Debrecen4U July 8, 2025

Girls, women in festive attire: a new exhibition opened at the Déri Museum

Traditional folk costumes from the collection of the Déri Museum were on display at an exhibition in Balmazújváros recently. The rich exhibition of folk costumes, which was a great success at the Andor Semsey Museum, will be open to the public in Debrecen and visitors to Debrecen from this weekend in the gallery of the Zoltai Hall of the Déri Museum. The ever-growing ethnographic collection currently includes nearly 120 complete costumes and hundreds of solo costumes (from headdresses to footwear).

Although only a fraction of this can be presented here, the selected costumes provide a representative cross-section of the characteristic, classical folk costumes of the various Hungarian regions. The women’s costumes from the different regions are characterised by different silhouettes, use of materials and tastes.

Although each of them embodies a particular type of landscape, the aim is not to present them in general terms, but to show who wore each piece, when, on what special occasion, and to what women’s life situations they relate.

“The westernmost, northernmost area from which a very beautiful female bridal costume originates is the Zobor region, Gerencsér, and the easternmost area is the dress of a Csángó woman from Puszta,” ethnographer Márta said.

From the very beginning of ethnographic interest, the recording of ethnographic phenomena and ethnographic facts was not only done through descriptions and linguistic means, but also through visual recordings.

The 350 or so ethnographically themed graphic sheets commissioned by Frigyes Déri in the early 1920s are also kept in the Déri Museum. More than 150 large black-and-white enlargements of photographs have been included with the prints.

Watercolours selected from the ethnographic graphic collection of Frigyes Déri and the photographic enlargements juxtaposed with them form the illustrative background for the authentic folk costumes and clothing elements and accessories presented in the exhibition. The exhibition is open until 25 August.

Source and photo credit:dehir.hu