact a rich melting pot of Latin, Balkan, Hungarian, Slav and Roma influences.
Entitled Prejudice, the women’s clothing line created by the French designer Philippe Guilet, who previously worked with Karl Lagerfeld, Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier, is to be shown in Paris early next year.
Photo: Reuters
Delicate lace dresses or multicolored woven skirts recalled the traditional women’s costumes of northern Romania, and they floated over high heels inspired by Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s iconic Endless Column.
“Romania is often derided, but actually this country is quite the opposite of what people might think,” said Guilet, who has spent the past four years here.
The former research director for Jean-Paul Gaultier has launched a cultural project called “100%.RO” that aims to reinterpret Romania’s heritage.
Photo: Reuters
Far from the gray, downtrodden cliches, Guilet found the ornate embroidery of artisans from the northern region of Bistrita Nasaud who have been handing down their skills for generations, adorning clothes, belts or necklaces.
“The beads we use for our traditional embroideries resemble a field full of flowers in springtime,” said Ana Bodescu, one of the women who worked on the collection.
In place of their traditional costumes, the women of the remote village of Salva this time embroidered a toreador-style vest, a long organdy black dress or a tweed-like suit with strings of beaded lace.
Photo: AFP
Some of the items took many months — and several kilograms of beads — to create.
Guilet’s encounters with handicraft makers in their rural environment, where 16th-century woodworking tools and bone needles are still used to embroider sheepskin, have inspired 34 creations.
Each one carries a Romanian woman’s name: Anca, Alina, Ioana.
Some 50 local artisans contributed to the show, set against the elegant backdrop of the French embassy in Bucharest, decorated for the occasion with barren trees and haystacks as if caught in a snowstorm.
Many items bore the imprint of Constantin Juravle, an artisan in his 60s from Straja, a remote village in the northern Bucovina region, whose family has been working sheepskin for generations, following a technique that is a carefully kept secret.
One highlight of the collection was a glittery metal-laced dress created by a family of Roma goldsmiths whose metalworking traditions go back 300 years.
The project “is a combination of modernity and ancestral work,” said Guilet, who made the point that Romania still boasts skills and know-how that designers now struggle to find in France.
To illustrate this coming together of two worlds the artisans, most of whom have seldom left their home village, stepped out on the catwalk next to the models and some of Romania’s best known designers at the end of the show.
“Philippe has come from afar and appreciated the value of our skills. It is extraordinary that he has showcased our work,” said Virginia Linul, one of the artisans from Bistrita Nasaud. “Nobody has done this for us before. Now people can see Romania’s real image, one that you don’t generally see and which is quite beautiful.”
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