Fragments
Object name
Date made
1800-1899
Place made
Description
A pair of nineteenth-century Macedonian sleeve fragments embroidered with wool, bronze clasps, and spangles.
Content description
This pair of fragments have been cut from the sleeves of a North Macedonian woman's dress, likely worn in a bridal or celebratory context. The sleeves use thick woollen thread in tent stitches on a linen ground, creating a dense, carpet-like design of geometric red shapes. Couched metallic thread and spangles emphasise these geometric shapes, adding further texture to the tent stitches beneath. At the bottom of the fragment, knotted wool and bronze clasps have been used to create a border of tassels. On fragment 3228.b, the ground fabric is still visible and the embroidery has not yet been cut out. At the corner, a stamp has been added to the ground which would suggest that these sleeves were made to be sold rather than for personal use. This provides further information about the production and use of traditional garments, highlighting that not all folk clothing was made by the wearer. This stamp could also indicate that the sleeves were a product for export, stamped on their exit from Macedonia.
Once cut out, these fragments would have been worn at the top of a woman's sleeve, at each edge of the shoulder. Red and gold sleeve fragments are specific to the Bitola region of North Macedonia, lying between the borders of Albania and Greece, and form part of the traditional dress of the area. Sleeves would be worn as part of many red, embroidered layers of clothing, including an embroidered chemise, additional long sleeves, an apron, a circular silver belt, and a long embroidered headdress adorned with coins. This created a boxy silhouette, where red and black embroidery were central features. Examples of this outfit can be seen in photographs and paintings of nineteenth-century Macedonian women and have been recreated by the National Gallery at Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Traditional dress across North Macedonia features similar elements of red embroidered chemises, aprons, and sleeves, but each region uses distinct techniques and patterns to distinguish their identity.
Macedonian sleeve fragments can be seen in collections across the UK, including the V&A, the Embroiderer's Guild, the Horniman Museum, and National Museums of Scotland, although they are rarely on display. Whilst many sleeves were collected alongside full outfits, there are also examples of sleeve fragments being recycled into bags and composite textiles and entering the antique textile market as souvenirs. Traditional dress from North Macedonia appears to have primarily been collected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when British travellers showed an interest in researching the ethnography of the Balkans through textiles. British explorer Edith Durham is a prime example of this collecting practice, having travelled through the Balkans in the early twentieth century, later donating her collection of traditional embroidered garments to the Bankfield Museum in 1935. Creating a distinct identity through clothing is likely to have been important for the regional communities of North Macedonia, who were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and then Serbia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia until the creation of the modern nation in 1991.
These sleeve fragments are almost identical to another pair in the RSN's collection, number 3227a-b.
Once cut out, these fragments would have been worn at the top of a woman's sleeve, at each edge of the shoulder. Red and gold sleeve fragments are specific to the Bitola region of North Macedonia, lying between the borders of Albania and Greece, and form part of the traditional dress of the area. Sleeves would be worn as part of many red, embroidered layers of clothing, including an embroidered chemise, additional long sleeves, an apron, a circular silver belt, and a long embroidered headdress adorned with coins. This created a boxy silhouette, where red and black embroidery were central features. Examples of this outfit can be seen in photographs and paintings of nineteenth-century Macedonian women and have been recreated by the National Gallery at Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia. Traditional dress across North Macedonia features similar elements of red embroidered chemises, aprons, and sleeves, but each region uses distinct techniques and patterns to distinguish their identity.
Macedonian sleeve fragments can be seen in collections across the UK, including the V&A, the Embroiderer's Guild, the Horniman Museum, and National Museums of Scotland, although they are rarely on display. Whilst many sleeves were collected alongside full outfits, there are also examples of sleeve fragments being recycled into bags and composite textiles and entering the antique textile market as souvenirs. Traditional dress from North Macedonia appears to have primarily been collected in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when British travellers showed an interest in researching the ethnography of the Balkans through textiles. British explorer Edith Durham is a prime example of this collecting practice, having travelled through the Balkans in the early twentieth century, later donating her collection of traditional embroidered garments to the Bankfield Museum in 1935. Creating a distinct identity through clothing is likely to have been important for the regional communities of North Macedonia, who were ruled by the Ottoman Empire, and then Serbia, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia until the creation of the modern nation in 1991.
These sleeve fragments are almost identical to another pair in the RSN's collection, number 3227a-b.
Dimensions
width: 25cm
length: 27.5cm
width: 30.5cm
length: 33.5cm
length: 27.5cm
width: 30.5cm
length: 33.5cm
Materials
Stitches
Techniques
Catalogue number
RSN.3228.a-b
© Royal School of Needlework