hello! based on the fashion thing, what are your other pet peeves as an ethnologist? and what are some common misconceptions people have of southeast european culture and history (from balkaners or foreigners, whichever you prefer to tackle)? thank you for running this blog, your posts are always informative and great. :^)
Hey! Thank you for asking and for the kind words <3 😭 It’s genuinely because most traditional costumes around the world aren’t considered fashion, i mean i think we can all agree just based on logic that they aren’t. The way we consider what is fashion and what isn’t is whatever isn’t changing in trends and it didn’t change fast, fashion was often determined by big fashion houses, special tailors or leading elites (when mass produced didn’t exist). From there it would be produced and spread to the lesser economic standing populations through trends and they would have something similar to what the rich or better standing population has. Imitating how they dress.
For an example on the Balkan and among their cultures - town costumes could be considered fashion as there was a certain popularity in some clothing around the whole Ottoman Empire, same as how we consider fashion costumes of the Victorian era, but not the ones worn in the villages. They obviously didn’t wear dimije (shalvars) or fes before it became popular or determined by law (when it comes to fes) in the empire. But not every costume that has these parts of clothing is considered fashion, as i said only those worn in towns.
For an example: first one could be considered fashion (Bosniak and Serbian) as it was worn in Mostar, but the second one is not.
It was worn in villages near Sarajevo by the Serbian women, there’s a great influence of the town but also there were many restrictions and rules that Christian population had to follow, rather than them adapting to the fashion of the time. This continued after the fall of the empire, they didn’t change their costumes even though fashion in towns changed. Areas where restrictions on the Christian population weren’t so strict, or when they lessened by the end of the Empire, Christian costumes in towns were often very similar to the ruling Turkish or Muslim population. People wanted to show off rather than to follow certain rules or beliefs that people in villages had to do. For an example in towns you can wear any color (as long it’s wasn’t forbidden by the ottoman law) of the shalvars, anterija, dress etc. while in villages every part of the embroidery has its color pallete, every part of the costume; if its a vest, shirt, pants… they were the same color pallete.
Albanian costume: town vs village
Serbian town costumes (fashion): 19th end and beginning of the 20th century. Versions of the 19th century one stayed longer in southern towns.
traditional costumes: bridal gorani and bridal serbian from montenegro
Costumes in villages weren’t “mass produced” (or at least when that didn’t exist they weren’t made specifically for being popular among the people and sold in towns) and they were often handmade by the very woman that’s wearing them or at least embroidered if not made. They had their unique embroidery styles that carried meanings behind it. It wasn’t made from silks or richer materials. They made it from their own wool or hemp fabric, and later cotton. Everything is planned ahead, they cannot stand out with it as they have to follow certain rules of the regional costume. Their costume wouldn’t change because of the fashion trends or laws but by an economic situation, wars, beliefs, religion and identity. The reasons behind certain certain shapes or symbols is complex and part of a cultural and historic continuity, it carries meaning behind it that’s rooted in religion, traditional beliefs that are centuries old and it doesn’t change neither easy nor often. After the wars people became very poor and they had no choice but to abandon version of the costumes they could no longer afford, so they started simplifying them rather than adapting to the “new modern worlds”. One costume could be an influence of people from various regions who moved to that place leaving their trace on the costume when the population geographically and cultural assimilated (into their own people just assimilating geographically, but they could even be assimilated into the majority population with costumes but not identity)
One woman can change embroidery and other woman can follow along but that isn’t considered a popular trend or fashion in a way that the other is. Costume in a village determined age, wealth, if you’re a child-young woman-up to marriage-bethrowed-a bride-newly wed-married woman-mother-youngest or oldest daughter in law etc-older woman…. men has less versions but you get me lol. In a town they mostly showed their wealth and marriage status child-young woman/unmarried-married-older mother in law. So costumes on the Balkan or of any culture in the world, often have parts that are considered very old, centuries old even. It’s part of a continuity.