The old traditional folk costume emphasized the head caparison. In the Bran area, this was especially notable by long towels, with beautiful decorations, made of thin cloth, especially sleave and metal thread. This piece gave the local costume an additional distinction with social connotations. “Marama” (or towel), a distinctive sign of the married woman, was worn over the cloth caul, with one end on the back and the other turning twice over the head and then going over the right shoulder, and the hair braided in a tail and gathered in a chignon. The “marama” we present today entered our museum’s inventory in 1923 and it comes from Bran, Brașov county, having a rectangular shape and a cloth in two threads, made of sleave. The decoration is arranged on the whole surface, in a geometrized interpretation consisting of several decorative registers - geometric and phytomorphic - linearly delimited, the chosen motifs being with cotton thread. On ends, the chosen motif with metal thread can be noticed and the four rows of hemstich followed by the fringy ends made of warp. The marama is 235 cm long and 47 cm wide. The object is in the museum’s textile collection and it has inventory no. 1049.
Text: Laura Cristina Pop – MET museographer
Photo: George Ciupag – MET museographer, photo-video processing