Womenswear - "Women’s Emancipation" dress created within the framework of the In Circulation: Romani Design project

The "Women’s Emancipation" dress 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.

Alongside following tradition, it is at least as important to them to, taking their own path, apply the innovations of our time. This is symbolised in their garment named Women’s Emancipation, on whose skirt, alongside the portrait of the Csatka Madonna, depictions of the Virgin and Child are also visible.

In the upper portion of the dress, the Varga sisters applied portraits of their mother and grandmother on two lace devotional images (so-called Spitzenbild) in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts (see 88.230.1.; 88.301.1.). The underlying pattern of the skirt can be also found in the museum’s collection, with the icon of the Benediction of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. In this pattern the designers have exchanged a childhood photo of Helena Varga for the portrait of Christ, and a photo of young Erika Varga for that of the Madonna. The pelican and flower appliqués surrounding the image are recalled, as is the image of the Madonna statuette of Csatka.