10 Treurenberg, 1000 Brussels
Romani Design is the world's first Roma fashion studio, a community fashion and design brand founded by Erika and Helena Varga in 2010 with the aim of promoting the social and cultural prestige of the Roma community. They create premium quality, handmade products: Romani Design is the first widely known brand proudly representing Roma culture and its connections to Hungarian culture. They are frequent contributors to the Hungarian fashion and design field, with all their work created with of social responsibility in mind. Through their work, the designers present Roma folk art and cultural heritage in a contemporary, sustainable, and modern context: Roma dress culture is an important part not only of Hungarian but also of Carpathian Basin folk traditions. The designers of Romani Design are sisters raised in a traditional Olah Roma family, see themselves as role models for their community and consider it important to implement their success towards their cultural mission.
Erika and Helena Varga's creative approach, the simultaneous use of traditional and contemporary pieces, rooted in the example set by their mother and maternal grandmother. It forms the foundation of Romani Design, a sustainable fashion brand operating along the principles of upcycling, where fashion is not the goal but the tool for sharing the designers' social messages to as wide an audience as possible.
Over the past years, Romani Design has had several solo exhibitions and museum projects in prestigious Hungarian and international institutions such as the House of Terror, Museum of Applied Arts, Heritage House, MUCEM, Ludwig Museum, and Móra Ferenc Museum-Black House. These exhibitions exemplify Romani Design's pioneering, value-preserving, and value-creating work, as well as the increasing interest from the scientific sector. Their multidisciplinary concept titled OUR ROOTS IN US, debuts at the Brussels Liszt Institute in 2024 with the focal point being the iconic underskirt, a staple of folk costume traditions across Europe.
Characteristically made from natural cotton, underskirts found in women's folk costumes of the Carpathian Basin and Roma dress culture originate from the private collection of Romani Design's designers. When designing and crafting contemporary outfits and accessories, Erika and Helena Varga often utilize vintage materials collected from their own community; their own designed fabric patterns, jewellery, bags, and textile paintings created with assemblage techniques are crafted from leftover materials from their tailoring processes, incorporating both vintage and modern textiles.
The antique underskirts are adorned with triangle-shaped passementerie, a characteristic attribute of Roma dress culture, and embellished with ribbons and lace of natural materials: they are regularly used in Romani Design's activist artistic concepts. The simultaneous use of modern and vintage materials correlates with contemporary fashion trends and the principles of sustainable fashion.
Also part of the OUR ROOTS IN US concept are the traditional but still worn attire of Transylvanian and Hungarian Roma women, consisting of pleated skirts made from aprons and separate skirt pieces, as well as antique cashmere skirts and ‘kretinca’ aprons of museum value. These pieces were collected in the framework of this project. Within the exhibition presented at the Liszt Institute, an entirely new concept inspired by Romani Design's Madonna, Blueprint, and My Identity, My Freedom collections are to be exhibited: Romani Design's conceptual fabric patterns, handcrafted with artisanal techniques, feature the prominent Marian devotion in Roma communities, the blueprint technique, one of the most important textile cultural heritage techniques of the Carpathian Basin, and visual elements of Roma dress culture in an abstract way.
The project was partially funded by NKA.
Helena Varga, Lili Kriston and Erika Varga©Tibor Bozi / Redux
Romani Design is the world’s first Roma fashion studio. The founding designers, Erika and Helena Varga, work to build the prestige of Roma communities through applied arts, fashion, activism, design, and music, establishing themselves as highly regarded figures in both the national and international art and creative industries. Over the past 14 years, they have created numerous fashion collections, exhibition materials, and community artworks in partnership with entities such as Budapest Central European Fashion Week, the House of Terror Museum, the Museum of Applied Arts, Heritage House, the Ludwig Museum, the Móra Ferenc Museum in Szeged, and several Hungarian embassies and cultural institutions in major foreign cities.
The designers’ decades-long commitment to social and cultural missions and activism is highlighted by their community-building and mentorship programmes. These programmes utilise fashion, associated professions, craftsmanship, as well as music and dance, to support identity and talent development within domestic Roma communities. These initiatives provide opportunities for hundreds of Roma children, teenagers, and young adults to connect with their identities and communities, while also offering a vision and career orientation essential for Roma communities facing challenging circumstances.
The designers at Romani Design place great emphasis on sustainability, eco-conscious creation, and education. Through their works and collections, they communicate their messages to the public, using fashion as a platform for communication. Their messages address the freedom of individual identity, the philosophy of shared space and shared cause, the responsibility that comes with knowledge, perspectives on emancipation, and the values inherent in cultural heritage.
