Lithuanian National Costume in the 19th Century and in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century: Cultural Pollution and Remains of Authenticity

Abstract

Lithuanian authors, authors abroad, and artists have presented Lithuanian folk clothes in their works. However, the oldest examples of these representations are not very reliable, because the authors painted them according to the descriptions of other people or copied works among each other. In the 20th century, the national costume of Lithuania changed considerably. Attention was not given to ethnographic regional peculiarities; instead, similar materials were chosen without any analysis. This article performs a comparative analysis of folk (the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century) and national (the second half of the 20th century) Lithuanian costumes to establish signs of cultural pollution and remaining authenticity. Over 500 articles of clothing with different purposes are collected from Lithuanian museums. Fabric parameters, such as raw materials, weaving technique, weave, pattern, decoration elements, etc., are established. The research results show that authentic folk clothes of the 19th century differ from the national costume of the second half of the 20th century in their cut, decoration, and patterns. No differences between ethnographic regions survived in the national costumes. Thus, at present, we must preserve our tangible heritage and re-create, as authentically as possible, national costume for folk songs and dance ensembles, folk restaurants, and rural tourism homesteads.

Keywords

• folk clothes
• national costume
• cultural pollution
• weaving technique
• cut
• authenticity