Textile materials and decorative techniques/ 2017 = Textilní materiály a výzdobné techniky / 2017 8. lecture – spring 2017

------

Decorative textile techniques on traditional dress

When classifying a fabric, we first look at the material aspect and technology = workflow. Whether it is a product made up of one yarn, one yarn system or two yarn sets. Then we look at the used decoration. This may be the 1. decoration that is part of the texture or 2. the decoration carried - the decoration affixed to the mat. The decoration that forms part of the texture is created simultaneously in the fabrication process itself (see previous hours). The decoration carried is attached to the underlying fabric or other textile or clothing backing (eg leather).

The clothing of inhabitants from Moravian regions has evolved into several regional forms in the course of centuries. Some of these forms can be considered still living and changing forms of so-called traditional dress. Their appearance has resulted from the historical development determined by economic, social and cultural influences. In the past, the clothing style in towns significantly differed from that in villages, being closely connected with the social status of an individual. The emphasis on keeping up the traditions in clothing survived even the abolition of serfdom in the country. The clothing of individual regions or even villages differed from each other in a distinctive way. Clothing was still an earmark that could tell many things about its bearer, not only which village he or she came from. It could reveal the bearer’s age, social status, wealth etc. On exceptional occasions, unique garments or accessories – sashes or crowns – used to be worn. Influenced by the town stylish culture, also the colours and materials of the fabrics or embroideries changed. We can see that stylish adornments (whitework, painted embroidery, and painting on fabric), new motifs in embroidery, new types of lace (netted, machine) as well as linings and trimming were taken over to become a part of the decoration. In the past, garments were to meet all the criteria that the tradition, kept up by the society, laid on them. Therefore it was necessary to choose the right form of adornment. The adornment was chosen with respect to the type of the garment – whether it was a festive, a ceremonial or an everyday one. The appearance of the adornment could fulfil also its magic function, especially in the case of embroidery. The simplest form of decorations used on traditional dress consists in using such decorating elements that are made of the material used for making the dress. Attractive were also different dying techniques. In addition to these adornments, the application of so-called carried textile techniques, i.e. embroidery, lace, and appliqué, had spread since the second half of the 18th century. Until that time, in folk environment embroidery and lace could be found more on home textiles or sacred textiles that became popular. In folk environment, both the men and women dealt with embroidering. The women worked with garments made of light materials. Men’s embroidery can be found on cloth garments, fur coats and leather pieces. This always pertains to so-called tailor-style embroidery made by craftsmen. The tradition of homemade embroideries was very strong in Moravian Slovakia and the ethnographic areas of Kopanice, Horňácko, Podluží, Walachia, luhačovické Zálesí, Brněnsko etc. The situation was different in the production of lace. The most laces were of foreign origin. Exceptional is only netted lace made in the regions of Brněnsko, Walachia, luhačovické Zálesí. Needle lace from the regions of Wallachia and Těšínsko is connected with the Moravian territory as well. Application of textile or non-textile decorations to a dress is another decorative technique. The appliqués can be found on all garments, be they made of light materials (silk, damask, brocade, fine linen etc.) or heavier materials (cloth), fur or leather. Here we explain only the appliqués on textile garments. The appliqués used on different garments were inspired and influenced by military uniforms. At the beginning of their applications, however, the carried decorative techniques were not an embellishment in the first place. Their positions on the garments foreshadow they were used for practical reasons. After having been improved and multiplied, this originally practical element could become an aesthetical element, or a ceremonial and magic element, in dependence on the function of a garment. The main aim of this publication is to draw attention to the necessity of a complex view of decorative techniques connected with the traditional dress in Moravia.

Carried textile techniques

a) Lace

Translucency of lace is the basic criterion for its assessment. Products made of lace are airy, and the underlying fabric is visible through them, Lace can also form a kind of decorative net. Laces can be made as a separate product (bobbin lace, netted lace) and then attached to another textile, or they can be made directly on the decorated textile – needle laces or macramé. Bobbin lace is made by braiding and twisting lengths of threads; netted lace and needle lace are made of one endless thread. Netted lace can be combined with embroidery, which decorate the net with white or colour cotton threads. Textile manuals offer different theories about the origin of lace. Laces could evolve in rural environment as a stage in the development of embroidery, or as an autonomous handicraft. However, different opinions say they could be imported to rural environment from higher social classes. Many ethnographers searched for an explanation as well. In the monograph Krajky a krajkářství lidu slovanského Laces and Lace Making of the Slavonic People (1908) R. Bíbová mentioned she could find such archaic techniques solely in Slavonic environment. Lace (needle and bobbin lace) came into widespread use in Europe in the 15th century. For the first time, lace occurred in Venice where lace-making techniques were imported by Arabic tradesmen. However, it was the Venice tradesmen who extended and cultivated these techniques, when exporting them to entire Europe. Historic conditions, development of local industry, fashionable demands or conservatism of some regions caused that the development of lace-making differed in particular regions. Bobbin lace-making became established in many regions and some of them appropriate the invention of lace, e.g. Spain or Netherlands. Pre-drawn sketches, patterns, and engravings with patterns spread through Europe alongside the technique. Originally, the patterns were of Italian origin, the oldest ones were made in the 16th century in Venice, Augsburg, Leipzig, and Cologne upon Rhine, i.e. in the towns where book-printing was widespread. Pre-drawn designs were used by lace-makers, embroiderers, painters, engravers and other artists and craftsmen. Frequently reproduced was the work Eyn new kunstlich boich by P. Quentel. It includes pattern for geometric embroidery, Holbein stitch, knotted stitch, or drawn-thread openwork. Esemplario dei lavori by N. d´Aristotela alias Zappino, issued in 1530 for the first time, is an example of a pattern book that influenced textile production also in our country. In the Ore Mountains, mainly in the town of Annaberg and its environs, they used the pattern book Nová vzorová kniha paličkovaných šňůr New Pattern Book for Bobbin Cords by K. Floshover. Domestic tape laces from the 19th century are successors of Baroque and Rococo laces called also monastery or twisted laces. Milan tape lace was popular in the Czech and especially Slovak environments. Domestic production includes also Valencienne laces as well as bobbin laces called vláčka or stick lace, which are based on Brussels lace with rustic traces and creative ability of local lace-makers. Twisted, caterpillar, monastery, or nettle laces, made in our folk environment, belong to those influenced by strong Baroque lace-making. Despite this, we can find on them also a strong influence of folk environment. Should we evaluate the laces made in folk environment, e.g. by the women and men who were not trained at workshops or art studios, we can say that we could find pieces of garments, such as ends of scarves, parts of bonnets or narrow strips of fabrics. Materials used for lace-making were coarser than those used for stylish laces were. The resulting impression is also more rustic than in the case of similar stylish products; the aesthetic value of the work, however, is high and also the workmanship is unusually good. This bears witness to mastering the lace-making techniques, to knowledge about modern trends in lace-making and to searching for some technical details, e.g. attaching or twisting of a strip, inserting a colour pair etc. It was solely trade contacts, economical conditions, period taste, and certain elements of constancy in the rural material culture that decided if a technique was kept, required and used. Some ethnographers understand lace as an expression of folk art. The harmony of material, shape, and form constitutes a characteristic feature of folk art products. As to its development, folk art includes two categories: traditional folk art, and the kind of art that became popular and that is called folk craft or folk art manufacture. In our opinion, lace-making can be classified as the art that became popular, because it uses techniques and natural materials based on traditions, and the homemade products are sold at fairs. The profit is used to cover needs of the producer’s family. However, lace-making was initiated by the demand of higher social classes and the technique and designs corresponded to this inquiry. Gradual transfer of the production to untrained home producers caused the production to have got more rustic character. This process showed creative abilities of folk environment. We noticed a certain development in the perception of bobbin lace in the past. The perception was reflected both in the period, since which bobbin lace had been used in folk environment, and in the way of how it was handled. Renaissance chain laces with scalloped border of reticello type are the oldest documents of bobbin laces used in our lands. The textiles found in Austrian Poysdorf, a town close to the Moravian border, are considered to be the oldest examples of lace applied on clothing and home textiles. With its origin and use, the set of textiles dates back to the years 1640 – 1650. Netted lace and bobbin lace of reticello type are obvious on the textiles. The reticello lace has the form of chain lace with beads and picots. Our folk environment gave rise to the oldest documents of Baroque tape laces used on textiles on which e.g. twisted, monastery and Milan laces were applied. The tape that created floral motifs was braided on lace surface. The ground, which filled the space between motifs, was added later on. This process developed with each type of lace at a different pace. The tape itself changed its appearance – from fully covered surface to a surface aerated with larger or smaller holes, spiders, twisted pairs or lattices inserted into the tape. Alongside the tape lace, the oldest textile examples from folk environment displayed also woven lace in white or white-red colours, and multi-pair laces originating in Dutch, Italian and French patterns. Folk environment provably used “malinska” lace, Brabant lace, Binche lace, “blonda” lace, Vallenciennes lace and bobbin lace of “vláčka” type. On the surface formed by the ground, we can see floral motifs, tendrils, and rosettes created most often from the linen surface, which is edged by thicker thread in some cases. Lace-makers tried to imitate stylish laces and use them for the decoration of folk garments. However, they used coarser material, designed the width that differed from the models, or did not master all technical details. For these reasons, the motifs became simpler and retarded to simple geometric design. Sometimes, it is not possible to identify the original pattern. Simple multi-pair laces of folk character used only geometric designs laid rhythmically in the lace, and an effect of straight or waved lace edge. At the edge, mostly small fans, spiders, picots, beads etc. are applied. In folk environment, designs with pairs of colours have survived. The decoration of textiles from the late-18th century confirms the use of tape and multi-pair lace and tassels, as well as the popularity of woven lace. With the beginning of the Empire fashion, the emphasis on white colour moved to folk environment – that is why white laces dominated. New cutwork embroideries with floral motifs were white, too. These embroideries were in harmony with e.g. Valenciennes laces or “vláčka” laces that occurred at the end of the 18th century. They became very popular and spread to almost all regions where they were used on all garments. They were made in the regions of Chodsko, Strážovsko, Domažlicko, Mladoboleslavsko, Vamberecko, in Chlumec nad Cidlinou, Prčice, Horažďovice, Sedlice near Blatná, as well as in Silesia and Western Slovakia. Valenciennes laces and “vláčka” laces were not produced in Moravia. Folk environment was always supplied with the laces of older stage of development- the tape or colourful laces made from traditional or store-bought materials (flax, hemp, nettle, wool, cotton, raw silk, metal lamellas). Such laces came mostly from Slovakia and they could be found just in some locations. Slovakian tradesmen are supposed to have travelled around the whole Moravia and in a part of Bohemia. Since the mid-19th century, lace started to be replaced by machine products or by homemade or store-bought crochet, netted, tambour and other cheaper products. Popular became also Torchon lace which might have been of Italian and Saxon origin. Laces can be made from plentiful materials – flax, cotton, silk, wool, nettle, lamé, metal threads, camel fur, and straw.

