Folk Costumes from the Vonnie Brown Collection
Slovak Style
About the Collection
Learn about the Vonnie Brown Collection
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Vonnie Brown
Vonnie Brown is an American of Norwegian ancestry with a lifelong passion for folk dance and a notable career on the dance faculties at Utah State University and Louisiana State University. Her interest in dance introduced her to the colorful world of ethnographic dress early in her journey. In 1972, she founded the Karpaty folk ensemble, for which she commissioned hundreds of new folk costumes from several European countries. During her time as the artistic director of the ensemble, she took annual study trips abroad to research dances and dress. Her first trip to Slovakia in 1976 included a visit to the famous Východná Folklore Festival where she fell in love with the country and its people.
Through her professional connections, she fostered deep friendships with two important Slovak ethnologists - Jarmila Paličková and Viera Nosáľová - who were instrumental in furthering her knowledge about Slovak kroje. Both women worked at The Slovak Academy of Sciences where they studied and published about traditional costumes and textiles and whose books remain fundamental references about these topics to this day. Aware of Vonnie's interests, they helped her obtain authentic kroje from over a dozen ethnographic regions. With the help of friends throughout the country, she assembled a collection that celebrated her love of the culture.
In America, Vonnie proudly showed her collection and shared the beauty of Slovak culture with local audiences. She used the costumes as educational tools at folk dance camps to discuss the relationships between dances and dress. Mindful of their cultural significance and the risks associated with wearing antique garments, they were carefully handled and rarely dressed. In 2011, Vonnie generously donated her collection to the Museum of Ethnic Dress & Adornment, where it continues to educate and inspire.
Slovakia
Slovakia is a landlocked country in the heart of eastern Europe bordered by Poland, Czechia, Austria, Hungary, and Ukraine. It is roughly the same size as Vonnie's home state of Louisiana. Slovakia is home to a population of approximately five and a half million inhabitants, which include ethnic Slovaks, Hungarians, Carpatho-Rusyns, Czechs, Roma, and other minorities. The country can be organized into no fewer than twenty-five ethnographic regions that reflect its diverse ethnic makeup, geography, and history.
The area of modern-day Slovakia was settled by Slavic tribes in the fifth century, which were later unified with neighboring groups to form Great Moravia that lasted until the tenth century. The territory of Slovakia then became part of the Hungarian Kingdom and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire until World War One. For most of the period between 1918-1993 - notably excluding World War Two - Slovakia was part of Czechoslovakia. Slovakia declared its independence in 1993 and has since been a sovereign state in the European Union.
In the four decades leading up to World War One, nearly half a million people emigrated from Slovakia to the United States. This mass migration of people shaped the development of both nations in the twentieth century. Slovak culture continues to be celebrated in many Slovak-American communities today.
Folk Costumes in Slovakia
Despite its small size, Slovakia boasts an incredible variety of kroje (the Slovak word for folk dress) reflecting its geography, history, and mix of ethnic groups. While some regions were quick to modernize and adopt general European fashions, many rural areas in Slovakia maintained their traditions and folk dress well into the twentieth century. Isolated culturally and economically from the West by the Iron Curtain, it was not uncommon to see women regularly attending Sunday mass in traditional clothing as late as the 1990s.
The history of kroje in Slovakia goes back at least two centuries, although they reached a pinnacle of development and grandeur around the turn of the nineteenth century. Emancipation and industrialization offered greater freedom and opportunities to the rural population allowing them to invest more resources into embellishing their clothing. Newly available goods, such as imported fabrics, manufactured trims, ribbons and buttons, and an endless array of shiny beads, spangles, and ornaments, transformed the simpler homespun garments of the past into vibrant attire, reflecting their improved, though often still harsh, circumstances.
Coupled with limitless human creativity, this abundance of materials helped transform and define dozens of distinct regional clothing types and hundreds of local variations. In many areas, styles differed from village to village and certain aspects continually changed over time. As Slovakia developed in the post-war era, more regions began to abandon folk dress, which was increasingly seen as a sign of backwardness by "civilized society". Nevertheless, some villages embraced their history by promoting their folk culture and costumes and elevating them to symbols of national identity and pride.
While national and regional museums assembled representative ethnographic collections before and during the Communist Era, there was relatively little interest in preserving twentieth-century folk dress in Slovakia until recent times. Apart from being used by folk groups, it was not viewed as something unique or valuable since it could be found in most village homes. On the other hand, as eastern Europe became more accessible to westerns in the 1970s and '80s, folklore enthusiasts immediately recognized the beauty of Slovak folk dress and individuals such as Vonnie Brown began to collect and exhibit these treasures abroad.
After decades of collecting and caring for her costumes, Vonnie donated her collection to the Museum of Ethnic Dress & Adornment in 2011. The gift included twenty ensembles from twelve regions of Slovakia, dating mostly from the second and third quarters of the twentieth century. The map below shows the regions and villages represented in the donation (available only in desktop view).
The exhibition Slovak Style: Folk Costumes from the Vonnie Brown Collection presents four of her donated costumes from three regions and shines a spotlight on the collector's foresight and passion. Click on the regions below to learn more.
Slovakia
Kroje in the exhibition
(click on these regions to learn more)
Other kroje in VB Collection
Capital city
Bratislava
Liptovská Lúžna
Myjava
Piešťany
Jelšovce
Zliechov
Tekov
Detva
Polomka
Važec
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