Traditional dress in Bosnia and Herzegovina is notable for its handwork, from metallic braid and beads to deep-blue embroidery.
Garments in a museum collection
The Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade holds a collection of 1,085 items from the 19th and 20th centuries. It includes a late 19th-century women’s velvet vest from Sarajevo, trimmed all over with gold and silk braid. It also holds a long, sleeveless woollen zubun from Herzegovina, decorated with red and green wool appliqué, silk and cotton embroidery, sequins and glass beads. A Herzegovinian leather belt covered in brass plates and set with 38 carnelian stones shows how jewellery and clothing worked together.
Zmijanje embroidery
This style comes from the village of Zmijanje, near Banja Luka, and was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List in 2014. The National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina notes that it was the first element from the country to be listed. UNESCO describes freely arranged geometric patterns stitched in deep-blue thread dyed with plant-based colours. They decorate women’s wedding dresses, scarves and bed linen. The women who make it often work in groups, singing and talking, and the richness of the designs reflects the social standing of the wearer.
A pair of early 20th-century sleeves in the national museum’s stores shows the look: deep-blue wool on cotton-linen cloth, with branching trees, fir-like motifs and zigzag bands.
Style takeaway
Rich texture, geometric pattern and one strong colour remain a confident way to lift an outfit.
Sources: Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade: National costumes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, UNESCO: Zmijanje embroidery, National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina: Zmijanje embroidery sleeves, Government of Republika Srpska: Zmijanje embroidery.
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