Folk costumes  Folk costumes, together with the language, customs and traditions marks country's ethnic identity and documents its artistic and historical values. Rumanian traditional folk customes have existed in similar forms since the beginning of this millennium.
They have never been indifferent to beautiful clothes. Respect for tradition, good taste and the sacred and profane symbolism are remarkable. In all the villages where tradition is still strong feasts were occasions for unique fashion parades. Villagers clad in dresses required by the moment, as well as by their age and social status. The cloth of folk costumes, whether wool, cotton, linen or hemp, is home-woven. The simple and economical cut, lending the body a statuesque elegance, serves today as inspiration to fashion designers. The discrete decorative motifs, the luminous colors, the combinations of white, black, blue and red, supplemented with golden or silver thread and exquisite embroideries, made young women look like Byzantine princesses.
Folk costumes are distinctive to their regions, their geographic and climatic conditions, local occupations and crafts, and to ancient ceremonial traditions. Women's wear are characterized by a primarily white background and colorfully embroidered wide-sleeved shirts, their don bright aprons worn front and back, and either white silk or black patterned head scarves. Men wear wide belts with punched motifs or braided strips, embroidered sheepskin vests, boots, and hats representing their specific region. Embroidery on folk costumes were used for holidays and special occasions (like weddings) follows strict regional patterns and serves also as a sort of secret language known only to people within the different regions. For example, the way in which a shirt is embroidered may indicate marital or social status.
 The range and dosage of hues are used to create 'signs of age', as is the case of the red-black combination in the garb of the inhabitants of Maramures, of Padureni (Hunedoara County), and Oas. In this costume, the red diminishes with the age of the person wearing it, finally being replaced by black. The Rumanian stylistic variety is infinite, always other in each zone, but no matter from which zone is the costume, anybody can immediately recognize it as a costume from Romania.
The basic structure of traditional clothing is a shirt or chemise made of linen, wool or hemp, which was belted at the waist. The cut of these shirts was similar for men and women but men's shirts reached to the knees and were dressed over trousers or leggings and those used by women were usually ankle length while. Women always worn an apron, which was initially a single piece of cloth wrapped round the lower part of their bodies and secured by a belt at the waist. In certain areas in the course of time this became two separate aprons, one at the back and one at the front. Outer garments made of wool or fur are worn by both men and women. The material which is used, the cut, the style of coloring and embroidery adorning the costume are unique.
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