Peasant blouses are traditional clothing of many cultures around the world, appearing in various forms. To take the Romanian peasant blouse as an example, we can trace its origins back thousands of years. It can have either a gathered neckline or a straight ‘boy’ cut. Sleeves can be gathered at the wrist or elbow, or they can be open in a bell shape. They don’t usually have short sleeves as the wearer wanted protection from the sun. They were traditionally made in linen, hemp or silk.
We’re far from experts on this topic but from our reading, we learned a few Romanian blouse tidbits.
It is said that the designs in the embroidered stitches represented the story of that person’s life and included symbols for various blessings such as fertility and good health. It could also indicate the wearer’s marital status, age and economic standing.
The sleeve embroidery was traditionally divided into three sections:
The alița over the shoulder, referring to the sky.
The încret, a narrower ornamental band connecting the alița to the lower more voluminous half of the sleeve. Usually a geometric pattern.
The râuri (river), the lower and larger section representing the earth.
Blouses without alița are called ‘cu tabla’ and contain a wide panel of embroidery running vertically down the sleeve.
The traditional blouse was worn exclusively by peasant women in Romania until Queen Marie started wearing it in the 1920s, which broadened its scope.
Later, in the 1940s, Henri Matisse painted a series of important works featuring women wearing the blouses after he was gifted one by a Romanian painter.
Mexico, Russia, Greece and other parts of the world have their own variations of peasant blouses.
In response to the Ballet Russes in the 1910s and 1920s, traditional Eastern European styles became popular in fashion.
Costumes designed by Natalia Goncharova for The Ballet Russes 'Le Coq d'Or', 1914.
Short, puffy sleeved peasant blouses were popular in 1930s and 40s American fashion, often available as patterns for home sewing.
Picture: https://witness2fashion.wordpress.com/
In Europe, Stalin’s Russia and Hitler’s Germany employed the look in their propaganda images of traditional national womanhood.
Hollywood silent films brought the garment onto the big screen in the 1920s with films such as Cecil B. DeMille’s Road to Yesterday (1925).
Women were only just leaving corsets behind at the time and the allure of the peasant blouse was in part due to the freedom it evoked through its practicality and beauty. This aspect was utilized by costume designers.
It appeared again in films in various forms in the 1940s and 50s, often to add an air of sensuality to a character. It showed up in films such as:
The Outlaw (1943)
Duel in the Sun (1946)
and on Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop (1956)- a costume famously recreated by Madonna in 1991.
In the early 20th century, the bohemian artists of Greenwich village adopted the peasant blouse in a desire to eschew American beauty standards.
The blouse survived through various waves of counterculture in the 20th century, from the Bohemians to the Beatniks to the Hippies.
When Yves Saint Laurent’s Russian/Ballet Russes collection landed in 1976, the peasant blouse hit the mainstream in a big way.
They again had a resurgence in the 2000s amidst the boho trends of that decade with the likes of Sienna Miller leading the way.
Currently, vintage pieces are highly coveted and collectible.
To view some of the vintage peasant blouses in our rental collection from throughout the decades, please visit our Pinterest board HERE.
We have some gorgeous short sleeve Hungarian blouses from the 20s/30s period in silk, rayon and cotton gauze. The label on some of these is that of Simpson’s department store in Toronto.
We also have some long sleeve cotton blouses from the 20s with peasant embroidery features.
There is one picture in this set of an open Edwardian blouse, which is not a peasant blouse per say but shares some beautiful embroidery details that fit with the others.
There are 60s/70s cotton crochet blouses and 1970s Indian cotton blouses.
We also have some cotton 70s-revival blouses from the 90s/00s boho trends of that period.