Blouse

The donor believes this blouse was owned and worn by a princess in the principality of Romania during the second half of the nineteenth century. The donor purchased this item prior to her departure from Bucharest in 1950 as a memento of her homeland, and carried it with her in one of the two suitcases her family of four brought to the west.

Woman’s multicoloured blouse with embroidery, sequins and beadwork. The loose-fitting blouse has long, full raglan sleeves, a narrow neckband and opening on the left side front with no fastener. The front and back are identical except for the neck opening. Hand embroidery and beadwork cover the entire surface of the blouse, leaving only a narrow band of textile visible at the bottom hem. The design consists of diamond shapes enclosing stylized flowers, worked in multicoloured glass beads. Each design is surrounded by facetted silver metal sequins, gold metallic embroidery and black embroidery. The neckband has a diamond shaped design worked in black, yellow and blue thread. The sleeves are finished with a single row of facetted gold metal sequins and fringe made of gold metallic thread and gold metal sequins. The inside is unlined.