Powiat Łowicki

Łowicz folklore had been created by the inhabitants of Łowicz Principality for many years. Till the end of this century the rural architecture was dominated by wooden houses. An old cottage was divided into two rooms: a reception room and a daily room. A great attention was paid to the furniture in the reception room. An important piece of funiture was a sideboard often with florar patterns and carvings.

Next to the wall, by the windows there was a bench and opposite the front door a home altar. The location of beds was extremely important. They were meant to be a decoration in the first place and show farmers' status. The richer the owner of the cottage the higher the pyramids of pillows arranged on the beds. Another important item of funiture was a wooden chest used for storing clothes, sheets and jewellery.

They were made of pine wood and painted brown or maroon and at the end of the 19th century some floral pattens started to appear. The colour paper cutouts appear. The colour paper cutouts appeared in Łowicz in the second half of the 19 th century. Originally single elements cut out from glossy paper were stuck to the walls, picture and window frames. Later they were glued to sheets of white paper.

The rooms were decorated with 'spiders' (a clay ball with straw, woollen and crepe paper decorations) and bunches of paper flowers. The farmers of Łowicz district have been wearing their striped costumes since 1830's. In women's skirts first dark red colours, then orange began to dominate. At the end of the 19th century there appeared all possible colours.

In winter women wore woolen checked clothes (homespun). Women's costume was complemented with woollen scarfs, strings of corals and black boots. Men's costumes consisted of trousers with red and orange stripes, embroidered ties, black waistcoats, hats and boots. The length of the waistcoat changed from time to time. The ankle long overcoats were either white or black.