From 11 April to 30 May 2026, an exhibition curated by the collector Jānis Žugovs, “Jōņa Žugova Latgolys stōsts”, is on display at the Latgale Cultural History Museum in Rēzekne. It includes paintings, sculptures, ceramics, books and documents, many from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Žugovs has spent his life collecting things connected to Latgale, its people, art and language.

Why a textile association goes to an art exhibition

Because textile is not only production, exports and numbers. It is also identity. The folk costume, the pattern, weaving, beads. All of this is textile, and all of this is Latvia.

We talk a lot about markets and exports, and rightly so. But sometimes it is worth reminding ourselves where we come from and what is ours. This exhibition did exactly that.

Every thread means something

The Latgalian folk costume is not just a beautiful piece of clothing. It is a language, one that few people today can still read.

In northern Latgale, in the Abrene area, people wore white linen trousers that gave the costume a restrained, almost aristocratic character. In southern Latgale, a checked fabric appears in shades of red, blue and green. Women adorned themselves with strings of blue glass beads. And those were not only for beauty. People believed the blue beads protected against the evil eye.

The fabric was woven at home, from home-grown linen and wool. The dyes came from plants, bark and earth. Each costume carries centuries of accumulated knowledge. How to weave, how to dye, how to compose a pattern so that it means something. It is not just a garment. It is memory.

Heritage is not nostalgia

It would be easy to look at all this as an old, beautiful but bygone thing. We think differently.

This knowledge can be not the past, but the raw material for the future. Around the world, the most successful fashion houses often draw on their own country’s tradition and turn it into something modern. Tradition is not in conflict with creativity. It is often its starting point.

The dream: a Baltic fashion house

Visiting the exhibition, our representatives had a question. What if Latvia and the Baltics built their own fashion house?

Not one that copies the fashions of Paris or Milan. But one that draws on our own cultural code. Our patterns, colours, materials and stories. One that takes a Latgalian pattern or the blue beads and turns them into something you can wear on the street today, with pride and without a costume feel.

That would give work to our designers and craftspeople. It would tell the world who we are. And it would keep tradition alive, not in a museum, but in life.

Honest: for now, only a dream

We do not want to pretend that tomorrow we will open a Baltic fashion house. For now, it is just an idea, and we admit that honestly. To make it real takes designers, money, craftspeople and a lot of work.

But big things often start exactly like this. With one exhibition in a small museum in Rēzekne. With one bold question. We wrote this thought down, and we will not forget it.

If our heritage matters to you

If you are a designer, a craftsperson or someone who cares about Latvia’s heritage, write to us. Tell us what you see. From conversations like these, beside old beads and linen, big ideas are born.