Typology of Lace-Making Techniques

Among different types of lace, bobbin lace became the most popular within rural environment. Bobbin lace was made in producing centres, which were often far way from the places of its use, unlikely netted, knitted, embroidered or crocheted laces which were rather produced in locations of their use. For the production of bobbin lace, the following tools are necessary: a pillow with a pre- drawn pattern or without it, threads and pins to hold the made lace, and mainly bobbins turned from hard wood, with a cover over the threads or without it. The shapes can differ according to regional traditions. As to the technique of its production, bobbin lace can be divided into multi-pair lace and tape lace. Multi-pair lace, sometimes called Western-European as to its dissemination, features fine white threads. Tape lace, used mostly in Eastern Europe, features more colours and less opulent and better available materials. The Czech Lands, situated in the centre of Europe, were the place where the production and the use of both techniques met. Multi-pair laces were used predominantly in Bohemia, in Central and North Moravia; on the other hand, tape laces are present significantly in South and South-East Moravia. Presented collection objects, which represent folk costume garments from South-East Moravia, are an example of overlapping of both important lines; e.g. in the region around Kyjov, the aprons are adorned with tape lace, so-called “Croatian” lace, while the collars carried so-called “vláčka” lace – a type of multi-pair lace. Tape laces, as to their origin, are considered to be more ancient, the technique uses fewer bobbins, the width results from connecting more tapes into large units, which can give rise to intricate ornaments. Coarse materials, e.g. thicker flax threads, often in different colours find their use here. Tape laces were often made by users themselves for their own need. On the contrary, multi-pair laces, based on Flemish laces, are made of the thinnest white threads using a high number of bobbins which produce an intricate pattern over the entire width of the lace. For making this lace, lace-makers used so-called přešpány, pre-punched grids on hard cartoon, and designed the patterns by heart, without pre-drawing. In this way, multiplicity in types of vláčka lace, a kind of bobbin lace, evolved. Vláčka lace is a multi-pair lace made of linen thread. It consists of the ground and the linen fillings, which often have a contrasting design. Centres producing different types of vláčka lace were situated in Strážov in the Bohemian Forest, Sedlice near Blatná and mainly in Vamberk at the foothills of the Orlické Mountains. It is symptomatic that these centres served just for the production of laces which were made here for the purpose of trading. Costly laces, produced in these centres, were often used to adorn festive folk costumes and they spread especially in fertile regions of Central and South Moravia. Bobbin lace is usually applied on the most visible parts of folk costumes, i.e. on bonnets, plaids, shirts, blouses, collars, aprons, headscarves and scarves. This lace was used also to adorn bed linen or ceremonial childbed curtains. Crocheted lace is a typical representative of lace at the end of the 19th century. It interfered in the development of folk costume decorations mainly in the regions in which folk costumes were still worn at this time. This youngest lace-making technique was influenced by organized workshops often supported by state to improve the declining handicrafts. Needle lace does almost not occur on folk costumes except for some simpler appliqués made for own needs. On the contrary, we can find this technique, which belongs to the heights of lace-making craft, on home textiles in towns, often made based on artistic patterns. The German speaking region of the Ore Mountains became an important centre for the production of laces made with this technique. When speaking about used techniques, we cannot omit embroidered laces that move between both techniques mentioned above. The basis consists in embroideries on hand-made bobbin lace ground, or on machine-made ground later-on. Finally yet importantly it is necessary to mention machine-made lace which - as a product of the industrial revolution and because of lower price – was able to replace hand-made laces in the whole spectrum of their multiplicity. During the time, machine-made laces reached a quality easily interchangeable with the hand-made model.

