Podhale Female Folk Costume Red Skirt

This costume has been worn since the beginning of the 19th century by highlanders from the lands at the foot of Tatra Mountains, located in the south of Poland. Because of a soil shortage, inhabitants work in an animal husbandry and a cheese production. Podhale region‘s culture and costumes hadn’t been known until the 19th century, when the romantic movement popularized mountaineering and visiting health resorts. During the interwar period, Tatra’s villages became fashionable place to live for achitects, painters and writers. Today, many Polish highlanders still wear folk costumes to keep up old tradition. Podhale female folk dress customarily includes: a white linen blouse with a ruff, a velvet corset tied with a red ribbon and a colourful skirt with a flowery pattern, worn with petticoat. Highland girls use two types of embroidery to decorate costumes: broderie anglaise on the blouse and bead embroidery on the corset. On cold days they keep warm with woollen scarfs on their arms and heads. The whole costume is completed with characteristic laced shoes – „kierpce“ and strings of beads handed down from generation to generation. This handmade glass girl brings memories about the traditional costume and the embroidery from the Podhale region. It belongs to the Bombkarnia author’s collection.

Size: ~ 14 cm