Romanian Blouse – Global Impact

From the remote villages of Transylvania, Wallachia or Moldova to the catwalks of Paris and New York, from the blouses worn by peasants toiling in the fields to Royal attire work by the queen and princesses of Romania, and from a daily garb to a cultural icon of the Hippy movement of the 60s and 70s, the Romanian blouse has come a long way in the past 100 years. We invite you on Wednesday, June 16 at 11 am EST to learn how the Romanian Blouse has become a Global Icon in a conversation with H.E. Simona Miculescu the Romanian Ambassador to the UNESCO, Dr. Sara Hume, Associate Professor and Curator of Kent State University Museum and Andreea Tănăsescu, President of the IA Association, Founder of the Universal Day of The Romanian Blouse and of the La Blouse Roumaine community. The event, organized by Romanians of DC in partnership with the Romanian Cultural Institute in the US, will be moderated by Bogdan Banu, President of Romanians of DC with introductory remarks by Dorian Branea, Director of ICR.

The virtual event will be available via zoom to those who register here https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_O65m0Q1WSlaFzk8OCNroWQ and will also be broadcast live on Facebook on the pages of La Blouse Roumanine, Romanians of DC and of the Romanian Cultural Institute in NY. 

Amb. Simona-Mirela Miculescu has been serving as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Permanent Delegate of Romania to UNESCO since January 2021, after holding the position of Representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office in Belgrade, between 2015 and 2020. Prior to this, she was the Permanent Representative of Romania to the United Nations. During her term she held several positions including: Vice-President of the UNICEF Executive Board, Vice-President of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Vice-President of the Bureau of the Francophonie, and Vice-President of the UN General Assembly for its 68th Session. Amb. Miculescu’s 30 years of diplomatic career include the positions of Spokesperson for the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director of the Press Department within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Press Secretary of the Embassy of Romania to the US, and Senior Public Information Officer at the Mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Kosovo. Between 2000 and 2004, she served as Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of Romania (with rank of minister), becoming eventually the first woman in the Romanian diplomatic history to be granted the rank of Ambassador. Amb. Miculescu holds the titles of Doctor Honoris Causa Beneficiorum Publicorum of the Western University in Timișoara, as well as the title of Doctor Magna Cum Laudae of the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca. Amb. Simona-Mirela Miculescu is married and has two children.

Dr. Sara Hume is Associate Professor and Curator of Kent State University Museum. Her research in the history of dress has focused on the intersections between fashionable and traditional dress as well as the global reach of the fashion industry. She also studies the relationship between evolving fashionable aesthetics and the underlying forces of economic and political change. She earned her PhD in Modern European History from the University of Chicago. She is currently completing a book which examines the development and preservation of traditional or folk dress practices in Alsace in the face of pressure both from political conflict and mainstream fashion. She holds a BA in Art from Yale University and an MA in Museum Studies: Costume and Textiles from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

“Stitched: Regional Dress Across Europe” it’s a current exhibition drawing from the rich collection of Kent State University Museum. It showcases common features shared by regional costume across Europe. In its original context in villages, regional dress carefully marked social and cultural differences. Religious affiliation, gender, age, and marital status were all instantly recognizable at a glance by members of the community. A person’s outfit signaled which village or region they came from. Focusing on these signs of difference obscures the common vocabulary that rural residents across Europe used to shape their clothing. By organizing the pieces on display according to shared features, this exhibition highlights the commonalities across the continent rather than their differences. The pieces on view span Western and Eastern Europe including examples from Norway, the Netherlands, Slovakia, Romania and Albania. The development of elaborate regional dress was not a result of the isolation of their wearers but a signal of their integration into broader European society.

Andreea Tănăsescu is the creator and founder of La blouse roumaine movement that has contributed decisively to the rebirth and renewed interest in traditional Romanian culture on a global scale. She is the creator of the Universal Romanian Blouse Day, Brâncuși Week and Cultural Fashion Day and the President of La blouse roumaine IA Association, a non-governmental organization that promotes the preservation of the Romanian textile heritage, cultural and sustainable fashion. In 2017 Andreea started Give Credit that militates for culturally responsible design. Now she is currently working on the development of the La blouse roumaine platform, coordinating Give Back Credit to the Heritage Communities, an European cultural cooperation project that aims to reset the place of traditional crafts within the new trend for a more sustainable fashion, while promoting and preserving the specificity and mastery of artisans. It is organized in partnership with Gordana Grubjesic Super Star Culture (Republic of Serbia), National Institute of Heritage (Romania) and the University for the Creative Arts – Epsom Business School (United Kingdom) and supported by the Creative Europe program of the European Commission. Andreea studied Law and Public Relations and she has been involved in the fashion, media and movie industry for more than 20 years as a talent agent and casting director for major international film productions as The Fall by Tarsem Singh, Callas Forever by Franco Zeffirelli, Amen by Costa Gavras, Modigliani by Mick Davis.