Lace on Traditional Dress Clothing decoration, i.e. the use of bobbin lace, was understood as an expression of luxury from the 16th to the 18th century. Lace was considered a valuable object; we can say today, it became a jewel made of textile. Of course, not everybody could or should afford it. Therefore, only the highest social classes, such as the court, nobility, owners of large estates and different officers, were allowed to wear lace, expensive velvet, brocade, cloth, jewels and other costly materials, described as profligate goods in the sources. Most strict was the attitude to village people. Pursuant to Leopold I.´s police order from 1671 the lowest class, described as die Unterthanen und derselben Inleuth, die Tagwercker und das übrige gemeinde Volck, was not allowed to wear any lace decorations. Lace decorations for village people were not permitted until the mid-18th century. Folk environment also faced different orders relating to the worn clothing. For example, we know about the practice that distinguished married women from the unmarried or fallen ones. The women as the bearers of traditions within a family, the protectors of family cleanness, were keeping these practices more meticulously than the men were. Many superstitions were woven round the women, especially in their child-bearing age. They had to adhere to different customs if they did not want to be expelled from the society or at least moved to its fringe. As mentioned above, we cannot find lace decorations on every garment and in every region. Lace has been a decorative element applied on outerwear or festive and ceremonial attire as well as on ceremonial and festive textiles, such as scarves, bonnets, waistcoats, blouses, shirts, and collars, frills called tacle, aprons, and recently underskirts. Some of the garments adorned with lace are introduced in this chapter. In the ethnographic area of Haná, large scarves called šata survived until the 1830s and they are often documented by iconographic sources. In the 18th century, these scarves were worn by unmarried girls. They were bordered with rich lace trimmings. They were tied in the back and starched or laid over a mat. This garment is documented also in the region of Luhačovicko, where it was adorned with blue and white lace. Scarves were worn by unmarried girls also in the ethnographic area of Podluží, were they were wound round rožky – a textile-covered hard mat. Scarves called rouška or šatka were worn in the whole Moravia; after 1860, they survived just in the southern and south-eastern part of Moravian Slovakia. Churching plaids were made of two pieces of linen with an insert called mřížka. Their bottom edges were often adorned with embroidery or lace. They are documented in Moravia in the 18th century. Churching plaids were ceremonial garments – when being born, they were folded in the third of their length so that the attractive middle insert could be visible. Bonnets made of two halves, a relict of the Renaissance fashion, fit tightly to the head. They were made of two identical halves and embellished in different fashions. In some regions, women tied a folded headscarf, which probably replaced the large scarf šata, over these bonnets. Similar soft bonnets occurred also in Moravia. Lace is applied on the edges that lined the face. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Valenciennes lace was applied on these bonnets; younger garments were adorned also with vláčka lace or laces originating in Brabant lace, as well as with strips embroidered with gold or strips of linen fabric called kamrtuch and cotton fabric called širtynk. The lace was two fingers wide. In the region round the town of Těšín, the bonnets were adorned with korónka. Korónka were attached to a netted, knitted or crocheted bonnet. The lace fit tightly to the forehead and a piece of it protruded in the front. Similar bonnets were widespread also in Wallachia. Laces from Těšín were mostly coarser because they were made from thicker yarn or cotton and adapted to the taste of the late-19th century. Their designs were distinguished by large flowers. Approximately since the mid-19th century, korónka adornments were crocheted, then netted or knitted. They were also embroidered on tulle and were popular after the World War I. In the northern and southern part of the region round the town of Kyjov, bride’s bonnets were richly adorned with ribbons and lace along the face. Only the lace edge protruded under the bonnet or headscarf. Short sleeves with black embroidery and pleated ruffs, whose sides are lifted up to the cheeks, are typical for the shirts from the ethnographic area of Haná. Sleeves and neckline were sometimes decorated with lace as well. Original linen frills were replaced by pleated lace in the 19th century. Gradually, the frills became larger and they changed into a wide gathered collar. The festive collar could be removed and it required special care. It was bordered with vláčka lace that was dyed yellow of saffron. Later on, coffee was used to give brown colour to the lace. In the region of Uherskobrodsko, frills around the neck of blouses are adorned with lace. Podluží is characteristic by blouses with a rectangular folded collar which is embellished with lace and embroidery. In the southern part of the region around the town of Kyjov, sleeves of men’s shirts were richly bordered with laces and embellished with embroidery which occurred also on collars and front parts. Blouses worn in the villages of Osvětimany and Domanín were distinguished by a large collar bordered with yellowy nettle lace. Local women worn the old blouses, as described by J. Klvaňa, as late as at the beginning of the 20th century, however, the collar was bordered with white lace. Aprons used to be embellished with lace in the whole country. Typical are the aprons from the region of Uherskobrodsko, which are covered with large lace in their bottom part, and bordered with broad colourful tape lace with red-and-blue beads. Lace was not used on aprons made of more expensive materials, silky textiles or on those with distinctive structure or colourful ornament. Since the beginning of the 20th century, lace has been applied also on underwear. Depictions and tangible proofs allow us to state that lace was used to adorn garments made of corresponding materials, e.g. linen or yarn laces were attached to linen garments, metallic laces to more expensive materials, such as silk, brocade and velvet. The latter were often used in combination with a metal structure. Metallic laces were usually accompanied by supplementary decoration of sequins, garnets, glasses and similar costume jewellery. Linen and nettle laces were used to decorate linen or cotton textiles. These include e.g. childbed curtains, churching plaids, scarves, bonnets, collars, large scarves intended to cover the head or the whole body. If a garment was adorned also with embroidery, its colours passed mostly to the used lace. Tape laces, for instance, are the most known examples of this solution. They used the contrast between the covered and uncovered areas as well as the effect of a pair of colours which enriched the surface with new motifs. The play with the pairs of colours sometimes dominated over the entire surface at the expense of the wealth of weaves and motifs; in some regions, all these components were balanced. Pure white laces came from Bohemia, the Ore Mountains, the region round the town of Vamberk or from Slovakia – the regions of Gemer, Solná Baňa etc. Significant is also the thickness of threads, especially in the case of coarser laces that do not blend with the surface as much as fine laces do. However, the coarser laces are very peculiar and therefore, the place of their production can be specified quite reliably. Plentiful garments in our lands are adorned with white laces – the tape or multi-pair ones. It was Bohemian, Silesian or Slovakian production that inundated our villages. The origin of these laces cannot be recognized at the first glance because similar types of laces were made in more location at the same time. They were intended not only for rural environment, but they found their customers in higher circles as well. As to the technique and motifs used they are products of their time, trying to adjust to the products from famous lace-making locations. This concerns Valenciennes lace, Chantilly lace, Brabant lace, “vláčka” lace or stick lace etc. The use of lace products was common in all social classes in almost all historical eras. We base our statement on the assumed development of textile techniques from the simplest to the more complex ones, i.e. from the production of tassels, nets and fabrics to the needle or bobbin laces. The application of laces on a dress was influenced by the fashion dictate of its time, which was adjusted to the aesthetic demands of rural environment. Simultaneously, laces maintained the spectrum of their own expressions that were typical for homemade production from certain locations. The homemade products were mostly made by village women for village people. For this reason, they did not have to meet demands for the quality of used techniques and materials, comparable with e.g. Brussels or Flemish laces. We have to realize that the same lace-maker could make a high-quality bobbin lace intended for a stylish dress, and at the same time a simpler lace intended for the country. Therefore the designation “folk lace” refers to a product intended for rural environment. The appearance of folk laces depended on the material, its character, colours, motifs and technical elements. Of course, lace-makers combined all these elements considering the following use of the lace. A lace decorative element had its function in the tangible folk culture. Members of a community could understand this function in different ways. We do not want to assess here which functions the introduced textiles had in the past. We are more interested in to which extend the aesthetic impact of historic textiles adorned with bobbin lace has changed, in which way the former producers worked when making the textiles with lace. We believe the relationship between the lace and the textile and other decorative techniques has gone through a development which was marked by many facts: the perception of lace changed, as it evolved from a luxury to a usual commercial product; traditional regional garments were casted off, they evolved to festive attire or vice versa; influence of fashion trends played a significant role, too. Decline of lace decoration is not a final process. Today, we witness to struggles for the reviving of and return back to original materials and adornments of folk costumes. If the folk costume lives on, even though just to be used on festive and ceremonial occasions, its bearer gains the relation to it and wants it to be beautiful. Owners of such a costume usually take care of it and know nearly everything about it. Therefore, they often feel their inner need to improve the aesthetical value of the garments. In this case, they return to the traditional production, to the traditionally used bobbin lace.

