Encyclopedia of National Dress [2 volumes] Traditional Clothing around the World

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Encyclopedia of National Dress

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Encyclopedia of National Dress Traditional Clothing around the World Volume 1

Jill Condra, Editor

Copyright 2013 by Jill Condra All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of national dress : traditional clothing around the world / Jill Condra, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-37636-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-37637-5 (ebook) 1. Clothing and dress—Encyclopedias. I. Condra, Jill, 1968– GT507.E535 2013 391.003—dc23 2012040568 ISBN:

978-0-313-37636-8 (set) 978-0-313-37638-2 (v 1) 978-0-313-37640-5 (v 2) EISBN: 978-0-313-37637-5 17 16 15 14 13

1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Entry Guide

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Introduction

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The Encyclopedia

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Museums with National Dress and Textile Collections

773

Selected Bibliography

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About the Editor and Contributors

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Index

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Entry Guide

Afghanistan, 1 Albania, 11 Algeria, 19 Angola. See Southern Africa Armenia, 29 Australia, Aboriginal, 44 Australia, Settlers, 53 Austria. See Germany and Austria Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, 62 Belgium. See The Netherlands and Belgium Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, 71 Bolivia. See Chile and Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina, 81 Botswana. See Southern Africa Brazil, 93 Bulgaria, 100 Burkina Faso. See Niger and Burkina Faso Canada, 111 Caribbean Islands: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Lesser Antilles Islands, 121 Chile and Bolivia, 131 China, 140 Costa Rica and Panama, 150 Crete, 160

Croatia, 167 Cuba. See Caribbean Islands Denmark, 177 Dominican Republic. See Haiti and the Dominican Republic Egypt, 183 El Salvador. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua England. See Great Britain and Ireland Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, 191 Ethiopia, 204 Finland, 212 France, 220 Germany and Austria, 231 Ghana, 237 Great Britain and Ireland, 252 Greece, 269 Greenland, 280 Guatemala, 289 Haiti and the Dominican Republic, 294 Honduras. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua Herzegovina. See Bosnia and Herzegovina Hungary, 303 India, 312 India: Nagaland Tribes, 326 Indonesia, 336 Iran, 343

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| Entry Guide Iraq, 357 Ireland. See Great Britain and Ireland Israel, 367 Italy, 372 Jamaica. See Caribbean Islands Japan, 385 Jordan. See The Palestine Region and Jordan Kenya, 395 Korea, 406 Laos (Hmong), 416 Latvia. See Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Lebanon and Syria, 426 Lesser Antilles Islands. See Caribbean Islands Libya, 440 Lithuania. See Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Madagascar, 448 Malaysia, 461 Mauritania, 471 Mexico, 478 Mongolia, 488 Morocco, 499 Namibia. See Southern Africa Native North American Dress (United States and Canada), 510 The Netherlands and Belgium, 519 New Zealand, 527 Nicaragua. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua Niger and Burkina Faso, 536 Nigeria, 545 Norway, 557 Pakistan, 567 The Palestine Region and Jordan, 574 Panama. See Costa Rica and Panama The Philippines, 585

Poland, 594 Portugal, 602 Puerto Rico. See Caribbean Islands Qatar. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates Romania, 612 Russia, 621 Russian Federation Republics, 633 Rwanda and Uganda, 640 Saudi Arabia. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates Scotland. See Great Britain and Ireland Slovenia, 649 Somalia, 656 South Paciic Islands, 663 South Africa. See Southern Africa Southern Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, 672 Spain, 682 Sweden, 690 Switzerland, 700 Syria. See Lebanon and Syria Thailand, 708 Tibet, 717 Turkey, 726 Uganda. See Rwanda and Uganda United Arab Emirates. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates United States: Hawaii, 740 United States: Hispanic West, 746 United States: New England, 752 United States: Puerto Rico. See Caribbean Islands Vietnam, 758 Wales. See Great Britain and Ireland Yemen and Oman, 764

Introduction

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odern dress exists in an age when a global culture is in the process of developing thanks to rapid exchanges of information, but there are still distinctions to be made between peoples of different countries and different cultures. Most of the world does indeed wear American-style jeans and T-shirts, but many people around the world still identify themselves, even if only for special occasions or festivals, with a style of dress that is unique to their own way of living and relective of their history. Recording information on national dress is perhaps growing even more important in order to preserve the history of the clothing that people identify as culturally speciic and that they use to identify themselves in some distinct way. Those who study material culture understand that clothing, as an artifact, is the most intimate of objects and relects details about the people who wore it. Individual garments tell a story about the wearer. Sometimes it is possible to know what the person’s occupation was, certainly it is possible to know his or her physical dimensions such as height and weight, and it is usually possible to tell how wealthy the person was, based on the type of materials and techniques used to produce the garment. It is also possible, in some cases, to know the religious afiliation, ethnic background, and age of the person.

General Scope and Purpose The Encyclopedia of National Dress explores the following types of clothing in more than 130 nations and autonomous regions: national dress, folk costume, and ethnic dress, all terms that could be used to describe the clothing or combinations of clothing (outits) that have traditionally been worn by a distinct number of people within a certain country or culture. Dress can be used to distinguish a people just as much as it is used for the people to identify themselves as not being from another group, perhaps a rival tribe or people from a different country or culture close by. National boundaries do sometimes move, leaving people of similar cultures and dress traditions living in separate nations. Sometimes, similar types of ix

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| Introduction dress with common cultural symbols have been grouped together in this publication to show that certain styles of dress are cross cultural in nature and adopted by many different people at the same time. In this encyclopedia, we aim to celebrate dress worn all over the world by different types of people in dozens of countries. Though not all countries, tribes, and cultures are covered in these volumes, we attempt to give the reader a glimpse into the culture and history of dress, and in some cases how dress is used today to celebrate the uniqueness that exists in the world, even in this increasingly homogenous global culture. In some cases, we have not been successful in identifying a speciic dress associated with a nation. For example, Israel is a relatively young country with a large population of people of the Jewish religion, but who also share the territory with Muslims and Christians, all of whom have diverse identities closely related to their religions. Young nations with melting-pot populations, such as Canada, the United States, or Australia, also have a hard time deining their “national” dress. Each of these countries has a long history of aboriginal or First Nations dress, but after the countries were settled by Europeans, the dress worn by the old and new inhabitants varied and changed dramatically depending on where they lived in the vast landscapes. In the case of Canada, dress changed if the settlers were French or English, or farmers as opposed to traders. Deining national dress in these cases has been challenging.

Identity and Dress Scholars agree that clothing has meaning and is a means of communication of socially acceptable conines of behavior in a certain place and within a certain period of time. Dress, clothing, fashion, costume are all terms used to talk about the items used to cover or decorate the body and tell about the self. They all hold slightly different signiicance, with fashion being clothing that is of a type or style acceptable to a large number of people over a period of time. Dress is the term for the actual garments and how they are put together into ensembles and is often the term seen in discussions of the history of clothing and textiles. Costume, often used in referring to clothing of the past, is also used to discuss the clothing people wear in the performing arts: in ilms, in television, and on stage. (I therefore prefer to avoid this term unless actually talking about theatrical costumes.) Adornment can include all the items used to dress or decorate the body including jewelry and other accessories and is an important part of expressing identity along with the actual garments. People express their place within society and the power they may hold within that system. Their identity is clearly deined by their clothing choices. Expression of a sense of self and the identity of a culture is held in how people in a society dress themselves, whether it is wearing leather aprons, or using yards of fabric in

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many layers to cover the whole body from view. The values of a society become clear when analyzing the types of choices that are made and what elements of traditional clothing are sustained over time to help people project the image they feel as a culture. Clothing also is often considered to be art, and art relects the society and time in which the artist lives. Great beauty can be seen in the designs of particular garments, their material, and how they drape the human form. Applied color and applied design such as that which adorns the Japanese kimono or a Russian headdress is truly spectacular art. Clothing production is also intensely technical and methods of applying color, constructing garments, and itting them onto a threedimensional igure is a structural art as well.

The Study of National Dress, Ethnic Dress, Folk Costume The types of dress worn by large groups of people are typically not the dress of the elite within a given society. This is not to say that the elite do not wear elements of this type of clothing, but the main thrust of the designs come from the people and are worn by the majority. While studying the history of dress of the wealthiest individuals is exciting and sometimes allows great art to be evaluated and meanings dissected, it only relects a certain, usually small, cross-section of any given society. Researchers may ind it more fun to look at the details of ornate dresses of the 18th century, and not as interesting to closely study the clothing worn by the peasants of the day. Nor is it easy to do. In many cases extant examples of dress of the more ordinary people have not been saved and stored in climate-controlled museums for us to study. Museums are illed with the beautiful dresses and suits of royalty and aristocracy, though, and this becomes the examples of dress of a particular time period. To study the dress of the people requires more crafty research. The art of the time, accounts of people who kept journals, and rare discoveries of evidence help deine the dress of the masses. Especially as cultures were exposed to one another as explorers and traders visited new lands and brought back the clothing and textiles of the indigenous people, the world was made aware of what other people wore. Likewise, more remote parts of the world were then introduced to clothing of drastically different manufacturing techniques as well as the values that helped to create the culture around that clothing. The politics surrounding dress and identity are intensely debated in a number of disciplines, and the study of ethnic dress can spark debate about a multitude of meanings associated with it. While we look at a number of different countries (as their boundaries are now deined), we have tried to stay away as much as possible from judging the ways in which ethnic expression changed and mutated with events such as colonialism. Instead, we have tried to present the historical context for each chapter, allowing

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| Introduction readers to make decisions for themselves about whether the changes were good or bad, and for whom. The clothing worn by people from all parts of the world speak volumes about them, what their climate is like, perhaps their moral values, and their relative economic prosperity. The tradition of adopting folk dress depended on a variety of factors. Certain silhouettes or details in clothing may have been shared among less prosperous people, but the amount of decoration varied greatly, related to the wealth of the wearer. Often the style of dress depended on climate, working conditions, and geographic location. The garments represent much about the culture the people represent. While historically, traditional dress showed local materials, such as textiles manufactured close by, once global trade began in earnest, new kinds of fabrics, lace, style speciics would work their way into the dress of a culture. As industrialization and trade increased over the past 200 years, certain types of garments and modern “Western dress” were adopted by many, and traditional ethnic or folk dress was either abandoned or altered to incorporate the new styles and technologies as they emerged. The traditionally accepted styles of dress were usually put aside and jeans and T-shirts are now worn for many occasions. The national costumes are brought out to celebrate certain special occasions or for cultural or religious festivals and ceremonies. The folk dress is then worn with national pride to celebrate the traditions of a culture.

About the Book Forty-six writers from all over the world have contributed to this set of books. Many live in the countries about which they write, and others are specialists writing about dress at universities and museums around the world. The authors were asked to narrow their deinition of national or ethnic dress to the assemblage of supplements worn on and/or modiications made to the body accepted by a group of people as being “theirs,” distinguishing them from neighboring or distant groups. Supplements include garments, jewelry, and accessories as well as makeup, body paint, and temporary alterations to the body’s surface. Modiications are permanent changes made to the shape or surface of the body and include such practices as tattooing, scariication, and piercing. The development of forms of speciic dress worn by speciic ethnic groups and changes through time are covered in many entries. Cosmopolitan dress or world fashion plays a part in the history of ethnic dress, especially when considering the many factors at play when people stop wearing it, but it is not a major focus of these volumes. Contemporary use of ethnic dress is sometimes considered in the entries, and some entries discuss the use of ethnic elements in contemporary fashions of particular countries.

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Our Raison d’Etre Modern dress exists in an age when there is a developing global culture, but there are still distinctions to be made between peoples of different countries and different cultures. Most of the world does indeed wear American-style jeans and T-shirts, but people still identify themselves, even if only for special occasions or festivals, with a style of dress that is unique to their own way of living and relective of their history. Recording information on national dress is perhaps growing even more important in order to preserve the history of the clothing that people identify as culturally speciic and to identify themselves in some distinct way. This book has set out to cover the clothing of people from all over the world by inding writers who are intimately acquainted with dress from certain cultures and countries. Much of the time, it is dificult to cover the whole of a country, especially one with distinct regional differences. Efforts have been made to bring the reader as much information about a country’s dress as possible while at the same time offering short geographical and historical backgrounds to be able to place the country in some kind of context and understand how the people developed their unique styles of dress.

The Audience This set is a reference work primarily designed for public libraries, high school libraries, and college and university libraries serving advanced high school students and undergraduates with an interest, but little background in culture and history, or dress. Students needing information on speciic countries for research projects, individuals interested in textiles and clothing, those needing a reference for re-creation of dress for folk dance troupes and costuming, and young people wanting to know more about other parts of the world will all ind this set useful.

Content The Encyclopedia of National Dress comprises two volumes covering more than 130 countries or regions, arranged in A to Z order by country or region. In some cases countries have been grouped together when enough similarities exist. Each essay, or entry, covers some basic information, with some entries longer than others due to size of country or region and diversity of population. Essays range in size from 1,500 to 7,000 words and feature three major sections: Historical and Geographical (Environmental) Background; People and Dress; and

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| Introduction Further Reading and Resources. In each historical background section the writers have covered in more or less detail such information as indigenous populations, exploration, trade routes, global migration patterns, internal factors such as industry and economy, and population (usually as of mid-2012 and supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency’s online World Factbook, https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook/). Also featured are contemporary factors including immigration, ethnic diversity, revival of ethnic dress in festivals, and other aspects. Each entry is placed within a geographical and environmental context so the reader understands how climate and naturally occurring species of plants and animals affect the dress of the culture/country. By far the longest portion of each entry is devoted to the people and dress of the region. This section includes ethnic and religious diversity, the history of dress, usually in chronological order, and devotes a signiicant portion to the actual components that make up the dress. This section can reach back into antiquity or in some cases only two or three hundred years. This section also may look at rural versus urban populations. Most chapters also include information on the materials and techniques used to make the national dress, and how these materials form the basis for the styles of clothing worn in the regions. The clothing worn for everyday is studied, but also discussed is how that clothing was adapted to be used in ceremonial uses or for special occasions. Often the dress of the people has come to symbolize the identity of the nations, and sometimes the wealthy or royal have adopted the clothing for special national holidays over time. Writers were encouraged to include as much about body modiication such as scarring and tattooing as they could, when appropriate. The meaning attached to such permanent body modiication is intense and in some cases caused great danger to those who did it. Jewelry, of course, is an indication of wealth for many. The precious metals and stones that adorn a body have always indicated a certain stature within a given society. At the end of the essays, the authors have written about how the dress of the people is being adapted or forgotten in contemporary society. While many countries continue to use the traditional dress in national holidays, festivals, and for impressing tourists, some styles are slowly being forgotten (or have been forgotten). It is for this reason that such books are important as permanent records of the dress that was and is important to a nation. Finally, each essay closes with a list of selected resources, including books, articles, and online sources. For additional research, the end of volume two of the Encyclopedia of National Dress features a selected bibliography of recommended books and articles on national dress as well as a list of prominent museums around the world that feature clothing and textile exhibits. Some of the websites of these museums also provide online glimpses of beautiful and distinctive dress from around the globe.

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The contributors to this book and I hope that the Encyclopedia of National Dress enlightens you, and leads you to a greater understanding of the important differences that still exist in the world today when it comes to our cultures and to our dress. As the world becomes even more interconnected with technological developments, differences are important for greater understanding and appreciation for everyone.

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Afghanistan Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood

A

fghanistan lies at the crossroads between Asia, the Iranian world, and the Indian subcontinent. Objects from what is now Afghanistan were valued in many civilizations in the Middle East as well as the Mediterranean world. The dark blue stone lapis lazuli, for example, was so valued in the ancient world that it was transported from Afghanistan along various trade routes that later became known as the Silk Road. The importance of Afghanistan to the stability of the region and surrounding countries is relected in the attention paid to it by various Western and Arab countries at the beginning of the 21st century.

Historical and Geographical Background Afghanistan includes a wide variety of geographical features, but it is dominated in the main by the mountains in the center of the country and the plains and deserts around them. The country of Afghanistan as we know it emerged in the 18th century when a local leader collected various tribes from southern Afghanistan around him. His capital was Kandahar, and from there he led his troops deep into Iran to the west, and to Delhi in modern India in the east. His successor moved the capital to Kabul. Over the years the Afghan kingdom became more and more unstable, however, and it would probably have disappeared altogether were it not that by the end of the 19th century it was transformed into a buffer state between czarist Russia to the north and British India to the east. Afghanistan also maintained its neutral position during much of the cold war, until by the late 1970s the country exploded and a civil war ensued that has lasted to the present day. The Pashtuns remain the majority ethnic group in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. In addition, however, there are over 50 other ethnic groups, many of them with their own language and cultural characteristics, including a wide variety of dress traditions. At the beginning of the 21st century, the main ethnic groups are (in alphabetical order) the Baluchis, Hazaras, Nuristanis, Pashtuns, Tajiks, Turkmen, and Uzbeks. Each of these groups has its own language, culture, and way of dress. The population of Afghanistan in 2012 was estimated at more than 30,419,000. 1

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Although many Afghans, especially in the country’s capital, Kabul, tend to wear Western-style garments, there is a basic outit for men, women, and children, which consists of trousers gathered at the waist, a loose-itting shirt or dress, and some form of head covering. This combination of clothing dates back to the early medieval period and the introduction of Islam, and over the centuries numerous variations on this theme have developed in Afghanistan. Certain garments have social signiicance within various groups. The turban, for example, is an important male item of attire. Among the Pashtuns and Baluchis, for instance, a boy may mark his passage into manhood by being allowed to wear a turban. Similarly, a girl will move from wearing a simple head covering, such as a scarf, to a more complex and larger form once she is of marriageable age or married. Head coverings are prescribed for all women in Islam, and therefore most women in traditional and rural Afghan communities wear variations of a large or small rectangular headscarf/body covering, commonly called a chador. They are usually made out of ine cotton or a synthetic material. A variation of the chador is the chadari, in the West commonly known as the Afghan burqa, which is composed of a close-itting cap attached to a veil made from a inely pleated, colored silk, cotton, or rayon material, which envelops the body. There is an openwork embroidered grid over the eyes so that the wearer can see where she is going. Contrary to popular Western ideas, chadaris are not worn by all Afghan women; instead this garment is speciically related to urban life.

Baluchi Dress The Baluchis live in southern Afghanistan near the borders with Iran and Pakistan. At the beginning of the 20th century, the basic Baluchi outit for a man consisted of white or indigo cotton trousers (shalwar) worn under a long shirt (jama), which normally reached to just below the knees. Over this was worn a cotton robe (kurti) that was densely pleated at the waist. The kurti is Indian in origin. By the end of the century this form had been totally replaced by the shalwar kameez from Pakistan, which consists of simple drawstring (tikke) trousers (shalwar) and a long shirt or tunic (kameez) with a central front opening. The headgear consists of a snugly itting cap (topi) and turban (pag, sometimes called a lungi). Baluchi caps for men are often made of cotton with ine silk or cotton embroidery in loral or geometric patterns. In addition, they sometimes incorporate minute mirrors called shisha. Baluchi turbans are made of white cotton and are normally wrapped in numerous large rolls around the head. Other male accessories include a long scarf or shoulder cloth (pushti) and, in colder weather, woolen socks. Sometimes an overcoat (kaba) and a waistcoat (sadri) are worn with a woolen shawl (sal). Leather sandals (shabav) in dark red or brown are also often worn. These may be decorated with chain-stitch embroidery.

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The women’s outit consists of ankle-length trousers (shalwar), which are gathered at the waist; an ankle-length, loose-itting dress (paskh), and a large shawl or outer cover (chadar). A feature of Baluchi women’s clothing is the embroidery that once was largely hand worked, but which is increasingly being made by machine. A Baluchi woman’s dress (paskh) traditionally has four panels of embroidery (doch), namely, a large yoke covering the chest, two panels on the sleeve cuffs, and a long, narrow, rectangular pocket, which runs from just above the waistline to the hem of the skirt. The style and quality of embroidery depends on whether the garment is going to be used on a daily basis or is intended for a festive occasion, such as a wedding.

Hazara Dress The Hazaras are a special ethnic group in Afghanistan. They claim to descend from the Mongol army that occupied the lands of what is now Afghanistan in the 13th century. Nowadays the Hazara occupy perhaps the poorest lands of the country, high in the valleys of the central Afghan mountains. Hazara dress for men in the late 19th and early 20th centuries consisted of loose-itting barrak fabric trousers, a cotton shirt (qamis; pirahan), long and short caftans in barrak, waistcoats (waskat), coats (macew), and a solid Hazara cap (kapi). A belt (kamari) or cloth sash was often wrapped around the waist. Wealthier men wore a turban (lungota) over the cap and a shoulder blanket or shawl of cotton (sal), or a soft fulled woolen material (sal-i hazaragi) depending on the season. In winter, a turban was added and woolen scarves were wrapped around the necks and faces as protection against the cold. Hazara chiefs sometimes wore the choga, a long cloak with sleeves, a form of Central Asian caftan. By the end of the 20th century many Hazara men wore Western-style garments. The traditional Hazara women’s outit consists of trousers; a calf-length dress with long, full sleeves, very wide at the waist; plus a head covering. Sometimes a waistcoat is worn, which is decorated with buttons, beads, silver coins, and seashells. The headcloth is sometimes folded into a thick, lat pad on top of the head, with the ends forming a sort of veil at the back of the neck. By the end of the 20th century, most Hazara dresses were made with sleeves with narrow cuffs; the dresses end at the knee or halfway along the calves. Modern Hazara dresses for festivals tend to be made out of purple velvet, following the fashion of using red or purple dating from the 1950s. The embroidery on Hazara dresses is concentrated in several parts, notably the bodice and neck, the sleeves, the skirt front, and along the hem of the dress. There are two types of embroidery used for dresses. The term zamin-dozi refers to embroidery that is densely stitched on the fabric of the dress, usually the front chest panel. This type of embroidery is often used for clothing worn for festive

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress occasions, such as weddings. When the embroidered motifs are scattered around the fabric of the dress, it is called gul-dozi.

Nuristani Dress Nuristan (“The Land of Light”) is located in the eastern part of Afghanistan. Until the mid-20th century, Nuristani dress was the most distinctive in Afghanistan. Men wore warm white woolen trousers (vit) reaching to just below the knee, over which were wrapped long black leggings (pataw), which looked like puttees. Over this was worn a long tunic, which was kept in place with a silver studded belt (malaa niste), which was used to support a dagger (katra). A distinctive feature of modern Nuristani dress is the pakol, which is usually made of fulled woolen cloth and consists of a lat crown with a rolled brim. This form of headwear is often called the Nuristani cap, but it is better known as the Chitrali cap after the neighboring town and district of Chitral in modern Pakistan. Nuristani women used to wear trousers and a shirt with a front neck opening. These shirts were often made out of dark-colored silk or cotton decorated around the neck opening with metal thread embroidery. The older versions of Nuristani metal thread embroidery often incorporated beadwork as well. The outit also included full skirts or dresses (bazu), which were gathered at the waist and worn with a woven belt (niste). Some of these dresses were embellished across the back of the shoulders and down the sleeves with a combination of red and black embroidered appliqués. By the 1930s this form of dress had all but vanished as a result of increased access to the region from outside, which brought with it other forms of textiles and garments. Modern Nuristani outits for women tend to consist of a waisted dress with collar (this is unusual for an Afghan dress), with similarly colored trousers and a large chador. The tradition of using metal thread in Nuristani embroidery continues in the use of plasticized metallic yarns. Nuristani women tend to wear bead strands and beaded jewelry in bright colors. The beads are used to create complex geometric designs.

Pashtun Dress The Pashtuns constitute an ethnic group that lives along both sides of the modern Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Traditionally, many Pashtuns used to call themselves Afghans, hence the name of the modern country of Afghanistan. The basic outit for Pashtun men normally includes trousers (shalwar) with a drawstring waist and drawstring (tikke), a knee-length shirt (kameez), and a waistcoat. The basic outit is usually available in a wide range of colors and shades, but the same color and material is always used for the trousers and shirt. The Pashtun headdress is normally a small cap of some kind, often with a turban wrapped around

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it. The outit is completed with a large, rectangular blanket (patu) worn draped over one or both shoulders. Pashtun women tend to wear a “standard” Afghan outit made up of trousers with a drawstring, a dress with long sleeves and full skirt, and some form of head covering. The trousers are usually a contrasting color to the dress, and in the late 20th century the most common color for trousers was “Pashtun green,” which is a deep mid-green. They are often decorated along the ankle cuffs with some form of embroidery or applied lace. Festive dresses are usually made out of silk or velvet in rich colors, especially a deep red. During the hot summer months, many women prefer to wear printed cotton and rayon fabrics in bright colors. The most elaborate embroidery is carried out on the Afghan man of the Pashtun ethnic minority bodice and sleeve cuffs of the dresses. in shalwar and a knee-length kameez, 2010. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images) The embroidery for the bodice, for example, can either be done on the actual fabric of the dress or on a coarser material, which is then stitched onto the dress. The hem of the dress is often decorated with gold-colored laces or thick gimp threads that are twisted and shaped to form various designs. A feature of Pashtun dresses for women, both urban and nomadic, is the triangular beaded panels at the heads of the shoulders. They are used to cover the seam line between the front bodice and the skirt of the dress. They are usually made using multicolored glass beads to create tight geometric designs. It is also normal to have a beaded roundel or gul-i pirahan on the shoulders, chest panel, and waist. The outit is completed by a large, rectangular head covering (shal, chador) in cotton, silk, or a synthetic material.

Kuchi Dress Kuchi is the popular name for the mainly Pashtun nomads and seminomads that originally, and sometimes to the present day, annually migrated from their winter camps in the valleys to their summer pastures high in the mountains.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Kuchi men normally wear trousers with a drawstring waist (shalwar) and a knee-length shirt (kameez). These are usually in white. The Kuchi headdress for men is normally a cap covered with a large white turban. The outit is completed with a large white shawl or blanket that is worn over one or both shoulders. Like many other Afghan men, Kuchi men use this blanket for warmth, to sit upon, and as a prayer mat. Kuchi outits for women are similar to those worn by (settled) Pashtun women, but in general the colors tend to be darker. A Kuchi outit consists of trousers with tightly itting ankle cuffs, a dress, and a head covering of some kind. Kuchi dresses normally have long, very wide sleeves and very full skirts. The front of the bodice, skirt, and sleeve hems are often decorated with metallic laces that are couched down. Such dresses are also adorned with amulets, pendants, tassels, button bands, motifs, and trinkets.

Tajik Dress The Tajik make up about one-quarter of the Afghan population and live in many parts of the country, but most of them can be found in the main cities and in the northeast and west of the country. At the end of the 20th century, the basic outit for Tajik men consisted of trousers with a drawstring waist (shalwar) with drawstring (tikke) and a knee-length shirt (kameez). These are usually in a wide range of colors and shades, but the same colors and material are always used for the trousers and shirt. The Tajik male headwear normally consists of an embroidered cap of some kind. The outit worn by Tajik women is very similar to that of other groups, namely trousers, dress, and head covering. Tajik trousers for women are usually of satin, cotton, or a synthetic material with straight legs. They are normally white or in a solid pastel color. The ankle cuffs of these trousers may be embroidered with a white border or embellished with couched white laces. Tajik dresses tend to have long sleeves and longish skirts. In general, Tajik dresses are not decorated with embroidery or metallic lace. Instead emphasis is placed on the use of different types of fabrics, often woven or printed with geometric and loral designs. Expensive fabrics such as brocades or printed silks are used for special occasions, while cottons and synthetic materials are for daily use. Tajik head coverings (chador) are normally about two yards in size and made from georgette, gauze, or cotton with lace, crochet, or needlepoint borders. Some of the cheaper examples have printed borders. In some areas of northern Afghanistan where the Tajik live closely with the Uzbeks, Tajik women tend to wear an outit that is similar to modern Uzbekistan forms. This outit consists of narrow ikat trousers worn with a shiny ikat dress. The

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Tajik woman in Afghanistan wearing the ikat-printed dress and traditional jewelry, c. 1910. (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, Prokudin-Gorskii Collection)

hair of women from this region is usually braided into numerous long strands. In public it is normal for a large head covering of some form to be worn.

Turkmen Dress The Turkmen are a Turkic group who speak a form of Western Ghuz (Oghuz) Turkic. Most of the Turkmen nowadays live in Turkmenistan, while there are substantial communities of Turkmen living in northeastern Iran and northern Afghanistan. The two main Turkmen groups in Afghanistan are the Yomut and Teke. From the beginning of the 19th century until the mid-1920s, the basic costume for a Turkmen man consisted of a pair of loose cotton trousers (balaq) and a shirt (koynek). Over these was worn a tight-sleeved robe (don) of striped silk. These garments were held together at the waist with a sash (qusaq). A man’s headgear consisted of a small skullcap (bork), sometimes with a turban or a cylindrical black sheepskin hat (telpek). This is still the dominant type of dress of the Afghan Turkmen. During the early 20th century the basic dress of a Turkmen woman consisted of undertrousers (balaq), a dress (koynek), and a headdress of some kind. In addition, some groups also wore a face veil (yasmak), a sash (sal qusaq, bil qusak),

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress an indoor coat of some kind (cabit or kurte), and for outdoor wear, a second coat (chrypy). The range and cut of the garments worn by Turkmen women in Afghanistan at the end of the 20th century has remained much the same, although the type of material used has changed. During the early 20th century, for instance, it was common for women’s dresses to be made out of silk or semisilk fabrics, which were woven either locally or imported from Turkmenistan. As a generalization Turkmen clothing for women today would seem to be much simpler than it was even 25 years ago. At the same time, however, it is also becoming much more colorful. An important feature of Turkmen dress for women is the quantity of silver and later gold jewelry that is worn. Most jewelry is worn on the head, down the front and back of the upper torso, and on the lower arms and hands, where it is very visible and people can see the social and economic status of the wearer. Little is worn on the lower body or feet. The variety of Turkmen jewelry is considerable and each group has its own particular forms and favorites, although it is noticeable that many groups are willing to wear Teke-made jewelry.

Uzbek Dress The Uzbek are a Turkic people of Central Asia. They live primarily in modern Uzbekistan and neighboring lands, but there are large populations in northern Afghanistan. A feature of both male and female Uzbek clothing is the use of ikats and embroidery. During the 19th century in Afghanistan, Uzbek dress for men consisted of a long shirt (kujlak) of cotton; undertrousers (ischton, balak), also of cotton, which were sometimes embroidered down the sides and along the ankle cuffs; an undercaftan (chapan); and then one or more outer caftans (chapan) depending on the status and wealth of the wearer. Both the under- and outer caftans reached to mid-calf height, so that embroidered trousers and boots would be visible. The outer caftan was kept in place with a belt (kamar), which was often decorated with silver or gold plaques. These caftans, especially the ones worn as the last layer, were often in boldly patterned ikat materials. Sometimes Chinese brocades were also used. In the past, the linings of these garments were sometimes made from imported Russian cottons that had been decorated with a bright printed design. These materials (cotton or silk) and the complexity of design used for the caftans is again an indication of social and economic status. Headgear consisted of a small cap (duppi) over which was wound a turban. There were many different types of caps depending on the social status of the wearer, his religion (Jewish or Muslim), occupation, and the occasion. Most were

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embroidered or quilted into intricate designs. Sometimes a giant furry hat was worn called a telpek, which was similar to those worn by some Turkmen. Footwear consisted of high leather boots suitable for horse riding. These were often embroidered with intricate designs similar to those found on the caftans. By the end of the 20th century Uzbek dress for men is basically a Westernized outit consisting of a shirt with trousers. However, on special occasions, an Uzbek festival outit is worn consisting of shirt and trousers, over which is worn an ikat or embroidered coat and an imposing telpek. There is a considerable difference between the dress worn by women at the beginning of the 20th century and that by the end. In the early 20th century, Uzbek women’s dress basically consisted of a pair of wide trousers, often with the upper half in cotton while the lower, visible section was of an ikat material. Over this was worn a tunic (mursak), which usually had a long slit down the front so that breast feeding an infant was easy. Over the trousers and top was worn a caftan. Like the male version it is based on a long central panel, but unlike the caftans worn by men, the female form tends to be short and have wider sleeves. Some forms of caftans worn by women also had a prominent waist; this type is sometimes called a rumcha. Like the men, the women wore several caftans, one on top of the other. At home it was normal for a girl or woman to wear a cap, with a panel down the back of the cap that was used to cover the hair. Both the cap and the hair panel were often made out of velvet and elaborately embroidered. In public a woman was expected to be totally covered, including her face. A special outit consisting of a coat (faranje, paranja) and a horsehair face veil (chasmband) was worn, which together was called a faranje (the same word used for the coat). Most Uzbek women, including those living in Afghanistan, had stopped wearing this outit by the mid-20th century. By the end of the 20th century, there were two main types of dress worn by women in Afghanistan. The irst consists of an Uzbekistan outit made up of a pair of ikat trousers with an ikat dress. The head covering for girls usually consists of a small cap, often in velvet. The headdress of a married woman is slightly more complicated and consists of a headscarf or a cap covered with a large shawl, often of white or a pale color. On special occasions a coat is worn over the dress, which is made from either ikat cloth or a plain material decorated with embroidery. The second, more conservative outit consists of baggy trousers with a wide dress, which is embroidered with large, colorful loral motifs. This is worn with an open-fronted coat, which has a deined waist. The main outer garment is a long coat with false sleeves that is draped over the shoulders. The outer coat is often embroidered, but not quite as vividly as the dress. A large shawl or chador is used to cover the head and upper body.

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Further Reading and Resources Dupree, Louis. Afghanistan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1873. Harlan, Josiah. A Memoir of India and Avghanistaun [sic], with Observations on the Present Exciting and Critical State and Future Prospects of those Countries. Philadelphia: J. Dobson Printers, 1842. Harvey, Janet. Traditional Textiles of Central Asia. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Kalter, Johannes and Pavaloi, Margareta. Usbekistan. Stuttgart: Edition Hansjörg Mayer, 1995. Paine, Sheila. Embroidery from Afghanistan. London: The British Museum Press, 2006. Paiva, Roland and Dupaigne, Bernard. Afghan Embroidery. Lahore: Ferozsons Ltd., 1993. Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian and Vogelsang, Willem. Covering the Moon: An Introduction to Middle Eastern Face Veils. Leuven: Peeters, 2008. Vogelsang, Willem. The Afghans. Oxford: Blackwell/Wiley, 2008. Vogelsang, Willem. “Dressing for the Future in Ancient Garb: The Use of Clothing in Afghan Politics,” Khil‘a: Journal for Dress and Textiles of the Islamic World 1 (2005): 123–138. Vogelsang, Willem. “The Pakul: A Distinctive, but Apparently Not So Very Old Headgear from the Indo-Iranian Borderlands,” Khil‘a: Journal for Dress and Textiles of the Islamic World 2 (2006): 149–156.

Albania Leyla Belkaïd

Historical and Geographical Background Albania stands at the crossroads between the Balkans and the Mediterranean Sea. Its coast follows the Adriatic Sea to the west and the Ionian Sea to the southwest. The country is bordered by Montenegro and Serbia to the north, the Republic of Macedonia to the east, and Greece to the south and southeast. The capital, Tirana, is situated in the center of the territory. The other important cities are Durrës, Elbasan, and Shkodër, while the main maritime cities are Durazzo and Valona, on the Italian coast. Albania, called Shqipëri in Albanian, covers 28,748 square miles (46,200 square km) and is a mountainous land.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Most of the 3 million people living in the country are Albanians, but there are also minorities of Greeks, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Vlachs, and Gypsies. Today, more than 2 million Albanians live abroad in the neighboring Balkan countries, Turkey, Italy, and other Western countries. Almost three-quarters of the population are Muslim, one-quarter is Christian Orthodox, and 10 percent are Roman Catholics. Nevertheless, the variety of the Albanian dress is due less to the expression of religious and ethnic differences than to the dissimilarities between the customs and the material culture of mountain dwellers and townspeople since antiquity.

History of Dress Albanians are the descendants of the Illyrians, one of the most ancient populations of the Balkan area. In the ifth century BCE, the Illyrians were organized in 11

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress federations of tribes neighboring the Macedonians, the Greeks, and the Thracians. The Illyrian men used to wear knee-length kilts, which persisted for millennia and remain central in the contemporary Albanian folk dress. Among the other components of the Illyrian costume were the wool mantles, the paenula cloak, and many elements of the traditional male costumes still worn nowadays by the older mountain villagers, like the undyed felt hats and the opinga (primitive leather shoes). The present traditional female dress of Albania also keeps the ancient garments and jewels of the irst and second millennia BCE. The felt xhoka (jackets decorated with thick red wool fringes), worn in the remotest villages of the northern mountains, probably date back to Illyrian times, while the xhubletë (skirt), which recalls the Cretan Minoan skirt, seems to be a very ancient heritage of the Balkan and Mediterranean civilizations of the Bronze Age. In the second century BCE, the Romans, who were the rivals of the Illyrians in the Adriatic Sea, occupied the territory of Albania. Many local tribes escaped the invaders by leaving the coasts and the plains to settle in the most inaccessible mountains. At the end of the fourth century, when the Byzantine Empire ruled the whole Balkan area, the eastern Mediterranean culture had a deep inluence on the evolution of Albanian urban clothing. The longevity of the Byzantine impact is illustrated by the striking golden embroidery that enhances the whole surface of the ceremonial xhybe (coats) worn by urban women till the early 20th century. In 1468, Albania was annexed to the Ottoman Empire. For more than four centuries, the velvet and brocaded caftans, the luxurious waistcoats, the shalwar (baggy trousers), and the Oriental-like headgear of the elite in Shkodër or Elbasan shared few characteristics with the archaic felt coats, tight trousers, and hats of the villagers living in rural areas. During the centuries of Ottoman rule, distinction through dress was based on social class rather than on religion. In the mountains, neither Catholic nor Muslim women wore veils, while the elite city dwellers of both religions were entirely veiled in the streets. Before the 18th century, only the Ottoman oficials and the Orthodox Church dignitaries were allowed to put on Byzantine-like caftans and jackets embroidered with gold thread. By the end of the 18th century, embroidery manufacturers started working for the merchants and other upper-class people as well. The Albanian townspeople followed Ottoman cultural practices, though they did not limit themselves to copying the Istanbul fashion. The bourgeois women used to wear a ine white silk shirt and a sleeveless xhybe. The xhybe is a typical Albanian coat itted to the bust and worn open. Its shape is enlarged from the hips to the knees. Shkodër and Elbasan women exhibited luxurious variations of velvet xhybe entirely decorated with golden braids and vegetal-patterned embroideries. Gold iligree buttons and removable sleeves, enriched with densely embroidered golden volutes, could be ixed on the garment to make it more imposing. A striped or lowery cloth

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cummerbund and a tight, short waistcoat were usually worn on the shirt. The lower parts of the long, baggy shalwar (trousers) underneath were also richly embroidered in gold thread. The Catholic women of Shkodër wore voluminous trousers, precious toques, and white lace mantillas to indicate their family wealth and social status. The dress of Shkodër was one of the most elaborate urban female costumes of the whole Balkan area. The Albanian dignitaries, oficials, merchants, and craftsmen who used to dress in the Turkish manner started following Western fashion before the Ottoman Empire was dismantled in the early 20th century. Traditional Albanian clothing worn by a On the contrary, the mountain people married Christian woman and man, c. 1873. preserved their strongly original tradi- (Library of Congress) tional costumes in both Christian and Muslim communities. At the end of the 19th century, they were often displayed as symbols of Albanianness by the leaders of the Albanian Renaissance, who fought for the independence of their country from the Turks. When Albania was liberated in 1912, it became a protectorate of the Western Great Powers. The modern suit rapidly spread across the territory and transformed the men’s wardrobe. In the main cities, Albanian women left their voluminous silk trousers and velvet coats with golden embroidery and trimmings to adopt Paris-like itted dresses, skirts, and jackets. Fashionable hairstyles and hats replaced the fezzes with golden tassels, the silk headbands decorated with gold coins, and the veils. Albania gained its full independence in 1920. It was invaded in 1939 by Italy and reached independence again after World War II to become an Eastern bloc country ruled by a communist regime till 1991. Since the middle of the 20th century, the Albanian folk dress has been worn only for weddings and national or regional festivities, except in the mountain areas where older people still wear their traditional costumes.

Materials and Techniques The Albanian traditional textiles are made of wool, linen, and hemp. The use of cotton fabrics is more recent and dates back to the late 19th century. Silk was

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress mainly imported from abroad by city dwellers, but rarely diffused in the mountains and rural regions where women and men wore garments sewn from domestic textiles woven on horizontal looms. Today, the Albanian traditional textiles are still embroidered in very elaborate ancient patterns. The folk costumes exhibited for local or national ceremonies in the cities are embroidered with couched gold thread by craftsmen working in professional workshops. Following totally different techniques, mountain women embroider the traditional bridal and ceremonial dresses in woolen thread. They use linen, silk, or cotton thread for the symbolic embroidery on chemises. Before the 20th century, Albanian textiles were dyed with vegetable substances to produce several shades of black, violet, brown, dark red, dark blue, green, and yellow. Rural men preferred wearing undyed wool felt fabric with white cream hues. The warm light-colored wools were shared by the main clothing components, from trousers to waistcoats and hats. Following different chromatic rules, the village women principally used black, red, and white wool fabrics decorated with brightly colored embroideries. Chemical dyes were introduced in Albania in the second half of the 19th century. They impoverished the chromatic variety of the vernacular dress. Today, the folk dress is usually cut from imported cottons, thin wools, and synthetic textiles, which are less heavy and thick than the handwoven woolen textiles.

Men’s Dress Albania still has many variations of male costumes. The main types of traditional garments used in most provinces are white chemises, braided creamy waistcoats and jackets, wide fustanellë (kilts), straight felt trousers, and large wool or silk cummerbunds tied around the waist. In the winter, an overcoat or lokatë was worn by the male population of all the regions, but it is no longer used today. The fustanellë is a knee-length pleated skirt made of white cotton or linen. In the 19th century, the komitët (warriors for national freedom) wore a black fustanellë. The other most common folk element used by the Albanians to cover the lower part of their bodies are the felt trousers called tirqi. The tirqi (pants) are sewn and decorated along the sides and around the pocket openings with a black gajtan (stripe). The black decorative stripes also follow irregular geometric lines on the front of the trousers under the belt to indicate group afiliation. Albanian men can superimpose the fustanellë (skirt) and the tirqi (trousers) for folk parades and dances. The woolen tirqi are associated with a white chemise and a felt jelek (waistcoat) with black thread ornament on the hem. A brightly colored xhamadani (long-sleeved jacket) can be added over the waistcoat. The xhamadani is richly embroidered with black and golden patterns, which indicate social rank. This dress originated in

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northeastern Albania before spreading to the western and southern areas of the country. Another style of male dress is the dollamë, an undyed felt coat worn over a long white shirt. In the winter, the xhurdia (black wool short-sleeved jacket) is added over the dress. It is representative of the Shkodër province, Mirdita, Mat, and Dibra costume in the northern area of central Albania. Wide overcoats are also quite popular in Albania. A white or dark blue overcoat called cibun is characteristic of the male dress in some towns and villages of southeastern regions. In southern Albania, the fustanellë (kilt) is replaced by wide kneelength breeches called poture, worn with a xhamadani (jacket). The modest poture are made of creamy or dark blue felt. Another type of Oriental-like voluminous trousers worn by both men and women all over Albania is the Albanian man from Malissor wearing brekusha. Most of the men’s costumes traditional clothing, c. 1873. (Library of are completed by an undyed wool hat, Congress) rounded or cylindrical in shape, which has diverse names from region to region, like pligi, qeleshe, or paft. Red Turkishlike fezzes with long tassels were also common to all Albanian city dwellers till the middle of the 20th century. Today, many ritual and ceremonial accessories are still used for festivities. The brez is a large belt or cummerbund in a striped or quilted cloth ornamented with golden jewels, tobacco boxes, yataghans, and a pair of pistols. The opinga are shoes made of one leather skin, formed to the feet with leather or wool strips. The typical turned-up leather shoes with red and black wool pompoms on the ends are also popular and often used for folk dances.

Women’s Dress The most original and iconic Albanian women’s dress is the xhubletë. The xhubletë is a heavy, thick skirt made of felt stripes, decorated with gajtan trimmings. It has a very speciic bell shape and its dark color is lightened with red and silver

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress horizontal stripes. This skirt only survives in some remote northern areas like Dukagjin and the Gjakivë mountains. It is traditionally worn with a felt xhoka (waistcoat) with many itted pleats on the back and triangular short sleeves bordered with thick red wool fringes. The xhoka has approximately 20 variations across the country. The xhoka worn with the xhubletë in the northern mountains is black and decorated with gold trimming. A woven apron, a large belt, hand-knitted wool socks, an undulating wig, and a lowery headscarf complete the ceremonial outit. Today, a lighter red skirt often takes the place of the antique woolen xhubletë. The Albanian folk dress is often decorated with symbolic elements of antique pagan origin, like suns, eagles, Girl wearing xhubletë at the Logu i Bjeshmoons, stars, or snakes. Most of the keve Festival, Lepushe, Albania, August 13, ornaments follow geometric designs 2010. (D&B Smith/Getty Images) that illustrate the archaic character of the mountain costumes. The decorative patterns also mix the cross of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, Islamic motifs, and Jewish symbols all together. The silver jewelry, such as long chains and medallions ixed to the belt, follows the same symbolism. Also very popular are amulets and silver coins, still exhibited today in many folk ceremonies. People credited them with having the power of catching evil spirits. Archaic tattoos were also supposed to protect children and women from magic spirits, but this antique tradition has totally disappeared today. The Albanian mountain costumes combine a wide number of homemade garments and accessories, often woven or knitted with woolen white, black, or red thread. The three colors respectively symbolize the life steps from birth to marriage, then death. In Kelmend, for example, the teenager’s bodice is white, the bride’s and the married women’s is red, and the older women’s is black. The female dress is usually brightened by complementary touches of yellow, violet, blue, and green. In some of the remotest mountains, the color and decoration of the dress still indicate social data. For burials, women sometimes turn their bodices inside out to conceal their decoration. In addition to the color symbolism, the patterns of

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the hand-knitted socks or çorapat used to signify distinctiveness between villages. In present times, the rituals and the meanings of the archaic textile and embroidery patterns are almost forgotten. The bell-shaped xhubletë is not the unique female dress of northern Albania. In Pukë and in Labëria, for example, it is replaced by a long chemise, simply made out of white cotton, which is worn with two wool aprons called futa. A back apron and a larger front apron with long black fringes cover the shirt. Both are decorated with symbolic silver motifs. Today, the heritage of the mountain clothing culture is more vivid than the urban one. In the cities, local customs and festivals have been affected by modernization. The variations of violet or deep red velvet coats and waistcoats decorated with gold thread embroidered patterns all waned when Albanian women fully adopted Western dress. The amazing diversity and magniicence of xhybe from one century ago vanished before the middle of the 20th century. However, a red felt ceremonial xhybe embroidered with black cotton thread can still be seen in the Shkodër mountains. This cheaper variation persisted longer, as did most of the clothing traditions of the rural and mountain areas.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress After an agitated 20th century with its succession of wars and migrations, many traditional costumes are still alive either in the country or abroad thanks to the festivities regularly organized by the Albanian diaspora. The folk costumes are jealously preserved by the local groups who perform traditional dances for commemorations, weddings, and folkloric manifestations, like the Logu dance or the dance of Kukës in the north. These costumes are exhibited by amateur dancers and by everyday people as well. Albanian women wear a modernized variation of urban ceremonial dress with a loose, baggy, luid wrap-around skirt and Oriental-like trousers, usually made of white silk, worn with a ine white chemise and a short jelek (waistcoat). In central Albania and in the city of Elbasan, the velvet waistcoat is embroidered with lower and leaf motifs worked in couched gold thread. Today, the gold motifs are sometimes illed with pale synthetic beads. An apron and a headscarf can be added to the dress to evoke the ancient Albanian traditions and aesthetics. The range of customs, rituals, and festivals to be found throughout Albania decreased in the past 50 years because of the modernization of society. Except in the remotest villages where older people never stopped wearing their typical costumes, traditional clothing is not considered suitable for everyday life. Women do not spin, weave, cut, sew, or embroider every item of their dress any more, but simpler and less decorated folk costumes are still appreciated and proudly exhibited at popular ceremonies and national festivities.

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Further Reading and Resources Andromaqi, Gjergji. Albanian Costumes Through the Centuries. Origin, Types, Evolution. Tirana: Mësonjëtorja, 2004. Blumi, Isa. “Undressing the Albanian: Finding Social History in Ottoman Material Cultures.” In Soraya Faroqhi and Christoph K. Neumann, ed. Ottoman Costumes. From Textile to Identity. Istanbul: Eren Press, 2004, pp. 157–180. Elsie, Robert. Historical Dictionary of Albania. Lanham, Toronto, and Plymouth: Scarecrow Press, 2010. Elsie, Robert. A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, Mythology, and Folk Culture. London: Hurst & Company, 2001. Waller, Diane. Textiles from the Balkans. London: The British Museum Press, 2010.

Algeria John A. Shoup

Historical Background Berbers or Imazighin peoples have inhabited North Africa since at least 9000 BCE, and they are the irst people to leave a lasting cultural mark on the country. Berbers formed into states due to the inluence of Carthage, founded in the ninth century BCE by Phoenician traders from Tyre, who brought with them urban life and an alphabet. The ancient Berber kingdom of Numidia, which occupies modern-day Algeria, remained governed by local princes until the civil war between Pompey and Caesar (45–49 BCE). The Pompians were defeated and Caesar annexed most of Numidia to the new province of Africa Nova. Caesar’s successor, Octavian Augustus Caesar, returned parts of Numidia to his friend Juba II after his victory over Cleopatra and Anthony at Actium in 31 BCE. When the Edict of Milan ended the persecution of Christians in 313 CE, many of those who had repudiated their Christianity tried to reenter the church, but the Donatists refused to allow them even after the Bishop of Rome agreed that they could again worship in churches. The Donatist movement remained and did not die out until the Arab Islamic conquests in the seventh and eighth centuries. In the Christian era, most of the former Roman provinces were ruled by Byzantium until the arrival in the seventh century of the Arabs. The Arabs arrived in Tunisia, led by ‘Uqbah bin Nai’, and established a base at Qayruwan in 670. Qayruwan is located on the edge of a plain and close to the desert. The Arabs were opposed by both the Berbers and the Byzantines, but by 701 both were defeated and Arab/Muslim victory was no longer challenged. The Berbers, once defeated, converted en masse to Islam. Christianity died out quickly and the Berbers were attracted to proto-Shi‘ism and to Kharaji forms of Islam. In 1070, the Almoravids, a Berber dynasty, founded the city of Marrakech as their capital and pushed on across Algeria to Tunisia. Spain and Portugal pursued the conquests of Mediterranean and Atlantic port cities, taking power in Morocco, as did the Hafsids and Ziyyanids in Tunisia and Algeria. 19

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The Ottoman Turks arrived in North Africa after their conquest of Egypt in 1517. The Ottomans were the main Muslim rivals for the power of Hapsburg Spain, and in 1574 the Ottomans took Tunisia. In 1529, the Turkish Sultan Sulayman (ruled 1520–1566) oficially annexed Tunisia to the Ottoman Empire. Algiers, like other North African ports, was allowed to harbor privateers who menaced European shipping until the 19th century. The Turks were concerned with the richer parts of the country and concentrated their rule in the north. Much of the Saharan areas were technically under the Moroccan Sultan until they were brought under French control in the irst decades of the 20th century. The French invasion of Algeria has its origins during the Napoleonic period when, in 1799, France bought food from the Dey, the rulers of Algiers, for the French army, but deferred payment to a later date. The French had not paid the debt and in 1827, Hussein Dey demanded that the French pay and in anger hit the French consul with his feather fan. In response, France blockaded Algiers. In 1829, French attempts to negotiate were met with cannon ire against one of the French military ships blockading the port. The French king, Charles X, decided stronger action was needed and ordered the invasion. In 1830, French forces landed west of Algiers and in a land-and-sea battle that lasted for several weeks, Algiers was taken. As early as 1848 the Mediterranean coastal region was administered as a part of France. The Algerians were led in their resistance to the French by Amir ‘Abd al-Qadir and by other local leaders. The French opened up Algeria to European emigrants from France, Italy, and Spain. Many of Europe’s poor came to Algeria with the dream of becoming rich. Arabs and Berbers were expelled and lands given to the Europeans. In 1845, the French government issued an order that divided Algeria into different types of communes, those where the Europeans were a majority with full rights as French citizens, those with mixed populations where a French military oficer or a local notable was the representative, and those where Arabs or Berbers were the majority populations and where a French military commander had full charge because the local population was not deemed suficiently subdued. In 1848, changes in the government in France brought changes to Algeria as well. The Second Republic replaced the Bourbon dynasty and the communes of Oran, Algiers, and Constantine were reorganized into French departments, granting French citizens the right to elect their own civil authorities. The rest of Algeria was outside of this and was governed by local Muslim authorities and/or the French military. During World War I and in the postwar period, little seemed to challenge French rule in Algeria. In World War II the French colonial areas sided with the pro-German Vichy government, but the Free French forces were greatly aided by Moroccan, Senegalese, and Algerian troops. De Gaulle, commander of the Free French, promised full equality following the war if the colonies would rally to the Free French. This did not pass in Algeria because the Europeans saw it as giving

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away too much while the Arabs and Berbers saw it as too little and too late. In 1954 the Algerian War of Independence began. The Algerian War of Independence lasted from 1954 to 1962 and both sides suffered great losses. The ruling party of Algeria, the Front de Libération Nationale (FLN), was established and quickly took over the leadership of the ight. By the time the ighting ended in 1962, the Fourth Republic of France had lost all of North Africa. The French were defeated. Charles de Gaulle agreed to give Algeria its independence. Once it was agreed that Algeria would become independent, the European colonists, most of Algeria’s Jewish population, and Algerians loyal to France (Harkis) led the country. Many Algerians moved to France and have been an important part of the French population since then. As of 2012, the population of Algeria is estimated at 35,406,300.

Geographical Background Algeria is a massive country stretching from the Mediterranean to deep into the Sahara and is one of the largest countries in Africa. The Mediterranean coast is narrow and tall mountains quickly rise up behind. The mountains are part of the Atlas range that starts in Morocco and end in Tunisia. They are high and rough. Like other Mediterranean countries, Algeria has cold, wet winters and hot, dry summers. During the winter it is possible to have snow in the mountains. While much of the Sahara is rock, Algeria includes several large sand seas, the Grand Erg Oriental, the Grand Erg Occidental, as well as Erg Chech and Erg Iguidi, both of which start in Mauritania and spill across the border into Algeria. The Sahara also has important oases such as the Mzab valley, just to the north of the Grand Erg Oriental; Tuwat near the Tademalt Plateau in the middle of Saharan Algeria; and others such as Ghat and Djanet in the Tassili n’ Ajjer. While some of these oases are inhabited by Berber-speaking Tuareg, others are Arabic speaking, and in the northern parts (near the border with Tunisia) the Sha‘ambah Bedouin dominate. Close to the border with Mauritania and Morocco live the Arabicspeaking Awald Hassan Bedouin.

People and Dress The French conquest greatly inluenced the clothing traditions, with indigenous clothing associated with the disenfranchised natives and Western styles associated with progressive-thinking assimilationists. Traditional clothing and textiles used to make traditional dress declined. Following independence, the ruling FLN party saw traditional clothing as something that belonged to local folklore, and Western dress was seen as progressive and modern. Those who wore traditional

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress clothes were considered to be reactionary and not part of the new, modern, socialist, and independent Algeria. Traditional clothes were worn by folklore groups when performing on stage, but not encouraged for daily dress. Only the more rural populations continued to wear folk dress, and the Berber Kabylis and Tuaregs used traditional clothes as a means of self-identiication. Traditional dress in Algeria is divided between that of the Mediterranean urban areas and the more rural hinterlands. The Sahara forms its own region, sharing customs, traditions, and material culture between the Berber-speaking Tuareg, the Teda (also called Tubu), and the pastoral Arab peoples who live in the same region. In addition, they have historically been in close contact with African peoples such as the Fulani (also called the Fulbe, Puel, and Pulaar, among other names), Mande, and Wolof. The Mediterranean areas were inluenced by the Ottoman Turks as well as Andalusian Arabic-speakers expelled from Spain who have inluenced local dialects of Arabic, food, architecture, and clothing.

Women Women’s clothing in Algeria, as in Tunisia and Morocco, is divided between urban and rural dress. More than men’s clothing, women’s clothing was subject to changes in fashion and was inluenced by European and Ottoman styles. By the start of the 20th century, particularly in the urban areas, women began to abandon traditional clothes for everyday wear and wore them only during holidays and special events. European fashion and textiles took over the market. France was a major producer of cloth such as silk, which looded the Mediterranean area in the late 19th century, destroying local cloth industries. In Algeria, the cloth industry in the town of Biskra in Algeria and Jerba and Sfax in Tunisia were able to resist for some time due to both the ine quality of the cloth woven and to the designs they used, some of which had been introduced by Andalusian refugees centuries earlier (Bouttiaux et al. 56–63; Bouilloc et Algerian Muslim woman wearing a haik, print from c. 1899. (Library of Congress) al. 137–169). Where there was strong

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Andalusian inluence, such as in the city of Constantine in northeastern Algeria, women wore long dresses in velvet or velveteen heavily embroidered in gold and silver thread in loral and arabesque patterns or in bright yellow, blue, green, and orange silk thread in loral patterns. Women wore a short, tight bolero jacket or vest, also of velvet and heavily embroidered in gold or silver thread. The use of metal thread was an indicator of wealth; the richer the family, the more use of metal thread. When leaving the house, women wore a large cloth outer robe usually called a haik in Arabic. The haik, made of white or natural offwhite cotton or a cotton and wool blend, covered the woman from the top of her head to her toes. It was wrapped around her so that her face was hid- Velvet kaftan heavily embroidered with den, and in some cases she had only gold thread, Algeria. (Art Directors.co.uk/ a single small opening for one eye to StockphotoPro) see out. If she was less conservative, a woman wore a separate face veil, sometimes heavily embroidered with cotton loss, but the haik still wrapped her entire body like a protective cocoon. The haik made a comeback in the 1950s and early 1960s as women were recruited by the FLN in their struggle for independence from France. Women dressed in haiks were dificult for the French soldiers to stop and search for weapons or documents and initially were less suspected. Traditionally women wore leather slippers generally called balghah in North Africa. Women’s shoes were frequently embroidered in metal thread to match the dress and were made with no backs for ease in putting them on and taking them off. Rural women in Algeria tended to wear clothes similar to those worn by women in Tunisia and Morocco. A usually heavy dark cotton or cotton and wool blend cloth was tied or pinned at the shoulders with large silver brooches called khilalat in Arabic and tizerzai in Berber. In most cases the cloth was relatively plain, although cloth with large checkerboard designs was also worn. The dresses were belted with a number of different wide sashes; unmarried women wore belts in blue or white, red being reserved for married women. Some of the more decorative

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sashes were made from cloth strips woven in Biskra, Sfax, or Jerbah while more common ones were long pieces of cloth the woman could use for a number of uses and then stick back inside the belt fold.

Men Men in northern Algeria, where most of the population lived prior to French invasion, wore clothes similar to clothing in other urban regions of North Africa. In general men wore white cotton shirts with somewhat puffy or full sleeves and an open collar. They wore embroidered waistcoats over which they wore a bolerotype jacket. The jacket was also embroidered and the type of cloth and amount of embroidery marked social class. Men wore “Turkish” trousers or sirwal that were tied at the waist by a pull string. The trousers were full, with ample amounts of cloth, to the knee. Under the knee the legs were tight in a cuff that was heavily embroidered. Some men wore long stockings that reached to the cuffs and wore a slipper shoe made of leather common to many Arab countries. The trousers and shirt were belted at the waist with a wide sash made of silk, silk and cotton, or some other silk blend cloth made of a number of colors. The sash was wrapped around and around the waist and tied by sticking the loose end into the top of the belt. Wealthy men stashed an expensive dagger into the belt and in later time periods, a pistol. Urban men usually wore a red felt hat with a long black silk tassel usually called shashiyah or more often chechia using a French spelling. Status was marked by the quality of the hat with simple, rough hats for everyday work and smooth ones with long black silk tassels for higher status men. Men could wrap a cloth around the bottom of the cap and again, the more expensive the cloth used, the higher their social status. Some men, such as religious scholars, continued wearing large turbans of Algerian imam wearing a turban of imported expensive imported cloth well into the French period. Religious scholars also Syrian cloth and a jallabah. (Courtesy John A. Shoup) wore more “Arab” clothes: a long shirt

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and a long overcoat made of cotton, linen, or wool. In the winter, men wore a large cloak with a hood called a burnous (also spelled burnoose) or salham. Some urban men had shorter varieties of burnous made for them to wear in all seasons, which were adopted by French military oficers, though never part of oficial dress except for the Sipahi (native) cavalry regiments. Rural men, both Berber and Arab, tended to wear clothes similar to those of other rural men in North Africa, and their dress was determined by whether they lived in the mountains, on the Mediterranean coast, or on the arid plains and deserts of the interior. Most of their clothes were similar to those of the urban men, but instead of being inely tailored by professionals, their clothes tended to be homemade and of rougher, homespun woolen cloth. In addition, rural men wore, and some still wear, a cotton or woolen jallabah or long, ankle-length overrobe, sewn closed in front with a hood. Rural men wear the same red cap as urban men, but often bind a cloth around their heads as a turban, called a shaysh, more frequently spelled cheich in French. The shaysh is not nearly as large as that worn by Tuareg men, but it is long enough to be brought around the nose and mouth to protect the wearer from cold, dust, or sand. In part of Algeria, men used to wear a white or offwhite cloth much like the kufiyah of Jordan or Palestine and bind it with a black cloth or a cord made of black goat hair. As an outer cloak, men throughout North Africa used to wear a ksa, a toga-like garment made of a large cotton or cotton and wool blend cloth with one end brought over the left shoulder and tied into the belt, then folded over the head and around the waist. The excess cloth was brought up over the left shoulder and then folded into the belt, leaving an opening for the arm to be free. The remainder of the other end of the cloth (the part originally placed over the head) was brought across the front of the wearer and over the left shoulder where it could be ixed into place with a cord. Typically rural men wore leather sandals or slippers made by local craftsmen, but men also wore leather boots for riding horses. Boots had thick, irm leather soles and a bit of heel, though poorer men rode in their slippers or sandals with a type of short yellow leather chaps worn from ankle to mid-calf.

Dress in the Kabyli Region Women in the Kabyli region in the Aures Mountains (part of the Tell Atlas range) wear colorful dresses made of bright yellow, green, pink, blue, or white cotton cloth. The dress is full body and reaches to just above the ankles. The shoulders and chest are decorated with a series of cloth rufles made of the same cloth as the dress and further decorated with rickrack, often in black, red, and green. The skirt is also decorated with cloth rufles and rickrack designs starting near the knees and continuing to the bottom hem. The wrists are decorated with rows of rickrack

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress appliqué. Women cover their hair with a cloth that is tied neatly around the head. This headpiece is not very large and is put on like a scarf with the two ends brought underneath the hair and the tail of the scarf and tied together in front or to the side of the head. This is a common feature of the costumes of many rural women in much of the Maghrib region. When leaving the house, women put on another larger cloth that serves as a cover that can be brought up over the nose and mouth when meeting men other than those in the same family. Today women of the region wear local fashion as a statement of Berber identity, and some popular Algerian singers, such as Shabbah Zahwaniyah, have adopted it for stage performances.

Dress in the Tuareg Region The Tuareg are a Berber-speaking people who live in the southern parts of Algeria and into the southwestern parts of Libya, the Saharan parts of Mali and Niger, and south into parts of Burkina Faso. They have distinctive forms of clothing that mark them as separate from most of their neighbors in addition to marking class within the Tuareg peoples. The Tuareg have been greatly romanticized by European travelers who compared them to European medieval knights and popularized them with tourists. Tuareg or Tuwariq is the Arabic name for them, being a plural of the name Tariq, while their own name for themselves is Kell Tamasheq or Kell Tamajek, meaning those who speak Tamasheq, their form of Berber. Tuareg men wear a large turban called a tagelmust made of cotton cloth called aleshu (dyed in deep indigo) some 16 feet (ive meters) long. The turban is wrapped around the head in such a way as to cover the lower face in a fold that can be lifted up and down. The tagulmust can be made of any piece of long cloth and can be any color, but the dark indigo rubs off onto the skin, making it a dark blue color. Indigo is expensive, so this is sometimes seen as a status symbol. Women also wear a headscarf called an erkerkey or adalil that usually falls over the shoulders and that they can bring up to cover the face when necessary. The erkerkey is not nearly as long as the tagulmust but is usually made out of the same cotton cloth, which is purchased from Hausa traders from northern Nigeria where the cotton is grown and the cloth woven and dyed. For both men and women, wearing the head cover denotes status as adults. For holidays and special celebrations Tuareg women, especially in Niger, wear short bolero shirts that are lared out around the waist in white, black, or indigo blue cloth, often with lace sleeves, and embroidered in red, black, and yellow cotton thread. The costume is completed with a wrap-around skirt that its tightly at the hips. The skirt may also be embroidered, and she wears a matching piece of cloth as a turban, often made from the same cloth as the shirt and skirt, similar to the pagne of West African women. For more ordinary wear, Tuareg women usually

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wear a long dress made from a single piece of cloth that is tied at both shoulders to make the dress called a tesoghelnet, which is similar to the milhifa’ of the Hassani Arabs in Mauritania. The cloth is long enough to be folded around over the head and used to cover the face when necessary. Women also wore, and some still wear, a dress called a tbertine or tebetik made of goat leather decorated with long fringes. This had been the dress of the poor and slave groups and was abandoned by Tuareg women by the 1950s. Tuareg men wear a long poncho-type robe with long, wide, open sleeves that are usually worn folded back up over the shoulders of the tilbi. The front has some embroidery, and a piece of crocheted material is attached from the neck along an opening to the pocket, which allows the pocket to carry something heavy in it and not tear or stretch the cloth of the robe. The robe is made from a variety of different types of cloth, from something fairly inexpensive for everyday wear to costly starch-stiffened cloth from Mali. The use of more ornate embroidery with metal threads implies greater wealth and status. Most of the robes are made by tailors in cities, towns, and villages who use non-Tuareg designs in addition to more traditional ones. In the winter months men wear a woolen cloak, often with a hood, called a burnous or salham. These are made and worn by Arab and Berber men throughout North Africa. For festivals, Tuareg men wear several layers of cloths in contrasting white and dark indigo. They wear cloth or leather cross belts and decorate their turbans with a number of silver charms called a techort or a tereout. Under their layers of outer dress, men wear “Turkish” trousers called akerbay. These trousers have a pull string around the waist to belt them and immediately lare out with ample amounts of cloth around the upper legs and buttocks but come to a tight cuff above the ankle. They are frequently embroidered around the two front pockets and down the leg to the cuffs. The cuffs may also be embroidered since they may be exposed when riding a camel. Today some Tuareg men wear the longer, straight trousers preferred by Zerma (Songhay), Pulaar, and Bamana men in complete sets (long shirt and trousers of the same cloth and lightly embroidered) called forokiya in Bambara (the national language of Mali). These can be made from expensive textiles locally called Khomeini (due to the star and crescent moon designs woven into the cloth) or from bazin or wakkas (Dutch wax) cloth. Both men and women wear sandals called iragazan or tadakat, made of several layers of leather sewn together to make the sole. The soles are cut into several different shapes, but generally the front is rounded while the heel ends in a sharp angle on each side. The sandals are usually painted in red and outlined in black. The strap between the big toe and the one next to it is attached to the bottom of the sandal to be secure and the larger strap that goes over the instep of the foot is sewn to the sole at the sides. The toe piece is also sewn to it, though today tourists need to be sure the sandal is fully sewn and not glued together. The larger strap is

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress also dyed red and the other decoration is in green-colored leather. In addition to sandals, Tuareg men also wear leather shoes or boots, generally called ibuzagan. The boots come up to the mid-calf and are often tan in color with leather appliqué decorations in red and green or with painted designs, also mainly in red and green.

Further Reading and Resources Bouilloc, Christine, Arnoud Maurières, and Marie-Bénédicte Seynhaeve. Tapis et Textiles du Maroc è la Syrie. Paris: Hachette Livre/le Chêne, 2009. Bouttiaux, Anne-Marie, Frieda Sorber, and Ann van Cutsem. Costumes et Textiles d’Afrique: des Berbers aux Zulu. Milan: 5 Continents Press, 2008. Gardi, Bernhard. Le Boubou—c’est chic: Les boubous du Mali et d’autres pays de l’Afrique de l’Ouest. Basel: Musée national des arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie, 2000. Seligman, Thomas and Kristyne Loughran, eds. Art of Being Tuareg: Sahara Nomads in a Modern World. Los Angeles: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2005. Wiess, Walter and Kurt-Michael Westermann. The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants in the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.

Armenia Susan Lind-Sinanian

Historical Background The Armenians are one of the most ancient and distinctive ethnic groups of western Asia or Eurasia. The ancient Armenians were principally occupied with cattle rearing, stock breeding, and agriculture, and by the Middle Ages, they developed artisan, merchant, and trader classes. Armenian kingdoms and principalities became part of the famed Silk Road, a trade route that connected China, India, and the Middle East to Europe. Items traded included silk, tea, spices, and jewels, leading to ever-wider ranges of cultural exchange. The kingdom of Armenia was established around 600 BCE, becoming most powerful around 80 BCE. In the early fourth century, Armenia became an early adopter of Christianity. Its strategic position made it a desirable destination for invaders, irst Greeks, Romans, and Assyrians, and later Persians, Ottoman Turks, and Russians. In the 13th century Mongol invaders conquered Armenia and were then followed by destructive invaders from Central Asia throughout the next two centuries. Continued invasions led to great destruction of the country and a weak leadership. Under Ottoman rule and until the 19th century, forced re-settlement occurred, leading many Armenians to leave their homeland. Eastern Armenia was incorporated into the Russian Empire in the early part of the 19th century. It was dificult for Christian Armenians to live under strict Muslim social structures as they were continually discriminated against. Resistance resulted in massacres of Armenians in the hundreds of thousands. With the Ottoman Empire collapsing in the early 20th century and the outbreak of World War I, there was great distrust of Armenian intellectuals in particular, and a large number (around 600,000–1,000,000) of Armenians living in Anatolia were massacred in the Armenian genocide of 1915–1916. In Armenia, the desire to tie Armenian history more closely to that of the West has led to an overemphasis on Western contacts Armenians had with either ancient Greeks or European Crusaders. In fact, the historic record demonstrates

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress that Armenians were no more inluenced by Hellenism in Asia than Egypt, Syria, or Iran, and in some sense less so. The destruction of the Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire and the absorption of the remaining portion of Armenia into the Soviet Union in 1921 effectively shattered the national costume of historic/western Armenia. Today, Armenia is an independent republic, established in 1991 after the breakup of the Soviet Union, but it continues to struggle with Turkey and Azerbaijan over border issues and has suffered from lack of economic growth. Many Armenians have emigrated from the country to the United States and to other places. In 2012, the population of Armenia was approximately 2,970,500.

Geographic and Environmental Background The present-day Republic of Armenia is located in the Transcaucasus, the northernmost extension of the greater Middle East. It is bordered by Georgia to the north, Azerbaijan on the east, Iran to the south, and Turkey to the west. However, historic Armenia encompasses a much larger area of 100,000 square miles and includes the Great Plateau in eastern Turkey, which extends into the southern Caucasus. Its easternmost extension includes Armenian-populated Karabakh, whose status is disputed between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Rugged extinct volcanoes characterize the region. The most famous of these is the nearly 17,000-ft. Mount Ararat, the national symbol, which ills the skyline of the Armenian capital of Yerevan from Turkish territory. Also notable are Mount Sipan, north of Lake Van (also in Turkey), and Mount Aragats, north of Yerevan, at over 13,000 ft. the tallest mountain in the Republic of Armenia. At most points, the Tigris, Euphrates, and Arax rivers and their tributaries are unnavigable. The geographers of classical times considered the Euphrates River to be the border between Anatolia and Armenia proper and also roughly formed the boundary between Greater Armenia to the east and Lesser Armenia to the west. Hundreds of years after Armenia lost its independence, the Arax River, together with the Zagros Mountains to the south, formed the border between the Turkish and Persian empires and likewise between the cultural zones of eastern and western Armenia. The Armenian republic of today is a fraction of historic eastern Armenia, the western part being entirely swallowed up by Turkey since 1920. The Arax now delineates the border between Turkey and Armenia, Armenia and Iran, and Azerbaijan and Iran before terminating in the Caspian Sea. Although the Armenian highland towers over other neighboring Middle East regions, its numerous microclimates, with tremendous variation in lora and fauna, required ingenuity and persistence for the Armenian people to wrest a living from

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the largely arid terrain. With effective irrigation, however, pambak (cotton) and jute (hemp) have been cultivated since ancient times.

