Belt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This belt contains a number of interesting elements that suggest the wearer's status: intricately patterned handspun wool; variation in shapes and sizes of beads, which indicates that they are handmade; chain as trim and eye-catching bright blue beads. The inclusion of minute green beads in two small areas of the appliqué most likely has some symbolic meaning. It is important to note that while this object is identified as being from Yugoslavia, that entity did not exist until after World War I--first as the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, then, after 1929, as Yugoslavia (“land of south Slavs"). The belt was given to the collection in 1932 by Henry F. DuPont, who had an important folk costume collection, when the countries in that Balkan region were known under that name.

The Costume Institute

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Costume Institute's collection of more than thirty-three thousand objects represents seven centuries of fashionable dress and accessories for men, women, and children, from the fifteenth century to the present.

Metropolitan Museum of Art