The peasant blouse is arguably the element of traditional clothing that has most transcended popular fashion. Different versions continue to be worn today all over the world. It originated in Romania and the cut dates back to 5500-2750 BCE in south-eastern Transylvania, Moldova (including the present territory of the Republic of Moldova) and western Ukraine.

There are two styles: one with a gathered neckline called an ie and the other, the camasa, “straight blouse” or “boy cut.” Blouses were stitched in linen, hemp, and silk with brighter colors for girls and young women and darker, muted colors for married and older women. Each woman would stitch the story of her life and aspirations, incorporating geometric symbols and floral patterns for protection, fertility, and good health.

The blouse, worn exclusively by peasant women until the mid-19th century, gained notoriety when Romanian royalty including Queen Marie began wearing traditional clothing and later in the 1940s when Matisse’s series of paintings became known. The most famous one is La Blouse Roumaine on the left below. The Romanian painter Theodor Pallady met Matisse in Paris in the studio of Gustave Moreau in the late 1800s. Pallady gave Matisse several blouses which inspired the series.

The sleeve embroidery of the well-known style, cămașa cu altiță, is divided into three sections: the altița, which lays over the shoulder and refers to the sky; the încreț, a narrower ornamental band which originally connected the altița with the voluminous gathered fabric of the lower section; and the râuri, river, the lower and largest section that is decorated with diagonal or vertical lines and represents the earth. Embroidery served as protection for the body in addition to displaying the age, marital status, and economic standing of the wearer. The symbols on the altița were always unique to the shirt in contrast to the râuri which used patterns from the back and front of the shirt. The încreț is most often a geometric pattern, often in white or off-white, yellow or red, symbolizing the flowers beneath the sky, a Romanian friend told me. Some blouses, called cu tabla, contain one wide panel of embroidery running vertically down the sleeve with no altița at the top. This style comes from Banat, Hunedoara, parts of Bihor (Crișana). See the map at the end of the post if you’re interested in their geographic locations. 

Sleeves can be gathered at the wrist or elbow, or fall loose in an open bell shape.

It is interesting to note that there are no short-sleeved styles. Even at work people wore long sleeves– a practical way to shade one’s arms from the sun.