People and Dress Armenian textiles, especially carpets, kilims, cushions, and other woven goods, became highly prized trade and tribute items attested to in both Byzantine and Islamic sources. Armenian red, an organic dye known as kirmiz (kermes) or ordan garmir, based on the processed shells of native insects, is the color most associated with Armenian costumes and textiles. It is not surprising, given the extreme and varied climatic conditions, that Armenian dress evolved in a layered pattern, with shalvar (generally wide or baggy trousers) and shabig (shirts) forming the base upon which jackets, caftans, coats, dresses, aprons, cloaks, sashes, belts, moccasins, boots, stockings, headgear, and jewelry were added to serve practical, social, or aesthetic purposes. Although a romantic notion of Armenians as an island of Christianity in a sea of Islam was purveyed by Europeans who had rediscovered Armenians in the 18th and 19th centuries, Armenian culture (including its Christianity) is irmly rooted in western Asia. The elements of traditional Armenian dress therefore have shared much in common with that of neighboring and ethnically related peoples (especially Kurds and Iranians).

Ethnic and Religious Diversity Because of Armenia’s complex history of being part of different empires, Armenian costume has played a strong role in maintaining the Armenian identity. One can talk about the ethnic and religious diversity in Armenia’s past history; however, today the Republic of Armenia is one of the most homogenous states that have emerged from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Armenians now constitute nine-tenths of the population. Sumptuary laws during the 16th century dictated that non-Muslim people dress differently than their Muslim rulers. Armenians and Jews had to wear black and purple shoes, Greeks wore red, and Muslims could wear yellow. Sumptuary laws changed throughout the years. In the 19th century, Armenians could wear red shoes, Muslims wore green. In some urban centers with an overwhelming majority of Muslims, Armenian women covered their heads and arms by wearing a chador when they went outdoors. The Armenian and Turkish chador was a colorful garment constructed with two rectangular fabrics sewn together with a casing and drawstring down the

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Child’s shoes, Bitlis, late 19th century. Ottoman sumptuary laws required that Armenians wear red shoes. (1986.273 Donated by Mt. Holyoke College/Armenian Library and Museum of America)

center. The garment was worn as a double skirt indoors, and when the wearer was traveling outside the home, the top layer could be pulled over the head, covering the arms and shoulders.

History of Dress Armenian history can be divided into four major periods: ancient, classical, medieval, and modern. Ancient Period: Urartu Kingdom, 900–600 BCE The ancient kingdom of Urartu, which extended between Asia Minor and the Caucasus Mountains, later became Greater Armenia. The Urartians were the formidable enemies of the Assyrians and builders of complex fortresses. They were skilled architects and masons, who developed metalwork into an art form with a tradition focusing on animals, mythical and real. Two examples of belts from the collection at the Armenian Library and Museum, made from a single bronze sheet hammered to a very thin metal piece, display the skill of these artisans. Magical scenes and animal designs were inscribed on the belts to help protect the wearer.

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This rare intact bronze Urartian’s archer’s belt is inscribed with magical symbols to ward away harm, c. 700 BCE. (1992.096 Donated by Karl Sogoian/Armenian Library and Museum of America)

Archaeological expeditions to this area have been ongoing and other wonderful discoveries of artifacts have been unearthed. Urartians enjoyed wearing metal ornaments and many examples exist of bracelets, necklaces, earrings, and pins. In museums in the Republic of Armenia, one can ind bracelets decorated with lions’ heads, necklaces made with stone beads, and long metal pins used to hold together clothing, which was draped around the body. The dress of Armenians during this period was similar to that of their rivals, the Assyrians, who wore short-sleeved tunics alone or together with shawls wrapped in various ways. Classical Period, 600 BCE to 600 CE With the emergence of the Armenians as a political entity in 600 BCE, clothing transformed. During this period, Armenian men wore itted trousers and a very distinctive hat known as the Phrygian cap. Later this type of headgear evolved into the bashlik, a very lexible accessory worn by both shepherds and religious leaders. Very little iconographic evidence survives of Armenians during this period. The images that do exist depict Armenian supplicants; they were subjects or

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress enemies found in Roman and Persian sculptures and political iconography. There were no images of women. Medieval Period, 600 CE to 1600 CE New sources of documentation arise during this period emerging from manuscripts with illuminations. Most of the artists were monks who often illustrated other religious igures. The upper class wore clothing similar to other Byzantine and Arab elites, for example, turbans. The clothing depicted was not elaborately decorated and does not display details showing regional variations that one sees later. Other sources of images can be found on churches, coins, and khatchkars. These rectangular ornamental stone crosses, usually made of tuff (basalt), were devotional or memorial monuments and carvings. Modern Period, 1600 CE to 20th Century Unlike the paucity of information about earlier times, abundant information exists regarding dress of the 17th through the early 20th centuries. Many travel accounts discuss the clothing of the non-Muslim and minority populations living in the Ottoman Empire. In the Caucasus and eastern regions it is more dificult to ind references. The Armenian interior was impoverished and mountainous. There was also less interest in this area; it was thought to be less exotic to travel to these more remote areas.

Materials and Techniques The materials used in clothing were primarily of local manufacture. The human domestication of sheep and goats irst occurred in the Armenian highlands ca. 3000 BCE, and wool was always the most important textile used in a wide variety of forms. Felted goat hair was commonly used in the shepherd’s burka, a cape-like coat. Native silk also had a long tradition in Asia Minor, going back to the Emperor Justinian, and in the Ottoman Empire silk manufacturing was dominated by Armenians on the Armenian Plateau. In Village of Parchanj, Manoog Dzeron has written extensive accounts of the cotton and silk industries in the village of Kharpert (Harpoot). Mr. Dzeron describes each step of the production of cotton, which was one of the main crops of the village. He describes the workers and some of their clothing. In the 1860s sericulture was introduced into the village of Parchanj where it lourished and became a very important industry and source of income. Torgants Gimish Arout traveled to Dikrangerd and brought back silk textiles to sell and during his travels he learned sericulture and instructed several villagers in

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the techniques. Another resident learned silkworm culture in a Bursa school and started his own business. In the mid-19th century several Armenian entrepreneurs in the city of Kharpert started silk manufacturing industries. The Fabrikatorian Brothers and the Kurkjian family were two of the most well known in the area. The owners of these factories sent their sons to Paris to learn the latest technology in silk weaving and designs. The most common textile these factories produced was silk brocade with small to large single lowers and fabrics with loral designs and alternating stripe patterns. Examples of wedding dresses and bolts of these fabrics dating from 1861 to 1915 can be found at the Armenian Library and Museum of America. These industries were involved in the entire process of silk production, from raising the silkworms to manufacturing the inal product. Armenian silks were introduced to the West at the Ottoman Empire booths at international trade expositions beginning with the London Exhibition of 1851. In the Armenian Library and Museum’s collection is a fabric stamped with Armenian and Ottoman Turkish script that was exhibited at the Philadelphia World’s Fair in 1876. The fabric is blue and plum faille silk, 19 inches wide and stamped with the names Harpoot, Mezireh, and Krikor, 1861. The fabric was most likely manufactured in the Fabrikatorian Brothers factory. In western Armenia, as Christians living in a Muslim country, men and women did not want to call attention to themselves by wearing ethnic decorations. Therefore, embellishments on Armenian costumes were minimal. Instead many of the regional embroideries, including Marash interlacing and Marash satin stitch, were stitched on household items such as bed coverings and pillows. At the end of the 19th century, Dr. Frances Shepard developed the Aintab Cottage Industries. She gathered Armenian women from Aintab to produce the local pulled-thread and drawnwork embroidery and added needle lace to make collars, cuffs, and jabots for export to Europe and America. Other cottage industries developed to help sustain the Armenians living in Cilicia and Anatolia. During the beginning of the 20th century Armenian knotted needle lace trim could be seen on collars and cuffs of wedding dresses in the Kharpert and Erzeroum region. Urban Armenian women preferred European embroidery, such as satin and chain stitch. In Istanbul, tambour work, a chain stitch worked on top of the fabric by using a ine hook similar to a crochet hook, was very popular during the late 19th to early 20th centuries. This type of embroidery can be seen on many examples of robes. Beautiful loral patterns covered the entire robe, which was often made of silk with embroidery in gold and silver metallic threads. Examples of these garments were made and worn by Armenian women in Aleppo, Istanbul, Jerusalem, and Beirut.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Satin stitch was popular in the 19th and 20th centuries and can be found on many accessories in both villages and towns. Women’s pillbox hats and slipper tops were embroidered in loral patterns. Fruits and vegetables were also common designs for these embroideries, stitched on fabrics that were later cut out and placed on shoes. Since the early 19th century, a large Armenian population lived in the Akhaltzkha region of Georgia. In this region, women adorned their aprons with gold threaded couching in a paisley motif. The initials of the maker were also couched into the paisley motif in each corner at the bottom of the long apron, which was often made of red velvet. At a very early age girls learned the technique of knotted needle lace that usually adorned household items, such as edgings of bed linens, tablecloths, and underwear. In the late 19th to early 20th centuries, Armenians, like Europeans, stitched lace on the collars and cuffs of dresses. Armenian needle lace remains to this day a revered art in the Republic of Armenia. Young girls throughout Armenia continue to learn knotted needle lace that is stitched with a sewing needle. Needle lace also adorns the headscarves called lachik (Armenian) or yazma (Turkish). Often three-dimensional lowers and vegetables of needle lace in different colors were stitched onto the edges of the headscarves. Block printing in large loral patterns is a common technique for these textiles. Card weaving was a popular technique in the eastern regions of Armenia. Long narrow belts for men and women were woven in cotton, silk, and wool threads. In Akhaltzkha wedding belts for brides were commonly woven with red and yellow silk threads and inscribed with the name and date. Armenians used animals, vegetables, and minerals to dye their threads. One of the most popular and oldest dyes, kirmiz, produced from scale insects, was known locally as vordan karmir. The process of making this brilliant red dye was dificult and time-consuming. Women would scrape the “worms” from grasses and then dry and crush them to obtain the dye.

Dress of the East and West Traditional Armenian costume for both men and women can be divided into two major categories, eastern (Caucasus) and western (historic Armenia). In both areas, layering component pieces were characteristic features since the climate luctuated considerably. In eastern Armenia, women wore long dresses with coatdresses, both short and long. The men wore cotton shirts, three-quarter-length itted jackets similar to the Caucasian cherkeska, and loose trousers made of wool, not as baggy as trousers in western Armenia.

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The western Armenian costume for women consisted of a long dress, coatdress, bib, and sash or metal belt. In many areas an apron and a short bolero-style jacket was popular. A man’s costume consisted of baggy shalvar (pants), shabig (shirt), and a jacket matching the pants. The whole ensemble was wrapped with a long sash around the waist and sometimes a wool vest was added. In Bitlis and Van, the vest was often made of felted goat’s hair. A pillbox hat with a scarf wrapped around the bottom edge completed the costume. Unlike the women’s costumes of historic Armenia, which had slight variations from those of other peoples in the region, the men’s costume was more adaptive and similar to that of non-Muslims.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress In both eastern and historic Armenia, the richness of materials used distinguished the everyday garment from special-occasion dress. For example, in the Zangezour region in eastern Armenia, the bride or a wealthier woman would wear a velvet coat trimmed and lined with fur. The everyday coat would be the same style except with a different fabric and without fur. In Zangezour the colors of the women’s costume were the same for a wedding and for everyday, usually a red dress and green coatdress. In Akhaltzkha and Kars, women wore a blue coatdress and a red apron with a pillbox hat and short- to medium-length veil. Wedding garments would feature velvet for the aprons and coatdresses. The bride’s long apron would be embroidered around the edges with metallic threads in a couching stitch and would have a paisley motif in each corner, which included the bride’s initials. Examples of extant costumes often are special-occasion garments. Many period photographs depict men, women, and children in their inest dress or borrowed clothing for the picture. The everyday woman’s garment in Sepastia was a dress and coatdress. In the collection of the Armenian Library and Museum, there is a coatdress from the Govdun region of Sepastia that according to the donor’s information belonged to her aunt and dates from about 1890. This garment is made of handquilted cotton in an indigo print and is lined with red wool. In contrast, the coatdress of a bride or wealthier woman from this region would most likely be made of a brocaded silk in the same style. During the last quarter of the 19th century and the early 20th century, brides from the Kharpert and Sepastia regions adopted wedding dresses with itted bodices and full skirts in the European fashion. It was not unusual to ind traditional set-in sleeves on these garments. Fabrics for these dresses were often silk brocade with striped or loral patterns made in local factories using a palette of deep, rich colors including gold, blue, plum, and purple. In Kharpert, a black velvet band approximately two inches wide trimmed the hemline or just above. The edges of sleeves

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and the center front might also be trimmed with velvet. On this new style of wedding attire, Armenian needle lace made its irst appearance as a visible decorative element. Typical places it was used were at the neck, bodice, and on the cuffs. Previously needle lace was restricted to household linens and girls’ and women’s underwear. In many regions of eastern and western Armenia, the bridegroom wore two wide bands of ribbon across his chest. These red and green ribbons crossed over the groom’s outer garments. An example of a bridegroom from the Caucasus region is on view at the Sardarabad Museum in Armenia. Costumes for a bride and groom from Khapert, 1894. The bride’s two-piece dress and matching jacket is a printed wool challis fabric typical of garments from this period. The European inluence is evident in the style and design. The groom’s garment is more traditional. His long coat, or zubun, is made of silk faille. During the latter part of the 19th century, the bride and groom would both wear traditional or European wedding garments or one would wear traditional and the other Europeaninluenced attire. (1990.014 A & B (left) 1990.016 (right) Donated by Queenie Boyajian/Armenian Library and Museum of America)

Component Parts of Dress Dressing the bride and groom was a very important part of the wedding ritual. Songs were written mentioning each article of clothing. In Village of Parchanj, Dzeron describes how the godfather picks up each piece of clothing, gives it to the “dresser of the king,” and everyone sings. The following is a description of the various components of costumes, male and female, eastern and western, from the late 19th to early 20th centuries.

Hats,Veils, and Mouth Coverings The pillbox style or fez hat was the most common type worn by both men and women, and each region had its own distinctive headgear. For example, in western Armenia, women in some regions wore a hat alone, and in other regions they wore combinations of hats and veils. The height of the hat varied from a very small disc-shaped hat in the Trabizon region to the tall, cylindrical-shaped ones in the Van area. Typical headgear in the Moush region consisted of several layers.

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A base component, which was similar in shape to a Jewish yarmulke (skullcap) was often edged with pendant jewelry resting on the forehead. Over this piece a low pillbox hat was placed, and a braided cloth was wrapped around the edge of the hat. Sometimes additional jewelry would be added, which hung near each ear. In Kharpert and Erzeroum, the layered hat was sometimes worn as well as veils of varying fabrics and lengths over the hats without the wrapped braided cloth. In some regions including Van and Trabizon a metal hat called a tossak was worn. This headgear was shaped like a disc, had metal tassels, and was worn alone or over a hat. In eastern Armenia women wore hats and veils similar to those of women in western Armenia. Older women covered their mouths up to their noses with a cloth, and in some areas of Karabagh this custom still exists. A unique type of headgear was worn in Yerevan and eastern Armenia, a velvet headband embellished with three-dimensional lowers, fruits, and vegetables made of needle lace and worn with a veil. Men also wore various pillbox-shaped hats. All male citizens in the latter part of the Ottoman Empire were required to wear the fez, a deep red, felted wool cylindrical-shaped hat with a black tassel. However, this law was only enforced in the city. It is very common to see family portraits taken around 1900 showing men and boys in their European-style black wool frock coats wearing a fez. In many areas the fez or pillbox hat was worn with a braided sash around the bottom. Another form of headgear especially suited for bad weather was a hooded scarf called a bashlik. The shepherd’s bashlik was made of sheep’s wool, which was usually undyed. Eastern Armenian men wore headgear similar to that of men from the Caucasus, Transcaucasus, and parts of Russia. Very large wool hats (papakh) made in different shapes, sizes, and types of wool were very common in eastern Armenia and Karabagh. A man’s hat was a very important part of his identity. Svetlana Poghosyan, textile curator at the Sardarabad Museum in Yerevan, gives an example that illustrates this point. Srtanots (bibs) were worn by women of both eastern and western Armenia and were both plain and lavishly embroidered. This garment functions as a dickey and covers the front part of the bodice. It is secured with ties around the neck and at the waist. It is worn under a dress with a low-cut neckline. Gognots (aprons) were decorative as well as functional. They were long rectangular pieces of wool, silk, or cotton usually worn with a card-woven or metal belt. A red apron made of silk velvet or wool decorated with gold metallic embroidery around the edges was worn over a blue coatdress in Akhaltzkha, Erzeroum and Kars. Several examples of these aprons are extant in both Armenia and the diaspora. In the Van, Sassoun, and Moush regions aprons were made of wool using a lat-woven technique known as kilim. Very ine cross-stitch embroidery in geometric patterns that resemble rug designs, stitched on hand-loomed indigo-color

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress cotton, were typical of aprons from Van and Sepastia. In some regions examples of aprons can be found with shells stitched in a loral pattern near the top edge of the apron and sequins in various places in the embroidery, most likely placed there to ward off evil. Embroidered igures can also be found on the top edges of aprons from the Van region. Illustrations of women from Kharpert and Van show that a full or long cotton apron was worn. The top part looks like a bib and is fastened around the neck. The skirt wraps around the sides and is tied in back at chest level. Belts and Sashes Silver belts and long sashes were worn by women from both western and eastern Armenia. Belts were generally worn over the entire ensemble. Silver belts consisted of several rectangular plates linked together with a large buckle, often iligreed with hanging silver tassels. In historic or western Armenia, the maker might engrave his initials, the place of origin, and the tugra (stamp of the reigning sultan). The links of the belts commonly featured loral patterns as well as buildings in niello work. The sashes were made of wool or cotton and wrapped several times around the waist. An interesting custom occurred during the dressing of the bride, an important event before the wedding ceremony. The groom’s godfather would put the belt on the bride, symbolizing his responsibility for what developed under the belt. Men also wore silver belts and sashes. In the eastern regions wide silver belts were worn over the common chukha, which is similar to the Caucasian cherkeska. An example of a belt found in the Nikol Duman Memorial Museum in Karabagh features a round buckle with engraved nodules. Men’s sashes sometimes were large, square hand-loomed fabrics often made of wool. During the mid to end of the 19th century, belts were made from fabrics imported from Kashmir and Kirman. This wool, which was made into shawls, was also used for men and women’s sashes and for belts to tie around a cradle to secure the baby. For men’s belts the square fabric was folded into a triangular shape and then wrapped around the waist. Because men did not have pockets in their trousers, they used their sashes to store some of their belongings by stufing them into the top edges.

Men’s Dress The men of western Armenia wore hand-loomed wool pants and matching jackets. There were variations in the choice of shirts worn under the jacket: a European white shirt or a shirt cut in the same manner as the jacket. The pants were wide legged with a casing for a drawstring. The jacket was cut from rectangular pieces wrapped slightly across the front. Two examples of this type can be found at the Armenian Library and Museum of America. A Shadakh boy’s pants and jacket are natural-color silk and wool with green wool embroidery. The man’s costume

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from Bitlis is also natural-color silk and wool with black stripes and has a black goat-fur short-sleeved jacket, a common article of clothing from this area. Because Armenian men were involved with activities outside the home, their costumes resembled that of their neighbors, Kurds and Turks. Men’s and Boys’ Zubun (Robe) The men and boys of Sepastia (Sivas), Erzeroum, Kharpert, and the Cilician region wore the zubun, a robe. It was usually made of a striped heavyweight silk brocade fabric for special occasions and cotton or lighter-weight silk for everyday. An example of a wedding garment from Mezireh at the Armenian Library and Museum is maroon and black striped silk brocade with a mandarin collar. This garment overlaps and is worn with a long sash wrapped around the waist. In some regions, the garment is buttoned down the center front.

Women’s Dress The basic ensemble worn by all Armenian women was a dress and coatdress cut similarly. The front panels were rectangular or triangular in shape; sometimes there were side panels, rectangular sleeves, and gussets under the arms. The coat was often long; however, in Drabizon, Sepasdia, Kharpert, and Amassia, women wore a bolero-type jacket often embroidered in couching stitch with gold metallic embroidery. In eastern Armenia sometimes the jacket was three-quarter length.

Shoes and Stockings Armenian men and women wore colorful knitted socks and in some regions, such as Kharpert and Arapkir, undyed socks. These socks were often embroidered with small red loral or geometric patterns. They were made of wool or silk, were both short and long, and had an inserted heel. Both men and women wore drekh, a shoe made of leather, which looks like the shape of a boat. It is similar to the Balkan opanci, with a soft leather sole. An example at the Shushi Museum in Shushi, Karabagh, has cotton woven ties that lace as far as the instep. Men, women, and children also wore leather backless slipper types of shoes. Many examples existing today from the last quarter of the 19th century and early 20th century are red in color and have a slightly turned-up toe.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Armenians excelled in jewelry making, and wherever they traveled throughout the world they set up shops for making and repairing jewelry with all types

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of metals and precious and semiprecious stones. Niello work was often found on silver jewelry in eastern and western Armenia. Niello, a black metallic alloy of copper, silver, or lead mixed with sulfur, was used to ill in decorative engravings. Belts decorated with niello work with large iligree buckles were prevalent from the 19th to early 20th centuries. These belts, made for both men and women, were often worn by brides. Oval and rectangular links joined together were decorated with buildings, including Armenian churches. The designs of buildings often alternated with loral motifs. Small children wore anklets with bells and bracelets also with bells and a chain attached to a ring and teething bar. It was common for a bride to wear all her jewelry on her wedding day; it was what we might call her bank account. Brides frequently wore gold coins as necklaces, and in the Akhaltzkha region, chains of pearls with coins at the ends were attached to her hat and draped along the sides of her face. Coins were sewn across the front edge of her hat resting on her forehead, and in some regions a large coin was placed in the middle. Armenian girls would insert ornaments into their hair by weaving them into their braids. In the Vaspouragan region, silver chains with hanging silver and blue beads as well as ribbons were woven into the braids. Women from the villages of Dospy and Hayots Tsor wore nose ornaments in a 0.7-inch (2 cm) diameter circle with a large precious stone in the center. They also wore many silver bracelets with colorful beads and rings made of silver with cornelian stones worn on the right thumb. In Armenia today and in other parts of the diaspora, Armenian jewelers continue to make traditional jewelry as well as modern interpretations using different types of media. Henna painting was used for the bride-to-be in both eastern and western Armenia. Henna is an Arabic word for a particular bush, the leaves of which are harvested, dried, and powdered. A paste temporarily dyes the skin. The customs of applying henna varied from region to region. In Kesaria, a henna party was held the Friday before the wedding at the home of the bride-to-be, given by female friends and the bride’s family. Although henna was usually placed on ingernails, young women were allowed to put designs on the backs of their hands. In Nirzeh, henna was applied by old women and put on the ingers of young girls and boys.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress For girls a short itted jacket with long or short sleeves can be worn over a long skirt or dress to emulate the costume from present-day Armenia and the Caucasus region. The traditional jackets were often made of velvet or wool. In eastern Armenia, boys wear dark-colored loose pants in grey, brown, or black. A three-quarter-length itted coat with a metal belt was originally wool. An acrylic fabric works well in brown and different shades of blue and grey. A

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reproduction of a costume from historic Armenia is similar to a karate uniform. Like the girls’ costumes, striped patterns were popular for both the outer jacket and loose pants. In Yerevan and some villages of the Republic of Armenia and Karabagh, elderly women still wear a short headscarf: a square cloth folded and tied at the back of the neck. In recent times, some women still wear their traditional costume. A photograph by Sam Sweezy depicts Shami Gziryan in her clothing from Tegh, a village of Zangezur.

Further Reading and Resources Abrahamian, Levon, and Sweezy, Nancy, ed. Armenian Folk Arts, Culture and Identity. Bloomington, IL: Indiana University Press, 2001. Chopoorian, Greg. “Continuity and Adaption: The Changing Tale of Armenian Clothing.” Medieval History Magazine, 13 (September 2004): 29–35. Dzeron, Manoog. Village of Parchanj General History (1600–1937). Boston: Baikar Press, 1938. Hai Guin Society of Tehran. The Costumes of Armenian Women. Tehran: International Communicators, 1976. Lind-Sinanian, Gary. Armenian Folk Costumes, A Coloring Book for Children. Watertown, MA: Armenian Library and Museum, 2004. Micklewright, Nancy. “Late-Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Wedding Costumes as Indicators of Social Change.” Muqarnas, 6 (1989): 161–174. Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s Costume of the Near and Middle East. London: St. Edmundsbury Press, 2003.

Australia, Aboriginal Louise Hamby and Lindy Allen

Geographic and Environmental Background Australia is the world’s smallest continent and has diverse and extreme climatic conditions with temperature lows generally ranging from the 30ºs to the 100ºs Fahrenheit (but in some areas going to 0ºF and above 120ºF). There is huge environmental diversity with savannahs in the tropical north; rainforests along the eastern seaboard; alpine country in the southerly reaches of the Great Dividing Range; saltbush, spinifex, and grevillea across expansive tracts of the desert and semiarid zones; and sclerophyll forests that cover much of the country. The population of Aboriginal or indigenous people of Australia is estimated at 517,000 people out of a total population of more than 22,328,000 for Australia (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2008). See Australia, Settlers for more historical and geographical background.

People and Dress History of Dress Diversity in the dress worn by Aboriginal people in Australia can be seen as a consequence of the enormous cultural and environmental differences of a continent as large as the United States. The clothing from before contact with European settlers ranged from items worn for protection from the elements to those worn as cultural markers. Clothing was worn for reasons of modesty, to express individuality, or for aesthetic reasons. However, it remains clear that clothing can be seen as an indicator or consequence of factors such as age, gender, status, clan (or other group afiliation), and ritual practice, such as the use of clay and ochre. These were integral elements of ceremonial body painting everywhere, and the use of colors and combinations in designs can be clan speciic. The archaeological record in Australia attests to cultural practices with dress and ornamentation that extend back thousands of years. Rock art in the sandstone 44

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escarpments of western Arnhem Land on the northern coast portrays a rich visual record of ancestors and creator beings wearing various items on their bodies. Figures wearing elaborate headdresses and belts appear in sequences from 20,000 years ago. Similarly, stencils of baler shell pendants are found on the rock faces of galleries located inland from the northeast coast. In the southern regions a number of excavations reveal long-enduring burial traditions associated with ornamentation, such as at Roonka on the lower Murray River where bone pins were uncovered from 4,000 years ago that could have been used to fasten cloaks. One burial included a double-stranded headband of marsupial incisors still in place on the brow. A similar necklace located at Kow Swamp that dated to around 13,000 years ago still had evidence of resin on the teeth. The “Nitchie Man” was adorned with a most remarkable necklace when he was put in his grave 6,000 years ago inland on the central east coast. This piece comprised 178 pierced teeth taken from at least 47 Tasmanian devils. The wear pattern on beads cut from kangaroo ibulas located at the 12,000-year level at Devil’s Lair in the southwest of the continent indicates they likely had been threaded onto sinews; while from a rock shelter at Mandu Mandu, also in Western Australia, a 34,000-year-old necklace of cone shell beads was found.

Materials and Techniques Distinctions in dress can be identiied across the vastness of the Australian continent. The rain and cold of the southern temperate regions dictated a need for protection and cloaks of animal skins were worn. Kangaroo hides, stitched together, were typically made in the southwest; while in southeastern Australia, where it is cooler and where it snows, cloaks were made of opossum skin pelts stitched together with sinew. The underside was usually scored, stitched, and painted with clan designs associated with its wearer and fastened with bone or wooden pins. The cultural import of such cloaks is borne out by 19th-century records that document them having been placed into the grave of a Kulin man in Melbourne. However, by the late 1800s the cloaks were replaced by woolen blankets distributed by the government to Aboriginal people. At the time of contact, natural materials were the primary sources for the construction of clothing. Bark, strips of wood, and cane were sometimes used as clothing with minimal manipulation such as the small shaved sticks of wood inserted into the hair or tucked into armbands in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. On Cape York, hollowed-out wood was used to make ear pendants. For men, women, and children, everyday clothing in Arnhem Land included very complicated interlaced armbands made from lawyer cane or sedge grass. Also in this region belts were made from strips of stringybark (Eucalyptus tetrodonta)

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Two Tiwi women dressed for a mourning ceremony, Melville Island, Northern Territory, Australia, c. 1911. (Source: Museum Victoria)

painted with ochred designs. Other stringybark constructions emerge in relation to ritual items such as the stitched sheets folded to form the distinctive armbands worn by Tiwi women on Bathurst and Melville Islands off the coast of Darwin. These pamijini are painted with totemic designs and elaborately adorned with appendages decorated with feathers, which move as the women dance at burial ceremonies. Many materials, whether sourced from plants or animals, were universally applied to dress and ornamentation, such as sheets of paperbark (Melaleuca sp.) simply folded over belts to form pubic covers. String in many forms was an essential component of clothing but has also been worn simply as a single strand tied around a wrist, arm, waist, or head. These strings had a healing purpose while others were purely utilitarian; for example, holding an axe, knife, or boomerang. While plant ibers were the dominant material for string making, opossum fur, kangaroo fur, human hair, and composite materials including feathers were also used across the country to make string. Headbands consisting of lengths of netted string to which kangaroo teeth embedded in resin were sometimes attached were common in the southeast.

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Component Parts of Dress Along the tropical northern coastline, dress was markedly different from that in the rest of Australia. On Groote Eylandt, for example, women covered themselves when in the presence of outsiders by using large single sheets of paperbark or several pieces of bark stitched together. At other times these would be carried over their shoulder. Further west on the Arnhem Land mainland, pandanus (Pandanus spiralis) was used to create distinctive triangular skirts and conical mats, both of which had important ceremonial associations. The conical mats were used to cover young boys for circumcision ceremonies and in their lattened form resemble triangular skirts. Aprons and genital covers were universally worn by adults and children but varied in size, form, and construction according to the age, gender, and status of the wearer. Materials used might indicate the circumstances in which they were to be worn; for example, in eastern Arnhem Land opossum-fur string pubic covers were worn by people of the Yirritja moiety, or kinship group. Men wore long narrow covers while those for women were shorter and wider. Human hair string was often incorporated into ceremonial items worn by men. This was used as a base for creating feathered pendants in armbands or complete belts made of rows of plied hair string twined together in a few places. The application of certain elements to clothing made from string, most often feathers, was regionally speciic and could signify particular cultural practices. The feathers of the emu were used on the southeast coast around Melbourne where feather bundles were fastened with sinews and attached to string waistbands. The layered forms created magniicent dance garments worn by women of the Kulin clans. Men in this part of the continent used a single feather bundle for dance, ixing it behind by attaching it to a string worn around the waist. Hairpins made of emu feathers were worn by men in the back of their distinctive coiled bun hairstyles in the Kimberley. Footwear was made from felted emu feathers only in the tropical regions of northern Australia. Feathers appeared variously in items worn on the body. Small feathers or down were usually incorporated into everyday wear and typically spun into plant iber string. The embellished string could be made into a variety of items like the matjka from Arnhem Land, a breast harness or girdle worn crossed over the front with the two string parts bound together at the back. Wrapped armbands and loops of feathered string bound at one point were also worn as headdresses or necklaces. Also in Arnhem Land, large feathers were bound together by the end of the quills to make pubic coverings worn suspended from men’s string belts. The feathers of Australia’s unique parrots were commonly applied to hair decoration or head ornamentation. Those of the sulphur-crested cockatoo featured prominently in

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Apron made of emu feathers (front). (Museum Victoria/Photographer Rodney Start)

ornamentation made on the northeast coast, while in Arnhem Land they comprised the distinctive element of hairpins called kut kut worn by men for ritual purposes. The shimmering breast feathers of the red-collared lorikeet are central to the ceremonial ornamentation created by clans of the Dhuwa moiety in eastern Arnhem Land. Pendants with these feathers bound tightly together form a ropelike structure attached to armbands and headdresses alike. Feathered lowers and seed necklaces made by women at the early missions have their roots in traditional ornamentation that was often made for ceremony. Feathers could simply be added to the hair with beeswax as protection against illness, particularly in relation to babies, or added to a headdress or other ceremonial paraphernalia. By contrast, in the arid regions knobs of beeswax or seeds were also added to the hair. In the 19th century a remarkable skirt made from strips of pelican skin to which the feathers were still attached was collected from the inland lakes of Australia’s semiarid interior. In eastern Arnhem Land unique armbands were made from strips of skin by Dhuwa moiety clans. Circular segments were cut from the upper tail portion of the red kangaroo to make armbands for Marrakulu men. The neighbouring Djapu clan similarly used strips of skin taken from the upper leg of the emu. These

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were secured around the upper arm by placing one end of the skin through a slit cut in the opposite end and then tying a knot. The claws of the emu were also ixed with resin to strings suspended from a headdress and worn by women in this same region. The beaks of birds like the jabiru and spoonbill were used as pendants, and bird heads were sometimes included as part of long strings. The ulna of large birds like eagles and the ibulas of kangaroo were worn through the pierced nose septum. Other parts of animals were incorporated to create distinctive decorative adornments. In the arid region, tails of the bilby, a small marsupial, were added to headwear. Rabbits introduced by Europeans in the early 20th century displaced the bilby, and consequently rabbit tails became the central component of impressive headdresses worn by women in welcoming ceremonies. Those made for Tiwi girls when they reached puberty included the tail tips of the native dog, the dingo. Alawa women in southeast Arnhem Land wore necklaces decorated with tufts of hair from a small indigenous rodent. People also commonly wore items made from shells, seeds, cut grass stems, bone, or teeth or any combination of these. Shark and snake vertebrae were threaded onto single strands of iber string for necklaces and incorporated into headbands. The teeth of kangaroos and wallabies are used across the continent as these animals survive across all environmental zones in many forms. Crocodile teeth were used in the north, usually embedded into wax or resin. A single tooth was threaded onto string to make a pendant; while in Arnhem Land teeth and bones of various animals, such as kangaroos, crocodiles, or ish were similarly embedded in wax to form headbands worn by women. Shells, not surprisingly, are associated with ornamentation made across the entire northern coastline from the Kimberley in the west to the coast of Queensland in the east. Dentalium or tusk shells were threaded onto long lengths of string to make necklaces, which were looped around the neck. Engraved pearl shells usually attached to a belt were iconic men’s objects in the Kimberley, while on Cape York Peninsula on the east coast nautilus shell was cut into regular rectangular pieces and threaded on bark iber string in a single strand and worn as a necklace. Shells are singularly one of the most important components of necklaces made in Tasmania, a small island at the other end of the continent in the southeast. Hundreds of the lustrous mariner shells and others were prepared for use in very long necklaces that were looped around a woman’s neck many times. Other signiicant and elaborate combinations of clothing or accessories were associated with death. These were often created and worn by close female relatives of the deceased. A rare example is a mourning headdress called tyemurrelye worn by Arrernte women in central Australia. It was made up of numerous small animal bones and human hair string ixed to a head pad of grasses and resin to which parrot feathers were added. Covering a woman’s body in white pipe clay or gypsum

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress was a common funeral practice. While white clay is used in many contexts, it is particularly important for funerals and mourning rituals when it is smeared over the body and in the hair. Large amounts of clay applied directly onto the hair could signify the close relationship of women to the deceased; on the Murray River widows created elaborate caps from white gypsum, which were worn for many months after their husbands’ death. Items associated with mortuary rituals were often combined with body painting. On the west coast of Cape York Peninsula mortuary rituals involved women of the Wik clans painting themselves with distinctive designs and donning ornaments and weapons associated with men. At Princess Charlotte Bay on the east coast of the Cape similarly important items belonging to men became part of the spectacle of women’s costumes during the burial of an important dugong hunter. The women wore his ishing nets draped over their shoulders.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Aboriginal people in some parts of the country still recall times when they were “nicketty” or the “naked time,” when as children they lived a relatively free life in the bush. They only donned European clothes when they were likely to encounter whites or when government welfare oficers came to check on living conditions. Today when people see images of past generations of their families they express differing sentiments: Some identify with the “richness” of past life ways when people made everything, while others feel a sense of shame at seeing them naked or sorrow because they were not as “rich” as people today who have clothes to wear. Contemporary works relect all these intricacies and while ensuring the continuity of some practices, new interpretations emerge on old forms. They are a product of the creativity of individuals working within a template of strong cultural traditions expressed in new ways. This has always been a part of the creation of bodywear from the early days of European contact. Glass bead chokers were collected from Darwin, Adelaide River, and Rum Jungle (now Batchelor) in the Northern Territory from Aboriginal people in the early 20th century. Artists working in jewelry, like Rose Mamuniny and Mavis Ganambarr from Elcho Island, are combining traditional materials of feathers and shark vertebrae with new threading cables and specially designed jewelry catches. Lola Greeno and Dulcie Greeno create exquisite, highly coveted contemporary shell necklaces of varying lengths that draw on past practices and ensure the continuity of a unique form associated with Tasmanian Aboriginal women. Others are continuing to make items based on older forms that include introduced materials, plants, or animals. The making of opossum skin cloaks has been

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Necklace made by Lola Greeno. (Courtesy Lola Greeno)

revived by Aboriginal artists such as Vicki Couzens, Trehna Hamm, and Lee Darroch in Victoria. The new cloaks are made with pelts from New Zealand and are worn by elders as an iconic cultural symbol for major events. Women from Gapuwiyak like Anna Malibirr use the seeds from the introduced plant Crotalaria goreensis to make necklaces. The sense of expressing identity continues as a strong element of bodywear today. The colors of red, black, and yellow from the Aboriginal lag is a predominant theme seen on T-shirts, bracelets, earrings, beanies, and so on. This sends a clear message to others about who they are. At the same time looking good or what is commonly said to be looking “lash” or “deadly” can be the sole motivation for what people wear. See also Australia, Settlers; New Zealand

Further Reading and Resources Australian Bureau of Statistics. Year Book Australia, 2008. http://www.abs.gov .au/ausstats/[email protected]/0/68AE74ED632E17A6CA2573D200110075?open document, 2012. Hamby, Louise. “Aboriginal Dress in Arnhem Land.” In N. Maynard, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Volume 7: Australia, New Zealand and the Paciic Islands. Oxford: Berg, 2010, pp. 42–48.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Hamby, Louise. “‘Outsiders’ and Arnhem Landers’ Material Exchanges.” In J. Anderson, ed. Crossing Cultures: Conlict, Migration and Convergence. Carlton, Victoria: The Miegunyah Press, 2009, pp. 493–497. Hamby, Louise. “Wrapt with String.” Textile: The Journal of Cloth and Culture. Volume 5, Issue 2 (2007): 206–229. Hamby, Louise, and Diana Young. Art on a String: Aboriginal Threaded Objects from the Central Desert and Arnhem Land. Sydney: Object-Australian Centre for Craft and Design, 2001. Keeler, Christine, and Vicki Couzens. “Wrap Culture Around You—Cloaks, Clothing and Jewellery.” In Keeler, Christine, and Vicki Couzens, eds. Meerreeng-An: The Story of Aboriginal Victoria Told Through Art. Melbourne: Koorie Heritage Trust, 2010, pp. 67–100. Lakic, Mira. “Dress and Ornamentation.” In Museum Victoria, Women’s Work, Aboriginal Women’s Artefacts in the Museum of Victoria. Melbourne: Museum Victoria, 1995, pp. 19–30.

Australia, Settlers Damayanthie Eluwawalage

Historical Background Aboriginals who migrated from Southeast Asia have occupied Australia for at least 40,000 years. Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish sailors discovered the continent during the 17th century and the Dutch landed in 1616. The British initially arrived in 1688 under William Dampier, and in 1770 Captain James Cook disembarked on the east coast. European settlement of Australia began when the First Fleet under Captain Arthur Phillip arrived at Botany Bay (later Sydney) in 1799 to establish a penal colony of convicted British prisoners, which included men and women. Transportation of convicts to Australia began in the colony of New South Wales in 1788 and ceased in 1840. Van Diemen’s Land (later Tasmania), established in 1804, terminated the import of convicts in 1849. The convict establishment in Moreton Bay (present-day Brisbane) operated between 1824 and 1839, while in the Port Phillip District (later Victoria) convict settlement operated between 1803– 1839 and 1844–1849. Transportation of convicts to Western Australia began in 1850, but South Australia was never a penal colony, although it had some convicts transferred from other parts of Australia, which relected the settlement pattern of colonial Australia. The inland exploration of Australia occurred in the 19th century, and in the 1880s many adventurers, prospectors, and surveyors crossed the continent in all directions. Various gold rushes attracted immigrants, as did mining. The discovery of gold in the 1850s transformed the social, economic, and cultural fabric of Australia. The arrival of migrants throughout the 19th century lifted the economy and changed the country’s social structure. The six colonies—New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, and Tasmania— became states and in 1901 federated into the Commonwealth of Australia.

Geographic and Environmental Background Australia, oficially the Commonwealth of Australia, the world’s smallest continent, lies between the Paciic and Indian oceans in the Southern Hemisphere. The 53

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress capital is Canberra. On the east coast, mountain ranges run from north to south, reaching their highest point at Mount Kosciusko. The Great Barrier Reef lies along the northeast coast, while the island of Tasmania is off the southeast coast. The western half of the continent is occupied by a desert plateau that rises into barren, rolling hills near the coast in the north. The south is mainly agricultural but is separated from the eastern states by the extensive barren lands of the Nullabor Plain and inland deserts. Australia has a democratic government and is an independent nation within the Commonwealth. Under the Australian Constitution, Queen Elizabeth II is the head of state and is represented throughout Australia by a governor general and by a governor in each state. Until the mid-20th century, the population was notably homogeneous. Christianity is the principal religion and English is the oficial language. The country’s economy is basically free enterprise in structure. The climate varies widely throughout Australia. For example, the tropical north experiences high temperatures and high humidity, and distinct wet and dry seasons. Central Australia has dry desert regions with high daytime temperatures and minimal rainfall. In the south are the temperate regions with moderate rainfall and temperatures ranging from hot to cold. Because of these wide variations, the dress of Australia’s inhabitants also varies depending on the region. Today, suburban Melbourne and Sydney are widely regarded as the most fashionable of the Australian cities. The population of Australia is estimated at 22,328,000, according to the World Bank.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The governance and exertion of British inluence was a cardinal leverage for colonial Australia in every facet due to its mostly British inherited inhabitants. At irst, fashion information arrived mainly from England, though later also from other European countries such as France. The difference in climatic seasons—the Australian winter occurring during Europe’s summer—and the shipping duration of six to eight months suggests the possibility of European seasonal fashions being shipped to arrive in Australia for the respective season half a year later. Most colonial urban dress closely imitated European styles and much fashionable dress was imported or made up in accordance with European patterns. The British inluence in the colony is veriied by such fashions as crinolines, bustles, and tea gowns, and a signiicant variety of furs and silks. Adorning the wearer with life-sized imitation animals was one of the most extravagant fashion trends in the late 19th century both in Europe and the Australian colonies. The popularity of black fabrics, especially for the clothing of professionals such as doctors, suggests the implementation of

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customs as practiced in Britain. The etiquette of mourning and the importance of special mourning attire played a signiicant part in the lives of the settlers. The inluence of royalty on mourning attire was signiicant from the mid 19th century, and much of this can be attributed to Queen Victoria and her personal grieving for her consort, Prince Albert. Traces of Indian and French fashion features associated with British fashion at the time were also visible. French cloths, fabrics, jewelry, and accessories were available in Hobart and Sydney from the early 1820s. Though colonists wore European fashion, it was often altered to appeal to Australian senses of style. As Indian shawls and textiles became fashionable in Victorian society in Britain, their acceptance and popularity in the colony was signiicant. A great variety of Indian fabrics, accessories, embellishments, footwear, and clothing were imported from India, and Asian Indian clothing, hats, and shoes were commonly available from the earliest days of settlement. There was, however, scarcely any evidence to verify that the subcultural ethnic groups such as Chinese and Afghans inluenced the mainstream Australian clothing culture. Initially, these ethnic workers were adorned with their traditional clothing. As the century progressed, their dress was inluenced by Western styles. The inluence of colonial literature in relation to attire and inery was monumental. Local newspapers published fashion statements and material availability, while “Ladies’ Columns” in magazines and newspapers reported on the latest fashions in Europe. Comments on the attire worn at public events in Britain, Europe, and the Australian colonies were included, as well as dressmaking suggestions. Victorian Australian newspaper and magazine advertisements reveal an important cultural pattern. There are many differences between the advertising culture in the colony and that in Britain. Colonial Australian advertisements scarcely portrayed class or leisure, while British advertisements were generally directed toward the opulence and indulgence of the afluent class. In the colony of New South Wales, initially there was no capitalist class, few free settlers, and no free laborers. There was scarcely any commerce in the new settlement; imports were limited and prices luctuating, while exports were nonexistent, though fashionable inery remained a central feature of the dominant classes. Early Australian working classes were not like the British working classes. Contrary to English practice, they transformed themselves into possessors and proprietors, and they often ascended the social hierarchy. In early colonial society, fashionable clothing in the European mode was a triumphant sign of the wearer’s ability to transcend the stain of convict association. Fashion became a moral and social exemplar that could be effectively used by those in political control to demonstrate their power over the lower classes. Nevertheless, the self-reliant settlers of the early investing classes performed menial tasks to a degree they would have perceived as inconceivable in England. Their way of life transformed from

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the comfortable English house and drawing room to a hut or cottage in the harsh Australian bush. At the other end of the spectrum, the serving class endured even greater hardship than the gentry. Because of poverty, irregularity of shipments, speculative trading, scarcity of supplies, the lack of local industries, and the vast distances between settlements, the settlers were often obliged to rely on alternative clothing resources. The scarcity of clothing in the colony has been well documented. For example, John Bussell, an Oxford-educated Western Australian landowner, in 1831 recorded sewing for himself a canvas frock and trousers with tarred twine. There are accounts of kangaroo skins and guts being used for footwear and clothing. Western Australian Benedictine bishop Rosendo Salvado recorded the deiciency of clothing, describing unrecognizable monastic habits patched with kangaroo skins and belted with dried kangaroo intestines. Due to privation, isolation, and inadequate transportation, most settlers were forced to depend on their own initiative for their everyday needs, including clothing. In the irst half of the 19th century, supplies such as wheat, lour, sugar, oats, and bran arrived in bags called “produce bags.” These were a great resource for rural settlers. People used them for fabric walls, makeshift curtains, meat safes, and even clothes. Finer, tightly woven jute bags were made into aprons, towels, peg bags, and potholders. The inest bags were made into children’s clothing: trousers for boys and dresses for girls. Children’s clothing was also made from remnants of adult clothing, and the recycling of worn-out clothing and footwear was standard practice. Dyeing was another resource used throughout the 19th century; mourning dresses, especially, were constantly dyed. As the colonies developed and manpower and resources increased, distinctive clothing became the fashion for special occasions. The British sporting tradition was well established in Victorian Australia; sports appeared as a deliberate attempt by the colonial upper classes to replicate English social custom. Australian women’s sporting costumes were similar to European, especially British styles and corseted, bustled, hatted, and sometimes gloved costumes were often the fashion. By the 1870s, occupational and recreational clothing for working-class and middle-class men was clearly established. After 1870, in line with European practice, women’s sporting and recreational attire for such sports as tennis, gymnastics, swimming, cycling, golf, cricket, and fencing were developed.

Men’s and Women’s Dress Like Canada, the United States, and other relatively young countries that have been settled by colonists where indigenous groups already lived, Australia does not have much in the way of a countrywide national or folk dress. Australian society has been established along gender lines in all facets, as gender consciousness

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was signiicant from the beginning of the pioneering era. Fashion in 19th-century Australia expressed male hegemonic values, and the distinct attire of the primarily male colonial governors, judges, clergy, and oficials portrayed the conformity of public power. As the masculine ideal became supreme, their attire expressed this with conservative styles and discreet, somber colours. At the other end of the spectrum, a woman’s dress demonstrated her dependence and decorative accessories displayed the collective wealth of her family. Colonial clothes performed the dual function of designating social position and gender, while fashionable clothes acted as a mechanism of social control, directing social distinctions. Urban dress for men resembled that worn in Europe. However, a dearth of uniformity is visible. Although male clothing designs conformed in simplicity, a variety of modes lourished. In particular, variations in men’s coats, jackets, and neckwear increased, and men’s coats varied in length, lapel size, and function. Despite the varied nature of city dress in Australia, men’s clothing was virtually free of class differences. In comparison with British social practice, colonial distinctiveness was evident in many aspects. The colonial upper classes, which scarcely had an afiliation with British aristocracy, formulated their own version of social structure. Societal changes caused changes in the way of life, and the adaptations in colonial society gradually affected the behavior of colonists, especially in their appearance. Although the clothing practice of the initial colonists was somewhat comparable with existing British practice, as colonial society diverged in later years, the attitudes of the colonists were transformed so that climate-friendly and lifestylefriendly clothing emerged. The comparison of surviving Australian and English clothing of the period shows that colonial clothing was simpler than British clothing in terms of decoration. The bushman’s clothing that evolved in the latter part of the century was unique to Australian colonies as scarcely any similarity to the attire was evident in Britain. The inhospitable colonial environment caused the development of bush attire that was suitable for such harsh conditions, and the working classes’ practical clothing acquired a unique Australian style. Men’s clothing, especially that of bushmen, squatters, and diggers, was subject to a visible transformation with distinctive features long before the noticeable mutation of female costume. By the mid-19th century, dress in the eastern colonies had unique Australian characteristics, while western Australian dress illustrated a British lavor. The western colony is not comparable with eastern Australian colonies because of the different stages of development, different social and demographic patterns, different conditions of settlement, and differences in climatic conditions. Nevertheless, local conditions and circumstances gradually created the uniqueness that was distinct from European attire. Dress of the “larrikins,” which began as a Victorian subculture with a peculiar dress sense (Larrikins continues today as a term that describes Australians

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress who are “antiestablishment” and irreverent), was recognized in the 1870s. By the late 1880s, larrikins were commonly described as appearing villainous in their way of dressing. In Edwardian Australia (after 1900), fashion continued to be an indicator of social and economic status. Women’s yard-wide hats embellished with plumes or artiicial lowers, bellshaped skirts, tailor-made dresses, and S-shaped dresses with frills, embroidery, jewels, and beads were prominent styles. Also, the Edwardian blouse based on the man’s shirt, complete with stiff collar and tie, was popular. Within the Australian continent Australia’s upper-class sporting life is depicted there are differences in clothing choices in “A Kangaroo Hunt,” by Max Francis people make. For example, the dress of Klepper, c. 1896. (Library of Congress) many Queenslanders is quite different from that of people who live and work in Sydney. Such distinctions are speciic to local climatic conditions, demographic patterns, and economic and social structures. Sarongs, inluenced by Indonesian styles from 1900, and saris and skirts inluenced by traditional Indian styles were popular for women during the 1960s and 1970s, particularly with subcultural groups such as hippies. By the 1980s, the sarong was a norm in Australian beach and leisure wear. A desire for Australian native motifs and unique indigenous colors in dresses was noticeable from the 1940s.

Contemporary Clothing in Australia From the 1790s, almost everything had to be imported into the Australian settlements from Britain and other British colonies, including ready-made clothing, fabric, and sewing accessories. The ways of bringing clothing materials into the colony included direct trade carried out by importers, the personal requests of emigrants or gifts from emigrants’ relatives and friends, trade carried out by whalers, and the personal effects of emigrants. Clothing was obtained by purchasing from stores and shops, by making one’s own or using a dressmaker or tailor, from local manufacturers, buying secondhand, or recycling. Towards the

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Customers select fabrics at a textile store in Australia, c. 1900. (Cannon Collection/ Australian Picture Library/Corbis)

end of the century, it was possible to buy made-to-measure clothes from department stores or by mail order. There were no shops or suppliers, except the stores operated by the government, for a short time after the arrival in New South Wales of the First Fleet in 1788. Very early after settlement, fabrics for the upper classes would have been imported and advertisements in newspapers show that tailors and dressmakers were at work. In 1791 there was a shop in Parramatta, and around 1803 there was a regular produce market in Sydney. From 1803—the earliest year from which commercial advertising has survived—until about 1806, a subtle but signiicant change can be discerned in methods of buying and selling articles in Sydney. Most of the early commercial advertising was for auction sales. Simeon Lord advertised goods for sale as early as 1803. Despite the improved range and variety of goods available through retail establishments in Sydney by 1810, wealthy colonists continued the practice of sending to England for all but their immediate requirements. The Female Factory that opened in Parramatta in 1821 increased local cloth production in New South Wales. By 1831 there were three kinds of shops in Sydney: a general boot and shoe warehouse, a good stationer’s shop, and a ready-made clothes shop that sold men’s and boys’ clothing in hard-wearing woolen cloth, fustian, corduroy, and twilled

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress nankeen. The Industrial Revolution in England created a heavy demand for raw materials, and nearly all wool produced in the colony was exported to England for manufacture until a woolen mill was established near Newcastle in 1843. Traveling merchants such as peddlers and hawkers, especially Afghan and Indian hawkers, and commercial travelers provided goods in remote areas. They also acted as both salesmen and agents, taking orders from country shopkeepers and individual customers. The range of products the hawkers sold might include suits and work clothes for men; silks, scissors, cottons, and various sewing accessories including needles and pins; though fabrics for clothes, bedding, and curtains were their main line of merchandise. From about the mid-19th century, in addition to the peddlers and the general store, the requirements of country people were often illed by mail order. David Jones, one of Sydney’s earliest drapery and haberdashery stores, was established in 1838. Caroline Farmer’s dressmaking and millinery shop began in 1839. Ann Hordern founded the Hordern stores in 1825, selling dressmaking materials, haberdashery, and stays. Belmore Markets in Melbourne operated from 1869 selling goods including clothing, and in 1878 the Queen Victoria Market was opened. From about the 1870s, dressmakers’ labels began to be stitched inside colonial women’s clothing, shoes, and hats. Methods of transaction in clothing shops varied and bartering was a standard method for purchase. As the century progressed, personal bartering extended to commercial bartering. However, during the 1900s the colonies gradually transformed into moneyed societies and commercial transactions began to be limited to currency. Paper patterns for dressmaking had been available in the colonies from the beginning and were widely used. In the 20th century, fashion became a mass phenomenon and styles were established only when adopted by millions. Since the 1990s, department stores such as Myer and David Jones, fashion designers, specialty shops, boutiques, and chain stores like Katies or Sportsgirl continue to be the main suppliers for Australian consumers. Australian fashion weeks in Sydney (from 1996) and Melbourne (from 1997) annually showcase the Australian fashion industry, displaying existing and emerging designers’ work. In the early pioneering era, the upper classes aspired toward preserving a gentility that resembled Britain, regardless of the harsh climate and scarcity of supplies. But during the latter part of the century, although colonists dressed according to British styles and fashions, their clothing was hardly identical to British styles in terms of decoration, embellishment, and presentation. Instead, it relected a subtle mutation. Now, in the early 21st century, dress remains of signiicant socioeconomic and cultural importance. As it did in the early years, clothing demeanor continues to be one of the signiicant cultural practices in contemporary Australia.

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See also Australia, Aboriginal

Further Reading and Resources Australian Dress Register. http://www.australiandressregister.org/, 2012. (A collaborative online project to show the dress of New South Wales before 1945.) Eluwawalage, Damayanthie. History of Costume: The Consumption, Governance, Potency and Patronage of Attire in Colonial Western Australia. PhD dissertation. Western Australia: Edith Cowan University, 2004. Kingston, Beverley. Basket, Bag and Trolley: A History of Shopping in Australia. London: Oxford University Press, 1994. Maynard, Margaret. Fashioned from Penury: Dress as Cultural Practice in Colonial Australia. Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1994.

Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates Christina Lindholm

Geographical and Historical Background Countless researchers and historians have tried to untangle the history of the Arabian Peninsula. Largely isolated from the West until well into the 20th century, Arabia was portrayed through the lens of adventurous 18th- and 19th-century travelers. Unfortunately, much of what was published was romanticized tales of great wealth, harems, intrigue, and pure iction. Very little actual fact found its way into Western hands because few Westerners ventured deeply into the region. Travel was limited and dificult, the landscape barren and forbidding, and the climate inhospitable. It was not until the 1930s that Arabia was fully explored by other than the Bedouin nomads. The Arabian Peninsula is the largest peninsula in the world, covering 1,250,000 square miles, and contains the countries of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Israel, Palestine, northeastern Syria, southeastern Jordan, and western Iraq. Bahrain is a small island located off the east coast of the peninsula. Geologically, the region includes the Nejd, a fertile central plateau; several deserts, including Rub’ Al Khali, also known as the Empty Quarter; both dry and marshy coastland; and several mountain ranges on both the western edge as well as the southeast border. As most of the peninsula is not suited to agriculture, early residents were either wandering Bedouins or settled in the few areas that would support crops and animal husbandry. The sea provided important trade routes from Asia to North Africa. The earliest residents of the peninsula were either wandering Semite tribes or settled folk who congregated in small market towns. Many of these groups were composed of extended families led by a chief. In the seventh century CE, the Prophet Mohammed founded Islam in Mecca, now in Saudi Arabia. The shared beliefs of Islam created alliances among tribal chiefs, which led to the expulsion of foreign powers from the Arabian Peninsula. As Arab military strength grew, they were able to take control of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine from Byzantine rule, and the Sassanian dynasty collapsed, leaving them control of Iraq and Iran. The Arab 62

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conquerors spread their armies into North Africa and across Spain, all the way to the Atlantic Ocean. By the 16th century, Ottoman rule, headquartered in Istanbul, had absorbed almost all Arab-speaking countries. Rule in Arabia was accomplished by appointing indigenous families as leaders who were allowed to follow local customs and practices as long as they did not conlict with the interests of the Ottoman Empire. Under these conditions, much of the peninsula attracted little attention from the Empire. The Ottoman Empire dissolved during the irst World War and modern political lines began to form. The tribally dominated towns of central Arabia became Saudi Arabia under Ibn Saud in 1931, Bahrain gained independence from Iranian and British claims in 1970, Qatar declared independence in 1971, and the United Arab Emirates was established in 1971 from seven city states. According to the Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, the current approximate population in 2012 for each country is Saudi Arabia, 26,534,500; Bahrain, 1,248,350; Qatar, 1,951,600; and United Arab Emirates, 5,314,300. The 20th-century discovery of oil and natural gas has provided enormous wealth to the region. It has also captured the inancial attention of the Western world. Where the region was previously isolated and living in traditional ways, Western intrusion has introduced modern education, communications, transportation, travel, and other material aspects and practices of the Western world.

People and Dress Dress worn in public is remarkably consistent throughout the Arabian Peninsula. The silhouettes for men’s clothing are nearly identical among the countries and women’s dress shares several components. Two deining characteristics however, are that men’s and women’s dress are distinctly different from each other and never worn by the opposite gender, despite a few of the garments having the same name. Unisex clothing simply does not exist and neither gender would ever consider wearing the garments of the opposite sex. The second characteristic of Arabian dress is that current outer dress is gender-based by color. Men usually wear white garments and women always wear black. This has not always been the case, but in the early 21st century, this is true for all four countries. Traditional Arab dress is loosely based on styles that date back hundreds of years. The origins are not precisely known, but most scholars agree that what is now identiied as Arab dress was normal daily dress as worn in the region prior to the rise of Islam. This clothing was characterized by its loose it, lowing fabrics, and the fact that it was not very tailored. Inluences have most likely come from surrounding countries and were adopted into the culture as the conquering armies expanded into the Hellenistic Mediterranean and Iran. In addition to visibly declaring gender, Arab

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress dress relects religious and political practices. Since Islam is the predominant religion in the peninsula, most Arabs adhere to the Qur’an’s directive to dress modestly. This pertains to men as well as women and states clearly that observant Muslims should dress in such a way as to not draw unwanted attention to themselves. The most often quoted passage regarding dress is Sura XXlV:31: And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their ornament only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands’ fathers, or their sons or their husbands’ sons, or their brothers or their brothers’ sons or sisters’ sons, or their women, or their slaves, or their male attendants who lack vigor, or children who know naught of women’s nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. Therefore, the typical dress worn in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates by Muslims from those countries is modest and concealing. Women are expected to cover themselves in front of all male strangers to preserve the family’s good name.

Men’s Dress Men generally wear a pure white, long-sleeved gown called a thob, or more informally, a dishdash, which resembles an ankle-length Western dress shirt. Currently, the dishdash is machine stitched and made from either cotton or a cotton/ polyester blend for ease of care. Most of the garments have side pockets and button to the mid-chest. Only minor differences exist among the dishdashes of the various countries, but these differences can identify the wearer’s country. The Bahrain dishdash features a banded or Mandarin-style collar and is often worn unbuttoned, while the Qatar and Saudi dishdashes have a dress shirt–type collar, a pocket at the left breast, and almost always have buttoned cuffs. Most Qatari and Saudi men wear elaborate cuflinks and often carry a pen with an expensive clip. UAE dishdashes have a banded collar, cloth-covered ball buttons, a small folded-over tab, and a tassel that hangs down the front. Other colors are used for dishdashes, such as pastels or off-white in the summer and darker colors in the winter. If the dishdash is white, it must be spotless and unwrinkled. Under their robes, men wear loose drawers called sirwal, which resemble baggy trousers. They may instead use a hip wrap, which is a length of cloth called an izar or wizar. This is simply wrapped around their hips and fastened either with an elastic band or a belt.

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Traditional footwear is a leather sandal that covers the instep and the big toe. Shoes are never worn in the home, so slippers are donned at the doorway. Headgear is extremely important and an observant Muslim man seldom is seen bareheaded. The usual cover is a skullcap called a gahiyya or kefiyeh. This may be knitted or crocheted, or sometimes made from cloth and embroidered. Over this, a man will wear a large, square scarf, the ghutra, folded into a triangle. It is draped over the head with the point of the triangle hanging down the back and the ends along each side of the face. The ghutra may be plain white, red and white, or black and white checked. These styles are generally cotton and sometimes starched. The ghutra is anchored to Man in Manama, Bahrain wears a thob with the head with a single or double thick mandarin collar typical of Bahrain, 2011. (Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh/Dreamstime.com ) black cord ring called an agal. The agal may also have thinner cords extending down the back ending in tassels. Previously, the agal in Saudi Arabia was often several gold thread–covered cords held together to form a wide band. Arab men often express their individual style in the way they wear their ghutra. The agal may sit evenly on the head or be tipped forward, backward, or off to one side. The ghutra may have the ends cascading in front over the shoulders, with a small peak over the forehead, or have one or both ends tossed up and crossing over the top of the head. The front peak may be small or very large. Occasionally, the ghutra will be twisted into a turban. It is a common sight to see Arabian Gulf men frequently adjusting their ghutra. The bisht is an outer robe, usually of black, brown, or tan wool. It is cut nearly square with only side slits for the hands and is worn over the thob. The bisht is nearly identical to the aba, but an aba has a horizontal seam running around the hip to join two pieces of cloth together, while the bisht is cut from a single piece of cloth. It is usually embroidered with gold zari thread across the shoulder seams, around the neck, and in wide panels down the front to the waist. The bisht is generally reserved for special occasions such as formal gatherings and holidays. The Qatari, in particular, are known to wear the bisht with the right arm through the hand opening and with the left front tucked under the left arm.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Most Arab men discard the thob when departing the region and traveling in other parts of the world. When away from the Gulf they wear Euro-American– style suits or casual clothing, such as blue jeans. Early Muslim men adhered to the Prophet’s aversion to costly and luxurious garments. Silk and brocade were forbidden as was gold jewelry. They believed that this type of self-denial would be rewarded in the afterlife (Stillman and Stillman, p. 31). This self-denial was largely abandoned after the Prophet’s death in the seventh century, although many Muslim men today will not wear silk or brocade. If they wear jewelry at all, it is likely to be of silver, white gold, or platinum and often takes the form of an elaborate wristwatch or decorative cuflinks.

Women’s Dress One of the dificult issues in discussing Arab clothing is that there are many names for what is basically the same garment, often with only small regional distinctions. Since most garments were made to order by hand, virtually no two are alike, adding to the challenge of deciding whether a garment relects a widespread trend, or whether it is the relection of a particularly creative individual. The translation from Arabic to English further confuses the understanding that a jallibiyyah and a galabiyeh are basically the same caftan-like dress. Women’s dress in the Arabian region had and continues to have many similarities. Historically, women stayed in the home or out of sight. When a woman did need to be out in public, she covered her head, face, and body. Early on, layers of clothing protected against the brutal sun and helped retained moisture. Face veils also protected against blowing sand. Women wore all-covering black cloaks to provide anonymity and privacy while away from their home, but nowhere does the Qur’an dictate that the covering must be black. However, photographs of women in black cloaks date back to the earliest days of Arab photography, and surviving cloaks from the 19th and early 20th centuries are black. Even though modern clothing is available everywhere in the Gulf, many women wear a combination of traditional, modern, and Bedouin-style clothing. A normal conservative outit consists of underdrawers (sirwal), an undershirt or chemise (qamis), an overdress (jallibiyyah, galabiyeh, caftan, or fustan) and some type of head cover. A woman will also don an outer cover when outside her home. Traditional outer cloaks are called abaya or bisht. Starting at the innermost layer, a woman wears underdrawers. The sirwal that women wear differs from the male version. Women’s have loosely cut leg panels with a wide gusset at the crotch and are usually made from cotton. They also have ankle cuffs, which may be of a contrasting expensive cloth like silk or brocade and may be highly decorated with embroidery and fancy buttons. The qamis is

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a lightweight cotton shift, also usually cotton. It extends to at least the waist, but may be as long as mid-thigh or even ankle length. The traditional dress or fustan is worn over the qamis and the sirwal. It has a round neckline, is ankle length, has long sleeves and is pulled on over the head. It will usually have some type of short slit at the center front which is closed with a button and a loop. It has no darts or zippers, and falls nearly to the ground. In some areas, it is worn slightly shorter to show off the decorative ankle cuffs of the sirwal, while some Saudi regional dress is mid-calf length to expose and emphasize long, elaborate sirwal cuffs. It has a straight front panel and is gently shaped to the Woman wearing traditional dress in Doha, body by means of A-shaped side pan- Qatar. (Matilde Gattoni/arabianEye/Corbis) els. These panels may leave a small opening in the seam in order to breast-feed easily. A small triangular gusset, often of a contrasting cloth or color, is used at the underarm area for ease of movement. The fustan is often brightly colored and heavily decorated with elaborate embroidery. Sleeves may be slim itting, very wide, or extremely long, reaching to the loor. Styles differ greatly in various regions. Conservative women also wear some type of face cover. This cover may completely veil the face, such as the niqab, a double-layer veil attached to a band that goes around the forehead. When both layers are down, the face is completely concealed behind a sheer drape, although the wearer can see out. The top layer can be lipped back, exposing a smaller second layer, which is supported by a short narrow cord over the bridge of the nose. This smaller layer conceals the nose and mouth and leaves the eyes uncovered. The lithma, another variation of a facial veil, is a square with strings that covers the nose, mouth, and chin and is tied at the back of the head. Very few women still wear the batula, an indigo-dyed mask that is beaten to achieve a shiny, metallic appearance. The batula covers the face from the forehead to the lips with eye openings. Other masks include the burqa, which is similar to the batula. Older styles of burqa and batula have wooden pegs stitched along the bridge of the nose. Masks may cover the entire face, or merely from the eyebrow to the chin.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Vintage masks from Saudi Arabia are especially decorative. They often have heavy embroidery, shells, coins, and brightly colored cords. Masks from Asir feature beadwork. Eye openings may be rectangular or almond in shape. There was a period after World War II when many, if not most women in the cities abandoned their traditional clothing and dressed in Euro-American fashion. This was partially because of the oil wealth that was coming into the region, and partially because of the expanded contact with the more “modern” and therefore desirable West. Euro-American fashion was encouraged in Saudi Arabia, because Western fashion eliminated visual regional afiliations and diluted residual tribal power (Yamani, p. 59). The tribes had only been united under Ibn Saud for a few decades, and Saudi Arabia as a united country was not yet entirely uniied. Tribal loyalties remain strong to this day, and allowing women to adopt Euro-American fashion is a means of replacing tribal identity dress and visually diluting those localized loyalties by replacing them with status-giving international haute couture dress that is politically neutral and Euro-American. A modern Muslim woman in Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or the United Arab Emirates today is instantly identiiable by her black abaya and shayla. The modern abaya is a loose robe worn over another complete set of garments. It is a lightweight, silky fabric, usually of a synthetic iber, and covers her from her neck to her wrists and to the loor. She often has long hair, which she wears pulled up and fastened at the back of her head with a clip. Over this she will wind a shayla, a twofoot-long rectangular scarf that will cover her hair and her neck.

Children’s Dress Children traditionally wore smaller versions of what the same-sex parent wore. One of the main age differences for girls was a head cover called a buqnuq. This garment was a hoodlike covering worn by girls from a young age until they were old enough to don full covering, which often included a face mask of some description. The buqnuq was usually black and often embroidered with gold thread. Current practice in most Arab Gulf countries is for children to wear Westernstyle clothing consisting of jeans and T-shirts for boys and dresses for girls. Miniature abayas and dishdashes are worn by many children for the holy day, holidays, and other special occasions.

Modern Uses of Ethnic Dress The Persian Gulf has become a retailer’s mecca. The wealthy and sophisticated population provides incentive for European and American luxury and fashion brands to establish shops there and extravagant modern Western malls exist

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in all four countries. Merchandise from both designer brands as well as haute couture is available, such as Hermes, Dolce & Gabbana, Ralph Lauren Purple Label, Cartier, Christian Dior, and Chanel. Dubai in the United Arab Emirates hosts a month-long shopping festival, which attracts eager shoppers from all over the region. Special events, hotel packages, and all manner of entertainment draw thousands. Thus, although women wear abayas, it must be noticed that under the abaya they are likely to wear the same latest designer fashion as any modern, wealthy, sophisticated woman would wear, previously only available in Europe or America. Retailers realize that the Gulf States provide a healthy stream of income.

Selected Bibliography Abu Saud, Abeer. Qatari Women, Past and Present. Essex: Longman Group, 1984. Ahmed, Leila. Women, Gender and Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Al-Wahabi, Najla Ismail al-Izzi. Qatari Costume. London: The Islamic Art Society, 2003. Chatty, Dawn. “The Burqa Face Cover: An Aspect of Dress in Southeastern Arabia.” Languages of Dress in the Middle East, ed. Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997. El Guindi, Fadwa, and Wesam al-Othman. “Dress from the Gulf States: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Garner, Ann. “Comments on the Jewelry of the Middle East.” http://www.mschon .com/articles.html. The Glorious Koran, trans. Marmaduke Pickthall. Albany: State University of New York, 1976. Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. New York: MFJ Books, 1991. Ingham, Bruce. “Men’s Dress in the Arabian Peninsula.” Languages of Dress in the Middle East, ed. Nancy Lindesfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997, 40–54. Lindholm, Christina. “Snapshot: The Abayeh in Qatar.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Lindisfarne-Tapper, Nancy, and Bruce Ingham, eds. Languages of Dress in the Middle East. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997. Ross, Heather Colyer. The Art of the Arabian Costume: A Saudi Arabian Proile. Studio City, CA: Players Press, 1981. Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s Costume of the Near and Middle East. London: Unwin Hyman, 1987.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Shirazi, Faegheh. The Veil Unveiled: The Hijab in Modern Culture. Tallahassee, FL: University of Florida Press, 2001. Stillman, Yedida Kalfon, and Norman A. Stillman. Arab Dress: A Short History. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. “Saudi Arabian Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Winstone, H. V. F. Gertrude Bell. London: Barzan Publishing, 2004. Yamani, Mai. “Changing the Habits of a Lifetime: The Adaptation of Hejazi Dress to the New Social Order.” Languages of Dress in the Middle East, ed. Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997.

Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua José Blanco F.

Historical and Geographical Background Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are four of the seven nations that comprise Central America. The other countries—Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama—are dealt with in other essays in this volume. The Central American isthmus is bordered by Mexico in the north and Colombia in the south. Panama is not always considered part of Central America and is often grouped with South America. The area is also bordered by the Paciic Ocean to the west and the Caribbean Sea on the east. Spanish is the most widely spoken language in the area; native tongues, however, survive in every country. The oficial language of Belize is English. Diverse geographic features—from mountains to coastal areas—account for climate variations that translate into a variety of dress styles. This climate diversity also has resulted in a wealth of sources for natural ibers and dyes. A variety of textile construction techniques, including blackstrap weaving and brocade, have existed in the area since pre-Columbian times.

People and Dress History of Dress Most of the Central American countries share common characteristics of national dress. The four nations discussed here also share strong inluences from pre-Columbian cultures, particularly the Mayas. The Mayas lived primarily in areas of present-day Guatemala but also occupied parts of Honduras, El Salvador, and most of Belize. Textiles used by pre-Columbian groups in the area range from coarse cottons dyed with basic plant and earth pigments to inely woven and brightly dyed cotton items. Adornment for Mayan royalty and the priest class included elaborate jewelry and feathered headwear. Dress practices in the area changed drastically after the Spanish conquest as a result of the forced adoption of European styles. Settlers from Spain and other 71

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress parts of Europe also brought with them traditions associated with carnivals and festivals in their native lands. Equally inluential were the traditions of people from Africa forced to work as slaves in the area, particularly along the Caribbean coast. Costumes used in carnival celebrations in Central America show evidence of the merging of European, African, and native traditions. When the Captaincy General of Guatemala was established in 1540 as the administrative body for Central America, the Spanish implemented the same well-deined social caste system they used in the rest of the Americas. The peninsulares or recent arrivals from the Spanish upper class were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by people of Spanish descent born in the Americas, known as criollos, and then the mixed-raced mestizos, offspring of European and native couples. Lowest in rank were the mulattoes, descendants of European and African parents. Traditional dress in Central America is often referred to as mestizo dress, indicating in part the amalgam of European and local clothing practices. Formal clothing is used for special occasions, particularly those associated with Catholic rituals such as baptism, irst communion, and weddings. Quinceañera celebrations—marking the occasion when a young woman turns 15—also present an opportunity for a level of formality in dress incorporated into the religious and social occasion. During the days before Christmas children participate in posadas (caroling around the town accompanied by the images of Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary) wearing versions of Spanish shepherd and shepherdess outits with elements of Biblical Hebrew clothing and traditional national costumes. During Semana Santa (Holy Week) Catholic parishioners take part in a number of procesiones (processions) to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ. They dress in costumes loosely inspired by Biblical times in order to perform characters such as the apostles and Roman soldiers not only during the processions but also in realistic Cruciixion dramas. Elaborate Semana Santa processions are particularly well known in areas such as San Simon in El Salvador and León in Nicaragua. Traditional national or folkloric dress, probably deined at some point during the 19th century, shows a combination of European elements (full lounced skirts, blouses with lace trimmings) and elements of pre-Columbian dress (sandals, straw hats). Variations in silhouette, color, and adornment result in clear differences among the traditional dress of each nation and also among clothing worn in different provinces or regions within each country. During the 19th century everyday clothes in Central America were inluenced mainly by European fashion. Upper classes dressed in styles identical to those seen in Spain while high fashion followed French haute couture. European dress remained the norm in the area during the 20th and 21st centuries, but inluences from the United States became more evident due to the availability of products sold by multinational enterprises. Central Americans closely follow music, television, and movies produced in the United

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States and readily avail themselves of fashion styles presented in these popular culture outlets. Urban clothing, inspired by that of African American musicians and athletes, is as popular among Central American urban youth as it is among the youth in any large city in the United States. Inluences on fashion, however, also come from other areas by way of Mexican, Peruvian, and Brazilian television shows and celebrities that enjoy wide popularity in the area. A sense of formality in clothing remains the norm among middle and upper class Central Americans who usually dress up and groom themselves carefully even for informal occasions.

Belize Belize shares a border with Mexico in the north, Guatemala in the west, and the Caribbean Sea in the east. English is the oficial language of Belize, a country distinctively different from the rest of the Central American nations due to the fact that it was colonized by the British and shaped by a large inlux of African slaves. Until 1973 the country was known as British Honduras, though in 1954 the colony obtained limited autonomy from the British crown. Belize became fully independent in 1981 but its neighbor, Guatemala, refused to acknowledge its independence and for years claimed the entire territory as part of Guatemala. The Guatemalan government did not oficially recognize Belize’s independence until 1991. Dress practices in Belize are inluenced by a great variety of cultures ranging from those of the Garifuna (also known as Gariguna) people in the coastal areas to Mayan descendants in the region bordering Guatemala. The Garifuna compose about 6 percent of the total population in Belize, which is approximately 344,700 people. Garifuna people are descendants of Caribe native tribes and people of African descent brought to the area by the British, who forcibly removed the group from the nearby island of Saint Vincent around 1796. The African heritage is evident in all aspects of Garifuna life and culture including dress. Garifunas are adamant about keeping their traditions alive; recognition for this effort came in 2001 when UNESCO declared Garifuna language, music, and dance as a masterpiece of the intangible heritage of humanity. Garifuna populations also are found in Guatemala and Honduras. Garifuna women wear African-inluenced garments and headdresses. Ensembles are usually in solid-color cotton or printed calicos and consist of either a onepiece dress or a combination of a top and a skirt. Skirts are short and full. Blouses have short puffed sleeves and a peplum that extends below a cinched waist. Hair is covered by headscarves in matching colors. Men usually wear tailored short or long pants and button-front shirts. Headgear ranges from straw hats to baseball caps. Black mourning clothes are worn for an entire year and taken off during the Lemesi, an oficial church ceremony.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Music and dance are integral to life in Garifuna communities. Punta, a traditional dance representing a sexual dialogue through stylized movements, is characterized by fast hip movements enhanced by the women’s colorful short skirts. The Wanaragua is a Christmas-time masquerade similar to those performed during other Caribbean Junkanoo (John Canoe) carnivals. During the celebration the mostly male participants venture around their neighborhood asking for food and drinks from different households. The traditional costume for men involved in the event consists of a white shirt with green, black, or pink ribbons and white or black pants with yawei, knee bands decorated with shells. Headdresses or wababan are made from cardboard and decorated with feathers, crepe paper, and mirrors. They wear white or skin-color masks with red lips, a moustache, and small eyes. As in similar carnivals in the Caribbean, men often wear women’s dresses, accessories, and makeup for comic effect. About 10 percent of the total population in Belize are descendants of native Mayan groups and dress in attire similar to Maya populations in Guatemala. Women wear a huipil—a cotton blouse made from fabric woven on a backstrap loom and embellished with brocade or embroidery—and refajos, skirts made from cotton fabrics woven on treadle looms. The fabrics are adorned with embroidery seen on aprons and woven headbands that also have decorative tassels. Men wear long pants and shirts, often with small embroidered details. Leather sandals, beltsashes, and shoulder bags complete the ensemble. Maya and Garifuna dress elements are apparent in the clothing of the rest of the population but Westernized or world clothing is predominant among those living in urban areas as well as younger generations who follow fashionable styles from the United States, Europe, and the rest of Central America. Inluences from Caribbean countries are present, for instance, in the popularity of guayabera shirts, associated with the semiformal wear of sugar plantation owners in Cuba and other islands in the Caribbean. Mennonite communities in northern Belize favor modesty and simplicity. The women wear one-piece, solid-color, ankle-length dresses while men limit their attire to white shirts and dark pants.

Honduras The Republic of Honduras shares borders with Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. The geography varies from mountainous regions to coastal areas on the Caribbean Sea where banana plantations abound. Like its neighboring countries, Honduras’s history was marked during most of the 20th century by military dictatorships that left the nation struggling with poverty. In Tegucigalpa, the capital city, and other urban areas a modern society in touch with the clothing styles and

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Group of Honduran Garifuna women dance to the rhythm of punta music near Tegucigalpa, c. 2007. (Elmer Martinez/AFP/Getty Images)

cultural tastes of the rest of the world marks the lifestyle of the middle and upper classes. The population of Honduras is estimated at 7,600,000 people. Garifuna communities are dispersed around Honduras’s Caribbean coast, mainly around the areas of Tela and La Ceiba. These communities share culture, lifestyle, and dress elements with the Belizean Garifuna communities. Inluences of Mayan dress are found in certain places, particularly around the Copán region. Descendants of the Mayas like the Chortí wear brightly colored clothes but rarely wear items like the Guatemalan woven huipil. An important ethnic group in Honduras is the Miskitos, whose population also spreads to the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua and some areas of El Salvador. The Miskitos are a racially mixed group of descendants of escaped African slaves and the Sumu Indians, who were originally from South America. Through the centuries they have led a life marked by their work in banana and other types of plantations. Their clothes thus emphasize practicality and simplicity. The name Miskito derives from the Spanish word mosquete and refers to the weapons the British army provided to the group in order to get their assistance ighting the Spanish. The Pech or Paya are a small ethnic group living in some regions of southern Honduras. Their language is nearly extinct as are some of their traditions. In

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress an effort to integrate into Honduran society the Pech—like other small surviving native groups—have fully adopted world clothing styles. The national costume of Honduras—as is the case in most Central American countries—is a romanticized representation of peasant life with strong European inluences. Even when these costumes were irst established as a national tradition (probably in the 19th century), it was clear that peasants could not wear them to work in the ields. In the 21st century, this traditional costume is worn for special events, national holidays, and school programs but not as part of everyday life. The traditional dress from the Intibucá region is probably the best-known example. Men wear white linen or cotton pants paired with a long-sleeved shirt in the same material. The shirt reaches just below the waistline and includes side vents and small embellishments—usually rickrack—along the cuffs and sometimes over the chest. The women’s outit is also a two-piece white ensemble of linen or cotton. The skirt is full with two lounces accented by rickrack. The long sleeved blouse is loose over a cinched waist with rickrack on the cuffs. Men wear sandals and a straw hat while women wear sandals and wear their hair in a ponytail with brightly colored ribbons and other hair accessories. Sashes around the waistline and neck kerchiefs are incorporated in some variations of the men’s costume. In the Copán region the costume for both men and women is created with bright-colored fabrics and rickrack. Floral patterns are incorporated into women’s skirts in Jocomico and other areas or for speciic dances. The female costume for the Opatoro region features bright fabrics and large ribbon adornments that create geometric patterns in the skirt. The men perform simpler steps and use their hat and occasionally other props such as machete knives and handkerchiefs while following the leading steps of their performing partner.

El Salvador El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The population is estimated at more than 6,000,000. The coastal area runs along the Paciic Ocean. Like the other Central American countries its geography is diverse with high mountain ranges, navigable rivers, active volcanoes, and expansive beach areas. The country’s economy depends on crops such as bananas, coffee, corn, and tobacco. Tourism has become an increasingly important source of income for El Salvador and the other countries in the area. Traditional dress in some areas shows remnants of Mayan dress. This is particularly the case in towns such as Nahuizalco and Santo Domingo de Guzmán and other areas in the eastern part of El Salvador inhabited by descendants of Nahua or Pipil groups, also known as Lenca. The Pipil are direct descendants of the Mayas and speak a Nahuatl dialect. Women in the area occasionally wear

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huipiles (blouses) and refajos or nahuas (skirts) similar to those worn by Guatemalan women of Mayan descent. Embroidered or brocaded motifs on the huipiles often indicate the wearer’s place of origin. Costumes associated with regional and religious festivals abound in El Salvador. In the mountain town of Cacaopera, for instance, an effort has been made to keep alive certain traditions associated with native groups such as the Lenca, Pipil, and Ulua. Colorful outits are used in the Cacaopera Festival where men perform a number of dances wearing white pants and shirts. The most important element of their costume is elaborate multicolor headdresses in the shape of a basket full of feathers. The men are known as emplumados or “the feathered ones.” For the Dance of the Tiger and the Deer in the town of San Juan Nonualco dancers wear costumes representing the hunters and animals involved in the hunting story represented. During Semana Santa (Holy Week) parishioners all around Central America participate in procesiones (processions) around city streets from Good Friday to Easter Sunday. In El Salvador the areas of Sonsonate and Izalco are known for elaborate processions including a range of costumed biblical characters. As in Honduras, there are several variations of national dress in El Salvador. The costumes are used in festivities or folkloric performances and often display local motifs. Women’s dress normally consists of a cotton blouse with short

Nahuatl indigenous women celebrate winter solstice in San Andres, El Salvador, 2006. (Reuters/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sleeves and simple decorations while the skirt is long and lounced. Accessories include shawls or religious elements such as rosary beads and scapularies (badges created with two cloth pieces joined by bands and worn over the shoulders and on the chest). As in other Central American countries the dress is complemented by sandals or lat shoes. Men’s dress consists of either a pair of white cotton pants or a pair of jeans usually matched with a white linen or cotton button-front shirt. Men wear a straw hat and sandals or work boots. Several variations exist for this main costume. For instance, a whole outit may be created with only two base colors—blue and white—to replicate the pattern of the Salvadoran lag. Other versions include a full dress whose top and bottom are made in one piece from printed cotton fabric. Colorful aprons are another common addition, and sometimes a scarf is draped over the right shoulder. Other versions are created by mixing and matching bottoms and tops in blue and white, the colors of the Salvadoran national lag.

Nicaragua Nicaragua shares borders with Honduras in the north and Costa Rica in the south with coasts on both the Paciic and Atlantic oceans. The population is approximately 5,727,000 people. Mayan inluence in clothing is less apparent in Nicaragua than in other countries in the region, but it is somewhat visible in the descendants of the Chorotega, a group related to the Mayans who lived in Nicaragua and Costa Rica during pre-Columbian times. Another important native group was Los Concheros, located in the Caribbean coast of Nicaragua and named after their most important activity, collecting shells for a variety of purposes including the production of textile dyes. Miskito communities are dispersed around the Caribbean coast in Nicaragua with large concentrations in the Miskitu Keys, Awastara, and Blueields. As in the case of the Honduran Miskito groups discussed above, Nicaraguan Miskitos emphasize practicality and simplicity in their work wardrobe but dress similar to the rest of the Nicaraguan population when traveling to urban areas. In the past, however, Miskitos created clothing items out of tree bark and wove cotton garments, including the pulpera, a type of loin-cloth worn in the 18th and 19th centuries by both males and females. Traditional Nicaraguan costumes—just like those of other Central American countries—show a mixture of Spanish and native elements. Men wear white shirts and pants with dark capes and straw hats. Women wear huipiles with embroidered or brocaded details and a wide skirt with several lounces and embroidered motifs. Flowers normally decorate the head and accessories include fans and embroidered shawls. This is in stark contrast to folkloric costumes used in the northern part of the country where women wear less-lounced skirts accessorized with a kerchief

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People dressed in Gueguenses Toro-Huaco wear masks and dance during the San Sebastian festival in Diriamba, Nicaragua, 2002. (Miguel Alvarez/AFP/Getty Images)

around the waist and a headwrap while men wear knee-length white pants with a straw hat and a handkerchief around the neck. Costumes worn in regional festivals represent characters from local tales and legends such as in the Baile del Zopilote (Dance of the Vulture) in the areas of Masaya, Diriá, and Diriomo where the vulture is represented by a masked reveler dressed in black while female dancers wear bright orange skirts and black shawls. In the same region, for the dance of Las Inditas (The Little Indian Girls), female performers wear white dresses with red shawls. In the popular Baile de Los Agüizotes (Dance of the Evil Spells) characters from folklore and legends are represented by revelers dressed in loose, long-sleeved black gowns. They wear papiermâché masks with faces of igures such as the red and black demons, the Cadejos (a large, angry dog with red eyes), the Cegua (a woman with a horse’s head), and the cursed Padre sin Cabeza (headless priest). One of the most important surviving plays from colonial times is El Güegüense (The Honored Elder). Performed every year in Nicaragua, the comedy about misunderstandings and political corruption dates from the 17th century. It is staged by local actors wearing colonial clothing and masks with European faces. Red and black were widely used in Nicaragua during the period of the Revolución Sandinista, when the nation had been ruled by the bloody dictatorship of

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the Somoza family for decades. The Sandinistas were the largest group ighting against the dictatorship and selected red and black as the colors to identify their movement. The dictatorship was defeated in 1979 and at the time the Junta Nacional de Reconstrucción (National Reconstruction Organization) proposed uniform clothing for Nicaraguans as a means of symbolizing socialist equality. However, their effort to establish the cotona—a loose, long-sleeved white dress shirt worn with white pants—as the new form of national dress was unsuccessful. As in other Central American countries, blue and white—the colors of the Nicaraguan lag— are often used in folkloric and other representative national costumes. See also Guatemala; Costa Rica and Panama

Further Reading and Resources Bolland, Nigel O. Belize: A New Nation in Central America. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1986. Borland, Katherine. Unmasking Class, Gender, and Sexuality in Nicaraguan Festivals. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2006. Dennis, Philip A. The Miskitu People of Awastara. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2004. Foster, Lynn V. A Brief History of Central America. New York: Facts on File, 2000. Roessingh, Carel. The Belizean Garifuna: Organization of Identity in an Ethnic Community in Central America. Amsterdam: Rozenberg, 2002. Schevill, Margot Blum. The Maya Textile Tradition. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997. Tilley, Virginia Q. Seeing Indians: A Study of Race, Nation, and Power in El Salvador. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 2005.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Marilyn Cvitanic

Historical Background Over the centuries Bosnia has been subjected to a myriad of political and cultural inluences. The Bosnian population survived invasions, economic hardship, constant migration, and the political uncertainties that came with living along the vacillating border between the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires. In spite of challenging conditions, Bosniak Muslims, Croatian Catholics, and Orthodox Serbs often lived side by side and as such, differences in dress throughout the region do not limit themselves to strict geographic or political boundaries. Hence, there is no single style that easily summarizes the folk traditions of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this text Bosnia is used as a shortened name for Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Muslim presence in Bosnia dates to the 14th century when Ottoman armies brought the region under Turkish control. For the next 400 years Bosnia was part of the Ottoman Empire, and much of its population converted from Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Islam. During the mid-19th century a wave of nationalistic consciousness swept through Europe inspiring the Slavic population to rebel against Ottoman control. This period of unrest did not lead to independence; rather, the weakened Ottoman leadership was overthrown by Austria-Hungary, which took control of the region. Frustration with imperialism came to a head in 1914 when Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, was assassinated in Sarajevo by a Bosnian Serb nationalist. Austria declared war on Serbia, igniting the First World War, which ended four bloody years later with the defeat of AustriaHungary and Germany. Bosnia was then annexed by the kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which later became Yugoslavia. After the Second World War Josip Broz Tito declared himself president of Yugoslavia and installed a communist regime. At this time Bosnia-Herzegovina became one of six republics that constituted Yugoslavia, which remained a united sovereign state until 1991, when the republics’ demand for greater autonomy led to the Yugoslav Wars and the dissolution of Yugoslavia. 81

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Bosnia declared independence in 1992, foiling plans by Serb leaders to create “Greater Serbia.” With support from the indigenous Bosnian Serb population, Serbia retaliated with military force including brutal attacks on civilians and mass executions. Croatia also attempted to annex those parts of Herzegovina that had a large Croat population. In 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement was reached, allowing Bosnia to retain the borders that existed before the war. However, the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina now encompassed two political entities. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a primarily Bosniak and Croat area in the center of the country bordered on two sides by the largely Serbian Republika Srpska. Today, the region is peaceful but some ethnic tensions linger in the wake of the most recent in a long legacy of military and political conlicts.

Geographic and Environmental Background Bosnia and Herzegovina is a mountainous country located in the western Balkans bordering Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro. The country’s most distinctive geographic feature is the Dinaric Alps, which provide stunning landscapes and excellent terrain for skiing. With only about 12 miles of coastline, the seaside town of Neum is the country’s only port and a signiicant Adriatic tourist destination. The southeastern part of the country near the coast has a Mediterranean climate while the northern and central regions have typically Alpine temperatures and precipitation. Approximately 39 percent of Bosnia is forested, only 14 percent of land is arable, and approximately 5 percent is actually cultivated. Since the climate and terrain lends itself to farming sheep, wool was always a primary textile. Leather goods were also domestically produced and even exported. The soil and temperatures were not conducive to growing cotton, but lax was easier to grow, and therefore linen was commonly used in the production of clothing.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Folk customs invariably differ across ethnic and religious lines. The term Bosnian refers to the members of a population that comprises Bosniaks, Croatians, and Serbians, none of which is presently considered a minority or majority group in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniaks are of Muslim faith who self-identify as ethnic Bosnians and are mostly descendants of Christian Slavs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman era. The Croatians living in Bosnia and Herzegovina are primarily Catholic and the Serbian population is Orthodox. Especially in the countryside, clothing signaled ethnicity and socioeconomic and marital status. However, it is dificult to categorize these distinctions broadly

Woman from Sarajevo wearing dimije, c. 1900. (Library of Congress)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress as details and accessories varied from place to place. In cities trends were easier to identify, although they did not always conform to religious conventions. For example, before the days of Austro-Hungarian rule, certain features of women’s dress consistent with Muslim traditions were commonplace in large cities. Most women, regardless of religion, covered their heads and veiled their faces. This was not prescribed by Ottoman authorities; rather, veiling was voluntarily adopted and became a norm until the mid-19th century. In public, women and girls of marriageable age would cover their upper torso, head, and face with a large shawl called a bosca. Most of these shawls were woven at home, however wealthier women wore a iner imported cashmere equivalent called a lahurli-šal. Dimije, the wide Turkish pants worn underneath a woman’s tunic, were an obligatory part of Muslim women’s dress, particularly in the rural Dinaric region. As in cities, some Christian women also adopted the style, thereby diluting religious or cultural connotations. Ideally, dimije were made from wide swaths of fabric that gathered in rich pleats below the knee and could almost be mistaken for a skirt.

Materials and Techniques Costume details varied across Bosnia as did the means of production. In rural areas, textiles were often woven by women at home. In larger cities such as Mostar and Sarajevo production occurred in workshops and a Turkish aesthetic was more pronounced, especially in the clothing of wealthier classes who could afford opulent detailing such as gold or silver embroidery. Colors varied regionally with brighter colors used in villages while city folk wore more subtle tones. Prior to the late 19th century, most traditional clothing was made of homespun linen textiles. In rural areas women prepared lax by soaking the reeds in water and beating them so that ibers could be removed and spun into yarn, woven, and dyed. Vegetable-based dyes were used and colors were subtle by modern standards. Clothing was not tailored and the proper silhouette was achieved by gathering and pleating. Outerwear such as vests, jackets, and coats were made primarily of wool, though some leather and fur was also worn. These specialized items were often purchased from local craftsmen. The introduction of industrially produced cloth in the late 19th century led to the decline of domestic textile production and is further discussed below.

History of Ethnic Dress The rich traditions of Bosnian ethnic dress found in rural villages are dificult to summarize in broad generalizations. Therefore it is helpful to divide the subject along cultural-geographic lines. The following paragraphs focus on the

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Bosnian peasants dancing, c. 1900. (Library of Congress)

Dinaric region (western Bosnia and Herzegovina), central Bosnia, and Pannonia (the Posavina region along the Sava River), noting the variation in dress between ethnic groups. An essential of women’s dress in the Dinaric region was a simple long-sleeved linen tunic, which was often heavily embroidered and belted with a colorful woolen or knitted sash. For holidays these sashes were accessorized with silver or gilded clasps. In Herzegovina an okovanik, a necklace featuring a coin pendant, might also be worn. Christian women also wore a woolen pregaca, an apron that looks like a small rug. These varied in color, motif, and size according to locale. In some parts of western Bosnia married women wore a large pregaca in front and a smaller version in the back. A layered look was created by adding a zubun or a cerma, both sleeveless outer garments made of wool. The cerma was basically a short vest while the zubun varied in length and was totally open in the front. While of Turkish origin, these items also resembled the sleeveless sheepskin coat worn for generations by the inhabitants of the mountainous region of western Bosnia. Serbian women were known to create particularly colorful zubun, which they would decorate with cloth appliqués. In colder weather a long-sleeved coat called a haljina was worn. Throughout much of the Dinaric region both men

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and women also appeared in linen anterija, long-sleeved garments decorated with white embroidery and beads that went over the tunic but under the zubun. Unmarried girls appeared in naturally white woolen outer garments while married women commonly wore black or dark blue. Male attire in the Dinaric region featured a knee-length tunic with wide sleeves much like that worn by women. A sleeveless woolen waistcoat such as the zubun or a similar type of vest or coat covered the bodice of the tunic. The koporan was a distinctive military-style short shirt with sleeves made of heavy-duty linen that might also cover the tunic. Men typically wore a pair of linen pants underneath an external pair of wider woolen pants. As an alternative, wealthier gentlemen wore woolen breeches in black, white, or blue, which varied in style according to locale. Woolen sashes in red or green were ubiquitous, although some men in western Herzegovina also wore a bensilah, a leather belt with pouches for necessities including tobacco, coins, and a pocketknife. The degree to which these garments were embroidered also varied from region to region Dress in the central region of Bosnia was similar to that in the Dinaric region, but with a more pronounced Ottoman inluence. There was less variation among Muslim women than among the Christian population. A wide tunic featuring puckered vertical stripes made of a homespun blend of cotton, silk, and linen was essential and worn over wide ankle-length pants. Over the tunic, Christian women wore a curdije, a black hip-length dress, decorated with embroidery or ribbons according to local customs. The zubun, in either black or white, was also worn over this combination with decoration that varied from one village to the next. As in the Dinaric region, sashes of various colors were part of the ensemble. In Sarajevo wealthy girls distinguished themselves by wearing metal belts with large buckles. Headgear was diverse, but the fesic, a small fez-like hat, was commonly worn by girls. In urban areas afluent girls would decorate the fesic with gold ducats. Married women appeared in taller hats that were decorated with coins and usually wrapped with a scarf. Men’s costume in central Bosnia was also similar to that of the Dinaric region. They wore tunics made of a blend of cotton, linen, and silk, and two pairs of pants, the exterior pair being either black or white and made of homespun wool. A colorful sash and bensilah completed the ensemble. Outer garments included various types of waistcoats, usually made of black wool. A tasseled fez was a common element in men’s wardrobes regardless of their ethnicity. Women from the Posavina region often wore tunics constructed from homespun cloth that were distinguished by pleating around the neck and waist. Pants were not commonly worn, and Croatian and Serbian women rarely appeared in dimije. Hems and sleeves were embroidered in motifs based on local plants and vegetables and accented with beads and lace. Woolen outerwear consisted of the

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pregaca, zubun, and winter haljina. Married women typically wore two pregaca, one in front, one in back, and these aprons were often trimmed with long woolen fringe. The zubun, in either black or white, was knee-length and remained unembroidered. In some areas short leather waistcoats were decorated with small mirrors and appliqué. As elsewhere, a long woolen sash was tied around a woman’s waist. Headgear was based on the krpa, a length of cloth that Croatian and Serbian girls and women wore over their heads in a multitude of ways. The look was accessorized with lowers, necklaces made of multicolored beads, and pins. Men of the Posavina region also wore knee-length tunics, often pleated at the back of the waist. Pants were usually narrow and decorated with lace trim at the hems. Men also wore an embroidered sleeveless woolen waistcoat, a sash, and often a leather bensilah. The fez was popular with Croatian and Serbian men who wrapped the hat with a red shawl while Bosnian Muslims preferred green. Throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina opanke, a traditional type of leather moccasin-like peasant shoe, was commonly worn by both men and women. Shoes were designed to it either foot so one would typically alternate shoes from foot to foot to reduce damage on a given spot. The town of Visoko, a historic trading city with a large leather and textile industry, was the primary source for saddles, bags, and shoes for domestic use and export. According to some sources, up to a million pairs of shoes per year were made in Visoko including many pairs of opanke. The details of this shoe varied across the ethnic groups. For example, Orthodox Serbs wore them with pointed tips, while Muslims wore rounded lat tips and Croatian Catholics typically wore black opanke. Western-style shoes were introduced by the Austrians and became commonplace in the 20th century. As a result, few craftsmen still know how to make opanke. However, according to UNESCO, a renewed interest in ethnic culture has led to a resurgence in the form of contemporary styles that are inspired by this traditional shoe. As political and economic conditions changed during the 19th century, so did clothing styles. In her detailed article on the subject, Svetlana Bajić discusses the changes in urban dress that occurred under Austro-Hungarian rule, which began in 1878. Technological change coupled with improvements in transportation hastened the shift away from traditional clothing styles. Better roads and new rail lines brought large quantities of industrially produced textiles to rural as well as urban areas. The development of the sewing machine as well as the production of machine-spun yarn, bright synthetic dyes, and mechanized (as opposed to handblocked) printing were just a few of the advances that made fashionable European clothing accessible and affordable. Heightened exposure led local craftspeople to copy the latest styles and the population gladly followed new trends. For the wealthy urban elite, updating one’s wardrobe with the latest styles became the norm. Bajić mentions that in addition to tailors who worked in the Turkish style

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress with familiar heavyweight fabrics, new shops were opening to meet the demand for lighter-weight clothing à la Franca, in the French manner. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries both men and women combined traditional items with newly introduced European accessories, signaling a departure from the styles of ethnic dress that had been worn for generations. Among other changes, women adopted the kat-haljina, an outit featuring a European-style blouse with dimije made of the same fabric. Men began to wear suits with jackets and matching trousers, shirts with collars, ties, and derby-style hats. The movement away from traditional clothing was also evident in rural areas, although women’s dress, which carried more symbolism than men’s, tended to change more slowly. Marital status, in particular, was signaled by the clothing and accessories worn by women and girls. Men’s dress, on the other hand, did not have the same connection to personal identity. Since men often traveled beyond their immediate village for business, they were exposed to mainstream trends and, in some instances, may have felt pressured to adopt European styles before women did. By the mid-20th century, even remote areas were looded with factory-made textiles. Cotton, multicolored chintz, and glot, a plain black, shiny satin, began to replace homespun fabric. Bajić indicates that, more than ever, Turkish styles pervaded rural Bosnia regardless of the ethnicity of the wearer. For example, dimije, the aforementioned skirtlike Turkish style of trousers, became popular with Christians as well as Muslim women in the Dinaric region. As in urban areas, women also began to embrace the coordinated look of the kat-haljina. Between the wars, when Bosnia became part of the kingdom of Yugoslavia, modern trends continued to impact dress, along with cross-cultural inluences from within Yugoslavia. For example, during the years following the First World War, the carza, a dress from neighboring Dalmatia, originally made from wool but later from glot, was adopted in the western region of Bosnia. In Herzegovina it eventually evolved into a plain black or dark blue pleated skirt called a kotula. At this time skirts were also being introduced in central Bosnia. White was worn in summer and heavy black glot was common in winter. This change alone is not dramatic, but it is part of a growing sartorial shift. As communication and transportation improved, even rural areas were inluenced by modern trends that originated as far away as France, England, and eventually even the United States.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Prior to the 20th century most peasants had only one or two changes of clothing with the iner, more elaborate items reserved for holidays, church services, and weddings. Urban residents might have a slightly larger wardrobe, but only the wealthiest individuals owned a wide selection of clothing.

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For her wedding day, a bride usually wore her inest garments, which were accessorized especially for the occasion. As with other aspects of Bosnian dress, wedding traditions varied from place to place. In the Dinaric region brides typically wore elaborate headdresses, and Bajić mentions several variations including the vindelj, a cap and scarf combination, and the tiara-like ovrljina, which was decorated with silver jewelry and embroidered lengths of cloth. Transparent veils, usually red, the color associated with fertility, covered the bride’s face and head. In cities where Turkish dress was popular, a bride might wear a hip-length velvet džube, an outer garment that was open in the front, decorated with gold embroidery, and featured wide, luxurious sleeves. Men’s clothing for formal occasions was often heavily decorated with silver iligree buttons and long cylindrical beads. Swords or large knives also accessorized holiday dress. The entirety of these details gave an indication of the wearer’s wealth.

Component Parts of Dress Embroidery was an important element in Bosnian ethnic dress as it often signaled an individual’s place of origin and religion. Patterns had symbolic signiicance ranging from clan membership to spiritual beliefs, which were based in folklore rather than conventional religion. Women’s clothing, in particular, was decorated with geometric designs of archaic origin relating to fertility, childbearing, and menstruation. Not surprisingly, red was the most common color for such motifs. While it is dificult to specify the origins and meaning of ancient Eastern European folkloric designs, scholars have theorized that patterns representing birds, frogs, snakes, and female igures may be traced back to pre-Christian fertility goddesses. Needlework using thick woolen black or red thread to create rosettes and spirals appears in traditional folk dress throughout the Balkans and Greece, and often indicated a married woman’s social position. Though traditional patterns are slowly being lost today, the needlework appears on such garments as the zubun in Bosnia. The women of the Posavina region were particularly skilled embroiderers who produced their own silk thread from locally raised silkworms. Their best work appeared on a type of hat called the poculica and the scarf that was wrapped around it.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Urban women and girls wore jewelry varying widely in quality and materials. Silver and gold were ideal, with diamonds, rubies, and emeralds, which were occasionally used for embellishment, while less expensive turquoise, coral, and amber were more common. Glass beads and faux gems were also used to create more

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress affordable pieces. Earrings, bracelets, rings, and brooches were common, along with jeweled clasps used to fasten sashes and belts. Rural women also tended to accessorize their dress with silver, most often in the form of coins or charms that were sewn directly on to garments. Usually a bodice or hat, rather than the pregaca, would be adorned with coins. Silver jewelry included bracelets, earrings, and rings as well as the okovanik or derdani, a series of coins that are sewn to a strip of fabric and worn as a necklace. Women also wore a variety of headpieces including hats that were decorated with pins or coins or covered with scarves. Folk costume often extends beyond clothing and jewelry. In certain Catholic communities girls were tattooed, usually on their hands and arms, but sometimes on their chests and foreheads with geometric patterns that included crosses. In the Balkans, the tradition of tattooing is extensive, dating back to pre-Christian times. However, in Bosnia its practice was limited to the Catholic population. According to an account by Croatian historian Ciro Truhelka (1865–1942), during the years of Ottoman rule, young Catholic girls were tattooed with Christian symbols in order to prevent their forced conversion to Islam. Certain holidays such as the Feast of the Annunciation (March 23), Palm Sunday, and St. Stephen’s Day were especially auspicious for tattooing. This tradition continued beyond the Ottoman era and well into the 20th century, and such tattoos are still seen on older women. The practice was frowned upon by the communist regime of the former Yugoslavia and gradually fell out of favor until recently. The current global fascination with tattoos in Western culture, coupled with the previously mentioned interest in ethnic culture has led to the reappearance of traditional tattoos, particularly among young people.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress In recent decades, ethnic dress traditions have been maintained primarily by folklore groups, usually amateur organizations, which also perform traditional music and dance. Particularly in the United States, the Bosnian diaspora founded and maintains a number of performing folk troupes. Dancers, musicians, and singers often wear clothing that was passed down from one generation to the next, and when such items are not available, new garments are made to resemble traditional clothing as much as possible. Since the war, nonproit organizations have been founded in Bosnia to revive traditional handicrafts including weaving and embroidery. These groups serve a dual function. Satisfying a renewed interest in ethnic culture, they also provide employment to women, many of whom were still suffering from the psychological trauma of war. According to UNESCO, Duga (Rainbow) founded in Banja Luka

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Bosnian folk group at the International Festival of Hazelnuts in Sicily, Italy, 2012. (Gandolfo Cannatella/Dreamstime.com)

and Zene za Zene (Women for Women) in Sarajevo have created a supportive environment for women to learn traditional crafts and, among other things, re-create traditional costumes. One of the biggest technical challenges was matching the muted colors found in authentic 19th-century vintage costumes. By the Second World War plant-based dyes were replaced by aniline colors that produce much brighter hues. As a solution, Duga began to hand dye their own yarn and actually built looms to weave textiles in an authentic manner. Beyond maintaining tradition, both Duga and Zene za Zene want to help women become inancially independent. To that end, Duga invited fashion designers to integrate traditional motifs into clothing and accessories that could be marketed to an international audience. While this is yet to be achieved on a large scale, Duga has created a collection of folk-inspired clothing and “ethno-souvenirs” that have received international recognition by UNESCO. Zene za Zene has focused on helping women start their own small businesses, often based on traditional arts and crafts.

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References and Further Reading Bajić, Svetlana. “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ethnic Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Bajić, Svetlana. “Bosnia and Herzegovina: Urban Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Bartlett, Djurdja. Fashioneast: The Spectre That Haunted Socialism. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2010. Durham, M. High Albania. London: Edward Arnold, 1909. Heyl, Norbert, and Cristina Gregorin. Traditional Arts and Crafts in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Venice: UNESCO, 2005. Kennett, Francis. Ethnic Dress: A Comprehensive Guide to the Folk Costume of the World. New York: Facts On File, 1995. Munro, Robert. Rambles and Studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia, 2nd ed. London: Blackwood and Sons, 1900. Samsonova, Evgenia. “Tattooing of Croatian Women in Bosnia-Herzegovina.” http://folklored.blogspot.com/2012/04/tattooing-of-croatian-women-in-bosnia .html. Welters, Linda. Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility. Oxford: Berg, 1999.

Brazil Aleasha McCallion

Historical and Geographical Background The ifth largest country in the world and approximately half of the South American continent, Brazil is diverse in landscape, people, and dress. The coastline of 4,600 miles of tropical beaches includes the famous Copacabana in the heart of Rio de Janeiro as well as the secluded surf beaches in Bahia. The current population of Brazil is estimated at 205,716,890, making it the ifth largest country in the world, both in population and in geographic size. The interior of Brazil ranges from the northern Amazon rain forest to rolling hills of vast forests, palm trees, and plantations, and plateau plains in the southeastern state of Rio Grande do Sul. The national language is Portuguese due to colonial roots, but the people of Brazil have a heritage from indigenous, European, and African descent, as well as the largest population of Japanese, Italian, and Arabic immigrant communities in the world. The national dress of Brazil has to be discovered by looking into the history and diversity of the country. Indigenous dress, whether in the Amazonian jungle, the coastal forest, or the central plateaus is dominated by feather headdresses, body art, and ornamentation with limited garments, while the African and European multigarment dress ranges from Afro-Brazilian adaptation of European garments to the pure integration of the traditional African headdress. Modern-day Brazil was shaped through colonization by Portugal, a southern European nation bordering the Atlantic, which in the 15th century had a population of 2 million and an aggressive exploration effort. Portugal set up trade networks with strongholds on the west coast of Africa, and expeditions traveled the world for resources, trade goods, and the ocean passage to India, which they secured in 1498. Pedro Alvares Cabral, in 1500, was heading west on currents that round the southern tip of Africa toward India and his ship came upon land. The indigenous people of coastal Brazil thrived in the forested areas rich with small game, ish, and plant foods. The estimated population, inclusive of all the different indigenous tribes at the time of European contact, was approximately 7 million. At the initial 93

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress point of contact, articles of dress were exchanged such as cloth caps for feathered headdresses and bead strands for rosaries (Sommer, 2008, 203). The extensive forests kept settlers concentrated in the coastal regions except in the northern territories where the Amazon River offered access for ships. Ships became important vessels for transferring the riches of the colonies to Europe (Fausto, 1999). The largest export initially was an eficiently burning wood known as Brazil wood, and thus the area was soon referred to as Brazil; later sugarcane, gold, tobacco, and coffee were the predominant exports. Portuguese settlers, noble and common, including those wanted out of the country were encouraged to establish and work plantations. Men arrived single or without their wives and children and stayed for many years; often their families never joined them. Indigenous peoples were captured and forced into labor on plantations but succumbed to disease easily, and the mortality rate made them an ineficient source of the manual labor required for sugar production. African slaves were brought to Brazil to replace the local slave labor and eventually became the main source of labor. An estimated 4–5 million people were brought between 1550 and 1850, the largest and longest lasting importation of African people to the Americas. The European consumption of the highly labor-intensive sugar sustained the economic structure of slave labor, and the lack of consistent family structure in the new colonial society coincided with an unparalleled level of brutality, repression, and abuse for three centuries. In the year 1889, slavery was abolished and Brazil became a new republic with a range of territories and peoples of mixed ethnicity, social status, and economic well-being. The class structure formed from a culture of slavery would not adjust as quickly as the country’s new political state. Race relations in postslavery Brazil were very poor as black people attempted to be free peoples and many whites felt threatened by this (Pinho, 2010).

People and Dress Brazilian ethnic dress is as diverse as the range of peoples that were forced through the colonial model; there are streams of dress that are distinctly inluenced by dominant populations in different areas. As in many cultures, dress was the visual clue to categorizing people by gender, class, slave or free, or religious afiliation (Sommer, 2008).

Indigenous Dress A Portuguese explorer described the indigenous appearance as naked except for the body paint of blue/black and the jewelry and headwear of feathers over a shaved head, and eyes with plucked eyelashes and no eyebrows.

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The dress of the Yanomami people of the Roraima state of northern Brazil still exempliies that of the indigenous tribes of precolonial Brazil with minimal use of cloth in dress and more ornamentation: luffy buzzard down placed on the head over a paste made of plant matter; wood, bone, or stone plugs and piercings through the earlobes, cheeks, at the sides of the mouth, or below the lower lip. Piercings through the middle of the nose are optionally adorned with bright feathers or plant matter for men, women, and children. Armbands, beaded necklaces, and cuffs accent the body art that is red, black, or blue and geometrically painted on the body. Initially, acquiring and wearing Portuguese articles of dress and weapons became popular among the indigenous. The Portuguese saw it as loyal and greatly encouraged it for both political and religious reasons. The Amazon was particularly targeted to counter the Spanish Jesuits spreading control southward. The covering up of the human body, and especially the female body, was an integral mission for the European religious representatives over the centuries that they controlled Brazil.

Portuguese-Brazilian Dress The fashion in Portugal was inluenced heavily by the European dominant French and Spanish styles. Jean-Baptiste Debret (1768–1848), a French painter, created scenes based on his travels in Brazil from 1816 to 1831 and captured the daily life, social structure, racial diversity, and range of dress in Brazilian society. The paintings Interior de uma casa de cignanos and Un employe du government sortant de chez lui avec sa famille demonstrate the diverse economic and class structure that dress and undress illustrated as well as the transition of European costume in the new colony. Women’s dress between 1600 and 1800 when baroque and rococo were the prominent styles featured over-the-top, playful, soft curves and generous trimmings. Attire for women included short- or long-sleeve top dresses with lace trim details up to the neck and down to the ankles with dainty slipper-style shoes and white stockings visible at the hem. Spanish-inluenced capes of black and white and black lace lounces were worn over the dresses. Skirts were short enough to show off the feet and had no panniers. Portuguese men dressed in a jacket when out in public, a waistcoat over long generous sleeve shirts with the rococo/baroque inluence of rufle collars, breeches to the knee, and stockings. Styles varied with colonial or court inluences of formality depending on rank in society. Debret’s Family Dining, showing a private setting, demonstrates the contrast between master and servant dress as well as children’s attire in the household. Slaves do not have shoes on, a key article of dress that separated the free and the not free in society.

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Interior de uma casa de cignanos (1835) by Jean-Baptiste Debret. (Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / De Agostini Picture Library / A. Dagli Orti / The Bridgeman Art Library)

The slaves working within merchant, metropolitan households as servants were clothed in European garments that relected the general wealth of the household, whereas ield and laboring slaves were dressed in simple cloth and often the most basic covering. Children’s clothing relected the class structure, and they are seen in various situations of ornate adultlike dress or scarcely covered with castoffs and no shoes, depending on their status.

Afro-Brazilian Dress Among the culture of slavery, African traditions that remain, however eroded, do so in tribal ceremony and dance. The capoiera and bahiana dress are two examples of Afro-Brazilian culture that now represent the nation on a world scale. In the 1930s Carmen Miranda, a Portuguese-born but Brazilian-raised performer, became an American ilm star and singer wearing a turban bursting with fruit and brightly colored, off the shoulder tops and dresses; a costume that was based on the bahiana costume of the Afro-Brazilian women who dance the samba and enchant other people to dance.

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Capoeira is an African dance-based martial art that lourished due to allowing dance and celebration among the plantation slave communities, coupled with the repression of male warring practice. In the 19th century, the government associated capoeira practice with criminal gangs in Rio de Janeiro, and it was risky to be involved, but deadly to be caught by the authorities (Kraay, 1998). The costume, geared for men, is a wide, straight-leg white pant, with a belt or sash, and possibly a headband or necklace depending on the style or purpose. Through its evolution, capoeira is recognized as folklore, traditional dance, martial art, gymnastics, a national sport, as well as a social movement. The bahiana ladies of Salvador’s famous Pelourinho area are seen as protectors or advisors and garner great respect in the community. They sell wares, promote restaurants, and assist visitors while sauntering through the rolling cobblestone streets. The bahiana style is an intriguing combination of European and African dress elements into a truly Brazilian look. The dress has a wide, hooped cotton skirt, which sways with the hips when the women move and dance; the top is a itted bodice with no sleeves, optionally accompanied by a sash belt, or a generous long-sleeve tunic style that drapes over the waist to meet the skirt midway down the lower body. Generally, African slave women did not wear tops, only simple skirts and slings for their nursing babies; however, traditional African costume was lost to European religious inluence. The fabrics are predominantly white cotton lace, cut-out lace, or embroidered white fabric with bright colors layered underneath to show through the lace cut-out and correspond with the sashes or headwrap. The women also wear several bangles, armbands, and beaded necklaces, which are especially visible during carnival, a community street dance party with roots in Afro-Brazilian traditional dance and celebration. The headdress is often a headwrap that resembles a turban or kerchief and can be plain or extremely ornate with bright woven fabric and beading. The headwrap is one of the longest wearing items of foreign dress worn in the Americas while other styles of headgear have been lost. Women’s headwraps are cylindrical in shape and can be decorated on the face front with designs and beads. Additionally, ine brightly colored beaded strands hang down in front of the face, several straight to the cheek line or draped down in loops over the face and back up to the headwrap. The beaded strings react to each beat, sway, and movement during the dance. Debret’s painting A Canto of Porters Transporting a Hogshead (1820) exhibits the diversity of headdresses worn by men: a straw hat, feather-topped bowler hat, top hat, cowboy hat, feather headdress, as well as tribal interpretations of European garments among laboring male slaves (Kraay, 1998). Different tribes or ethnic groups within the African slave population contributed to the further range of AfroBrazilian cultures.

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A Canto of Porters Transporting a Hogshead (1834), engraving by Jean Baptiste Debret. (Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil/Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY)

Gaucho Dress Gaucho refers to a cowhand of the southern interior plateau, especially in the state of Rio Grande Do Sul. It also refers to a speciic garment, the wide-leg horseriding pant worn by the cowhands. Bombachas is another name for the gaucho pant that is part of the pilchas or outit of the Brazilian cowboy, which was heavily inluenced by the state territory initially being occupied by the Spanish rather than the Portuguese. A large wide hat, a white long-sleeve shirt, bandana and poncho, gauchos, and some boots make up the basic pilchas. Also included in the outit are the unique chiripa, which is a simple strip of fabric that is attached at the waist in the front, goes between the legs, and is then attached at the back with a leather belt. The guaiaca, a wide belt, was used to carry small items like money and weapons. The culture of hard-working lower-level cowhands has sustained itself through colonial times and still survives in the large cattle ranch areas of the southwestern areas of Brazil. In Brazil, a pattern exists of historically repressed or criminally associated dress and customs becoming the country’s celebrated and proud costumes. The indigenous range of dress and undress, the gauchos, Afro-Brazilian bahiana,

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capoeira, and even carnival, which became popular in the favales or slums of Rio de Janeiro, are now government-sponsored tourist attractions. Although they are a diverse people with severe economic and social differences, Brazilians share in the culture and support the identity of their unique nation.

Further Reading and Resources Boucher, Francois. 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987. Bradley Griebel, Helen. “The West African Origin of the African-American Headwrap.” In Joanne B. Eicher, ed. Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time. Oxford and Washington, D.C.: Berg, 1995, pp. 207–226. Brazil—An Inconvenient History. [Video.] Available at http://topdocumentary ilms.com/brazil-inconvenient-history. 2008. Fausto, Boris. A Concise History of Brazil. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Hutchinson, Harry. Village and Plantation Life in Northeastern Brazil. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1957. Kraay, Hendrik, ed. Afro-Brazilian Culture and Politics: Bahia, 1790s to 1990s. Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1998. Levine, Robert M. The History of Brazil. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. MacLauchlan, Colin M. A History of Modern Brazil: The Past against the Future. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2003. McCann, Bryan. “Geraldo Pereira: Samba Composer and Grifter.” In Peter M. Beattie, ed. The Human Tradition in Modern Brazil. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2004, pp. 127–146. Oliven, Ruben. Tradition Matters: Modern Gaucho Identity in Brazil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996. Pinho, Patricia de Santana. Mama Africa: Reinventing Blackness in Bahia. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010. Sommer, Barbara. “Wigs, Weapons, Tattoos and Shoes: Getting Dressed in Colonial Amazonia and Brazil.” In Mina Roces and Louise Edwards, eds. The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Portland, OR: Sussex Academic Press, 2008, pp. 200–214. Tierney, Patrick. Darkness in El Dorado: How Scientists and Journalists Devastated the Amazon. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000.

Bulgaria Carolyn Scholz

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hroughout a long and turbulent history, Bulgarian folk costume has persisted as a recognizable element of the country’s culture with strong links to the past. In the midst of numerous foreign inluences, the Bulgarians developed an ethnic costume that is recognizable among those of Europe. Though now seen mostly on special occasions, the design, construction, and decoration of this folk dress reveal much about different aspects of Bulgarian culture.

Historical and Geographical Background The modern nation of Bulgaria is located in Eastern Europe in the Balkan Peninsula. With a population of 7.6 million, this country of 68,972 square miles (111,000 km2) is a nation of diversity. Geographically, although 70 percent of the country is mountainous, the Thracian plain and Danubian tableland are located inland. The country is bordered on the east by the Black Sea, on the west by the Balkan mountain range, on the north by the Danube River, and on the south by Greece and the Rhodope Mountains. Bulgaria’s political borders have shifted signiicantly throughout its history. It is currently surrounded by Romania, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, and Turkey. Historically, Bulgaria has been ethnically diverse, with different groups such as the Greeks, Serbs, and Ottomans (Turkish) comprising parts of the population. Conlict has been prominent throughout Bulgaria’s history. Multiple inluences have shaped its culture, including those of the Greco-Roman and Turkish cultures, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, and the Roman Catholic Church. Although there is archaeological evidence of people living there that dates back over 1 million years, the oficial Bulgarian state dates back to 681 CE, the beginning of the First Bulgarian Empire (681–1018). Prior to 681, the region had been subject to a number of different rulers, including the Roman Empire, the Turks, and the Ottoman Empire. The irst Bulgarian state was established in the seventh century CE when nomadic Bulgar tribes settled in the area. The Bulgars were the irst ethnic group to establish an oficial cohesive state in the Balkans, defeating the forces of the Byzantine Empire, which had controlled 100

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the area. The new nation’s borders expanded greatly during this time. The conversion of the pagan state to a common Christian faith and the development of a common Cyrillic alphabet increased the cohesion and sense of identity for the Bulgarian people. From 1018 to 1185, the Byzantine Empire again controlled the area, but did not integrate the Bulgarian Empire into its own. The Second Bulgarian Empire lasted from 1185, when Czar Peter IV overthrew the Byzantines, until 1396. During this time a unique Bulgarian culture continued to develop, with the newly established Bulgarian Orthodox Church being a main proponent of this culture. The population during both of these empires was primarily agrarian, with few large urban centers. By the end of the 12th century, an overly taxed peasant population, conlicting Bulgarian nobility, and debt due to constant funding of military conlicts had weakened the empire, which facilitated the Ottoman conquest of Bulgaria. The Ottoman rule lasted from 1393 until 1877. One marked impact of the Ottoman rule was its fracturing of Bulgarian cultural unity. Both voluntary and state-mandated conversions to the Muslim faith and an inlux of Muslim colonists weakened the unifying force of the Christian church, and with it the cultural history contained in its churches, monasteries, and religious art. The structure of the Bulgarian monarchy and nobility was also dissolved, with the new political and spiritual leader, or sultan, owning all land, which could be rented and worked by the peasant population. Cultural touchstones like language, costume, and religious customs did persevere in remote villages, which were removed from the foreign inluences prominent in larger urban centers. It was in these villages that unique decorative aspects of design were developed with little inluence from urban centers or indeed from other villages. By the end of the 18th century, the might of the Ottoman Empire started to decline. Its borders had not signiicantly expanded since the late 17th century. Economic trade was reestablished with other European nations, and cultural ideas began to be exchanged as well. As Bulgaria consistently lost its conlicts, the power of the central government began to destabilize. The peasant population was discontent with the irregularities of land acquisition and began to emigrate in large numbers. Free from the Ottoman inluence, emigrants strengthened their Bulgarian identity in other countries. Monasteries started to produce works in the Bulgarian language, which recalled the history and accomplishments of the Bulgarian people, and encouraged the populace not to be culturally submissive under the Turks. The cumulative effect of social changes in Bulgaria was the National Renaissance, also called the National Revival, which began in 1877 after the RussoTurkish war, whereupon geographic borders were imposed upon the country, making it an autonomous state. The Revival reignited an interest in Bulgarian folk culture, including folk costume. As Bulgarians began to revolt against Turkish rule,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress traditional ethnic costume became a means through which they could establish themselves as Bulgarians, rather than Bulgar-Turks. Traditional folk arts such as embroidery, weaving, and jewelry-making became highly esteemed as a means of expressing this cultural identity, and these trades began to lourish in the cities, which were increasingly industrialized, and not just in more remote locales. The 20th century in Bulgaria was characterized by conlict, militarization, and political upheaval. Victorious against Serbia in 1908 and against the Ottoman Empire during the First Balkan War (1912–1913), Bulgaria was weakened by its loss of the Second Balkan War against Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and the Ottomans. These conlicts had a disastrous effect on Bulgaria’s economy, an effect that was compounded by Bulgaria’s alliance with the Central Powers (Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire) during World War I. Initially allied with the Axis Powers in World War II, Bulgaria joined the Allies in 1943. The communist uprising of 1944 abolished Bulgaria’s monarchy (under the rule of Czar Boris III) and established the People’s Republic of Bulgaria as a communist country in 1944. Against this tumultuous backdrop, folk costume not only survived but was promoted as a way of reinforcing cultural identity and resisting Western inluence. Communist rule prevailed until 1989, whereupon the communist regime was dismissed and the parliamentary democracy that exists today was established. The effect of the democracy has had different effects on the Bulgarian economy, quality of life, and standard of living. Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries there has been a gradual disappearance of the traditional peasant agrarian culture and a dilution of the cultural diversity that had characterized the country for over 1,000 years. With regard to dress, certain aspects of Western fashion have been widely adopted. But although traditional folk costume is worn mostly to festivals and on special occasions, it is still evident and preserved. The overall diversity of Bulgarian culture with regard to its geography, ethnic groups, and political regimes has helped to shape a folk costume that, while it can be categorized by generalities, has an abundant variety of decorative techniques, design details, and use of color and accessories. What might be called “Bulgarian” dress relects the inluences of the many cultures that coexisted in the region.

People and Dress Bulgarian Folk Costume Prior to the late 19th century, traditional folk costume was virtually the only type of dress worn by the Bulgarian peasant and lower classes. Garments were hand-made with materials that were available locally. Garment styles had changed very slowly through the country’s history and were generally resistant

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to the inluence of European fashion, especially in geographically remote regions. During the 20th century, the development, production, and wearing of folk costume began to decline, due in large part to the inluence of Western culture. Today, folk costume is worn primarily on festive or national holidays as a way to celebrate ethnicity.

Materials and Techniques Before the implementation of modern technology in Bulgaria, folk costume was almost exclusively handmade and of simple construction, due to time and inancial constraints. Garments were designed to be durable and withstand the manual labor of the peasant classes. Clothing-related tasks Numerous costume components typical of were usually completed by women, Bulgarian women’s costume can be noted in who were responsible for lax pro- this photograph: the chemise with lace cuffs, duction and sheep shearing to obtain woven aprons, circular silver belt buckles, and headscarves with coin decoration, c. ibers, spinning yarn, and the weaving, 1930. (Wilhelm Tobien/National Geographic dyeing, and decorating of fabric. Society/Corbis) Fabrics were homespun and could include linen, hemp, and wool. White linen was widely used in particular. The use of color in fabrics varied throughout Bulgaria, though several colors like black, dark blue, gray, and especially red were prominent in garments and their decorative elements. Materials used for dyeing thread and fabrics included marjoram, berries, indigo, St. John’s wort, walnut meat, plums, and soot. Wool was used for outer garments and socks, while linen was used for shirts and chemises. Cotton became more widely used upon its import starting in the 18th century, as were imported silk and other luxury fabrics by the upper classes. Silk tended to be used for decorative aspects of dress. Decorative Techniques Bulgarian folk dress was extensively decorated for purposes of adornment and to display wealth. Though designed to be practical, even everyday garments could have intricate decorative detail. Embroidery was a popular form of decoration, with

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress certain designs often being unique to a particular village or geographic region. Silk or cotton thread was applied to the hems, cuffs, and borders of garments, and red, black, and white were the principal colors. Embroidered motifs were generally geometric, nonrepresentational shapes, although some designs of stylized animals, people, or plants were used, and this could vary greatly according to region. Weaving was also used for structural designs in fabric, the best examples of which are the wide woven belts worn by both sexes. Belts could be of a simple striped design, although geometric designs were sometimes seen.

Women’s Dress Bulgarian women’s costume can be categorized according to the style of the outer garments. There are three main types: irst the apron costume, marked by the presence of one or two aprons; the soukman costume, distinguished by a tunic-like garment; and the saya costume, marked by a coatlike overdress. All of these garments were worn with the basic chemise. Chemise The chemise could also be described as a shift, smock, or gown, rather than simply a shirt as the name implies. Typically, the chemise was made of homespun white linen, although imported cotton could be used starting in the 18th century. Chemises were long, resembling a nightgown, and could be of knee to mid-calf length. There were some design variations; sleeves were long and could be gathered at the wrist or bell-shaped. The neckline could be gathered with a yoke, or there could simply be a slit at the neck to allow the wearer to put it on. Although most of the chemise was covered by overgarments, visible areas like the cuffs and neckline were extensively decorated with embroidery of homespun thread. Colors and designs varied according to region. One- and Two-Apron Costumes The apron costume was the oldest and most widely adopted of Bulgarian women’s folk costume. The one-apron costume consisted of a chemise worn with one apron tied at the waist at the front, while the two-apron costume had an additional apron tied at the back. Aprons were woven and tended to be narrow in width, and were constructed of a single rectangular width of cloth, or two narrower widths joined by a vertical seam, and tied with simple narrow straps. Aprons often had patterns of broad horizontal stripes in colors like red, blue, or yellow, although stylized and geometric motifs are visible in certain areas. Regional variations also included a back apron with a fuller cut and pleats, and longer, wider woven ties that were decorative as well as functional.

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These Bulgarian folk dancers’ costumes illustrate the variation in color and design detail that could be shown in the chemise, aprons, head decoration, and jewellery. The dancer at the left foreground wears a soukman with a typical palmette-design belt buckle. Note the male dancers on left in a variation of black dress (chernodreshnik) with dark trousers, wide woven sashes, and sleeveless vests. (Boykov/Dreamstime.com)

Soukman Worn over the chemise, the soukman was a sleeveless overdress made of darker wool for winter wear and lighter colored linen or cotton for summer wear. The cut of the soukman’s skirt was fuller than that of the chemise and was slightly lared. Skirt lengths can vary from knee to ankle length. The bodice typically has a lower scoop U- or V-shaped neckline, above which the decorated chemise is visible. The soukman itself can be decorated in a variety of ways, including braid or embroidery, particularly along the neckline, seams, and hemline.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Saya The saya is an open coatlike gown, again worn over the chemise and aprons. Its design details can vary with regard to sleeve length, color, and fabric designs, but generally it would have been made of white or light-colored linen or cotton. The saya was open down the front with no closures and could reach knee length. It could be heavily decorated at the neckline, hem, and wrist, generally with embroidery. Headwear Bulgarian women’s headdresses could denote social status in addition to being functional or decorative. Unmarried women traditionally wore no head coverings, but rather had their hair braided into elaborate styles. Married women typically covered their heads with a headscarf called a shamiya, which was tied at the back of the head. Longer scarves were also worn wrapped around the entire head. Headscarves could vary in shape (square, triangular, or rectangular) and color, and could have embroidered or crocheted borders. Thin white cotton headscarves were most typical, although black scarves denoted widowhood. Elaborate headdresses were worn to mark ceremonial occasions like weddings and religious festivals. Wedding headdresses could be of substantial size and be heavily decorated with coins, jewelry, feathers, wreaths of lowers, and small tree branches. Headdresses could include a longer colored headscarf worn down the back or over the face, which was embroidered with fringed edges.

Men’s Dress Bulgarian men’s folk costume consists of a tailored jacket, trousers, a looseitting shirt, and a woven belt. It can be further categorized into two styles: white dress (belodreshnik) or black dress (chernodreshnik). White Dress White dress is the older of the two types of dress. The shirt, trousers, and outer garments were all made of white linen or cotton fabric. Shirts had long sleeves and could reach knee or calf length, and were worn over the trousers. Trousers could be either narrowly cut and tightly itted in the lower legs, or of a simple wide, straight cut. A variety of outer garments could be worn, such as knee-length or waist-length sleeveless, lared waistcoats (vests); short-sleeved or long-sleeved jackets; or longsleeved, full-length overcoats. As with women’s dress, visible parts of garments like the collar or cuffs were decorated with embroidery in geometric motifs or with braid. Belts or waistbands could be up to 8 inches (20 cm) wide, were most commonly made of red woven fabric, and were wound around the waist several times.

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Black Dress Black dress rose in popularity during the National Revival. It is distinguished by the inluence of Ottoman culture, rather than by more rural folk elements, and was more commonly worn by the upper classes in urban areas. The rural and peasant classes started to adopt black dress during the 19th century in an effort to emulate their urban countrymen. Distinguishing black dress garments were made of dark brown, dark blue, or black fabric (often wool), which was produced by factories in urban centers. Shirts worn with black dress were similar to those worn with white dress but could be shorter in length and of a narrower cut, so they could be tucked into trousers at the waist. The trousers, called potouri, were loosely itted at the waist and secured tightly with a woven belt, but itted tightly below the knee. Trousers could also be widely cut and baggy, and both types could be decorated along the seams and pockets with braid. Outer garments were typically of the same fabric and color as the trousers and could include waistcoats of varying lengths (gyusslyuk), or short waist-length bolero-type jackets called anteria. Embroidery or braid could be applied to the cuffs, hem, and seams of the garments. Sleeveless vests were also evident, allowing elaborate sleeve decoration to be visible.

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Bulgarian from Soia, c. 1873. An example of men’s white dress (belodreshnik) showing main costume elements of bolero-type jacket (anteria), trousers tightly itted at the bottom, and wide waistband. (Library of Congress)

Headwear Throughout Bulgaria men most commonly wore hats (called kalpak) made from black or white sheepskin or fur. These could be cone-shaped, cylindrical, or

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress square with a lat top. During festive occasions, men could wear red woven skullcaps decorated with embroidery or lowers.

Men’s and Women’s Outerwear Both men’s and women’s outer garments tended to be made of felted wool and had embroidered decoration. With white dress, men could wear long or waistlength sleeveless lared waistcoats (vests) or long-sleeved waist- or hip-length jackets. The latter of these was similar in design to outer garments worn by women with the apron, soukman, or saya costumes. Factory-produced black hooded cloaks became popular with white dress during the late 18th century. With black dress, men wore long- or short-sleeved coats or sleeveless vests made of dark woolen fabric, which were generally factory-made. These were decorated with woolen braid, embroidery, or appliqués.

Shoes, Stockings and Legwear Generally, shoes and legwear were similar for men and women. An early form of footwear was leather sandals called tsarvouli, which consisted of a single piece of pointed leather covering the foot, which was secured with leather cords wrapped around the calf. Tsarvouli could be worn over a woolen foot wrap called navoi, which was a single piece of rectangular fabric wrapped around the feet and calves, fastened with its own leather cords. Navoi were eventually replaced by brightly colored knee-high woolen socks with intricate patterns of geometric or loral shapes. As Bulgaria became more urbanized and industrialized during the 19th century, these forms of foot- and legwear were replaced by factory-made leather shoes for men and women. Popular colors were black, brown and red. They were worn over knitted socks or stockings, which could also be factory made.

Jewelry Jewelry manufacturing has been prominent throughout Bulgaria’s history. Archeological evidence of jewelry can be traced back to the ifth century CE, using the same materials that were used until modern times: gold, silver, and copper. The metalworking techniques used to make jewelry have also persisted over time. These include iligree, which uses gold and silver threads to form intricate designs; casting, where liquid metal is poured into a mold to create an artifact; and using an anvil and hammer to create jewelry, similar to the technique used to make wrought iron artifacts. The decorative motifs in jewelry are similar to those that appear in folk costume. Prior to the ifth century CE, people of the Thracian plains used realistic

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images of animals in designs worked in gold. After this, due to an increasing exposure to foreign cultures, the Slavs began to incorporate stylized nature and geometric motifs in their jewelry. They also used new materials such as decorative stones, shells, and painted enamel. The social upheaval of the Ottoman conquest limited jewelry production in Bulgaria. During the onset of the National Revival in the early 18th century, this increased again as the populace had new economic strength, and also in an effort to revive the Bulgarian culture. Bulgarians used jewelry to denote their age and marital or social status. A bride’s dowry could include items of jewelry not worn for everyday wear, but only on special occasions such as weddings, baptisms, or religious holidays. There are numerous types of jewelry artifacts, mostly worn by women. These include hairpins, which secured headscarves to hair; hinged chain bracelets and bangle bracelets; and diadems, which were similar to crowns and consisted of hinged metal pieces that formed a circle to be worn atop the head. These could be decorated with stones, enamel, or attached items like lowers or feathers. Coins joined by links were often fashioned into a scarlike head covering called kosichnitsi, which was worn by unmarried women. Multiple strings of coins or beads were also used as necklaces. Two of the larger and more prominent items of Bulgarian jewelry were ear covers and belt buckles. Women wore ear coverings, which did not in fact cover the ear but were attached to the hair above the ears. These were two circular plates, often made of hammered or engraved silver, which could be joined by long strings of coins or beads that hung under the chin. Belt buckles were worn by both men and women. They were quite often purely decorative and did not actually secure any garment. These were worn over woven fabric belts and were large, often bigger than the wearer’s hand. Buckles were often made of silver and could be worked in iligree, wrought metal, or cast metal. They were often composed of two identical or mirror-image pieces joined by a hinge. There were three basic designs of buckles: oblong (oval-shaped), round, or the palmette design, which resembled stylized leaves. Additional decoration could include engraved motifs, jewels, or painted enamel.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Although Western fashions are now the most evident in Bulgaria, traditional folk costume continues to be seen in that country, though mostly during ethnic celebrations or displayed in museum cases. This form of dress can tell the observer much about Bulgarian culture and how various inluences shaped its design development. The political strife within the country, a rural/urban dichotomy, and geographical variety are only some of the factors that affected aspects of folk dress.

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Further Readings and Resources Crampton, R. J. Bulgaria. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. Komitska, Anita. Bulgarian Folk Costumes. Soia: National Museum of Ethnography, 2005. Kovacheva-Kostadinova and others. Traditional Bulgarian Costumes and Folk Arts. Soia: National Museum of Ethnography, 1994. Lecacque, Patrick. “Bulgarian Folk Arts and Traditions.” Journal of Popular Culture 19, no. 1 (1985): 157–170. Mellish, Liz, and Green, Nick. “Bulgarian Costume.” Eliznik Web pages, http:// www.eliznik.org.uk/Bulgaria/costume/index.htm. Pountev, Penko, and others. Bulgarian Folk Art. Soia: Septemvri, 1980.

Canada Jill Condra

Historical Background Canada is a highly developed nation, geographically located to the north of the United States. Since Confederation in 1867, Canadians have been searching for what makes them uniquely Canadian, and perhaps particularly what makes them not like their powerful southerly neighbor. With a common popular culture, immigration patterns, and growing pains, the two relatively young countries do share many similarities. Is it even possible to deine a people in such a geographically large nation? Is it possible for a bilingual, multicultural country such as Canada to identify one type of Canadian cuisine, for example? Is there a dominant style of dress that can be characterized as Canadian ethnic dress? Is there a uniform culture in Canada? Unlike the United States, with its melting pot of immigrants from nations around the globe, expected to adjust to the culture of their new nation, Canada welcomed people from around the world to come and settle in the country, but they were encouraged to maintain their own unique identities born to them in their native lands. This is probably one of the more signiicant differences between Canada and United States. Every summer, for example, in Winnipeg, the capital city of the prairie province of Manitoba, there is a popular multicultural festival that encourages people from dozens of different cultures to open up the doors to a pavilion celebrating all things to do with their native cultures; ethnic dress, dance, cuisine, arts and crafts are all shared with the city for a two-week period. The urban centers are ethnically diverse, adding great texture and interest, but also making it more dificult to identify one cohesive Canadian identity. Canada is a parliamentary democracy with a prime minister, elected members of parliament, and an appointed senate, but the head of the Canadian government is the reigning monarch of Great Britain, who is the oficial head of state, represented in Canada by an appointed Governor General. When explorers arrived on the east coast of Canada in the 15th century they found many sophisticated groups of aboriginal people, who had occupied the land from coast to coast to coast for 111

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress thousands of years. Each of these First Nations groups had its own distinct characteristics, its own culture. The French and English realized the potential of exploiting the natural resources that were abundant in this vast region and soon settled, beginning serious trade with the native peoples and home nations of Europe. One of the most important commodities in the early trading days of Canada was the beaver pelt. There was a fashion in Europe for men’s felted hats, and the beaver pelt became fashionable to the point that trappers and traders, coureurs de bois, forged deep relationships with the aboriginal peoples to exploit this species. This is why the beaver is Canada’s national animal. Its importance to the settlement of Canada cannot be underplayed. New France (now Quebec) was irst held by the French while the British claimed Upper Canada (now mostly Ontario). The two fought for control of trade and land and after the Seven Years’ War in 1756, which led to the fall of New France, France ceded most of its territory in North America. On July 1, 1867, Canadian Confederation was signed in Prince Edward Island, forming the Dominion of Canada. Four provinces were created that day: Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Over the next 100 years, Canada became a self-governing country equal to the United Kingdom (UK), but it was not until 1982 that the Canada Act was passed, leaving Canada free of all dependence on the Parliament of Great Britain. Canada remains a constitutional monarchy with the queen as symbolic head of state, but is autonomous and independent, while still respecting its roots as a British colony (the queen still appears on all Canadian currency, for example). This is probably one of the main differences between the formation of Canada’s cultural landscape in comparison with the United States, where the British monarchy was soundly defeated. Immigration policy in Canada has meant that great numbers of people from Europe, Asia, India, Pakistan, and South America are part of the national makeup. Each group is represented in their day-to-day lives, often continuing to wear clothing from their home countries, eating foods from their original cultures, and so forth. With every passing generation, though, there is a dilution of the strong ties to the homelands. Perhaps, when asked, each Canadian would have his or her own list of things that are unique about Canadian culture, and it certainly depends on where these people were born, where they live, and from what country their family emigrated. A child from a family of German Mennonites in southern Manitoba might have very little exposure to anything British, while a child of the same generation in Toronto may have family who observes many of the customs of the original founders of the country. Certainly when a person from one of Canada’s First Nations communities is asked what is Canadian identity, they will have yet a different view.