Netted Lace As to the technique, the term netted lace covers two procedures – making the net and its decorating with embroidery. Netting is one of very old textile techniques. Originally, nets were used for practical purposes, for example for hunting or fishing. Net became lace when being used on church cloths, interior textiles, and garments. For these needs, the basic net became smoother and it was decorated with embroidery. The use of netted lace in folk environment flourished in the 18th century at the most. Until the 1890s, it faded away just in some Moravian regions. Netting ranks among old technical procedures in lace making, which originates in Renaissance. Making a net of an endless yarn includes a netting needle that leads the yarn and functions as a shuttle. Though this a row of firm meshes bound in a net is formed. To create a uniform net, a smooth stick is used that helps knot the meshes. The net is made starting from one point. Village women used to secure the loop on which they made the net for example onto a distaff or around the big toe. The diagonal or straight net was then embroidered. Embroidering techniques used for netting are based either on a canvas sheet when the yarns cross on a lattice in four directions, imitating canvas weave, or on darning stitch (the yarn is run though the net in rows in two parallel directions). Chain or slip stitch makes embroidery contours. Netted lace was used mostly for inserts – as decorative connections between narrow strips of fabric. They were used in the ethnographic areas of Luhačovické Zálesí, Uherský Brod, Walachia, Brněnsko (wider region in the environs of Brno), Hanácké Slovácko and others. We can find this type of lace mainly on ceremonial plaids, especially on sheets of canvas protecting women in childbed (childbed curtain). However, we can trace netted lace even on older ceremonial plaids worn at churching, or on plaids or sheets of canvas that had more functions, for example in Hanácké Slovácko. In folk environment in Moravia, a minimum of examples has survived from the researched period, which could document the use of netted lace as a decorative element on garments even though there is no doubt that it existed. A wonderful example from Luhačovické Zálesí substantiates the netted works of local origin to have been a part of the older appearance of traditional clothing, especially if it was necessary to connect two strips of linen. This example of using the netted lace on a garment shows an apron from the village of Pozlovice (Inventory Number E 7256), which is in collections at the Museum of South-East Moravia in Zlín. The apron was a part of a young girl’s costume made of linen, from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Two narrower strips of thin white linen are sewn together by a 4,5 cm-wide netted insert on this apron. The diagonal net is trimmed with a geometric pattern embroidered with thicker white cotton yarn. The elements included in the ornament – trees followed by a geometrized bunch of flowers in the form of a cross – are laid separately one beside the other. The bottom apron’s edge is bordered with a strip of straight net with the same width, which is trimmed with white embroidery showing the motifs of branched trees with blossoms. The blossoms are laid as a W-shaped wavy line on the straight net. The surfaces of blossoms and leaves are filled with white linen; the contours of decorative elements are lined with a thicker contour. Netted inserts on ceremonial plaids from Luhačovické Zálesí are mostly older than the period covered by our publication is. Yet it is necessary to mention them because they created the basis from which other forms of netted lace in Moravia are derived. The Zálesí embroidery on net is advanced in its artistic look; it displays complex compositions and precise design. Mostly it is made of white linen or cotton yard. Sometimes the white sewing yarns are combined with ecru yarns. The motifs used on the oldest Zálesí embroideries on straight net display religious symbols, such as lamps or pelicans, which relates to their functioning as altar cloths. Laces made by local village women as a part of garments and interior canvas sheets show also different plant motifs – tulip blossoms, rosettes, bunches of flowers composed in the Baroque style, stylized pomegranates, helixes or S-shaped elements. The embroidery composition is mostly based on a wavy line. On diagonal net, the composition is more relaxed, the embroidery is simpler and the geometric patterns start predominating. Completely different are nettings integrated in textiles, especially sheets and plaids, in the regions of Hanácké Slovácko and Brněnsko (Brno environs). In contrast to Zálesí, the products are younger, made around the mid-19th century. These netted lattices are typically embroidered with thick coloured wool yarns. They often show separately laid motifs of triangles, small trees, tri-leaves and geometrized flowers, filled-in in different fashions. The colours are mostly in combination of red, blue, yellow, and green. Although the netted inserts of ceremonial plaids have survived in museum collections mostly without their linen parts, which they originally connected, based on the comparison with written documents from the 19th century, we can assert for certain that the netted works included not only childbed curtains, but also bride’s plaids, i.e. plaids worn at churching. In the wider Brno region as well as in the ethnographic area of Hanácké Slovácko both the above sheets and plaids were used until the 1870s at the latest. Like elsewhere in Moravia, childbed curtains in Hanácké Slovácko were made of two strips of canvas connected by a netted insert. Sheets called “prostěradla” from the same region were made in a similar way, just using finer materials. Prostěradlo is a local name for a multi- purpose sheet that covered duvets and pillows during the day and decorated the dwelling. The decorative function of this richly embroidered sheet can be considered for secondary. The primary function of the “prostěradlo” was its using as a ceremonial bride’s plaid worn by the bride at wedding ceremony. In addition, women wore the “prostěradlo” when they went to baptism or churching. Another function had this sheet when being placed into the coffin at the funeral ceremony. Sheets from Hanácké Slovácko were trimmed along their edges with unrestricted embroidery that was made by red and yellow, sometimes blue and green yarns. The embroideries displayed vegetable and especially figural and zoomorphic motifs (horses, cocks, birds, deer). Colours and motifs of these embroideries had protecting mission. Netted inserts in bride’s plaids, alongside bobbins laces made of nettle yarn in other regions, were substituted by white machine-woven inserts with woven vegetable red-green patterns in the 1870s and 1880s. In the 1890s and in the first decade of the 20th century, broader inserts embroidered by hand on tulle and decorated with large multicoloured stars and metal glitters occurred. In Hanácké Slovácko, crocheting was often used to decorate the prostěradla instead of netting. On folk costumes, netting was used mainly for making a separate garment – women’s bonnets. In South-East Moravia, according to one of the principles that were acknowledged and kept for the whole 19th century and in many places even at the beginning of the 20th century, married women were to wear their braided hair wrapped around the head and covered with a bonnet. Since the mid-19th century, women abandoned wearing the bonnets and in some traditional districts in regions of Wallachia and Luhačovice, they used to tie a small scarf under the usual large one. In some other districts in Walachia, bonnets worn under scarves survived until the mid-20th century, even in combination with clothing worn by burghers. The married women’s bonnets had different appearance in different regions. Bonnets knitted on frame as well netted, knitted or crocheted bonnets were spread to Luhačovické Zálesí from southern Walachia. Being spread from the environs of Valašské Klobouky, these bonnets reached the regions around Půchov and Trenčín.

In South-East Moravia, there were worn soft close-fitting bonnets, which covered the hairstyle; they were tied in the back. Soft bonnets were made of yarn by knitting on frames, netting, crocheting or knitting with needles. They could be made from linen or – at the end of the 19th century – from fine fabrics, such as tulle. They used to be trimmed with embroideries, sometimes with lace. The bonnets had different cuts. Some techniques allowed making a bonnet of one piece, without cutting (yarn bonnets knitted on frame, netted, crocheted bonnets, bonnets knitted with needles). Linen embroidered bonnets could be shaped only if sewn together of more pieces, often with the aid of folds. Bonnets from South-east Moravia feature the design with crown. The crown, which was often decorated, used to be placed more in the back on the older types of bonnets to remain unveiled when a woman covered her head with a rectangular plaid (commonly used as late as in the 1830s in Moravia). Later on, trimmings were moved to the front to stick-out under the tied square scarf. The bonnet edges above the forehead used to be toughed and they often involved lace or another type of trimming.

In museum collections, bonnets knitted on frame from Valašská Senica can be found just rarely. These bonnets differ significantly from the more known bonnets that were knitted on frame with thick white yard and were called “zděchovské”. The bonnets from Valašská Senica were made of indigo-dyed dark-blue to black yarn and embroidered with white cotton threads. In the mid-19th century, nearby Francova Lhota was a centre for the production of similar bonnets dyed with indigo and embroidered with multicoloured threads. These bonnets, however, were made with netting technique and the embroideries were placed on the net. They spread over southern Walachia through the Senica valley to the regions of Slavičínsko, Luhačovicko, Vizovicko and Zlínsko. Only few bonnets of this type survived in museums. They feature dark basic net and trimmings embroidered with white cotton threads, sometimes with colourful details. The bonnets are made of one piece of diagonal cotton net. The cotton threads called “pamuk” are indigo-dyed to get dark blue or black. Pamuk used to be sold at the fairs.

Netted bonnets are divided into two types according to their cuts. The first type has a square crown above the forehead (“přednička – front part”) with sewn-on side parts which pass from the back extended part. The other type is of a quite different cut, the square “přednička” is missing and the connecting seam passes through the middle of the head above the forehead. Netting ends at the back of this bonnet. Its end is sewn inside to make a small tunnel through which a ribbon for tying the bonnet runs. Because the bonnets knitted on frame have similar ends, they are supposed to be older, continuing directly the production of bonnets in Valašská Senica. The bonnets from Francova Lhota are embroidered with white cotton thread on dark- blue diagonal net. The main motifs are outlined with a thicker thread which forms loops. Large motifs are emphasized with colourful elements made of wool in the middle. The bonnets with a square crown show the main embroidered motif in the middle of the crown above the forehead. Older techniques used for bonnet-making, such as knitting on frame and netting, were step- by-step replaced by crocheting and knitting with needles. A crocheted filet with filled-in small windows, which composed patterns, replaced netted works with embroideries, bobbin lace, and other time-consuming techniques in folk environment. The popularity of this technique was partially caused by school-lessons of crocheting and knitting. Dark bonnets made by crocheting or knitting with needles originate also in southern Walachia and continue the netted bonnets from Francova Lhota. The bonnets are made by crocheting or knitting from store-bought black cotton yarns and embroidered with glass pearls. The edges of the crocheted or knitted bonnets are bordered above the forehead with a firm strip (“obšívka”). This strip is trimmed with black teeth or a stitched-on black velvet ribbon. Above the velvet ribbon, there is a 2 – 4 cm wide strip embroidered with glass pearls. Multicoloured pearls compose geometrical patterns mostly originating in a wavy line or a branched stalk. It was the environs of the town of Rožnov that occupied a significant position as to the production and wearing of bonnets. In the region of Rožnovsko, the women (but even the men) made netted and crocheted bonnets as well as “gossamer” bonnets knitted with needles. The white netted bonnets from Rožnov are younger than the dark bonnets from southern Walachia. They were trimmed with embroidery on the net; patterns on crocheted and knitted bonnets were created directly in the knitting. The white netted bonnets from Rožnov show embroideries both on the diagonal and on the straight nets in contrast to the bonnets from southern Walachia, where only the bonnets with diagonal netting have survived. The way of embroidering often creates only small geometrical patterns whose form is similar to that of crocheted filet patterns. To the white bonnets of Rožnov type, white needle lace called “mřežka” with five or more teeth („špice“, „zúbky“) was attached. This lace was visible under the scarf above the forehead. The bonnets were spread to the region around Valašské Meziříčí and to villages in both Bečva valleys. These bonnets have evolved into their younger stage represented by small tulle bonnets, so-called „grundšpicové“, which are trimmed with flat embroidery or cutwork as well as drawn thread technique on tulle. The bonnet makers from Walachia, whose bonnets were worn by women not only in the place of their production, but also in the regions of Luhačovické Zálesí, Zlínsko, Vizovicko as well as in western Slovakia, made small artistic works. The richness of techniques, procedures, materials, patterns and ornamental motifs on women’s bonnets was nearly unlimited.

