Reintegrations. Elements of Traditional Costume in Contemporary Fashion

The exhibition ‘Reintegrations. Elements of Traditional Costume in Contemporary Fashion’, invites us to reflect on the reintegration of elements and pieces of traditional Romanian costume into contemporary fashion design. This is not a nostalgic exercise, but rather a critical, responsible and creative act of recontextualising cultural heritage.

The project is based on the idea that the traditional port is not confined to a specific historical period, but rather a living entity comprising meanings, materials, gestures and memories that can be reactivated in the present day.

Through minimal or radical interventions, the designers involved incorporate existing fragments—shirts, textiles, embroidery, and costume elements—into contemporary fashion pieces, while keeping visible the traces of time, wear, and history.

One of the project’s defining features is its structure, which involves the public and the community as active participants in the curatorial process and is divided into distinct phases:

Thus, between March 9 and 20, 2026, fans of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography donated pieces or fragments of fabric or traditional clothing that were outside the museum’s collection and no longer of use to them, so that they could become an important part of the future exhibition. In essence, this gesture transforms the donation into an act of passing on—not of abandonment—from the private sphere into that of cultural dialogue.

The next stage of the process was the creative phase, in which each participating designer was assigned a piece by drawing lots. Some of the pieces are accompanied by a written story based on the memories of the person who donated them.

The final exhibition, which opened on 15 July, is designed as an installation that transcends the traditional presentation of clothing.

The museum space becomes a forum for dialogue, bringing together past and present, object, body and look, heritage and contemporary artistic practice.

For details, here