In the nineteenth, and even at the beginning of the twentieth century, women in the central part of Cieszyn Silesia, around Cieszyn, Skoczów, Bielsko and Frysztat proudly wore a remarkably elegant and stylish costume, called wałaski costume. On high days and holidays even the wives and daughters of Cieszyn’s intelligentsia would wear it. At the end of the nineteenth century wealthy highlander women from the region around Wisła and Jabłonków (Jablunkov) also started to dress in the wałaski style. While around this time the Cieszyn men’s folk costume was being forgotten, the women’s costume had been made more beautiful by the use of more elegant, better quality factory-made fabric. It was passing through an extraordinary fertile blooming while still differing only slightly from its former style. Its richness and elegance impressed the ethnographers and artists of the time, whom today we have to thank for their precise renditions of the costume in words or on canvas.
      The Sunday best of a four-year-old girl consisting of a shirt with sleeves gathered above the elbow and a simple belted frock accompanied by hair decorated with red ribbons gave no clue to the colourful costume she would wear as a married woman, even if she was the daughter of wealthy farmers. For daily wear little girls were dressed in simple linen shirts tied around at the waist. In the summer children went barefoot, and in winter they were dressed in thick, woollen stockings and simple leather shoes, called trzewiki.
      When a girl had grown somewhat she received her first simple dress with a low bodice. The special clothes of a teenage girl resembled that of a young spinster but were not as elegant as that of a married woman. The detail betraying whether the daughter of a wealthy farmer of marriageable age in festive attire was already married was her headgear or lack of it. Unmarried women went without anything to cover their heads through the whole year. Instead their heads were adorned by one thick plait extending down their backs in which a white tape called a sznórka was woven, and tied with a coloured ribbon called a bandla. During religious holidays and weddings country girls would wear chaplets of wild flowers in their hair.
      An exception to this were women with illegitimate children, who were called zowitki. Society carefully controlled the way young women comported themselves and these women were compelled to cover their heads with a characteristic turban as a mark of disgrace.
      Young women seeking to impress bachelors and thinking about getting married placed great emphasis on their appearance – and not just on festive occasions. Under the watchful eyes of their mothers they would learn sewing, heklowanie (crochetwork) and embroidery, beginning by decorating linen shirts, aprons and handkerchiefs.
      A bride would wear a particularly arresting special costume. In past times a young woman’s head was adorned with a gold chaplet, and later with a green myrtle chaplet decorated with white flowers. The bridesmaids too, chosen by the bride from amongst the girls of her age were given silver crowns. The bride’s wedding dress was a newly made Cieszyn folk costume, sewn from the best fabric and decorated with white accessories for this momentous occasion.
      A Cieszyn married woman’s costume for special occasions consisted of a czepiec, szatka, kabotek, suknia with a żywotek, fortuch, szpencer, hacka, nogawiczki and trzewiki.
      The initiation of a młoducha (newly married woman) into the fold of married women took place during the wedding ritual called oczepiny. The wedding-hostess, called the starościno and other married women took the bride to a separate room and sat her down on a kneading-trough. No-one apart from those assembled could take part in this ritual, which began with removing the chaplet from the weeping bride’s head, pinning her hair back, and if necessary, cutting it if it was too thick. Then the czepiec was put on her head, on top of which was tied the szatka, which was a linen or silken headscarf tied up with the knot resting on the back of her head. The czepiec, a lace cap made of delicate, homemade linen and embroidered with white cotton, was made up of the actual czepiec and the naczółek, the exposed lacey edge which rested on the forehead, not covered by the headscarf. Keeping this part of the costume clean demanded frequent laundering so women kept a supply of these caps which differed one from another on the basis of decorative designs. Women started buying czepce after getting married, since having a large stock of them before getting married was supposed to predict a large number of children, the thought of which women dreaded.
      It was characteristic that for a long period the only underwear worn by Cieszyn women was the ciasnocha, a kind of chemise consisting of a tight bodice of simple cut made of ćwilich (thin, home-made linen) and a lower part made of coarse linen (drelich) which was sewn to the bodice. The whole of it was originally joined with one strap running diagonally.
      Women wore a kabotek over the ciasnocha. This was a short, waist-length blouse, originally made from coarse – and later fine – bleached linen with full sleeves reaching to the elbow, with a collar embroidered with black or red silk and lemieczki (cuffs). The kabotek was fastened at the neck with a hoczek and babka, or a decorative silver pin called a szpyndlik. The szutka and the koszułka were more elegant varieties of the kabotek.
      On top of the kabotek was worn a dress, consisting of two parts sewn together, the żywotek, a velvet, richly embroidered corset on straps and a knee-length and later ankle-length skirt which fell in ample folds and was trimmed with a shiny blue ribbon called a galonka. 