Metallic Lace Metal threads used for fabric embellishment and applied as embroideries, appliqués, woven borders, laces, and weft threads date back to the beginnings of textile decorations, especially because of their gloss. Metallic lace with materials it is made of differs from all other types of textile lace. The basic thread is called dracoun or leonské thread. It consists of a metal profiled wire or more often of a flattened wire – lamella – wound around a core of textile. The lamella, which can be smooth or wrapped, is also an independently applied metal thread. In the 19th century, the array of these materials was extended by metal rings and sequins, sometimes with coloured lacquered surface, which were used mainly for goldwork. Lace made of metal threads is rigid, less malleable, and rarer than lace made of textile threads. It was mostly made as tape lace, called also edge or circumference lace whose one longitudinal edge was straight and the other one either fan-shaped or arc-shaped. It was used as an appliqué that embellished the circumference or its cut. The technique, whose development was significantly influenced by the malleability of the threads, began with simple woven borders after which the elements of weaving survived in all types of the lace – from the simplest to the most complex ones. The major motif of metallic lace, i.e. the motif of a small fan, passed through all centuries in different combinations of materials. From the basic simple Spanish lace just the technique of overcastting survived, for which a thicker dracoun thread was used in metallic lace. The wavy line produced by this dracoun thread was accentuated with a sparse tape in the style of Austrian lace and a tape of pearl cichlid appearance. Some threads are pulled through the back side under the wavy line without disturbing the appearance on the lace’s front side. The original squared lístkovina changed into the leave-shaped one. Same laces were made in silver or golden colour. Because identical types of metallic laces were common all over Europe, being a subject of active trading in the 19th and early-20th centuries, it is not possible to specify their exact origin. Yet they embellished traditional folk garment in Moravia, especially the vests and bonnets.

b. Embroidery

Village people were desirous of harmony and beauty. They polished their taste based on the environment they lived in, closely bound up with the nature. Their sense for harmony in colour, exactness in shapes and originality in motifs can be observed in all material products as well as in spiritual culture, in the treasury of literary and music traditions. Textile decorative techniques constitute a noteworthy element in material culture of the rural society. Decorations of garments bear witness to the artistic sense of embroiderers, lace-makers, and needlewomen. Their sense corresponded to the community demands on the appearance of local dress, which was codified by traditions. It is no more possible to determine since when embroidery had been used to adorn garments. The first attempts relate to the need to connect two textile parts, to hem, strengthen or take-in a piece of fabric, as we can see for example on sewn-through stitches that decorate pleated aprons from the region of Horňácko, on aprons from the region of Kyjov, on edges of men’s trousers in Eastern Moravia etc. The distance between the basic or elementary stitches and the intricate decorative stitches is very short. We can feel that the former embroiderers desired to demonstrate their skills and artistic sense when making the garments. As soon as the legal restrictions, valid for the members of particular social classes in connection with their dress, were cancelled, decorative techniques expanded to the garments of the village community members. In the case of some locations, for example in the region of Haná, this expansion resulted in a fast decline of traditional clothing culture in the mid-19th century and caused the transition to small-town or town dress. Folk environment features significant sense for decorative nature of all articles of everyday use as well as ceremonial articles or articles used solely on celebrations. It must have been this sense that taught the former embroiderers not only to sew two parts of a fabric together, but also to adorn this seam. Therefore, they added plentiful simple stitches that they multiplied and adapted to the motifs of their time. They knew the motifs from religious textiles, or they mastered them as professional embroiderers. If we look at preserved folk or traditional garments from Moravia, we can see that embroidery is one of the most-often applied decorative textile techniques. We can find it on a large percentage of garments regardless the foundation material of a dress. Festive and ceremonial garments are adorned in a more splendid style, while everyday clothing or work dress are less decorated, or they do not show any decoration at all. Particular areas of our regions differ significantly in the extent to which embroideries are used. The clothing of the village people from Central and Eastern Moravia (the ethnographic areas of Haná, Slovácko, and Hanácké Slovácko) is ablaze with varieties of embroidery, whereas it is quite sparse in others. This is caused by several influences. Certain plainness in the approach to hand-made embroidery in the other regions originates in their historical and social development. Historical and social influences resulted in the progressive levelling-out in traditional folk culture before the mid-19th century. The traditional dress started to be rejected, the taste changed as a consequence of developing town fashion and industrial teachers and ethnographic workers presented new alterations to embroideries. Of course, it was also availability of the embroidery material for poor village classes and new offer of embroidery threads that influenced the use of embroideries and their type. Traditional embroidery threads, woollen threads called kamrhelový, raw silk threads called šušelový as well as domestic dyed woollen threads were replaced after 1855 by factory-made cotton threads dyed with industrial dyestuff. These brought a new and brighter spectrum of colours into the folk environment. Among embroideries, we can find also pieces that use non-textile materials, for example silver and golden threads, sequins, lamé, buttons, pieces of glass, garnets etc. At the end of the 19th century, embroideries began to be replaced by tailor’s linings and trimmings that made the decoration easier but that contributed to the lost of the folk costumes´ spirit as well as to the extinction of traditional hand-made embroideries. Finally yet importantly, we can notice also combinations of embroideries and tulle inserts, which were connected mainly with so-called white embroidery in Moravia. Embroidery is a “carried” technique; that means the decorating thread is attached to the foundation fabric. Colours or raw materials of the threads do not have to correspond to those of the foundation fabric. Embroidery always consists of a row of stitches whereby the thread goes through the fabric from its right side to its reverse side and back. The stitches are repeated in a certain rhythm. This rhythm is - or is not - influenced by the underlying fabric. The stitches can be placed to respect the weave, i.e. direction of the warp and weft yarns. Alternatively, they are applied without regard to the weave of the foundation fabric. When speaking about embroideries, we can use the application of stitches (i.e. if they respect the weave of the underlying fabric, or not) as the easiest criterion to differentiate the type of embroidery. Embroideries are divided into two basic groups. Our ethnographic literature is not very exact as to the terminology for both groups, and many works describe the groups by means of regional terms, which can be confusing, especially for a reader unfamiliar with the theme. We believe it is necessary to codify the terminology and to use it correctly. For the needs of our publication, we consulted the publications by M. Ludvíková. Because of the professional reputation, the works by M. Ludvíková enjoy, we incline to her terminology that calls the above groups as embroidery made on counted-thread and free embroidery. The above-mentioned division of the embroidery techniques into two groups was not common in the past, and it is not common in foreign literature either. We can find more typologies of embroidery in English-speaking countries, Russian literature, and somewhere else. However, contemporary popular encyclopaedias of the Czech or foreign origin mostly divide the techniques of applying stitches into groups called needle painting (free embroidery) and counted-thread embroidery. Our attention is paid, however, to embroideries in the domestic environment. For this reason we want to remind that the embroidery techniques, which were used and still are used on garments coming from the traditional rural or small-town environments, do not constitute a comprehensive set of all embroidery techniques and stitches known in the domestic or Central-European territories. Looking at the development of embroidery in the world, we can find many different techniques that are peculiar in a certain region, for example bukhara in Central Asia, or Chinese knot on Chinese embroideries. During historical development of embroidery in the European Continent, many variants have occurred that relate to certain regions, for example Hardager embroidery, Assisi embroidery, Madeira, Richelieu. However, we do not find them on traditional dress or on home textiles from the rural environment. These techniques were rather fashionable and intended for higher social classes.

