
Collection "Traditional Clothing"
The "Traditional clothing" collection includes women's, men's and children's clothing from the XIX - the first half of the XX centuries. The collection includes over 3800 inventory items, the first of which is a women's belt from the village of Rakilovtsi, Radomirsko, made in 1870. Recorded in the inventory book of the museum as number 5 in 1975, it also marks the beginning of the formation of the collection. Folk costumes and individual elements of traditional Bulgarian clothing from various ethnographic areas are stored in the collection.
The most numerous are the women's costumes, which typologically belong to the three types of traditional women's clothing identified in the ethnographic literature: double-cloaked, cloth-covered and sayano. From the group of double aprons, characteristic mainly of Northern Bulgaria, the collection includes costumes from Vidin, Lom, Vrachan, Lovesh, Pleven, Nikopol, Veliko Tarnovo, Ruse, as well as costumes from Dobruja.
From the cloth type of women's clothing, costumes from the regions of Transko, Breznishko, Sofia, Samokovsko, Ikhtimansko, Smolyansko, Starozagorsko, Yambolsko, Elkhovsko, Karnobatsko, Troyansko, Gabrovsko and others are included.
The men's costumes stored in the "Traditional clothing" collection are significantly fewer. They are divided into two groups: white-clothed and black-clothed clothing, according to their division in the ethnographic literature. The white clothing is presented with costumes from Trunsko, Vidinsko. Black dress sets are mainly from Thrace, Tetevensko, Samokovsko and others.
Due to the complete wear and tear of children's clothes in the large Bulgarian families, from the end of the XNUMXth and the beginning of the XNUMXth centuries, only a few, and incomplete, costumes of girls from Trunsko, Elhovo, Pleven, Lomsko, Vrachansko have been preserved in the museum fund; individual items of children's boy's baby carriers. The collection also houses a Macedonian youth costume that belonged to King Boris III and was presented to him by his son Simeon of Saxe-Coburg. Among the recent arrivals in the museum are a children's costume from Silistrensko, as well as individual elements of children's clothing from Central Northern Bulgaria, part of the rich collection of Marina Kalcheva donated to the NIM.
In this collection, complete sets of costumes or only individual elements of them of the Bulgarian population, which originates from territories currently located outside the borders of the Republic of Bulgaria, are stored. This group includes the rich women's costumes of immigrants from Debar, Bitola, Prilep (in today's Republic of Macedonia), Lerinsko and Kostursko (in today's Republic of Greece). The costumes from White Sea Thrace, Northern Dobrudja, the Western outskirts and the Banat region, as well as those of XIX century immigrants from the Lesser Asian coast, are unique.
A separate group of textile materials, including independent elements of traditional clothing, is functionally divided into small collections. These are shirts (women's and men's); the main outerwear from women's (aprons, cloths, sais, dresses) and men's (poturi, benevrets, waistcoats, menteta) clothing; outerwear - yamurluki, klasniki, kontoshi, etc.; headscarves, girdles and belts; socks.
A selected part of the costumes stored in the collection are displayed in the permanent exhibition in the "Ethnography" hall - "Bulgarian traditional costumes" and "Calendar holidays".

Tunic cut. Embroidered decoration with cotton, silk threads and beads - on the sleeves, skirts, around the armpit and on the collar. Ornamentation of stylized plant motifs. Dimensions: length 104 cm. Dobarchin village, Sofia region. The end of the XNUMXth century