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Geographical Background Natural resources are abundant, and the vastness of the nation and relatively small population (roughly 35 million) make it one of the cleanest countries on earth. Canada has a high standard of living, and it is often listed as one the of the world’s best places to live. Although it is known for its cold climate, in fact, there are many different types of climates depending on the region of the country. The west coast is warm and rainy, rarely seeing any snow, while the prairie and eastern provinces have hot summers and cold snowy winters. Generally climate has done a lot to determine the kinds of dress Canadians adopt and adapt to their own. Canada is a nation that occupies a huge area (almost 4 million square miles) from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Paciic Ocean in the west, and north to the Arctic Ocean. It is the second largest country in the world (with Russia the biggest, China third, and the United States fourth). The border shared with the United States is the longest in the world. The topography of the nation is perhaps one thing that is unique about Canada. With 10 provinces and three territories, the country is diverse in many ways. The Maritimes (Atlantic Canada) were settled before any other part of the country and have a long history. The dominant industry has long been in the isheries sector, and until recently meant comfortable lives for many. Fish stocks are suffering due to overishing. Moving westward from the Atlantic is the largely French-speaking province of Quebec. Central Canada, the province of Ontario, is the industrial power basin of the country and has the most populated city, Toronto, and the national capital, Ottawa. The prairie provinces, lat, with giant grain farms and relatively few people, are the grain belt of the country. The Rocky Mountains cut north to south and across provincial borders with British Columbia occupying the remaining land to the Paciic Ocean. With a population hovering around 35 million, Canada is a large geographic area with relatively few people when compared to the slightly smaller United States (which had approximately 314 million in mid-2012) or Europe, and the ethnic diversity of the population is great.

People and Dress When thinking about the kinds of clothing represented in Canadian culture, it is impossible to point to just one style or mode of dress. Any article or book written on Canadian ethnic dress merely outlines all the clothing worn by the huge numbers of immigrant people. When asked, people may list items of clothing such as Mountie uniforms (of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police), tuques (knitted caps), mittens, the “Canadian Tuxedo” (denim jeans and denim jacket paired together),

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress large snow boots, parkas, and many other cold weather garments. The diversity of the country makes it nearly impossible, in fact, to identify one ethnic dress common to all Canadians. Relecting the diversity of population that has been inherent since the beginning of Canadian history, when there were French, English, and aboriginal people all sharing the land, diversity in clothing has also been apparent.

Religious and Ethnic Diversity The racial diversity and religious makeup of Canada is important when looking for a unique type of ethnic dress. Although originally the Church of England was the dominant denomination in English Canada and the Roman Catholic Church predominant in French Canada, there has always been a mix of religions, especially as 20th-century immigration patterns brought so many people from all over the world. In certain parts of the country there are very large ethnic communities practicing various religions including Judaism, Buddhism, Islamism, Christian Orthodox, Hinduism, Sikh, and other Eastern religions. As diverse as the religious mix is in this country, so are the ethnicities represented. The majority is still by far white, at around 80 percent, followed by those of Asian descent, then African descent. Immigrant settler dress was largely the same as fashion dictates at the time people started settling on the Canadian shores. Because it was so late in European history, there was already a large and booming fashion industry in France and England (from which the irst settlers came). Men and women all attempted to mimic these fashions, but often had to add a Canadian twist, especially in the brutal, freezing cold winters. The First Nations people helped the settlers in this respect to adapt and adopt clothing that would save their lives in the extreme cold. Trade with the European traders also changed the style of dress worn by the aboriginals.

History of Dress The original inhabitants of Canada were the indigenous First Nations populations, and each of the groups had diverse types of dress and adornment unique to their group. The Cree, the Mohawk, the Inuit, and the Haida of the west coast, for example, all wore different clothing. Often it was made of the naturally occurring resources available to them in their geographic location. Different hides from various animals were used for all kinds of different body coverings from aprons and moccasins to vast buffalo cloaks and feather headdresses. The Inuit used and continue to use seal pelts for a type of trousers, footwear, and parka that keep the cold out. Clothing was decorated with the teeth of different animals and dyed with the juices of berries and lowers. (For greater detail on the North American aboriginal dress see the entry for Native North American Dress.) The indigenous people of

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Canada were instrumental in helping early settlers survive in this harsh climate, and they provided advice on dress to help settlers keep warm in the winter. First Nations people also taught Europeans much about farming and hunting, which was key to survival for early immigrants. Setting aside First Nations dress, it is possible to trace certain elements of settler dress from their arrival on Canadian shores to now, and to see how diverse populations have affected what people wear and how they identify as Canadian. When European trappers irst came to Canada to hunt and trade beaver pelts, they abandoned all inery and adopted many elements of clothing worn by the indigenous people. The clothing choices were practical and meant that the fur trappers could avoid freezing in the winter and also avoid being burned by the sun or bitten badly by the lies in the wilderness. Men wore leather leggings and hide jackets early, and then as trade between Europe and Canada grew, wool and cotton textile products were adopted by both aboriginals and traders. In the early trading days, there were very few European women. Coureurs de Bois One of the irst and perhaps most important trading companies settled in Northern Canada was the Hudson’s Bay Company (established in 1670). Trading posts and forts were set up in the northern parts of what is now Hudson’s Bay in Manitoba, and beaver pelts and other goods were traded from these forts through complex river networks by the endlessly entrepreneurial and adventure-seeking French called the voyageurs or coureurs de bois (woodland runners). These men wandered the vast Canadian landscape, traded European goods for fur pelts, and then sold them for proit to be used back in Europe for fashionable hats and the like. This group of traders adopted a utilitarian style of dress meant to protect them from the elements (cold, heat, insects, rain, and so on). A typical voyageur wore leather moccasins, the design taken from the aboriginal people they met, and a blanket coat, tied at the waist with a ceinture léchée (the arrow sash or belt). The blanket coat is a simple design meant to keep the body warm in cold weather. It was made of warm wool fabric (originally blanket fabric) and arms were fashioned of the same fabric. A large hood was added and the whole thing was tied tightly at the waist. This style of coat was worn not only by voyageurs, but also by aboriginal peoples as well as the highly stylish settlers of Montreal for outdoor sports such as skating and snowshoeing. Once women and families began to arrive to either join their men in the outposts of the fur trade, or to take advantage of the land being granted by the British government, urban centers sprang up along trade routes, and colonies of people established themselves in all parts of the country. Settlers came primarily from

Coureur de bois wears a ceinture léchée, in a painting by Cornelius Kreighoff, c.1860. (Brooklyn Museum of Art Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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England, Scotland, and France. With them they brought all sorts of clothing and furniture to set up their new lives in the hinterland. They had no idea what adventure they were about to embark on when they left the Old Country and many found the journey rough. The climate was harsher than many had bargained for, and they quickly found that the high-fashion European clothing (and large furniture) they had brought was wholly unsuitable for survival in the colony. Many of the early women still tried to wear the most fashionable dress from their homelands, but they soon found that they had to adapt the styles to their new homes. Large skirts, for example, would not do on a farm in the middle of winter. Legs had to be covered for protection, not fashion. Footwear, in 18th-century England, perhaps lightweight slippers for girls and women, could not keep the feet warm and protected in Canada. Adaptations had to be made and often technologies from the aboriginal people, including such footwear as moccasins, were adapted by new settlers on the prairie. Headwear became much more practical and warm, rather than the highly decorated fashionable hats women had been used to in their prior lives. Fashionable garments were still admired and European dress was important, but mainly used for special days and on Sundays for church going. In the 19th century, as the country became more populated, fashionable dress was adopted as quickly as possible from France and England. There is little to differentiate between high-fashion women on either side of the Atlantic. As Canada became more industrialized and wealthier, they began to manufacture more of their own goods. Textile and garment industries sprang up in Montreal, Toronto, and Winnipeg, producing clothing for the Canadian consumer. Throughout the 20th century, world events affected dress in Canada as it did in Britain and elsewhere. The two world wars affected how people dressed, with men wearing uniforms and women forced to go out and work. Often women worked traditionally male jobs and were forced to abandon the skirt and don trousers, which followed the same trends in the United Kingdom and the United States. It is perhaps near the end of the 20th century that certain brands of clothing began to dictate the quintessential Canadian dress.

Component Parts Choosing what to include as essentially Canadian dress is dificult. The Mountie is a particularly identiiable character for most of the world, but this is an oficer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and therefore beyond the scope of this book. By no means have the majority of people in Canada ever dressed in this manner, nor will they. The blanket coat was a simple tied coat made of thick wool fabric with a hood and long wide sleeves. It originally came from the capote, which were hooded

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Young women wearing Hudson’s Bay blanket coats, c. 1950. (Transcendental Graphics/ Getty Images)

coats used by French sailors in the 1600s. It was adopted by English Canadians; irst by the traders, then by fashionable (but cold) men and women in the cities such as Montreal in the 1800s. Traditionally, the blanket coat was tied at the waist with another uniquely Canadian piece called the ceinture léchée (the arrow belt). This long sash, initially worn in the 1700s, is usually woven in red, blue, white, black, and yellow yarn and is usually between 6 to 10 inches (15–25 cm) long, with fringes on either end. This sash was used by the voyageurs and the Métis (a racial mix of people from French Canadian and aboriginal people) and was once seen as a symbol of rebellion against the British. By the 1800s this was no longer the case, and woven sashes were simply a useful method of keeping the coat closed and the cold out. This is still worn by a select few, and not only for festivals. The belts are produced in factories now, but they have the same kind of arrow design and fringe. The tuque may be seen as a Canadian item, but this simple, knitted headgear is worn by people all over the world as a way of keeping the head warm (and recently as a fashion trend for young people, even in warm climates). This is a knitted hat pulled down over the ears to protect against the cold. It seems to have acquired some status as a piece of clothing rooted in Canadian culture. The article of clothing is not unique; however, perhaps it is only in Canada that it is named a tuque.

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Mittens, 2010. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Moccasins and mukluks are footwear designs that were once exclusively worn by aboriginals and Inuit, but have been adopted by white Canadians as well, though they tend to come and go in fashion trends. People still wear this type of footwear for everyday wear as they are warm and comfortable. The boots decorated with native designs in colorful beads are beautiful as well as practical. A more contemporary piece of Canadian dress might include a particular design of mittens that was mass produced over the past several years in red wool with a large white maple leaf (the same leaf as on the Canadian lag) prominently displayed on the palm. These mitts were originally made by the iconic Hudson’s Bay Company as souvenirs from the Winter Olympics held in Vancouver in 2010, but they have become so popular that they threaten to take their place as a piece of Canadian ethnic dress. In winter, it is hard to ind anyone who does not own a pair of these mitts. The parka can also perhaps be rooted in Canadian culture. Certainly it is worn throughout the country as the climate demands warm winter wear. Is it different from the coats worn by Americans in the northern states? Possibly not, but when asked what they picture as Canadian dress, people always mention the parka. This

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress is a long jacket, usually made of windproof fabric and illed with some kind of insulative material such as down or polyester iller. It may or may not have a hood with fur trim. Because Canada is such a young country and one with so many different ethnic groups, so closely located to the United States, it is dificult to ind good examples of clothing that is uniquely Canadian, worn by no one else in the world. As the country continues to deine itself, it is likely certain things will become iconic Canadian items, but for the moment, it continues to be true that the original ethnic dress of the country belongs to Canada’s original inhabitants, the First Nations people. See also Native North American Dress

Further Reading and Resources “Hudson’s Bay Company Archive.” 2012. Manitoba (government website). http:// www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives/hbca/. The McCord Museum. 2012. http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/. (The museum, in Montreal, has an excellent Canadian dress collection, with some images online.) Moodie, Susannah. Roughing It in the Bush. Toronto: New Canadian Library, 2007. Palmer, Alexandra, ed. Fashion: A Canadian Perspective. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. The Royal Ontario Museum. 2012. www.rom.on.ca. (This museum in Toronto features the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume, which includes early Canadian textiles.) Tyrchneiwicz, Peggy, and Bill Hicks. Ethnic Folk Costumes in Canada. Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1979.

Caribbean Islands: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Lesser Antilles Islands José Blanco F.

Historical and Geographical Background The Caribbean is named after its main pre-Columbian inhabitants, the Caribs. Other native groups in the area include the Taínos and Arawak. The archipelago extends as a crescent from the Gulf of Mexico to the South American coast. The Greater Antilles islands are Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic). The Lesser Antilles include Anguilla, Barbuda, Antigua, Montserrat, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Martinique and Saint Lucia, among several other smaller islands. The area is also known as the West Indies when the Lucayan Archipelago (the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands) is included. These islands are in the Atlantic Ocean but technically not in the Caribbean Sea. Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and the South American coastal islands are discussed in other entries of this volume. The Caribbean area is considered either part of North America or part of Central America although Caribbean islanders claim an identity separate from that of those subcontinents. Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico are widely considered part of Latin America, as are sometimes Jamaica and Haiti. Several European countries including Spain, France, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom colonized the region in the 16th and 17th centuries; as a result, a number of languages are spoken, including Spanish, English, French, and Dutch. The culture of the region is also strongly inluenced by black Africans brought as slaves during the colonial period. Their traditions, music, clothing, and religious practices remain closely associated with those of the African continent and signiicantly shape Caribbean culture. Christianity—forcefully spread in the region by Catholic missionaries—remains essential in everyday life and rituals such as baptism, irst communion, and weddings. New religious practices, however, arose out of the syncretism of Catholic and African traditions. Santería is a term used to describe a number of religious and cultural traditions derived from the combination of African and European practices; for instance, attributing characteristics of Yoruba Orishas (manifestations of God) to Catholic Church saints. Cuba is 121

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress possibly the most secular country in the region, due in part to the anticlerical views of Fidel Castro’s regime. Clothing in the area—particularly traditional attire and costumes used in carnivals and festivals—shows African inluences. Headscarves and headdresses, for example, are made with patterns and colors similar to those worn in Africa both historically and today. West African prints are widely available. Caftans or robes—also known as boubou in Francophone islands—are part of the traditional female attire in many places. Daily clothing exhibits some of the color and accessories seen in traditional costumes but is mostly deined by American and European styles.

Cuban Dress Cuba is the largest of the Antilles islands. The country was colonized by Spain in the early 16th century and a large percentage of the population is descended directly from Spanish families. About 10 percent of the population is of African descent, the descendants of enslaved people brought there primarily by the Spanish. Cuba obtained its independence from Spain in 1898 as a result of the Spanish-American War, during which Spain also lost the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Recent Cuban history is marked by the revolution to overthrow Fulgencio Batista in the 1950s. Fidel Castro led the revolution to victory in 1959 and has since functioned as the country’s leader. The United States has maintained economic sanctions and a trade embargo for over 40 years, hoping to overthrow Castro’s government. More than a million Cubans, unhappy with Castro’s regime, have moved to the United States, particularly south Florida and the city of Miami, where Cuban music, art, and popular culture lourishes. Cuba’s population is approximately 11,075,000. Elements of traditional Cuban clothing, particularly the guayabera and clothing associated with some of the classic Cuban dances, have been instrumental for Cuban expatriates trying to maintain ties to their country. The guayabera is a de facto Cuban national symbol, and although its origins are tied to older upper-class men, namely Cuban hacendados (landowners), the garment has been embraced by Cubans of all ages and social groups. The guayabera is a lightweight, white or pastel-colored cotton dress shirt decorated with rows of vertical tucks on both the front and back. These vertical stripes represent the Cuban national lag. Usually four symmetrical pockets adorn the front of the shirt, which has a straight hem and is worn untucked. A version of the shirt has been in existence since the early 19th century. President Carlos Mendieta declared it the national costume during the period 1934–1935. The guayabera is associated with Cuba around the world, although it is used in other Caribbean and Latin American countries, including Mexico, where it is also popular. It is the garment of choice for

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special occasions, including weddings, and it is commonly seen on Cuban staff at hotels and other tourist establishments in and outside the country. Female versions of the garment have appeared as have cotton or polyester variations. Guayaberas are also used at events ranging from beauty pageants to political meetings. Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez famously wore one in 1982 while accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature. Like the guayabera, other items considered traditional Cuban dress originated from clothing practices of the upper classes and have little to do with clothing of pre-Columbian groups or peasants from rural areas. These pieces, however, have been embraced over time as symbols of the entire country. Among these items is the guarachera, another type of man’s shirt, which features wide sleeves decorated with lounces worn with handkerchiefs around the neck and waist. The shirt can be matched with a variety of pants and it is worn in performances of rumba dancing. The name rumba derives from a Spanish expression meaning “to party.” Costumes used by performers of rumba music and dance are colorful and vibrant, conveying the spirit of celebration implied in the music. Cuban traditional clothing for men usually consists of white pants, a guayabera or guarachera, a red handkerchief around the neck, and a straw hat with another colorful handkerchief. As opposed to many other traditional costumes in Latin America that include sandals, traditional Cuban dress for both men and women is normally complemented by elegant leather shoes. A machete hanging from the waist is a common accessory. The term guarachera also refers to a female rumba singer. Celia Cruz was probably the most famous Cuban guarachera. She was known for wearing another staple of Cuban traditional dress during performances, the bata cubana. The bata cubana is the type of dress most associated with female Rumba singers or dancers. It is created with colorful fabrics, both natural cotton and synthetic textiles. It its the body closely, has a deep plunging neckline, and is embellished with lace and embroidery. The dress probably originated in the 19th century. Besides the elements associated with Spanish lamenco dress—namely the lounces in the full bottom of the skirt and around the sleeves—it is also related to fashionable bustle dresses popular in Europe in the second half of the 19th century. The European inluences are linked to the alterations created by lower-class women on handme-down dresses received from their employers. Fabrics used in these dresses originally included expensive modiications such as silk embroidery and elaborate lace. In the second half of the 20th century the dress was modiied to partially or fully show the front of the woman’s legs, in some cases revealing a colorful bikini underneath. This more daring variation is not usually deined as a bata cubana but more often as a traje de rumbera or rumba singer’s costume.

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Cuban woman wearing traditional dress, Havana, Cuba, 2011. (Hakki Ceylan/Dreamstime .com)

Dress in Puerto Rico The smallest of the Greater Antilles is actually a commonwealth of the United States of America. Puerto Rico became an American territory after the SpanishAmerican War of 1898 and was given the oficial name of Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Freely Associated State of Puerto Rico) in 1952. The political status of the island is still a source of intense disagreement among Puerto Ricans since some oppose the commonwealth and propose either full independence or full statehood. Puerto Ricans were granted American citizenship in 1917 and large numbers have since moved to the mainland, particularly New York City where a “Nuyorican” culture has resulted from the amalgam of Puerto Rican and American ways of life. The population was nearly 4,000,000 in 2012. The island’s original inhabitants were the Taínos. Little is known about their clothing, but surviving Taíno design patterns and symbols are used on T-shirts, handbags, and jewelry, particularly for items targeted to the tourist market. The Taíno Nation,

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a group trying to develop awareness of native groups in Puerto Rico, dresses in loincloths and body painting for some of their public events. Like that of other islands in the Caribbean, Puerto Rican culture is heavily inluenced by African traditions. Two of the national dances, the bomba and the plena, are examples where costumes with both African and European elements are used. The beats of the bomba drums respond to the movements of a lead female dancer who originally wore underskirts or enaguas that were—just like those associated with the origin of the bata cubana—given to them by their wealthy bosses. The outits were decorated with beads and glass shards in A young couple dance bomba, a traditional Puerto Rican rhythm, in the coastal town order to invest the garment with magiof Dorado, Puerto Rico, 2006. (AP Photo/ cal powers of protection against mal Andres Leighton) de ojo (evil eye). Tops were itted and had long sleeves. Men wore linen suits made from rice or lour sacks and used ribbons or ropes as closures for both pants and shirts. The male look was completed by straw hats known as pavas. Current versions of bomba dress preserve some of these elements, but elaborate underskirt embellishments have been replaced by colorful fabrics and men’s suits use buttons as closures. The plena, another type of folkloric dance, appeared around 1916 in the southern part of the island. Dresses for the plena are usually made with vibrant fabrics and constructed as one-piece with full tops, lowered waistlines, and knee-length A-line skirts. Men wear cotton or linen pants and bright-colored vests along with bow ties and straw hats. The Puerto Rican government, in an effort to regulate traditional dress, created Law No. 21 in 1983 deining parameters for representative dress of Puerto Rico. The law provides guidelines for materials, silhouette, construction, color, embellishments, and accessories of female dress. There are no penalties for not constructing a garment accurately except that it shall not be considered representative. The stipulations indicate that the iber must be white cotton as a tribute to the most popular material among natives to the island. The blouse has a round deep neckline embellished with rufles and crochet. The sleeves are full but itted at the elbow and adorned with ribbons and lace. The full skirt is cinched at the waist, has three layers of underskirts,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and is embellished with ribbons, lace, and embroidered lines. The full look also incorporates pantalets—a popular piece of women’s underwear in the 19th century—tied at the knees and ending in an embroidered rufle. Fine embellishment in the costume as well as in other pieces of Puerto Rican clothing is sometimes achieved through the use of mundillo, a traditional type of eyelet lace. Law No. 21 suggests using pink as the color for the dress’s sash as a reference to the maga (Thespesia grandilora), the national lower, which is also worn on the woman’s head. The law also calls for the use of white shoes as well as simple and modest jewelry. A number of Puerto Rican festivals incorporate costumes and masks that have become part of the country’s cultural heritage. The Fiestas de Santiago Apóstol (Feast of Saint James the Apostle) in the northeastern town of Loíza is held during the month of July. The celebration combines elements of Spanish theater and carnival with African traditions and music. During the week-long festival townspeople dress in costumes representing characters such as Spanish knights, vejigantes (clown-like demons), and old men. Cross-dressing is also common as men dress as locas, crazy women sweeping the streets asking for money. The Festival de Vejigantes in the southern town of Ponce happens before the start of the Lent season. Vejigante characters wear loose, colorful one-piece costumes in colors including yellow, red, white, and black. The costume also incorporates batlike wings and lounced trimmings. The most colorful element of the celebration is masks made from papier-mâché with several pointed horns coming out from different angles. The Máscaras de Hatillo (masks of Hatillo) festival is celebrated every year on December 28th in Hatillo, Puerto Rico. Costumes consist of pants and shirts with an attached cape. The pieces are decorated in complex patterns created with rizos (lounces) sewn to the garments. Participants wear wire-mesh masks decorated with lounces matching those of the costumes.

Dress in Jamaica Jamaica, the third largest of the Greater Antilles, has a geographic landscape deined by mountain chains in over two-thirds of the country. The island nation obtained its independence from Great Britain in 1962. Over 90 percent of the population is of African descent, and Jamaican culture evidences strong links to African traditions. The population was nearly 2,900,000 in 2012. The national Jamaican costume for women—the quadrille dress—consists of a full-lared skirt made of red and white plaid cotton worn with a white blouse with rufled sleeves and neck in matching plaid fabric. The same accent material is used as a headwrap or to decorate a straw hat. The plaid bandana material may include variations of maroon shades and madras patterns. The outit is occasionally embroidered with Jamaican imagery. The costume is worn for special occasions

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and holidays such as Independence Day and National Heroes Day. The quadrille dress is also a symbol of Jamaican identity worn by those who have migrated to other countries. The name quadrille derives from the dance of the same name practiced in Europe in the 19th century. Men wear a shirt made of the same fabric paired with white pants and a piece of the same plaid fabric tied around the head. On formal occasions, particularly at weddings, men may wear a variation of this costume incorporating an item similar to the Cuban guayabera. In the 1970s the kariba suit—a two-piece men’s suit—was introduced in Jamaica. The suit offered an alternative to the European business suit. The design is similar to that of African safari or bush jackets. The suit is worn without a shirt and tie, making it more appropriate for tropical weather. The Junkanoo (John Canoe) celebration is a carnival tradition found in several Caribbean countries. The dance parade—where participants dance either as part of a group or individually—incorporates European and African elements. The essential features are costumes, masks, and mime. In Jamaica the tradition survives particularly in rural areas and at cultural events. Carnival costumes in Jamaica are made of colorful fabrics and are body revealing in the case of females. As in other Caribbean countries men carry on the tradition of cross-dressing for comic purposes during the carnival. Recurrent carnival costumes include characters such as Horse Head, Cow Head, Belly Woman, and Pitchy Patchy, a character dressed with shredded strips of cloth resembling a vegetable. There are also demons, policemen, and Indians among the masqueraders. Set Girls accompany the parade dancing in groups of colorcoordinated outits heavily embellished with beads, sequins, and feathers. Clothing associated with the Rastafarian movement—a religion preaching the redemption of blacks in Jamaica and their return to Africa—has been successfully exported from Jamaica to the rest of the world, particularly with reggae music functioning as an ambassador for Rastafarian style. Rastafarians favor natural-iber garments and are known for their dreadlocks, a practice based on a biblical passage discouraging hair trimming. Threads of locks are sometimes sewn to hats and wigs. Rastafarian clothing and accessories, such as beaded necklaces and headbands, bear the colors associated with the movement (green, yellow, and red), which differ from the colors of the Jamaican national lag (black, green, and yellow). Both color schemes appear on items for the tourist market such as T-shirts and headbands. Dancehall, also known as ragga, was the most popular musical and dance style in Jamaica at the start of the 21st century. It relies heavily on the work of a deejay who raps over the soundtrack, sometimes employing digital technology. Inluential performers include Shaggy, Bounty Killa, Sizzla, and Sean Paul. The lyrics, particularly the earlier ones from the 1970s, can be political in nature. Dancehall fashion, in turn, is also a form of resistance to norms of dress and sexuality and is often censored by the government due to its risqué nature. The revealing clothes

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The Lesser Antilles Carnival costumes provide for one of the most signiicant elements of national dress in the Lesser Antilles. Carnival is celebrated in several islands including Jamaica, Barbados, Grenada, and Trinidad and Tobago. Caribbean immigrants often organize carnival parades and events in countries to which they emigrate, such as the United States. Carnival costumes are elaborate. Women wear colorful bikini-style attire embellished with feathers, sequins, beads, metallic or glass pieces, ribbons, shells, glitter, and bright paper. Some costumes, usually created by designers, are shaped with wire frames, foam, and large amounts of fabric. Many participants take pride in manufacturing their own costumes. Costumed participants promenade or dance through the streets accompanied by a steel or soca band and occasionally by a deejay. Most bands are composed by men who “play mas” (“mas” being short for “mask”), meaning playing instruments while wearing carnival costumes and/or performing in carnival celebrations (Afrique Online, 2004). It can also mean simply participating in the carnival or parade. In Grenada each parish has a representative style of music and costume. Some costumes incorporate baggy trousers and batwing sleeves while others feature more elaborate outits with large collars, Middle Eastern– inspired garb, and elements associated with natives from the islands. Revelers also use body paint and feathered headdresses. A king and queen wearing the most elaborate costumes lead each A costumed reveler parades on the inal day band. Large outits require extensions of carnival in Port of Spain, Trinidad, 2005. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton) to hold some pieces and even wheeled

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contraptions to facilitate the reveler’s march through the streets. In Trinidad and Tobago, results of competitions to determine the best king and queen costumes are usually announced on the Sunday night (called Dimanche Gras) before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Children participate in “Kiddies Carnivals,” which are sponsored by regional authorities and schools. In Grenada the early hours of carnival Monday see the arrival of Devil Mas (mask) or Jab-Jab bands. Revelers in these bands wear horned helmets and darken their skin with mud, tar, molasses, or other types of grease. Blue, yellow, and green devils also appear in the parade and are more playful than the grotesque Devil Mas. Some of the islands in the area have indeinable types of traditional or national costume. The silhouette in these outits derives from 19th-century—or earlier— European fashion, but the fabrics currently used, as well as headdresses and other accessories that complete the look, relect African inluences. In the island of Guadeloupe traditional costume derives from le costume de l’affranchie (the costume of the freed), outits handed down to slaves from their owners. As in other Caribbean countries, the costumes were modiied with lace or embroidery. Currently, the traditional costume consists of dresses created with printed cotton fabrics in a range of vivid colors. Headdresses, the most important accessory to the costume, are elaborately wrapped to create tall, sculptural pieces. Headdresses are also an important accessory to the traditional Grand Robe of Martinique. The robe, made with a full skirt in patterned cotton or satin, has three-quarter-length sleeves. The skirt is gathered to reveal a full cotton underskirt with decorative lounces or Chantilly lace. The Wob Dwiye dress of Saint Lucia, also worn over a similar petticoat, has full-length sleeves and a train. Accessories include a scarf and a headdress known as Tete Casé. Madras fabric is the textile of choice for dresses in several of the Lesser Antilles, and variations of the look described above appear in countries such as Antigua, Anguilla, Barbuda, Montserrat, and Dominica. Men usually wear long cotton pants—white and black are common colors—and white long-sleeve shirts with handkerchiefs around the neck and the waistline. Both men and women wear sandals or go barefoot.

Further Reading and Resources Afrique Online. “Trini Dictionary.” http://www.afriqueonline.com/pages/trini/ trini20.html. 2004. Bakare-Yusuf, Bibi. 2006. “Fabricating Identities: Survival and the Imagination in Jamaican Dancehall Culture.” Fashion Theory 10 (4): 461–84, 2006. Buckridge, Steve O. The Language of Dress: Resistance and Accommodation in Jamaica, 1760–1890. Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, 2004.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Galvan, Javier A. Culture and Customs of Puerto Rico. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2009. Henken, Ted A. Cuba: A Global Studies Handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO, 2008. Miller, Marilyn. “Guayaberismo and the Essence of Cool.” In The Latin American Fashion Reader, ed. R. A. Root, 213–31. Oxford: Berg, 2005. Mordecai, Martin, and Pamela Mordecai. Culture and Customs of Jamaica. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Negrón-Muntaner, Frances. Boricua Pop: Puerto Ricans and the Latinization of American Culture. New York: New York University Press, 2004. Scher, Philip W. Carnival and the Formation of a Caribbean Transnation. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2003. Vazquez-Lopez, Raul. “Dress and Dance in Puerto Rico.” Vol. 2, Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, ed. M. B. Schevill, 2010.

Chile and Bolivia Jill Condra

Historical Background Chile and Bolivia, along with the rest of South America, were populated by indigenous peoples dating back thousands of years, long before European conquerors arrived on the shores in the 16th century. Once the Europeans arrived, Roman Catholicism became the predominant religion and Spanish, the national language for both. The racial mix of people included Europeans, Africans, and native South Americans, along with mixed races of all kinds. Indigenous groups such as the Atacameño, Aymara, Diaguita, and Araucanian Indians had thrived in the area until powerful Inca invaders arrived in the mid-15th century from Peru to extend their empire farther south. The Aymara, from Chile, invaded Bolivia before the Incas in the 15th century. When the Spanish arrived, they called Bolivia “Alto Peru,” having come from the Paciic Ocean through Peru. Both Chile and Bolivia were settled simultaneously by Spanish conquerors who left an indelible mark on the culture through intermarriage and the imposition of Roman Catholicism and the Spanish language. The irst European to record seeing Chile was Portuguese explorer Fernando de Magallanes (Ferdinand Magellan), who sailed around the southern tip of Chile, but a Spanish presence was irmly felt when Pedro de Valdivia established a Spanish settlement in Santiago in 1541, linking Spain and Chile for centuries. In Bolivia, Francisco Pizarro was a key igure in settlements. La Plata in Bolivia was founded in 1538 and La Paz (present-day capital of Bolivia) was founded in 1548. At the beginning of the 19th century (1810) Chileans started ighting for their independence. Argentinian José de San Martín joined forces with future Chilean hero Bernardo O’Higgins and successfully led an army over the Andes Mountains to defeat the Spanish in 1817, liberating Chile. O’Higgins, the son of Ambrosio O’Higgins, born in County Sligo, Ireland, became the irst leader of an independent Chilean republic in 1818. Antonio José de Sucre and Simón Bolívar fought together to help bring Bolivian independence from Spain in 1825. The country is named in homage to its liberator, Bolívar. Chile and Bolivia both experienced a 131

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress period of political unrest with various military dictatorships until the 1830s, when Chile became a more stable country and made considerable social, political, and economic progress. The War of the Paciic (1879–1884) pitted Chile against its neighbors Peru and Bolivia, and when Chile won the war, it claimed the former Bolivian province of Antofagasta as its own and left Bolivia with no access to the Paciic, land locked, and unable to trade with the world, to its great disadvantage. In Chile, most of the 20th century was devoted to development and economic growth under constitutional rule, and social issues were addressed with varying degrees of success. Bolivian silver mining provided great riches early in Bolivian history, and these mines were also responsible for providing tin to the world market. Political unrest in Bolivia was in large part due to terrible conditions for miners in the country, and in the mid-20th century the National Revolutionary Movement came to power with President Victor Paz Estenssoro nationalizing mines and providing a basis for reform in agriculture and industrial sectors, as well as social reform to the largely Quechua and Aymara indigenous population. By the 1970s socialism was seen by many as the solution to Chile’s problems, and Salvadore Allende became the irst Marxist president in South America. In three short years the country faced economic devastation, and a military coup, led by General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte, who was supported by the United States, ended Allende’s leadership with his death. Pinochet was a dictator who acted ruthlessly against those who disagreed with his policies, and he is known to have committed human-rights abuses, persecuting dissenters and causing the disappearance or murder of more than 3,100 people. He is also credited with helping to establish a more stable and productive economy, although unemployment was high. Following Pinochet, Patricio Aylwin Azocar was freely elected in 1990 and built upon a solid economic foundation, promoting antipoverty measures and the development of successful agricultural reforms, allowing a booming export of such things as wine and fruits. In landlocked Bolivia, with a suffering mining industry, illegal production of the coca leaf into the paste used for cocaine has been a major problem with drug barons holding power over the people. The government continues to try to lure farmers into crop substitution programs to persuade them to plant more diverse crops. The population of Chile in 2012 was more than 17,000,000, and the population of Bolivia was approximately 10,290,000.

Geographical Background Chile and Bolivia are neighbors along the northern tip of Chile in western South America and both border Argentina and Peru, with Bolivia also sharing the border on its east with Brazil and Paraguay. Chile is a naturally beautiful, long, and narrow country on the Paciic coast in the Southern Hemisphere. It has over 2,700

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miles (4,300 km) of Paciic coastline with the Andes Mountains running north and south along the length of the country and has an average width of only 112 miles (180 km). Bolivia is partially mountainous, with the Andean Cordillera to the west, the Amazon rain forest to the east, and fertile valleys in between. Chile also has several islands in the Paciic Ocean including the famous Easter Island (Isla de Pascua), Sala and Gomez Island (Isla Sala y Gomez), and Juan Fernando Islands (Islas Juan Fernando). Climatically, Chile is very diverse with the driest desert in the world (the Atacama Desert); the cold and very high mountains of the Andes; subtropical Easter Island, and a temperate central climate inland from the Paciic. Earthquakes are not uncommon in this part of the world.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity After a tumultuous 20th century, Chile has become one of the most stable and wealthy nations in Latin America, while Bolivia has issues of poverty and concerns stemming from the drug trade. Many of the people are of European descent, mainly Spanish and Portuguese, and many are mixed European/Amerindian Mestizos with European and Mapuche, Aymara, or Quechua ancestry. While most of the people in both countries identify as Roman Catholic, other religions are practiced including Protestantism and Judaism, and some indigenous beliefs are still practiced. There is evidence of textile development and woven fabrics in Andean cultures such as those in Bolivia and Chile that far predates the arrival of Spanish explorers and other Europeans. Stick looms and backstrap looms were used to produce fabrics made from animal hairs such as llama. Ancient cultures grew cellulose plant ibers (such as cotton), spun the yarn, and dyed it, using naturally occurring materials to create color, and then wove the yarns to create simple square or rectangle fabrics in various weave techniques. Patterns were created in the weave and suggest a sophisticated sense of aesthetics. Protein ibers that occurred naturally were from camelid animals such as llamas, alpacas, and vicuña (and called camelid ibers), and leaves such as the Furcraea Andina. Camelid ibers provided much-needed warmth in the higher altitudes of the Andes Mountains and were used in trading networks for food products and other ibers such as cotton. Coloring the ibers was done with dyes occurring naturally such as plants and insects or ibers were used in their naturally occurring colors. Cotton and animal ibers, for example, can grow in a range of cream to brown shades. Fabrics were also decorated with embroidery precontact with Europeans. The old Inca Empire was made up of present-day Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile. Throughout these areas trade was common and people were

Inca poncho made of wool, Bolivia, c. 1500. (American Museum of Natural History, New York/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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easily identiied by details of their dress, making it clear where they came from. The Inca had strict sumptuary laws that dictated what people wore depending on their station within society. Gold and silver, for example, would have been worn only by nobility. The Inca allowed certain details of dress to be maintained by each group of conquered people in order to assert control and identify whom they were dealing with. Precolonial dress of South America has many common elements, with details such as the fold of the headgear distinguishing one group from another. Similarity in dress between all regions were in terms of the types of ibers they used and the styles of dress they adopted, even before the arrival of Europeans. Precontact Inca men wore basic garments made from ibers such as cotton or animal hair including a loincloth known as a wara, an unku (tunic), and a yakulla (mantle), and accessorized by a headwrap, ear plugs, and leather sandals. Inca women wore a simple belted wrap called an ak’su with a mantle and a headwrap. These regions shared many of the same types of vegetation, so the raw materials for making textiles were the same, and because there was a certain amount of travel and communication between these areas, styles of dress had similar features. After the Spanish arrived in the area, the indigenous people continued to wear the clothing they wore in the pre-Hispanic times, gradually incorporating European styles. Spanish fashionable dress of the 17th century became very popular with locals. The introduction of sheep by the European conquerors meant a decline in the use of traditional llama, vicuña, and alpaca, and cotton or wool became the most popular ibers for making fabrics. New European technology was also introduced, including new types of looms and cutting utensils (scissors) to make tailoring more popular. The process of felting (heating wet wool to create a hard, nonwoven fabric) made hat making popular, and new styles of headwear were made available. World trade increased, and so did the availability of nonindigenous ibers such as silk that was used for iner garments of higher style. It was only after the Aymara rebelled in Bolivia (and Peru) that the Spanish determined Inca dress should be banned from use. Women continued to wear belted wrap dresses, but men adopted short trousers like knee breeches and shirts in more tailored styles over which a poncho would have been acceptable outerwear. Many people in urban areas of Chile and Bolivia no longer wear clothing that has come to be known as the national dress. The Mapuche people of central Chile and those in the mountains in northern Chile and the highlands of Bolivia continue to wear traditional dress for day-to-day use. Mapuche women wear a voluminous gathered pollera (skirt) made of a long piece of colored fabric (sometimes originally 26 feet long) that is then gathered at the waist and is worn with numerous decorated underskirts. Women also wear either a blouse with rufles or a form-itting blouse and many large pieces of silver jewelry and pendants on their chest. Women wear a colorful headwrap often decorated with a bright fabric lower. Many men

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress in the highlands of Chile and Bolivia wear the mantle and woven belts of the past, and many mantles are still held in place with a metal stick pin. The integration of Spanish dress into the indigenous dress of Bolivia was seen to help elevate social class and make people less distinctive. When we think of a Bolivian woman now or see tourist images of women from the area, it is usually a woman dressed in a full, gathered skirt (pollera or pullira) with multiple layers of underskirts that fall to mid-calf, a fringed shawl, and a telltale small black felted (often lacquered) bowler or derby-style hat perched on the top of her head, with long braided hair hanging down her Bolivian woman sells bread at a market in La back. Dressed like this, the woman is Paz, Bolivia. (Edwardje/Dreamstime.com) probably identiied as one of Aymara descent. It is known as chola urbano dress now, and the women who are most often dressed this way are working in the markets in towns such as La Paz. This is the iconic dress of the country despite the long history of discrimination against these people. The women of the Sacaca people in Bolivia also wear a version of this type of dress with a full pleated skirt, usually in black fabric to mid-calf length, and a shawl of woven wool with geometric patterns or in solid color wool. The hats worn by women in this part of Bolivia can be either plain straw or decorated with woven hatbands.

Component Parts The Huasos and Huasas of Chile In southern Chile the huasos and huasas are Chilean cowboys and cowgirls. They ride horses, participate in rodeos, and have a distinctive style of dress. The Chilean huaso is similar to the Argentinian gaucho, but they wrangle cattle and participate in farming activities as well. The chamanto is a type of poncho worn in Chile by the huasos and is an important component of the outit. This reversible poncho is made of woven silk or wool and has ribbon inishing and edging. One side of the chamanto is in lighter colors

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Huasos in southern Chile, c. 1955. Huasos are similar to the Argentinian gaucho and the American cowboy. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

and the other is in darker colors with the darker side being worn in the day and the lighter color at night. Intricate motifs are woven into the poncho with fruit, lowers, and birds being most popular. The traditional outit consists of knee-high leather boots decorated with silver spurs, riding pants, a tailored shirt tied at the waist with a woven sash that is tied and hanging down the left leg, a tailored waist jacket that is quite short to show off the sash around the waist, and the whole outit topped off with a colorful poncho (chamanto) and a large-brimmed, lat-topped hat, often in black to block the sun. The more elegant huasa urbana wears a longer, more itted black skirt with a long slit to the hip where the white underskirt peaks out, and a red (or red, white, and blue) sash or waistband that is tied and hangs down the leg. Women also wear a white blouse with rufled (sometimes lace) collar and cuffs that peek over the black waist-length jacket, with silver buttons on the cuffs. A white handkerchief is also tucked into the waistband of the skirt for the dance. She also wears a lat, black, wide-brimmed hat. The less elegant China (a female dancer as well) wears

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress a colorful, often loral print dress with a very full knee-length skirt and apron. The itted bodice usually has short puffed sleeves and she rarely wears a hat. Cueca Dance and Chilean National Dress The cueca dance is considered the national dance of Chile and is also performed in Bolivia and Peru. The clothing worn is also meant to represent the typical dress associated with the country and can be described as the national dress of Chile. Although there are many other types of traditional dress worn by members of different indigenous peoples, this type of clothing is identiiably Chilean. Men (dressed as huasos) wear a tailored shirt, trousers with a white handkerchief tucked into the waist, a poncho, horseback-riding boots, and a short Spanish-inspired jacket. For women (known as the China), the clothing is simply a loral dress with very full gathered skirt, underskirts with a itted bodice, and an apron with a white handkerchief tucked in the front. The handkerchief is used as part of the dance. The huasa urbana is also a woman dancer, but she wears different, more elegant clothing.

Bolivian Textiles Bolivian textile production is very old and the designs are distinctive in their use of vibrant colors and geometric design motifs. The fabrics are made in much the same way as they were thousands of years ago, with rudimentary looms and in basic rectangular shapes. One of the more commonly used fabrics, called a manta, is a shawl seen on the shoulders of many men and women in Bolivia. It is of bright woolen fabric in vibrant colors such as blue, pink, and white. The shawl is actually two pieces of fabric that are sewn together. It is not only a garment for keeping warm; it also is used as a sort of carrier or backpack for toting anything from groceries to babies. Other Bolivian garments made from handwoven fabrics are tunics (called unku), woven headbands and belts or sashes, and skirts (called faldas). People also carry small pouches made from coca plants called chupas. Knitting is another technique used in Bolivia and other South American countries to produce fabrics for warm clothing such as hats with colorful yarns that cover the ears (called chullo). This technique was introduced by the Spanish in the 17th century, and with the availability of warm animal ibers worked well in the high-altitude Andes Mountains.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress As in most of the countries presented in this series, there are people in both Chile and Bolivia who only wear the most recent fashions from Europe and America, and in each country fashion designers are making their own mark on what

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people in these countries wear. In each country, there is also a strong sense of what traditional national dress is. In Chile, the festivals and cueca dance competitions show off the dress of the huasa and huaso, while in La Paz it is possible to spot traditionally dressed women in the markets wearing the full gathered skirts and small black bowler hats. They are not participating in any kind of festival, but are working in the markets in traditional dress every day. The more removed from urban life the people are, such as groups of indigenous people who live high in the Andes, the more likely they are to wear traditional dress. Some iconic items permeate all parts of South America. Ponchos, for example, are commonly worn, especially in rural areas.

Further Reading and Resources Castillo-Feliu, Guillermo. Culture and Customs of Chile. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Eicher, Joanna B. Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Latin America and the Caribbean, vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Galvan, Javier. Culture and Customs of Bolivia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2011. Richards, Keith. Bolivia—Culture Smart! The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture. London: Kuperard, 2009. Roraff, Susan, and Laura Camacho. Cultureshock! Chile: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette. Oregon City, OR: Marshall Cavendish, 2007.

China Jennifer Moore

Historical and Geographic Background China is the most populated country in the world. Now known as the People’s Republic of China, it is the second largest country in the world, with Russia having more landmass. There are 22 different provinces with the government being housed in Beijing (formerly Peking). Though the government is now a communist regime, the history of China is long. Until the 20th century China had 2,000 years of emperors and dynasties, the last of whom was overthrown in 1912. Until the 19th century China had long been a leader in arts and sciences, but it was hurt by wars, foreign occupation, and not being able to feed its people. After the rule of Chairman Mao Zedong ended in 1976, Chinese political leaders, including the head of the Chinese Communist Party, Deng Xiaoping, began to focus on economic development, and by the early 21st century, economic output had expanded greatly. Although there has been some loosening of communist government control over personal lives, and living standards have certainly improved, the government continues to control political events. Being such a large country, China has many different topographical landscapes, from desert to large plains to rough mountains, and tropical islands in the South China Sea. It is bordered by the South China Sea to the south, and borders 14 different countries: Vietnam, Burma, Laos, Bhutan, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Mongolia, and North Korea. China boasts one of the longest rivers in the world, the Yantze River, which runs in the central-east region.

People and Dress China is the most populous country in the world. Of the approximately 1.3 billion people who live in China, there are 56 oficially recognized ethnic groups, 55 minority groups and the Han Chinese majority. In addition to the oficial minority groups, however, there are subgroups of each clan that have developed regionally. 140

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The ethnic minority groups of China make up approximately 7 percent of the population and are largely concentrated in southwestern China in the provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong. The most populous groups there are the Zhuang and the Hmong (whom some scholars believe are also known as Miao or Meo). Among the other groups are the Buyi, Dai, Dong, Jingpo, Li, Yao, and Yi. It is essential to note that the minority groups of China are not designated based on racial difference; rather they are subdivided on the basis of linguistic difference. This fact underscores the importance that dress serves in the marking of groups and subgroups. For example, the minority group known as the Lahu is subdivided into several subgroups including the Lahu Shi and the Lahu Na, otherwise known as the Yellow Lahu and the Black Lahu, respectively. Traditional dress is an essential, public communication of cultural divisions. Our shared knowledge of historical Chinese dress is incomplete. Sources of information about traditional dress include oral traditions (many of the ethnolinguistic groups under discussion do not have written languages), sketches, pictorial ethnographies commissioned by emperors, museum and private collections of traditional garments, and photographs. A collection of imperial documents detailing traditions of the Hmong was commissioned during the reign of Hong Zhi (1488– 1505); however, a source with such a pedigree must be regarded with caution as it assuredly is informed by cultural biases and relects an etic point of view. Minority groups from regions at a distance from the imperial capital or lands under imperial control were less likely to have been documented in the historical past. Since the 1970s there has been increased interest in the customary practices of ethnic minorities, including those in China. However, documentation and interpretation is done almost exclusively by individuals from outside of the cultural tradition. Additionally, in the past 40 years, with increased exposure to mass culture, the rate of change in traditional dress has accelerated, making documentation of contemporary dress customs quickly outdated while the possibility of capturing some long-standing traditions is leeting. Textile arts have a long tradition of serving as a surrogate for written language. Textile arts symbolically document the history, myths, and legends of peoples. They record and transmit cultural property. Ethnic cultural codes are written in dress. Group afiliation, marital status, wishes of health, wealth, and offspring can be encoded. An expression that is commonly ascribed to the Hmong of mainland China is, “You wear where you live.” The complexity of clothing style (especially in terms of material choice and color), technique, and motifs used in decoration can be read by informed observers as declarations of the wearer’s homeland. Symbols on clothes may be decorative, magical, or apotropaic. The iconography of this symbolic language is complex. While some motifs may be traced to Tibetan, Iranian (Persian), or Han Chinese origins, other iconographic elements are regionally

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress speciic and serve as a tie sign that both binds together minority clusters or clans and differentiates them from surrounding groups. These Chinese minority groups have migrated and commingled through force, out of necessity, and by choice. Minority groups have migrated over time and made settlements based on the availability of natural resources such as watersheds, and have immigrated as a result of political pressure stemming from the formation of the Communist state after 1937 and persecution in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The diaspora of Chinese minority peoples, their dispersal throughout the Golden Triangle, Europe, North America, and Australia has led to change. Availability of materials, climatic differences, intercultural interchange, changing priorities, higher levels of education, and changed structures of the home and industry have all led to modiications Lahu woman in traditional dress at a Dai festival in Megnlian in southern Yunnan in design and use of traditional dress. Province, China, 2011. (Erin Packard Given that traditional dress is customPhotography/Dreamstime.com) arily used to establish identity and mark boundaries, while also functioning as a form of transportable wealth, daily use of dress largely has been abandoned by Chinese minority groups living outside China. The abandonment of traditional dress customs is also seen in China where customarily it is abandoned irst by men seeking employment or having other commercial interactions with the mainstream. As a result of these fundamental changes, traditional dress in the modern era is largely relegated to festivals, ceremonies, births, deaths, and other rituals or rites of passage.

Materials and Techniques Fiber collection, spinning, weaving, garment making, and garment decoration have traditionally been the work of women. In the villages of China many young girls continue to be introduced to these labors commencing around the age of ive;

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however, Chinese minorities living in urban settings and throughout the diaspora are less likely to continue developing these skills. Traditionally the most common iber used in the production of cloth was hemp. The hemp plant was readily obtainable by most minority groups. Originally the plants were processed within the village, the ibers spun into threads, and fabric woven on rudimentary looms and then dyed with natural pigments. Improved trade and increased industrialization in China has impacted the reliance on homespun cloth for many minorities, even those who continue to dwell in isolated villages. Wool, cotton, linen, synthetics, and silk (especially silk embroidery loss) have become increasingly available over time. Additionally, for Chinese minority groups living throughout the industrialized world, fabrics such as metallic polyester and trims such as sequins are selected from the vast supply of mass-produced textiles. Selection is based on cost, taste, and intended use. Over time mass-produced and synthetic goods have been culturally authenticated and are now considered traditional by modern Chinese minority group members. Garment construction is generally quite simple. Upper-body garments for both men and women rely on the manipulation of rectangular panels to create tunics of varying lengths with sleeves that are either loose or tight. Jackets are varied based on similar principles. Pants and aprons are largely based on rectangles, as are skirts with a tubular shape. While the construction of most garments relies on simple, eficient, and economic use of fabric, garment decoration is ostentations and elaborate. Decorative technique preferences vary across minority groups, whereas symbols and motifs vary at both the ethnic group and subgroup or clan level. Multiple techniques are frequently employed on a single garment, resulting in clothes of great complexity and diversity in terms of both color and texture. The Hmong refer to cloth that has been elaborately decorated as paj ntaub, meaning lower cloth. Multiple forms of complex appliqué techniques are traditionally used. Reverse appliqué involves the layering of cloth, which is then cut through so that interior layers may be revealed by meticulously folding, tucking, and stitching the exposed edges. A second method, known as the fold and tuck technique, is executed by manipulating slender strips of cloth that are applied in series, with approximately 1/8 of an inch of each layer permitted to show. Padded appliqué is also a traditional technique. Herein cotton or fabric is inserted beneath the appliqué area to create three-dimensionality. Embroidery is a technique that is celebrated and revered in many Chinese minority groups. Embroidery may be free style or counted stitch. It may be executed with one or two needles. It may be virtually lat or three-dimensional in its effect. The complexity and quantity of embroidery on Chinese minority garments was traditionally a source of pride for both the maker and the wearer. It relected the skill of the maker and the wealth of the family.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Some Chinese minority groups practice resist dyeing. To produce a textile pattern wax, resin made of ash and wax or soybean paste is applied to the fabric with a stylus. Once the pattern is executed, it is traditionally dyed in an indigo bath. The fabric is repeatedly dyed until the desired hue is achieved. The coloration produced by the indigo dye ranges from bright blue to a hue that is virtually black. Traditionally Chinese minority groups, including the Hmong, glazed their fabric using natural substances in order to make it shiny. Glazed fabric is achieved by treating inished cloth with egg white, pig blood, or proteins derived from cooking water buffalo hide. These substances are applied with a brush, and then the fabric is calendared (beaten against stone with a wooden mallet). Modern Hmong, especially those living in the diaspora or in areas with strong trade links to mass-produced goods, often favor industrially produced fabric with metallic or glossy inishes. Garments made and decorated at home for the use of family members are almost always of higher quality than those made for sale. Cultural tourism, a relatively new concept in China, has created demand for handmade garments. Some villages regularly host busloads of both Chinese and international tourists who journey to remote locations to witness irsthand what is regarded as an antiquated way of life. It is these tourists who purchase “traditional” garments as a souvenir. The demands created by cultural tourism will no doubt, over time, impact the quality and quantity of traditional garments being made for private consumption and use. Additionally, the encroachment of mass culture upon these isolated outposts of minority cultures has impacted the younger generations of Hmong, Yao, Hani, and Lahu (to name but a few minority groups). The lure of industrialized culture means that young women, the keepers of this tradition, are being dispersed and in some cases abandon the age-old traditions of garment production and decoration.

Component Parts The importance of traditional garments, rich with the symbolism embedded through decoration, is inestimable for Chinese minority groups. In addition to presenting the cultural archetype for a group, clothes also perform social functions related to identiication. Traditional garment types vary among Chinese minority groups living within China. The difference is related in part to geographical location (highland, plain, or valley) and the climatic characteristics of the biome. Garments also vary based on preferences that emerge among subgroups. According to Xi Keding, the curator of the Cultural Palace of Nationalities in Guizhou, the Hmong alone have more than 180 varied styles of clothing. However, some garments remain in use that have existed for more than 1,000 years, and some garments have been adopted cross-culturally among groups. Tunic tops, skirts with pleats, wide-legged pants, and cloud collars (the last of which originated in Han

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culture) can be found in historical and contemporary garments worn by Chinese ethnic minorities. A comprehensive survey of garments is untenable for all minority groups, though many garments are based on the same essential construction principles. Differentiation and tribal identiication is achieved largely though diversiication of decoration. A few examples of widely used forms are presented below. Terminology and speciic variations on forms have been selected primarily from the most populous group, the Hmong, and may serve as descriptive, if not comprehensive examples. A few additional examples drawn from several other ethnic minority groups illustrate some of the diversity that exists. Both men and women clothe their upper body with a tunic. These upper body coverings are based on a rectangular construction that eficiently uses cloth, though the length may vary from being cut just below the waistline to well below the buttocks. The closure of the tunic varies depending upon whether or not it draws inluence from Han dress traditions (i.e., necklines vary, as does the use of an overlapping panel that ties or closes with a toggle or frog). The tunic is generally adorned with embroidery or appliqué at the neck, cuff, and hem. Decoration on the sleeve or on a panel may indicate things such as marital status or community membership. Decorative panels are worn over the shoulder blades by the Hmong, whereas the Yao afix a panel at the front of the tunic. Some scholars have argued that the use of a decorative panel relects a custom that can be traced to oficial mandarin dress. Traditional women’s dress consists of an upper body covering that is pulled over the head, coupled with a skirt worn with or without leggings or pants. Pants with a wide leg, cut above the ankle, are typical among the minority groups, which favor them. Pant legs are generally decorated in a band above the hem. Pants are not a facet of the minority dress of all groups but are common in the dress of the Hmong and the Yao. Numerous Chinese minority groups wear pleated skirts. Hmong skirts are varied in terms of use, decoration, and meaning, but are generally full and pleated. The dai hao or “migration skirt” is constructed of 81 strips of cloth divided into nine sets of nine. The construction symbolizes the story of the nine original sons whose nine sons were the progenitors of the Hmong. The diansa is a pleated white skirt, while the diandai is a tie-dyed skirt of similar construction. The dianlao is a wax-resist dyed skirt that is generally used for formal occasions. The Li commonly wear tubular skirts, whereas a sarong-style skirt is traditional among the Jingpo, Karen, and Lahu. Skirts are traditionally worn with an apron. Men’s traditional dress consists of a tunic that may vary in length and a pair of pants. Most minority groups favor long, wide-legged pants cut to the ankle; however, some groups favor pants that are characterized by a low-slung crotch

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and tapered ankle-length leg. Men often abandon cultural dress traditions long before women, and it has been documented that many men wear the simple dark-colored pants and jacket of the Chinese peasantry that have enjoyed longstanding use. Jackets of varying lengths are part of the traditional dress of both men and women in virtually all minority groups. Jackets vary in length from being cut at the waist to just above the ankles. Many jackets may have been inspired by Han dress customs. Jackets may be constructed so that the front panels do not close or the panels may overlap the chest and be ixed with a closure. Minority groups, especially Woman’s dress and basketry hat, Ch’uan those who are native to the highlands, Miao, Chinese, 19th century. (Boltin Picture also wear capes. An example of a tradiLibrary/American Museum of Natural tional piece of Hmong outerwear is the History, New York) chuosu, an embroidered wool cape that is meant to look like a warrior’s armor. The chuosu references the Hmong capital that was taken by the Han about 1,000 years ago. Patterns on the cape represent the city walls, gates, and streets. Vests that vary in terms of the length of the hem and the width of the bodice are worn by both men and women in numerous ethnic groups. Both men and women wear vests. The lusheng is a vest that is a part of traditional Dong dress, and it is characterized by long straps of decorated fabric that hang more than seven inches below the hem of the vest. The possession of quantities of ine clothing is traditionally of major cultural importance among Chinese minorities. For example, a Hmong bride and groom traditionally exchange clothes as part of the betrothal process. These ine clothes would be displayed before the groom’s house and traditionally would be worn in layers on the day of the wedding. The ineness of the workmanship wrought on the clothes and the correctness of the marriage communities symbolically written in the decoration serve to communicate important social values. Clothing may also be ascribed apotropaic powers. This is especially true of clothes that are made for and given to babies by family members. Both the Hmong and the Hani have a longstanding tradition of using old fabrics and clothes for the

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creation of baby clothes and baby carriers. The use of fabrics that were part of the garments belonging to family members is thought to pass positive energies on to the baby. Symbols, both naturalistic and geometric, are also typically applied to infant apparel. Jagged edges appear sharp and are applied in order to ward off evil, whereas the widespread belief in animism that prevails among Chinese minority groups makes the use of empowering or protective animals such as lions or dragons quite common, especially on hats made for infants and small children. Traditional clothes are especially important for Chinese minority groups today, though their use and meaning is in lux. They are increasingly relegated to festive and ceremonial occasions such as the celebration of marriage or the New Year. Additionally, many aspects of speciicity in dress are being abandoned. A Hmong woman may choose to adorn herself in clothes that were traditionally symbolic of a clan that is not her own. Elements of dress that are traditional to mainstream Thai or Laotian culture may be incorporated into ethnic dress. The assemblages that constitute contemporary minority dress are in lux, though they continue to be sources of ethnic pride and serve as identity markers for Chinese minorities both within and beyond China.

Jewelry and Accessories Metalworking and the production of jewelry has traditionally been the work of men. Traditionally jewelry was made of silver, which became available across mainland China during the Ming dynasty (1368–1643). Serving as both an essential element of dress and as a form of portable wealth, jewelry had the ability to communicate personal identity and status. Patterns and motifs found in jewelry are typically based on those executed in embroidery. Jewelry is traditionally worn in layers, and quantity and size is valued. Coins may be used as decorative elements and relect the original emphasis on portable wealth. There are six categories of jewelry. The irst is head ornaments, which may take the form of horns, hats, crowns or hairpins. Chest and neck ornaments are also fundamental ornaments that may take the form of neck rings, pendants, or chest plaques. The back may also be adorned with pendants or plaques, whereas the waist may be belted with a silver ornament. Hands are adorned with a variety of bracelets and rings. Additionally, clothing may have silver ornaments attached. These ornaments typically take the form of bells or buttons. Contemporary jewelry strongly relects the pieces that have traditionally been handmade by local silversmiths. Pendants, plaques, rings, and bracelets are available for purchase at New Year’s festivals and on the Internet. Reproductions of coins (often French francs) can be purchased predrilled and used to embellish garments that are either homemade or store bought. Jewelry is typically made of a

Metalwork detail on a Dong ethnic minority girl’s clothes, Guizhou Province, southern China. (Zubin Li/iStockphoto.com)

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silver and brass alloy or may be made of an alloy that resembles the appearance of silver. Jewelry may be handmade by men or women residing in rural China or it may be factory made in locations throughout the Golden Triangle. Traditionally headdresses were clear markers of ethnic identity and subgroup membership. Hats, turbans, and elaborate headdresses were made of materials such as woven textiles or horsehair and could be decorated with metal plaques or coins, as well as shells, beads, or bones. In the contemporary marketplace, some headdresses that resemble traditional forms may be purchased. Turbans may be prewrapped over a foam core, synthetics may be used in place of natural ibers, and alloys may be used in place of silver. Additionally, headdresses may be adopted by individuals who are not members of the minority tradition from which the form developed. Rather than being worn as a sign of membership in a speciic minority group, they are worn as a sign of a broader form of cultural identiication. The footwear of Chinese minority groups shows inluences from abroad. Some minority groups wear shoes with a padded platform. Shoes of this nature likely relect Manchu inluence. Some minority groups wear unlasted shoes with an upturned toe. Shoes of this nature indicate the inluence of Central Asia. There is no evidence that indicated minority groups adopted the Han Chinese tradition of foot binding. Chinese minorities in the diaspora generally adopt mass-produced footwear that is typical of the region in which they are living. The dress traditions of China’s minority peoples are rich, diverse, and changing. The complexity of the decorative techniques, the sophistication of the symbolic communication, and the promises of its evolving forms all provide for a ield of study that is great in breadth and depth. The living traditions of these people illustrate the importance of dress as a means of creating and expressing ethnic identity. Additionally, these dress traditions illustrate the powerful interaction between traditional and contemporary culture. They demonstrate how consumer products and diverse cultural ideals can be successfully incorporated into cultural traditions through the process of cultural authentication.

Further Readings and Resources Corrigan, Gina. Miao Textiles from China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001. Mackerass, Colin. China’s Minority Cultures. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1995. Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Art Gallery, 2009.

Costa Rica and Panama José Blanco F.

Historical and Geographical Background Costa Rica and Panama are the two southernmost countries of the seven nations comprising Central America and both have mainly Spanish-speaking populations. Panama—which shares its southern border with Colombia—is often considered part of South America. It is also the only country in the Central American isthmus that did not belong to the Capitanía General de Guatemala (the General Captaincy of Guatemala) during Spanish colonial times. Both Costa Rica and Panama have coasts on the Paciic and Atlantic Oceans with Panama featuring a canal built in 1914 by the U.S. government to facilitate the transportation of goods between the two oceans. The east coast of both countries is heavily inluenced by Caribbean culture, which in turn owes part of its richness to the impact of African people brought to the area as slaves. The climate in the area is fairly temperate with one rainy season from April to November and a dry season from December to March. Geographic variations from the colder mountain ranges to the warmer coastal regions account for a great assortment of dress styles. Pre-Columbian groups in Panama and Costa Rica did not produce elaborate crafts and objects like those appearing in the northern area of the isthmus. Area natives, however, were skilled in gold and copper metallurgy, stonework, basketry, and jade carving. Mayan inluences reached to the area of present-day Guanacaste in Costa Rica while the Muisca—also known as Chibcha in reference to their language—expanded from central Colombia to Panama and the south of Costa Rica. Pre-Hispanic (before contact with Europeans) people wore cotton loincloths, bark skirts, and other simple pieces accessorized with feather headdresses, jeweled belts or collars, and jade or metallic pendants. Costa Rica and Panama were colonized by the Spanish crown in the early 16th century. Both countries share cultural inluences with other Latin American nations that were under Spanish rule for hundreds of years. The Spanish forced the adoption of European dress styles and modesty practices on all citizens and 150

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used clothing as a visual symbol to impose a strict social caste system. During the 19th century white intellectual elites deined the characteristics of national costume in the area by paying tribute to their Spanish background and virtually ignoring the impact and traditions of native and African communities. Folkloric or national dress in both countries is an example of mestizo dress; in other words, a mix of European and local clothing practices. Mestizos were mixedrace descendants of Spanish nationals and indigenous people. Also part of the strict social hierarchy or caste system established in all Spanish colonies were the upper-class peninsulares—recent arrivals from Spain—and the criollos—those born in the Americas but of Spanish descent. The mulattoes—descendants of European and African parents—were deprived of access to any sort of non-workrelated apparel as were the enslaved Africans brought to the area for hard labor. Sumptuary laws were established during colonial times to protect the peninsulares’ right to exclusively wear certain garments, colors, and embellishments. The Spanish crown established a strict tax system limiting the opportunities for private business enterprises and the manufacturing of textiles and clothing. Colonies were forced to obtain inished products from Spain. These and other oppressive practices motivated the struggle for independence all over the colonies. The declaration of independence for all Central American nations was signed on September 15, 1821, in Guatemala. At this time, Panama joined the already independent nation of Colombia. A number of unsuccessful attempts to secede from Colombia followed until 1903 when Panama inally became independent, in part as a result of Colombia’s decision to decline a proposal from the United States to build a canal in Panamanian territory. Costa Rica and Panama experienced an important transformation at the end of the 19th century when they changed from mainly agricultural societies ruled by oligarchies to developing industrial democracies with expanding urban areas. Nineteenth-century attire, in general, was modeled after European styles with the exception of native communities that kept elements of pre-European dress. Inluences from European dress and culture remained important during the 20th and 21st centuries. The daily life of Panamanians and Costa Ricans, however, is strongly inluenced by music, television, and other cultural products from the United States, Mexico, and South American countries such as Colombia and Argentina. The approximate population in 2012 for Costa Rica was 4,636,350, and for Panama, 3,510,050. The Costa Rican capital city of San Jose (population 1,416,000) is a vibrant modern city while Panama City, the Panamanian capital, population 1,346,000, is a hub for international business and inance. Both cities are magnets for younger generations due to an active cultural and entertainment scene. Dress practices among the middle and upper classes are similar to internationalized global styles that can be easily obtained from local commercial centers

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and shopping malls. Cleanliness, grooming, and care of personal appearance are highly valued among all social classes. National costumes or attire considered traditional is used for special performances, folkloric dances, and patriotic events by Costa Rican and Panamanian citizens alike in and outside of their countries. Panama’s national dress—the pollera—is one of the most distinctive and elaborate national costumes in Latin America. There are several variations of the ensemble based either on use or regional origin. In Costa Rica, a distinctive national costume exists for each of the seven provinces with variations in color and adornment.

Dress in Costa Rica Ethnic groups with links to pre-European cultures survive in Costa Rica, living on reservations distant from urban areas. Several of these groups maintain versions of their traditional or historic clothing. Dress traditions—like many others—were inluenced by hundreds of years of contact with other cultures. Women from Bribri groups living in the southern mountains of Costa Rica wear loose blouses with decorated necklines and sheath-like skirts. Boruca women, also from the south of the country, wear short-sleeved white blouses and striped calf-length skirts. The Costa Rican government supports efforts to keep dress and other native traditions alive; however, imagery and actual dress pieces from these groups are rarely adopted as a national symbol. Native women maintain some of the traditions associated with clothing construction by means of knotting, netting, or weaving on backstrap looms. They use natural ibers and dyes and create textiles featuring geometric designs and color bands. Descendants of some native groups wear special costumes for performances of traditional dances or rituals such as the Baile de la yegüita (Dance of the Little Mare) performed in the northern province of Guanacaste to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe. Costume pieces include a wooden hood structure covered with burlap and carried around the waist by the dancer representing the little mare. The Boruca perform the dance of Los diablitos or Cagrú-rojc at the end of each year. Dancers interpreting the diablitos (little devils) wear bright-colored wood masks adorned with animal skins, horns, and feathers. Their dance tunics are made of burlap and embellished with plantain leafs. The Boruca celebrate the Festival de la sarocla or Festival de la mulita (small mule) to honor the Virgin of the Pure Conception. Participants paint their faces with mud or soot and wear animal-skin costumes. The performer interpreting the mule wears a hood, a headdress in the shape of an animal, and a burlap covering. Elaborate costumes are an important element of carnival celebrations in Costa Rica. The best-known carnivals are held in the Caribbean province of Limon

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Costa Rican Boruca men “ight” during the Feast of the Devils celebration in Rey Curre, Costa Rica, 2012. (Rodrigo Arangua/AFP/Getty Images)

around Fat Tuesday and in the capital of San Jose in the weeks after Christmas. As in other Latin American countries, carnival traditions showcase a combination of European and African elements. Music and dance groups or comparsas dress in costumes coordinated based on a color or theme. Outits usually incorporate bright-colored fabrics and adornments such as sequins, feathers, and ribbons. Comparsas occasionally participate in parades at fairs in small towns. The most elaborate costumes during town fairs, however, are used by masqueraders or revelers disguised as clowns, devils, animals, or igures from local folklore. The parades or mascaradas feature a giant and giantess couple and a few characters that chase after onlookers. Costumes for masquerades include loose, colorful gowns, exaggerated shoes and accessories, as well as elaborate oversized masks made from papier-mâché or plaster. Masqueraders are accompanied by a small brass band or cimarrona. The mostly male members dress either in traditional attire or wear white dress shirts and dark pants. The national dance of Costa Rica is the Punto Guanacasteco, a variation of quadrille dances involving short steps to indicate courtship between a man and a woman. Like most traditional dances and elements of Costa Rican folklore,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the dance originates in the northern province of Guanacaste. Male performers in national folkloric dances wear work jeans or white cotton pants, long-sleeved white shirts, cotton or straw hats, and handkerchiefs or bandannas. The hat is an important prop for dance steps involving courtship of the female. Other elements may include a machete and a red waist-sash or a cummerbund. Female dancers wear taffeta or satin rufled and tiered long skirts with rickrack or ribbon adornments in each tier. Blue, red, and white—the colors of the Costa Rican lag—are dominant in any Costa Rican national symbol including folkloric costumes. Blouses are loose and worn off the shoulder. They have round necks and short sleeves. Embellishments include lace, white work, and embroidered or printed lowers. Hair is braided or gathered in one or two buns and complemented with a large lower above the ear—usually a guaria morada (Cattleya skinneri), the national lower. Each of the seven Costa Rican provinces has selected a traditional costume as representative. Variations are more prominent in women’s dress than in men’s attire. In Heredia dark colors are dominant for blouses that are often paired with a colorful print on the skirt. In the province of Alajuela the mainly white outit has few embellishments but is accentuated with a bright-colored shawl and a velvet neck ribbon. The province of Cartago was colonized early by the Spanish, and traditional dress in the area relects a number of Spanish colonial elements, including embroidered blouses and shawls, lounced blouses, and delicate hats. African elements are incorporated in the traditional dress of the Caribbean province of Limon where a colorful printed skirt is used and a turban is the choice for headdress. In Puntarenas, on the Paciic coast, women wear a large Spanish-style shawl with embroidered lowers and sequins. Occasionally other Costa Rican national symbols are incorporated as embellishments; these may include designs from preColumbian petroglyphs or colorful geometric igures similar to those appearing on traditional painted oxcarts.

