site.btaParis Exhibition to Showcase 22 Traditional Bulgarian Costumes

An exhibition of 22 authentic Bulgarian festive costumes opens at the Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris on Friday, marking the start of its new season.

The exhibition, Threads of Time / Au fil du temps, will present garments from the late 19th and early 20th centuries at the institute’s gallery, Director Desislava Bineva told BTA’s BG World service.

Authentic Bulgarian costumes will go on display in Paris again, more than a century after national dress was shown at the city’s 1900 World’s Fair, Bineva said.

The garments come from three private collections. They belonged to women from different ethnographic regions of Bulgaria and Bulgarian communities beyond the country’s current borders: Banat in present-day Romania, Aegean Thrace in present-day Greece and Eastern Thrace in present-day Turkiye.

The costumes are among the surviving originals from the period after Bulgaria’s Liberation in 1878, Bineva said. European fashion gradually spread through Bulgarian towns and cities at the time, while villagers continued to wear traditional dress for several more decades.

The festive costumes were worn at weddings, religious holidays and family celebrations. Made entirely by hand, they were preserved and handed down as family heirlooms, helping ensure their survival, Bineva said.

Traditional Bulgarian dress was first shown in Paris in 1900. The Bulgarian pavilion at the World’s Fair displayed costumes from the National Museum in Sofia, along with jewellery and textiles.

The costumes in Threads of Time / Au fil du temps are on loan from collectors Liliya Getova, Daniela Dimitrova and Anton Gudov, who seek out, collect and preserve examples of Bulgarian cultural heritage.

The Bulgarian Cultural Institute in Paris conceived and initiated the exhibition, which will remain open to visitors until November 20, 2026.