Textile Finds in Prague, Czech Republic

This is a final posting about my lace/textile finds on my honeymoon trip to eastern Europe.

Prague was my favorite stop (out of Berlin, Dresden, Vienna, and Budapest)--not only because it was such a cultural city but because I found this great antique store with a basement full of lace and other textile treasures.   I have already reported about my lace finds in a separate post.  This post is about the Czech women's folk costumes that I found in the same shop.  I shop keeper generously let me photograph them.  I asked for her to be in one of the photos and she was delighted.  She spent about 2 hours showing me different textile gems.  I thought I was only there for under half and hour....later my new husband gently pointed out that we were there for over two hours!  He's a keeper.

This is the lady that was selling watching over the basement treasure trove of fiber artforms in Prague.  She seemed to enjoy my enthusiasm for what I was seeing and finding and kept pulling out more stuff for me to see.  She was completely OK with me taking pictures of the folk costumes and was delighted when I asked her to be in this picture.

This is the costume that I was VERY tempted to buy.  My mother's family was of Czech heritage...so I spent summers going to Czech festivals.  I always wanted, but didn't get, a Czech folk costume.  This costume above was the most beautiful and complete in the shop.  It featured hand-embroidery on every component.  It even had bobbin lace on the bottom of the skirt.  This may be a continuing regret that I didn't purchase it.  The cost for this complete outfit:  $200.