Romanian Fashions in the mid-20th Century

[Two Types]

The 'sports jacket, breeches, boots and puttees' look is very popular. And it looks great. I wish I had the balls to attempt it.

 

[Nick D]

This thread's been mentioned by the Colecția Costică Acsinte Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/costicaacsinte?fref=nf

I wish we could see the backs of some of these suits.

 

[Two Types]

It's good to see that the people who own the photos approve of our discussions.

 

[Two Types]

 

[Fastuni]

Wow, look at this shady Hajduk! One can see in his eyes that he is up to no good.

But what great stories these clothes tell us about the time:
One can see the German-Romanian connections of the 30's. That leather-coat is a typical German motorcyclist coat.
The traditional fur cap indicates how everyday Romanian fashions mixed modern and foreign with vernacular elements.
The boots... wait a moment... the boots are suspiciously clean! Where are the lumps of clay? I smell a forgery... this must be some dastardly Briton impostor!


...


lol

 

[Metatron]

Bahahahahaha

p.s: those boots are ridiculously clean. A sure sign of an idle intellectual. [bad]

 

[Two Types]

I couldn't resist! unfortunately, I couldn't be bothered to use photoshop to make my boots dirty!

PS, The leather coat is missing the belt, so Fastuni, if you ever see a dark brown leather belt of the type that goes with these coats, let me know.

 

[Metatron]

One for Two Types:








Here's one man who can't be accused of looking scruffy:

 

[Two Types]

I want that jacket!

These trousers look very wide. It also looks like he is wearing them very low:

 

[Fastuni]

The coat interestingly has double buckles, as usually seen on button-less German leather coats:

This one has a very high gorge... quite like modern cut suit coats.

Extremely large and loose tie knot on the young fella to the left.

 

[herringbonekid]

This one has a very high gorge... quite like modern cut suit coats.

the shirt collar and jacket shoulders suggest 1920s. i wish these photos had dates on.

 

[Two Types]

i wish these photos had dates on.

I have noticed a few of them having dates. Sometimes they are scratched onto the corner. Also, in a couple of cases, the plant stand he stands beside his subject has a date on it.

I work on the basis that:
a) if there are lots of uniforms it is 1941-1945
b)if the soldiers are wearing Russian style uniforms and the civilians are wearing suits that look like they are made from cardboard the photo is from the 1950s
c)if the civilians are wearing anything resembling political uniforms (armbands, lapel badges, matching caps etc) it is probably the 1930s. I don't know much (if anything) about the 'Iron Guard' (the Romanian fascist movement) but i suspect some of the badges and caps are iron guardist.

 

[matei]

Nice compilation of these photos. This photographer plied his trade primarily in "the sticks"; Ialomița is pretty far from the capital, București.

These pictures are a wonderful visual record of what people were wearing back in the late '30s - '50s.

A lot of the pics with uniforms appear to be from after Romania changed sides during WWII (August 21, 1944), as they're Soviet-influenced.

The strange horizontal peaked lapels are still quite popular with the older tailors. The peaks are referred to (in this instance) as șpiț (pron. shpeetz), which sounds like a German term, perhaps Romanian tailors were instructed in German techniques.

I've had several suits made by our (late) tailor, and he insisted on this particular stylistic touch. Not often seen nowadays.

Acsinte photographed everyday people, wearing - as other posters suggested - their "Sunday best". Photographs were a big deal, not many people had access to cameras, so they're going all out for these pics.

Just a note on some of the earlier comments by other Loungers... To critique their look, their wrinkled clothing, muddy shoes - without knowing the era they lived in - is pretty ignorant. Life in the countryside was (and still is) hard; people didn't have access to big comfy automobiles that would whisk them along clean paved roads, so they could alight in pristine carparks. They most likely had to trudge along unpaved country tracks into the local town, or go via carriage.

Romania was a very poor country both prior to and following WWII, in spite of the relative wealth of certain neighbourhoods in the capital. Even today, 20-some odd years after the fall of Communism, many of the small villages in the countryside haven't changed much.

We have family in a small village in (Romanian) Moldova, where only recently they got their first street light. None of the roads are paved. Many of the houses still have outdoor toilets (outhouses).

 

[matei]

Oh - re. the Iron Guard, I somewhat doubt you would see many people posing for photographs in that movement's getup. They were more active during the period prior to WWII. By 1941 they were kaput for all intents and purposes.

A thoroughly unsavoury bunch.

