Few people know that the famous, colorful kalocsai folk-costume, which abounds in flower motifs, is relatively new in its present form.


As late as the last century, people wore simple white-blue costumes. At the turn of the century, dark blue and black embroidery started to appear on the shirtsleeves, and white, and later more colorful flower design on the bodice.


From the 1930s, red, green, yellow and lilac were added to the increasingly complex design, and this is when “true” kalocsai embroidery was born.  The number of petticoats worn under the large, blue or green pleated rock grew, and ladies started to put on a laced apron around the waist. Bright-colored slippers were worn with colorful stockings. Young women adorned their hair with pink or light-blue laced bouquet. Married women wore embroidered, white linen bonnet.

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Shepherd's Wear Bugac


The bugaci shepherd-wear preserved many ancient elements to this day. The shepherd's costume consisted of a rimmed hat of long-drawn cupping shape, baggy white trousers and a shirt, a waistcoat adorned with silver buttons, and a unique overcoat.

This overcoat (suba in Hungarian) is a mantle-like piece of clothing, made of long-piled sheepskin, covering the shepherd from neck to ankle. Poorer shepherds had an overcoat made of baize, either ankle-long (szur), or waist-long (kodmon). Both were decorated, the latter with colorful, flower-shaped embroidery on the front.



Shepherd's Wear Hortobagy


Hortobagyi shepherds wore a wide-rimmed hat, always dubbed to resist the rain. By their hat on the left-hand side, they wore a feather (of bustard, jib, crane, or heron), which designated their rank. Blue wrangler shirt and trousers recall the outfit of the first cavalry unit of the 1848-49 war of independence. Their attire also included two white trousers, made of linen, and two greasy trousers. The latter were impregnated with ash and tallow, to resist water, and to keep off lice and fleas. They were worn only during dirty chores, such as clipping. Sheepskin was used for the waistcoat. A simple fur coat, sawed from six pieces of leather, protected the shepherd from nasty weather.





Folk Costume beyond the Tisza


Towns and villages on the northern and middle part of the region beyond the Tisza River looked to the city of Debrecen for clothing trends.  Girls wore their hair in a single braid, with a wide lace at the end, and adorned their head with a coronet, their neck with a collar of pearls. Married women covered their head with a scarf. They wore black or dark-blue skirts and waistcoats; their winter fur was tanned brown, and overcast with silk or a colorful leather lace by the skinner. Their feet were covered with fine morocco leather, later with shoes. Men wore a high hat, a cotton shirt and trousers, a waistcoat with silver or tin buttons, and morocco leather boots with spurs.




Photo: pappani



Folk Costume Bodrogkoz


In Bodrogkoz, the land surrounded by streams, attire was simple and plain. Girls wore a bright colored coat over their linen shirt, and a scarf. A cashmere skirt covered their five or six starched petticoats. Young men wore buttoned belts, which were at times ornamented with colorful laces, hanging down to their heels.