Antique, Authentic Moravian Kroj

This scarf is beautifully embroidered with lots of cut-work details.

This is a close up of the embroidery on the sleeve.

This close up shows the beautiful embroidery with cut out work and hand made lace. It is hard to tell from a picture but the lace is very delicate.

This is my daughter, Sarah, in 2006 when she was named the 2006 Miss Czech-Slovak USA Queen in Wilber, Nebraska.

The following is the description of this exquisite costume that was used in the modeling portion of the Miss Czech-Slovak USA pageant: Sarah is modeling an authentic Moravian kroj from the village of Kyjov. This kroj was brought to Texas in 1973 and is over 90 years old. Sarah is proudly wearing this kroj in honor of her great-great-great grandfather, Frantisek Skopik, born in Moravia.
The full skirt is delicately embroidered with colorful flowers and is heavily gathered. The beautifully adorned skirt is worn over white gathered petticoats hemmed with hand-made lace and is worn heavily starched to give additional fullness. Sarah's kroj is worn with a multi-colored embellished sash wrapped at the waist for additional enhancement.
The lovely white cotton blouse has embroidered black designs on the beautiful puffed sleeves that has been edged with handmade lace. The focal point of the kroj is the ornately detailed vest of silk brocade. The vest features embroidered designs with colorful sequins, glass beads, bugle-beads and metallic braids to further enhance the vest outline. You will notice on the back of the vest are three circled designs. The circled designs represent the village of Kyjov in Moravia. The kroj is accented with a scarf of matching black, hand cut lace, gathered with a beautiful Bohemian Garnet brooch. Sarah is wearing a garnet ring and earrings, also from the Czech Republic.
Sarah's headdress is a wreath of colorful flowers with ribbon streamers flowing down the back. This signifies that Sarah is a single young woman. Sarah accents the kroj with black leather boots.