The ie: the Romanian blouse

About The ie: the Romanian blouse

By the ULTIMATE Bucharest Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

The ie, the traditional Romanian blouse, is white linen or cotton hand-embroidered at the shoulders, neck and cuffs with patterns that vary from village to village. It has become a symbol of Romania, celebrated each year on 24 June, Universal Day of the Romanian Blouse.

A language of stitches

The embroidery on an ie is not just decoration: its colours and motifs once told where a woman came from, and the altiță, the band of embroidery on the shoulder, is its most important part.

Matisse

In 1940 Henri Matisse painted La Blouse Roumaine, one of his best-known works, and the ie has inspired fashion designers ever since.

Each village once had its own embroidery patterns.

UNESCO

In 2022, the art of the traditional blouse with embroidery on the shoulder was added to UNESCO’s list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

Our advice: see historic blouses at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant, and buy a hand-made ie from a craft fair or a shop of Romanian design, asking whether it is hand-embroidered; machine-made copies are common.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The ie: the Romanian blouse before you go.