 

[Fastuni]

Thank you for this very insightful and informative post, Matei!

As you guessed tailoring in Romania - like the Balkans and Eastern Europe was influenced strongly by the German/Central European school.
A 1930's map printed in the largest German tailoring periodical showed the places where tailors were subscribing to German tailoring patterns and periodicals. Among them were all Eastern and South Eastern European capitals. The Eastern-most places were Moscow and Ankara but no doubt they were copied from there to the outlying countries as well.

Regarding the "Iron Guard" and civilian uniforms:

One of the photos shows a badge on a civilian lapel with this party's symbol.

The "Iron Guard" really was a radical minority and not the political establishment.
The King and political establishment, despite pro-German and later pro-Axis inclinations, were opposed to the "Iron Guard".
A monarchist state party the "National Renaissance Front" was founded.
The "Iron Guard" in September 1940 briefly became part of Goverment of Antonescu (the King was toppled), but as indicated before by Matei, they were crushed in January 1941 by the Antonescu, after they tried a rebellion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Renaissance_Front

Most of the 1930's non-military/police uniforms on the photos are scouts/state youth.

Until 1937 there were the Baden-Powell type boy and girl scouts named "Cercetașii României". 1937 they were surplanted by the pro-monarchist state-youth "Straja Țării" (founded in 1935), intended to counter the influence of the radical "Iron Guard".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cercetașii_României
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Străjeria

Both the fascist "Iron Guard" and the pro-monarchist state youth and party used the Roman salute... so they might be easily confused on first glance (a 1939 dated photo of the collection shows peasants doing the salute).

The politics of inter-war and wartime Romania are obviously quite fascinating and confusing, as is was a competition of various right-wing groups, strongly opposed to each other.


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Here some more interesting photos:

An unusually high-buttoning DB waistcoat - and a nice flatcap:

A band with a nice mix of clothing. Note the hem of the sweater to the left. It appears that an additional band was added to extend the length.

 

[Two Types]

Matei: thanks for your observations from a Romanian perspective.

I'd be interested to know more about Romanian tailoring and how the traditions continued and survived through the communist period. And has tailoring been revived in the post-communist era?

 

[matei]

Good catch on the Iron Guard symbol and salute - I hadn't seen them. Dreadful bunch of people, good riddance.

Haven't a clue as to what those girls' uniforms represent... might be stewardesses for LARES (precursor to TAROM, the national air carrier)? Not sure.

 

[Two Types]

Regarding dates:
Here are a couple of photos with the dates included on the image

1938:

1939:

 

[matei]

Matei: thanks for your observations from a Romanian perspective.

I'd be interested to know more about Romanian tailoring and how the traditions continued and survived through the communist period. And has tailoring been revived in the post-communist era?

I can only base my observations on my personal experience... the tailors that I used lamented the loss of foot traffic, people no longer wanted the hassle and expense of dealing with a tailor, much easier to do down to the flashy western-style malls that popped up in the early naughties and pick something up with a label.

My personal opinion is that while tailors will never disappear, the majority of people prefer to buy OTR garments, and tailors have been reduced to just alteration/repair work. The last time I commissioned a few suits I got the impression that my tailor had to shake off the rust/clear the cobwebs and revisit what measurements needed to be taken etc.

Like tailors I've dealt with in the West, they were very reluctant to modify any designs. My requests for smaller armholes, higher waist etc, were met with disbelief. Although they could (and had in the past) produced suits with these features, they couldn't fathom why anyone would want a suit that included them. "You'll be uncomfortable, you'll look like Grandpa" was what I was frequently told!

My wife's grandfather was a tailor, he learned his trade near Focșani and worked out of his house in a small village nearby. He had several apprentices and his services were quite sought after. His trade was interrupted during WWII, he was sent to the front and came back in 1945.

After the transition to Communism, he was forced to give up his tailoring business (he hid his prized Singer sewing machine and a few useful tools of the trade however) and was forced into a new line of work, that of a beekeeper! He happened to enjoy this new work, so it wasn't all bad.

I was lucky enough to see photographs of some of his work - which wasn't dissimilar from the styles featured in Acsinte's archive... the nicer examples however. ;-)

 

[Two Types]

So the situation was/is not that different to the UK (tailors not wanting to use older styles etc). And whilst Romanian tailors were forced to give up the trade due to politics, in the UK hundreds of tailors were killed off by the economics of the situation.
I'd be interested to see photos of some of your modern Romanian suits, especially if they show signs of the old styles.