Dobrá Niva

This folk costume from Dobrá Niva is one of the oldest in the Vonnie Brown Collection. It was a later addition, presented to Vonnie by Jarmila Paličková who considered it to be a particularly interesting and valuable example.

Dobrá Niva is a village in the Zvolen region of south-central Slovakia. It shares a costume tradition with several neighboring villages, including Babiná, Podzámčok, and Michalková. The inhabitants of these villages were mostly farmers who benefited from the area's fertile land. Compared to regions further east, the local peasant population was relatively prosperous and didn't suffer the great poverty known to their eastern compatriots. This is reflected in their folk dress, which incorporated elements of urban fashions. Their favorable situation also allowed folk dress to thrive longer here than in regions were the cost of materials surpassed earnings. Where expenses became burdensome, kroje were gradually abandoned in favor of cheaper mass-produced clothing.

Numerous styles of folk dress developed in these villages, becoming more colorful and heavily embroidered over time. The long skirt and simply decorated apron of this older ensemble are characteristic of kroje from the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Sadly, the original cap and neck pompoms were not included with the donation so substitutes from the MOEDA collection were used.

Family from Babiná | ca. 1915

Young married couple

Dobrá Niva | 1926

Young mother with her two children

Dobrá Niva | 1922

Festive blouses were originally sewn of linen and later cotton fabric and were cut identically in the front and back. They featured a wide range of stylized floral embroidery patterns done over the fine gathers above the cuffs. The cuffs themselves were typically decorated with cross-stitch motifs and frequently edged with cotton eyelet trim. This resulted in puffy sleeves that were tightly fitted above the elbows and gave the costume its characteristic look. Everyday blouses featured the same cut, but were made of coarser cloth and with less embroidery.

Zig-zag and curvilinear trims were a favorite embellishment of vests in this part of Zvolen region. Bright colors, including red and green, were worn by girls and young women, while darker colors, such as blue and black, were more common for the elderly and women in mourning. Purple, often considered a color of maturity in Slovak folk customs, was embraced by all ages in Dobrá Niva.

The exhibited costume shows signs of alterations that raise questions about its previous life. Sadly, little is known besides that Dr. Paličková acquired it as a complete ensemble and it was not modified by the donor. The vest is consistent with what was worn in the village, although the metal clasps on the front are somewhat of an anomaly as a different type was more commonly used. They show signs of heavy use and repairs. It is likely that the costume was used by a dancer in Slovakia who made necessary repairs and alterations over time. Despite its minor flaws, it is a rare survivor of an earlier type of dress from Dobrá Niva that is seldom seen.

One thing that distinguishes Dobrá Niva type kroje from others in the vicinity is the woven midsection garment called a stánka. This garment was originally attached to a linen underskirt to form a rubáš, but with time developed into a separate decorative element that was designed to be visible from beneath the vest. To accommodate for this, both the vest and blouse of the costume are shorter than expected, ending just below the bust. This short style of upper-body garments is also found around Detva and shows the transitional character of this area between Podpoľanie and Hont ethnographic regions. The kroje of Pliešovce and nearby Hont villages are similar in appearance and color, but do not incorporate the stánka into their costumes and use full length blouses.

Several types of skirts existed in Dobrá Niva, with their functions changing over time. White skirts, called kinteš, were originally worn primarily as underskirts and for dances. They were embellished with black ribbons and minimal stitching along the bottom. Sometimes, the decorated edge of the kinteš was visible from under a second, more festive skirt worn on top. Increasingly, during the interwar period, girls began to wear the white skirts as their main skirts while in the village, but still not to church or for holy celebrations. As the kinteš established itself as a primary garment, the small black accents developed into dense rows of heavily embroidered floral designs, eventually covering much of the skirt. By the third quarter of the twentieth century, these heavily embroidered kinteš skirts were considered highly festive garments, suitable for all occasions - a far cry from their original purpose.

Dobra Niva

Trnava