Folk Costumes: Europe

Hello everyone! Today I will make a compilation of some of my old folk costume articles from SDC and this week I will focus on Europe. The countries I will include are: Germany/Austria, Portugal, Russia, Romania, and Serbia. I'm very interested in Serbia and Russia in particular. 

Germany/Austria:

A dirndl is a set of clothing consisting of a knee length skirt, a peasant blouse, and a waist coat/vest and an apron . It originates from Austria. It was originally worn by servants but was picked up by the upper class women in 1870. The full word for dirndl is "dirndlgewand" which means "maids dress".

Portugal:

There are many different folk costumes in Portugal, varying from region to region. I have chosen the folk costume from the province of Viana do Castelo which used to be called Minho.  

The local term for this folk costume is "Lavradeira" or "Traje Domingueiro" which means "Sunday Clothes". Minho folk costume consists of; a skirt that is either red, black or white, an apron called a "Avental do tear", a waist pouch called "Algibeira", a cape called "Capotilha",  black shoes, and a white and blue blouse. Filigree gold jewelry is also worn with the folk costume. Portuguese filigree jewelry is very well made and very detailed usually containing hearts called "Coração Português" or crosses. Silk or lace head scarves are also usually worn with the folk costume.

Lavadiera used to be worn everyday in the old days, but now it is only worn on special occasions. Also the styles can vary between social class and age. 

Romania:

Like most folk costumes Romanian folk costume is not worn very often by regular people in day to day life, however before WW1 many people wore these garments on a daily basis. Romanians still do wear traditional clothes for special occasions and folk events in the present.

Women's folk costume consists of 3 parts: a peasant blouse called a "Le", a skirt called a "Fotă", and a head scarf called "Maramă". 'Le' blouses are white with traditional embroidery and are gathered around the collar. 'Fotă' skirts are long wrap-around skirts that are decorated and are made of wool material. There are a few different names for Fotă skirts depending on the region you are from like "pestelcă" in Muntenia, "cretință" in Moldova, and "păstură"in Transylvania just to name a few. Head scarves called "Maramă" are usually worn with the folk costume, the design varies from region to region. 

Russia:

Russian folk costume for women consists of a kokoshnik which a tiara like headdress, a peasant blouse and a sarafan dress. The kokoshnik headdress is a tall usually crescent shape tiara tied in the back.  Kokoshniks were originally worn by married women with a slightly different headdress for maidens called povyazka. Russian women always wore kokoshnik headdresses on special occasions until the Russian Revolution in 1917. A sarafan is a pinafore dress worn over a peasant blouse. Sarafan dresses can be plain or fancy depending on the occasion. After the 18th century most upper and middle class women stopped wearing sarafan as day to day wear. Most peasant women wore sarafan until the 20th century. 

Serbia:

Šumadija:

Timočka Krajina:

Belgrade:

Serbian folk costume varies quite a lot from region to region.  

The essentials for women's Serbian folk costumes are a embroidered peasant blouse,  a vest called a "jelek" or "zubun", a full skirt and opanci shoes. Coin jewelry is also worn with Serbian folk costume

I hope you enjoyed my article about European Folk Costume. I will make more of these article in the future.