Dress in Panama The Kuna people of Panama are famous worldwide for their mola textiles. The group lives primarily in the San Blas Archipelago and other reservations or comarcas around Panama and parts of Colombia. Mola is the Kuna language word for shirt but, in general, the term refers to a textile created by using a reverse appliqué technique where layers of solid-color fabrics are sewn together and shapes cut from different layers. Kuna women developed the method for mola blouses in the late 19th century while trying to create a product to barter in exchange for food and other basic needs. By the 1960s molas were a popular item with tourists in Panama, and Kuna communities created cooperatives in order to sell them to a global market. Molas with geometric patterns similar to Kuna body painting are considered

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traditional, but designs may also incorporate images of nature, global popular culture, and current events. Great attention to detail goes into every aspect of the mola, from planning the different layers of cutouts to selecting stitches that hold the piece together. Mola patterns often appear on mainstream fashion and household products, not just in Panama but also in Europe and the United States. Kuna women are also known for their body jewelry, including necklaces, anklets, and bangles, but also elaborate nose rings. The Guaimí or Guaymí group lives in the south of Costa Rica and the north of Panama. Guaimí women wear highwaist, ankle-length tunic dresses known Kuna woman in traditional mola blouse, in as dgoá in a variety of colors and feaPanama city, Panama, 2010. (Kobby Dagan/ turing decorative bands and collars Dreamstime.com) with geometric appliqué. They adorn themselves with long bead necklaces that circle their neckline several times and pectoral collars known as muñon kuá. Women also practice body modiication; polishing their incisor teeth to a V-shape, painting their cheeks and foreheads with plants or minerals, and gathering their hair in ponytails adorned with ribbons and lowers. Nudity was common among men even in the early part of the 20th century, but later men adopted cotton pants, shirts, and straw hats as daily attire. Men decorate their hats with feathers and squirrel fur and carry animal pelts or full stuffed animals strapped on their backs while participating in the balsería, a ighting team competition. Several other native groups survive in Panama, including the Buglere, Cueva, Dorasque, Huetar, and Waunana. Survivors from these groups reside mostly in comarcas or native reservations. Women maintain traditional techniques for the creation of textiles, using materials such as bark, reeds, and plants as well as natural dyes made from trees, plants, and roots. The Ngobe-Bugle group, for instance, are known for their chacara bags, which are woven from pineapple or similar natural ibers. As in the rest of Central America, masquerades are popular in town fairs around Panama and are often part of long-standing traditions. The dances of the Grandiablo (Great Devil), Diablicos limpios (Clean Little Devils) and Diablicos

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sucios (Dirty Little Devils) performed at Los Santos province derive from colonial celebrations of the religious feast of Corpus Christi. The most distinctive costume is that of the Diablicos sucios. They wear a two-piece ensemble of black and red stripes sewn together and a large elaborate animal or devil mask with colorful feathers attached to the back. Originally the costume was created from old pieces of coarse cotton or linen painted with coal and achiote (annatto) for alternating stripes of black and white. The natural dyes would run and get mixed on the fabric after a day of dancing, hence the name dirty devils. Their dance is characterized by heavy stamping and the use of a whip to scare onlookers. In order to scare away evil spirits they produce noise with castanets, cow bladders, and bells attached to their belt. The Diablicos limpios wear a costume made from iner fabrics, but also use masks representing animals and devils. Carnival festivities are widespread in Panama and are held during the weekend leading up to Fat Tuesday. Celebrations differ slightly from town to town. Los Santos and Las Tablas are the provinces with the best-known carnivals while festivities in Panama City attract large crowds. Parades last for several nights and often include competitions among different comparsas dressed in coordinated, elaborate costumes. The most expensive outits are usually worn by a group of “queens” crowned during the opening days of the carnival. A highlight of the festival is the mojadera or the tradition of showering onlookers with water from large trucks resulting in after-parties where entire crowds are soaked. Carnival days are themed; for instance, Saturday features a large number of international costumes while Sunday showcases the Panamanian traditional dress or pollera. The Panamanian pollera—which literally means skirt—is the most recognized and admired folkloric or national costume in Central America. Panamanians proudly wear this highly embellished dress in events worldwide. The costume is inspired by both Spanish colonial attire and the clothing of enslaved women and servants who used their skirts to herd chickens and carry produce. The Spanish Andalusian inluence is evident in the rufles, which are a variation of those in the more voluminous lamenco skirts. The pollera is used for folkloric dances, carnival parades, holiday processions, tourist attractions, and, occasionally, as a wedding dress. The full skirt or enagua has several layers of rufles and is usually handmade with ine white cotton and embellished with mundillo (handmade bobbin lace), crochet, or appliquéd loral designs. Polleras may also be decorated using a variety of embroidery techniques, including marcado (cross-stitch), zurcido (satin stiches), and encajonada (embroidered geometric motifs). The drop-shoulder blouse or camisola is also adorned with rufles on the neckline and sleeves. Embellishments usually match those of the skirt. Both pieces are heavily starched to maintain the distinctive pleats on the fabric. The hair is divided into two braids and adorned with clusters of lowers or elaborate pieces such as the peinetas (small comb-shaped

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Women wear pollera at carnival in Santa Domingo, Panama. (Dixon Hamby/ StockphotoPro)

ornaments worn on the sides of the head), the tembleques (hairpins made with pearls and placed on both sides of the head), and the peinetón (a large comb made of tortoise shell or gold and edged with pieces of gold and pearls). Hair is also adorned with a variety of beads, ish scales, wire pieces, and small daggers made of gold or pearl. Additional jewelry pieces are made from gold iligree while gold chains and black ribbons may decorate the neck. Flat satin and velveteen shoes also feature lace, satin ribbons, and gold buckles. There are two main types of pollera: the pollera de gala (the fancy pollera) and the pollera montuna (the mountain pollera). The pollera de gala is made from more luxurious materials since it is used for special occasions. The pollerón, or very large skirt worn in this variation, features elaborate detailing with lace and openwork embroidery or calado. The dominant colors for these details are blue, red, black, purple, and orange. The most traditional polleras are usually embellished with thread in just one color or with shade variations of one color. Two special techniques are used to decorate these polleras; talco al sol is a technique combining complex openwork embroidery and appliqué while talco en sombra uses appliqué on the reverse of the fabric to create a shadow effect enhancing the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress designs on the skirt. Women wear two or more petticoats to augment the skirt’s fullness and a large embellished rebozo (shawl) on the shoulders. The pollera montuna is simpler and related to everyday clothing styles, thus carrying fewer embellishments. The skirt, although voluminous, has no lace or embroidered details and is made from printed loral calico fabric. A wide rufle or picarona is added at the bottom to create fullness. The blouse may be similar to the camisole worn with the pollera de gala or simply feature mundillo lace detailing. The underblouse or tapablazo—visible under the camisola—can be inished with needlework. Hair adornments are similar to those of the pollera de gala but reduced in amount and luxury. Women may wear a sombrero pintado, a straw hat featuring strands painted in black using local plant dyes. Women may also wear a shawl and fresh lowers tucked behind their ears. A number of regional variations exist. In Chriquí, for instance, the pollerín is a narrower skirt with only one tier and is worn with a mandarin-collar button-front shirt with several rufles. In the Ocú province the blouse is made from synthetic fabric, and it does not feature any type of embroidered detailing while the skirt is shorter than the usual pollera. In the Darién area, the pollera features large lower prints. In the Colón area, the Congo pollera showcases the inluence of African slaves in the choice of prints and the construction method of using recycled calico fabrics patched together to create the tiers. The attire worn by men for the national costume is much simpler in comparison. They wear black cotton pants, a long-sleeved white shirt with gold-colored buttons, a handwoven pintado straw hat, and black and white soft shoes. The pants can be substituted for brown mid-calf trousers similar to the fundas worn by ield workers while the shirt can be made from a calico printed fabric or feature embroidered details. The costume may also include coletos or shirts made from heavy fabric and worn with the tails out, as well as homemade sandals and a chácara or woven iber bag. In the Ocú area men may wear the montuno suit, which includes fringed knee pants and a long hand-embroidered shirt. This outit is worn to match the pollera montuna worn by women in the area.

Further Reading and Resources Biesanz, John, and Mavis Biesanz. The People of Panamá. New York: Columbia University Press, 1995. Cheville, Richard A., and Lila R. Cheville. Festivals and Dance of Panama. Panama City: Legacy Books, 1977. Foster, Lynn V. A Brief History of Central America. New York: Facts On File, 2000. Helms, Mary W. Cuna Molas and Cocle Art Forms: Relections on Panamanian Design Styles and Symbols. Philadelphia: Institute for the Study of Human Issues, 1981.

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Helmuth, Chalene. “Culture and Customs of Costa Rica.” Culture and Customs of Latin America and the Caribbean. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Madariaga, León. La Pollera, Traje Nacional de Panama. Leon, Spain: Publicaciones Lewis, 1992. Perrin, Michel. Magniicent Molas: The Art of the Kuna Indians. Paris: Flammarion Groupe, 1999. Reverte Coma, José Manuel. El Indio Guaimí de Cricamola. Panamá: Editora Panamá América, 1963. Solano-Laclé, Vania, Johny Cartín Quesada, and Alejandro Tossatti. Rostros, Diablos y Animales: Máscaras en las Fiestas Centroamericanas. San José, Costa Rica: Fundación Museos del Banco Central, 2005. Tice, Karin E. Kuna Crafts, Gender, and the Global Economy. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.

Crete Leyla Belkaïd

Historical and Geographical Background Crete is the second largest island in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean. It is surrounded by the Aegean Sea and the Libyan Sea. Because of its privileged situation between mainland Greece and Europe to the north, Egypt and the African coast to the south, Syria and the Asian coast to the east, the irst human settlements on the island are very ancient. Crete was already inhabited in the middle of the seventh millennium BCE. Nowadays, with 650,000 people living on a land of 3,200 square miles (8,339 km2), Crete is the largest and most populated island in Greece. Its landscape is mainly mountainous, but it is also characterized by plateaus, gorges, ravines, and fertile plains. The shape of the island is elongated from west to east and very narrow from north to south. The irst sedentary Cretan people of the Neolithic period lived in Knossos in the north, Phaistos and Gortyne in the south, and Katsambas, close to Heraklion, the actual capital of Crete. The ancient Cretans, named Minoans after the legendary king Minos, had the opportunity to establish intense trade and cultural exchanges with the two major civilizations of early antiquity: Egypt on one side, Syria and Mesopotamia on the other side. The strategic position of the island in the Mediterranean world played a considerable role in the early development of elaborate textile and jewelry techniques, which generated a wide range of fabrics, sewn garments, and accessories. Today all the Cretans wear Western-like standardized outits for everyday life, and it is hard to imagine how original the Minoan dress was more than four millennia ago.

History of Dress Ancient Minoan Costume In the second millennium BCE, dress reached a high level of diversiication in Minoan cities. It expressed the sophisticated culture of a lourishing civilization. Egyptian iconography shows the Kefti or Cretans dressed with colorful striped skirts and belts around the hips. While the Egyptians avoided wearing wool cloths 160

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for religious reasons, the Cretans seem to have produced all kinds of wools, either woven at home or in weaving workshops, like the ones found in the Knossos Palace where the Minoan kings and their court lived. The longhaired Cretan men used to wear a woolen or a leather loincloth and left the torso bare. A very tight cloth belt decorated with gold or silver applications straightened the waist. Their shoes covered the lower part of the legs like mid-calf boots, with an Orientallike upturned toe form. Richly decorated headgear distinguished the social functions and status of the princes, the oficials, the warriors, and the other categories of citizens. In the eighteenth century BCE, Cretan women wore conical skirts Central igure in the “Lily Prince” fresco at Knossos, shows traditional adornment in reaching to the ground, corsets, and ancient Crete. (Panagiotis Karapanagiotis/ itted bodices, sometimes laced below Dreamstime.com) the breasts. Several types of belts or double belts narrowed their waists. The skirt was itted over the hips and often presented successive rufles to enlarge its volume, which was probably supported by hoops. Several multicolored lounces were sewn onto the surface of the skirt. On many igurines and statuettes, the bodice seems opened on the breast. Cretan dress was completed with round-shaped aprons, boleros, collars, capes, hats, turbans, and varied headgear, all decorated with trimmings, embroideries, and other forms of colorful ornaments. Cretan women used to wear all kinds of shoes, from sandals to slippers. The elegant jewelry and the complex hairstyles with long curls falling along the neck, adorned with beads and ribbons, are also speciic to the Minoan period. The variations of the ritual clothing, which included animal skins and elevated headdresses, recall ancient Middle Eastern costumes. Although the inluence of Mesopotamian and Assyrian dress on the Creto-Aegean one seems undeniable, the itted sewn clothing of the Minoan era constitutes the most elaborate Mediterranean costume of the second millennium BCE. In the 15th century BCE, Crete was hit by a natural disaster. Tsunamis provoked by the enormous eruption of the Thira (now Santorini) volcano in the Aegean Sea nearly caused the devastation of the island. The destruction of Knossos brought the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress decline of the Minoan culture and the materialization of a greater Greek inluence on Cretan dress. Though Mycenae increased its control over Crete, the passion of the city dwellers in Knossos, Arkades, or Drero for sophisticated textiles, garments, and Oriental-like jewelry was still sustained by trade with Cyprus, Syria, and Egypt. Crete became a Roman province in 69 BCE and stayed under Roman rule for 300 years. It was then attached to the Byzantine Empire in 395. The four centuries of Byzantine rule rooted the Greek language and the Christian Orthodox religion in Crete. The Byzantine silk tunics and draped mantles spread through the island cities. In the capital, Gortyn, the aristocracy exhibited layers of multicolored clothing made of silk textiles with abstract and igurative motifs woven into medallions. The profusion of pendants, diadems, and necklaces, made of imposing ranges of pearls and gems, was also a characteristic of the Byzantine elite’s dress. When the Arab Saracens occupied Crete in 824 and set up the new capital, Heraklion, the Cretan costumes kept the same shape and ornaments. In the Near Eastern countries from which the Arab conquerors came, the urban dress was quite similar to the Byzantine one. The concept of long, multilayered tunics cut in richly ornamented and colorful silks was shared by both cultures. When Crete was liberated from the Arabs in 961 to turn back under the rule of Constantinople, the clothing landscape of the island was not much different from that of the other Greek Aegean cities.

Cretan National Dress In 1204, as Constantinople was conquered by the Crusaders, the Byzantine Empire was dismantled and Crete became a property of the Venetians. From the early 13th century to the beginning of Ottoman rule in 1669, Crete was the Venetian colony of Candia. The Latins who dominated the colony and the Cretan Greeks set up dress codes, which were a miscellaneous ensemble of Byzantine and Italian tunics, draped mantles, and cloaks. The dress of the Latin elite was initially distinct from the Greek one, but after a century, the ethnic differences between the two costumes blurred. The urban women’s costume was more itted to the bust than the earlier Byzantine one. The low-cut neckline, an innovation of the Lusignan court on the neighboring island of Cyprus, spread into the female dress of high society. When the island was annexed to the Ottoman Empire in 1648, the Byzantine and Venetian heritages were still tangible in the hybridized style of the Oriental yet European clothing culture of the Cretans. The acculturation and the miscegenation of the urban way of life increased during the centuries of Ottoman rule on Crete. In the 18th century, the local elite wore caftans, waistcoats, and upper garments richly ornamented with golden embroideries and trimmings. Men inherited the loose, baggy Oriental-like breeches, worn with leather boots. The long decorative sleeves and the low-cut neckline of the silk

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coat worn by female city dwellers over a silk shirt and long baggy silk trousers were similar to the Turk-like dress of the other Greek and Ottoman elites in the whole east Mediterranean area. The tasseled fez used by both men and women was the most popular type of headdress. The Cretans contributed to the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire, but when Greece became an independent state in 1832, the island was not included in its territory. It passed to Egypt before the European Powers intervened to expel the Turkish forces. It became an independent republic in 1898. In 1913, the island was inally annexed to Greece. During the early 20th century, the elite People wearing traditional clothing from the of the Cretan capital, Heraklion or province of Krid (Crete), Ottoman Empire, Iraklion, and the other two major cit- c. 1873. (Library of Congress) ies, Chania or Hania, and Rethymnon, progressively adopted a western European style of dress. However, in the rural and mountainous areas of the island, the regional and ethnic costumes kept their material and symbolic speciicities. Today only half of the Cretans live in the rural agglomerations. In the remote villages, old men still wear an everyday traditional dress. But in most of the other areas of the island, the folk costumes are only exhibited for festive occasions. The male Cretan dress is composed of a black shirt, a dark blue or black sleeveless yileki (waistcoat) richly ornamented with silk trimmings, a felt long-sleeved jacket called mindani, and an 8.75 yards (8 m) long sash cummerbund wrapped around the waist, called zounari. On special occasions, the cummerbund is used to hold crafted silver guns and scimitars. The dark blue vraka (loose breeches tucked into the boots) are the most distinctive element of the costume. Today, the vraka can be beige and not necessarily dark colored. The knee-high black boots of the Cretans are called stivania. The festive stivania are always white. The sariki is a black crocheted kerchief wrapped around the head. Contemporary young Cretans prefer reducing the sariki to a black headband with a few short fringes falling on the forehead. A short hooded mantle is worn by Cretan men during the winter. It is often decorated with woven motifs on the shoulders, on the back, and on other

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress parts of the garment. The inner lining of the mantle is usually red and decorated with colorful red, orange, and yellow patterns on the corners. Few details distinguish the male dress of a speciic region from another. The volume and the length of the vraka (baggy trousers), the cut of the waistcoat, the color of the jacket, and the type of headdress, which can be wrapped or replaced by a fez, are the most common elements of difference. The only traditional accessory shared by all Cretan men is the ornamental watch chain called kiousteki. The watch is hidden in the jacket’s pocket, but the chain remains visible and constitutes the unique Cretan male jewel. Female costumes and jewelry are much more diversiied across the island. Today, Cretan women wear modern international clothing like elsewhere in Europe, but folk dancers and old women in the isolated mountains still wear the traditional dress, which has remained almost unchanged since the early 20th century. The two principal variations of women’s dress are the Sfakiani costume from the region of Sfakia in western Crete and the Anoghiani costume from the area of Mylopotamos in central Crete. The Sfakiani dress is composed of a white silk or cotton shirt with woven motifs, a dark red or brown skirt decorated on the lower border with two wide golden ribbons, and a white traditional apron with woven symbolic patterns. A velvet black or dark-colored ziponi (waistcoat) and a headscarf complete the outit. The ziponi is decorated with golden trim and voluptuous embroidered motifs. Its wide décolletage down to the breast shows the silk or cotton shirt underneath. The Anoghiani dress originated in Anogia, a village close to Heraklion, the largest city of the island. It is the most representative female traditional costume of Crete. The main difference with the Sfakia dress is the long vraka (trousers) worn under a white poukamisa (shirt). The lower part of the trousers used to fall over a pair of short traditional boots, but today, women wear modern high-heel black shoes to complete their folk dress. The woven apron called brostopodia and the red half-skirt or sartza tied around the waist are two fundamental components of the costume. In the Cretan tradition, a silver knife, called argirobounialaki, was held to the waist by a sash belt to indicate if the woman was married or betrothed. The upper part of the costume is a dark felt jacket decorated with golden embroidery, quite similar to the ziponi of Sfakian women. A red fringed headscarf, the skoufoma, covers the hair. The fringes of the headscarf can be golden or yellow. Nowadays, the white trousers exhibited by Cretan women for Independence Day parades and other festivals are less voluminous than one century ago. The folk dress uses lighter and less expensive fabrics. The shirt, the trousers, the white fringed apron with red woven motifs, the red sartza (half-skirt), and the headscarf are more often made of thin cottons or synthetic textiles, rather than handwoven silks and felts. Handweaving traditions have almost disappeared from Crete. Modern imported textiles are omnipresent even in the remotest villages.

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Traditional dancers start the irst dance at a wedding in Heraklion, Crete, 2010. (Bastian Parschau/Getty Images)

Few workshops are still active in Chania and in smaller agglomerations, like Anogia, where villagers still use their grandmothers’ old looms to produce traditional cloths. In the 21st century, weaving, domestic activities, and the ritual functions of the traditional clothing assume less signiicance. Nevertheless, Cretan female and male traditional dress still expresses cohesiveness in a land where people are proud of their insular identity. Folk dress survives in Crete thanks to the persistence of a wide variety of traditional dances performed at festivities, either the national ones or the religious ones like the Christian Orthodox Easter, Christmas, and saints’ days. The Cretan dancers’ performances are also appreciated by the 3 million tourists who visit the island every year. Crete has preserved many traditional dances: the Maleviziotis and the Sousta of Rethymno dance, known as the lovers’ dances; the Pentozalis, a fast male dance that originated in the city of Rethymnon before spreading to the whole island; the Syganos, a slow group dance that exalts the spirit of freedom and unity of the Cretans; the Chaniotikos Syrtos dance from the city of Chania; and the Kastrinos dance, the most impressive and popular masculine dance in Crete. The local authorities and the artists performing those folk dances are keen on preserving the Cretan dress tradition. In the contemporary folk costumes, jewelry has been drastically reduced. Female dancers often put on the red traditional headscarf without ixing any head jewelry over it. A few decades ago, the head jewelry was essential to signify the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress wealth and social status of each individual. As in many other areas of the Oriental Mediterranean, golden coins were sewn on the headscarves and hung over the women’s foreheads. Jewelry played an important role in all the rituals and festivities because of the protective attributes given to the precious metals and stones, which were supposed to have the ability to chase away evil spirits. Today, gold chains with ranges of coins still cover the women’s belts and the visible part of their shirts. After four millennia, the particular attention given by the Minoan women to the adornment of their bosoms, as a symbol of fertility, still persists in the folk costumes of Crete.

Further Reading and Resources Detorakis, Theocaris. History of Crete. Iraklion: Detoraki Editions, 1994. Hatzimichali, Angelike. The Greek Folk Costume. Athens: Benaki Museum and Melissa Publishing House, 1977. Papantoniou, Ioanna. Greek Dress. Athens: Commercial Bank of Greece, 2000. Raftis, Alkis. The World of Greek Dance. London: Finedawn, 1987. Zora, Popi. Embroideries and Jewellery of Greek National Costume. Athens: Museum of Greek Folk Art, 1981.

Croatia Vishna Collins

C

roatian national costume (narodan nosnja), the traditional folk dress worn by ethnic minority groups, is the heart and soul of the nation. It speaks of the history and values of the nation and reinforces strong social ties, community traditions, national pride, and cultural identity. Croatian people expressed their hopes, dreams, and hardships through the art of dress and needle and thread. For the purpose of this study, folk dress and peasant dress refer to traditional ethnic clothing associated with agrarian subsistence rural communities who lived on the land, raised crops, harvested wheat and corn, ploughed the ields, and maintained orchards and vineyards. Their lives centered on working in the ields, preparing food, and participating in traditional folkloric (kolo) circle dance and song festivals. Folk dress was an integral part of daily life and culture, and reinforced identity and a traditional way of life. Tradition refers to repeated and inherent patterns of thought and behavior passed down orally from generation to generation without alteration. Croatian traditions, customs, and beliefs are steeped in history. For example, it was the village custom (obicaji) for the local citizens to pay their respects to a newborn baby by offering a gift of gold coins, placed under the baby’s embroidered pillow.

Historical and Geographical Background Croatia is a small Slavic country situated in southern central Europe on the Adriatic Sea along the banks of the Danube and Sava Rivers. Croatian traditions, customs, and beliefs date back to the seventh century when the Croats migrated to the Balkan peninsula. During its long history, Croatia was part of the Roman province of Pannonia. The country developed under the inluence of Greek, Roman, Celtic, Illyrian, Austrian, Hungarian, Venetian, Byzantine, Islamic, and Balkan cultures and the Ottoman Empire. The cross-fertilization of these cultures inluenced the style of Croatian folk

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress dress, such as the Ottoman-inspired women’s embroidered purple silk bodice. Croatia is renowned for its richly embellished folk dress, idyllic countryside, rolling hills, fertile plains, and rugged mountains. Croatia consists of three major ethnographic zones. The Pannonian (plains) zone lies between the eastern and northern areas, comprising lowlands and fertile soil, known for its agricultural development and livestock breeding. The Dinaric (mountainous) zone consists of a vast mountainous hinterland extending from south of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and parts of Serbia. The region is known for the rugged mountains and sheep breeding. Wool was the primary iber, regarded as more practical for the rugged mountainous terrain and the shepherds’ roaming way of life. The Adriatic (coastland and islands) zone lies close to the Dinaric region on the northeastern part of the Mediterranean belt. The population of Croatia in 2012 was approximately 4,480,000.

People and Dress Croatian folk dress is a highly developed and sophisticated art form of stunning diversity and great aesthetic appeal. While Western society may have marvelled at the striking folk dress, the rural community who made and wore the clothing had no real concept that their clothing could be considered art. The style of folk dress was simple and elegant, consisting of dark and sombre colors. Clothing resembled basic hemp tunics dating back to pre-Roman times. Men wore simple wide trousers, kneelength robes with a girdle, and coneshaped black felt hats (subara). Upper body clothing consisted of a sleeveless cloak made from coarse wool. Women wore two-layered robes, a long-sleeved under robe, a short-sleeved outer robe, and a girdle or belt. Village people wore plain and simple folk dress for everyday working and living. Festive folk dress, richly embellished with multicolored embroidery threads, was worn for celebrating special events such as weddings, Easter Sunday mass, and the Feast of Pentecost (duhove), a celebration that traditionally takes place Croatian man, c. 1855. (Library of Congress) seven weeks after Easter.

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Croatian folk dress is a striking visual language of clothes encoded with multicolored embroidered motifs, which communicate messages and meanings; record life’s events; evoke magic; secure fertility, happiness, and good fortune; and celebrate life, lives, and the human experience. Dakovo, in Slavonia, is renowned for its ornate festive folk dress, richly embellished with baroque-inspired gold thread embroidery. Dakovo Embroidery (Dakovaski Vezovi) is an annual folkloric festival of the combined regions of Slavonia and Banja Luka, a city of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The festival is a visual splendor of traditional folkloric dancing, singing, and folk dress of stunning diversity. The spectacular pageant of regions is a celebration of the long-standing rich tradition of different aspects of Slovenian culture. The festival is of great historical signiicance and forms part of the Croatian cultural heritage. The style of Croatian folk dress is diverse, varying from region to region and from village to village. Croatia is renowned for the distinctive multicolored traditional embroidery (konavoski vez) or national embroidery (naroden vezove) featured on folk dress and decorative household textiles. Distinguishing style characteristics include diversity, color, and quality. Folk dress features striking multicolored cotton, silk, silver, and gold thread embroidery, counter thread, drawn thread, cross-stitch (krstacki), cutwork, appliqué, broderie anglaise (slinganje) embroidery, and needlepoint (bobbin) lace. Clothing style identiies the region and the village rather than individual citizens of the village community.

Materials and Techniques Style was dictated by the topography and economy of the region. Wool was the primary iber in the rugged mountains. In the fertile plains, lax and hemp were the main ibers used for folk dress and household linen. Clothing was homespun from heavyweight linen cloth, designed to withstand the wear and tear of everyday living, working long hours in the ields, and constant washing and scrubbing. Lightweight homespun linen cloth (platno) was reserved for festive folk dress and articles of dress. Croatian textile manufacturing has a long-standing, continuous tradition, dating back to old Slavic history. The inhabitants of the Croatian rural communities sowed seeds in their ields for clothing and household linen and decorative textiles. Working in the ields was a daily routine for the village community. Primary activities included shearing the sheep for wool, plucking, soaking, drying, cracking, and combing natural ibers such as lax and hemp. Linen cloth was washed, beaten, and spread on the meadows to whiten and dry in the sun. Men

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress were responsible for ploughing the ields and soaking and beating the ibers. The sowing and processing of ibers and the manufacture of clothing and household linen were women’s work. Wool and lax were the main natural ibers. Hemp and broom (zuka) were also used. Cloaks and sacks were made from goat’s hair. Silkworm (pubice) farming was a cottage industry, managed exclusively by women. Silk was dyed with natural vegetables dyes and was reserved for decorating special articles of dress, such as festive caps.

Women’s and Men’s Dress The main purpose of clothing was functional, designed and manufactured for everyday working and living. Decorative elements evoked magical power. The style of clothing varied from the everyday to festive dress, worn for special events and holidays. Construction of the clothing consisted of basic square and rectangular shapes, requiring minimal designing and sewing. Folk dress that was well-worn and no longer suitable for festive events was then used for everyday working and living. Women’s and men’s folk dress styles varied from region to region. The village community recognized their neighbors by their distinctive style of dress. The fertile land of the Pannonian zone is ideal for growing lax and hemp iber for textiles. Pannonian folk dress and articles of dress included a red cap (crvenkapa), headscarf (jugluk), woolen-fringed apron (pregaca), and loral shoulder-fringed shawl (sairka). Winter clothing consisted of fur coat (kozun) made from lambskin, and sleeveless leece lined lambskin fur waistcoats (kozu prsnjak), embellished with small mirrors, ribbons, berries, leather buttons and loops. Men wore a domeshaped fur cap (subara) made from lambskin and kid fur, and leece-lined lambskin fringed cloaks. In the Dinaric zone, folk dress featured elements of dress from the Italian Renaissance, or Venetian and Baroque elements. Articles of dress included festive caps, woven aprons and fringed girdles that relected multicolored handicrafts of the Mediterranean world. Women Women’s folk dress was multi layered and consisted of underskirt (donja krilica), upper skirt (gornja krilica), blouse (oplecak) fringed girdle (tkanica), woollen fringed apron (pregaca), upper headscarf (jugluk), under scarf (samija), and loral fringed shoulder shawl (sairka). Decorative articles of dress included gold coin necklace jewelry (dukati) and hand-knitted bracelets interwoven with white beads (narokvice).

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Women from Gornji Bogicevci wore the traditional plain-edged, cherry-red chequered upper headscarf (jugluk). The scarf was folded in the traditional manner and fastened to the under scarf (samija) with pins and a decorative metal threepronged comb. Women from Slavonski Brod in Slavonia wore the headscarf (jugluk) edged with multicolored woolen pom-poms. It was common for women to wear it on a daily basis with ordinary clothes when working in the ields and attending to domestic chores. This essential article of dress continues to be worn today by older women living in Croatian villages. Men Men’s basic folk dress consisted of heavy homespun fabric trousers (gatce) that were wide, paired with a loose-itting long-sleeved shirt (kosulja), a black woolen waistcoat (persnjak or lajbec), a black felt hat (kapa), and a fringed girdle or belt (tkanica). The center front of the shirt featured white cotton thread embroidery. Crochet ilet lace edging featured on the hems of the wide linen trousers. Tiny gathered accordion-style pleats featured on the back of the shirt near the neckline and the top and bottom of the inely gathered sleeves with scalloped edging.

Festive Clothing and the Ritual of Dress Both women and men wore festive dress (svecnja roba) for special ceremonies such as weddings, feast days, and Sunday mass. The style of folk dress was ornate and richly embellished with striking multicolored threads. Silk and gold thread embroidery was reserved for special articles of dress such as women’s deeply fringed shoulder shawls (sairka) and festive cap (peculica). For women, dressing the part with a multilayered folk dress ensemble was a complex and time-consuming

Women from Sestine wearing their Sunday dress, c. 1950. (Three Lions/Getty Images)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress process, requiring the assistance of many hands. Multilayered clothing weighed several pounds and could consist of up to three heavyweight underskirts (donja krilica). The order of dressing adhered to tradition and stringent rules applied. Typical features of Slavic women’s folk dress ensembles consisted of traditional vertical back pleats and high-relief embroidery (stikanji), created with a small device and a needle on the reverse side of the linen cloth. High-relief embroidery varied in colors and patterns, from traditional cherry-red stylized loral motifs, cluster of grapes, vine leaves, tendrils, and star motifs, to red and black geometric motifs. Additional decorative features included crochet ilet lace on the back of the square-neckline blouse (oplecak), the bottom of the wide sleeves, the upper skirt (gornja krilica), and the underskirt (donja krilica). Crochet ilet lace also featured as insertions on upper and underskirts.

Headwear, Footwear, and Accessories Women’s folk dress and articles of dress such as the festive cap (peculica) from the Sava Valley were highly decorative objects embroidered with densely laid satin stiches. Great effort and attention went into embellishing festive caps with silk embroidery, cutwork, lace, ribbons, sequins, and beads. Croatian women were skilled artisans. In their hands they turned silk embroidery into an art form, referred to as painting with a needle and thread. Festive caps were objects of great charm and aesthetic appeal, featuring ornate baroque-inspired loral motifs such as rosettes, delicate meandering branches, needle lace, crochet lace medallions, and open cutwork. Women’s headscarfs and headdresses were essential articles of folk dress. The style varied from region to region. Headdresses were elaborate and ornate towering structures, richly embellished with artiicial lowers (smilje), wheat, feathers, brocade ribbons, beads, and silver sequins. Young women from Bratine wore dome-shaped, red-beaded, snug-itting headdresses, with long beaded panels folded over at the back of the headdress that hung elegantly down the back to the waist. Young women from Bilogore wore large, shoulder-length, red cross-stitch embroidered white headscarfs, folded to the front of the head and pinned under the chin. Women from the island of Pag wore winged, white, ethereally ine linen headdresses, embellished with needlepoint (bobbin) lace. Plain white homespun kerchiefs were worn by young women from Sibenika, simply tied on the head and knotted at the nape of the neck at the back. Young girls went bareheaded. When they reached puberty, they were considered eligible for marriage and wore the red cap (crvenkacapa). Unmarried women

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(stare cure) wore darker and more somber shades of headdress and clothing. Any woman over the age of 40 or 50 years old wore a plain scarf in a shade of brown. Slavs were deeply superstitious people who believed that the color red had magical powers for warding off evil spirits. They went to great lengths to protect their families and possessions. Village people decorated their domestic interiors with multicolored red-embroidered textile objects. Red (zivocrveni) was the primary color; other colors were of secondary value. Red was reserved for young girls and young marriageable women. The color denoted life-sustaining powers, good fortune, health and happiness, and served as protection from the evil eye. Married and older women wore plainer and more somber colors. Footwear The style of footwear varied from region to region. Traditional footwear (opnaci) was handmade from soft ox hide and laced up with leather straps (znerabci). For festive events, young women wore plain white (bjecve) cotton knitted stockings and red leather slippers (crvene papuce), lat small-heeled embroidered and beaded slip-on shoes, and light-colored, leather-soled sandals with front straps. Men’s footwear included black leather knee-high boots (cizme) and lat black leather slip-on shoes. Young women and girls wore light brown leather laced-up boots. In place of knitted socks, people wore foot rags (objiki) made from recycled

Croatian women’s traditional footwear. (Jerko Grubisic/iStockphoto.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress homespun linen, wrapped around the feet and ankles. Knitted footwear included both ankle-length and knee-high multicolored woolen socks (cicanje carape), and women’s knitted knee-high stockings (klicanice). Women’s Hairstyles and Hairdressing Women and girls’ hairstyles consisted of traditional braided plaits (pletenice). Small girls and women always had long hair. They never cut their hair; even in old age, women had long hair down to their waists, braided into one plait and wound into a bun at the back. For everyday, young girls wore two long plaits with red ribbons. Married and older women wore kerchiefs over the braided plaits. The number of plaits and the complexity of braiding depended on the festive event and the age of the wearer. Young girls’ hair was parted in the middle and divided into two or four plaits (kikice) at the back of the head. The front part of the hairstyle consisted of plaits arranged into a shape resembling a woven basket (kosarica). Young women’s hairstyles consisted of nine, 15, or 25 plaits. Braided plaits were crossed over at the back of the head, lifted up, and secured with hairpins and decorative brooches. False braided plaits made of human hair, arranged at the back of the head, were an additional decorative feature for women’s festive hairstyles. Young girls wore wire-framed hair insertions (lutka) wrapped with small tufts of hair and homespun threads. Young married women (snase) wore a triangularshaped piece of wire (zica) wrapped with narrow strips of linen cloth and threads. Hairstyles were embellished with rosemary, artiicial fruit and lowers, feathers, wheat, and gold coins. Multiple braided plaits were a village tradition that required time and assistance from other hands. Fringed Belts and Tasselled Girdles Both women and men wore fringed skirts or girdles, but they were more associated with women’s clothing. The girdles were woven on looms, leaving a long unwoven end to form a fringe. These could be of various colors and designs depending on the region, and the fringes could be simply twisted, braided, or have a series of decorative knots. Fringed girdles (pas) were imbued with symbolic signiicance and had magical powers to ward off evil or promote fertility. Fringed girdles were also highly valued art objects and were collected in large numbers for the girl’s dowry and given by the bride as gifts. Aprons Homespun linen embroidered and woolen-fringed aprons (fertun) were essential articles of dress. Plain and simple aprons were worn for everyday living and working; decorative aprons were reserved for special occasions such as Sunday

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mass and weddings. Decorative features included lozenge patterns, squares, rectangles, triangles, and diamonds, and closely aligned parallel lines woven in different colored woolen threads. Styles varied from region to region. Women from Gornji Bogicevci wore a rectangular-shaped densely woven apron (pergaca), which was as thick as a carpet. Young women from Bebrine wore cross-stitched white embroidered linen aprons, embellished with strawberries (jagode) and loral motifs. Young women (mlade zene) from Draza wore heavyweight and densely woven red multicolored striped front and back aprons, wrapped around the waist like a blanket, red and black striped knee-high knitted socks, and a multicolored, snugitting red cap. The fringed apron was decorated in woven patterns of fertility and was worn with thick decorative homespun red knitted knee-high socks. The Chemise The linen chemise was a basic undergarment worn by women next to the skin to absorb moisture, before putting on the upper garments. The visible parts of the chemise featured decorative multicolored thread embroidery and lace trim. The hidden parts of the chemise were left plain. Women gave special attention and care to embroidering the bridal chemise, and they took great pride in creating this special article of dress.

Bridal Attire and Headdresses Marriage Dowry The dowry (ruva) was essential for all young girls in the village. The size and content of the dowry depended on the family’s social and economic status within the community. Young girls learned sewing skills from their mothers and grandmothers, who passed their skills down from generation to generation. It was a village custom for young girls to learn the arts of spinning, knitting weaving, embroidery, and lace making. From an early age, they were encouraged to practice their sewing skills and prepare their marriage dowry. The bride and groom’s wedding attire paralleled traditional Croatian folk dress. It was customary, after the wedding, for the newlyweds to wear their bridal attire for special events, such as Sunday mass, for many years. The most prized folk dress and articles of dress such as the bride’s elaborate bridal crown (vijenac) and gold coin necklace jewellery (dukati) were cherished processions, traditionally bequeathed to families from generation to generation. The village bride (mlada cura) wore ornate, multicolored bridal attire, such as the highly ornamented headdress crown or wreath (vijenac), richly embellished

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress with brocade ribbons, feathers, artiicial lowers, fruit, and beads. The bride and her bridesmaids, attired in festive folk dress ensembles, drove to the village church wedding in an open horse-drawn carriage, accompanied by two horsemen (kocijasi) attired in traditional folk dress and red, white, and blue sashes. It was the village tradition for the groom, best man (kum), and groomsman (djeveri) to wear long white ceremonial linen towels draped over their shoulders. The ceremonial towels were a gift from the bride to mark the oficial welcome to the family, and to encourage good relations between the newlywed couple and the two families. To mark the oficial bridal party, the groom and groomsmen (djeveri) wore the customary rosemary with white lowers and ribbon on their lapels. Wedding guests (savatovi) wore rosemary tied with thin red, white, and blue ribbon. The tradition of wearing rosemary and the gift of ceremonial towels continues in modern-day Croatian communities. Rosemary was a symbol of fertility and good health. This study provides a glimpse into a world of people living in a vast terrain that shaped a nation, from Illyrian tribes dating back to the seventh century to the present day. Folk dress illuminates the rich cultural heritage of Croatian people, their traditions, customs, and beliefs, exempliied by their striking folk dress unsurpassed in artistry and their exquisite mastery of skills and techniques. The style of Croatian folk dress is diverse and varies from region to region, but the traditions, customs, and beliefs fundamentally remain the same. Traditions are steadfastly followed by people who did not adhere to Westernized dress norms, and who faithfully continue to practice and maintain their traditions, customs, and beliefs in the modern world.

Further Reading and Resources Barber, E. W. Women’s Work, the First 20,000 Years: Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. Harris, J. (ed.). 5000 Years of Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1993. Kennett, F. Ethnic Dress. London: Octopus, 1994. Riffe Gallery, Ohio Arts Council, http://www.oac.state.oh.us/riffe/exhibitions/ 1997/patterns/patterns.asp, accessed March 19, 2012. Waller, D. Textiles from the Balkans. London: British Museum Press, 2010. Welters, L. (ed). Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia. Beliefs about Protection and Fertility. Oxford: Berg, 1999.

Denmark Claire Townsend

Historical Background The Danes, a Gothic-Germanic people, have inhabited Denmark since prehistoric times. The Danes were known for being a ruthless seafaring nation in the Viking period, the ninth to 11th centuries, and the Danish kingdom consisted of the northern part of the island of Jutland, Zealand, and the southern part of Sweden. Under the rule of King Canute in the 11th century, England and parts of Finland were added. In the 14th century, although England was lost, the Danish kingdom swelled to include Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Sweden and Finland left the union in the 16th century, and Norway was forfeited in 1814, as a punishment for siding with Napoleonic France. Iceland became independent in 1944. Despite territorial losses, Denmark lourished in the 19th century, and in 1849, King Frederick authorized a new constitution allowing for a representative-style government. Denmark was neutral during WWII, during which period general suffrage was introduced and the southern border with Germany was established. Denmark joined the European Community in 1973, and after a referendum in 1993, joined the EU. The modern Kingdom of Denmark includes Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which both have varying degrees of autonomy: The Faroe Islands have their own government and Greenland was given increased autonomy in 2009, adding to the Self-Rule act established in 1979, although both receive Danish subsidiaries. The population of Demark in 2012 was estimated at 5,543,450.

Geographic and Environmental Background The modern Kingdom of Denmark consists of the three large islands of Jutland, Fyn, and Zealand, as well as around 400 minor islands known as the Danish Archipelago, and includes the Faroe Islands and Greenland. It is 16,639 square miles in size and very lat in terrain, with its highest elevation being 568 feet. Its weather

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress can be quite changeable, due to its location and westerly winds. The temperature varies from around freezing in winter to the low 80 degrees in summer.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Ethnic groups within Denmark include Scandinavian, Inuit, Faroese, Turkish, German, Polish, Iraqi, Lebanese, Bosnian, Pakistani, Yugoslav (former), Somali, Iranian, Vietnamese, British, and Afghan. The Danish National Evangelical Lutheran Church makes up about 80 percent of the religions practiced within Denmark, with Islam being the second largest religion group at 4 percent.

Women’s Dress Due to the large area of the islands, folk costume within Denmark itself is rather varied. With its strategic position within Europe, Denmark was the irst of the Scandinavian countries to lourish in the modern world, and thus also one of the irst to lose its historic dress, which stopped being used over 100 years ago, except within a few of the more remote localities. What is considered traditional dress in Denmark today was developed between the 18th and early 19th centuries. Danish folk costume was largely recorded during the Danish civil war of 1848–1850 by the painter F. C. Lund. Women’s traditional dress consisted of a chemise, of which the sleeves would show, a sleeveless bodice, a full gathered or accordion-pleated skirt, a full-length apron that covered most of the skirt, and a bonnet and scarf combination. The chemise was made of knitted linen or linen with knitted sleeves sewn into it, often of a bright and contrasting color to the bodice. It was common for the knitting to be in a diamond pattern all of one color. The sleeveless bodice that was worn over the top normally laced in front and has kept close to the style of the high-waisted bodices of the early 19th century. Flat or patterned silk tape was used down the front of the bodices as decoration. Often shawls or kerchiefs were worn over the bodices and tucked into them at the front, which could be check or patterned. Color was signiicant. Red check on a navy background was a sign of joy, but blue or green checks on navy were a recognized sign of mourning. The costume was practical and allowed for jackets, often of Spencer style (a high-waisted style that was popular during the Regency period), and capes or cloaks to be added as outerwear. The skirts worn were pleated or gathered, and the color often relected the women’s marital status: red for married and older women and green for young girls. It was common for red skirts to have a black border

En Hedebopige (A Young Girl from Hedebo), lithograph by Danish artist Frederik Christian Lund, 1864. (Lund, Frederik Christian. Danske Nationaldragter, 1864)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress toward the hem. They were made of somewhat heavy fabrics, normally woven from wool, although afluent farmers’ wives and townspeople would have skirts of silk, often with accordion pleats, for special occasions. The pleats were generally larger than in neighboring Sweden, and often used a method called “cooked” pleating, where the women would form pleats by hand: First the skirt was damped and the pleats were pressed in, and then the skirt was wrapped in a muslin cloth and put in the oven as it was cooling from baking to allow the pleats to dry. The aprons worn were very large, some resembling an extra skirt in their fullness. Check patterns were popular and allowed for variation in the size of their patterns, although white aprons were also worn, which were embroidered in white or colored thread. The aprons were made of cotton, although silk ones were used for special occasions. They were used even for best, for reasons that may have originated in old wives’ tales saying that they would protect the wearer from werewolves. In terms of color, the garments were bright in nature, often reds, greens, and yellows with stripes or checks as decorative patterns. Underneath the women’s skirts petticoats were worn, and under these a simple shift rather than bloomers or knickers. Traditional shoes were black leather with silver or amber buckles, or clogs. Headdresses were worn by the women for practical reasons against sand and wind, and it is the style of these that varied the most by location. At the most basic the headdress consisted of a simple form of bonnet, with a combination of under- or overscarf. Married women wore dark colors and young girls wore white, often with a colored overbonnet. On Zealand the women wore trailing bonnets with embroidery in gold and silver thread. In Odense they were red with a white lace underbonnet and a blue silk bow at the back. In the northern part of the island of Falster the women wore a headdress like a deep bonnet composed of a small silk cap attached to a large band edged with lace that shielded the face. In Salling, the cap was also small but worn at the back of head with large fans of stiff lace framing the face. In Arhus, the cape had side wings and a starched white, lace-trimmed triangular cloth, the point tucked down the back. At Thisted, the cap was either a large pleated halo or, as in Ringkobing, the frilled cap was dominated by a large felt top hat. In the Medego region, a colored scarf was tied over the bonnet. On Laeso Island, the headdress consisted of a swathed cloth or scarf. On the island of Fano, where there were huge winds, the headdress consisted of a undercap that covered over the eyebrows and two headscarves that tied over the bridge of the nose to the back and then tied in a knot at the crown of the head, so that all the hair was covered, leaving only the eyes exposed to the elements. The headscarf and neckerchief would match and were often red or brown in color, with blue or purple for mourning.

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Men’s Dress The men’s costume was less differentiated by district. Until the 1920s they continued to wear a longsleeved white shirt with a high collar, a waistcoat, a long or short coat and breeches, and a neckerchief and hat, a style that came into fashion at the end of the 17th century. This has continued to be the base of the traditional costume, although a sleeveless waistcoat over a white shirt has also been adopted. Waistcoats were often striped, although yellow ones were worn to signify that a man had crossed the equator. The jackets and waistcoats had silver buttons for more formal occasions and plain ones for everyday and the working class. The breeches Couple in traditional Danish dress, near were gathered or cuffed at the knee, Copenhagen. (Hideo Haga/HAGA/The with bands or tassels, and were often Image Works) yellow, black, or white in color. They were worn with thigh stockings so that no part of the leg showed and worn with black leather shoes with silver buckles or clogs. For headwear, a red or brown woolen stocking cap was worn, which was long and folded over on top of the head, and sometimes tasseled.

Materials and Techniques Women’s skirts and bodices were made from wool frieze, a coarse woolen plain weave cloth with a nap on one side, or linsey-woolsey, a coarse twill or plain woven fabric woven with a linen warp and a woolen weft, with linen chemises. The wool was collected from the family’s sheep and woven by the women themselves or by professional weavers, and was dyed using vegetables dyes that were common to most of the country. Aprons were often made of silk for best, gauze, or embroidered. There were professional weavers and dyers in each village, and the dyers would also hand print linen using wooden blocks. Embroidery was also used as decoration on aprons, headscarves, neck scarves, and chemise cuffs, although not traditionally on main clothing pieces, such as bodies and skirts.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Men’s garments were made of wool or lax, with some breeches made of leather. The buttons were made of silver, tin, or horn.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Everyday and special-occasion dress mostly varied in the quality of fabrics worn, with silk replacing linen or gauze aprons and headscarves. Gold headscarves or headscarves with silver or gold embroidery were also worn for best and special occasions. Purple or blue headscarves were worn for mourning, as were green or blue check scarves on navy backgrounds. Ribbons were often incorporated into the best dress, particularly on the bonnet.

Jewelry and Accessories Women would sometimes wear chatelaines, a pouch or sheath suspended by cords from a girdle, which contained her sewing, knitting, or embroidery tools. Kid gloves or knitted mittens were also worn in winter.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress In the beginning of the 20th century there was a renewed interest in national heritage, and a number of groups sprang up to preserve Danish folk music, dances, and costume. In 1901, the Society for the Promotion of Danish Folk Dancing (Foreningen til Folkedansens Fremme) was founded in Copenhagen. Today there are over 12,000 folk dancers belonging to 219 local clubs, which provide courses in music, dancing, and dressmaking. Dancers often have costumes specially made for them, using period techniques and materials. See also Greenland

Further Reading and Resources Haire, Frances H. The Folk Costume Book. New York: A. S. Barnes, 1934. Harrold, Robert. Folk Costumes of the World. New York: Sterling, 1999. Lund, F. C. Danish National Costumes, Third Issue 1915. Web edition by Frits Lilbaek. http://vol3450.homeunix.net/danishfolk/Costumes/FC-Lund/home.html. National Dress and Folk Dancing, Embassy of Denmark, India, http://www.amb newdelhi.um.dk/en/menu/InfoDenmark/DanishNationalSymbols/National DressAndFolkDancing/ Snowden, James. The Folk Dress of Europe. New York: Maylower Books, 1979.

Egypt Lucy Collins

Historical Background Ancient Egypt commonly refers to the reign of the pharaohs, which lasted from approximately 3100 BCE to 31 CE. During this era, Egypt saw the establishment of a series of several kingdoms and the increase of extraordinary wealth and sophistication throughout the entire nation. Part of the success of the ancient Egyptian people is due to the country’s fertile location in the Nile River Valley. The tombs of the great pharaohs of Egypt have been an enormous resource for uncovering the earliest styles of Egyptian dress. The sophisticated depictions of fashioned igures on various earthenware vases and other objects have afforded historians a tremendous amount of insight into Egyptian clothing and bodily presentation.

People and Dress Although ancient Egyptian style is quite unique, a common dificulty in tracing historic ethnic dress of this area is sifting through the variety of inluences arising from different conquering nations. Egypt is especially susceptible to this sort of confusion due to its proximity (and cultural connection) to neighboring Mesopotamia and Babylon (Greece). It remains particularly important, then, to look for aspects of dress that indicate a uniquely Egyptian character. The distinctive image of Cleopatra, the fabled queen of Egypt, has become synonymous with Egyptian dress. The classic dark wig, darkened eyes, and crisp white wrap are surely symbols easily associated with Egyptian style. These characteristic clothing and hygiene choices of Egyptians are most afiliated with the ancient Egyptian empire.

Materials and Techniques in Ancient Egypt The clothing of both men and women of all classes was composed primarily of linen robes, drapes, wraps, and tunics. White, sometimes even transparent, linen 183

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress helped ancient Egyptians remain cool in the dry hot climate of the country. The lax plant, which is the primary source of linen, grows well in Egypt along the Nile, making it a likely source for fabric and textiles. The linen garments were most often white, as Egyptians are known for their fastidious behavior regarding cleanliness. The white hue of the linen was often achieved through bleaching the fabric in the sun. The nature of linen also allowed garments to be extremely thin in nature, often even transparent. This transparency seems to draw special attention to the Egyptian concern with the body. The use of colored dyes typically marked one as a foreigner, but when colors were used in Egyptian clothing they were highly symbolic. Many different colors appear in traditional Egyptian clothing. These colors all had symbolic value with white being the most sacred. The purity symbolized by white garments was also associated with the natural color of the lax plant. Blue, the color of the sky, represented Amon, god of air; life and youth was symbolized by green; and the precious metal gold Amenhotep I, the son of Ahmose I, was the was represented by yellow. The violent second king of Egypt’s 18th Dynasty. (Corel) color of red was rarely used in Egypt, and black was strictly for wigs. The primary form of decoration or style noticeable in ancient Egyptian clothing was the tiny pleats and folds that characterized the draped form of dress. It seems that the variety of pleats were used as a subtle form of distinguishing style and possibly class. Pleats could be characterized according to three different styles: one style has very small pleats spaced a quarter-inch (1 cm) apart, another has very narrow pleats, and the third style is chevron-patterned, with horizontal and vertical

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pleats crossing each other. All these pleats were understood to have been very tedious and dificult to achieve. Egyptians were exceptionally advanced in their understanding of self-presentation and bodily maintenance. In Tutankhamen’s tomb, for instance, many pieces of clothing were discovered including tunics, shirts, kilts, aprons and sashes, socks, headdresses, caps, scarves, gauntlets and gloves, some even including linen linings. Triangular loincloths or underwear were also discovered in the tombs. This tangible evidence of the Egyptian attention to wardrobe reveals that despite a seeming simplicity in the style of Egyptian dress, their perspective and mentality toward clothing was actually quite advanced.

Women’s Dress in Ancient Egypt The wrapped tunic worn by women in Egypt was especially straight and closely itted to the body. It extended the entire length of the body from breasts to ankles. Made of white linen, the tunic either had draped sleeves, in the case of the upper classes, or straps that served to hold the dress in place. The linen wrapped garment usually began just below the breasts and the straps would vary between concealing the breasts or not. The shawl, or sari, consisting of a piece of cloth approximately 4 feet wide by 13 or 14 feet long, was very common among upper-class women in Egypt. One corner was tied to a cord around the waist on the left side. Then the material was carried lengthwise around the back and waist, gathered into pleats, and then tucked back into the cord around the waist in front. The material was draped additionally around the body to present a fully covered body.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications in Ancient Egypt Ornamentation and decoration was reserved for jewelry, wigs and headdresses, makeup around the eyes, and pendants worn as belts. The deep jeweled or beaded collar is the most characteristic ornament in all of Egyptian costume. Ornamental beaded collars were worn by both men and women. These beaded collars were always an indication of high status. In fact, gods were almost always depicted in a collar, corselet, and kilt. In the “middle kingdom” era, jewelry became more and more reined and delicate. Often crafted from turquoise, carnelian, feldspar, lapis lazuli, and gold, items of jewelry are some of the most sophisticated objects from the Egyptian empire. Because gold was especially plentiful in Nubia, most Egyptian jewelry

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and adornments were crafted from gold. Even the poor wore as much jewelry as possible. If they could not afford more precious stones and materials, they would wear necklaces made of bright, multicolored clay beads and pieces of pottery. The symbolism of a protective aegis may have had an inluence on the large collars that were worn over the tunics and wraps of the Egyptians. The gorgerin, or large-scale collar, was a unique ornament that the Egyptians frequently wore. It was a kind of collar or shield-like necklace, which was worn across the chest and tied at the back. Feathers were also a frequent adornment, but one primarily reserved for the upper classes and special occasions. Nefertiti, Egypt’s “Sun Queen,” was the wife Egyptian women were very adept of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaton. (Robert in the art of creating and applying Michael/AFP/Getty Images) makeup. They frequently applied dark kohl under and around the eye with the intention of reducing the glare of the sun. The kohl was kept in a pot and applied with a brush made of a reed. Malachite and ochre were used as eye shadow and lipstick. Henna was also used for painting the hands and arms. The perfumed head cone was an important aspect of ancient Egyptian selfpresentation. Composed of either animal fat or butter, the cone contained myrrh or another scented element and released a pleasing fragrance as the tallow melted. Wigs were worn by both men and women. As Egyptians often shaved their heads, presumably for cleanliness reasons, wigs became another accessory of adornment. The shaved heads offered the opportunity to wear the dark-colored ornate wigs often associated with Egyptian style. Wigs were often perfumed and frequently parted in the middle, although this was not mandatory. Sometimes women would wear wigs with many braids and plaits varying in length. Wigs were often straight with curlier versions reserved for the upper classes and special occasions. Wigs were either long or short. The tripartite wig was typical of the long wigs: It was divided into three parts with two parts going down the body on either side of the face and a third section hanging down the back to the shoulder blades.

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Men in ancient Egypt typically shaved with the aid of bronze razors. As with the customary wigs, they replaced their missing facial hair with artiicial beards. Young boys also shaved their heads but usually maintained a “Horus lock,” a lock of hair that fell over a boy’s left ear to indicate youth. The Horus lock became a kind of badge of youth. Priests often had shaved heads and wore no wigs. Their dress was a very basic linen garment worn in a variety of simple ways. On occasion they would drape a leopard skin, known as a pardalide, over the robes when offering sacriices. Images in the tomb of Tutankhamen revealed priests dressed in this manner. Interestingly, despite this custom of priests using leopard skins, other animal ibers were considered impure and not allowed in temples. This is part of the reason that wool was seldom used for clothing in general in ancient Egypt.

Men’s Dress in Ancient Egypt A short kilt was the common dress for men in ancient Egypt. Made of white, semitransparent linen, these kilts were often pleated and/or stiffened to offer the garment some structure. Kings and gods are shown in the basic kilt, yet they always have the added accessory of an often extravagant ornamental pendant in front and an animal tail in back. The kilt worn by men was usually a linen rectangle wrapped around the hips, overlapping and slightly open in the front. The addition of the animal tail accessory is very signiicant in Egyptian culture. In fact, the Sed Festival, also known as the Feast of the Tail, celebrated the continued reign of a pharaoh. The name of the festival comes from the characteristic animal tail that pharaohs always wore. Some historians believe the tail to be a remnant gesture toward the ceremonial robe made of an entire animal skin, which pharaohs once wore. A male musician’s tunic was more freely lowing than the tightly itting garments of other citizens. Musicians were also known for wearing the traditional scented fat and lotus blossom on their heads. The scented fat on the head was intended to melt slowly, thereby releasing a pleasant fragrance around the individual. It was certainly the accepted tradition for ancient Egyptians to go barefoot, unless the person was of a high social standing. For a high-status individual, footwear would consist of sandals woven from palm leaves or other kinds of reeds and stalks such as papyrus. On occasion leather might be used.

Contemporary Egyptian Dress In 2012, nearly 84,000,000 people lived in Egypt. Some 90 percent were Muslim and nearly 10 percent were Christian, with 9 percent of those Coptic Christian

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress (Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, 2012). In early 2011, the people of Egypt held huge demonstrations, strikes, and marches, which eventually led to the resignation and arrest of President Hosni Mubarak and a new government run by the armed forces. In late 2011 and early 2012 parliamentary elections were held, as well as a presidential election. The traditional sensitivity to dress and appearance of ancient Egypt has transferred to contemporary times. Modern-day Egyptian women are highly attuned to the subtleties of style and self-presentation. They are particularly aware of social cues transmitted through details of dress, manners, speech, and gesture. Current styles of folk dress in Egypt are characterized by three primary pieces: the baladi (or fellaha, meaning farm woman) dress, an outer modesty garment, and a head covering known as a futa. Basic dress is conservative, but not boring, demonstrating great skill in the tucks and draping techniques used to shape the igure. Two major distinctions appear in the style of the typical folk dress—one is typically loose and lowing while the second style has a distinct waistline. This distinction seems to parallel differences in geographical area. But almost all of the folk-style dresses have long sleeves, a very modest neckline (complete with many tucks and/or embroidery), and a high waist as well as a large rufle along the bottom, which ends right at the feet. The average woman who is neither wealthy nor poor does not have a large wardrobe, typically acquiring only one or two new dresses a year. Women are very conscious of their “best dress,” second best, and work dresses, with all the clothes made in the same style, simply receiving different designations based on age and wear and tear. Cotton is the most popular material and dresses are usually made by the wearer herself. The modesty coverings are usually the same style as the dress underneath or they can be a simple cloak or shawl. The modesty garments are usually black in color and made of a silky or shiny material in contrast to the typically cotton underdress. These black modesty coverings are seemingly dysfunctional, given the extreme heat of Egypt, yet the voluminous fabric serves to make easy such activities as squatting and even carrying market purchases (as purchases are literally carried in the garment itself, making the modesty coverings exceptionally functional). Modesty garments of all sorts are deeply connected to a kind of religious, particularly Islamic, piety that pervades the culture of Egypt. It is signiicant to note the shugga (modesty garment) of the villages toward the south. This garment, ancient in origin, almost completely conceals the individual and garments worn underneath. It has been said that a shugga has almost a balloon-like quality as it completely envelops the wearer’s head and body in a shimmery, silky cocoon. The woman wearing a shugga uses her hands to hold the fabric closed over her face, so her features are truly invisible.

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However, when noted Egyptian feminist Hoda Shaarawi removed her veil in the 1920s, veils as a strict social requirement ceased to hold much power. Yet women’s speciically deined roles within Egyptian society still exist, and modesty garments and head coverings still serve to maintain those distinctions. Head coverings are also black and are worn by women from childhood. Head coverings can be either a simple shawl or veil or a casually draped piece of fabric. Despite the extreme modesty that characterizes much of the folk dress in Egypt, the wrappings and modesty garments can still prove to be seductive. One particular kind of wrap, referred to as a melaya liff, is a slinky rectangle of nylon, silk, or other clingy material. While it is black and Man wearing galabiya and a turban at the conceals the igure, the clingy nature Karnak Temple complex in Luxor, Egypt. of the wrap and the way it is typically (Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto.com) worn while walking, with material gathered tightly across the body and slung over one arm, accentuates the movement of the women’s body, especially the hips. Men in contemporary Egypt typically wear a basic robe known as a galabiya. The galabiya is a long, lowing gown with wide sleeves. The galabiya has a low, scooped neck with a deep slit. Decoration and embellishment depends on the wealth of the wearer, as does the length of the sleeves—sleeves are cut to cover the hands when one is in the presence of a person of higher rank. Most men wear a head covering of some sort—a tarboosh (turban) or the fez of Turkish origin. While servants wear the most formal turbans, the color of the turban may also be used to designate class and religious afiliations. There is an enormous foreign inluence in Egypt presently, as the result of an increasing global economy, especially in the realm of fashion. Egyptians have historically viewed dressing “foreign” as a sophisticated move, one that indicates middleclass status. In fact, the very term “foreign” has itself come to connote quality for many Egyptians.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress There remains an effort to combine traditional Egyptian styles with newer and more international/Western improvements in dress. Despite the adoption of various fashionable articles of contemporary international clothing, Egyptian women typically dress in a more feminine manner than Western women. Even when wearing jeans, the universal symbol of equality in dress, Egyptian women may be seen wearing heels and a silky, feminine blouse. It should be remembered, however, that it is often only the upper elite classes who have the privilege of adopting more universally fashionable styles.

Further Reading and Resources Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook: Egypt. https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/geos/eg.html. 2012. Houston, Mary. Ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Persian Costume. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1972. An Introduction to the History and Culture of Pharaonic Egypt. Garments. http:// www.reshaim.org.il/ad/egypt/timelines/topics/clothing.htm. Lane, E. W. Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1954. Rugh, Andrea. Reveal and Conceal: Dress in Contemporary Egypt. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1986.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Pamela Smith

O

ften collectively referred to as the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are three independent countries in northeast Europe with similarities in terms of geography and a shared fate during much of the 19th and 20th centuries, when they were part of the Russian Empire and subsequently the Soviet Union. Common factors in their geographical situation, economic development, and cultural traditions led to many similarities in the types of garments found over the whole region, but there are also distinguishing factors between the individual countries in terms of history and ethnicity, which inluenced their own styles of dress. Their populations in 2012 were as follows: Estonia, 1,275,000 people; Latvia, 2,191,600; and Lithuania, 3,525,800.

Historical Background and Geographical Background Over the centuries the Baltic states fell under the rule of various neighboring countries—Germany, Sweden, Russia, and, in the case of Lithuania, Poland. In the 18th century they became part of the Russian Empire, only becoming sovereign nations in their own right in 1920. They were again forced to accept Russian rule after 1939, when the Soviet Union occupied the territory and installed pro-Soviet governments, leading to their complete annexation in 1940. After 40 years of oppression, there was a campaign of civil resistance against Soviet rule in the late 1980s, and by 1991 Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania each achieved independent status. The three countries lie along the eastern edge of the Baltic Sea and on the great plain that stretches across northern Europe. They were exposed at various stages of their history to inluences from neighboring peoples who came by sea and land to invade, to trade, or to settle. In the ninth century CE the Varangians (or Vikings) traveled from their homeland of Scandinavia across the Baltic in search of trade and new lands to colonize. The large metal clasps used to fasten cloaks in Latvia and the chains and breastpieces of the Setu people of southeast Estonia show strong Scandinavian traits. Later contact with other peoples can be seen in some traditional garments, such as the käised, a short embroidered blouse with puffed sleeves found 191

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress in Estonia (often described as a “midriff blouse”), believed to have been inluenced by Swedish dress. (The Estonian islands and northwestern coast were settled by Swedes from the early 13th century.) The women’s outit in both Estonia and Latvia, which consisted of a vertically striped skirt, bodice, and jacket, occurred partly due to the inluence of the German townspeople who settled in the area. Russian traits can be seen in the dress of the Setu people, as well as in women’s kerchiefs with ends hanging down the back, and embroideries in red thread. Outer garments tended to be receptive to foreign inluences and fashion trends, while the basic shirt preserved its ethnic origin more persistently. Until the 20th century the majority of the Baltic peoples made their living by agriculture or ishing. In Lithuania, for example, about 85 percent lived in villages and hamlets. Here the countryside was densely forested. Rural dwellers had limited contact with the towns, staying within their own communities. This led to the development of many local features, including dialects of the language and styles of dress. The region’s climate and lat terrain enable the growing of lax, from which linen is made. The other most common material is wool, used either in woven or felted form for outer garments or as yarn for the knitting of mittens, socks, and stockings, indispensable in the cold winters of the region.

People and Dress Common features of the traditional dress were that nearly everywhere men wore an ensemble of a shirt, trousers, belt, vest, neckerchief, and wide-brimmed hat. The female outit comprised a shirt, skirt, belt, cloak or large shawl, and a bodice or short blouse. Young girls wore decorative headbands or garlands, and married women more substantial head coverings that hid their hair. A metal brooch by which the shirt collar was fastened was an obligatory ornament throughout the Baltic region. Knitted woolen patterned stockings, socks, gloves, and mittens were considered to be powerful guards for the body against evil spirits, enemies, and diseases. Mittens were common gifts, especially at weddings when a bride would present them to all the relatives of the groom, and also at funerals, to those who dug the grave. Patterned mittens were such an integral part of men’s festive clothing that they would be carried tucked behind the belt even in summer.

Estonia Dress in Estonia began to develop along class and ethnic lines when the country (together with Latvia) became a German province in the 13th century. From that time the ruling elite and wealthy merchants were predominantly Germans,

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whereas peasants and common townspeople were Estonians. The higher classes wore fashionable dress made of expensive imported materials in styles that spread throughout Europe from the west, while the rural-dwelling lower classes retained their traditional ethnic dress based on linen and wool. These types of cloth were woven in the home. The inest linen was used for the most prized garments, reserved for festive wear, whereas work clothes were made from the heavier, coarser type of linen, or from tow. (Tow came from the short waste ibers left over from the lax plant after longer ibers had been extracted for linen weaving.) Outer garments were made of wool. Topcoats for the coldest weather were of sheepskin, often trimmed with fur, which was also used for headwear. Early linen clothes were bleached white, while woolen overcoats were usually brown, black, or gray—the color of undyed sheep leece. In the 18th century ethnic dress became more colorful as striped woolen skirts and blouses embroidered with lowers began to be popular, and these were worn all over Estonia by the early 19th century. Only the wealthier peasants could afford leather boots or shoes. Others wore pastlad—soft heelless shoes made from single pieces of cowhide. On the coast and the islands these might also be made from sealskin. Shoes woven from strips of lime or willow bast, made from the bark of lime or willow trees, were worn in summer. In traditional Estonian life, a married woman’s head had to be covered. At the wedding ceremony occurred the “coiing,” when the married woman’s headdress was put on the bride. This head-covering practice persisted until the beginning of the 20th century. As a mark of moral censure, unmarried pregnant girls were also required by their community to wear a married woman’s headdress. In most parts of Estonia they also had to wear an apron, another sign of changed status, which was usually reserved for respectable married women. The apron is considered to be connected with pre-Christian fertility beliefs, providing magical protection for the child-bearing area. (In some regions of the country, however, the apron was part of a maiden’s dress.) Pagan beliefs also governed the wearing of belts, believed to strengthen the body, and the inest white linen shirts put on at crucial times of the farming year, such as the sowing and harvesting of grain. Festive clothing was made from the best materials and abundantly decorated. Its quality indicated the wearer’s wealth and social standing. When it wore out, decorations were removed and it was used for everyday wear. A long woolen coat was an essential garment for men and women when attending church or visiting their neighbors. The inest outits were made for weddings. According to ancient beliefs, women’s transition from one stage of life to another could easily be damaged by various evil or impure forces. The bride’s dress was required to provide magical protection. In some parts of Estonia, such as Mulgimaa, it retained its archaic form of a wrap skirt decorated with bronze spirals

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and an embroidered kerchief (“hip apron”) hanging from the belt on the side. To protect the bride from evil forces, her face and head were covered with a wrap on her way to the bridegroom’s home. In the 19th century economic ties between town and country increased and more and more urban elements were adopted into ethnic dress. This process was more marked in the north of the country than the south. Many ornaments and accessories, such as silk ribbons, kerchiefs, buttons, and sequins were bought from peddlers as well as in shops. Rapid changes occurred up to the mid-century with the spread of the previous century’s innovations—the vertically striped skirt and distinctive women’s hats—the pot-shaped pottmüts and the hoof-shaped kabimüts. Women’s jackets and bodices became tight-itting, with a pleated edge below the waistline. New types of overcoats were dyed with store-bought indigo. New fashions also reached peasant women through the craftspeople and servants attached to wealthy households. It is thought that the irst vertically striped skirts were given by ladies of the manor as presents to their maidservants or woven by their household weavers. After this peasant women started to weave striped cloth themselves. Regional differences in clothing can be seen by roughly dividing the country into northern, southern, and western Estonia and the four islands, which lie offshore to the west (Hiiumaa, Saaremaa, Muhu, and Kihnu). In the north the most characteristic features of women’s clothing were the midriff blouse, worn on top of a sleeveless shirt, and the colorful striped skirts. Men wore breeches and a short woolen or linen coat (vatt), inluenced by the general European fashion. In south Estonia ancient forms of dress persisted. Women wore rectangular woolen or linen shoulder wraps at least as late as the mid-19th century. In Mulgimaa, in the western part, women wore shirts of an antique cut, wrap skirts, tied kerchiefs arranged in folds over the head and shoulders, and hip aprons with medieval-style plant decoration. Traditional dress was worn longer, especially in wealthier Mulgimaa households. In the southeast of Estonia lived the Setu, members of a separate ethnic group who spoke Estonian, but who had close ties with Russian culture. Setu women wore the typical Russian pinafore-style garment, the sarafan. The most striking feature of their dress was the abundance of metal ornaments worn as part of their festive dress. West Estonian dress had common features with both the north and south. In the northern part men wore the same kind of outit as in north Estonia, with the more modern dark blue woolen breeches and vatt, whereas in the south a few more ancient elements persisted, such as old-style trousers. Traditional dress survived on the islands until the mid-20th century. Its characteristics were geometric and loral motifs in embroidery, an abundance of metal ornaments and details, buckles on the bodice and belt, chains, and some archaic elements such as pockets attached to the belt.

Estonian Girl, 1852 (oil on canvas), Gustav Adolf Hippius (1792–1856). The bodice suggests southern Estonian dress. Her loose hair indicates her unmarried status. (Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress On Kihnu women wore midriff blouses typical of north Estonia. Their headdresses varied according to locality, with close-itting embroidered coifs being worn in the south, and the pottmüts or kabimüts in the north. On Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, and Muhu Scandinavian inluences can be seen most strongly. On Muhu women wore accordion-pleated skirts. Hot loaves of bread were used to press down the pleats. The Muhu bride’s headdress was a distinctive high white trapezium-shaped cardboard cap covered with linen and decorated with white-thread embroidery. She also wore a sash wound several times around the waist, holding a red embroidered apron with little bells in place.

