Portuguese Bling-Bling

This summer I went to one of the most beautiful city festivities in Portugal, the "Romaria da N. Sra Aparição" in Viana do Castelo, north Portugal. They make a procession featuring the single ladies of the city, wearing the traditional north Portugal costumes and their families gold. I found incredible the richness of the costumes as they are embroidered and weaved with ancient techniques. As I said, they are wearing their families gold, most part of it is made with an ancient goldsmith technique - filigrana (filigree), that means thread and grain, and makes part of the Portuguese material culture.

Yes, what you see on these photos is gold, kilograms of gold, and believe me it's not fake!

Here a photo of me with two girls wearing the traditional costume. On that day I was wearing my filigree earrings called "Brincos à Rainha" (Queen Earrings) and a cotton scarf with a traditional Portuguese print in blue.

And guess what I found on a video about Margherita Missoni ? She's wearing filigree earrings in silver! In fact this video was the reason to do this post, that was on the drawer for a long time.

Portugal has been assisting to a revival of their traditional products and traditions. The filigree had been revived since 3 years ago, as this earrings started to be made on silver so they could be acessible to more people. And it also took new approaches to this technique, which is good because it get's alive and not lost.