Representing one of the oldest types of shirt preserved in the traditional Transylvanian wear, ciupag shirt is a shirt without lapels, with an opening at the back, the front part being ornamented with a trapezoidal-shaped decorative element called ciupag. The gusset is sewn “on the edges of the curls”, using an old tradition technique, and is placed under the collar, small side up. The decorative motifs of the bow are always geometric, old-fashioned and endlessly repeatable: the sun, the rhombus, the fork, etc.
Known as “ciupag”, “chest shirt/tiept/chept/cept”, the shirt with ciupag has a specific cut, falling into the category called by specialists “of the Carpathian type”, characterized by the attachment of the sleeves directly to the collar. The shirt with ciupag is associated in the traditional wear with zadia with a violet body, they constitute a characteristic ensemble of the Romanian wear from a large area in the north of Transylvania, which includes the areas of Năsăud, Bistrița, Lăpuş, Reghin, Câmpia Transilvaniei, the land of Călatei, Mocănimea Ariesului, Moti Country
Contributor: Ethnographic Museum of Transylvania