Latvia Regional variation in ethnic dress across the territory of Latvia can be accounted for to some extent by the fact that ive different tribes established themselves here in the late Iron Age (ninth to 13th centuries CE) and developed their own practices. One group—the Livonians (or Livs)—were of Finno-Ugric ethnicity, like the Estonians and Finns, whereas the others—the Zemgaļi (Semigallians), Latgaļi (Latgallians), Kurši (Couronians), and Sēļi (Selonians)—were Balts, like the Lithuanians to the south. Over the centuries there was assimilation and cultural exchange between the groups, but certain elements of their origins can be discerned. The modern administrative regions of Latvia take their names from the groups that were dominant in each one—namely, Zemgale, Latgale, and Kurzeme. The fourth region is Vidzeme, meaning “middle land.” The Selonians inhabited land in the southeast, most of which is in present-day Lithuania. Ethnographers consider what remains within the territory of Latvia as a ifth region, which is known as Selija, or Augšzeme. From the early 13th century the territory of both Latvia and Estonia came under German rule. German barons remained the ruling class until the early 20th century, even while the whole area was administratively part of the Russian Empire. Ancient Latvian dress had featured the use of much metal ornament, such as tin buttons, silver neckpieces, and many decorative trimmings made of bronze. After the 13th century the ethnic Latvian population became increasingly poor, and such ornamentation diminished in their dress. The most elaborate items were women’s head coverings. Into the 19th century unmarried girls continued to wear crowns made of either bronze plate or red fabric ornamented with beads and pendants. Like the ethnic dress of most parts of northern and eastern Europe, that of Latvia was based on linen. Both men and women wore tunic-like linen shirts for everyday use and as an undergarment. During the 19th century many variations in cut and detail developed for festive wear, such as different types of collars or embroidered embellishment. Ring- or heart-shaped brooches were used to fasten

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them at the neck or down the front. The upper part of women’s shirts was made of the inest linen, while coarser linen could be used for the lower part, as it was covered up by a long skirt. In the 19th century women’s outer garments were waist-length coats or vests and woolen shawls, pinned in place on the chest with a brooch. Latvian brooches are very distinctive and can be of enormous size. Usually made of silver, they could be circular, with raised decoration like thimbles, or set with red glass stones. There are many beautiful examples on display in the National Museum of History in Riga. As in Estonia and Lithuania, a great deal of decorative knitting, weaving, and embroidery was done in the Illustration of a couple from Barta in home to produce items of dress. Such Kurzeme, western Latvia. Fastening the ornamentation is described in Latvian shawl with a large metal brooch on the right shoulder is characteristic of women’s dress as raksts (writing). Mittens and sashes of this region. (Courtesy Pamela Smith) were especially diverse as the aim was not to produce the same design twice. In the second half of the 19th century, when shop-bought chemical dyes began to overtake those obtained locally from plants, colors grew more vivid. The ancient pagan fertility- and protection-invoking symbols of the sun, moon, snake, ears of wheat, and the “fertile ield” (a square or diamond shape enclosing dots thought to represent seeds) often appear in woven and knitted patterns. Simple footwear made of bast strips or from pieces of leather made to it the foot by means of drawstrings were worn throughout Latvia. Leather boots and shoes were reserved for festive wear. Variations in clothing can be seen in the different regions. Zemgale In the mid-south of Latvia, this region saw the greatest occurrence of industrial development, including textile production, as early as the 17th and 18th centuries. Peasants learned advanced weaving techniques, and the effect of this can be seen in the sophisticated patterning created in vertical stripes on skirts and on wide sashes. Development and the resulting relative prosperity for many also meant that

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the wearing of ethnic dress in Zemgale declined earlier than in other regions. The traditional headcloths and crowns were abandoned in the 19th century in favor of silk scarves. Latgale Latgale, in the east of Latvia, borders on Russia and Belarus, and its dress shows inluences from those countries, as well as from Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. A feature is the extensive use of linen, so that dress tended to be light in color and also in weight. Women often wore exclusively linen garments. In the northern part linen was woven with a decorative twill pattern, which was not usual in any other part of Latvia. Shirts here had distinctive woven patterns in red on the shoulders, similar to hem decoration on men’s shirts in Estonia and to the embroidered shoulder panels typical of northern Russia. In the late 19th century girls from villages of northern Latgale made 10 to 15 shirts each when they married, decorated with these separate shoulder pieces. It is thought that these parts might have been woven by specialist artisans rather than the girls themselves. Although Latgale festive dress had both belts and aprons, they were never worn together. Aprons were very long and wide, made from two widths of cloth stitched together down the middle. Thought to be a particularly ancient type of garment, this construction bringing two parts into one may have carried a symbolic meaning, or it may simply relect the fact that looms were originally quite narrow and it was not possible to create the full width of cloth in one piece. Sometimes the seam was accentuated with decorative stitching or applied lace. Kurzeme This region, in the west, is bordered by the Baltic Sea. It was here that many of the early Livonian peoples settled, and their culture assimilated into that of the Balts. Kurzeme dress also shows inluence from the Lithuanians and Estonians. For example, Kurzeme women wore two or more scarves at a time, tied elaborately around the head in a similar form to that found in the neighboring region of Žemaitija in Lithuania. Like Zemgale, parts of the region experienced early industrial development, and manufactured materials such as silk and velvet were adopted into ethnic dress. The use of aprons died out in the 19th century, apart from among the more conservative Liv women. Chemical dyes led to brightly colored striped skirts, which had previously been made in plain dark materials. In the southwest a fashion emerged of wearing large shawls fastened not in front of the body but on the right shoulder. By the coast outits were decorated with small brooches and beads made with locally found amber.

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Vidzeme The women’s festive dress of Vidzeme, in the central and northern area of Latvia, has been described as “quiet and harmonious.” Long white embroidered woolen shawls were worn, together with beaded headbands for girls and high caps in white linen for married women. These so-called “tower caps” were popular from the 18th century and are thought to have developed from an urban fashion. White aprons were also part of the ensemble. Skirts were brighter, in stripes and later in checks, but the effect was rather subtle, with strong colors being balanced with gray, black, or brown. Selija Many traits of ethnic dress in this small area of southeast Latvia are similar to those of Lithuanian dress. Most Selonians settled in territory that is now within Lithuania. The key garment of Selija dress was the linen tunic-type shirt with added shoulder-pieces in a cut considered to be very ancient. The married women’s ine linen headcloths and white aprons were similar to those found in parts of Lithuania. The wearing of traditional dress had ceased in Selija by the 1860s. For centuries women made all the clothes for the family. By the second part of the 19th century the job of making outdoor clothing was taken over by professional tailors. In the beginning they also sewed by hand, but soon sewing machines appeared and became widely used throughout Latvia. Shirts and skirts remained handmade until the beginning of the 20th century, especially in remote areas. By the end of the 19th century, ethnic dress had almost completely disappeared, though in some isolated districts with strong national awareness and traditions, such as Alsunga, Rucava, and Nīca (in Kurzeme), ethnic dress continued to be worn as festive clothing until the 1940s.

Lithuania The most striking feature of Lithuanian ethnic dress is the beauty and immense variety in pattern and color of its linen and woolen materials. Girls had to develop great skill to produce elaborate cloth, which was woven in the home and made up into many elements of both male and female dress. Woven sashes were a typical accessory, worn all over the country. The production of an impressive collection of clothes and household textiles for her dowry was so important for a girl’s future that the work and effort involved was of minimal consideration. Inspiration and ideas for patterns and color combinations came from her mother and grandmother, from pieces handed down from earlier generations, and her own creativity. The seams, pleats, and style of

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress a garment had to be considered in deciding whether to use checked, vertically or horizontally striped, or patterned material. Girls made their own clothes, with their mother’s help. Women would weave and sew several skirts, bodices, aprons, and sashes in a number of weaves, patterns, and individual colorways, making it possible to uniquely coordinate parts of the costume to suit their moods as well as the occasion. Variations in 19th-century Lithuanian ethnic dress occurred in different regions, because of the distinct traditions that grew up in isolated communities. Ethnographers have identiied these regions as Aukštaitija, Dzūkija, Suvalkija, Žemaitija (also known as Samogitia), and Mazoji Lietuva (Lithuania Minor, in the area of Klaipėda, on the coast). In all regions women wore bleached linen shirts with long sleeves and a fold-over or standing collar. The collar, sleeve ends, and neck opening were decorated with embroidery or decorative woven braids. Aukštaitija The distinctive garment most associated with this region, in the northeast of the country, was the nuometas (wimple), which was a long white cloth arranged to frame the face and cover the hair of married women. These were worn all over Lithuania, but survived longest in Aukštaitija. Unmarried girls wore their hair in two braids, and on top of their heads, a wreath of lowers or rue, or a crown constructed from fabric or ribbons. Brides and bridesmaids had more ribbons streaming from the back of the rue wreath. Aukštaitija dress was characterized by simplicity and was predominantly light-colored. Whitework embroidery was used on shirts. Women’s vests were often made from purchased silk, brocade, or velvet. They were fastened with metal clasps or hooks. The color of the vest often contrasted rather than matched that of the skirt. White linen aprons with woven decoration in red or blue were worn by both married and unmarried women and girls. Dzuˉkija Women’s outits in this region of southeast Lithuania featured dark skirts, which contrasted with the whiteness of their headdresses and shirts. A wide sash was an important element, worn by both men and women. To make all the patterned garments, strikingly beautiful cloth with checks, stripes, and delicate motifs was woven in linen and wool in inventive color combinations. An ancient folk saying was that “a woodpecker is colorful, but the clothes of Dzūkija are even more so.” Married women wore white caps made in the spranging technique (a type of braiding) or in crochet. Sometimes a white scarf edged in narrow red stripes would be worn over the cap. Vegetal and solar designs in the embroidery worked on shirts are thought to originate from pagan times, when such symbols were believed to encourage fertility and protect against the evil eye. A rectangular stole in ine linen

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could be worn on the shoulders in summer, whereas in winter large woolen plaid shawls kept out the cold. Suvalkija This small region in the south was where the most ornate styles of dress developed. Women’s vests were hip-length and itted, some with pleats fanning out the lower edge. A sash further accentuated the waist. Shirts decorated with embroidery in white were shorter than those worn in other regions. Both skirts and aprons were very colorful, the cloth woven for aprons being particularly striking. A favorite design comprised four stylized tulips woven in variegated yarn, arranged to form a cross and repeating in bands across the garment. Žemaitija In the northwest of Lithuania, the characteristic features of women’s dress were the abundant types of scarves and wraps, and the ways of arranging the headdress. The dominant color of the outit was usually red. Women often wore several skirts at once and covered their heads with many kerchiefs and shawls as it was considered fashionable to make the head look large. One particular form of headdress was created by placing a diagonally folded plaid scarf on the head, bringing the ends round the back, and then tying them on the top, so that they stood up to look like horns. Shawls were considered an essential part of the outit. If the weather was too warm to wear them, they would be carried over the arm. Shirts were not much decorated because they were usually mostly hidden under shawls. Vests were short, with a scooped neckline, and were typically made from cloth woven in narrow horizontal stripes. The single piece of material used to make the skirt was vertically striped. Wide aprons of an intricate weave were gathered onto a waistband. The most popular type of jewelry was a necklace of amber beads—amber being found in this region, along the Baltic coast. The wooden shoes (klumpes), which at one time were worn throughout Lithuania, survived in use longest in Žemaitija. Mazoji Lietuva For centuries this region was separated from the rest of Lithuania and was under German rule, but the ethnic Lithuanian population maintained their traditional way of life, including their own styles of dress, weaving, and embroidery. By the late 19th century more use was made of factory-made fabrics here than in other areas, and darker colors were preferred. Silk was often chosen for aprons and shawls. By the beginning of the 20th century much clothing was black. A particularly intricate form of weaving was undertaken to create the “hundred-pattern” sash, on which each individual motif along its length was unique. Great emphasis was placed on the fringes of sashes. All of the family’s signiicant

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress events were preserved in them as they were made from scraps of cloth taken from important garments, such as the bride’s wedding dress or a baby’s christening shirt. Professional sash-weaving groups grew up in the region at the end of the 19th century, and the sash was regarded as a potent symbol of Lithuanian identity. Most women and girls in Mazoji Lietuva wore small cloth bags like detachable pockets, which were tied around the waist on a narrow sash. The most highly decorated ones, embellished with colorful embroidery in wool thread or with beads, were on show on top of the skirt on festive occasions, while those for everyday use were tied to the underskirt and could be reached through a slit in the top skirt.

Contemporary Uses of Ethnic Dress Ethnic dress in the Baltic region started to disappear from daily village life comparatively early, and in most places had been replaced by urban-type clothes by the second half of the 19th century. In a few regions, such as western and southeastern Estonia, the female festive ensemble was in use up to the 1940s. Toward the end of the 19th century the products of domestic spinning and weaving were being replaced by factory-made fabrics, but there still existed an appreciation of home-woven garments, notably sashes and aprons, which resulted in the preservation of many items of ethnic dress. This was fueled by the widespread interest in folk art that grew up throughout Europe in this period among artists and intellectuals. By the early 20th century handwoven festive clothes had become cherished as museum pieces and collectors’ items. Not only were individual pieces valued as works of art, but the notion of a national costume also became important as a statement of identity in all three countries, at times when their peoples were struggling to gain a degree of autonomy from their foreign rulers. When the countries experienced a short-lived period of independence between the two World Wars, the wearing of ethnic dress to express nationhood became popular. After 1940 they were annexed by the Soviet Union, which encouraged the individual Soviet Socialist Republics, as they had become, to express their identity at public events. This included the wearing of national costume. But this expression was channeled into the gloriication of socialist ideology, attempting to show that the previously independent states were content to be part of the great brotherhood of the Soviet Union. Toward the end of the 20th century, the Baltic peoples increasingly used their ancestors’ clothing as a means to express the kind of national feelings that were denounced by authorities. Ethnic dress could be seen especially at the festivals of song, which had became a feature of Baltic cultural life and a mark of resistance, culminating in the “Singing Revolution” of the late 1980s.

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In the early 21st century reconstructed traditional dress in many regional variations is worn during national holidays; by folk dance groups, choirs, and other performers; by costumed interpreters at historical sites; and occasionally for weddings and family celebrations.

Further Reading and Resources Bartlett, Djurdja, and Pamela Smith (eds.). Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion—Vol. 9: East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Bremze, Zile, Velta Rozenberga, and Ilze Zingite. Latviesu Tautus Terpi. Latvian National Costumes (3 volumes). Riga: Latvijas Vestures Muzejs, 1995, 1997, 2003. Estonian Institute. Estonian Folk Costumes. http://www.estinst.ee/publications/ folk_costume/. Folk Costume and Embroidery. [Blog.] http://folkcostume.blogspot.co.uk/. Jurkuviene, Terese. National Costume. Site devoted to regional Lithuanian folk dress. http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/costume/cost_c.html (Lithuania). Kaarma, Melanie, and Aino Voolmaa. Eesti rahvarõivad. Estonian Folk Costumes. Tallinn: Eesti Raamat, 1981. Kalashnikova, N. M., and G. A. Pluzhnikova. Odezhda Narodov SSSR. National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples. Moscow: Planeta, 1990. Kelly, Mary B. Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands. Hilton Head Island: Studiobooks, 2007. Latvian Institute. Welcome to Latvia. (Information on culture and dress.) http:// latvia.lv/content/latvian-folk-dress. Saliklis, Ruta. “Lithuanian National Costumes and Folk Dress.” In Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility, ed. Linda Welters. Oxford: Berg, 1999. Tamosaitis, Antanas, and Anastasija Tamosaitis. Lithuanian National Costume. Toronto: Lithuanian Folk Art Institute, 1979. Torchinskay, Elga, and Galina Komleva. Jewellery (from the Museum of the Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR). Leningrad: Aurora, 1988. Welters, Linda, and Ira Kuhn-Bolšaitis. “The Cultural Signiicance of Belts in Latvian Dress.” In Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility, ed. Linda Welters. Oxford: Berg, 1999.

Ethiopia Lucy Collins

Historical and Geographical Background Historically known as Abyssinia, modern-day Ethiopia is located in the fabled Horn of Africa and contains many ancient traces of human civilization. Most notably “Lucy,” the famous australopithecine fossil, considered to be one of the most fully preserved human fossils, was found in Ethiopia and is estimated to be 3.2 million years old. Geographically, Ethiopia contains many diverse natural elements. While it is typically extremely hot, in fact one of hottest locations on Earth, the country boasts caves, plateaus, mountains, volcanoes, and waterfalls. The Great Rift Valley runs southwest to northeast, essentially dissecting the country. The Ethiopian Highlands are typically much cooler than the other areas so close to the equator. Ethiopia experiences heavy rainfall during the summer months, which helps keep the country more temperate in climate. Ethiopia is especially known for coffee. Coffee beans are still one of the country’s largest exports. Recent contracts with such global corporations as Starbucks will continue to keep Ethiopian coffee on the map. Additionally, Ethiopia trades livestock, oilseeds, beans, honey, gold, and leather products. Interestingly, Ethiopia has its own alphabet, time system, and calendar. Ethiopia is an ethnically diverse country, but it is still primarily composed of African people. Orthodox Christianity plays a signiicant role in the character of the country as Christian roots extend deep into the history of Ethiopia. Coptic Christianity, an Egyptian form of Christianity from the irst century, has had an important impact on the development of the country as a whole. The Rastafarian movement also inds its spiritual home in Ethiopia. The capital of Ethiopia is Addis Ababa, home to over 3 million people. The country is divided into nine ethnically determined subcountries: Afar, Amhara, Benishangul-Gumez, Gambela, Harari, Oromia, Somali, Tigray, and the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People’s Region. Additionally, the cities of Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa exist as separate chartered entities. 204

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Poverty is a major concern in Ethiopia. Even in Addis Ababa, over half the population lives in slums. Sanitation is a particularly pressing issue as only around 10 percent of homes in the country even have loors of any kind. Despite an inability to organize resources, Ethiopia is one of the most fertile countries in the world. Ethiopia has the largest water reserves in Africa, but little ability to fully utilize the potential of such a resource. Clothing plays a role even in the legends of Ethiopia’s beginnings. Prester John, the famed Christian king of Ethiopia, was said to have worn robes made from the skin of a salamander who lived in ire. This striking myth seems to summarize much of the Ethiopian fascination with their own heritage, as much of Ethiopia’s history is a tale dificult to dissect into reality and iction. Many Ethiopians trace the origin of the country to King Solomon, the king of Israel whose extravagant wealth attracted the attention of the queen of Sheba. Legend has it that the queen of Sheba adopted a belief in the Christian god of Israel after spending time at Solomon’s courts. A son, Menelik, was also a result of her time with Solomon. Menelik became the irst in a line of Christian kings of Ethiopia. This connection to King Solomon is also part of the reason why many Ethiopians still believe that the country is hiding the Ark of the Covenant—Menelik is said to have begged for a piece of the fringe of the covering of the Ark from Solomon and he was to have granted this wish.

People and Dress Ethiopia is still primarily a Christian country, with factions of Islam throughout. Therefore concerns over modesty have had a signiicant effect on the dress of the country. It makes sense, then, that the most consistent traditional garment in Ethiopia is essentially a white cotton gauze-like wrap worn over other clothing. Although this type of garment is accepted as indicative of Ethiopian ethnic dress in general, it is speciically associated with the people of the highlands, especially in the Amhara region. The traditional dress of Ethiopian Christian highland peasantry is a shamma of white cotton cloth. About 30 inches (90 cm) wide, a shamma is a loose wrap, worn over long trousers for men and draped over long dresses for women. Because of the simplicity of the traditional ethnic garment—a plain white cotton wrap or tunic— much attention is paid to smaller details such the styling of the hair, jewelry, and ornamentation and embroidery on the dress. The embroidered borders are often in the form of woven crosses, although other designs are used as well. The woven cotton of the shamma is also used to make garments such as the gabbi and netella. Gabbi is a very thick cloth used much like a blanket. It is one piece that has several layers of fabric and is used to keep one warm both in and out

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of bed. A netella, also called a sash, is a head covering or shawl that women use in church and other places where modesty is a concern. Women also wear dresses known as kemis made of embroidered and woven cotton. Dresses are also referred to as habesha qemis. Ethiopian highlanders also typically wear bernos, a one-piece dark wool garment with a hood. The hood may be used to cover a rile and may be used to prevent water from affecting the function of the gun. The bernos (cloak) has come to be associated with the upper classes. Bernos are decorated to indicate social status. Interestingly, a successful contemporary Ethiopian T-shirt company called Bernos uses the term to express a connection to the traditional garments of Ethiopia. Girl wears a habesha qemis in Lalibela, EthioMen in Ethiopia typically wear a pia, 2011. (Joel Carillet/iStockphoto.com) dashiki. A dashiki is a particular style of suit. Traditionally natural cotton in white or off-white, the front may be decorated. The top is a long tunic to the knees without any kind of collar. For formal occasions Ethiopian men wear a suit. The Ethiopian suit is composed of pants with a long-sleeve, knee-length shirt or tunic. Chiffon is typically used for the suit and a chiffon wrap is usually worn over the suit. The shirts do not have a typical collar, but usually have a mandarin or banded collar. Rastafarian men can often be identiied in other countries by wearing the Ethiopian suit. Much of the more elaborate clothing and ornamentation in Ethiopia serves a certain ritualistic purpose. Whether religious or otherwise, the differences in dress are primarily due to different religious purposes. Muslims in Ethiopia are considered as wearing much more colorful clothing than the Christians. Women typically wear dresses in purple, red, and black while men wear a more colorful wrap over shorter pants. Muslims also wear jalabiya, loose white dresses long enough to cover the ankles. In the Harari region, Muslim women wear skirts and blouses with shawls covering their heads and shoulders.

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Even daily rituals may require a speciic form of dress. Similar to the Japanese tea ceremony, Ethiopians take great pride in the ritual of drinking coffee. An Ethiopian coffee dress, then, is a quintessential traditional garment of Ethiopian women. The coffee dress is an informal ankle-length dress made of white cotton. The dresses are often decorated and worn for the Ethiopian coffee ceremony, a ritualized method of serving and drinking coffee utilized in daily life and on special occasions. The Ethiopian lowlands are very warm and hot and the dress in these areas is much lighter or in some cases nonexistent. Lowlanders and Ethiopians living near the Rift Valley are often naked or partially naked with straw or various animal skins covering the genital areas. Sometimes sheep or goat skin is made into a sort of miniskirt, fastened around the body with straps of leather. In the Surma tribe, for instance, men only wear a cloth knotted over one shoulder and hanging down over the body. Ethiopians who dress in these simple styles frequently incorporate complex forms of body adornment such as tattoos, scariication, and body piercing. These practices will be discussed in more detail below.

Ethiopian Textile Production Ethiopians take great pride in the cotton used in their clothing. Ancient techniques of simple weaving are used to produce the cotton fabric, and they are very pleased to display the fabric in their garments. Traditionally, it can take up to three weeks to produce enough cloth to make one dress. Because the cotton is irst woven together in long strips before being sewn together to make the cloth, the process can be very tedious. Often tiny threads of metallic or colored threads are woven into the cloth to give the subtle decorative elements that distinguishes Ethiopian clothing. British and German travelers admired the quality of both the ine and coarse cloth woven in Adwa in Ethiopia. Cloth manufactured in Adwa was thought to be the best in the country. The robes made in the city of Harar were also recognized by Europeans to be of iner quality than those made by machines in Europe. The travelers all admired the craftsmanship the Ethiopian weavers put into their weaving process.

Accessories/Ritualistic Adornment One especially signiicant aspect of Ethiopian costume is the decorative embroidered umbrellas and parasols carried by Christian Ethiopians during certain special occasions. These umbrellas are highly decorated and offer a striking visual

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Priest walks nearby the town of Axum (Tigray region) in Northern Ethiopia. He wears the traditional clothing and turban and holds a typical orthodox cross and an umbrella, 2011. (Guenter Guni/iStockphoto.com)

appeal for those who see them, gold and silver threads sparkling in the embroidery. Priests and deacons in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church are typically escorted with the umbrellas carried over their heads. Priests also wear some of the most colorful dresses and capes completed with lat, brimless round hats. The Ethiopian Epiphany on January 19th and the Feast of the Cross on September 27th are occasions when priests are the most elaborately dressed. Oromo horsemen in particular wear lions’ manes or baboon-skin headdresses when they participate in parades on certain ceremonial days.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Jewelry is an important part of Ethiopian self-presentation. The simplicity of Ethiopian garments allows jewelry to really stand out. Most Ethiopian women wear lots of gold and silver bracelets on both the wrists and ankles. Women also wear bracelets of ivory, copper, and brass. Body modiication and ornamentation serves to distinguish individuals as they prepare for individual adulthood while also advertising their membership in a certain

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social group or tribe. The Mursi women who live near the Omo River are especially known for the large clay discs they wear in their lower lips. Some women and girls wear discs as large as 4.75 inches (12 cm) or more in diameter. These clay discs have been said to indicate the amount of dowry the girl’s father may be capable of providing, while others have interpreted the discs as an attempt to disigure the women to make them unattractive to potential slave traders. Either way, these lips plates have become a notable feature of both the Mursi tribe in particular and the Ethiopian people in general. The inluence of Coptic Christianity in Ethiopia is very apparent in body adornment. Tattoos particularly relect Coptic inluences as the Coptic cross is often found tattooed on Portrait of young Mursi woman with pierced Ethiopians’ faces as well as their neck ear lobes and lower lip, 2010. The Mursi and hands. Even the Jewish popula- women are famous for wearing plates in their lower lips. These lip discs are made of tion began tattooing themselves with clay. (Uros Ravbar/iStockphoto.com) Coptic symbols as an effort to blend in with fellow Ethiopians. Scariication and body painting are also tribal forms of body modiication prevalent in Ethiopia. These practices are intended to beautify women and exalt men as successful in battle. The Karo tribe in particular incorporates scarring and body paint into normal body adornment through rubbing ash into the cut to accentuate the scar. The Nyangatom tribe in southern Ethiopia scars women with dots as well as straight and curved designs to emphasize a woman’s beauty. Both Nyangatom men and women wear lip plugs in their lower lips and wear intricate headdresses with a variety of natural materials like clay and feathers (DeMello, 2007, 107) Muslim Ethiopians also use henna in wedding body decoration. While not practiced for fashion purposes, female genital mutilation remains an extremely prevalent practice in Ethiopia. This controversial practice has been more widely opposed by global humanitarian efforts in recent years.

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Hairstyles Women of Amhara and Tigray wear dozens of braids tight against the head and then loose at the shoulders. Women of the Arsi tribe have short hair worn in a bob. Other tribal women wear their hair parted in the middle and buns on either side. Young children typically have shaved heads. Head coverings in the form of shawls, sashes, or netellas are often used by Christian and Muslim women. A cross igure, or meskelya, is produced with the shawl when worn to church. Women cover their hair with the netella and then drape the ends up over their shoulders. The shiny threads are then left visible at the top. At funerals, however, the shiny threads should be seen at the bottom edge of the netella.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Ethiopian styles of dress are very simple and beautiful, and many people have found fashion inspiration in the Ethiopian look. Ethiopian supermodel and Goodwill Ambassador Liya Kebede found much international success with her clothing line LemLem that features scarves and caftans made in the traditional Ethiopian style. Her company directly beneits the Ethiopian craftspeople who produced the textiles. But in 2007, fashion designer Matthew Williamson was accused by the Ethiopian government of including replicas of Ethiopian traditional garments in his spring/summer 2008 collection. The case brought up many issues related to ethnic dress in general, fashion inspiration, and how a country’s regional dress may be trademarked. The issue sparked a great deal of debate in the fashion community at large because it is felt that the dresses are symbols of faith and national identity and should not be claimed as a fashion designer’s work alone. While American and European fashion seems to taking inspiration from Ethiopia, the inluence of American and Western clothes is deinitely apparent in Ethiopia as well. While many Ethiopians do still wear the traditional garments for special occasions and holidays, most people today dress in more homogenized Western styles. However, the remote tribesmen who practice body painting and scariication seem to be immune to inluences from the West and continue to engage in their simple yet fascinating forms of bodily adornment.

Further Reading and Resources Beckwith, Carol, Angela Fisher, and Graham Hancock. African Ark: People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa. New York: Harry Abrams, 1990.

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DeMello, Margo. Encyclopedia of Body Adornment. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Mursi Online. Lip Plates. http://www.mursi.org/life-cycle/lip-plates. 2010. Silver International. Ethiopians Are Proud of Their Traditional Clothes. http:// silverinternational.mbhs.edu/v163/V16.3.04b.Ethiopianclothes.htm. 2002.

Finland Michelle Webb Fandrich

Historical Background Located in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic though its history reveals a less autonomous past. Finland is historically linked to its neighbor to the west, Sweden, as well as its neighbor to the east, Russia. Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom as early as the 12th century and through the 19th century. Finland was then occupied twice by Russia during the 18th century before being made into a grand duchy of the Russian empire in 1809 following the Finnish War. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that Finland wrested control of its government and lands from occupying forces and forged the republic after only a brief attempt at a monarchical government in 1919. It is not surprising that the greatest inluences on the culture and with it the traditional dress of Finland come from the countries that once occupied its lands, Sweden and Russia. In the 19th century, Finnish author Elias Lönnrot composed what is considered Finland’s national epic, The Kalevala or “the land of Kalevala.” In 1828, Lönnrot began conducting ieldwork throughout Finland, collecting oral folklore and song stories. What would become The Kalevala is essentially a collection of these oral traditions combined with a mythology shared with the Karelian people of Russia. The Kalevala would become instrumental in the construction of a Finnish national identity and would be held up as Finland’s national epic during its struggle to gain independence from Russia in the early 20th century. The epic has over 22,000 verses divided into 50 songs or sections. Beginning with a retelling of the Finnish creation myth, The Kalevala goes on to tell stories of individual quests and daily life, with the Sampo, a Finnish talisman of indeterminate size and style, as its center point. Created by Seppo Ilmarinen, the Eternal Hammerer or heroic artiicer, the Sampo was produced as a result of a trick played upon him by Väinämöinen, the central god in the Finnish creation myth. It is similar to the cornucopia in Greek mythology, producing food, grain,

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and other sources of nourishment or prosperity when called upon. The inluence of the Sampo imagery as well as The Kalevala as a whole can be seen in the names of Finland’s cities and streets as well as prominent businesses based in Finland. The art, literature, and especially music of Finland reveal the reach of this national epic.

Geographic and Environmental Background To the north of the Republic of Finland lies Norway, a neighbor that also has a shared history with its western neighbor, Sweden. Across the Gulf of Finland to the south lies Estonia. One of the largest countries in the EU, Finland is also one of the least populated. One-quarter of Finland lies within the Arctic Circle. The subarctic climate of these northern parts of Finland (particularly Lapland) results in long, freezing winters, which might help to explain the low population-to-landmass ratio. In other parts of Finland, a slightly warmer climate persists with freezing winters lasting four months and warm, humid summers of similar length. The bulk of the population is found in the southern regions of the republic, a trend that was only strengthened by the country’s eventual entrance into the industrialized world. Only in the southernmost regions of Finland is agriculture viable. Here the land is mostly suited to grain crops, with little diversity. The Republic of Finland was mostly agrarian until the 1950s. Though the country came late to the Industrial Revolution, the bulk of Finland’s gross domestic product is now generated through services and manufacturing and not agriculture. In fact, almost one-third of the GDP for Finland is produced within the capital area of Helsinki, with technology services and electronics manufacturing as the leading industries. In 2012, the population of Helsinki was approximately 1,107,000, with the population of Finland more than 5,260,000 (Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook, 2012). That said, the country’s forests also play a key role in the economy with forests covering over 85 percent of the country. Finland is one of the world’s leading producers of wood, providing raw materials to manufacturers of wood-based goods worldwide. In addition to cultural inluences, Finland’s climate has also naturally played a role in shaping the traditional or national costume of its inhabitants. The arctic climates of the most northern regions of Finland are relected in the type of clothing worn there. In the north, the costume is most readily identiied with the Sami people, an indigenous population that inhabits the region known as Lapland, which encompasses areas in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and parts of Russia. Fur and animal skins are the materials of which most dress is constructed. Both men and women wear moccasin-style shoes and boots.

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People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The Karelian inluence seen in The Kalevala is also revealed in the traditional dress of eastern Finland. Here, the costume relects the inluence of Russian culture. The use of colorful fabrics and embroidered details, for example, is most often associated with the Karelian inluence on Finnish traditional dress. In western Finland, the Swedish inluence is more predominant. Here, shadows of the aristocratic dress of the 15th century—when Finland was part of the Swedish kingdom—are seen in both the materials and the shape of traditional dress. Because the inluences of the countries to the east and west of Finland are so pronounced, it is easiest to discuss national dress in terms of these regions. By and large, the silhouette is consistent from one region to another, with changes to speciic elements such as collar, jewelry, and headwear revealing the inluence of one culture over another. The Sami people of northern Finland are indigenous to the Arctic Circle. They inhabit parts of Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Russia in an area referred to as Sápmi. The Sami are best known for their seminomadic culture that centered on the herding of reindeer; however, they also make a livelihood from ishing, fur-trapping, and the herding of other, smaller animals such as sheep. The cold climates of their native land in the Arctic have shaped the traditional dress of this people. Today, the majority of Sami people are urbanized with only a few living in the coldest of climates but the traditional dress or Gákti lives on. The Sami’s relationship with Finland is a particularly tenuous one since the traditional culture and dress of the Sami have been exploited in this country for the purposes of tourism.

History of Dress Like many other European nations, the interest in national dress in Finland reached a pinnacle in the late 19th century, born out of a desire for a national identity. Scholars and enthusiasts began gathering extant examples of traditional dress or recording them with drawings, prints, and oral histories. The irst patterns for a national costume in Finland were gathered by Dr. Theodor Schvindt and published in 1899. This publication featured only eight of the modes of traditional dress in this country. Research by others continued well into the 20th century, resulting in multiple publications as well as the foundation of a Finnish National Costume Council in 1979. The popularity of wearing national dress ebbed with the advent of World War II and again in the 1960s but has slowly made its way into “fashion” again.

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Materials and Techniques Wool and leather igure prominently in the production of Finland’s national costume. They are also a signiicant feature of the Gákti of the Sami people. Bands of fabric and braid ornament these costumes. Cotton is sometimes used today in both costumes. Embroidery is not as strong a feature of women’s dress throughout most of Finland as it is in other Scandinavian countries. Most examples are simple geometric patterns, frequently large in scale. These are typically executed in red thread on a white or cream background. It is usually executed on the collar, cuffs, and sometimes the shoulders of the blouse, apron, and skirt hem. Other popular colors include blue and green. Lace, when used, is usually limited to the cap only, though it may be seen on the blouses of many massproduced costumes.

Men’s and Women’s Dress Women’s traditional dress in Finland is comparatively simpler than those found in other parts of the Scandinavian region of Europe. The basic silhouette for women and girls consists of a white blouse, generally constructed of linen or cotton, with full long sleeves and a collar or neck frill. Over this, a sleeveless bodice is typically worn, which may be either laced or fastened with buttons. If the bodice is fastened with buttons, it is customary for married women to leave the top two buttons unbuttoned. This custom appears to be unique to Finland and it is done to signify their marital status. Bodices made with striped fabric feature an interesting detail at the back. The back panels are cut on the cross grain, creating a point or arrow out of the striped motif, pointing toward the waistline. An apron is worn over Couple dances traditional Finnish folk dance a long, full skirt. Skirts are typically at the Seurasaari Open Air Museum during made of wool and may be made from midsummer festival in Helsinki, 2011. (Tomi a fabric with a woven stripe or other Tenetz/Dreamstime.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress geometric pattern. Pockets or reticule bags are traditionally hung from the waist and are a canvas upon which traditional styles of embroidery may be practiced. The primary inluence on dress in the eastern regions of Finland is not from its Scandinavian neighbors but from Karelia. Once a province of Finland, the area is now divided between Finland and Russia. The silhouette worn by Karelian women is not wholly dissimilar from that worn in western Finland. The most typical costume is that of Kaukola, a municipality in the former Finnish Karelian region. That it is still considered a national costume of Finland is a testament to the ongoing inluence of Karelian culture. The women’s costume features the same basic elements of blouse, bodice, skirt, and apron as in western Finland; however, the skirt is pleated instead of full and the bodice displays more embroidered detail than those found in the west. The headdress of Karelian women is more like a head kerchief than the sewn bonnets seen in western Finland women’s dress. These kerchiefs are typically white linen though there are examples of headdresses made of calico as well. Headbands of felt or ribbon are also worn, some adorned with metal elements. The costume of the Tuuteri region of Karelia features the same combination of blouse, bodice, skirt, and apron with some distinctive features. Here, embroidery in red and blue at the shoulders of the blouse and along the front placket is used. Further embroidery is seen at the hem of the apron, executed in a similar range of colors. Another distinctive feature of Karelian-inluenced women’s dress, which is not very common today, is the hanging square. This large piece of fabric is suspended from the shoulder with a long band and may have originally been intended as a kind of wearable blanket. Some note that in its last iterations it was more of a decorative piece than a functional one, with the incorporation of metal lace and other ornamentation making it an impractical sitting surface. This would be worn slung across one shoulder over a long coat. The coat, in turn, was worn over a one-piece, loose-itting dress, which was frequently constructed of colorful calico. The traditional dress in the north of Finland is that of the Sami people. Women’s dress includes a peski—a kind of unisex tunic or coat made of reindeer. This is slipped over the head, with the pelt worn toward the body for warmth. Leather leggings and moccasins cover the lower extremities and mittens or gloves cover the hands. The Sami women’s dress differs from that of men in the length of the peski and in the style of headwear worn. Typically a cap is worn by women, which may be trimmed with lace in some instances. Embroidery is rarely, if ever, seen in Sami traditional costume. National dress is less frequently worn by men in Finland than it is by women. Like other traditional Scandinavian dress, Finnish men’s costume begins with a white, full-sleeved shirt. This is ornamented with embroidery and features a standing collar that is fastened at the neck with a silver brooch. Over the shirt a waistcoat

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is worn, typically of striped material and made in a double-breasted fashion. This vest or waistcoat may be made with the same fabric front and back, instead of a simpler fabric for the back section. This feature is often connected with the tendency toward discarding the outer coat or jacket when indoors. Matching coat and trousers or breeches are worn in either black or dark blue. Breeches are more common in western Finland, where the Swedish inluences are strongest. The coat or jacket is most often trimmed with braid around the edges and hem and features a standing collar. Belts ornamented with brass relect the earliest dress worn by Finnish men—a T-shaped tunic that was belted with a similar decorative belt, which also Man in traditional Sami costume, including served as a kind of tool belt holding “cap of the four winds,” Rovaniemi, Finland, early Finnish men’s weapons, pockets, 2008. (Joop Kleuskens/Dreamstime.com) and other useful items. On the head, a skullcap or a brimmed felt hat is worn. The Karelian-style national costume for men is typiied by the regional dress of Kaukola. A red-trimmed coat of dark brown or black is worn over a vest of similar material and worn with trousers. A tall brimmed hat, similar in style to a top hat but wider at the crown than the brim, is a distinguishing feature of this costume. The suit is worn with a white shirt and tan or black leather shoes. A costume typifying the Swedish inluence on men’s national dress in Finland would be that of Valkeala, a former municipality in the southern region of Finland. Here dark breeches are worn with a vertically striped vest and a white shirt. A round cap or skullcap may be worn on the head, and it is common to see black buckled shoes worn with red stockings. In the north, the traditional dress for men is that of the Sami people. Like the dress for women, the costume begins with the tunic-style overgarment—the peski. In warmer months, the reindeer version may be replaced by a cloth version. In colder months, the tunic may be supplemented by a high-collared cape called a lukka. Men’s tunics are shorter than women’s and are worn with breeches. Moccasins or boots are worn over these.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The type of headwear worn by women typically signiies her marital status, a tradition that is not unique to Finland but is found in most Scandinavian traditional dress. A bonnet or kerchief is worn by women who are married, while a headband or ringlet with ribbon streamers is the only adornment worn by unmarried women and girls. Bridal headdress is more elaborate, with the introduction of a high peaked cap. Marital status among women may also be signiied in the manner in which the bodice is worn, as mentioned earlier. Stockings are typically white or off-white. These are usually worn with latsoled leather buckled shoes, another relection of the Swedish inluence on Finnish dress. In the recent past, stockings—particularly those worn for important ceremonies like marriage—were manufactured by hand. It is more common to ind mass-produced stockings worn with even the most authentic national dress in Finland today. Regarding the aprons that are worn by Finnish women, these are typically colorful and are worn in both the eastern and western regions of Finland. Those familiar with Swedish national dress will note that the styles worn in western Finland are similar to some of those worn in Sweden, rectangle in shape and made with fabric in an all-over print. Striped aprons are also worn, again relecting a Swedish inluence. White aprons are worn and will typically feature embroidery. The traditional dress of the native Sami people features the iconographic “cap of the four winds.” This cap is constructed with four points. It is frequently adorned with tassels and other trim in a colorful fashion. It is perhaps the most recognizable element of the Sami costume.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Today, Finnish national dress is recorded, studied, and exhibited in the National Costume Center of Finland, part of the Craft Museum of Finland. The museum boasts a collection of over 400 costumes representing different regions in Finland and different eras in the nation’s history. Many of these designs are now made and sold by folk costume companies for use on national and local festival days, at church events, and for use in traditional dance performances.

Further Reading and Resources Central Intelligence Agency. World Factbook: Finland. https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/i.html. 2012. Craft Museum of Finland [Suomen Käsityön Museo]. National Costume Center of Finland. http://www.craftmuseum.i/english/nationalcostumecenter/index.htm. 2012.

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Helmi Vuorelma Oy website. http://kauppa.vuorelma.net/. Lehtaosalo-Hilander, Pirkko-Liisa. Ancient Finnish Costumes. Helsinki, Finland: Suomen arkeologinen seura (The Finnish Archaeological Society and Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy), 1984. Primmer, Kathleen. Scandinavian Peasant Costume. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1939. Resource Centre for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples website. www.galdu.org. Sichel, Marion. Scandinavia. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1937.

France Christina Cie

I

f fashion were a nation, Paris would be its capital. Paris has come to inluence fashion internationally, even dominate it at times. However, what reigns in Paris will take time to fall on the plain and everyday dress worn in the regions that make up the French nation.

Historical Background As a part of mainland Europe, France’s population has been strongly inluenced by both its neighboring countries and the Catholic Church. Invasion and occupation by Rome saw the blending of the more northern Celtic culture with southern Italian culture, then Germanic tribes largely replacing the Roman Empire, with periodic raids by the Viking “Norse men,” who eventually settled in Normandy. The border with Spain has allowed not only Spanish customs and culture to be absorbed, but also North African and Arabic cultures via the Muslim Moors’ occupation of Spain. During a period of ighting between cities or provincial states and ruling families, Joan of Arc became a powerful symbol of French identity against its old enemy, the English. Religious dissent left France in between a largely Catholic southern Europe of Spain and Italy, and an increasingly diverse Protestant northern Europe of Germany, Holland, and England. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, which had granted Protestants signiicant rights, led many to emigrate and take their skills in textile industries, particularly lace and silk production, to commercial rivals such as Holland and England. Successive kings and ministers worked to develop homegrown industries to compete with products imported from such rivals. Jean-Baptiste Colbert, a minister of inance in the 17th century, created schemes and incentives that grew silk manufacturing in Lyon, as well as other textile production appropriate to different areas, and included expectations and even measures for quality. Agriculture remained the dominant activity for most as the Industrial Revolution reached France later than some other European countries, due to a lack of plentiful and easily accessible coal and iron ore for making and powering the new machines. The establishment of France as a colonial power also had little 220

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immediate effect on the rural peasant majority, nor ultimately did the French Revolution. While the Revolution introduced ideas of equality and eroded the wealth and inluence of the Church, much of the old way of doing things returned when the king was replaced by an emperor, Napoleon. His inluential expansion into northern Europe did not last formally, but France continued to expand, to the Americas and most notably to northern Africa and Southeast Asia. Much of this followed the “exploitation” model of colonialism, where the ruling power was interested in importing the products and wealth available from the new country, rather than exporting and resettling sections of its own population. Postcolonially, however, the emigration of workers from former colonies to the colonizing country has signiicantly increased ethnic and religious diversity in France, particularly in urban areas, as it has for other colonizing countries such as Britain and Germany.

Geographic and Environmental Background France is located in western mainland Europe. The Pyrenees mountains form a natural border with Spain to the south; the Alps, including Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Europe, forming a formidable border with Italy and Switzerland to the south east. With no dominant geographical features like mountains or rivers to form natural borders, areas to the northeast have long been disputed and changed hands many times between France and neighboring Germany and Belgium. The north and the west are bordered by the sea with the English Channel, known as La Manche by the French, separating France from its northern neighbor, Britain. The southern central area is dominated by a collection of mountains known as the Massif Central. Until relatively recently, these formed a natural barrier between the northern part of France and some of the south, particularly the wide lat plains of Provence, formed by the delta of the Rhone river as it enters the Mediterranean from its source in the Alps, lowing down between them and the Massif Central. Physical conditions such as these made sheep and goat rearing prevalent activities, with wool, leather, and shoe production stemming from these. Northern France is characterized predominantly by gently rolling hills offering lush pasture or arable land with most but not all residual forest having been cleared for agriculture. Flax could be grown here, and the best lax was easily accessible from neighboring Belgium. Areas such as these have produced some of France’s most internationally recognized products, such as champagne. Names of areas that become synonymous with a product such as champagne, the generic name for a particular sparkling wine, evoke the French concept of terroir. Coming from terre, the French word for land, this concept describes the special characteristics of lavor, color, and so on generated by the unique combination of soil, weather, and production techniques in a particular area. For wine and some other foodstuffs,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress this is now a concept enshrined in law, being very important commercially, particularly when competing globally. For example, in many countries, no sparkling wine may be described as champagne unless it comes from the Champagne area of France. With such a strong sense of regionality, it is not surprising that a country like France does not have a single distinctive national dress, but instead has many local versions, many being variations on a central theme of male and female outits that allow for activities usually deined by rural life, and utilizing local materials that showcase the products of that area.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity France, still a largely Catholic country, sits between a largely Catholic southern Europe of Spain and Italy, and a diversely Protestant northern Europe of Germany, Holland, and England. Stereotypically, its population also relects this position, with the northern French population showing the inluence of the blond hair and blue eyes of Scandinavian invaders, the “Norse men,” truncated to Normans, from Normandy. Southern French are held to show the genetic inluence of their southern neighbors, with the dark hair, dark eyes, and olive complexion so prevalent along the borders of the Mediterranean. In common with many capital cities, there remains a psychological as well as geographical distance between Paris and the “provinces.” Periods of religiously based wars, then tolerance allowed the development of strongly held beliefs, but these were rarely secured by freedom in law. Jews and Muslims have always held a perilous position. The Edict of Nantes had granted signiicant rights to Protestants, but when it was revoked in 1685, many involved in the growing textile industries decided to emigrate and they took their skills with them, often to countries that rivaled France commercially. While the textile industries that they left behind went on to thrive, they now had to do so in the face of the resulting increased competition. As in many other countries, industrialization and globalization in France have led to a far greater movement and mixing of peoples. New populations with new customs, religions, and dress styles have yet to inluence national dress, with local regions preferring to relect back what they have traditionally produced locally, and perhaps holding to these ever more tightly in changing times. The population of France in 2012 was approximately 62,814,200, with Paris having 10,410,000 people.

History of Dress The carved Venus of Lespugue, found in the foothills of the Pyrenees, is reputed to show the earliest representation of spun thread. In southern France,

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skeletons found with lines of beads indicate the wearing of bracelets, beaded garments, and hair coverings some 20,000 years ago. The famous cave paintings of Lascaux in southwestern France detailed animals rather than humans but as techniques for preserving images were developed, alterations to styles of dress can be traced in what remains of humans’ depictions of themselves. Fiber and animal skin–based items do not usually survive well through time, disintegrating quickly although there are exceptions in peat, ice, or dry conditions. Customary burial rather than cremation also increases the chances of a garment’s survival. Great skill was developed in the making of metal-based jewelry such as brooches, with trade routes stretching over considerable distances to bring materials. Successive invasions by peoples such as Romans and Vikings brought new cultures to inluence local dress. Some fragments remain from burials of wealthy and powerful individuals from the irst millennium of the modern era. Tunics, probably belted, and shawls or cloaks of wool, even fur, probably worn over a simple shift or shirt of linen and breeches for men with socks were replaced, for the wealthy at least, by silk. Samples feature embroidery, including gold thread and fringing, with gauze weaves now covering the hair, probably only of married women, and fastened with ornate silver and gold jewelry. Such clothing items are seen frequently across western Europe at this time, much of it ruled at one point by Charlemagne, king of the Franks. A contemporary account states that for everyday wear, his clothing did not vary greatly from the styles adopted by his people. Images from illuminated manuscripts, the Bayeux Tapestry (actually embroidered, as tapestry is woven), and stone carvings on churches testify to a relatively long, static period in the evolution of clothing styles. However, as early as the 12th century, sleeves began to widen at the wrist, and the bodice began to it increasingly close to the body as far as the skirt at the hips, each following a similar “funnel” silhouette. Such body-conscious garments were supplemented by the subsequent arrival of knitting, particularly for socks and stockings (hose), with the knowledge probably traveling along trade routes from North Africa, although netting techniques were already known. No one can state for certain when fashion started, but from around this time, styles for the wealthy begin to become more extreme and to change more frequently. Both men and women wore ever more elaborate and cumbersome shoes and hats or headdresses, perhaps also to distinguish themselves from those whose physical labor would be severely compromised by such an outit. The Renaissance, roughly spanning from the 14th to the 17th century, saw an increase in trade and travel and the rise of a mercantile class. While much of the country was still rural and devoted to agriculture, cities such as Lyon began to grow along with increasing purchasing power for the imported silks for which it was famous. The new middle class aped the clothing styles of their “betters,” as the notion of a God-given place in life was eroded by the concept of self-advancement.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress In France, such extravagances were cut short by the French Revolution, beginning in 1789, trumpeted as a revolution of the people. Paintings commemorating this event show ordinary people as opposed to the customary royal subjects. Clothing styles seen include the last medieval elements giving way to modern dress. The urban working class wear trousers more than breeches, shirts instead of tunics, sabots (clogs) rather than boots. These were the sans culottes, urban laborers who made up the bulk of the revolutionary army, although not the majority of the decisions, distinguished from the wealthy wearers of culottes or breeches. As the 19th century progressed, Paris regained its position as the The Singer Chenard, as a Sans-Culotte, (oil height of fashion. Workers could visit on panel) 1792, by Louis Leopold Boilly. (Musee de la Ville de Paris, Musee Carnavalet, the new department stores and travel Paris, France/Giraudon/The Bridgeman in from the provinces on the new train Art Library) system. France boasts both the invention of commercial photography and some of the earliest movie makers. The 20th and 21st centuries see Paris continue in a position of strength at the top of the fashion industry, while the everyday clothes of the French were inluenced particularly by American styles, as seen via the mass communication of magazines, ilm, and television. Blue jeans, as elsewhere throughout the globe, might be described now as typically worn by many French, albeit with a certain lair and savoir faire.

Materials and Techniques Silk Weaving France has a long tradition of the production of luxury goods. The luxury goods houses of today, such as Hermes and Louis Vuitton, are inheritors of a tradition of excellent and expensive products including champagne, brandy, silk, and lace. There had been a strong internal market for the import and consumption of luxury goods. During the Renaissance in the 15th and 16th centuries, much encouragement including legal provisions such as effective monopolies were used to encourage the growth of home-based industry.

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Lyon was already well known for importation of silk iber and fabric. Due to the luster or shine of silk, weaving it into satin, with long “loats” of threads to relect the light, has long been popular for use in scarves and other items. Distinct light and shade also encourages the development of techniques such as brocade or damask to weave highly complex patterns with pictures, resulting in a skilled and subsequently relatively well-paid workforce. Along with the wealthy business owners came a large mass of working-class but highly skilled people, whose comparatively well-paid lives were upset by the mechanization of industry. Jacquard invented a system to automatically control patterned weaving at the beginning of the 19th century. This complex machine, recognized as an early forerunner of the computer, considerably speeded up production, but allowed one person to do the work of several. The reaction of the French workforce to such mechanization, occurring in various industries during the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, was industrial sabotage. It is said that the word comes from the throwing of the heavy wooden peasant clogs, known as sabots, at or into the new machines. Woven fabrics were signiicant products of the silk industry, but the availability of silk iber also led to the development of other products, including decorative items such as passementerie (trims such as tassels, fringing, and pompoms), silk embroideries, and silk lowers and ribbons. Many of these are seen as decorations on local, traditional dress. Lace Making There are several different ways in which to make lace, “stitches in air,” either by the weaving or knotting of a fabric around holes of varying sizes, or the creation of holes by the withdrawing or removal and control of threads within a fabric. Principal types include bobbin lace, where many different threads are woven together; needle lace, where a needle is used to weave a single thread through supporting threads; and knitted or crocheted lace. The north and northeastern areas of France offered favorable conditions for the cultivation of linen iber, producing the smoothest, inest thread and cloth generally available until the discovery and widespread adoption of cotton, particularly facilitated by the Industrial Revolution. As well as offering a smooth and ine iber, linen is also very strong, allowing it to last well through the twists and turns of lace making. This location also shows the twin inluences of Flemish and Italian style and technique. While lace became a very signiicant commodity for trade internationally, it was also used locally, particularly as a trim for scarves and bonnets. Embroidery The church has historically been an important consumer of embroidery, and convents in France became known for the production of embroidered fabrics

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of professional quality. As a public space, the church also allowed local people exposure to such high standards of design and workmanship. While not having access to the quantity of gold- or silver-covered threads and silks used on textiles for the church, many local dress styles incorporate distinctive embroidery as a detail on bodices, hems, and so forth, particularly showing local lora in the designs.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress There are no longer any signiicant communities wearing traditional dress on an everyday basis in France. The French are proud of their reputation for being well dressed, but almost all wear the homogenous dress style developed in Europe and North America over the last 50 years. This is shoes or sneakers appropriate to the occasion, jeans, a top or T-shirt, with a sweater or jacket for warmth. Hats are rarely worn. Uniforms or suits for business people are generally replaced by dresses in the current fashion and suits for formal wear.

Component Parts The Beret Most regional and thus national dress includes headwear of some sort for both men and women. Prior to modern conveniences, most ordinary people spent most of their time outside and the head needed to be protected from the weather, whether too cold or too hot. The beret, worn tilted to the left or the right, has become synonymous with the men of France. Made from wind and rain-resistant felted wool, the tight-itting crown holds it close to the head and keeps hair out of the way. Easy to pack away with no crushing as a result and no brim to shield the eyes or obscure the vision, it remains a popular element in the uniform of elite military forces such as the Green or Red Berets. The word béret originates from the Latin birettum or cap, with variations appearing in the language and local dialects of France, Spain, and Italy where it is worn. The word and the item discussed here originate from the Basque country in the southwest of France, on the border with Spain, marked by the Pyrenees mountains. The harsh climate of the mountains dominated local agriculture with the prevalence of sheep and goats inluencing the materials used for clothing locally. The Breton Shirt It is dificult to trace the exact origins of this striped top, similar to the telnyashka worn by Russian soldiers, made from knitted cotton fabric to allow for eficient physical activity in windy and wet conditions. Since the early 1920s, however,

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this simple garment, named after the Brittany area in the northwest of France, has gained popularity among fashionistas and ilm stars as classic, casual wear. As an iconographic symbol, the Breton shirt, when worn with a beret, dark trousers, perhaps a cigarette, and, to be very stereotyped, a string of garlic at the neck, has become part of an outit that is globally recognized as closest to a national dress of France.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Permanent body modiication such as tattooing or piercing is not part of French traditional styles of clothing. As it is a Catholic country, rosary beads may be carried on the body, but jewelry, if worn at all, is discreet rather than ostentatious. In the south and south central areas of France, pendants, particularly the Christian cruciix, may be worn at the throat, threaded on black or dark ribbon.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress The French no longer wear regional dress in everyday life. Tourism, however, along with local traditions, generates opportunities to see local dress styles at festivals and events throughout the country. With a strong sense of regionality, it is not surprising that a country like France does not have a single distinctive national dress, but instead has many local versions, many being variations on a central theme of male and female outits that allow for activities usually deined by rural life, utilizing local materials that showcase the products of an area. Outits largely consist of dark trousers or breeches for men, worn with a light-colored smock or shirt under a dark waist-length waistcoat or jacket, and a distinctive regional hat. For women, a full gathered skirt is covered by an apron and often ends above the ankle. The long-sleeved, light-colored blouse is covered by a bodice or shawl and often accessorized by a distinctive head covering. Children’s outits often follow a similar form according to gender. Functionality was a priority, as national dress is often derived from the everyday styles of ordinary working people, so decoration and distinctiveness from the everyday are restricted to extraneous items such as head coverings, the edges of shawls, and trims at the edges of garments. To the northeast are areas long disputed between France, Germany, and Belgium. Clothing here often displays the ine lace and linen grown and made in the area. Laced high waists and hems of skirts feature bands of orderly, colorful regional lowers on a dark ground that echo styles in neighboring Germany. Alsace women wear large, distinctive, probably dark silk headwear (coiffe alsacienne), looking a little like a very big bow worn to the back of the head and framing the face.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Costumes from the central area of France tend to be far more colorful, with multicolor striped skirts and lace and ribbon headwear. White lace decorates the blouse or scarf, with waists either extremely high or a close-itting bodice on a dress. Men incorporate color in shorter jackets and trim on dark trousers. To the south and southeast are areas inluenced by relative isolation, rural poverty, and the other countries that border the Mediterranean. Women in Provence wear long full skirts, often with a contrasting long apron, and a lace-trimmed triangular shawl worn ichu-style over long-sleeved tops and crossed or tucked at the waist. In some areas, the bonnet has shrunk to an almost miniature version, worn high on the back of the head. Men wear the Couple wears traditional Alsatian costumes at a canal bridge in Strasbourg, France. (Paul working clothes seen across the south of heavy trousers, shirt with gilet Almasy/Corbis) (waistcoat) or short jacket, and a lowcrowned, medium-brimmed hat echoing the cordobés hat seen in southern Spain. Corsica has been ruled by Italy as well as by France, and its culture shows the inluence of both countries. Dark trousers and jackets are worn by men, dark skirts or dresses with aprons worn by women, with both genders in white or light-colored shirts or blouses. Headwear for women often covers shoulders as well as hair, held in place by a light contrasting headband worn low on the forehead. Men’s jackets may be long and loose, decorated with a bright band or trim. To the southwest lie the Pyrenees mountains and the inluence of Basque culture. Footage from a 1938 costume parade shows men often wearing a beret, a light-colored shirt or smock sometimes covered with a sheep or goatskin gilet or waistcoat with the wool or hair worn on the outside, rather than facing in to the body for warmth. At the waist of long dark trousers is wrapped either a red or sometimes blue long rectangular scarf, with another scarf folded to a triangle and knotted at the throat. Trousers may be breeches, or the lower legs wrapped with gaiters for protection through dense brush, mud, or snow. Women wore a fulllength skirt, with apron and wrapped shawl, also seen farther along the coast to the

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east. The shawl was now likely to be of wool rather than lace, and the neckerchief worn by the men is also worn, knotted like a bandanna to cover the woman’s hair. To the north and northwest lie areas with remnants of seagoing Celtic and Viking cultures. The Breton women’s outit of dark long dress sets off the often starched whiteness of apron, lace collar, and elaborate, often high or voluminous headdresses, again trimmed with lace. Menswear of voluminous shirt and trousers contained under a close, buttoned waistcoat and tucked into boots echoes seagoing wear from the 17th and 18th centuries. Coco Chanel famously opened a boutique in Deauville, Normandy, and is said to have been inspired particularly by men’s local work wear.

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Breton father and daughter in traditional dress, Brittany, France. (Lange/ StockphotoPro)

References and Further Reading Boucher, François. 20,000 Years of Fashion: The History of Costume and Personal Adornment. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987. British Pathé. Pyrenees Costume Fête, 1938. http://www.britishpathe.com/record .php?id=19432. Cap Corse. Le Conservatoire du Costume. (Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris and local museums such as the Corsican dress museum). http://www.destination -cap-corse.com/communaute-communes/cap-corse.php?menu=1&ssm=29. Embroidery in France. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/txt_e/hd_txt_e.htm “The Essay: Stars in Stripes. Breton Shirt in the Twentieth Century.” The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/the-essay-stars-in-stripes-1105547 .html. July 10, 1999. The Lace Making of France. http://lace.lacefairy.com/Lace/ International/Francemap.html. Laver, James. Costume and Fashion: A Concise History. London: Thames and Hudson, 1982. Medieval Sourcebook. Einhard: Life of Charlemagne. (Account of Charlemagne’s dress by Einhard.) http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/einhard1.asp. 1996.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Morris, Grace M. Basque Costume. http://jessamynscloset.com/Basquehistory .html. Saint-Denis, a Town in the Middle Ages. Clothing of Queen Arnegund, buried approx. end 6th century. http://www.saint-denis.culture.fr/en/2_2_aregonde .htm. Wayland Barber, Elizabeth. Women’s Work: The First 20,000 Years. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994.

Germany and Austria Michelle Webb Fandrich

Historical Background The relationship between Germany and Austria dates back to the 10th century and the birth of the Holy Roman Empire. Modern-day Germany was once the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, which stretched from central Europe to include most of the continent. When Otto I was crowned king of Germany in 962, the empire centered around the kingdom of Germany, which included the bulk of the country that would become Austria, as well as modern-day Germany. It wasn’t until the Napoleonic Wars of the 19th century that Austria would attain its identity as a separate empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire of the Hapsburgs would last only a few decades before World War I would bring about its collapse. World War II brought further changes to Austria through its occupation by neighboring Germany during the war. It would not be until the middle of the 20th century that Austria would return to being a fully sovereign country and declare its neutrality as the Second Austrian Republic in 1955. Germany has seen tremendous changes from the earliest recorded Germanic civilizations dating back to the second century. Once the center of the Holy Roman Empire, the country would become the center of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The Napoleonic Wars brought about the union of Germanic states and the formation of the German Empire in 1871. In the 20th century, further political and economic changes would bring about the Weimar Republic in 1918, the Third Reich in 1933, and a division into East and West Germany by the Allies of World War II. In 1990, following intense international political talks, the two states were reuniied following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today, Austria is a parliamentary representative democracy consisting of nine federal states, and reuniied Germany is a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic.

Geographic and Environmental Background Situated in central Europe, Germany and Austria share the high mountainous terrain of the Alps. Germany extends into western Europe, however, and possesses a 231

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress more seasonally temperate climate while Austria retains a mostly alpine and therefore colder climate. Austria is landlocked and lacks the biodiversity of Germany, which has both woodland terrain and a coastal region. Germany and Austria share a common neighbor in Switzerland, and similarities can be seen in both climate and costume of these three countries.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity A land settled by Germanic people dates back to the second century in what is now modern-day Germany and Austria. Today, less than one-ifth of Austria’s population is made up of foreign-born citizens and, in Germany, closer to one-tenth of the population is made up those of foreign-born descent. In 2012, Austria’s population was 8,219,750 and Germany’s population was 81,305,850. In Austria, Slovenes, Croats, and Hungarians are recognized minorities. The bulk of the population in Austria are registered members of the Roman Catholic Church while in Germany, Roman Catholics and Protestants seem to be equally represented. However, there does appear to be concentrations of one denomination over another—the highest concentrations of the Roman Catholic faith appear to be centralized in the south and west, while Protestantism is more popular in the north and eastern parts of the country.

History of Dress It is no surprise that the complicated and diverse political history of Germany should inluence the shape of its national dress. The traditional regional costumes of Germany, reuniied in the late 20th century, share traits in common with the countries that have been neighbors, allies, and enemies. Austria’s costume may show an inluence of neighboring Germany, yet German folk or regional dress reveals broader elements of inluence. Among the countries to have a marked inluence on Germany’s folk or regional dress are Denmark, the Czech Republic (formerly called Czechoslovakia), and France along with Nordic inluences of the Scandinavian countries and Baltic states. While Germany’s diverse range of regional styles relect its history of divided kingdoms, duchies, grand duchies, and federal states, Austria’s national dress is based on more modern inluences. In fact, the national costume of Austria dates back only to 1918 and the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The dirndl and lederhosen of Austria was worn previously, irst by the peasant class and then by the upper classes as a form of fashionable fancy dress. Their inal iteration and acceptance as the national costume of Austria, however, was inspired by a strong nationalist feeling that aided in the popularizing of traditional forms of dance

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and performance in Austria. The advent of the Salzburg Music Festival can be seen as a key factor in the development of the Austrian national dress.

Materials and Techniques Materials from animal sources igure prominently in the construction of national dress in Germany and Austria, namely wool and leather. These sturdy materials are natural choices for the cool mountain climates experienced in both these countries. The Scandinavian inluence can particularly be seen in the color choices for German women’s regional dress: red, blue, green, and yellow are favored above others. Leather breeches or lederhosen for men are popular in both in parts of Germany and Austria. These practical garments are linked to Celtic traditions. Embroidery and braid trim each play an important role in the ornamentation of both men’s and women’s dress in both countries, and straw, wool felt, and cotton can all be seen in use for the accessories worn in each. Silk is sometimes used in more contemporary examples of national dress in both Germany and Austria, but this material is usually reserved for women’s dirndls and is associated with “fancy dress” over true examples of regional attire. Wool felt is the most common material used in the construction of hats in these countries, though hats of straw may be seen in some of the more inland regions of Germany. Lace caps are worn under most women’s headwear, an element common in most forms of national costume in Europe today.

Men’s and Women’s Dress Women’s traditional dress in Germany is centered on a simple silhouette of four component parts—the bodice, blouse, skirt, and an apron. These four items vary in style and construction from region to region and may incorporate more or less ornamentation. In the north, Germany shares a border with Denmark, and this is where the Scandinavian inluence on dress can be most clearly seen. The women’s silhouette is comprised of a pleated wool skirt in red or green with a wool jacket and white frilled-neck blouse. White stockings are worn with ribbon garters at the knees and the skirt is covered with a plain or striped apron. A Danish-style bonnet is worn on the head. As one moves farther south, the colors become more sedate and less inluenced by the Scandinavian palette. Here fashionable dress has played a larger role in inluencing the regional styles. Women wear long-sleeved blouses with large frills at the neck and wrists. Sleeveless bodices of black velvet are worn over these and are sometimes ornamented with embroidered lowers. Skirts are pleated and constructed of red or red and green–striped wool, sometimes with a black

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress border. Over these, large black aprons are worn. On the head, red bonnets are worn over lace caps. The costume of the Black Forest is perhaps one of the most distinctive of Germany. Here a halsmantel or halsband, a kind of bib, is worn over the black velvet bodice and white blouse. These are usually highly decorative, trimmed with embroidery or braid, and were originally made to tie to the bodice with four ribbons. In contemporary examples of the costume, however, they are usually incorporated into the bodice’s construction. This is worn with a full, below-knee-length skirt, which is shaped with numerous petticoats. The headwear of the women of Woman wears traditional Bavarian dirndl, the Black Forest is distinctive, a straw near Oberstdorf, Germany, 2012. (Johannes hat ornamented with pom-poms. Simon/Getty Images) In the south, the dress of women from Austria and Germany is very similar. It, like that of the men of the region, has been inspired by a country or peasant style (Landhausmode). Here, the dirndl has been adopted as the national costume of each. This consists of a laced bodice with a low, square neckline, sometimes ornamented with embroidery and trimmed with lace. This is worn over a white cotton blouse with short or elbow-length full sleeves and a full knee-length skirt. The word dirndl originally referred to the young women who wore this costume in the Alpine regions of these countries. However, in contemporary usage, the term may refer both to the wearer and what she is wearing. The silhouette for men dates back to the 19th century and the popularity of the fashionable frock coat of that time. In the north, they are worn in blue and lined in red, with lapels and a collar. The suit continues with a blue waistcoat, and breeches of wool or buckskin are worn to the knee with knee-length black leather boots. Underneath, a white shirt is worn with a black ribbon tied under the collar. Felt hats, in either broad-brimmed or top hat shape, are worn decorated with ribbons, lowers, and other trim, particularly for special occasions. Moving south, men’s jackets become collarless and lack lapels, and the breeches are replaced by yellow trousers, which are worn with buckled shoes instead of boots. Woolen waistcoats in green with a high collar are worn underneath the coat, with a black silk scarf tied around

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the neck. In the Harz mountains, black breeches are worn tucked into gaiters. The ensemble is completed with a blue frock coat, trimmed with brass buttons, worn over a patterned standing-collar waistcoat. In the south and in Austria, the lederhosen or leather breeches have become the staple for men’s traditional dress. These are the descendants of peasant, country wear, which was adopted as fashionable dress by the aristocracy in the late 19th century. Worn with embroidered braces over a white shirt, the ensemble is completed with a wool felt fedora-like hat, trimmed with red braid and tassels, and a gray wool coat. White stockings and black buckled shoes are commonly worn with this form of national costume.

Component Parts

Local man wears traditional lederhosen at an Oktoberfest in Germany, 2011. (Janateneva/ Dreamstime.com)

Headwear plays an important role in distinguishing the dress in different parts of Germany. In the north, where Germany shares a border with the Scandinavian country of Denmark, one inds similarities in their headdress. Moving inland and away from the high winds of the Baltics, more frivolous headwear can be seen, often in the form of highly perched straw hats. Moving toward the south, the headwear becomes more somber, with simple bonnets worn over lace caps and trimmed with ribbons. The inluence of neighboring France can also be seen in the headwear of German women. In the Harz mountains, a little cap with black ribbons similar to those worn in Alsace is seen. The straw hat of the women of the Black Forest serves an additional function to the discerning eye. Ornamented with red pom-poms, the hat signiies that the woman wearing it is unmarried. Upon marriage, the red pom-poms are replaced by black ones. Aprons play an important role in women’s dress in most regions of Germany. Those of the northern regions tend to be plainer, constructed of black fabric and unadorned. Moving south, they become more decorative and are made of lowerprint material or trimmed with embroidery and braid. This adornment is usually reserved for the hem of the apron.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Boots and buckled shoes are the most common forms of footwear for both German and Austrian national costumes. These are worn with white stockings almost universally. The one exception is in the men’s dress of Mecklenberg, where purple stockings are worn with yellow trousers and black shoes. Another unusual feature of men’s footwear is seen in examples from Bavaria, which shares similarities with the national costume of Austria. Here, men’s stockings, worn with the lederhosen, are footless, ending at the ankle and extending to just under the knee where they are rolled and sometimes worn with garters.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Ethnic dress, particularly the dirndl and lederhosen, have become iconic representations of the Oktoberfest celebrations around the world. These and other forms of regional attire are also commonly worn while folk dancing or in other traditional performances of song and dance in both Germany and Austria. The formation of Trachten-Vereine or social clubs that preserve traditional dance, song, and dress has helped maintain the culture of both Austria and Germany since the early 20th century. Folk dance festivals are a frequent occurrence in both countries and the various forms of national dress play an important role in these events. There are many different forms of folk dance in Germany and each has a speciic costume associated with it. For example, the Schuhplattler performed in the Alpine region of Germany and in Austria is a dance reserved for men. The lederhosen costume is worn while dancing what was formerly a ritual act of courtship. The dance is performed with a series of jumps and foot-stamping, which is punctuated by the striking of the performers’ thighs, knees, and the soles of the feet with their hands. One can imagine that the leather of the lederhosen provides an excellent acoustic element to the slapping of the men’s thighs.

Further Reading and Resources American Federation of German Folk Dance Groups website. www.germanfolk dancers.org. Dirndl Online Magazine website. www.dirndl-mode.com. 2012. Eli Maisetschläger Trachten website. www.maisi.at. Harrold, Robert. Folk Costumes of the World. London: Blandford Press, 2002. Leitner, Hanna. Deutsche Volkstanzkostüme. Leipzig: F. Hofmeister, 1958. Mann, Kathleen. Peasant Costume in Europe Book I. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1937.

Ghana Malika Kraamer

Historical Background Early History The coast of the state of Ghana, with its current borders, was probably already inhabited by 4000 BCE. Several waves of migrations took place over the last 1,000 years. Commercial connections between Ghana and the north, at least since the 13th century, gave rise to several political states in mid-Ghana. At the end of the 15th century, with the spread of Islam and the inlux of Islamic rulers, new states like Dagomba and Gonja developed in northern Ghana. Across all these states lived various groups mainly organized on kinship ties. The best documented precolonial state is the Asante confederacy in mid-Ghana. Since the 17th century, it ruled over many other groups and developed in a centralized empire with Kumasi as its capital. In southeastern Ghana, the Ewe and Ga-Adangbe are believed to have gradually moved from the east between the 14th and 17th centuries.

