Lost Folk Costumes Found Through Facebook

The folk costume once belonged to Alfreds Gaujenieks. It was made by his wife Zigrīda, who took inspiration from the drawings of J. Brotze. Alfreds and Zigrīda were for many years Latvian Scout leaders in the USA, as well as leaders of the “Trejdeksnis” Latvian folk dance group in New York. Zigrīda Gaujeniece had a rich collection of Latvian folk costume books, which she used as sources of information. The folk costume used to have brass buttons made by Alfreds himself; the folk costume was also shown as an ethnographic specimen at the 1996 folk costume exhibition in Washington DC. Alfred was often seen wearing his folk costume in Latvian society, which inspired others – for example, the Latvian youth Mārtiņs Putenis made a similar folk costume for his wedding. Zigrīda also made folk costumes for herself and her sons Mārtiņš and Gatis. When the boys grew up, the folk costumes were loaned to others, and over the years they were passed from one dancer to another. Now living in Latvia and having sons of his own, Gatis Gaujenieks decided to find the folk costumes made by his mother via Facebook. The search was successful, and the costumes are back in the Gaujenieks family!