The Romanian blouse, known by the name of IA, has roots in immemorial times and the sacredness and mystery of this masterpiece of Romanian popular art is now about to be rediscovered. The name of the garment, ia, [ie-ah], derived from Latin “tunicae linae”, thin tunic.
It is not known exactly when the ia appeared, but some sources believe that this specific cut of the blouse is to be found during the “Cucuteni” culture (5500-2750 BC) and that it has remained almost unchanged for milennia. The Cucuteni culture is half a millennium older than the Mesopotamian culture and is widespread throughout south-eastern Transylvania, Moldova (including the present territory of the Republic of Moldova) and in western Ukraine to the Dnieper. It is considered one of the most spectacular civilizations of the prehistoric world.
It is suspected that, inspired by beautiful ceramics, with an outstanding artistic refinement of shapes and designs, painted or incised on the dishes and anthropomorphic statuettes, prehistoric women laid the decorations of sacred geometry on her clothes… Read in the following THE MASTERPIECE