Slave Trade and Colonization With the arrival of Europeans on the Gold Coast, the European name for present-day Ghana, the trafic in enslaved human beings quickly became the main trade, with millions of people shipped to the Americas. Although abolished in 1807 by the British, this trade continued until the 1860s. By this time, the British had become the dominant European power. After the British attack on Asante in 1874, the Gold Coast became a crown colony. The rest of the country was colonized in the early 20th century. The current borders were deined in 1956, when British Mandated Togoland (eastern Ghana) voted to become part of modern Ghana. Ghanaian nationalism started in the 19th century and became widespread after World War II. In the early 20th century, export revenues of new crops, mainly cacao, inanced infrastructure and an extensive educational system. The 19th-century inlux of missionaries resulted in a now predominantly Christian southern Ghana. 237

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Independence On March 6, 1957, Ghana became the irst independent country in sub-Saharan Africa, with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as the irst president. His government was overthrown in 1966. In the next 15 years, alternating military and civilian governments were not able to deal with inherited problems of heavy debt, rising inlation, and economic mismanagement, and Ghana’s economic and political situation deteriorated further. In 1992, with the introduction of a new multiparty system, Jerry Rawlings, who had already ruled the country with the military since 1981, was elected as president. In 2000, John Kuffuor of the opposition won the presidential elections. Since the 1980s, Ghana has had a steadily growing economy and, since the 1990s, a growing independent judiciary and press system. A large amount of remittances increasingly come in from Ghana’s extensive diasporas.

Geographic and Environmental Background Ghana, a country on the West African coast, is roughly the size of Great Britain or the Korean Peninsula (148,221 sq. mi., 238,540 km2). Around 20 million people live in Ghana today and it is surrounded by three countries, Togo, Burkina Faso, and the Ivory Coast. It has ive geographical regions: low plains on the coast; a hilly, forestry area to the north of these plains; a higher mountain range in the southeast; the Volta Basin in the center; and dissected high plains in the north. The climate is tropical, determined by the interaction of dry continental air from the northeast and opposing moist air from the southwest. Rain is heavy in the south, but the resulting thick vegetation thins to savannah and dry plains in the north with much less rainfall.

People and Dress Ghanaians give much attention to the way they dress on many different occasions. They choose from a wealth of continuously changing textile and dress traditions, such as kente, colorful handwoven wrappers from southern Ghana; fugu, smocks that are mainly produced in northern Ghana; and kaba, blouses with matching skirts manufactured from printed, batik, or tie-dyed materials. Of course for several centuries, people have also worn what is still often described as Western dress, sometimes in combination with these locally developed garments.

Ethnic and Religious Diversity Ghanaians may afiliate with just one or two particular religious and ethnic identities, depending on the context in which such an afiliation is considered

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important to mark. Particular dress forms, however, often are not conined to a particular identity or group of people, even though distinct dress traditions have been mainly made in certain production centers. Since at least the 19th century, for instance, Ga-Adangbe chiefs have been using textiles produced by Asante and Ewe weavers, and several Akan peoples also use cloth woven by the Ewe. In the early 21st century, urban and chiely elites have used perceived Nigerian handwoven textiles that mainly were designed by Ewe weavers who migrated back and forth between Ghana and Nigeria. While a bewildering amount of ethnic or linguistic groups are described in many scholarly books on Ghana, often four main groups are distinguished, covering 85 percent of the population. The Akan of southern Ghana, consisting of several groups of which the Asante and Fante are the best known, comprise almost half of the population. Ewe speakers live mainly in southeast Ghana and adjacent Togo. The Ga-Adangbe people are concentrated in Accra and west of the lower Volta river. The Mole-Dagbane is a clustering of most groups in the northern half of Ghana. Such a division of the country should not suggest, however, that any region is homogenous, as intermarriage and settlement of migrant groups have been reported for centuries. The population of Ghana in 2012 was 25,242,000. It is important to bear in mind that ethnic and other social identities are neither ixed nor consistent. This, as demonstrated in the work of many scholars, is a myth. People negotiate many social identities at the same time, and current ethnicities are often not older than one or two centuries. Ghanaian identity, furthermore, developed in the 20th century. Multiple identities are, thus, as common in Ghana as elsewhere in the world. Religious identiications are predominantly Christian in central and southern Ghana and Muslim in the northern part, alongside of, or iercely opposed to, indigenous religious afiliations. Historically, the inluences of northern Muslim groups settling in Ghana have had an impact on the dress of both those who converted to Islam and others throughout the country. Dress of religious leaders, such as southern Christian reverends, northern earth priests, and eastern vodu priests and priestesses, often outshines the dress of others. The choice of a particular dress is never inluenced only by perceived social identities like age, kinship, gender, marital status, occupation, education, religion, ethnicity, or nationality, and may be of no concern to the individual at a particular time. Factors such as taste, fashion, lifestyle, tradition, occasion, and wealth all may play a role. In Ghana, the decision to wear a particular type of textile, especially on special occasions, is often more inluenced by enacting a social position, rather than an ethnic identity. Furthermore, different identities may be manifested on different occasions. The relationship between dress and ethnicity, like ethnic identity itself, should, therefore, not be treated as ixed.

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History of Dress Little is known about early forms of dress in Ghana before the 16th century, and until the 19th century written, archaeological, and other sources and available examples of dress are scarce. Until the 16th century, the most common outit was likely tree bark in the south, and leaves and skins in the north. The use of cotton became more common in the two following centuries. Cotton cloth was probably irst reserved for elite groups in society, but gradually developed into daily dress for most people. Kente In southern Ghana (including the inland Akan areas and the Ewe region), women mainly wore a handwoven cloth wrapped around the hips. Sometimes a second wrapper was used to protect against the evening cold, or to carry a child. Men used one large wrapper, or a smock and trousers, all made from handwoven strips sewn together. Apart from plain textiles, yarns and wrappers were sometimes dyed and designs could be created through warp-striping. The dress of farmers and hunters often was dyed brown. Hunter shirts were fortiied with amulets, often including Koranic texts. From at least the 17th century, dress for economic and political elites became more elaborate as the use of silk and more complicated techniques opened up design possibilities. Jewelry and component parts were already important in these outits, mainly worn on special occasions. The exact stylistic developments in these textiles and the interrelationships between different weaving centers have not yet been fully established. Today, some of the main characteristics of many Ewe and Asante textiles, commonly known as kente, is the alternation of weft- and warp-faced plain-weave areas in one length of strip and the use of supplementary weft-loat motifs. The weaving of such alterations (creating visual block effects in textiles) was at least well established by the mid-19th century, and most likely began in Agotime in the Ewe region. Asante weavers, the main Akan weaving group, are historically known for their silk or rayon textiles full of nonigurative motifs. They developed this style of weaving in the 18th or 19th century. By the turn of the 20th century, much of their elite dress consisted of an abundance of different motifs in contrasting colors. Certain design conigurations were restricted to their king, the Asantehene, and Asante nobility. These restrictions dwindled in the 20th century due to a changing political landscape and new customer groups. More and more Asante cloth was produced entirely in rayon (the replacement of silk), and the number of different designs in one cloth diminished. Since at least the 17th century until the mid-20th century, Ewe weavers mainly continued to work in cotton. They have been exploring the weaving of all kinds of

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igurative motifs in their more expensive textiles since at least the 19th century. These textiles were not restricted to particular elite groups; only their high cost and a general sense of propriety limited their use. Ewe weavers also developed the process of weaving with two sets of warps and the use of plied yarn. In these less expensive textiles, color combinations were often more subdued than in Asante cloth. In the 20th century, Ewe weavers developed several new types of textiles, such as cloth with designs visible mainly on one side of the textile, a technique developed in the 1930s. It is clear that Asante and Ewe weavers have been mutually inspired by each other’s textile traditions (and those of other weaving centers) over the last few cen- A kente cloth seller stands in front of his stock in a market in Accra, Ghana, 1996. turies. They also share a long history (Jonathan C. Katzenellenbogen/Getty of wearing their handwoven textiles in Images) similar ways. In the mid-20th century, kente acquired the status of the national dress. Nationalists before independence and the political elite afterwards used kente as part of a mental decolonization process, with a connotation, among others, of the cultural richness of Ghana. Nkrumah used kente as produced in the Asante region in his politics of national identity building, and he was widely followed by many Ghanaians. One of the consequences was not only a shift in production in the Ewespeaking region toward the weaving of these shiny rayon textiles in contrasting colors, but also the gradual use of this cloth in this part of the country. Since then, Ewe and Asante weavers developed this particular style, constantly coming out with new designs. Kaba Coastal communities have the longest tradition in the adaptation of European dress forms. European textiles have been imported and used since the 16th century. Men increasingly wore trousers and blouses or complete suits, especially among the urban populations, since at least the 19th century. The requirement that women cover their breasts, under the inluence of 19th-century missionary and colonial

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress activities, meant a much wider use of blouses and skirts. This is also the time that the so-called African prints (or “wax cloth,” a technically incorrect term) arrived in Ghana. Attempts to commercialize Indonesian batiks in the Netherlands and England did not ind a market in Indonesia but proved to be popular in west Africa, leading to the production of these prints in Europe speciically for the west African market. At the turn of the 20th century, all these developments had resulted in a particular Ghanaian dress form: the kaba. This is a blouse in an African print with a matching, often ankle-length skirt and possibly one or two wrappers to be used as a head tie, a wrapper over the skirt, or a cloth to carry a child. Tie-dye, handmade batik, and so-called fancy prints (imported cloth printed on one part of the textile) have also been used, since the 20th century, for kabas. Fugu In the northern part of Ghana, cotton is extensively used to make smocks and women’s wrappers, especially in the predominantly Muslim areas such as Gonja, Dagomba, and Mamprusi, but also among predominantly non-Muslim groups such as the Talensi. They are mainly produced by Dagomba and Mossi (to the north of Ghana). Smocks, generally known as fugu, are composed from narrow strips in the same fashion as kente, either plain or with warp-striping. The name batakari is the Twi name for these garments. Colors are often subdued blues, browns, greens, or whites. Smocks range from simple shirts, with or without sleeves, to very wide garments, whose lower part is able to form a full circle. Robes used ceremonially comprise different gowns and are worn with trousers, a cap, and leather boots. The inner gowns often are plain; the outer low and have different patterns. Some chiefs wear ankle-length, opulent gowns with elaborate embroidery like those of Muslim chiefs in neighboring countries, now generally called boubou. Fugu have likely been around for a long time. The oldest extant gown dates from the 17th century and was bought at the Benin coast. Elaborate smocks with matching trousers now used by northern Muslim chiefs have their origin in more northern Islamic dress forms. These types of smocks can be found throughout west Africa, especially in the Sahel zone. In many other parts of northern Ghana, especially among predominantly nonMuslim groups in the northeast, the use of cotton cloth was minimal before the 20th century. In the 20th century, dress, including body modiications, has changed especially dramatically for the latter group, partly under the inluence of colonial and postcolonial policies. Evidence suggests that women’s dress in this northeastern region comprised woven grass waistbands with small forked branches of leaves attached to the front and rear since at least the 19th century. The types of leaves depended on social factors and individual preferences. In the second half of the 20th century, this use gradually disappeared, except for certain ceremonial

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functions. Men used to wear skins, one at the back, one in front. In the early 20th century, skins were replaced by a triangular piece of cloth. At present, skins are associated, throughout northern Ghana, with leadership and tradition. The use of cotton cloth increased dramatically in the course of the 20th century, especially outside the home. Even though missionaries and the Ghanaian government in the 1960s tried hard to change what was perceived as nudity to the wearing of different types of clothing, change in dress forms mainly came in the 1970s. Economic access to cloth only started with increased participation in farming activities.

Materials and Techniques Fibers: Bark, Cotton, and Silk All kinds of ibers, such as tree bark, hides, leaves, cotton, wool, and silk, have been used for dress in Ghana. The likely oldest ibers used were tree bark in the south and leaves and skins in the north. Wool was around in the west African region since at least the ifth century CE, and cotton since at least the 10th century CE. Cotton was grown locally in north and eastern Ghana and has been imported from the north, together with silk, to the forest areas and coast since at least the 15th century. In the 18th century, and possible already before, weavers throughout southern Ghana, but especially Asante weavers, unraveled silk from European textiles and explored its use in their textiles. At the end of the 19th century, silk was replaced by rayon. Since the 19th century, imported machine-spun cotton has been available in southern Ghana, spreading rapidly in the southern weaving centers, especially in the Ewe region. Machine-spun cotton not only changed the texture of textiles, it also inluenced the speed and organization of production, which in turn opened up new design possibilities. The use of hand-spun cotton diminished in the south but continued, up to today, in northern Ghana. In the mid-20th century, the ongoing importation of rayon and cotton from European, Asian, and African countries was supplemented by the mechanical production of these yarns in Ghana. In the 1970s, Lurex, a metallic yarn, entered the Ghanaian market from Nigeria and quickly gained wide popularity in the weaving industries in southern Ghana. This aesthetic of shininess not only has a long history in southern Ghana, but also in many other west African textile traditions. For centuries, natural dyes, including indigo, provided a range of colors, but red was hard to obtain from local sources. This was one of the reasons for unraveling European textiles. Since the 19th century, most yarns in southern Ghana have been machine-dyed, though resist-dyeing is still common in northern Ghana. Home dyeing of cotton ibers with synthetic dyes has spread quickly in the southern Ewe region since the 1980s due to economic upheavals that hit this weaving industry hardest.

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Man weaving cloth, Ghana, 2008. (Aprescindere/Dreamstime.com)

Production Centers At present, Ghana has four main weaving centers. Three are in the cotton-growing areas of Ghana: Daboya in the north, producing mainly smocks; the Agotime area; and many coastal Anlo villages in the eastern Ewe region, weaving wrappers called kente. Bonwire, near the Asante capital Kumasi, is the only weaving center in the forest region and also produces kente cloth. Historically, weavers could be found in many villages in the cotton-growing areas. However, the development of these particular weaving centers, and those that have lost importance such as Peki, has also been inluenced by many other factors, like trade routes and concentration of economic and political power. Today, many weaving workshops are also located in the main cities, often employing weavers from different parts of the country. In Ghana, all the dress forms made of handwoven textiles are formed by narrow strips two to four inches (5–12cm) in width. These strips are cut and then sewn together edge to edge to form a wrapper or smock. Weavers all over Ghana use essentially the same apparatus to weave: a loom to mount the warp in tension and one or two pairs of heddles (the shedding device) to separate warp elements so that the weft elements may pass through. As in many other west African countries, the warp is mounted horizontally and held in tension by attaching one end to the loom

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and the other end to a small sledge weighed down by a heavy stone. Because both sets of warp elements are leashed to one of the heddles, this type of loom is often referred to as the west African double-heddle loom. The weaver operates these heddles with the feet, which leaves the weaver’s hands free to throw the weft with a shuttle and to make designs. Most textiles are warp-faced plain-weave cloth; in the Ewe-speaking region entire weft-faced plain-weave textiles are produced too. Ewe and Asante weavers are well known for exploring the design and technical possibilities of their loom to the limit. By using two pairs of heddles, they are able to alternate weft-faced and warp-faced plain-weave areas in one strip and to create supplementary weft-loat patterns. Ewe weavers also use supplementary warps, a feature rare in other African textile traditions, sometimes in combination with supplementary wefts. Gonja weavers in the north mainly produce warp-faced plain-weave strips with a variety of warp- and weft-striping. Weaving is predominantly a male job, although this gender division has been loosening since the mid-20th century, especially among Ewe weavers. The spinning of cotton has mainly remained a task for older women. Almost all clothing of machine-manufactured material, including kabas, is hand-tailored. The gender of the maker normally follows the gender of the user.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Throughout Ghana, wrappers, smocks, leaves, and skins are often used in a context in which status and wealth play a role. Differences between daily and special occasions, and high- and low-ranking dress mainly lie in the patterning, the used materials, the accessories, and in the north also the amount of cloth worn. Since the 20th century, handwoven textiles with long-standing traditions and the more expensive kaba have become more and more conined to dress for special occasions, while hand-tailored locally manufactured cloth is most common for daily dress, even in the northeastern part of Ghana. Men here normally wear commercially produced slacks or shorts and various kinds of cotton smocks; women often use a kaba, as in the rest of Ghana. At the end of the 20th century, both women and men used more and more secondhand cloth imported from Asia and Europe. Today, kente is the main attire of a chief, it plays a role in different life-cycle events, it igures in some religious services, and it is an especially vibrant visual element in festivals. Almost every family has at least one cloth; handwoven textiles are a repository of wealth and give prestige to the wearer. Fashion always plays a role; one’s appearance in a newly designed kente cloth is highly admired. Weavers take requests for a “modern” cloth in different ways. They frequently repeat details of speciic designs and experiment with new color combinations. They also

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress augment the design possibilities made available by the wide range of existing techniques and through the use of an increasing range of threads. The wearing of a cloth directly inluences body gestures, stance, and movements. The use of untailored textiles, especially a man’s cloth, is not necessarily easy or comfortable. Cotton textiles, especially those containing a lot material, are heavy and warm. Rayon and other synthetic yarns make the cloth lighter, but it can be sweatier to wear. Kente cloth must be wrapped carefully around the body in order not to slip off, and one must constantly adjust it. The heaviness, speciic way of wrapping, and untailored character of these fabrics, and the esteem that the community attaches to the wearing of such cloth directs the wearer to move slowly and with dignity. There are many different occasions to wear kente (wrappers), fugu (smocks) and expensive kaba (blouses and skirts). They play a role in different stages of the life cycle, such as birth and the “outdooring” (the irst appearance) of the newborn, twin rituals, the still occasionally held puberty or initiation rites, marriages, funerals, and widowhood. In most of these events, handwoven textiles are used, and sometimes required, as part of the rite, even though these rites have changed and may be celebrated differently depending on an individual’s main religious orientation. Kente, fugu, and kaba may igure in some religious services, like Easter, Eid, and the “outdooring” of a new initiate in a vodu cult. They are an especially vibrant element of festivals, including yam festivals, festivals to install a new chief, to welcome a politician to the area, or, for instance, a festival to celebrate the opening of a water project or ofice block. In southern Ghana and Togo, one of the most spectacular events is the procession of chiefs and court oficials to the location where the public audience of a local ruler takes place. Every chief or queen mother walks under a state umbrella or rides a palanquin, sometimes with a young girl in front standing up and dancing. These girls are dressed in and carry on their heads older textiles. The attending public is relatively free to wear any textile, handwoven or otherwise. Apart from the chiefs, queen mothers, court oficials, and festival organizers, most people do not choose, and often have not the inancial means, to buy and wear the most expensive or very new textiles; but even if they did wear them, it might inappropriately suggest an important social position.

Jewelry and Body Modiications Jewelry is used in abundance in Ghana by men and women. Most women will not leave the house without earrings, necklaces, and/or bangles. Jewelry is part of the regalia of chiefs, queen mothers, and elders. Beads are widely used on many special occasions, and they are part of the dress of devotees of indigenous religious cults.

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In southern Ghana, gold is often profusely used in chiely regalia, such as headgears, rings, and armlets. Other regalia are decorated leather slippers, lywhisks, and swords. High-ranking oficials are dressed most sumptuously and they have several outits for one event. The use of these regalia can be traced back to at least the 15th century. The dominance of the Asante confederacy meant the spread of their regalia to many other groups in southern Ghana and beyond. The historical depth of regalia of northern chiefs is less known. In northern Ghana, silver is often employed for jewelry, also due to the Muslim prohibition of wearing gold. Chiefs often wear silver pendant necklaces typically of mudish or crocodile heads. In general, Muslims wear less jewelry than other Ghanaians. The predominantly non-Muslim northeast was a center for jewelry in the 19th century, especially for bangles in ivory, bone, stone, and cast brass. Men and women wore most bangles around the upper arm; ivory bangles were mainly worn by women and gave high prestige. Brass bangles were also worn around the wrist and ankles and could indicate a new social status, such as reaching marriageable age, or worn on the advice of a diviner. They are still worn on special occasions. Hats have a long tradition as component parts of more northern dress forms. A red fez, turban, or other Islamic cap and decorated leather boots form part of ceremonial outits. The most important hat used in northeastern Ghana, until the 20th century, was a black cap made of twined bast ibers. This hat was restricted to certain priests. With the introduction of chieftaincy in this area, chiefs started to wear a red fez. In the 20th century, a variety of basketry hats and cloth caps became widespread as part of daily dress. Body modiications have only a limited importance in most parts of Ghana. It is customary for women to have their ears pierced when they are babies. Most women wear small earrings at all times. In southern Ghana, many people have one or two small scars on the face, a customary way to apply medicine when affected by childhood illness. This custom is, however, gradually disappearing, especially in the urban and more Christian areas. Elaborate facial and body scariication has only been practiced in the upper north part of Ghana, although 16th-century sources indicate that scariication was then also more common in southern Ghana. Even though scariication was banned by the government in 1960, its wide use continued until fairly recently. Torso scariication already began to disappear in the early 20th century, possibly due to the growing use of cotton cloth. Most Ghanaians see facial scariication as an indication of far north Ghanaian identity, but locally the concern is more for individual embellishment. The particular style depends on the choice of the father of the young child, the style of the specialist performing the scariication, and possibly on particular advice from a diviner.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress As in many African countries, the decorative potential of the coiffure has always been exploited, especially among women. Hairstyles are mainly based on personal preference, except in the case of some religious specialists. In the last few decades, most men have conined hairstyles to simpler styles, possible with some shaved patterns (a clearly international trend). Women use varied styles of plaiting or make new coiffures through straightening the hair. Body painting, used mainly for beautiication and display, plays a signiicant role in southern Ghana, especially in rituals relating to rites of passage and festivals. In previous centuries, however, it was also common for daily use.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Dress in Ghana forms parts of ongoing traditions and is at the same time inluenced by contemporary local and international fashion trends. In the early 21st century, for instance, the use of Nigerian handwoven shawls to embellish the latest cut kaba was common for urban elites. The possession of handwoven textiles is still a concern to most Ghanaians, although only some are able to acquire (and inherit) more than a few. Apart from a sleeveless smock, which came into fashion throughout Ghana in the 1990s, handwoven textiles are rarely used in daily life. They continue to be of large importance during all kinds of special occasions, especially festivals. They also continue to be of importance in different religious services. Kente, fugu, and kabas feature in the rites of some Christian churches (e.g., Catholic churches stimulated abundant use of locally produced cloth as part of their principle of enculturation) and local religious cults, and can be used as prayer mats or Friday outits in certain mosques. The use of elaborate smocks has become more widespread in southern Ghana, though kente is still less used in the north. In women’s dress, a new trend in the use of kente is the cutting of a handwoven cloth into a kaba. Doing so indicates much wealth, as the sheer cost of these textiles prevents many from reducing it to such limited use. Handwoven textiles, especially kente, are often used by Ghanaians outside Ghana to indicate a national sense of belonging. At the opening ceremonies of the 2004 and 2008 Olympics, for instance, all Ghanaian sport people were dressed in kente. For cloth in daily life, most Ghanaians rely on the numerous tailors and sewers. Only recently have secondhand clothes from other parts of the world engulfed the market. Even though the bulk of handwoven textiles remain intended as wrappers for men and women and smocks, many handwoven kente strips have also been transformed, since the 1960s, into accessories such as hats, shoes, jewelry, and ties. This trend was at irst geared toward a tourist market, but it has been taken up, since the 1980s, by Ghanaians, especially the urban middle classes. Kente patterns have

Woman wearing Ghanaian kaba. (Poco/iStockphoto.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress been appropriated by the fashion industry, both within and outside Ghana, as a surface design for a wide variety of uses, especially in North America. Single strips, often with letters woven into them, have also become popular; partly intended for clerical dress and church decorations, partly for graduation ceremonies, and partly as a token of a visit to Ghana. In many homes of diaspora Ghanaians decorations in which kente plays a role can be found.

Further Reading and Resources Adler, Peter, and Nicholas Barnard. African Majesty: The Textile Art of the Ashanti and Ewe. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Allman, Jean. “‘Let Your Fashion Be in Line with Our Ghanaian Costume’: Nation, Gender, and the Politics of Clothing in Nkrumah’s Ghana.” In Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2004. Cole, Herbert M., and Ross, Doran H. The Arts of Ghana. Los Angeles: University of California, 1977. Johnson, Marion. “Ashanti Craft Organization.” African Arts 13 (1979): 60–63, 78–82, 97. Jones, Adam. “A Collection of African Art in Seventeenth-Century Germany: Christoph Weickman’s kunst-und naturkammer.” African Arts 27 (1994): 28–43, 92–94. Kraamer, Malika. Colourful Changes: Two Hundred Years of Social and Design History in the Hand-Woven Textiles of the Ewe-Speaking Regions of Ghana and Togo (1800–2000). Ph.D. dissertation. Art and Archaeology, University of London (School of Oriental and African Studies), London, 2005. Available from http://dissertations.ub.rug.nl/faculties/non-rug/2005/m.kraamer/?pFullItem Record=ON. Kraamer, Malika. “Ghanaian Interweaving in the 19th Century: A New Perspective on Ewe and Asante Textile History.” African Arts 39 (4): 2006. Kraamer, Malika. “Origin Disputed. The Making, Use, and Evaluation of Ghanaian Textiles.” Afrique: Arts & Archeologie 4 (2006): 53–76. Lamb, Venice. West African Weaving. London: Gerald Duckworth, 1975. McLeod, M. D. The Asante. London: British Museum Publications, 1981. Picton, John. The Art of African Textiles. Technology, Tradition and Lurex, ed. J. Picton. London: Barbican Art Gallery. Lund Humphries Publishers, 1995. Picton, John. History, Design, and Craft in West African Strip-Woven Cloth. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1992. Picton, John, and John Mack. African Textiles. 2nd ed. London: British Museum Press, 1989.

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Rattray, R. S. Religion & Art in Ashanti. Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1927. Ross, Doran H., ed. Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity. UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History Textile Series, no. 2. Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1989. Roy, C. D. “Mossi Weaving.” African Arts 15 (1982): 48–53, 91–92. Smith, Fred T. “Frafra Dress.” African Arts 15 (1982): 36–42, 92. Tulloch, Carol, ed. Black Style. London: V&A Publications, 2004.

Great Britain and Ireland Sara M. Harvey

Historical Background The countries of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland comprise the United Kingdom. England, Scotland, and Wales are all located on the same landmass with the large island of Ireland, divided into Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, situated to the west across the North Channel and the Irish Sea. Both the United Kingdom and Ireland are members of the European Union. Although divided politically between north and south, Ireland is treated here as one entity. While the countries are geographically related and connected, they are each unique ethnically and culturally, and have their own languages. The English are a mix of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, and Norman, while the Irish and Scottish are primarily Celtic peoples. The ethnic background of the Welsh is primarily Celtic, with Anglo-Saxon and Norman inluences. England was a major world power throughout the Middle Ages and into the 21st century. England was the dominating naval force from the Renaissance through the 18th century, colonizing countries from North America to Africa, from India to Australia, turning the kingdom into an empire. A popular saying of the 19th century was that “the sun never sets on the British Empire,” meaning that the empire was so far lung around the earth that at any point in a given 24-hour period, it was always daytime in an English colony. England was also one of the major driving forces of the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century and produced some of the world’s best authors, poets, and playwrights. England was a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and is one of the ive permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. England has had a very long history as a major world power. It was the supreme naval power throughout the late 16th century and into the 17th century, claiming colonies and trade routes all over the globe. The Industrial Revolution of the 19th century began in England and although it brought about great advances in technology, particularly in the ields of transportation and textile production, it also brought on a plague of inhuman treatment of workers. Textile mills and factories employed 252

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very young children as well as the uneducated and immigrant poor. The urban lower classes slipped into deep poverty and were the subject of many works of 19thcentury art and literature; most notably the books of Charles Dickens, who sought to shed light on this shadow society of the poor and bring about social change. In the 21st century, relations between all of the countries that occupy the British Isles are friendly, but that has not always been the case. Wales and Scotland, located on the same landmass as England, resisted British authority and strove to maintain independence. With varying degrees of conlict both were absorbed into what became Great Britain: Wales in the 13th century and Scotland in the 18th century. Wales was integrated into England in 1282 under the rule of Edward I. To honor the Welsh, the heir apparent to the English throne was styled the Prince of Wales starting in 1301. Wales fully became part of England in 1536. England and Scotland had a very adversarial history throughout the Middle Ages. Edward I also moved to claim part of Scotland for England. Robert the Bruce became King Robert I of Scotland in 1306 and secured Scotland’s freedom from England in 1314. But after Robert’s death, the situation destabilized until the 1370s when the Stuarts came to power. They would maintain Scottish independence until the 17th century when James Stuart, James IV of Scotland, became King James I of England after the death of his cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, in 1603. Although the crowns were joined, Scotland and England maintained separate parliaments throughout the 17th century. In 1707, the parliaments were joined, forming the two countries into a single entity known as Great Britain. Scotland also developed its own religious group known as the Church of Scotland, a Presbyterian sect. For two countries that share the same landmass and cultures that have a shared history, Scotland and England are relatively different from each other. Today, Scotland maintains a distinct cultural identity, which is rich in an ethnic heritage of clothing, food, language, and music. The Welsh maintain a sense of their “Welshness” primarily through language and music. After centuries of political struggle and guerrilla warfare Ireland was formally split in two in 1921. Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland gained independence. England also sought to conquer Ireland beginning in 1170 and continuing through the 20th century. Ireland was also invaded by the Vikings and the Normans throughout the Middle Ages as well. The Irish Parliament passed the Act of Union, which joined Ireland to Great Britain in 1800. Ireland would remain a part of the United Kingdom until 1921 when the country was split, allowing the bulk of the nation to gain their independence and the Protestant and British-loyal Northern Ireland to remain under English control. The country of Northern Ireland comprises only about 3 percent of the total population of the United Kingdom. This victory was hard-won by the Irish. Starting in 1912, a nationalist movement had

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress been growing, inally erupting into a full-scale war of independence from 1919 to 1921. Ireland was declared a republic in 1948 and its oficial title is the Republic of Ireland, although it is rarely used outside of formal government speech. Even after Ireland was freed from English rule, the Irish Republican Army sought to drive English inluence out of Ireland entirely and liberate Northern Ireland as well. The Protestants of Northern Ireland wished to remain part of the United Kingdom while nationalist groups demanded an entirely united Ireland, regardless of the animosity between the Catholics of Ireland and the Church of Ireland Protestants of Northern Ireland. These clashes were often bloody. In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement began the process of peace between Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England by creating an autonomous governing body in Northern Ireland. It also solidiied the secession of the Northern Irish territory from the Republic of Ireland. At the start of the 21st century, this agreement began to break down, but the 2006 St. Andrew’s Agreement resolved several of the central issues, allowing for a power-sharing process between the three nations. After the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001 and on the London subway system in 2005, the Irish Republican Army oficially disarmed and abandoned violence as a means of attaining their objectives. Ireland is also known historically for the Great Famine of the 1840s, which decimated the staple crop of potatoes and caused a sharp decline in the population due to starvation and emigration to the United States. Over the ensuing decades, great numbers of the Irish population left the country; then in the 1990s and early 2000s, many returned home for a temporary economic boom, which burst in 2008 and affected Ireland, along with much of Europe and the United States, quite badly. The United Kingdom and Ireland are a major tourist destination, offering a wide variety of coastal, meadow, hilly, and rugged landscapes. The historical signiicance of the region is also a major draw, from ancient monuments in England like Stonehenge to the raucous, musical pubs in Dublin, Ireland, to the world-class theater in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the peaceful farmsteads of Wales where people still practice traditional handcrafts. Although the cultures of the British Isles are unique unto themselves, their shared histories and geographies have made them into one community. The population of the United Kingdom in 2012 was approximately 63,047,160; of this, 1,799,000 people live in Northern Ireland; approximately 3,000,000 people live in Wales; and 5,220,000 live in Scotland. The city of London’s population was estimated at 7,830,000 in 2010.

Geographic and Environmental Background The United Kingdom and Ireland are located in the west of Europe in the North Atlantic Ocean. This gives the countries a temperate to cool climate with prevailing winds off the Atlantic from the southwest. Most days in the United Kingdom and

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Ireland are cloudy and overcast and precipitation is nearly constant year-round. The terrain is rocky and rugged with low hills and small mountains. In the east and southeast of England, the land is latter with rolling plains and ields that allow for farming and raising range livestock like cattle and sheep. Due to the cool temperatures and high rainfall, the lax plant grows well in England and Ireland. Sheep also thrive across the British landmass and in Ireland, making this part of the world a leader in wool production as well as linen. In Wales, sheep breeding for color and texture of wool is a national pastime. Dying wool and linen in the United Kingdom and Ireland is still done with many of the traditional methods using local plants. The madder plant, which produces a red dye, grows well in the southern parts of England and across Wales. Using madder with a variety of mordants can produce many colors beyond red hues: pink, purple, brown, and black. The dying agent is found in the roots, but the rest of the plant is used as fodder for sheep and cattle. Another plant useful to the residents of the British Isles is woad. A relative of the mustard plant, woad leaves produce a sky-blue dye that was used for dying wool and linen, and for painting the body. The pre-Celtic Picts and other early Britons often painted their faces for ceremonial, ritual, or battleield occasions. Woad was the primary dyestuff for blue-colored fabric, but it was replaced by indigo once regular and inexpensive trade was developed from the East. Exports of wool, linen, and dyestuffs were a major source of income for the British Isles and are still a point of pride for all of the nations of the area.

People and Dress England Although England is a country rich in folk history, it has no oficial national dress or recognizable ethnic dress; it does have several styles of traditional clothing that are uniquely English. These modes of dress vary from those based on ancient roots and those that are quite modern. Occupational dress was an important part of English clothing. During medieval times, before literacy was common, tradesmen wore smocks that were dyed a color that denoted the home region of the wearer. The color and motif of embroidery on the side panels, collar, and sleeve cuffs as well as the smocking pattern were a clear indication of the trade followed by the wearer. The smock is an upper garment worn all over Europe from as early as the 13th century and through the 20th century. It is a very voluminous shirt with long, full sleeves gathered into cuffs at the wrist. But the most deining feature is the smocking done at the collar or yoke of the shirt. Smocking is small pleats stitched in place that gather and shape the garment, allowing for a close it at the chest and a great deal of ease over the hips. Smocking can be very

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress simple or very elaborate and highly decorative. Smocks can be of varying lengths, coming either to the low hip or all the way to the knees in the case of the smock frock. Men’s smocks were most commonly of wool, linen, and hemp. Women occasionally wore smocks as well, but made of iner linen. Another form of iconic occupational dress was the hats of the London street merchants. The merchants would often cry out slogans and other calls to advertise their wares. Sellers that cried their wares were called hawkers; these peddlers were banned from shouting by an ordinance in 1839. Taking a cue from the hiring Any Milk Maids, Above or Below! from fairs of old, the peddlers took to wearThe Cries of London by John Harris, 1804. ing hats that communicated what they (Collections Picture Library) sold. These hats were not only useful, but popular among London merchants. Even in the 21st century, London merchants still wear hats. Men were not the only people in England that employed occupational clothing. The female milk-sellers of London were easy to spot. They were allowed to sell from dawn until ten in the morning and again from mid-afternoon until six in the evening. Their clothing was not so different from that of any working-class woman in England. They carried a wooden yoke across the shoulders from which were suspended pewter tins of milk, which was sold directly from these tins. A black felt hat was worn to shade the eyes from the sun, and a linen kerchief helped control the hair and keep it from falling into the milk. They walked the streets in sturdy leather clogs that also gave a little extra height. The milk girls were most common during the eighteenth and nineteenth century. They were replaced by milkmen that delivered milk to the homes of London residents, and the milk girls selling their wares at dawn and dusk became a thing of the past. Women peddlers or mongers were usually dressed in homespun linen, wool, or a blend of both called linsey-woolsey. Cotton was a costly luxury item before the 19th century and would only be worn by the well-to-do as a blouse, head kerchief, or ichu. Fabrics were coarse and usually naturally colored from the wool in browns and grays, but also dyed to more fashionable colors such as blue or mauve. Most peddlers wore homespun cloth made by local spinners and weavers. Women

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typically wore one or two skirts and an apron with a stiffened bodice that laced up the front. This style of dress was worn well into the 19th century, but was very reminiscent of 17th-century styles. Some women tucked their overskirts up over their hips and wore mobcaps or bonnets in the 17th-century fashion. Morris dancing is an important cultural event and is performed by men during festivals at speciic times of the year. This style of country dancing is popular not only in England but in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States. Thought to be of Moorish inluence, the earliest record of “morisco” or “morris” dancing in its recognizable state was from the record of the May Day and Christmas festivities of the Tudor court. The dancing has a mix of Moorish and archaic pagan ritualistic elements. Morris dancing is performed by teams of six to eight men with the leader known as a Squire or Bagman. Dancers carry sticks, swords, or large white handkerchiefs. The handkerchiefs are swung and swirled over the dancers and the ground to gather and scatter magical energies to encourage new crops to grow and to bless the soil with fertility. The swords or sticks are clashed together to beat out a rhythm to accompany the dancing. Some troupes incorporate remnants of past animal worship into their performances. In Staffordshire the dancers carry antlers, and in Abingdon they carry a bull’s head. The typical costume for Morris dancing is white trousers or breeches and a white shirt. Beyond that, there are nearly unlimited regional and troupe-speciic differences. Most troupes wear a baldric, sash, or simple ribbon rosette in the colors of their region. Green is a common color to use. Many troupes tie bands of bells around the calf or ankle that add more rhythmic sounds to the stylized dancing. Hats are always worn. They can be of felt or straw and are commonly adorned with lowers and ribbons. The use of lowers is highly symbolic, such as red poppies for health and wheat for plenty. Blue cornlowers are worn by unmarried men. Although the Morris costumes are very inluenced by 18th- and 19th-century styles, the idea of a “traditional” dance costume is fairly modern. Today, there are women’s teams that participate in Morris dancing. They usually wear a costume consisting of a bodice and skirt or kilt, although some women choose to wear the traditional breeches and shirt as the men do. But the placement of the shoulder sash is gender speciic. Men wear theirs over the right shoulder and women over the left. There are some troupes that are mixed in gender, but most are made up of all men or all women. Another traditional costume that is rooted in a much older style is that of the Palace Guards. Even today, the Yeomen of the Guard and the Warders of the Tower of London still dress in their 16th-century uniforms that were designed for the court of Queen Elizabeth I. The guards wear red wool tunics over full, paned knee breeches and red hose. Red, black, white, and gold braid and embroidery emblazon the front of the tunic in the heraldic device of the sitting monarch. They wear

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Woodcut shows William Kempe performing the Morris dance, c. 1600. (Kemps nine daies wonder, 1600/Dover Pictorial Archive)

garters with red and white ribbon rosettes that match those that adorn their shoes. The shirt is of very ine white cotton or linen lawn and is worn with a deep ruff at the neck and frilled cuffs that show at the ends of the long sleeves of the tunic. The traditional Yeoman hat is made from black beaver felt and has a medium brim with a wide, lat crown. The hatband is red and gold and worn with a red cockade. The Yeomen traditionally carry a lance with a very large gold tassel as well as a ceremonial sword. The ensemble is inished with white gloves. In the 19th century, the royal residence was moved to Buckingham Palace and the Queen’s Guard there has a slightly more modern look. They still wear primarily red, but a simpler coat with a long skirt that falls to the low hip and simpler gold trimming. They wear black trousers and carry bayonets instead of ornate lances. All guards carry ceremonial sabers. The most noteworthy accessory of the Buckingham Palace guards is the very tall, domed bear fur hats. The long, silky fur comes from the Canadian brown bear and it can take half a hide to create just one hat. The hats are eighteen inches in height and weigh about a pound and a half (665 g). In the late 1990s, there was a great deal of public outcry against the use of real bear fur in the Palace Guard’s headgear. The British Army is seeking a nonliving

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The Pearlie King and Queen of Finsbury and their children in a donkey-drawn cart, surrounded by a crowd of locals, 1925. (Keystone/Getty Images)

source for their furred hats, but since the fur is taken from bears that the local Inuit natives in Canada are allowed to cull and the animals are not killed for their fur, protests have quieted and the traditional hats remain. The early 20th century gave London one of its most unique and iconic costumes: the Pearlies. The Pearlies are descended from 19th-century London families of fruit and produce sellers, originally apple sellers, known as costermongers. The Pearlies’ dress begins simply as dark wool garments of very plain construction. These items are then sewn all over with mother-of-pearl buttons in rows, stripes, chevrons, checks, swirls, loral patterns, and geometric motifs. For men, jackets, waistcoats, pants, and overcoats are completely covered with these buttons. Women wear tailored skirt suits or dresses in dark wool decorated with buttons. Many women like to pair their pearl-button suits with a straw or felt hat that is almost outlandishly decorated with ostrich plumes or other feathers with great panache. The Pearlie style was popular at the turn of the 20th century with the height of interest in the 1930s. Although in the 21st century Pearlies aren’t seen as often, they display their inery on special occasions such as Derby Day. Original

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Pearlie garments, though of very humble origin, can sell at auction for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Scotland Scotland is part of the same landmass as England, but there are many differences in culture, language, and dress. Scotland has one of the most instantly recognizable forms of national dress in the world: the tartan kilt. Family ties are extremely important to the Scots; surnames are relective of an individual’s clan as well as a tradition of colors and patterns woven into the tartan. The modern idea of the kilt has evolved over the centuries from a much simpler garment. The kilt evolved from a garment that was a combination blanket/cloak used to keep the wearer warm during the very cold and wet Scottish winters. Wool was the iber of choice, not only because it was plentiful in Scotland and versatile, but because wool has the unique ability to retain heat and continue to insulate the wearer, even if it is wet. Called the breacan-feile, or the “great kilt” or “belted plaid,” it was about two yards wide and four to six yards in length. It was worn doubled and wrapped around the waist and belted with the remainder draped over the shoulder or wrapped around the body. There was great variation in how this excess fabric could be worn, and it would depend on the length of the wool and the weather as well as the gender and taste of the wearer. The breacan-feile was worn by both men and women. Women tended to wrap the excess fabric around both shoulders and sometimes up over the head. Until the 13th century, it was most likely a plain, homespun wool and not necessarily plaid. Eventually, the breacan-feile became more decorative and incorporated multicolored plaid into the woven mantle. It would be many centuries still before the idea of a family tartan would become common. The term “tartan plaid” was irst seen in accounts of Scottish clothing in the 16th and 17th centuries, but it wasn’t until the 18th century that tartans would become standardized in design and recognized as clan-speciic. The design of the plaid that makes up the tartan is known as a sett. A sett is the number of threads used in each color of the plaid. A sett is measured pivot to pivot, a pivot being the central band of color where the pattern reverses, then repeats. A tartan is deined by its color pattern, which primarily consists of the pivot and the ground. Tartan patterns are divided into many smaller subsets; these include ancient: a tartan pattern using natural dyes developed before 1700; old: a tartan pattern that predates the pattern/color currently used; hunting: a pattern worn speciically during hunts, usually by the Scottish nobility; dress: a tartan the ground of which has been changed to white to visually differentiate it as a special-occasion variation. Tartan plaids can be connected to speciic Scottish clans, but also to speciic districts or towns as well as families not belonging to a particular clan. The kilt can

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be pleated to stripe, meaning that the bold central stripe runs on the length of each pleat and the rest of the plaid is folded in and not seen. But more popular is a kilt pleated to sett, where the intersecting lines of the plaid are pleated and aligned to show the whole sett design. By the mid-18th century, the pleated lower skirt and the draping worn on the upper body was separated. The lower half became known as the feile beg or the “little kilt.” In modern Scottish dress, the feile beg is a more structured garment with stitched-down pleats and leather straps with metal buckles. The back is pleated, but the front overlaps one side over the other, forming a lat, straight hanging portion of the kilts known as the apron. The apron of a modern kilt is layered left over right. The buckled straps allow for custom it at the waistline of the kilt, which should be worn at the natural waist. There are often buckled straps on the apron at the low hip line. A kilt pin can be worn on the lower corner of the apron. The pin functions as a weight to keep the apron from being blown open. It is not pinned through to the layer below, only on the surface of the apron. The great kilt was worn to the mid-thigh, just long enough to cover the pubic area, but the modern kilt is worn longer, coming to the middle of the knee. The Stuart rising of 1745 tried to support the claim of Prince Charles Stuart to the English throne. The uprising was not only a failure, but it also brought English hostilities to a head. Scottish nationalism was outlawed, including the wearing of the kilt, playing bagpipes, Scottish games, speaking Gaelic, and other traditions. Trews replaced the kilt in many areas of Scotland. Trews were a bias-cut combination garment of stockings and breeches that were irst worn by peasants in the Middle Ages. Scottish trews could be of plaid or plain wool. The law was repealed in 1782 and a vigorous interest in Scottish dress in the British Isles began. Modern Scottish dress irst became popular during the reign of England’s Queen Victoria. She romanticized Scottish costume and incorporated many elements of it into everyday dress for both men and women. Scottish men’s dress comes in two styles: everyday and occasion/evening. Daywear consists of a tweed jacket in brown or green, a feile beg kilt, a shirt in white or another light color, and stockings that match the jacket. Accessories such as the shoes and belt must be of brown leather with brass, bronze, or gold tone buckles, buttons, and other details, such as the chains of the sporran, the kilt pin, and the handle of a small dagger worn in the hose. The sporran is a fur-covered bag worn suspended from the belt at the center front of the kilt. The dagger is called the sgian dubh, pronounced and often spelled skene du, and translates in English to “black knife.” It has a 3½- to 4-inch blade and is worn tucked into the stocking with only the handle showing. Occasion dress is worn for evening and formal events such as weddings. The jacket is usually black, the shirt is always white, and the outit is worn with black leather shoes and belt with silver accessories. The “Prince Charlie” jacket, also

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress known as the “Bonny Prince Charlie,” is a single-breasted short jacket worn for casual dress. It is of wool or velvet and can be black, blue, brown, or green and is worn with a bow tie in the matching tartan of the kilt as well as argyle stockings that match the tartan as well. Formal ensembles can be worn with a close-itted Montrose jacket, which is a short double-breasted jacket typically in black, blue, or green wool or velvet. It closes high on the torso and is worn with a lace jabot. White stockings are worn with the Montrose jacket, often with tartan lashes, or bits of tartan ribbon connected to the garters and worn on the outside of the leg. Shoes are typically leather dress shoes in the appropriate color. For traditional Scottish dancing, men can wear either casual or formal attire, depending on the formality of the festival or occasion. But instead of dress shoes, men wear smooth leather dance pumps. Headwear usually consists of a Balmoral cap or a bonnet with a pom-pom on the very top. Both of these hats can be worn with a brooch and a decorative item such as a cockade or a bundle of herbs. The herbs are indicative of the clan of the wearer and the type of cockade will depend on the rank. Occasionally, men add the ly plaid, a square of matching tartan pinned to the left shoulder. It can hang loosely down the back or be belted in the style of Highland drummers. Although it is traditional for men to wear no undergarments beneath their kilt, this is not recommended at modern, formal occasions. Traditional dress for women is Scotland is no less ine, but does not quite have the same level of recognition. Women will wear a draped plaid sash called an arisade from the shoulder. Depending on the period, this might be a very full piece or tartan pleated into the belt at the back and hanging to the hemline. Modern women wear a simpler sash that does not require pleating. This is often worn pinned to the bodice. The wife of the clan chieftain pins her arisade on the left shoulder, but all other women must wear theirs over the right. For the traditional Scottish dancing, the arisade is fairly full and worn with a long skirted dress and a white chemise. Some forms of Scottish dancing require the skirts to be much shorter, allowing the legs to show below the knee. White stockings are worn with laced leather slippers called ghillies. For Highland dances, women wear a feminine version of the kilt. Modern women also have a kilt option. A woman’s kilt, while made of tartan, is referred to as a skirt. They are traditionally worn long, past the knee, but are also available in more fashionable shorter lengths. These skirts are made with leather straps with buckles at the waist for a perfect it and often feature a buckled strap at the low hip to help keep the apron closed. Women do not usually wear kilt pins; the length of the skirts help keep the garment closed. Both men and women wore a linen shirt with very long, trailing sleeves called a léine (“len-yuh”). It is an article worn by the Gaelic people of both Scotland and Ireland. The Scottish léine is usually historically recorded as being dyed yellow or golden using saffron. The length of the léine was up to the tastes of the wearer, but

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often they were worn at least past the hips to put a layer between the skin and the wool of the kilt. Women would often wear the léine quite long to serve as both a chemise and underskirt. Young men wear a kind of feile beg that is fringed all the way around and not pleated very deeply. They pair that with a short tweed jacket and cuaran shoes. The cuaran are much like the ghillies in that they are a soft slipper that tie around the leg. Cuaran are typically made of deerskin and worn with the thongs cross-gartered around the lower leg over the stockings. Currently, Scottish dress is widely popular around the world from historical reenactors to Hollywood. Scotland is also one of the few countries of the world where the traditional dress is still a fashion staple in the 21st century.

Wales While Wales has been part of England much longer than Scotland and Northern Ireland, the Welsh have managed to hold on to their indigenous language and customs. The Welsh language is known for its musical quality and the Welsh people are very proud of their music and their singing. The Welsh are also very proud of their wool industry, and there are gatherings of breeders, dyers, spinners, and weavers to compete and share information about wool production. Much of Welsh wool is still produced by local farmers and is dyed, spun, and woven in a small cottage-industry environment. Dying with local, natural dyestuffs is also common in Wales. Red is a very popular color, and the particular shade favored by the Welsh is made from cockles found off the rocky coast. They also employ cabbage and lichens and other plant material to create a variety of other colors. Welsh dress is very simple and 19th century in style. It differs from other traditional dress in Europe that has roots in the 17th and 18th centuries. The look is overall dark, with black hats and shoes and deeply colored breeches or skirts. Welsh men wear dark wool breeches, either in black or brown, with a waistcoat usually in the same color. The waistcoat is also wool and may be igured or plainly woven. Men and women alike wear a tall-crowned wool or beaver felt hat with a small/medium brim and often decorated with a band with a buckle. Shoes are of black leather with silver or golden buckles; they have a square or rounded toe and a thick, moderate heel. Women often pair their tall hats with a frilled cap, a lingerie cap, or a mobcap, made of ine cotton or linen and trimmed with lace. The hair of both women and young girls is worn pulled back beneath this cap or under a kerchief. The blouse may be of a ine linen and in a high-necked style. It has full sleeves that can be trimmed with narrow lace for special-occasion dress. Women’s costume has a layered look with multiple skirts and an overdress. Women can wear a separate wool

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress bodice and one or two skirts in wool, linen, or cotton. The topmost skirt is dark and tucked up to show the more colorful or striped underskirt. Red is a very popular color in underskirts. An overdress can be worn over a stiffened bodice or a simple corset, or it can be boned itself and worn without any further torso underpinnings. It is also a dark color such as black or brown. The overdress closes at the center front with laces or clasps and falls open from the waist to the hem. This split front can then be pulled back over the hips to reveal the decorative underskirt beneath. The ensemble is then accessorized with an apron that can be made of linen left plain or trimmed with frills or lace, or made from a textile with an interesting pattern such as stripes or plaid. Older women also wear shawls. These can vary from elegant and lightweight lawn to thick, fringed wool. Younger girls sometimes also wear shawls to church and special occasions, usually lighter-weight lawn shawls versus the heavier-weight wool shawls that are considered more matronly. Women’s shoes look much the same as men’s shoes but usually with a more rounded toe and higher heel. Overall, Welsh costume is simple and rustic, not overly adorned. They are renowned for their use of local materials and elegant, but still practical designs. Few Welsh people today wear the traditional garments, but many tourist areas feature farmsteads and handicrafts exhibits where people may experience rural life in Wales. The folk costumes may also be worn at some cultural festivals. Wales has a rich history and culture that is all too often overshadowed by England, but in recent years, a new sense of Welsh identity has fostered a renewed interest in their traditions and their practical and unique dress.

Ireland The Irish people are known for their strong folklore traditions and their love of life. Because of the cold and damp climate of Ireland, wool is commonly used, just as it is in Scotland, England, and Wales. Flax also grows in abundance in Ireland, which makes linen another popular and inexpensive fabric. Also like the Welsh, the Irish are a practical people that live close to the land and their clothing relects this. Although an oficial and recognizable Irish national costume did not exist until the 19th century, there were many common elements of dress throughout the countryside. The average Irish peasant dressed in functional wool clothing, usually worn with linen undergarments. They often went barefooted, only donning shoes in the coldest and wettest weather. These shoes were extremely simple leather slippers that were still being worn regularly through the start of the 20th century, although their use has diminished today in favor of imported shoes. The Irish share the use of the léine with Scotland. While the shape and textile makeup of the bag-sleeved tunic is strikingly similar, the Irish differ in their use of color. While the Scots’ léine

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is primarily saffron, the Irish tend to prefer the natural color of linen or to have it bleached white. Saffron dye is used on many occasions, but it is not as predominant in Ireland as it is in Scotland. The Irish also wear their own style of kilt, although usually not in tartan plaid and certainly with much less ceremony attached. The Irish kilt is much simpler, more like the feile beg, or little kilt; it is a wrapped garment with pleats and buckles, but not as elaborate as the more famous Scottish kilt. The Irish kilt is still worn in the 21st century by some traditional dancers. Irish dancing came into a great deal of popularity at the end of the 20th century and has remained popular through the start of the 21st. People of all nationalities are attracted to its precise, rhythmic, bouncing steps. Costumes for Irish dancing are loosely based on traditional dress and vary between troupes, dance styles, and events. The most elaborate costumes are for the feis, or dance competitions. Feis are held all over the world and feature dancers as young as four or ive years old through adults and often have categories for all skill levels from beginners to very advanced dancers. The skirts for female dancers are fairly short, coming to above the knee. This is important since the style of dancing focuses on the legs and feet as well as proper upper body posture. The shoes will also differ between styles of dancing. The Irish wear ghillies, the soft lace-up leather slippers, for soft-shoe dancing and a thicksoled clog for hard-shoe dancing. Irish hard-shoe dancing was made internationally famous by Riverdance, a stage performance of Irish dancing and music. Dresses are lared and often embroidered or beaded with intricate and colorful Celtic knotwork designs that may cover the entirety of the skirt and sometimes the bodice as well. These designs are unique to each troupe, school, or district. A sash or short cape may be worn with the dress and is reminiscent of older rural costumes. The cloak has been a staple in Irish dress since ancient times. Like the Scots, the Irish peasants and shepherds needed a multifunction garment that could serve as outerwear as well as a blanket or other shelter from the elements. These cloaks were referred to as brats and are worn in Scotland as well, especially in the Lowlands. The brat began as a simple large square or rectangle of wool that was bound around the edges in a decorative manner. It was wrapped around the shoulders and secured with a brooch. In later years, the brat would be cut to a more body-accommodating shape, incorporating a deep hood into its construction. The brat was worn by all stations of Irishmen through the 17th century. It was traditional for a mother to present her daughter with a new cloak on her wedding day. Newer or more decorative cloaks were worn to church and to festivals and celebrations, while the old cloak was used for market days and everyday wear. Its popularity in the 21st century is limited to small pockets such as County Cork where the brat is still worn regularly by the locals. Popular colors for brats have been black, blue, gray, and red. Red dye was made from the madder plant and blue dye from the woad plant. Black and gray brats were often woven with wool from black or gray sheep.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress While red and gray and blue were quite popular colors, nothing can match the Irish love of the color green. If a country can be deined by a color, it is Ireland and that color is green. Called the Emerald Isle, the Irish countryside is rolling and green, and this is relected in their dress. The vast majority of all traditional and dance costumes are made in some shade of green. In addition to the traditional knotwork, motifs incorporating the shamrock are also extremely popular. Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, used the shamrock to illustrate the Holy Trinity, and it quickly became a symbol for the whole nation. National pride has been very important to Ireland since the 19th century, and this is seen in the push for a national costume to express that pride. Ireland was under English control from the 17th century through the 20th, and in those intervening centuries, the Irish people sought to retain their national identity. This was done with several forms of dress including hat styles akin to the Revolutionary bonnet worn by the French in the 18th century. Irish women preferred to declare their national pride with Celtic jewelry. The Irish have been known for centuries as master metal artisans and their intricate knot designs are still popular today. The Claddagh ring with its crowned heart clasped by two hands symbolizing loyalty, love, and friendship is probably the most instantly recognizable piece of Irish jewelry. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, there was also a movement to incorporate native textiles and trims into women’s clothing such as Irish linen, woolens, tweed, and poplin all trimmed with Irish lace and embroidered with Celtic knotwork motifs. This growing movement toward a national identity through costume was very small at irst, but by the mid-19th century it was starting to garner interest in major Irish cities like Dublin. In 1911, the Dress of All Nations Exhibition in Boston, Massachusetts, featured Irish clothing for the irst time. The gowns were made of imported silk that had been woven in Ireland and embroidered with Celtic designs. The showing was a great success and a lasting international appreciation of Irish traditional styles was born. Men had a slightly more dificult task in inding a suitable style of national dress. Early records show that Irish men often wore nothing but a léine. This would not be acceptable for the modern man. Trews, a close-itted pair of pants with the legs cut on the bias, had been worn by medieval Irishmen, but were considered unsightly and uncomfortable. It was inally settled that the oficial ensemble of the Irish man would be a white shirt with a simple kilt dyed with saffron. With this he would wear a tweed or woolen jacket, wool stockings, a beret-like cap, and a brat. Some men chose to wear the léine with the ionar, another clothing item shared with Scotland. The ionar was a short jacket with sleeves open along the bottom that would allow the extremely full sleeves of the léine to hang down. The sleeves could also be removed or worn tied behind the back. This was an impractical outit for a gentleman and did not remain in regular use.

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Today, aside from Celtic motifs and dance costumes, the most commonly associated clothing items with Ireland are the Galway shawl and the isherman’s sweater. The Galway shawl was popularized by a ballad sung in the 1880s, but it was already a staple of the Galway woman’s wardrobe. It is a wide rectangle woven on a jacquard loom and incorporating many symbolic designs. The shawl was most popular between the early 1800s and the 1950s and like the brat, it was often handed down from mother to daughter. The Galway shawl was chosen in 2000 by the Irish government as a gift to present to dignitaries and diplomats in honor of the millennium. The shawls are still made today and are still worn by some locals but have a greater appeal as a souvenir for tourists who tend to use them as bedcovers and lap blankets rather than garments. The Irish isherman’s sweater is called the Aran sweater in Ireland and is based on designs originating in the Channel Islands between England and France. The sweaters are made of unscoured wool, which allows the lanolin to remain in the iber and increases the water resistance of the garment. They are traditionally cream-colored and can be made as cardigans or pullovers. Legend states that each family knitted a different pattern in order to identify the bodies of loved ones lost at sea when they inevitably washed up on the shore. This is most likely a colorful story created around the regional differences in the knitted designs. These designs, of course, had symbolic meanings of good luck and success to the ishermen. These sweaters were most widely used during the end of the 19th century through the start of the 20th. They remain very popular with tourists. Throughout their long history, the Irish have been known to make the best of any situation and this is relected in their clothing. In recent years, Irish styles have seemed most popular among non-Irish people, spreading the unique charm of this small island nation to all corners of the world.

Further Reading and Resources Bell, Adrian R., Chris Brooks, and Paul R. Dryburgh. The English Wool Market, c. 1230–1327. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007. Dunlevy, Mairead. Dress in Ireland: A History. Cork: The Collins Press, 1999. Fairholt, F.W. Costume in England: A History of Dress to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Detroit: Singing Tree Press, 1968. Harrold, Robert, and Phyllida Legg. Folk Costumes of the World. London: Blanford Press, 1999. Huddleston, Joe D. The Sgian Dudh. OregonKnifeClub.org. http://www.oregon knifeclub.org/dubh.html. The Morris Federation of England. http://www.morrisfed.org/mf/infoform.htm. January 2008.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The Pearlies. [The Original Pearly Kings and Queens Association.] http://www.the pearlies.com/. Snowden, James. The Folk Dress of Europe. New York: Maylower Books, 1979. Wilcox, R. Turner. Folk and Festival Costume of the World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965.

Greece Leyla Belkaïd

Historical and Geographic Background Greece has some of the most varied traditional costumes in Europe. This exceptional diversity is the consequence of speciic geological parameters. Mainland Greece lies as far as the southern extremity of the Balkan Peninsula, skirted by the Ionian Sea to the west and by the Aegean Sea to the east. The northern regions of the country are connected to Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Turkey. More than three-quarters of the 51,000 square miles of the territory are mountainous. Greece is crossed by the Pindus Mountains chain from north to south. It encompasses peninsulas like the Peloponnese; big islands like Crete, Euboea, Rhodes, the Dodecanese, Corfu, and the Cyclades; and about 3,000 smaller islands. Situated in the heart of the Middle Eastern Mediterranean area, Greece has a long and tumultuous history. The mixed ethnic and cultural heritage of the Greek people contributed to the hybridization of the clothing landscape. The population and the territory of modern Greece has increased since the second half of the 19th century. When the country was liberated from the Ottomans in 1832, it was composed of the Peloponnese, Rumelia in Central Greece, Euboea, the Cyclades, and the Sporades islands. The Ionian Islands were joined to Greece in 1864, followed by Thessaly in 1881, then Crete and the major islands of the Aegean Sea in 1912. Epirus, Thrace, and Greek Macedonia were integrated after the inal collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1922. The country acquired more than half of its present area between 1881 and 1922. The Dodecanese islands were annexed to Greece in 1947, after the Italians left. In the 19th century, Western European travelers were disappointed not to meet Greek men and women wearing antique drapery in the streets of Athens or in the villages of Attica. After 25 centuries of invasions and wars, migrations and resettlements, empires growing and declining, the Greek costumes were totally metamorphosed. In Boeotia, for example, the wide veil wrapped around the Tanagra women, as shown by the graceful statuettes of the third century BCE, are not similar to the traditional white woolen dress and sleeveless waistcoat of a 19thcentury Tanagra dweller. Today, the global fashion style that can be seen all around 269

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the world is followed by the Greek people in the cities, from the capital, Athens, to Thessaloniki, Patras, Larissa, or Ioannina, and in the rural areas as well. However, the evening dresses created by Athens-based contemporary fashion designers sometimes evoke reminiscences of the antique drapery. In light of Greece’s recent economic crisis, there may not be as many up-to-date clothes purchases, especially among the hard-hit middle classes. As of 2012, Greece’s population was nearly 11 million, with about 3,250,000 living in Athens.

People and Dress Ancient Greek Clothing In the second millennium BCE, the Mycenaean Greek costumes used very few variations of outits, even though a vast range of draped forms and arrangements could derive from them. Carding, spinning, and weaving the homemade woolen textiles on a vertical loom, which differed from the horizontal Egyptian loom, was one of the prominent activities of the female population. The Dorians who occupied Greece in the 12th century BCE were mountain people coming from the north and spreading to the south along the western coast. The Dorian peplos was the principal dress of the ancient Greek women. This wide rectangular piece of woolen cloth, pinned on each shoulder with a ibula, could be open on one side when worn without a belt, or closed with the edges of the cloth seamed together. The lap of the peplos, called colpos, covered the breasts down to the waist. Women and men also wore a woolen cloak, called himation, wrapped around the body and pinned on one shoulder. At least 12 variations of drapery allowed women Greek goddess Athena wears a Dorian to cover their head with the himation, peplos in this ifth century BCE relief titled but only nine were used by men. The “Mourning Athena.” (Susana Guzmán chlamys, a civil or military smaller Martínez/Dreamtime.com)

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variation of the himation, could be thrown over the shoulder or fastened on one of the shoulders. Greek warriors and shepherds covered themselves with a warm cloak, called a chlaine. The ancient Greeks dyed the wool ibers with mineral or vegetal substances to obtain diverse nuances of reds, yellows, greens, blues, and purples. They avoided increasing the weight of their woolen drapes with embroideries. The colored surface of the dress could be exclusively ornamented with geometrical or igurative waved motifs. Religion prescribed or imposed the use of certain colors for ritual costumes. The bridal veil had to be yellow. At the end of the ifth century BCE, when Egyptian and Asian inluences reached Greece via Asia Minor, women adopted more sophisticated costumes. They wore a linen chiton tunic sewn on both sides. A waist belt regulated the length of the garment. Its upper edges were ixed by small beads or ibulas along the shoulders and the arms. The linen was richly colored and thinly pleated. The men’s chiton was basically similar to the female one, but shorter and used as an undergarment. A linen cloak or pharos was also put on by city dwellers. At the end of the irst millennium BCE, women completed their outit with jewelry and accessories like the tholia (hat) and sandals made of leather straps fastened in different ways, similar to the men’s sandals. In the third and second centuries BCE, the luxurious jewels and the colorful linens and cottons imported from Syria, Egypt, India, and China made the Hellenistic dress look more magniicent than ever before.

Greek Byzantine Costume Greece was occupied by the Romans from the middle of the second century BCE till the year 330 CE. The Roman dress was inspired by the Greek one. As a consequence, the clothing landscape of the Greek provinces changed very slightly. The transformation took place later, in the third and fourth centuries, after the decline of Rome and the emergence of the eastern Roman Empire. The capital, Byzantium, which was shortly to be named Constantinople, became a cultural center where new dress codes were invented. The proximity of the Sassanian Empire of Persia, Syria, and other Near Eastern cultures where royal courts exhibited luxurious silk textiles, embroideries, and jewelry inluenced the evolution of Greek dress. The development of the silk manufactures, adopting weaving, dying, and embroidering techniques from Persia and China, was the most striking element of innovation. In the sixth century, under the reign of Justinian, the costumes of the Greek aristocracy reached an unprecedented level of opulence. The ceremonial dress of the court dignitaries showed magniicent silks decorated with woven medallions, loral and geometric patterns, stylized or mythical animals, and scenes representing religious themes. The Empress Theodora wore a stemma (diadem), several

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress superimposed silk tunics embroidered with gold thread, and a wide collar covering the shoulders, called maniakis. The women of the Byzantine court enhanced their dress with enormous necklaces and pendants made of pearls and gems, hanging from the head along the temples. During the Byzantine centuries, men borrowed the concept of long trousers from the Persians. The sleeved tunic, boots, caftan, and tiara adopted by the Greek aristocracy were also inspired by Persian dress. The tight trousers and mid-calf boots were introduced in the civilian wardrobe. The Greeks conserved the draped chlamys, but their tunics showed longer and tighter sleeves following the cut of the imperial paragaudion tunic. From the 12th century to the 15th century, noblemen used to put on many variations of tunics and caftans made of gold brocaded silks. From Constantinople, the new clothing system spread all across Greece and the Mediterranean world, but also across the Balkans up to Russia. The imposing jewels, together with the striking colors, brocaded silks, sparkling embroideries, and the Eastern cut of most of the garments brought an Asian touch to the aristocratic and higher-urban Greek dress style. Constantinople became the capital of the Ottoman Empire after it was conquered by the Turks in 1453. Male and female dress further developed the concept of layering several sequences of garments, but kept most of their ritual and aesthetic characteristics unchanged. Diverse variations of coats, waistcoats, and jackets superimposed over a long shirt, wide cloth belts or sashes wrapped around the waist to close the garments, loose baggy trousers, embroidered shoes, leather boots, and a wide range of headdresses could be seen all over the cities. Distinctions of gender, status, or ethnicity were indicated by differences in colors and accessories such as jewelry and above all, headgear. During the 18th century, the variety of the textiles and the number of the clothing layers increased. Even the urban lower classes could afford more fashionable clothing items thanks to the wide diffusion of cotton fabrics coming from Europe and Asia. The long-sleeved caftan was a major evolution at that time. It was cut in silk velvets and brocades, lighter tafta silks, or woolen fabrics from Venice, Genoa, and Florence. The cheapest caftans were of white undyed cotton. The Oriental-like dress of the Greek city dwellers combined shirts, waistcoats, and caftans of different shapes, lengths, and colors. The excessively long sleeves and the use of fur to trim the caftans, waistcoats, and coats indicated elevated social status. Men’s and women’s popular dress was quite similar. Till the early 19th century, the men’s dress was composed of baggy knee-length pants, cotton or wool socks, embroidered waistcoats, and fezzes. The urban costumes did not differ signiicantly from one town to another. In higher society, male and female dress was more differentiated. The city with the most elaborate dress during the four centuries of Ottoman rule was Salonica, now Thessaloniki, on the northeastern coast of

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Greece. The melting pot of cultures and the trading activities of the Aegean city where many ethnic groups and religions lived together, in particular Sephardic Jews expelled from Spain in the 15th century, helped the development of an exceptional diversity of costumes and jewels between the 16th and 19th centuries. Before the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire, Salonica women used to wear a loose chemise, voluminous baggy breeches, and an elegant coat called anteri, itted to the waist with a rounded décolletage. Outdoors, they also wore a ferace (overcoat), with a mousseline headscarf wrapped around the headgear and the face. An elegant umbrella decorated with lace completed the dress. Dress helped the Ottoman state differentiate the subjects of the empire’s various religions and ethnic communities. Sumptuary regulations were issued by the authorities to impose restrictions on the non-Muslim groups, but the Christian Greeks of the privileged classes evaded the regulations and could use a vast array of garments, accessories, and colors. In the 19th century, the sartorial rights of the Greeks were extended, after the 1856 proclamation of the equal rights of all Ottoman citizens put an end to the tradition of speciic dress codes for each community. In the rural areas, costumes differed from the dress of the city dwellers. They often identiied the members of speciic ethnic communities within Greece like Albanians, Karaghounides, Vlachs, Koutsovlachs, Turks, Sarakastani, Serbs, Sephardic Jews, and so on. The shape and the color of a garment, the volume of the headgear, or the shape of a jewel could mean cultural afiliation. They could also indicate the village people came from. The provinces where different ethnic groups cohabited were those where dress communicated ethnicity the most. It was chiely the women who expressed ethnicity through dress. Men’s costumes were more uniform throughout the country. The Greek-Albanians, called Arvanites, constituted one of the most important communities in Greece. Since the 14th century, they had settled in Attica and the Peloponnese, then in the Boeotia mountains, Euboea, and other islands such as Aegina, Salamis, and Andros. Most of them were Orthodox Christians coming from South Albania. In the Messoghia villages of Attica where the population was mainly Albanian, the women’s dress was composed of an embroidered chemise, an apron, and a sigouni. The sigouni is a sleeveless coat made of thick white wool. A pleated skirt called fustanella distinguished the men’s dress. It was used as a military uniform during the war of independence from the Turks. The Suliotes rebels were Albanians wearing the fustanella. Since the independence of Greece in 1832 and the progressive building up of its territory till 1922, the townspeople’s clothing has been deeply transformed and has adhered to Western dress codes. In the meantime, the regional costumes remained almost unchanged and preserved their astonishing variety. Today all the ethnic groups form the Greek nation together. Their origin is secondary as their settlement in the country happened many centuries ago.

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Contemporary Greek National Dress During the war of independence from the Ottoman Empire, many heroic ighters were Greek-Albanians. They used to wear their ethnic dress and were always represented with the typical fustanella skirt. Otto, the Bavarian prince who became the king of Greece after independence, decided that the fustanella would become the oficial court dress and the patriotic symbol of the modern Greek state. This multigored kilt is made of hundreds of pleats called lagiolia. Each pleat is a rightangled triangular strip of linen or cotton. The costume is completed by a white shirt, a waistcoat embroidered with golden thread, and a plain fez with a long tassel hanging on the back. White leggings, leather gaiters, and clogs complete the outit. King Otto adopted this national dress, followed by the aristocrats and the diplomats based in Athens, the capital of modern Greece. During the Bavarian legacy, the fustanella was shortened above the knees and named fustanellitsa. A few decades later, the Western two-piece suit accelerated its waning. It is exhibited today by the Evzones or Tsoliades soldiers who guard the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier of the Old Palace building in Athens. The women’s national dress was also created in the transitory postindependence period by Amalia of Oldenburg, King Otto’s consort and queen of Greece, who arrived in Athens in 1837. Inspired by Western fashion, the Amalia dress is a hybrid outit composed of a dark velvet itted jacket worn on top of a white chemise decorated with lace at the neck and cuffs. The hems of the jacket are lightened with gold-colored damask braids and embroideries. The Eastern reminiscence revealed by the embroidery motifs is contrasted by the Parisian crinoline. The voluminous skirt put upon the crinoline is sometimes pleated. The Amalia dress included a lat toque with a long golden tassel called kalpaki. It became the royal court dress of Greece and was adopted by the upper-class Christian Orthodox city dwellers.

