From tradition to trend: handmade sweaters from Serbia

DW (English)

The traditional handmade sweaters from the tiny village of Sirogojno, in western Serbia, have been known worldwide since the 1960s. Today, fashion designers take inspiration from these colorful woolen garments and give them a modern spin.

Transcript

00:00Knitting a jumper is like painting.

00:03When you're painting, when you're writing a book,

00:06you think about it, and it just comes to mind.

00:09Pictures, landscapes, motifs, scarves come to mind.

00:30There used to be a lot of knitting.

00:42There's no house where women didn't knit,

00:45older or younger.

00:47There were always three generations.

00:49Now we come, me and my colleagues,

00:53the youngest generation that knits.

01:00This is Zlatibor Mountain, an ideal place for sheep farming.

01:04The wool for the sweaters is sourced right here.

01:07The sheep are sheared in spring,

01:09and then the wool is washed and prepared for knitting.

01:15Someone washes it on the stream, someone washes it at home,

01:18but it's best to do it on the stream.

01:20Then it goes to the mill.

01:22Now we have good mills.

01:24It used to be done at home,

01:26but now it goes to the mill.

01:28We do it like this, and then we weave it by hand.

01:32We wash it there, into a ball,

01:35and then we knit from the ball.

01:39Although the tradition of knitting

01:41has been nurtured in this region for centuries,

01:44organized production began in the early 1960s,

01:47at the initiative of designer Dobrila Smiljanić.

01:52She started working in the agricultural cooperative

01:57when she opened a fire

02:00for the cooperative she was working for.

02:07Among other personalities,

02:09these sweaters were worn by Queen Elizabeth II,

02:12Nancy Regan and Jovanka Broz,

02:14First Lady of former Yugoslavia.

02:16They were even sold on Fifth Avenue in New York.

02:20Their trademark patterns are still the Zlatibor landscapes

02:24and the characteristics wooden houses.

02:27When you say damper,

02:29it's the first association of wooden houses

02:33connected to a damper,

02:36whether it's in Behar,

02:39or in autumn colors of leaves,

02:42or in summer colors of flowers.

02:45It's what makes up the landscape of this village.

02:59Smiljanić is a fashion designer from Belgrade.

03:02Her sweaters can be found in numerous boutiques

03:05in Japan, Canada, the USA and Europe.

03:08She remembers that her mother loved wearing

03:11the Sirogojno sweaters.

03:13The childhood memories served as inspiration

03:16for her to start her own sweater production.

03:19One of her collections is dedicated to the Sirogojno sweaters.

03:23When I started my first dampers,

03:25I had a clear picture,

03:27who would like to have those dampers,

03:30because our women make them uniquely here,

03:33and I can't compare them to other women in handwork.

03:36Zorica Marković is proud that her village

03:39and the work of her fellow knitters

03:41is being recognized worldwide.

03:43Thanks to these knitting needles, she says,

03:46she was able to pay for the education of her two children.

03:49She firmly believes that preserving this tradition

03:52will celebrate the local cultural heritage

03:55and also contribute to a sustainable future.

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