Womenswear - "Celebration" skirt with top created within the framework of the In Circulation: Romani Design project

The “Celebration” skirt with top was created as part of the exhibition series In Circulation, launched by the Contemporary Design Department in 2018. According to the concept, the invited designer will select an object or ensemble of objects from the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts, and will create a new design as inspired by the object(s). Our fifth invited artist in the series is Romani Design founded by Erika Varga and Helena Varga in 2010. The sisters chose a total of six art objects from the collections of the museum. It is not by chance that these are all devotional pictures depicting either the Virgin Mary or other female saints, which provided the inspiration for the designers to create six enchantingly richly patterned women’s garments and coordinated accessories (see also 2021.515.1.; 2021.516.1-2.; 2021.518.1-2.; 2021.519.1.; 2021.520.1.; 2021.521.1.; 2021.522.1.).

This ceremonial, long white skirt and three-quarter coat decorated with white tulle at the shoulder embody Celebration. The reproductions of two selected art objects are also encountered on the dress: the gilt silver pendant with a depiction of the Virgin Mary at the centre, as well as the 18th-century devotional image of Madonna and Child in a gilt limewood frame. In the case of the motif deriving from the latter – and arriving to a dress – the designers exchanged the portrait: in place of the Virgin, they positioned a portrait of their mother from her youth, while they exchanged the head of the baby for a childhood portrait of Erika Varga. In the background of the composition is an earlier Romani collection, Rebel Spirit, in which stained glass window motifs are also found.