Embroidery made in the Moravian countryside shared its development with other regions in Central Europe. The oldest embroideries were made on religious textile products. On traditional dress, embroidery started to be used quite short time ago. In preserved artefacts, archive sources and historical literature we can find that the period after 1800 became a milestone in the development. Looking at the development of Central-European or European embroidery, the Moravian folk embroidery is not an independent solitaire. Its development corresponds to that in Europe, especially if we have in mind the transition of embroidery into the folk environment, and the independence of embroidery in it. Different regional ways of embroidery making and regional kinds of stitches are not exceptional. These resulted in unique types of embroideries, for example cutwork in the region of Uherské Hradiště, embroidery on pleats, embroidery on net in the regions of Wallachia and Luhačovické Zálesí, or peculiar arrangement of the originally Renaissance cross-stitch embroidery in the region of Kopanice. Then embroidery developed, however, through whitework, influenced by Empire aesthetics and motifs, to painted embroidery. The latter was interpreted naturalistically in its last stage with almost no sense for elegance; it used inorganic and heterogeneous motifs. Women made embroideries for the household use. Professional embroiderers or designers as well as professional tailors worked for a particular location or they made products for fairs or merchants. All of them learned embroidering from older embroiderers and tailors, at monastery workshops, by imitating etc. Since the beginning of the 20th century, we can trace the influence of school lessons. At school, children often learned the patterns or techniques that were not usual in their location. Women did not master all the stitches more. What they did not know, for example hemstitches, cutwork, picots etc., they ordered from another embroiderer or a professional embroiderer. Women used to embroider mostly in winter, when they did not have to do field works or other works at the farm. They used to sit at the windows and embroider for hours. They did not use to gather for this work because they would not have had enough light for it, if they had not been seated by the window. Pre-printed patterns were used for embroidering, especially in the region of Brno. In the 1880s and 1890s, thanks to ethnographers, embroidery was recorded; thanks to industrial teachers, it became again a part of folk costumes, however, regardless its original geographical occurrence. The form was reduced, the technical details became simplified, and the colours oversimplified. The influence of Art Nouveau – formation of so-called “national designs” caused the degradation of folk costumes. Members of the Svéráz Club tried to make a national folk costume, i.e. a simplified variant of traditional dress, intended for wearing in towns. They tried to translocate the elements of folk fine art, especially the ornaments, into contemporary fashion and onto household articles. For example, it was woman’s blouse Isabela that should correspond to such ideas. For the first time, it was introduced to the public at an exhibition, which Svéráz organized in 1915. The blouse was popular until the World War II and then again in the 1970s. It turned out that the period of the Centre for Folk Art Manufacture (ÚLUV, 1945 - 1995) was a rescuing period for the tradition of Moravian embroidery and surviving techniques. ÚLUV described techniques and producers, ordered products, taught embroiderers and women who pre-drew the patterns on paper. However, this period is still awaiting its evaluation.

Typology of Embroidery Stitches in Folk Arts and Crafts A view of the folk embroidery technique, the typology of stitches and the ways of embroiderers´ work can help understand the development of folk embroidery in Moravia. Many domestic and foreign encyclopaedias are devoted to the typology of stitches. It is important for us whether they comment on the embroidery techniques and embroidery stitches as to their use in folk or stylish environment. For this reason, we comprehend the generally drafted-out encyclopaedias with embroidery and stitches to be auxiliary materials. In these encyclopaedias, we can find examples of stitches that are typical for folk embroidery, as well as stitches that are typical for artistic embroidery or for modern kinds of embroidery. That is why we do not use these encyclopaedias as a source for study, but just as a comparative source in our publication. In the past, the technique of folk embroidery used on Moravian and Bohemian folk textile drew attention of more experts. If we pass over the works influenced by romantic view of embroidery at the beginning of ethnography, we can say that it was the contributions written by the researchers of the 20th century that were of benefit for the study of folk embroidery techniques and the typology of folk embroidery stitches. Descriptions of embroideries and the terminology captured in fieldworks from real embroiderers can be found in works by František Kretz, Ludvík Kunz, Antonín Václavík, Miroslava Ludvíková, Jitka Staňková or Vlasta Svobodová. The works by Alena Hanzlíková and Jaroslava Zastávková are considered the principal works devoted to the typology of folk embroidery stitches. These works are drafted-out as encyclopaedic manuals for the folk embroidery techniques. The typologies published therein are not identical, unfortunately, because they are based on different starting points. Alena Hanzlíková divides the stitches into groups according to the work with underlying fabric. She describes groups of stitches for counted embroidery, pre- drawn designs, needlepoint, whitework, colourful embroidery, stitched-on stripes and appliqués, or námětkový embroidery. Jaroslava Zastávková´s works offer a different typology. When grouping the stitches, she also proceeds on how the stitches work with the underlying fabric and how they modify it. Furthermore, she focused on the appearance of the right and reverse sides of embroidery. The typology by Jaroslava Zastávková divides the stitches into the elementary and the composed ones. The elementary stitch is a stitch unit; the composed stitches consist of individual stitch units, i.e. individual elementary stitches. This typology is very suitable to describe how to make embroidery. It also should help specify the stitches and the professional descriptions. However, we did not find a frequent use thereof in newer essays or publications by other authors. This might be caused by excessive technicity of the description and high demands for exact knowledge of the embroidery technique. We were interested to know whether we can find similar approach to the embroidery technique in foreign publications. In foreign publications, however, we found more typologies of embroidery and embroidery stitches. Czech ethnography divides folk embroidery into two basic groups that differ from each other according to whether the stitches respect the underlying fabric, i.e. the direction of warp and weft threads, or not. The first group includes counted-thread embroideries, the other one free embroidery. Counted-thread embroidery is considered the oldest kind of embroidery. This embroidery respects the underlying fabric. As to the formation of stitches, the publication applied the classification by Alena Hanzlíková who divides the counted-thread embroidery stitches into five groups: 1. simple stitches (straight stitch, Holbein stitch, pearl stitch, double running stitch), 2. edging stitches (e.g. sewing over pleads, blanket stitch or buttonhole stitch), 3. connecting stitches or free seams (e.g. shadow stitch), 4. folk decorative stitches – geometric designs (e.g. with full stitch, common cross-stitch, braid-style stitch, curve-style stitch, krokvička stitch, needlepoint or surface embroidery, stem stitch, chain stitch, Holbein stitch), 5. openwork (e.g. latticed embroidery, cutwork, gossamer fillings etc.). Folk embroidery with detailed technicity descriptions is the theme of the book Technologie stehů lidové výšivky Techniques for Folk Embroidery Stitches by Jaroslava Zastávková (1981). Free embroidery has different regional and period names in literary works, such as painted or pre-drawn design embroidery. This large group of folk dress embroidery includes embroideries formed irrespective of the underlying fabric. This group is the younger sister of the counted-thread embroidery; it has contributed to a large variability of embroideries. The embroidery according to pre-drawn design used more stitches and embroidery techniques: needlepoint stitch (often underlain), edge stitch, stem stitch, flat stitch, buttonhole stitch (Madeira), chain stitch, knotted stitch, blanket stitch, straight stitch on tulle, openwork, spider-web embroidery, tulle insertions. We can distinguish more sub-groups of pre-drawn design embroidery according to how the stitches are laid. For example, whitework and embroidery on tulle form a special sub-group – they feature thicker thread that is drawn through their contours; or they are embroidered using chain or needlepoint stitches. We can also mention flat needlework, bulging needlework, metallic thread embroidery, buttonhole embroidery, scallop embroidery, Madeira embroidery, whitework, tylangrova robota, gossamer fillings, colourful embroidery – painting with needle.

