Traditional Bulgarian Embroidery

As with much of Eastern and Central Europe, Bulgarian traditional embroidery was very much regionally led. The country's embroidered craft tradition was a particularly rich and profuse one with many regions having strong variations within them so that sometimes small villages and communities could well have their own unique traditions. The subject of Bulgarian embroidery is such a large and generalised one that this article can only be seen as an introduction towards a series of more regionally based articles that will be seen in future posts.

Throughout the history of the continent many European indigenous nations, regions and ethnic groups spent sometimes centuries incorporated into what was effectively occupying nations and empires that often had a substantially different language, religion and culture to that of the localised or regional population. To some extent this continues today with a range of regional and ethnic areas across Europe that are locked into nation states that they share little in common with.

For five hundred years Bulgaria was a province of the Turkish Empire. However, despite this forced integration, Bulgarians were able to keep much of their cultural heritage intact. Some of this can no doubt be attributed to the cohesion that a regional common language, religion and custom base can engender within a larger empire, religion and custom base can engender within a larger empire, but much can also be attributed to native crafts. Embroidery in particular with its obvious and purposely defined decorative compositions, was able to identify Bulgarians in general and the areas within the then Turkish province where Bulgarians lived, as being of a separate and unique identity to that of the rest of the Empire.

Much of Bulgarian embroidery was worn and therefore became integrated into regional costumes of both men and women. Because of the size and geographical construction of the country, with highlands and lowlands, mountains and valleys, Bulgarian costume varied quite considerably, as could the embroidery that went to embellish and identify the wearer. There was a tradition in various parts of Bulgaria for the use of floral or geometric pattern work. However, sometimes both styles could be seen as part of the same costume with different types of pattern work.

In Western Europe Bulgarian embroidery became popular in the later nineteenth century with amateur embroiderers copying mostly floral type pattern work that had originated in Bulgaria. However, there was a certain amount of manipulation in the decorative styling in order to make the work seem more exotically acceptable and appealing to Western Europeans and therefore these examples should perhaps not be too closely associated with the genuine traditional Bulgarian embroidery, even though they do share a number of significant links.