Čataj

Bursting with harmonious color, the folk dress of Čataj is considered to be one of the most visually captivating in all of Slovakia. The precise, contoured embroidery on the women's blouses and aprons embodies the epitome of Slovak handiwork.

The village of Čataj lies about twenty miles to the east of Bratislava, Slovakia's capital city. Up until the mid-twentieth century, Čataj and the neighboring village of Veľký Grob were home to a significant Protestant community with a shared folk costume tradition that was noticeably different from its Catholic neighbors. Prior to World War One, a person's religious affiliation was immediately discernible, because Protestants, Catholics, and other minorities all wore different clothing. As the rural population began to abandon traditional dress in favor of more homogenized urban fashions, religious distinctions became less obvious.

The Protestant folk dress of these two villages is now associated primarily with Čataj, although until 1939 Veľký Grob was home to this community's only church, arguably making it more historically significant. Many folk costumes in collections today labeled as being from Čataj may well have originally come from Veľký Grob. The Vonnie Brown gift included a magnificent woman's festive kroj dating to the interwar period that was acquired from the original owner in Čataj.

Protestant folk dress in Čataj and Veľký Grob is characterized by the use of multicolored silk and metallic threads for the embroidery on blouses, aprons, caps, and kerchiefs. In addition to the vibrant embroidery, festive skirts made of cheerful red fabrics and colorful ribbons worn at the neck and waist helped to distinguish these extraordinarily bright ensembles.

While the Catholics in these villages also wore impressive folk costumes, they were of the Trnava type, which featured a more subdued color palette, did not incorporate much red or pink, and placed greater emphasis on metal thread embroidery.

Girls began to embroider at a young age, learning the various stitches and techniques from their mothers, sisters, and other women in the family. However, since Čataj motifs are so sophisticated and detailed, there were only a few women in each village tasked with drawing out the patterns on the fabric before embroidery could begin. These women were paid for their work in reciprocal services, goods, or money. While a few of these skilled women still live in the memory of Čataj villagers and historic documents, many of their names have been lost to time leaving only their incredible designs to tell their story.

In the nineteenth century, the most festive dresses worn by brides and for important church holidays were made of thick blue or green fulled wool and were decorated with silk ribbons along the bottom. Around the turn of the century, lightweight red floral challis wool skirts were introduced and slowly displaced the heavier dresses of earlier generations. During the interwar period, these finely pleated floral skirts continued to gain in popularity, fully replacing the earlier wedding dresses, which were increasingly seen as old fashioned. The bottom edges of the newer skirts were embellished with machine stitching and trim.

Just as skirts changed with the times, so too did vests and other elements of the folk costume. As manufactured trims, beads, glass and plastic embellishments, and other sewing notions came to the market, girls were eager to incorporate them into their traditional clothing, hoping to outshine other girls in the village. Older style bodices, which were made of thick wool, went out of use with the heavier wool skirts. They were replaced by vests of commercially produced velvet that were richly decorated with beads, metallic trim, and rhinestones. Nevertheless, changes were somewhat controlled as new additions still had to conform to the fundamental costume framework and be accepted by the village community.

Čataj

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