Embroidery in Ethnographic Areas

Ethnographic literature has been mostly devoted to embroidery on linen, hemp or cotton fabric, batiste and other light fabrics, which were used mainly for making shirts, blouses, plaids, veils etc. Less attention has been paid to garments made of cloth, leather, and fur. Unfortunately, we have not dealt with the garments made of leather or fur in this publication. The reason consists in the theme of the project in the framework of which the book is published. This chapter is aimed at providing more examples of embroidery on cloth garments, which are still a matter of peripheral importance for the experts in textiles. Therefore, we introduce different ethnographic areas through selected examples of garments decorated by embroidery. These garments are made either of linen and other light fabrics, or of cloth, brocade, damask and other heavier textiles, which were mostly not washed. The examples come from museum deposits and they try to document the period folk costumes worn by common inhabitants of a particular region between 1850 and 1950. The published examples allow recognize embroidery on the workday and the festive dress. The examples of garments decorated by embroidery are mentioned in groups with respect to a particular region and the decorative technique. Garments, however, were often decorated by more techniques, e.g. embroidery was often accompanied by lace or appliqué. In this chapter, we focus solely on embroidery; other techniques are described in the next chapters. When describing the garments, we tried to point out the presence of all decorative techniques whereby more information about them can be found in the following chapters or vocabulary. Possible different kinds of embroidery or other decorative techniques are pointed out in the text. Embroidery in West Moravia is influenced by embroideries from Bohemia and Northern Moravia. The region was influenced by the tradition of embroiderer’s workshops that produced professional embroideries inspired by the taste and sample books of their time. The development of embroideries is crowned wit the period of whitework, which developed on popular cotton batiste scarves, aprons, and bonnets. The embroidery corresponded to the Empire and Biedermeier styles of its time; branched-out compositions of flowers grow from baskets or vases. Religious textiles from the 18th century with black and off-white embroidery have survived in the Brněnsko region. Embroidered plaids, shawls, and sheets of canvas came later on. The embroidery is created on finer fabrics, such as cotton fabric “kamrtuch” or batiste. First, the embroidery was made in red thread, as it was on childbed curtains (curtains to separate women in childbed and their newborn children – TN). The ornament became finer and smaller to correspond to the foundation fabric. The motifs are independent, not connected to each other. The motif of repeating did not occur yet at that time. The embroidery was placed in the corner; it has the form of a symmetric bunch of flowers. There were an increasing number of small leaves and circles that became a basis for buttonhole embroidery later on. The blossom middles are latticed, which is replaced by spider-web fillings later on. In the later period, the motifs became asymmetric, the basic plant ornament became looser, the circles were replaced by networks, and the flower middles started being filled with spider- webs. Under the influence of the Empire style, bunches of flowers were composed to form wreaths that were very fine. Slowly the form began to dominate over the content. Embroidery was not more a story, but just a fine décor. At the end of the 19th century, red colour, however in its deeper tinge, occurred again in embroideries on canvas sheets. At the end of the 19th century, embroidery spread to triangle headscarves called půlky, and aprons. Pre-drawn designs, usual until that time, became obsolete. They were replaced by pre-printed designs that allowed the embroiderer to capture her design with every detail. After 1900, buttonhole embroidery prevailed. Quite big buttonholes, combined with tear-shape ones in the eastern part of the Brněnsko region, created geometric motifs. This whitework belonged to the same group as the Moravian whitework did. However, it missed its peculiarity in the region of Brněnsko. In the 1890s, colourful embroidery occurred for the first time. This was transferred to folk dress thanks to ethnographic workers and industrial teachers. Under their influence, so- called national designs were embroidered, regardless their non-geographic origin. In the region of Vyškov, solely the development of whitework can be observed. The oldest whitework, which comes from the 18th century, does not bear unique local features; it is identical with the embroidery in West Moravia and some locations in the ethnographic area of Haná. It uses large rougher designs that are embroidered with flat stitches and openwork with a well-arranged composition. This embroidery appears on aprons and plaids. In later stages, the design became smaller and featured leaves and holes. Later on, these became larger, being filled with spider-webs, tulle, or patterned curtain material. The ethnographic region of Haná features one of the most elaborate embroideries whose ornamental composition is one of the most advanced. In the 19th century, naturalism dominated and vegetation motifs appeared more frequently. Mostly they had beige or turquoise colours. In that time, the art of embroidery on childbed curtains was at the top of its development. It used a wide spectrum of designs that alongside its colours (blackwork) and compositions borne witness to its origin. Embroidery on veils wound around embroidered bonnets was concentrated above the forehead and on narrow borders. The later scarves with off-white embroidery were replaced by headscarves called lipské. Compact yellow and black embroidery decorated women’s blouses and men’s broad sleeves as well as cuffs of men’s festive shirts. The design is arranged in a symmetrical fashion, using odd number of central motifs – hearts, tulips, and pomegranate. Wider collars are embellished with more strips that are separated from each other. In Haná, also tailor-style embroidery on cloth garments from the mid-19th century has survived. Colours of these embroideries from Haná have changed with the time, from fine beige, violet, red and brown colours to embroideries made solely using deep green silk threads. Silk thread is a common feature of all tailor-style embroideries in the ethnographic area of Haná. Folk embroidery in the ethnographic area of Luhačovické Zálesí belongs to the older type of stylized plant embroideries from Wallachia, made in straw-yellow colour. There were two types of yellow embroideries – embroidery according to pre-drawn designs, and counted- thread embroidery. M Ludvíková called the top stage of the local embroidery as “a beautiful style”. Then a simpler type of free embroidery followed, which used store-bought threads of deeper yellow colour. Around the mid-19th century, terracotta, violet and blue colours occurred. Embroidery decorated stand-up collars and spoušťky (embroidery on pleated shoulder straps) of women’s blouses and men’s shirts. In the mid-19th century, whitework reached this ethnographic area and was used especially on large white headscarves and wedding aprons. Wallachian embroideries of older types were probably quite gaily coloured. Older embroideries were made with red linen threads or off-white threads and they used flat, split or cross-stitches. On older childbed curtains drawn-thread latticed embroideries, so-called katry, occurred. In Evangelic environment in the region round the towns of Vsetín and Valašské Klobouky, blue-colour embroideries have survived. Since the second half of the 19th century, whitework embroidery has survived. Since the second half of the 19th century, latticed embroidery has been replaced by tulle inserts. Noteworthy are embroideries on women’s headdresses from the village of Nový Hrozenkov. The embroidery is made in cross-stitch with red thread first; then light-blue, light-green and off-white colours are added. The decoration is concentrated on the crown, which was woven or netted, or on lattices, which were to substitute the lace. Generally speaking, it is especially the fine whitework embroidery called rožnovská (mainly that from the village of Zubří) that is considered to be an example of Wallachian embroidery. This embroidery occurred in the mid-19th century, when the underlying fabric was changed. Canvas was replaced by fine batiste, muslin, and tulle. Embroideries were made on embroidery frames. They used so-called stab stitch, when only short stitches in the form of points or short lines are visible on the right side. White thread drawn embroidery with large rustic motifs can be found in the regions of Hadslavicko and Štrambersko to which it was disseminated from the region of Rožnovsko. The borderline for Wallachian whitework embroidery is in the south-west of the region. Here, in the ethnographic area of Luhačovické Zálesí , Wallachian embroidery meets embroidery from Moravian Slovakia. In the ethnographic area of Kopanice, we can find geometric embroidery whose motifs and colours relate to Slovakian embroideries. Here they used woollen threads in red-black or red- blue colours. Local women embroidered bodices and aprons, on which a star as a frequent motif occurred. In the ethnographic area of Horňácko, embroidery is more elaborate on women’s folk costume. Dominating is off-white colour that can be combined with blue, black or red. Whitework embroideries from the villages of Velká and Javorník are not an archaic phenomenon; they might have evolved in parallel with colourful embroideries. Embroidery can be found on collars, shoulder folds, bonnets, scarves, festive aprons, and churching plaids. Bonnet crowns are covered by dense embroidery. This was made by one colour until the mid- 19th century, while since the mid-19th century it has evolved into multicoloured embroidery with petit motifs which were composed symmetrically to the vertical axe. Scarves with rectangular inserts, attached to lace at the end of the scarf, offer the most beautiful and perfect example of geometric embroidery. Scarves from Nová Lhota are quite different. They are made by a reversible technique and they are edged with hinges instead of lace. These hinges are blue, red, green, and yellow. Above the lace, there is another embroidered strip with floral motifs similar to those applied on the scarf tail. The very decorative scarf tails were embroidered approximately until the mid-19th century with thicker thread and untwisted silk; younger embroideries, however, are made with silk and store-bought cotton threads. The embroidery is always arranged in strips lined with floral motifs on one or both sides. Geometric embroidery designs occur also in the regions of Uherskohradišťsko and Uherskobrodsko. These are made with flat stitches; their special technique is called “na výřez cutwork embroidery ”. This technique was documented on childbed curtains as early as in the 18th century; it was used, however, also on bonnet crowns, women’s blouses, or men’s shirts. Typical for this technique is the plasticity which is reached through dense or overlapping stitches. Dominating colours are off-white and black. The type of cutwork differs in particular regional districts. Motifs with stars, tulips, and swastikas repeat on collars and shoulder folds in a regular rhythm. The most archaic examples come from the villages of Nivnice and Bánov. The used colours are off-white, yellow, red, and black. In these villages, we often find a motif called “na dubový list oak leaf ” that occurs also in other areas round the towns of Uherský Brod and Veselí nad Moravou as well as in the region of Uherskohradišťsko. In these areas, we also find embroidery with braid-style stitch. This stitch has survived on scarves made in the environs of the towns of Uherské Hradiště, Uherský Brod and Veselí nad Moravou at the beginnings of the 19th century. Embroideries evolved into whitework embroidery at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the ethnographic area of Kyjov, survived garments substantiate the geometric embroidery designs to have been applied on childbed curtains (in red), on aprons (in white) and on women’s blouse collars (in black). In the ethnographic area of Kyjov, we can find also free embroidery with plant motifs, which is one of the most advanced in Moravia. This is used on childbed curtains and blouse collars. On the collars, it is of a rectangular shape - its strips line the edges, and small bunches of flowers are placed in the corners. The strips of embroidery are separated by lattices called “katerinky”. In the mid-19th century, embroidery with woollen and cotton threads on apron became popular. This embroidery used plant motifs, rich bunches of flowers growing from hearts, vases, strips with stylized carnations, tulips, grenades etc. Whitework embroidery used mainly on scarves represents the last stage of the development. Childbed curtains are the oldest embroidered textiles in the ethnographic area of Podluží. Scarves from the late-18th century feature multicolour embroidery. Embroidery is placed at the end of scarves; on younger scarves, embroidery is divided into two parts separated by inserted bobbin lace. Until the mid-19th century, scarves embroidered with red-and-brown embroideries were usual. Approximately since the second third of the 19th century, scarves and blouses are embroidered in black with silk threads. This embroidery has survived in the village of Lanžhot. In the 3rd third of the 19th century, whitework embroidery according to pre-drawn designs occurred in Podluží. There were embroidered naturalized flower motifs with openwork, which was replaced by tulle inserts later on. At the end of the 19th century, yellow and light to dark red embroidery creating two vertical lines along the border disappeared. Since the 19th century, collars have been covered with whitework embroidery with the motifs of tulips, carnations, leaves, and birds. Cross and braid-style stitch had long survived on men’s shirt fronts. Unmarried young boys wore white embroidery, while that of married men was red. In the late-19th century, even this embroidery was suppressed by embroidery according to pre-drawn designs, which grew excessively. Today, this embroidery covers almost the whole surface of sleeves. The beginning of the 20th century brought a change. Some garments were not worn more (bonnets, scarves), or people wore garments inherited from the 19th century. However, they continued making and embroidering new collars, aprons, blouses, and shirts. Workday clothing was not decorated with embroidery more, or just to a minimum extend. Men’s pants were not more worn either. Embroidery in diagonal strips decorated sleeves of unmarried men’s festive shirts. The whole shirt was covered with whitework embroidery which could be combined with red parts on collars and shirt-fronts (the villages of Lanžhot, Ladná, Poštorná). In Ladná and Poštorná, collars were embroidered with geometric designs. Shirts called šňůrková that used to be worn alongside the pantaloons, featured sleeves decorated with embroidered teeth. Embroidery was often replaced by store-bought machine embroidery. Sleeves of workday shirts were sewn into cuffs. A more archaic cut can be found in Lanžhot. Since the 1930s, black colour has occurred in some places whereby the design has not been changed.

