The "folk dress" was one of the most visible and colourful elements of rural culture.  It developed throughout the ages  under the influence of natural and economic conditions, new means of transportation, historical events, social and political relations, ethical considerations, customs, ethnic and national awareness, aesthetic sensitivity, fashion, etc.  At the time of its heyday which in Poland coincided with the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the folk dress became more diversified and colourful as well as more exquisitely decorated.  
At the same time, it was precisely at the period when the folk dress developed most repidly as to its forms and materials i.e. at the end of the 19th century, that it began to gradually disappear.  This process took a different course and was differently motivated in particular areas.   The decline of the folk dress can be attributed to economic reasons (the availability of cheaper, ready-made clothes) and to its users efforts to dress similarly to town dwellers.  In consecutive decades of the 20th dentury the urban mode of dress eventually replaced the folk attire completely.
At present the folk dress has ceased to be work on a regular basis (except in parts of Podhale). And while it is regarded as an element of culture that is irrevocably a thing of the past, inreality it has assumed new functions and has acquired a new life.   It has become a stage costume of folk ensembles, fulfills a representative role of gala outfits during state and religious holidays, and is displayed in museum halls during exhibitions devoted to a particular region.  Meticulously preserved as museum objects, folk outfits are "witnesses" of the material as was as spiritual and social past and are no doubt an invaluable source of information about the history of the region.

Folk Dress from Wielkopolska in the collection of the Ethnographic Museum in Poznan.  Lavishly illustrated with color photos.  Text in Polish and English.