Mazowsze’s success in the matter owes to Mira Zimińska-Sygietyńska. Her professional experience and intuition for beauty have caused forgotten and unknown costumes to raise viewers’ admiration to this day. Offering unforgettable aesthetic pleasures, they also provide a source of knowledge about the history of Polish clothing.
Most of Mazowsze’s costumes are made by folk artists using traditional techniques characteristic of the given region. The materials used are natural, such as wool, linen, or hemp. The artists’ professional skills enable even the Łowicz-style costumes to swirl in dance as if delicate, light netting, even though it can weigh almost 31 pounds (up to 14 kilograms).
Jennifer Dunning, The New York Times, USA
There’s nothing quite like Mazowsze [. . .] There were exquisite costumes [. . .] authentic representations of Poland’s many regions. Made of brocade and lace, cotton and wool, the costumes are brilliantly colored but never gawdy.
Le Progres, France
Red shoes, fair braids – the artists make up colorful frescos, poetic and devilish at the same time, and Polish spirit pours forth from them [. . .] The performance moves forward at such an overwhelming pace that it makes eyes water. For other reasons, which are closer to the heart, the eyes remain closed for a long time . . .
Mazowsze is a real world traveler. They performed at nearly 7,000 concerts in Poland and abroad, for almost 23 million people. They crossed 1,400,000 miles (2,300,000 kilometers). They went abroad over 200 times, visiting fifty countries on six continents.
To every concert Mazowsze takes about one thousand costumes and about twenty tons of luggage.
The technical crew needs between six and eight hours to get everything ready for a performance.
During one concert, each artist changes costumes between seven and ten times, and they have no more than three minutes for each change.
The beautiful, graceful, smiling dancers in Łowicz-style costumes carry about 31 pounds (14 kilograms) of fabric while lightly moving in dance.