Tailor-style embroidery

This type of embroidery is applied on more expensive cloth and leather garments. It was made by artisans – tailors. It is usually very simple with different forms of wavy lines, chains, or croquets. It is used on men’s vests and coats, on women’s waistcoats and short jackets. It is embroidered with coloured silk or woollen threads. The most beautiful tailor-style embroideries can be found on jacket cuffs in the western part of the Brněnsko region, and on vests and jackets from the ethnographic area of Haná. Men’s trousers in Moravian Slovakia, which are embellished with sewn-on piping, so-called cifrování, have reached opulent ornamental richness. Cifrování includes embroidery around the fly with ornaments. These were made of cords which formed a heart. Tailor-style embroidery has never been an object of ethnographers´ interest.

Appliqué Appliqué made of textile or non-textile elements on cloth belongs to less mentioned decoration technique. Older literature writes about námětková embroidery, which was a common name for attaching the shapes cut out from fabric to a foundation fabric, or the pieces of leather to a foundation leather. Contemporary encyclopaedias rank appliqué among needle-techniques, describing appliqué as a technique when pieces of fabric are sewn on an underlying fabric. The appliqué shall not only adorn the fabric; in the past, it was used if it was necessary to cover damaged spots on a textile. Cut-out pieces of fabric are hemmed with chain or blanket stitch, or trimmed with a fine cord. Another way consisted in attaching the motifs onto the fabric without hemming. The edges were folded inside and the motif was basted on the textile. Textile appliqués include also sewn-on gold or silver relief embroideries, metallic lace, ribbons, strips, tassels, linings and trimmings as well as textile-covered buttons. Non-textile decorative motifs were stitched to the fabric directly. In the case of metal studs, which replaced buttons, the underlying fabric was cut through and the stud hooks were attached to each other on the inner side by a leather strap, or they were sewn to the lining with a thicker thread. Non-textile appliqué included sequins, coins, buttons, beads, colour coral beads, cut corals, glasses and bouillon. Wallachian region can be deemed an example for appliqués used on men and women’s traditional dress. Appliqués used on folk garments in Wallachia are substantiated in sources and specialized literature but we can find rather limited quantity of sources as compared to other decorative techniques. Garments as tangible sources, deposited in museum collections, offer the best value of information. Their study as well as the knowledge of different forms of stitched-on decorative elements is a necessary step to confront them with the written and especially picture sources. Picture and tangible sources substantiate that modest appliqués were used on Walllachian folk garments, especially the cloth ones, in the last quarter of the 18th century. Only in the first half of the 19th century, the appliqués were used to a larger extent. They adorned mainly male cloth garments – coats, fur coats, vests, trousers, while women worn appliqués not only on the cloth garments but also on the silk and velvet ones – coats, waistcoats, skirts. In Wallachia, it was leather or textile fabrics, especially cloth or woollen, silk and velvet fabrics that became carrier materials for appliqués. Appliqués were made of textile of non-textile materials whereby both sorts used to be combined. Embroidery was understood as a functional and decorative supplement to appliqués. It was used to attach the sewn-on ornaments to the carrier material but it also completed the appearance of an appliqué. Embroidery was made either in the appliqué or around it to create a compact unit. Embroidery was made with silk, woollen or cotton threads of different colours, with straight and chain stitches, stitches called krokvička and full surface stitches. As to men’s dress, appliqués occur exclusively on the cloth garments – overcoats (halena), short jackets (župice), vests (brunclek) and trousers. On overcoats and short jackets, appliqués consisting of red cloth pieces are stitched on sleeve ends and stand-up collars; they are embellished with cords – šňůrování. The cords are led in lines from which simple and multiplied drop-like loops protrude. In the region around the town of Valašské Klobouky, small cloth pieces are inserted into the areas covered with cord loops. Vests called brunclek are decorated with supplementary embroidery and silk or woollen tassels. Šňůrování and appliqués from cloth of different colours on trousers are usually completed with embroidery. Cord appliqués are placed around the vertical slit at the waist, on the flap covering the fly and on the side seams. The flap is usually trimmed with red cloth whose edge shows decorative cut. As compared with the decoration of men’s garments, that of women’s garments in Wallachia is significantly more varied. Besides less used šňůrování, haberdashery and non-textile materials occur more often. As to women’s garments, appliqués can be found on fur coats (šuba), gilets, jackets, waistcoats, skirts, or short jackets called jupka. They are used on not only cloth as a carrier material, but also on woollen, silk or cotton fabrics. Šuba was lined with gold or silver borders with woven pattern. Borders were encircled by a yellow or a light-green cord which was bent to form simple loops. The same elements were used for vertical strips sewn on the breast, or for lining the pocket holes. Tassels were applied in the side seams. Simple appliqués were used to decorate edges of a gilet with šňůrování or silk narrow ribbons; younger black jackets were adorned with šňůrování or ready-to-use haberdashery appliqués. These decorations were placed on sleeve ends. The most varied appliqués embellished Wallachian waistcoats. They included haberdashery, such as borders, ribbons, metallic lace, cords with floral motifs, lace, tassels. Appliqués on skirts are exceptional, they have just a form of a stitched-on cord on aprons called orilánka from Rožnov. Short jackets (jupka) were embellished mainly with lace, ribbons, cords, or rickracks. These decorating elements were made of various materials – silk, cotton or wool, or even synthetic. Colours were not limited.