Paper short abstract:

The folk costume becomes an important part of Lithuanians' national identity. It has it's place in all processes of the modern nation forming.The efforts of the folkloristic movement to create the "right" folk costume will be presented in the paper.

Paper long abstract:

The folk costume becomes an important part of Lithuanians' national identity from the very end of the 19th century. It has it's place in different cultural processes: the process of the modern nation forming between the First and the Second World wars; in the context of the Soviet regime efforts to control the tradition; in the time of inventing of the rituals in the 7th decade folkloristic movement; also as in the searching of the modern spirituality in the nowadays Lithuania. Each period was represented by its own understanding how the folk costume must look like. The 7th decade fokloristic movement started with the opinion that folk costume elaborated in the Soviet period was wrong as wrong was all public forms of the ethnic "tradition" in that time. The efforts of folkloristic movement participators to create the "right" folk costume will be presented in the paper.