Regional Attributes and Interrelated Influences on Macedonian Embroidery

The Macedonian folk embroidery as a traditional ornament and characteristic element of the Folk Costume used to be applied all over the territory of Macedonia. What is most impressive is the unusual melange and variety of the embroidered ornaments of Western Macedonia where the old embroidery traditions were preserved the most. Besides other factors the division conditioned by the geographic settings of this region into various sections with different ethnic characteristics visible in the embroidery. The folk embroidery of eastern Macedonia is not only significantly less but also it does not possess the esthetic value of the embroidery of west Macedonia. However, in some regions like for instance the Radovish Plain it was custom to adorn the costume (the shirt and saya) with various ornaments in various colors which is also an old artistic tradition. This type of decoration is known as vez na razvoj which indicates the close connection of the textile industries. Such shirts were present in the vicinity of Voden and Razlog and were particularly typical for the costume of the Meglen Vlahs.

The folk embroidery of lower and central Povardarie disappeared relatively soon. This area had immediate ties to Thessaloniki and soon the population accepted the changes in lifestyle as well as the changes in the female costume. Nevertheless, it is known that the women of Tikvesh and the vicinity of Veles wore white shirts ornamented with embroidery on the sleeves and lower end.

Each section of Macedonia typically has its own special embroidery ornaments with specific stylistic features, composition, technique and application of colors. Sometimes even two neighboring sections have totally different embroidery ornaments like for instance Skopska Blatia and Skopska Crna Gora, Dolni and Gorni Polog (Lower and Upper Polog), Gorna and Dolna Prespa (Upper and Lower Prespa) whereas sometimes the difference refers to only several villages or even one village. These regional and local differences are not just ordinary visual effects but are a result of the diverse esthetic convictions created depending on the ethnic processes that occurred on the territory of Macedonia in recent and distant history.

Having in mind the variety and melange it is difficult to group the Macedonian ethnic embroidery into larger categories with mutual features. Even though the embroidery as an ethnic feature characterized the costumes of specific regions it didn't evolve parallel to the costume and proved to be a more dynamic element. In this aspect it is not uncommon for two indigenous costumes to differ in their embroidery, while on the other hand some embroideries from two different costumes resemble each other in specific elements. Examples of this can be seen in the female shirts of Skopska Crna Gora and Dolni Polog (Lower Polog). The costumes have in common the black embroidery on a white base even though both regions have different costumes. On the other hand several villages from below the mountain Suva Gora (Chelopek, Miletino, Radiovtse, Tenovo and Blatse) whose costumes have common features with the one of Dolni Polog (Lower Polog) differ in their distinctive embroidery ornamentation. The costumes of the Prilep and Bitola Plain and Mariovo are different in many details yet share many common embroidery features, especially their typical embroidery polneti pisani and grabeni vezovi. Such similarities can be found in the embroidery of Gorna and Dolna Prespa (Upper and Lower Prespa), that is Dolna Prespa (Lower Prespa) and the Lerin River, the Struga and Debar Drimkol with Golo Brdo and others. Of course this phenomenon is not incidental but the result of a complex ethnic process which occurred in particular regions and contributed to the divers cultural commingle even in the field of embroidered ornamentation.

The numerous cultural progressions, especially those as a result of internal migrations left traces in the design, technique, the application of color and terminology in the Macedonian national embroidery. There is no village in Macedonia that doesn't carry a name from another village or section. In Mariovo the embroidery beshishki, staravinsko can be found, in the Prilep and Bitola Plain the shirts vrbyanska, mogilska, krklinska, in Kichevia vraneshtichka, klenoechka, in Skopska Blatia drachevski poli, gradoechko koitse and many other examples. On the other hand, there are as many examples of influence from regions with a different embroidery ornamentation such as the tsrnogorska kosula (Montenegrin shirt) of Dolni Polog (Lower Polog), bukovski koshuli of the Prilep Plain, rekanska koshula of Polog, vlashko okolno and meglenska koshula of the Bitola Plain and more. In the Upper villages above Bitola the so-called vrsteni rakai were worn with embroidery similar to the one of Prespa, while in Prespa there were the embroidery motifs on the sleeves called Bitolchina, in Skopska Blatia the shirt gyergyevlia whose name is closely related to the bridal shirt gyegyevayka of Kosovo. In the period between the World Wars the Shopi of Kriva Palanka discovered the embroidery banyski vezovi of Kyustendil. The villages Bach, Zhivoyno and Sovich near Bitola which according to their costume and ornamentation belong to the Lerin Plain also have the grchkite poli, motifs inherited from the Macedonian population on Greek territory. In old embroidery the motifs indicate greater migrations manifested in their names debarche, ohritche, kratovche. In this way in certain cases the routes of mutual internal and external progressions are evident and yet on the other hand the complexity of their symbiosis.

Nevertheless, it is typical of almost all of the mutual progressions, particularly the ornamentation, conformed to the local stylistic features – technique, composition and color application. In this way the embroidery still preserved its essential local distinguishing features. This especially refers to the embroidery techniques which resisted the external influences. An embroidery method once accepted managed to successfully survive for generations. In this sense even in the more distant regions similar or identical ornamental motifs can be found which are distinguishable by their local stylistic features (22 and 70, 75 and 97).

But besides the melange and variety of embroidered ornaments from different regions the Macedonian folk embroidery evolved and formed within the frames of its own stylistic features. We owe this to the unique general aspect of the Macedonian costumes, which conditioned a unique style of clothing and embellishing the clothing items, especially the female costumes. The embroidery on a female costume whose tunic like design is typical for all of Macedonia, depended on the upper sleeveless clothing items made of platno and klashna (sai, klashenitsi), which contributed to the dissemination of the embroidery mainly on the sleeves of the lower end of the shirt. On the other hand, the use of only one front apron skutina which covers the front part of the shirt accepted the embroidery on the back part of the shirt, which is characteristic for almost all of the shirts in Macedonia. Only the costumes that have shorter aprons skutina the embroidery followed round to the front part of the shirt for example in Polog. The sleeves of the shirt are embroidered from the decoration to the elbow or even up to the shoulder depending on the upper clothing item. In Lerin River wearing kyesitsi (a type of sleeve) over the shirt conditioned the use of the embroidery dokyesitsi on the sleeves. A single case of a female shirt in some villages of Polog where the embroidery is made on the shoulders in two vertical rows up to the decorations and ruffs of the lower end of the item (20-21). The design of these shirts is tunic-like whereas the sleeves and their embroidery are connected to another type of shirt extensively applied not only on the Balkan, then and now, but also by the Slavonic people hence the assumption of this phenomenon even in the ancient Slavs.