In traditional Bulgarian culture, terziistvo - tailoring is one of the so-called seasonal trades. It was especially popular in the 18^th and 19^th century and was practiced by men and men only. In winter-time when there was no farm work to be done, they would go round the villages to offer their work in exchange for food, board and money – after a lot of haggling with the master of the house they would be hired for the job.

“Terzii - tailors got together to make their finest for young lass Stana…” – many folk songs have lyrics that go something like this. Of course, the name of the girl may be different, but she is invariably divinely beautiful. Her mother would commission her frock to be made as beautiful as her body and her face. Songs telling stories like this usually accompanied the wedding ritual.

Unmarried lasses would have new clothes made once a year, usually for major holidays like St. Lazarus Day, Easter, and St. George ’s Day. That was why girls would be so eager to see the tailors coming; no need to say that it was the prettiest girls that were the most coveted customers. A great many songs sing of the banter between them and the unmarried tailors. In some, the young man gets the threads all tangled up, breaks the needle etc.

“A tailor’s clothes go unmended,” goes one of the most popular sayings about this trade. It was said of tailors that they would always be scowling, their eyes in their work. Lyrics of this kind probably came into being in later times, when tailoring had developed into a fixed way of life – i.e. when they had their own workshops. To earn their living – their own and that of their apprentices – they had to work really hard. One intriguing fact from the history of terziistvo – that even after the trendy city tailors had appeared, in some parts of the country people continued to prefer their traveling colleagues. Here is Angel Nizamski – choreographer and owner of a fascinating collection of authentic traditional costumes with more about the trade of his grandfather, a terzia born at the turn of the 20^th century:

“In winter time he would start on his rounds of the villages. Women would prepare frieze, broadcloth or another kind of fabric, depending on what the family needed. Over the time it took them to make the clothes my grandfather and the other tailors would stop at the homes of the people they were working for; on their part they had to give them room and board. The tailors would make the clothes and add the rudimentary decorations. The fine embroidery and the finishing touches were up to the women of the house. If you take a look at a garment made by a terzia you would be amazed – each stitch is exactly the same as any other stitch, as if it was machine and not hand made. Small wonder then that they were so focused and not disposed to chatting while they were working. My own grandfather learnt the trade from master-tailor Bone who was later to be his best man. When Bone thought the time had come, he started out on his own. That was in the 1920s, the time my grandfather was getting ready for his wedding. He made the wedding costume of the bride and his own clothes – a jacket and breeches.”

Angel sometimes organizes fashion shows of the clothes in his collection. He himself puts on his grandfather’s breeches – not the jacket because it doesn’t fit him. One of the models puts on the wedding frock belonging to his grandmother. Luckily, she decided to break the rules and was buried in clothes other than her wedding gown, so the beautiful costume was left to her grandson.

English version: Milena Daynova