Search Results (5)

Lithuanian authors, authors abroad, and artists have presented Lithuanian folk clothes in their works. However, the oldest examples of these representations are not very reliable, because the authors painted them according to the descriptions of other people or copied works among each other. In the 20th century, the national costume of Lithuania changed considerably. Attention was not given to ethnographic regional peculiarities; instead, similar materials were chosen without any analysis. This article performs a comparative analysis of folk (the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century) and national (the second half of the 20th century) Lithuanian costumes to establish signs of cultural pollution and remaining authenticity. Over 500 articles of clothing with different purposes are collected from Lithuanian museums. Fabric parameters, such as raw materials, weaving technique, weave, pattern, decoration elements, etc., are established. The research results show that authentic folk clothes of the 19th century differ from the national costume of the second half of the 20th century in their cut, decoration, and patterns. No differences between ethnographic regions survived in the national costumes. Thus, at present, we must preserve our tangible heritage and re-create, as authentically as possible, national costume for folk songs and dance ensembles, folk restaurants, and rural tourism homesteads. Full article

Color is a concrete expression of combining local features and traditional culture. The purpose of this study is to provide a new design method and intends, by taking the traditional costume of the Yi women in Liangshan, China, as an example, to establish a systematic color scheme which can be used as a reference for the establishment of relevant color records for other cultural groups. First of all, through literature review, this study provides the definition of the traditional costume of the Yi women in Liangshan, color and culture and color images and clarifies the characteristics of research samples. Secondly, experts are invited to find out and record the color values of different colors on Yi women’s costume, and a software is resorted to in order to calculate the area ration of each color and analyze the color distribution principles of sample costume. Moreover, this study discusses the color images of Yi women’s costume, sorts out its unique color characteristics and establishes and verifies samples of color scheme through focus group interviews in order to analyze regional cultural colors. Finally, this study proposes a systematic approach for regional cultural color analysis, namely, understanding color characteristics, analyzing color images, establishing a color scheme and demonstrating color scheme principles. Through a systematic approach, these cultural colors are analyzed and organized to establish a regional cultural color scheme, which can not only retain the characteristics of the traditional cultural colors of Chinese ethnic groups’ costume but also serve as a reference for designers to develop regional cultural products. Full article

Disney animated princesses are broadcasted around the world through Disney Channel and its global affiliates as well as through numerous other networks that purchase distribution rights. In an attempt to provide diversity in the last 25 years, Disney has featured nonwestern princesses such as those in Aladdin (1992), Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998), and Moana (2016). This study examines how princesses in animated Disney movies are perceived and understood by girls (8–15 years) in three different countries, over two time-periods with a gap of nearly a decade (2009 and 2018). The primary research question, considering Disney’s global reach, is how race, culture, and presence of a royal family interact with transnational access to the same media content in the perception of the princess concept and about being a girl. The selected countries provide an opportunity to explore differences in perception of Disney princesses between girls raised in countries with and without a royal family, and between girls in nonwestern and western countries. Differences in the perception are attributed to local and national cultures that allow a different lens to view the same content. A mixed method combining interviews, focus groups, and participant-generated images was used to gather data in India, Fiji, and Sweden. Results indicate Disney princesses, with their ubiquitous presence in various formats, e.g., media content, costumes and school stationery, have created a uniform idea of beauty across countries. Princesses in Disney were perceived by participants as being Caucasian and American, regardless of the race or country they represented. Girls in India and Fiji did not identify with Jasmine or Mulan, whom they considered ‘American’, whereas girls in Sweden considered Jasmine and Mulan as princesses of nonwestern origin. Girls in India and Fiji did not think they could be princesses because of their skin color, and did not want to lead a life ‘restricted with responsibilities’, but girls in Sweden considered the same question from the place of a choice, i.e., they preferred not to lead a ‘boring’ and regulated life like that of a princess. Participants from Fiji, with the least access to domestic programming that showed girls of their same Fijian origin, were least likely to consider themselves capable of being a princess. Full article

In Greece there are several collections of “traditional costumes”, i.e., garments with a strongly local character, which were in use up to the early 20th century. “Traditional costumes” are directly linked to Modern Greek folk culture: they were formed in its context and they are its most typical and obvious image. They have often been used as a national icon and are popular with people of all ages, who admire them and, on occasions of national celebrations and dance festivals, take pleasure and pride in dressing in replicas of them. Since they have stopped being worn many decades ago, the existing collections are a major source for their study, and they are respectfully referred to by scholars, the public and makers of replicas. The provenance of these collections—the criteria used, the persons involved, the purposes served, etc.—deeply affects the extent and the nature of our knowledge on the objects included in them. Given the inadequate information usually recorded on provenance issues, a thorough search of all potential sources with an aim to put together ‘biographies’ of collections will help to understand the collecting context of the objects and their respective historical and interpretational value. Full article