Átöltözések (A 19. századi magyar nemzeti divat emlékiratok és naplók tükrében)
Reflections of 19th-century Hungarian National Fashion in Memoirs and Diaries

Summary/Abstract: From the 1820s the concept of the nation became the centre of thinking and public dis-course in Hungary. Debates were taking place not only at political fora: the different issues of the nation were discussed at balls, in fashion magazines and in public in general, in a form that was understandable to everyone; besides language and dance, clothes became the indicators of one’s national feelings. The discourse on (urban and gentry) national cos-tumes materialised in two waves in the 19th century: after the 1830s and 1840s, according to the reports of newspapers, national fashion emerged again, from 1859–60. But if we as-sume that fashion is a historical reality that exists beyond the realm of texts – in the case of national fashion an idea manifested in costumes and the way they were worn – we cannot leave out of consideration the consumers of fashion items and their motivation. With the help of diaries and memoirs we can examine what people wore and what the trends were from a special point of view: they are the means with the help of which we can study fa-shion from a micro-perspective; fashion, that is the normative system compared to which the individual who follows or rejects the trends defines itself by choosing his or her own clothing. The knowledge revealed by the memoirs has a limited validity; the same way as many individual recollections juxtaposed do not make up a collective recollection, the sum of individual dressing practices is not enough to draw conclusions on fashion itself. But certain trends do reveal themselves by analysing the texts of memoirs. For instance it can be observed that while (gentry and urban) national costumes were not generally worn in the Reform Era, after 1859, in the case of the national costume movement we can already talk about a trend; it is also made clear that it was not only faith in the idea expressed by national costumes that motivated individuals to wear it: the pressure from society, fear and the dangers of being different from true patriots can also be found among the motivating reasons.

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