A Skirt Made From Curtains Bartered in Exchange for Food

Paulīne Bauke used window curtains to make the Nīca skirt while in a refugee camp. Paulīne bartered foodstuffs in exchange for the curtains from another Latvian woman who had used the curtains she had brought from Latvia as a wall tapestry in her room in the camp. Being a talented handicrafter, Paulīne found yarn and thread with which to make the skirt and shirt as ethnographically correct as she could. When the folk costume was finished, Paulīne’s daughter Ināra wore it to various events held at the Latvian school in the refugee camp.

Later, when Ināra and her mother emigrated to New Zealand, the folk costume was worn at various Latvian events. When Ināra moved to Chicago ten years later, she wore the folk costume for many years as a member of the “Dzelme” folk dance group and the “Dzimtene” Latvian mixed choir in Milwaukee. The folk costume has been worn to many Latvian song festivals in America (Boston, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Portland, Milwaukee), Canada (Toronto) and Latvia, when Ināra took part in the Song and Dance Festival Parade and Grand Finale Concert in Riga in 1998.