      Dresses were worn with high bodices. Both unmarried and married women wore them, although young women’s żywotki were without decorations or were embroidered very modestly with floral motifs. Care was taken that the żywotek and the skirt matched. Five or even six metres of russet, cherry-red or black linen-woollen mixture was used for the skirt. To economise somewhat on fabric, a piece either made of cheaper fabric or taken from an old skirt was sewn on the front part of the dress covered by the apron. This panel was called a ladaco. A cherry-red żywotek stiffened with cardboard was decorated with gold sznórki while a black one was decorated with a silver trim. Attaching żywotki and skirts of different colours was the consequence of old dresses being passed down the generations, with their owners adapting them to their needs, tastes and the current fashion. 
      The suknia, a relatively heavy dress, lined with brick-red flannel and put on over the head, had a linen pocket, called a kapsa, sewn onto the underside of the ladaco. 
      In order to make the suknia hang more attractively and emphasise its wearer’s curves, it was worn over a slip (or more than one on special occasions) made of thin ćwilich with its lower hem embroidered.
      A narrow linen apron, the fortuch, was worn which contrasting attractively with the dark background of the dress. A blue one was worn normally, while on festive occasions women wore a damask linen one extending down level with the hem of the skirt. On her wedding day a woman would wear a fortuch of delicate white, occasionally silken, fabric. The woman’s waist was emphasised by a przeposka, a coloured silk ribbon tied in a bow at the front. Poor women had to make do only with a przeposka rather than the Cieszyn silver belt, but even women who could afford one would tie a przeposka under the belt to protect the sumptuous folds of the żywotek and suknia from being damaged by the rubbing of the belt.
      The winter outer garment of the Cieszyn costume was the hacka, a dark, woollen shawl draped around the shoulders. It was also worn in summer resting on the forearms. The most elegant outer garment was the szpencer, a warm, quilted, fitted women’s jacket with long sleeves, roomy at the shoulder to be able to accommodate the bag-sleeves of the kabotek. It was waist-length with a SZALOWY collar, made of good quality black, brown or cherry-red cloth and fastened at the neck with a silver clasp. For everyday wear warm, simple jackets called jupki were worn. In former times it was the privilege of married women to wear waist- or knee-length sheepskin coats. As with men’s sheepskin coats women’s ones were dyed yellow and edged with red woollen thread. 
      At one time red nogawiczki were worn to cover the legs. These were almost two-metre long woollen stockings, worn from ankle to just under the knee in folds. On the feet were worn kopytka, white sheep’s wool socks, and kyrpce, light shoes made from a single piece of leather. When black shoes called trzewiki decorated with a blue bow began to be worn universally, women started to wear thin, white, smooth stockings. At the beginning of the twentieth century there began a fashion for black laced shoes called brynelki.
      It was the addition of silver jewellery on special occasions that made the greatest difference to the richness and elegance of the Cieszyn women’s folk costume, lending it glitter and ostentation. Particular items were circular and heart-shaped pins, called szpyndliki which fastened the kabotek at the neck, napierśniki, which were silver chains linked to silver roses attached to the straps of the żywotek, up to twelve little rings called hoczki sewn onto the front of the żywotek, and clasps fastening the szpencer. But above all there were the silver Cieszyn belts, to which trzepotki, delicate chains, were fastened, arranged in a masterly pattern over the folds of the dress and the fortuch. Goldsmiths from Skoczów, Cieszyn and Jabłonków (Jablunkov) were famed throughout Cieszyn Silesia for such decorations, which were either cast or filigreed. 
      Dark colours dominated in the costume of older women, and the suknia, which was typically less showy, reached down to the ankles. After 1900 young women also began to wear such long suknie.
      If an unmarried women died she was laid to rest in the traditional costume of a młoducha, but starki, elderly women, also kept their most beautiful clothes and accessories from their wedding days, choosing to be buried in this costume. At funerals of young people their peers would dress in clothes with light-coloured accessories, while older women in mourning were obliged to wear a black jakla, shawl, apron and dress trimmed with black edging for a period of six weeks.
      Unlike the Cieszyn men’s folk costume the festive dress of Cieszyn women was worn by the female inhabitants of the villages around Cieszyn more widely and until much later. Today examples of this beautiful folk costume adorn the exhibitions in many museums in Cieszyn Silesia, while elements of it are kept as precious family heirlooms in private houses.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Gustaw Fierla, Strój Cieszyński, ZG PZKO Ethnographic Society, Český Tĕąín 1977, p. 64;
• Idem, Stroje ludowe na Śląsku Cieszyńskim. In: Płyniesz Olzo..., Zarys kultury materialnej ludu cieszyńskiego, ed. Karol Daniel Kadłubiec, Profil, Ostrava 1972, pp. 203-223;
• Barbara Poloczkowa, Strój cieszyński w XIX wieku. In: „Polska Sztuka Ludowa”, 1972, no. 3-4, pp.153-170;
• Marian Dembiniok, Zarys kultury ludowej Śląska Cieszyńskiego, Museum of Cieszyn Silesia, Cieszyn 1995, p.19;
• Jadwiga Wronicz (ed.), Słownik gwarowy Śląska Cieszyńskiego, Towarzystwo Miłośników Wisły, Towarzystwo Miłośników Ustronia, Wisła, Ustroń 1995, p. 358