Folk Dress in Regions of Greece The folk costumes of Athens and the villages surrounding the capital are similar to the dress of the Attica region, called ta arvanitika because of its Albanian roots. The rural populations of Attica shared common dress codes with the peasants of Boeotia, Phtiotide, Argolida, Euboea, and Corinth for centuries. The female costume was traditionally worn on festive occasions during the year following a woman’s marriage, or till the birth of her irst child. It was composed of a long skirt densely embroidered with red, black, and golden geometric motifs; three sleeveless wool or velvet embroidered jackets and waistcoats; a cloth cummerbund wrapped around the waist; and a white headscarf. The bridal dress is characterized by a headband decorated with couched gold-colored metal-wrapped

Greek ezvones (guards) wearing fustanella, Athens, 2009. (Pixxart/Dreamstime.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress thread and breasts jewelry, called kordoni, made of nine chains and more than 10 medallions. Another original dress of Attica is the ceremonial costume of Salamina called koulouris. The original dark blue or dark green cotton skirt is made of 13 horizontal pleats and 77 vertical pleats. A crimson velvet apron with loral golden embroideries and a long-sleeved waistcoat, the tzako, complete the outit. An additional head veil, the skepi, and a jewel called giornanti, made of a net of black pearls, nacre, coral beads, and 25 Byzantine coins, highlight the bridal dress. The composition of Corinth and the Peloponnese costumes is quite similar to the Attica ones. In Perachora, the female folk dress includes a white dress named kolonato, an apron, a jacket, and a white cotton headscarf. All those elements are enhanced with dark geometric embroidery motifs. One year after the marriage ceremony, a woman used to stop wearing her bridal dress to conserve it till the day of her funeral. In Thessaly where many ethnic communities cohabited like the Sarakatsani, the hellenized Vlachs, the Sephardic Jews, the Albanians, and the Turks, costumes inherited diverse materials and symbolic traditions. The traditional dress of the Karagounides village dwellers in western Thessaly includes two aprons. The apron underneath is made of silk in the summer and velvet in the winter. The hems of the upper apron of black or purple felt are decorated with golden embroideries. In most of the Greek costumes, the aprons had for centuries magical attributes linked to the protection of the fertility of married women from evil spirits. Today, most of those ancestral beliefs are forgotten, but folk dancers never discard this central piece of the costume. Another region where clothing traditions persist for the ceremonies and the folk festivals is Epirus in northwestern Greece. While the city dwellers of Ioannina followed the Ottoman urban dress codes till the early 20th century, in the surrounding villages, peasants superimposed original types of vernacular garments and jewels. The women of Zitsa wear a brocade skirt with a typical black sleeveless jacket for festive occasions. In most of the Epirus localities, the lines and hems of the jackets and waistcoats are underlined with red trimmings and embroideries. The women of Souli put on a black wool waistcoat adorned with red ornaments over a fringed dark apron embroidered with archaic red, green, and white motifs. The Epirus women’s sleeveless waistcoats might have Vlach origins. The Vlachs were nomad shepherds coming from Dacia in Romania who descended to the plains in the winter. In northern Greece, varied traditional costumes were used by the Greek peasants who live on the fertile plain of Macedonia. Ghidas or Yidas, now called Alexandria, is famous for the castouli or castoula female headgear, made of three headscarves arranged on a rigid support and adorned with jewelry chains, gold coins, black silk fringes, lowers, and pom-poms. The black and white dress of

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Ghidas is embellished with a large belt covered with silver brass sequins. The Greek Macedonia province also preserves more urban forms of clothing such as the dress of Veria. The women of Veria who belonged to rich traders’ families took inspiration from the fashion styles of Austria and central European cities. Their hybrid traditional dress combines a black coat and a pleated skirt made of taffeta or other silk damasks. For parades and festivals, the village women of Thrace, in northeastern Greece, wear sigouni coats, white shirts, woolen aprons woven with colorful geometric patterns in horizontal narrow rows, hand-knitted socks, rustic leather shoes, and lowery headscarves with bright colors, which evoke the traditional Bulgarian costumes. In Greece, the nomadic groups used typical costumes that coexisted in different regions. The Sarakastani women of Thrace produced the homemade components of their pleated skirt and elaborate garments with domestic wools. The colors of the dress, essentially dark indigo, black, white, and bright yellow, are symbolic. The cross-stitched embroideries on the sleeves of the chemise, like most of the dense ornaments applied on the apron, relect the different steps of a woman’s life. They indicate the social status of her family, but also the season and the kind of ceremony for which the variation of the ethnic dress is made. A few decades ago, a woman had to weave between 20 and 40 different aprons to alternate wearing them to show her physical and mental state, and also the happy or sad events linked to her family and community life. The costumes of the mountain and nomadic groups are often more insular and original than those of the Greek Islands. In the Aegean Sea, Euboea is separated from the continent by straight canals. The pleated skirt and the black velvet jacket worn by the women of Kymi on festive occasions conirm the link of the island to the continental cities. Pleated skirts are also typical of other Greek islands such as Skopelos in the Sporades where voluminous skirts distinguish the traditional dress. One of the most astonishing costumes is the folk dress of Kastellorizo, a small island in the Dodecanese Archipelago. The magniicent bridal velvet coat, called gouna, is worn today by the Kastellorizo diaspora in Australia and Canada for festive occasions and folkloric dance shows. It is trimmed with fur and embroidered with golden thread to show the wealth of the individual’s family. Totally different is the dress of the Karpathos, another island of the Dodecanese, where the skirt and blouse are cut in synthetic silks with colorful printed lowery patterns. Today, in the village of Olympos, women still wear this folk dress for festivities. The Ionian Islands are situated along the western coast of the country. They belonged to Venice, then to France, Russia, and England, before being annexed to Greece in 1864. This historical itinerary made the Ionian Islands’ dress evolve following a speciic aesthetic that integrated fewer Ottoman inluences. The contemporary folk dress of Corfu and the villages situated in the south of the islands, like

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Lefkimi and Gastouri, is composed of a white blouse, a crimson velvet waistcoat, a pleated blue skirt, gold jewelry, colorful silk ribbons, and a lace headscarf decorated with lowers. The dress has a Western European style, but the gold-colored trimmings and embroideries of the waistcoat reveal the relationship between the Corfu society and mainland Greece. In Greece, the men’s attire was less varied and ornamented than the women’s because its ritual and magic meanings were less preponderant. Today, in most of the folk festivals, men’s dress usually combines white cotton or linen shirts embroidered at the neck and on the cuffs, baggy knee breeches, silk cummerbunds, and velvet or felt waistcoats decorated with Young man in traditional clothing in Gastouri, embroideries. The principal accessories are the woolen socks, the gaiters Corfu, 2011. (Pixxart/Dreamstime.com) called touzloukia, the moccasin-like shoes or the tsarouchia clogs, and the tasseled bonnets or fezzes. The folk dress of Rumelia can be considered as one of the most representative Greek men’s costumes. The Rumeliotes wear a white shirt, white leggings, a white fustanella kilt, a black waistcoat with embroidered sleeves hanging from the shoulders along the back, and a red satin bonnet with a long black tassel. A scimitar and a crafted pistol can be held to the waist by an embroidered leather cummerbund called selachi. This outit corresponds to the uniform of the klephtes, the 19th-century soldiers of the war of independence, with the pleated fustanella that became the iconic dress of Greece.

Contemporary Use of Folk Dress The Greek urban costumes were discarded before the middle of the 20th century. Today, the townspeople’s dress codes are identical to those of Western European societies. They follow the global trends of the international clothing and fashion systems. The rural costumes used for festive occasions compose the landscape of what is considered today to be the Greek national dress. Only a few village costumes still survive, while most of the ancient spinning and weaving techniques

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were lost, and local textiles have been replaced by synthetic imported fabrics. In some remote mountainous agglomerations and islands, the brides sometimes wear the ritual costume inherited from their mothers and grandmothers. Nowadays, the extraordinary diversity of the Greek costumes is mainly preserved thanks to the folk dance companies. Greece has approximately 4,000 traditional dances and an elevated number of folk dance groups, approximately 5,000 in the country and almost 1,000 set up abroad by the diaspora. The Greek dance theater Dora Stratou, founded in Athens in the 1950s, involves a minimum of 16 dancers for each show, wearing an average of 10 different costumes each. The handwoven cotton chemises decorated along the necklines, cuffs, and hems with geometric motifs, the embroidered waistcoats and skirts, the fringed aprons, the hand-knitted plain or patterned socks, the leather moccasin-like shoes made from one piece of leather, and the coin-covered headgear are some of the most recurrent elements of the female traditional dress.

Further Reading and Resources Hatzimichali, Angelike. The Greek Folk Costume. Athens: Benaki Museum and Melissa Publishing House, 1977. Papantoniou, Ioanna. Greek Dress. Athens: Commercial Bank of Greece, 2000. Petropoulos, Elias. The Fustanella. Athens: Nefeli, 1987. Skaidas, Michael. “Fabricating Greekness: From Fustanella to the Glossy Page.” In Hazel Clark and Eugenia Paulicelli, eds. The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity, and Globalization. London and New York: Routledge, 2009, pp. 145–163. Welters, Linda. “Ethnicity in Greek Dress.” In Joanne B. Eicher, ed. Dress and Ethnicity. Change Across Space and Time. Oxford: 1999, pp. 53–77. Welters, Linda. Women’s Traditional Costume in Attica, Greece. Nafplion: Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, 1988. Zora, Popi. Embroideries and Jewellery of Greek National Costume. Athens: Museum of Greek Folk Art, 1981.

Greenland Claire Townsend

Historical Background The irst peoples to set foot on Greenland arrived between four and ive thousand years ago from the North American continent via what is now Canada. There have been six different types of Inuit tribes that have arrived in Greenland in different waves, and the current Greenlanders are descended from the Thule tribes, which arrived in the ninth century. They arrived at a similar time as the Norse invaders led by Erik the Red, chronicled in the Icelandic sagas. The Norse population disappeared from southern Greenland around the 16th century for reasons that have never been properly explained, although their ruins can still be seen in the plains and along mountaintops. Expeditions from England and Norway came through frequently in the 16th and 17th centuries and European, particularly Dutch, whalers in the 17th and 18th centuries. There was a rich trade between the Europeans and the Inuits, who traded heavily for European glass beads that were adopted into their national costume. Greenland was oficially declared part of the Danish kingdom in 1814, although it was occupied by the United States during the Second World War to prevent attacks from Germany. Today Greenland has a self-rule contingency within its inclusion as part of the Danish kingdom and strengthened its autonomy in 2009, although it still receives grants from the Danish government. The population in 2012 was estimated at 57,700 people.

Geographic and Environmental Background Greenland is the world’s largest island and covers 836,300 square miles, 81 percent of which is ice sheet. The weight of the ice sheet has depressed the central land area, so that it now forms a large basin within which the ice collects. All towns and settlements are situated along the ice-free coast, with the population concentrated along the west coast. The highest point in Greenland is at Gunnbjørn Fjeld at 12,139 feet, although the majority of Greenland, however, is less than 4.921 feet in

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elevation. The average annual temperatures of Greenland vary from 16°F to 45°F (−9°C to 7°C). Greenland is roughly divided into three sections, in which the dress varies slightly. The irst is Thule which is centrally located in terms of Eskimo immigration routes, but the most cut off from Denmark and Europe. The dress in Thule has remained closest to the original Inuit costume. The other two sections are East and West Greenland.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Greenland’s population is about 90 percent Inuit and natural-born Greenlanders and about 10 percent Danish and other nationalities. The missionary Hans Egede from the joint kingdom of Denmark-Norway arrived in Nuuk in 1721 in his search for the Norse settlers. He never found them, but instead converted the Inuits to the Christian faith. Today, the majority of the population are Lutheran Evangelists.

History of Dress Originally, traditional dress included an inner and outer anorak, inner and outer trousers, and inner and outer boots, with variations of cut for each gender. The garments were all made of fur and skin combinations, with the inner layer having the fur turned toward the body and the outer layer having the fur away from the body, allowing for a layer of air as an insulating cushion between the two and providing room for evaporation of sweat.

Women’s Costume The women’s anorak was a closed jacket, which was in principle a poncho made of a whole piece of reindeer or seal skin with a hole for the head to which sleeves and a hood were added. Traditional anoraks adhere to this principle, so that there are no shoulder seams, which makes the garment more waterproof. There has since been a variation in the pattern, with two separate shoulder panels that fold over the left and right side of the body, again so there are no shoulder seams. There were no closing devices other than drawstrings to tighten the jacket openings. There were sometimes gussets of white skin sewn on around the hood on the outer anorak, and this could be reinforced with skin mosaics. The women’s

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress anorak was cut with pointed fronts and backs, reminiscent of the tail of an animal at the back, and they were often long enough to tie them together under the legs. Women’s anoraks had high peaked hoods, which could be up to one foot taller than the men’s to allow for the arrangement of their hair in the traditional topknot hairstyle. The seams were decorated with white skin, and there could be decorative fringe, bearskin, or dog skin at the hem. There was decorative embroidery at the edge of the sleeves, and woolly wristlets were worn underneath. The backs of the women’s anoraks were broader than the men’s, particularly if they were amauts, anoraks Woman’s parka with a baby carrier on the for married women, speciically back. (Werner Forman/Corbis) developed so that the children could be tied to the women’s backs. The children were fastened with a pouch over them that tied around the women’s chests, so that the children lay naked against their mother’s back. The amauts had drawstrings tops so that the children’s heads could stick out, and the children wore nothing but bonnets. The amauts were also wide enough that the women could move the children around to the front to breast-feed. In the 1860s a hoodless anorak was also developed with a raised collar of dark skin, which has become the basis for formal traditional dress in East and West Greenland today. The traditional underlayer for the anorak, the kapissil, was much like a shirt, with the same cut as the anorak but without a hood. This skin shirt could be sewn from two skins and have shoulder seams. Sealskin, caribou skin, or bird skins were used for this inner layer, and all free edges were bound in caribou skin. The women’s trousers also consisted of an inner and outer trouser. The inner trousers were called naatsit, and they were like shorts that were decorated with beads and skin mosaics, which were different types of fur sewn together in geometric patterns and embroidered with beads. They were cut low-waisted and tight at the hips and buttocks, and apparently date to the mummies of the 15th century. All the women wore the naatsit, and at home and in summer wore them only, so the decoration was quite important. The outer layer of trousers either reached to the top of the boots (called kamiks) or to mid-thigh. There seems to be some

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discrepancy between sources, with women either having a band of lesh on their thighs exposed to the cold (with a piece of skin tied around the thighs if it was extra cold) or having the outer trousers meet the top edge of the kamiks. The cut indicates the trousers were developed similarly to Indian leg coverings, cut as two identical pieces with a waistband or belt attached, which tied in the back. The outer trousers were made of caribou skin or sealskin, also with the fur turned toward the outside. In the modern dress the outer trousers, called sekernil, are embroidered or sewn with skin mosaics that run along the outer seams and horizontally across the thighs, although in some cases the trousers have become shorter and only have the outer seam decoration. The boots, called kamiks, also consisted of two layers: the kamik and the kamik stocking. The kamik seems to have developed from sandals and skin stockings being combined. The lower shoe wrapped around the foot and was tightly pleated and painstakingly sewn to the boot shaft part of the kamik, with a casing at the top. They were cut as three pieces—the sole and a front and back boot shaft—and have evolved to include a triangular insert at the knee, particularly in East and West Greenland. The kamiks varied in length from knee length to thigh height and were sewn of waterproof skin without fur, often dyed in red, yellow, or black. The kamik stocking, the inner boot, was made to the same pattern as the kamik, but the sole and boot part were sewn with looser pleats. It was also made of skin, sealskin or caribou with the fur intact, and the fur was turned toward the body for warmth. The women’s hair was arranged in a topknot and tied with different colored ribbons that indicated their status: Virgins wore red ribbons, married women wore blue ribbons, unmarried women with children wore green ribbons, and widows wore black ribbons. Nowadays, this is only seen in the women in South Greenland on a daily basis. Sometimes hair was let down for mourning, and also during childbirth. Hats or caps were also worn. They were conical in shape to allow room for the topknot and made of waterproof skin with appliqués of igures from everyday life appliquéd on in white skin.

Men’s Dress The men’s dress originally had the same elements as the women’s dress with an inner and outer anorak, trousers, and kamiks. The cut of their outer anorak was a little different from the women’s anorak. They were itted, but were not shaped at the waist, and often the sleeves were cut at an angle to allow for greater ease of arm movement while hunting. They were cut straight across in contrast to the pointed cut of the women’s anorak. The hoods

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A group of Inuit in skin parkas in Greenland. (Theodore Le Boutillier/National Geographic Society/Corbis)

were also closer cut to the face. The outer anoraks for men were often made of light-colored skins from polar bears, arctic foxes, or perhaps sealskin, to help disguise the men while they hunted. The inner anoraks were the same cut as the outer, although in summer sometimes the men only wore their inner anorak. The men also wore an amulet harness underneath, which was worn around the shoulders and connected in the front. The men’s outer trousers were cut longer than the women’s, to the knee or longer so that the boots met to them. They were traditionally worn over the anorak, while the women’s trousers were worn under it. The men also wore the naatsit, leather briefs with the fur to the outside. The men’s kamiks were traditionally the same as the women’s and lengths varied, with knee-length boots for summer and slightly taller ones for winter, often with a layer of dried grass in between the kamik and the kamik stocking for extra insulation. For hunting the men traditionally wore a jumpsuit that combined a hooded anorak, trousers, mitten, and kamiks all sewn together. It was opened by a drawstring down the front. Once closed, it could be inlated through a button on the

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chest, which made it warmer with an insulating layer of air. This also meant it could function as a life jacket if the wearer fell in the water. The hunting jumpsuit is still worn in the Thule region of Greenland. The men wore caps of smooth white skin, embroidered with concentric circles or white fox skin caps with the tails hanging down the back. The cap visor was worn separately and was edged and patterned with two circles reminiscent of eyes or the sun. A wooden eyeshade was worn underneath the visor. There were also caps made from a wooden hoop covered with embroidered skin, with a visor and chin strap attached. Goggles were made of wood, which was either carved out like a small mask, or a narrow band of wood with a slit all the way along through which to see.

Materials and Techniques Garments were made of skins of ringed, hooded, and harp seals, caribou, polar bears, bears, dogs, arctic foxes, ravens, auk, eider ducks, and ish. The skins were prepared in the traditional manner and made into three different types—ordinary skin, which has the fur preserved; waterproof skin, which has the fur removed; and white skin, which has both the fur and epidermis removed. Ordinary skin was used for most clothing items for warmth. Waterproof skin was used for summer clothing and kamik boots. White skin was used primarily for embellishment, such as ornamental edging and skin mosaics. To prepare skins, the blubber was removed and the hide was washed with water and soaked in urine for a day. Nowadays, they use soapy water to wash the skins after removing the blubber. The skins are rerinsed in water and stretched out in a frame or pegged into the ground. For waterprooing skin the preparation was the same, except the skin was soaked for three to ive days in urine (today a detergent with enzymes is used), and the hairs were plucked out with a blunt knife. White skin followed the same preparation as waterproof skin, but was dipped in hot water after the urine bath and the fur and epidermis were scraped off, and then resoaked in urine and rinsed in water as much as needed until all the blubber was removed. The skins were sewn together with sinew thread from the sinews of caribou, dolphin, narwal, or seal. The sinews were cleaned in seawater to wash off the blood and then scraped with a bone tool called an ulu. They were then washed again, split, and hung to dry, and remoistened and split as needed to the desired thickness. Sinew thread swelled as it got wet and ensured garments were waterproof in wet weather. Skins were sewn with bone needles using thrown seams, so there was no hard edge to rub against the body. Skin mosaics were often used as decoration. This consisted of appliqués of dyed squares of skin sewn together with beads. The skin was dyed by chewing pieces of bark into the skin and treating it with urine in East Greenland, although

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress in West Greenland there was more access to vegetable dyes, which made their costume more colorful. Skins could also be dyed with an extract from silk ribbons or painted with oil paints. They used reds, yellows, dark blues, and lime greens. The beads were carved from ivory or fox paws, as well as the vertebrae of capelin ish, and they were dyed with blood. When Danish and Dutch traders arrived in Greenland, glass and stone beads were incorporated into the skin mosaic. The skin mosaic also reinforced seams and so was practical as well as decorative. Although the skin mosaic is not used a lot in the national dress today, it is often used to decorate bags and belts, as well as household items such as cushions, candleholders, and table centerpieces. The same has happened with the use of bird skins, which are now used to make blankets and decorative wall hangings. In modern-day Greenland, Danish linen, lace, and taffeta have all replaced skins in the women’s anoraks and boots, and holmensklæde, which literally translates as island cloth, a heavy knitted fabric, has replaced the skins of the men’s outer trousers.

Jewelry and Accessories Masks were used in Greenland from pre-Christian times up to the 19th century for dance rituals, theater entertainment, and shamanism, as well as wall hangings. They were primarily made of dark decorated skin with contrasting white skin to make skeleton-like faces in East Greenland. In West Greenland they were primarily made of wood and are larger, without as much ornamentation. Unfortunately there are not a lot surviving as many were burned during the conversion to Christianity. The lines of ornamentation seem to correspond with the lines of tattooing on the women’s faces, although it is unclear whether the masks represent women’s tattooed faces or the same symbols were simply used on both. The women of Greenland were tattooed, which was done with a sewing needle and blackened thread, with the pigment made of graphite and urine or a combination of oil and soot. Both graphite and urine were believed to have protective powers, and the urine would have served as a antibiotic. They were tattooed on their faces between the eyes and on the chin, arms, hands, legs, and thighs. A woman’s face was tattooed to mark important events in her life, such as menstruation, marriage, the birth of her irst boy, and the irst seal caught by her eldest son, which was marked with vertical stripes on her chin. It was believed that the Moon Man would be angry if the women were not tattooed properly and would ruin the hunt, a belief that held sway until the early 20th century. Tattooing was also done to protect the body against spirits entering it, particularly at the time of death when the soul or spirit left the body. Pallbearers were

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tattooed on their joints, which were said to be the weakest parts of the body, to block the spirit of the dead from entering. Men were also tattooed on their faces to protect against animal spirits while hunting.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Although folk costume on Greenland is quite removed from Danish folk costume, within the last 50 years traditional dress has adopted Danish accessories and fabrics. In the 1860s a hoodless anorak was developed, which has become the basis for formal traditional dress in East and West Greenland today. It is called a tingmiak, and it is made of lowered cotton cloth or silk, with a raised collar of dark skin or white dog skin and black sealskin cuffs. The points at the front and back of the anorak have been replaced by a broad checked ban of taffeta and are sewn of heavy cotton or silk, but the wrist embroidery and woolly wristlets are still worn. The amauts are also still worn, although the sleeve length has become shorter, particularly with younger women. In East Greenland the amauts are now sewn from white cotton with red borders and decorated with glass beads. The hoodless anorak was worn with a bead collar, which is still evident in today’s traditional dress. It is longer than a regular collar and shaped much like an elbow-length poncho that is strung of large whaler’s beads. These were originally traded goods and spoke to the woman’s husband’s skill as a hunter, and so were a kind of status symbol in that regard. The beads vary from oblong, spherical, and long and slender in shape, and are strung together in zigzag patterns. Some older women do not wear this, but have a collar that they pin with a small brooch. The women’s inner kamiks have changed slightly and are now inished with a band of black dog skin. The tops are decorated with a border of embroidered lowers on white Danish linen, topped with a piece of white Danish lace. The men’s traditional dress has also evolved. The modern-day anoraks are now made of cotton, but the traditional color of white has prevailed for conirmations, weddings, and ceremonies, although some men have black cotton anoraks for extra-special occasions. Many men also wear blue salt-and-pepper cloth anoraks as everyday wear, particularly in West Greenland. Men’s kamiks have also changed slightly in style, and are now made of kneelength waterproof skin with a white fur stripe down the center front of the boot. Today, traditional dress is used on special festive occasions and for Christmas, Easter, Greenland’s National Day, conirmations, and weddings. It is used for a child’s irst birthday and for children’s irst day of school at the beginning of August, which is a day of great celebration in Greenland. In addition to the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress traditional festivals, visitors to Greenland will also see traditional dress being worn when cruise ships call at ports or when there are other special events. See also Denmark

Further Reading and Resources About Greenland. The History of Greenland. http://www.greenland.com/en/about -greenland/kultur-sjael/historie.aspx. Kaalund, Bodil. The Art of Greenland. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1983. Krutak, Lars. Tattoos of the Early Hunter-Gatherers in the Arctic. http://www .vanishingtattoo.com/arctic_tattoos.htm. Levin, Judith, Tattoos and Indigenous Peoples. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2009. Medgaard, Jorgen, Jorgen Nordqvist, and Jens Pederharthansen, eds. The Greenland Mummies. London: British Museum Press, 1991.

Guatemala Jill Condra

Historical and Geographical Background Guatemala, the land of forests in the Mayan language, is part of the area that was historically inluenced heavily by the Mayans. This sophisticated ancient culture had dominated the area that also included Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Mexico for centuries before the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. Religion was well developed; the Mayan warriors had ruled over much of the region and occupied large amounts of land until the fall of the Mayan empire in 1523–1524 at the hands of Pedro de Alvarado. The Captaincy General of Guatemala controlled most of the Central American region during Spanish rule. Guatemala City was established in 1777 as the third capital after others were destroyed by earthquakes. It was founded in the La Hermita Valley. Independence from Spain did not come until 1821, and the country was made an oficial republic in 1847. Largely ruled by a succession of dictators, insurgents, and military leaders, Guatemala has seen only glimpses of representative democracy from the mid19th century through the end of the 20th century, and is plagued with high crime rates and government corruption. It is dificult for judges, activists, journalists, and human rights workers to bring awareness and justice to those involved in crime. Guatemala sits in Central America and is bordered by the north Paciic, El Salvador, the Gulf of Honduras in the Caribbean Sea, Honduras, Belize, and Mexico. It is hot and humid with a tropical climate in the lowlands and cooler temperatures in the mountainous region. This is a mountainous country for the most part, with coastal plains and a limestone plateau. It boasts the highest point in Central America in the Volcan Tajumulco at 13,815 feet (4,211 m). There are many active volcanoes in the Sierra Madre and Santa Maria ranges, which are particularly concerning because they are close to human populations including the capital city of Guatemala City (population approximately 1 million). The city has been evacuated in the past because of falling ash that originated in Pacaya Mountain. Guatemala has natural resources including nickel, hydropower, petroleum, special wood products, and ish. Agriculture makes up only about a quarter of the 289

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress gross domestic product of the country. Crops such as sugar, coffee, and fruits such as bananas are exported around the world and employ about 50 percent of working people, where roughly 55 percent live under the poverty line. Inlows of income from Guatemalans living in the United States help alleviate some of the poverty for those who have such sources. The population of Guatemala in 2012 was estimated at 14,099,000.

People and Dress Of the 14 million people, about half live in the urban areas and approximately 60 percent speak Spanish, which is the oficial language. The population, as in many countries in Latin America, is made up of people of European descent (mainly Spanish), Ladino (a mix of European and Amerindian), and almost two dozen oficially recognized Amerindian groups with their own distinct languages. The oficial religion in Guatemala is Christian with most people calling themselves Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Evangelical. The Catholic Church provides the basis for the legal systems in the country and is recognized in the constitution. Mayan beliefs are still practiced by some in Guatemala. Guatemalan arts are recognizable around the world, especially the textile arts produced by hand by indigenous groups. These brightly colored fabrics, handwoven on a backstrap loom, are popular around the world. Pottery and woodcarvings are also recognized worldwide for their unique designs and quality.

Component Parts Women As in most of the more recently settled parts of the world, such as North America and South America, Guatemalan national dress is largely deined by the dress worn by the original inhabitants of the country, namely the Maya people. As European settlers came to the country, adaptations were made to the dress worn by Amerindians, and traditional textiles were adopted by Europeans. The traditional outit of a Mayan woman is called the traje. Women often make these with handwoven (on backstrap or treadle looms), durable cloth and will make a special traje to indicate a life change or transition. Women wear a long shawl over their shoulders, called a rebozo. The individualized specially designed huipil is made with two separate pieces of rectangular fabric that are sewn together, leaving an opening at the top for the head and two armholes on the sides. The huipil is combined with a long tube-shaped wrap skirt called the corte, which is tied at the waist with a colorful sash called a faja (sometimes used to carry babies on the woman’s

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Maya women wearing traditional clothing, western highlands of Guatemala, 1992. (David Mcnew/iStockphoto.com)

back) and an apron called a delantal. The skirt fabric is often in an ikat pattern. As in other Central and South American cultures, headwear is important, and women often decorate their long black hair with ribbons braided in or wear a cinta, or headscarf. Sometimes the headwrap is made from a wide cinta of rich brocade fabric, wrapped around and around the head with tassels decorating the ends. Certain different styles of sandals are worn on the feet. The traje fabrics are distinct in design, and traditionally the region where the textiles were made could be determined by the color choices and geometric design motifs. Even certain villages could use similar motifs, making it easy to determine from which village the wearer came. Part of the reason this traditional dress style has remained popular in Guatemala is the international popularity of the textiles. Being a skilled weaver can help add to the family’s income by producing the valuable textiles and selling them in tourist markets.

Men Men traditionally wore clothing of the Mayan heritage and some continue to do so, especially in the highlands of Guatemala. While many men wear

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Traditionally dressed Maya man from Panajachel, Guatemala. (Danny Lehman/Corbis)

American-style cowboy clothing including jeans and boots, the traditional dress for men includes handwoven textiles just like women’s dress. National dress for men includes the colorful textiles made into colorful, patterned, and striped pants or shorts, which are then covered with a wide sash at the waist that ends at the hips, almost like a miniskirt worn over the longer trousers. The shirt worn by traditional men is from the mountainous region of Todos Santos. The style is largely a Western combination of center front opening, collar, and chest pockets (one or two), all of which is heavily decorated with colorful embroidery. Like the women’s huipil, these shirts are made from fabrics woven on backstrap looms. Men wear handwoven hats or sombreros with decorative fabric bands.

Children While some children, especially those with traditional parents, may still wear small versions of the clothing worn by grown men and women, to a large degree, the younger generations are rejecting traditional clothing in favor of more Westernized, American clothing such as jeans and T-shirts.

Further Reading and Resources Altman, Patricia B., and Caroline D. West. Threads of Identity: Maya Costume of the 1960s in Highland Guatemala. Los Angeles: Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA, 1992. Deuss, Krystyna. Indian Costumes from Guatemala. 2nd ed. Decatur, Il: Osborne, 1990. Hendrickson, C. Weaving Identities: Construction of Dress and Self in a Highland Guatemala Town. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1995.

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Osborne, Lilly de Jongh. Indian Crafts of Guatemala and El Salvador. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1965. Root, R. A., ed. The Latin American Fashion Reader. Oxford: Berg, 2005. Rutahsa Adventures. http://www.rutahsa.com/traje.html. 2012. (Site dscribes a number of different types of dress from small mountain departmentos in detail and has very good images.) Schevill, Margo Blum, ed. The Maya Textile Tradition. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997. Vecchiato, Gianni. Guatemala Rainbow. San Francisco: Pomegranate Artbooks, 1989.

Haiti and the Dominican Republic José Blanco F.

Historical and Geographical Background The island of Hispaniola (La Española) includes the two separate countries of the Dominican Republic in the eastern part and Haiti on the western third of the island. Christopher Columbus landed on the island on December 6, 1942, and named it La Española, allegedly because of geographic similarities with Spain. Hispaniola is the second largest of the Antilles islands in the Caribbean. The island has a diverse landscape of mountains, fertile valleys, and navigable rivers leading to the coastal areas in the Caribbean. Most of the large cities are seaports. Challenges for the island include lack of adequate freshwater supplies and frequent earthquakes and landslides. The original inhabitants, the Arawak, used several names for the island before the arrival of the Spanish, including Ayty or Haytí, meaning land of the mountains. The Taínos, a later group living on the island, called it Quisqueya or Earth Mother. The Taíno society viewed their leader or cacique as the sole representative of the gods and their communication agent to the spirit world. Taíno spirits were represented by small igures known as cemi and made out of stone, wood, or bone. Also native to the island were the Ciboney and Caribe groups. Little is known about the clothing worn by these natives but early accounts describe them as wearing loincloths, body paint, and embellishments made from local stones and feathers. Most of the 500,000 natives were exterminated by the end of the 16th century due to the Spanish hard labor system known as encomienda, which gave the owner full control over a piece of land and the people living on it. The Spanish brought African slaves to maintain production in the area. They established in Hispaniola the same well-deined social caste system as in the rest of the New World. The peninsulares or recent arrivals were at the top of the hierarchy, followed by the criollos or people born in the Americas but of Spanish descent, and then the mixed-race mestizos, children of European and native couples. Lowest in rank were the descendants of European and African couples, the mulattoes and native-born people. As in the rest of the Caribbean, European and African cultures shaped customs and traditions in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. A majority of Haitians and a sizable amount 294

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of Dominicans are descendants of African tribes such as the Senegalese, Aradas, Ibos, and Mandingoes. During the Spanish colonization Africans and natives living in the area were forced to adopt European dress practices and views of modesty. Their clothing consisted of secondhand pieces and coverings made of coarse linen. The peninsulares established sumptuary laws regulating certain fabrics, colors, and embellishments as a privilege for themselves and occasionally for the criollos. The Spanish depleted the island’s gold resources and exploited fertile lands to exhaustion. By the end of the 16th century the island no longer generated wealth for the Spanish crown and the colony was virtually abandoned. In the early 17th century the French established the colony of Saint Domingue in the western part of the island; by the middle of the 18th century it had become one of France’s most proitable colonies at the expense of the labor and lives of millions of African slaves brought to the area. A large percentage of the sugar and coffee consumed in Europe during the 18th century came from the Saint Domingue colony. In 1777 the Treaty of Aranjuez partitioned the island into two separate colonies. The western French colony—present-day Haiti—was wealthy and mostly populated by slaves. The Spanish colony on the other side of the island—presentday Dominican Republic—occupied an area of depleted resources. In 1791 the slave population led an insurrection against the French exploitative system and after a civil war the Republic of Haiti was created—a nation ruled by former slaves. In 1795 Spain ceded the Santo Domingo colony to France. In 1801 the new nation of Haiti—where slavery was abolished—occupied the former Spanish colony. Spain reclaimed its rights on Santo Domingo in 1809. The Dominican Republic declared independence from Spain in 1821 but was annexed by Haiti in 1822. Dominican independence was fully obtained in 1844.

Dress in the Dominican Republic Dominican society is composed of a mix of people of Caucasian and African descent. The population of the Dominican Republic in 2012 was approximately 10,088,600. Catholicism is the dominant faith in the country. There is also a sizable population of descendants of Sephardic Jews that immigrated to the country from other Caribbean islands in the late 19th century. The Dominican Republic holds one of the highest poverty indexes in the Caribbean. Past dictatorships have negatively inluenced the country’s prosperity and stability. In 1930 Rafael Leonidas Trujillo established a repressive dictatorship that lasted until 1962. The Trujillo era marks one of the darkest periods in Dominican history, including the 1937 operation known as El Corte (The Cutting Down) when Dominican troops massacred thousands of Haitians and some dark-skinned Dominicans living in border areas. Trujillo was obsessed with the idea of blanqueando la nacion (whitening the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress nation), an effort to eliminate dark-skinned people from the country. Dominican society still emphasizes racial differences, at least in colloquial conversation, as a person can be described as someone having pelo bueno (good hair), referring to someone with European straight hair, or pelo malo (bad hair) in reference to wavy African hair. The term zambo describes descendants of indigenous people and someone of African descent. Pelo lacio describes straight hair particularly as associated with indigenous populations. Natives are also described as either indio claro or lighter native and indio oscuro or dark-complexioned native. European clothing styles have prevailed in the Dominican Republic since the arrival of Europeans. Middle- and upper-class urban groups dress following internationalized Western clothing styles, including pants, skirts, dresses, blouses, T-shirts, sweaters, coats, and formal or sport shoes. U.S. brands are readily available, and Dominicans follow global trends in regard to it, texture, color, and surface design for clothing. Commercial and entertainment logos appear on apparel, and in the case of the tourist market, logos include images of Dominican culture and history. Formality in dress marks Catholic rituals such as weddings and irst communions where women wear elaborate white gowns while men use formal suits. The Festival de los Palos (Sticks and Drums Festival) is an African-derived musical celebration. The event is also known as Atabales, Bambulá, or Quiyombo. Drums and sticks of various types and sizes provide the music for the celebration whether religious in nature, such as a wake, or simply a family gathering. No special costumes are worn during the event but a combination of white and bright colors are favored in attire. Performance bands at festivals sometimes wear allwhite ensembles with red accents. These include white full skirts and loose blouses with red headscarves for women and white pants and shirts with straw hats and red accents for men. Percussion also plays an important part in Gagá festivities in areas near the Haiti border or communities with strong African inluences. Gagá is similar to Haitian Ra-Rá, which includes representations of slavery and the ight for liberation set to music and dance. The celebration incorporates spirit invocations and possessions as well as other magic elements. Carnival, as in most of the Caribbean, is a part of Dominican life. Costumes and masks are essential for carnival. Costumes are made from colorful fabrics and are body itting or revealing for females. Men’s attire consists of plain or colorful ensembles. The diablos cojuelos are men masquerading as devils with capes covered by mirrors and bells. The devils poke fun at characters dressed in European style, known as Señores Medievales (medieval knights). Bailes de Disfraces (costume parties) are organized as private or public events during carnival days, giving people an opportunity to dress in creative costumes. As in other Caribbean countries, carnival participants organize themselves in comparsas or dance groups dressed in matching costumes designed with a speciic theme in mind. Comparsas

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Revelers wearing masks of diablos cojuelos dance during the carnival parade of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, c. 2003. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)

and individuals may receive prizes awarded by private or government organizations interested in promoting creative expression in costume. In certain cities, such as San Pedro de Macorís, costumes are more elaborate, incorporating feathers and mirrors as embellishments. An important part of the carnival in the city are the Buloyas or Guloyas, masked revelers believed to represent the biblical battle between David and Goliath, and the Momís, derived from the British Mummer’s Play with an added touch of African traditions represented in their costumes. The Carnaval Cimarrón (Cimarron Carnival) is held around Holy Week—as opposed to Fat Tuesday or the days leading to Lent—as in most of the world. The Cimarrones are descendants of runaway slaves from the 16th century who live in mountain communities. Their reverence for tradition leads them to replicate African villages in every detail, including dress and appearance. The main element in the Carnaval Cimarrón is the diablos (devils), masked men who chase other people in the community with whips. In the town of Elías Piña, the masks are burned at the end of the event and spread around the agricultural lands. Dance was always an integral part of Dominican society. Merengue, a style of tropical music created in the Dominican Republic in the middle of the 19th century, has evolved into a national symbol. Merengue does not have a traditional style of dress. The association of merengue with dress resides in the fact that women

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Dancers wear typical Dominican national costumes in Santo Domingo, 2003. (Antonio Scorza/AFP/Getty Images)

wear itted short dresses in styles that change according to the fashion of the period. Bachata is another style of Dominican music popularized worldwide by Juan Luis Guerra and the group Aventura. Bachata and merengue musicians often perform wearing colorfully printed short-sleeve shirts. Older types of music and dance include the sarambo, guarapo, and fandango (a word also used to describe a party). The calenda, a dance originally performed by African slaves, may be the origin of other dances such as the sarandunga and the jaiba. No particular style of dress is perceived as traditional for theses dances, but women often perform wearing white short-sleeve blouses with round necklines and rufles on the edges along with red, white, and blue pleated skirts. Men wear either white trousers or jeans and a simple shirt with sleeves rolled up to the elbows. The men’s look is accessorized with a red, white, or blue handkerchief around the neck or a straw hat. The Cuban guayabera, known as a chacabana in the Dominican Republic, is sometimes considered a representative item for men’s costume. The guayabera originated among Cuban upper-class or hacendados (landowners); it is a lightweight white or pastel-colored cotton dress shirt decorated with rows of vertical tucks on both the front and back. In 2007, through a nationwide contest, the Dominican Republic selected an oficial national dress for the country. The

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winning garment, named Cultivo de Vida (Life’s Harvest), was designed by Carlos de Moya. The Consejo Nacional de Cultura (National Culture Council) ratiied the oficial selection. The top has a scoop neckline adorned with ive necklaces inspired by those worn by the Taínos and made from local stones. The outit’s sleeves make references to folkloric instruments (drums and accordion). The dress is also adorned with lace and ribbons acknowledging the Spanish inluence. The headdress is designed with the national lower caoba (Swietenia mahoganny) and earrings are made of bull’s horn as a reference to the livestock industry. The garment is merely symbolic and not rooted in historic or traditional outits as is customary in other Latin American countries.

Dress in Haiti Haiti has the misfortune of being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, a dificult situation made worse by a devastating earthquake in 2010. At the turn of the 20th century a political and economic crisis in the nation provoked an intervention by the United States that lasted until 1934. In 1957 François “Papa Doc” Duvalier established a regime that lasted for several decades. In 1990 Jean Bertrand Aristide was elected president, but he was ousted by the army within a year. This episode provoked the exodus of thousands of Haitians to the United States, Europe, and other Latin American countries. The economic proile of the country further deteriorated in the 1990s, leading to restlessness and violence among the population that lasted well into the 21st century. The population of Haiti in 2012 was approximately 9,802,000. Social structure in the French colony of Saint Domingue was strict. Grands blancs (great whites) were the landowners; the poor whites or petits blancs were small merchants, clerks, or plantation managers. The grands blancs kept strong ties with many aspects of Parisian society including fashion and appearance. A sizable number of immigrants from Syria and Lebanon arrived on the island in the last quarter of the 19th century, adding to the cultural variety of the country. The gens de couleur (people of color) were wealthy mulattoes or free slaves; they eventually surpassed the number of wealthy whites. The bulk of the population was composed of African slaves further classiied between bozales, irst-generation African slaves, and creoles, those born on the island. Even after independence and the abolition of slavery in 1791 the large population of peasants in the country lived under conditions of poverty that have lasted for centuries. Haitian clothing is usually colorful, bright, and made of lightweight cotton. Women’s skirts are full and blouses have wide necklines. Men mostly wear shortsleeve shirts and trousers. Footwear ranges from sandals to formal leather shoes. Some Haitians make their own sandals with materials such as straw, wood, and

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress rubber. A common occurrence in Haiti is the sight of women coming from the mountains to the urban areas or moving within the urban areas balancing on their heads large baskets with products for sale.

Catholicism and Voodooism Catholicism is the socially accepted religion, but a number of African religious practices are intertwined with Catholic traditions. Voodoo (also spelled Vaudou or Vodou) is an Afro-Haitian belief system with a number of complex rituals mostly originating in Dahomey, Africa. Voodoo celebrations are magical in nature and involve spirit possession of one or more of the participants, who normally dress in white. Voodoo priests are known as hungan or papa-loa and priestesses as mambo or mama-loa. They dress in long loose robes and headscarves. Voodooists may dress in costumes representing a spirit or loa. Agwe, for instance, is a spirit that rules over the sea and is represented with brightly painted shells and ish placed over military uniforms. Zaka, a loa associated with agriculture, is represented by blue jeans, a large hat, a machete, and a peasant bag. Guédés are spirits of the dead. Any participant seeking to be possessed by a Guédé must wear dark or purple garments that may include frock coats, dark veils, and top hats. Also important is the Voodoo lag or Drapo created with thousands of sequins over a solid fabric panel. Protection against evil eye or maldioc is common in Haiti. People wear charms or carry wanga dolls to protect against it. Wanga dolls represent spirits working on behalf of those who carry them. In Voodoo religious dancing is seen as a link to the supernatural and many rites and celebrations involve forms of dancing and costume. Long skirts are fundamental in the visual effect created during the dances as the women hold the hems to raise and lower the skirts in unison with the music. Men perform similar movements with a piece of cloth worn around the neck. Rara celebrations—a form of entertainment associated with voodoo—are popular in the evenings during the Lent season and particularly on Easter Sunday. Elements of possession are also part of Rara as the celebration invites the loas to improve and renew life. Rara bands include improvised percussion instruments and long bamboo tubes used as wind instruments. Performers wear colorful ensembles and include men who cross-dress as women and are feared by young children whom they chase after. The Haitian Rara/rock band Boukman Eksperyans tours internationally, performing in costumes created from West African prints or vibrant neon fabrics. Rara parades are also staged during Lent in parts of the Dominican Republic where they are known as Gagá. The celebration is seen by some as a manifestation of friendship between Haitians and Dominicans. Gagá is particularly popular in rural communities depending on agriculture for sustenance.

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Women dance in a Rara procession in Gonaives, Haiti, 2010. (Carlos Cazalis/Corbis)

Carnival Haitians celebrate carnival during the weekend leading to Ash Wednesday. A variety of costumed characters participate in the celebration including demons, animals, and ghosts. Men dress as women for comic purposes while women wear elaborate and sometimes body-revealing costumes decorated with beads, sequins, feathers, glass pieces, and ribbons, as is customary in other Caribbean countries. The compa or kompa is regarded as the national music and dance of Haiti. The mid- to fast-tempo dance originated from the French contradance and appeared in Haiti during the 18th century. The dance is characterized by sensuous hip movements accentuated by coordinated movements of the full skirts worn by female dancers. Other varieties of Haitian music and dance include Zouk, a modern version of compa, racine, and tajona. The rhythm for these dances is African in nature and probably originated from music performed by the slaves. No speciic form of dress is associated with the dances, but men often wear white pants and shirts while women use long one-piece gowns or two-piece ensembles and headscarves. Women occasionally wear midriff-bearing tops and open skirts that reveal the legs. White is a dominant color in female dance garb, but other colors are used in women’s clothing and in men’s handkerchiefs worn on the head or around the waist.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The national dress for women in Haiti is the karabela, known in other parts of the Caribbean as a quadrille dress. It consists of a full-lared skirt made of white cotton and a white blouse with rufled sleeves and neck. Red and white plaid fabric or other bright colors can be used as accent material or in headwraps or to decorate a straw hat. Men wear white pants and shirts and accent fabric tied around the head, the waist, or a straw hat. Men occasionally wear the gwabel, a loose shirt worn untucked. The garment is similar to the Cuban guayabera, a lightweight white, or pastel-colored cotton dress shirt decorated with rows of vertical tucks on both the front and back.

Further Reading and Resouces Cambeira, Alan. Quisqueya la Bella: The Dominican Republic in Historical and Cultural Perspective. Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 1997. Leyburn, James G. The Haitian People. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1966. Listin. “Un Traje Típico Oicial para el País.” Listin Diario, November 10, 2007. http://www.listindiario.com/app/article.aspx?id=36238. Rouse, Irving. The Taínos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992. Sagás, Ernesto, and Orlando Inoa, eds. The Dominican People: A Documentary History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2003. Vega, Bernardo, ed. Dominican Cultures: The Making of a Caribbean Society. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007. Zakrzewski Brown, Isabel. Culture and Customs of the Dominican Republic. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Hungary Christina Lindholm

Historical Background People have long roamed the great lat plains of the Euro-Asian region. Ancient peoples lived a pastoral, nomadic lifestyle and animals, especially horses, were of great value. To this day, Hungarians are known for the quality of their horses and the excellence of their riding. The Magyar tribes united in the Middle Ages (about the ninth century) to form the nation now known as Hungary. Christianity and social reform were introduced under the leadership of Geza in the late 900s. Geza’s son Stephen was crowned king in 1000 CE, and he consolidated Hungary as a Christian nation aligned with the Roman Catholic tradition. In the following centuries, Hungary stood against invasions from Germany and nomadic tribes, although it fell under Mongol attack in 1241. After the invasion, Hungary erected signiicant fortiications to protect against future invasions, and these castles and fortresses provided excellent defense against the forces of the Ottoman Empire. Eventually parts of Hungary became an unwilling province of the Ottoman Empire, which lasted until the empire was dissolved during World War I. Other parts of Hungary endured political ighting and upheaval with the Austrian Hapsburgs gaining control and ruling for 400 years until 1918. A period of reform began in 1825 and focused on modernizing the country and addressing the needs of the peasantry. This eventually led to the revolution of 1848 when activists demanded civil and human rights reforms. Continued conlict with Austria resulted in the 1867 Austro-Hungarian Compromise and the establishment of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This period saw remarkable economic development and modernization. The independent cities of Buda and Pest, separated by the Danube River, were united with the ancient town of Obuda to form the new capital of Budapest. Twentieth-century Hungary endured World War I, ighting on the side of Germany, Bulgaria, and Turkey and with Germany in World War II. After World War II, Hungary became part of the Soviet Union and the country was under Communist 303

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress control until 1989. Hungary continues to struggle to establish a stable political system as it seeks to deine itself as a nation.

Geographic and Environmental Background Hungary is located in Central Europe, south of Slovakia, east of Austria, west of Romania, and north of Croatia and Serbia. Slovenia shares a short portion of the southwestern border and a similar area borders Ukraine to the northwest. It is a landlocked country, approximately the size of the U.S. state Indiana. Like Indiana, it shares a moderate climate with distinct seasons. Summers range from warm to hot, and winters are cold and can be overcast and gray with high humidity. Most of Hungary is fairly level with plains suited for agriculture, and it is home to the Great Hungarian Plain, one of the largest lat areas in Central Europe. More than half of the country is arable land, making land one of Hungary’s most important resources. In addition to the traditional green pepper, the paprika, Hungarian crops include hemp, lax, corn, wheat, barley, and oats. There is also a lively viticulture in the hill and mountain region with records indicating that wine was being produced as far back as Roman times. About 20 percent of the country is forested and the Danube, the second largest river in Europe, runs north/south through the country. The Tisza River, another major river in Central Europe, also lows through Hungary. These rivers roughly divide the country into three regions including the Great Alfold (the Great Hungarian Plain), which is situated east of the Danube River. To the west is the hilly Transdanubis region and to the north is the mountainous region leading to the Carpathian Mountains.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity According to the World Bank, the 2010 population of Hungary was 10,008,703, with 68 percent of the people now residing in urban areas, although as recently as the mid-20th century, more than 50 percent of the country still lived in rural areas. Hungarians comprise the largest ethnic group in Hungary, accounting for 89.9 percent of the population. The second largest group at 4 percent is the Roma (also known as the Romani or Gypsies). This is followed by Serbs, 2 percent; Slovak, 0.8 percent; and Romanians, 0.7 percent (World Bank). The average income per capita is estimated at U.S. $12,850. Religious representation is more diverse with 51.9 percent of the population practicing Roman Catholicism. Calvinists represent 15.9 percent and the remainder

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are Greek Catholic (Orthodox), other Christian, or unafiliated. It is interesting to note that slightly more than 25 percent of Hungarians do not publicly identify with a religious tradition.

History of Dress Hungarian dress developed along two parallel lines; that of the few wealthy noble citizens and the majority of rural peasants. The styles of dress are markedly different, but both styles are colorful and decorative. There is no single style, with a great variety of dress between regions and even between villages. Still, there are basic common elements. Men’s Dress As in most of the Balkans, the basic garment is a simple, natural-colored, pullover shift made of hemp. Linen and cotton did not grow in the region in the past so hemp was the most often-used plant iber. The shift used the entire width of cloth produced in homes on a small loom. One length was used for the front and back with a hole cut for the head. Smaller rectangles were added at the sides for sleeves and in colder weather, the garment could be constructed with a double layer. No mention is made of any undergarments. The shirts were hip length and fastened with a cloth or leather belt over simple cloth trousers. Vests were worn on occasion and could be a variety of lengths and of different fabrics, including wool and leather. Outer garments included the guba, a unique type of wool cloak woven so that long yarn tails hung on one side of the cloth resembling fur. The suba was a sheepskin overcoat featuring embroidery with a laring bottom edge. Expensive subas required many more sheepskins and could be nearly circular in their fullness. The cifraszűr was a formal broadcloth cloak, which enjoyed great popularity. Notable among traditional male Hungarian dress is the equestrian military dress, which evolved during the 17th and 18th centuries. This dress, largely that of the nobles, called díszmagyar, was adopted as the uniform for the Hungarian hussar troops. Many European cavalry regiments developed uniforms that were also based on the Hungarian noble dress. The basic components of this included tall leather boots; very close itting, colored riding pants; and a tight, short jacket made from elegant cloth such as brocade or velvet, known as a dolman or dolmany. The jacket was heavily covered with gold braid or silk cord (frogging) and the pants might display gold trim as well. An overjacket called a pelisse was often worn casually over one shoulder. A fur-lined long, loose overcoat called a mente was also part of the outit. It could be knee or calf length and might have precious metal buttons with gemstones. Knee-high leather boots were worn over the trousers, and the boots often featured colorful embroidery. Men wore a tall fur or fur-trimmed

A young Hungarian girl in traditional dress with an older gentleman wearing a large coat cifraszűr, c. 1930. (Rudolf Balogh/Alinari Archives, Florence/Alinari via Getty Images)

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hat, frequently with a feather and possibly a large brooch, and carried a highly decorated bag at the belt to complete the ensemble. This outit personiied the bold, devil-may-care cavalry oficer of so many old ilms. Male peasant dress, especially on the eastern border regions, came to resemble noble dress. The Székelys, a minority group, served as border guards for several hundred years and wore similar outits including tall boots and tight pants. Their jackets and vests were highly decorated with cording, and their rank and status were visible on their jackets through military insignias. A unique design feature of their pants was the front lap. This was held closed with a belt and decorated with more cord. The style is still occasionally seen in Székely villages. During the 19th century, white cotton cambric cloth was imported in Hungary, and this resulted in a noticeable enlargement of the sleeves and trouser legs. What had previously been tight to straight sleeves and legs now became very full and loose. A very wide garment, nearly skirt-like in its fullness, the gatya, was still worn into the early 20th century. Women’s Dress Prior to the uniication of Buda and Pest, Buda was the center of court activity and urban home to the Hungarian aristocracy, while Pest developed as the commercial center. Since much wealth was agriculturally based, the upper classes usually remained on their country estates, generally wearing garments designed speciically for country life. Members of the aristocracy frequented Vienna and traveled to Buda for court activities and celebrations. For those events, fashionable dress was greatly inluenced by Paris and Vienna. Traditional Hungarian women’s folk dress was distinctly different from the fashion popularly worn in Europe. Like men’s dress, women originally wore a simple shift with a hole for the head, straight sides, and stitched-on sleeves. In the less-traveled areas of Hungary, a rectangular piece of cloth was wrapped around the body as a type of overskirt. It was tied in place with a belt made from either woolen cloth or leather. These simple garments were worn with woolen vests and cloaks as well as felted wool foot coverings. Leather was also used for vests, and fur was used both as trim and as entire cloaks. Heavily inluenced by the Ottomans, this traditional dress evolved in the 16th century to a far more elaborate garment for the upper classes. The intrusion of external cultures expanded trade opportunities and introduced new types of prestigious and exquisite fabrics. Heretofore unavailable textiles like velvet, brocade, and silks were adopted by both men and women of the aristocracy. While European fashionable dress certainly had a decided impact, Hungarians elected to retain aspects of their traditional dress in concert with more elaborate fabrics. This evolved into a distinctly Hungarian outit with several component parts. The

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sleeves of the original white blouse grew to great dimensions and were gathered at the armhole and at either the elbow or the wrist. The shorter-sleeved blouses might have lace at the edge, forming a deep rufle over the elbow. A round neck opening was tied closed and a short, scoop-necked, closely itted vest was worn atop the blouse. Some vest styles were cut underneath the bustline, rising to a peak between the breasts and laced to the waist, very much like a corset, while others had square or round necklines. Some vests extended past the waist, either itting over the hips or extending to a long point at the center front. A long, full skirt, gathered or pleated at the waist, was worn with several petticoats creating a wide silhouette at the hem. This was made possible by the importation of cotton fabric. The enormous yardage required for the petticoats was a clear indication of wealth and status. The skirt was topped by a long apron trimmed with wide borders of exquisite lace. Embroidery was used throughout on the blouse, vest, apron, and skirt. Red, blue, and green were the favored colors in bold, bright shades. Headgear was an important feature of the ensemble. The párta was worn by all unmarried (and presumably virgin) young women, regardless of social class. It was a crescent-shaped band constructed from a wire frame and covered with cloth, then embellished with lace and even pearls. For festive occasions, married women wore a főkötő, a headdress that covered the front of the hair. The főkötő was a stiff base covered with cloth, highly decorated with lace, embroidery, gems, or corded designs. For daily wear, married women shifted to wearing headscarves. A great variety of colors and patterns exist for scarves and most women were thought to have owned many. Székely garments for women were similar to the peasant dress of other regions in that they consisted of the basic shift, skirt, vest, and apron, but were made from home-produced cloth in stripe or check patterns. These distinctive patterns varied by community and became regional identiiers of the Székely people as well as indicators of the age of the wearer. Toward the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries, peasant dress became widely popular and a symbol of national pride. Queen Elizabeth, wife Women in traditional dress, Holloko, Hungary, 2009. (Vidler/StockphotoPro) of Francis Joseph of Austria, commis-

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sioned a traditional Hungarian-style dress from the Paris House of Worth to wear at the coronation ceremony in 1867 when the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was established. Naturally, this endorsement by a person of such social and political standing led to widespread popular adoption of the style. The traditional components remained but parts were increasingly produced in expensive fabrics, and individual craftsmen and designers found opportunity to create masterpieces of embroidery and garment embellishment. Craft guilds were the province of men, but in small villages, women were able to participate and earn a small income from sewing and embroidery.

Materials and Techniques Hemp, which was cultivated in Hungary, was the most common cloth for shirts and dresses. Cotton did not grow in the region, requiring a different climate, thus hemp served the purpose for many garments. Wool from sheep and goats was used for heavier garments and could be felted into thick materials for footwear, hats, vests, and outer cloaks. Sheepskin served well as jackets and outer cloaks. Leather was processed into garments and footwear. Like many Balkan countries, Hungary has a rich embroidery tradition, thought to date back to the Middle Ages. Females learned to embroider at a tender age and produced not only highly embellished blouses, dresses, jackets, aprons, and shawls, but household items like pillow and bed covers, napkins, tablecloths, and bags. They favored bright colors and semirealistic loral designs with many textured stitches. As factory-produced cloth and clothing began to appear in Hungary in the early 20th century, a strong folk tradition in embroidery reasserted itself. The style of embroidered lowers on white cloth became especially familiar in the Kalocsa region, and it is this type of bright loral embroidery on white cotton that personiies what Euro-Americans consider the “peasant blouse.” Mass-produced fabrics eventually replaced homespun cloth, but these factory textiles were adopted into local styles. Manufactured cloth allowed for greater texture and chemical dyes, which meant that colors were brighter and greater in range than homespun, home-dyed cloth. Hungarian needlepoint lace is another important and persisting textile tradition. It was used in trimmings and on collars, ruffs, and lace fans. In 1902, a style depicting people and animals in lace emerged. Known as Halas lace, these complicated designs were basically lace pictorial scenes featuring peacocks, doves, deer, and peasants. It was made through a combination of needle lace and weaving. As its popularity grew, copies were inevitable, so makers of the original Halas lace included a small logo of three tiny ish on every original piece. The demand for lace greatly diminished after World War II, so current production is limited.

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Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress The Magyaros dress movement began in 1930 with fashion designers encouraged to create a style of dress that would make use of the embroidery and lacemaking skills of traditional craftsmen. Klára Tüdős was one of the most successful of these designers. Her work referenced classic Hungarian aspects in cloth, silhouette, and embellishment, but had a modern lair that had wide popular appeal. After World War II, this style of dress lost appeal for several reasons. Manufacturing systems had become defunct during the war, and the colorful and decorative Magyaros style was considered too impractical for everyday wear. As with many consumer goods after the war, there was a signiicant shortage of clothing. There were also nationalistic political connotations with this style, so many people elected to dress in more somber, anonymous clothes suited for work. The Communist powers ruling Hungary sought to nationalize Hungarian dress in the 1950s. The Hungarian Fashion Designers Union was directed to create wearable, useful clothing for the workers rather than frivolous garments for the few, and women’s magazines offered suggestions on how to alter “bourgeois” dress. Wearing fashionable or distinctive styles was criticized by the government, which strove for uniformity and equality. Still, Western fashion was desirable and found its way into Hungary through back channels. Outlying and more rural areas did not necessarily abandon traditional dress. Women, in particular, were more likely to retain folk or national dress. Some villages did not discard folk dress until the mid to late 20th century, and some women did not ever give up their traditional styles. Today, folk dress is still worn in Hungary for celebrations, festivals, and holidays. Dance troupes and folk groups maintain the full regalia, but for everyday wear, Euro-American fashion in the form of suits and sportswear has largely been adopted.

Further Reading and Resources Bartlett, Djurdja. FashionEast: The Spectre That Haunted Socialism. Boston: MIT Press, 2010. Csepeli, György. National Identity in Contemporary Hungary. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997. Csernyansky, Maria. The Art of Lacemaking in Hungary. Budapest: Corvina Press, 1962. Dózsa, F. K. “How the Hungarian Costume Evolved.” In Polly Cone, ed. The Imperial Style: Fashions of the Hapsburg Era, pp. 75–88. Metropolitan Museum exhibition. New York: Rizzoli, 1980.

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Farkas, Eniko. “Political Resistance in Hungarian Dress.” Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore. Vol. 30, Spring–Summer 2004. http://www.nyfolklore.org/ pubs/voic30-1-2/resist.html. Fülemile, Ágnes. Hungary: Ethnic Dress. Joanne Eicher, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2012. Gáborján, Alice. Hungarian Peasant Costume. Budapest: Kossuth, 1969. Hofer, Tamás, and Edit Fél. Hungarian Folk Art. Budapest: Corvina Press, 1994. Hollins, David. Hungarian Hussars 1756–1815. Osprey Warrior Series. Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2003. Hungarian Culture 101. Hungarian Traditional Costume—Folk Dress of Hungary. http://goeasteurope.about.com/od/hungary/ss/hungaryculture_3.htm. Laces of Traditional Hungarian Dress. http://www.budapestzin.com/2010/09/ laces-of-traditional-hungarian-dress.html. Medvedev, Katalin. Hungary: Urban Dress up to 1948. Joanne Eicher, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2012. Tilke, Max. Costume Patterns and Designs. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. World Bank. Hungary. http://data.worldbank.org/country/hungary. Accessed March 17, 2012.

India Michele A. Hardy

Historical Background The irst permanent human settlements in the Indian subcontinent are dated to 7000 BCE and likely evolved into the Indus Valley civilization (3300–1700 BCE). Located in the vicinity of the Indus River in present-day Pakistan, the Indus Valley civilization is associated with some of the earliest evidence of cotton and cotton textiles. Indigenous to the region, cotton (gossypium arboreum) was used from 4000 BCE. There is evidence that spinning, weaving, and dyeing were highly developed and that cotton textiles were extensively traded from an early date. In the third century BCE the powerful emperor Ashok’s kingdom stretched from present-day Afghanistan and western Iran to the Indian states of Bengal and Assam in the east and Mysore in the south (304–232 BCE). Relations with the Hellenistic kingdoms to the north and west of his empire were amicable. Following Ashok’s demise, however, Demetrius I, ruler of the Greco-Bactrian kingdom (covering parts of present-day Afghanistan and Central Asia), conquered much of north India and established the Indo-Greek kingdom. Dominating northern India between about 180 BCE–10 CE, it was a period of cultural syncretism. Greek inluence, particularly on sculpture, was evident from this period and has had an enduring inluence on Indian art. The Gupta dynasty (320–550 CE) is often referred to as “India’s Golden Age.” It was characterized by relative peace and prosperity, fostering scientiic and artistic achievements. Following a subsequent period of invasions from Central Asia, northern India and later much of south India was united under the Delhi sultanate (1206–1526 CE), followed by the Mughal Empire (1526–1857). The Mughals were descendants of the Timurids, Persianate Central Asian Muslims. Under their rule and enthusiastic patronage, Persian, Central Asian, and Indian arts creatively intermingled. From the 16th century, the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British arrived, initially as missionaries and traders. Following the Indian Rebellion of 1857, India became a British colony (1858–1947). By the end of the 19th century, the movement for Indian independence was gaining momentum. A prominent member of 312

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the Indian National Congress, Mahatma Gandhi promoted independence through nonviolent means including a return to the use of khadi, a hand-spun, handwoven cotton cloth. This was an orchestrated attempt to undermine British economic control (whose machine-made cloth had caused widespread unemployment in India) and reassert India’s prominence as a textile producer. Khadi production remains supported by the Indian government and closely associated in the minds of Indians with nationalism. Indian independence from Britain and the partition of India and Pakistan were achieved in 1947.

Geographic and Environmental Background The Republic of India has only been a political entity since 1947 when the former British colony achieved independence. This involved the partition of India from the Dominion of Pakistan, which included the present-day Islamic Republic of Pakistan and People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Indian sovereigns have, at various historical points, ruled over kingdoms that stretched from Afghanistan to the Indian states of Bengal and Mysore. India, as it is known today, is bordered on the north by the Himalaya Mountains, the world’s highest range; the Thar Desert on the west; the Sundarbans Delta on the east; and the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and Indian Ocean on the southeast, south, and southwest, respectively. The Ganges River originates in the Himalayas, feeds the rich soils of the Indo-Gagnetic Plain, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. Revered by Hindus, the Ganges has sustained cultivation in northern India for millennia. The climate of western India ranges from arid to semiarid, the southwest is tropical wet, the regions closest to the Himalayas are montane, and those along the Indo-Gagnetic Plain are subtropical humid. The climate is inluenced by the presence of both the Himalayas and the Thar. The Himalayas prevent cold Central Asian winds from blowing over the subcontinent, while the Thar attracts moist summer winds contributing to the summer monsoons. For parts of western India in particular, the annual monsoon provides much, if not all, of the yearly rainfall. The population of India in 2012 was estimated at 1,205,073,600, making it the second most populous country in the world, behind China at 1,343,239,900.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity India has traditionally been divided in half by the prevalence of Indo-Aryan speaking northerners (e.g., Hindi) and Dravidian-speaking southerners (e.g., Tamil). The Indo-Aryans are thought to have arrived from beyond the Hindu Kush Mountains

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sometime before the writing of the Rig Veda in the second and irst millennia BCE. The Rig Veda is a collection of religious hymns that laid the groundwork for the development of modern Hinduism. The origin of speakers of Dravidian languages is unclear. Some scholars claim they migrated from East Africa, while others argue they were indigenous to the region. In addition to Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages, there are signiicant numbers of speakers of Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic languages. The Indian Census of 1991 recognized 1,576 different languages. While Hinduism predominates on the subcontinent, there are signiicant populations of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, Ismailis, and other religions. There are also numerous adivasis (indigenous) populations who were traditionally animists. Many of these groups have converted to one of the major Indian religions or developed syncretic beliefs (blending concepts from different spiritual traditions). Within Hinduism there is great scope for diversity of practice. Devotees revere a number of different deities and engage in various forms of devotion. One of the most notable features of India is the presence of the caste system. Based on Hindu ideas of purity and pollution, the system assigns certain prerogatives and responsibilities to caste members depending on their rank within the system. The higher castes are considered the most pure and therefore eligible to perform certain rituals. They must, however, take precautions to safeguard their purity. Those considered less pure are of lower rank and may be prevented from entering certain temples or using certain religious specialists. Those who fall outside of the caste system were traditionally shunned. These groups include the untouchables, renamed Harijans (“God Men”) by Mahatma Gandhi; adivasis, and Muslims. Caste is associated with spiritual rank and identity, but it also inluences occupation, marriage patterns, residence, ritual practices, food, and dress. Dress is, in the broadest sense, a marker of ethnic and religious identity, gender, age, life stage, and caste. A very broad generalization is between unstitched or draped garments and stitched garments. The former are often considered to have been indigenous to India, while the latter are thought to have been introduced from outside. While certain tailored styles were undoubtedly introduced from Central Asia and beyond, there is also evidence that jackets were worn at the time of the Vedas (1500–400 BCE). Unstitched garments consisting of lengths of fabric draped around the body tend to characterize the dress worn by contemporary Hindus, while tailored garments are more characteristic of rural and Muslim populations. The sari, the quintessential garment worn by Hindu women, is a length of fabric, 6.5–9.8 yards (6–9 meters) long, that is today worn with a petticoat and bodice. It can be wrapped around the body in a variety of styles that speak to region, ethnicity, class, occupation, and fashion. In Gujarat, the pallu (decorative end of the sari) is brought over the right shoulder and tucked into the waist at the left side. In Chennai (Madras), the sari is pleated, brought between the legs, and tucked into the

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waist at the back, giving the appearance of trousers. Sari blouses were not traditionally worn until the arrival of European missionaries. Today they are typically tight itting with sleeve and bodice lengths and necklines varying according to fashion. Hindu men, while donning trousers and shirts for everyday wear, often turn to draped dhoti (north India) or lungi (south India) for nonbusiness wear. For certain Hindu ritual practices, draped rather than tailored clothes are necessary to meet purity requirements and suit customary practice. In rural areas women’s dress may involve gathered skirts worn with bodices and a veil cloth. These are often embellished with designs that speak to marriageability, clan, or subcaste mem- Woman wears a sari in rural Rajasthan, India. bership. Men’s dress in rural areas may (Vikram Raghuvanshi/iStockphoto.com) involve combinations of tailored anghurkas and draped dhoti, which, in combination with distinctively tied turbans, speak to ethnic identity and distinctive lifestyles.

History of Dress The history of dress in India is a tale compounded by the depth and breadth of Indian history. What is known of dress, prior to the Mughal Dynasty (1526– 1857), has been pieced together from sporadic literary references, archaeological evidence, and the study of art. Archaeological evidence includes jewelry, igurines, seals, and architectural elements as well as rare samples of cloth, preserved by their proximity to metal artifacts. Literary evidence includes often vague references to cloth or clothes mentioned in early texts such as the Rig Veda (composed 1100–700 BCE) as well as more descriptive passages of the Arthaśātra (composed 200–400 CE). Art in the form of sculpture, bas-reliefs, and paintings provides important evidence for the history of costume, especially when analyzed in relation to other sources. Signiicant works include the Ajanta cave paintings in the state of Maharashtra, dated from the second century BCE, and the Brihadisvara Temple frescoes dating from the Chola dynasty of Tamil Nadu (ninth to 13th centuries CE).

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The famous “Priest King,” excavated at Mohenjo Daro and associated with the Indus Valley civilization, dates to 2500–1700 BCE. The sculpture is of a male igure with short hair held in place by a headband and wearing a cloak over one shoulder embellished with a trefoil pattern that was initially illed with red pigment. Other evidence suggests that both men and women wore draped garments that often left the chest and/or right shoulder bare. Jewelry is worn mainly by women and includes necklaces, chokers, belts, illets, and bangles. Men wear chokers and bangles as well as turbans and headbands. Hairstyles appear to have been elaborate and there is evidence for the use of cosmetics. From the time of the Gupta dynasty (320–550 CE), commonly referred to as India’s “Golden Age,” The “Priest-king” sculpture from Mohenjo there emerges a new syncretism in Daro, Indus Valley civilization, c. 2000 BCE. Indian art, culture, and dress. Gupta (National Museum of Pakistan, Karachi, artists infused their works with a new Pakistan/DeAgostini/Getty Images) emphasis on spirituality and stylization. Works from this period betray Greek inluences, particularly in depictions of draped textiles. They also speak to inluences from Central Asia with the presence of items such as sewn tunics, trousers, high boots, and armor. Indeed, the stitched garment, although known earlier, becomes much more commonplace. Initially adopted for use by court servants, tunics began to be worn by court oficials. The Delhi sultanate (1206–1526 CE) is a period characterized by a number of Islamic Afghan and Turkish dynasties that ruled over much of northern and parts of southern India. With historic and cultural ties to the Near East, the sultanate ushered in a period of “Indo-Muslim” style that inluenced literature, architecture, music, religion, and dress. This period saw the increasing use of tailored garments such as robes, gowns, and coats of extravagant fabric and trim. In 1526 Babur defeated the last of the Delhi sultanate rulers and founded the Mughal dynasty. Mughal, from the Persian word, Mongol, suggests descent from the

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Mongols of Genghis Khan; however, Babur was of Turkic descent from Turkestan. Although he only ruled India for ive years, he spawned a dynasty that would consolidate power over much of the subcontinent and parts of Afghanistan, introduced Urdu (a synthesis of Persian, Arabic, Turkic, and Indian languages), as well as encouraged new developments in the visual arts, especially architecture, book illustrations, and dress. His grandson, Akbar (1542–1605), self-consciously undertook to synthesize Hindu and Muslim, Indian and foreign elements in the creation of new dress styles. Akbar is said to have manipulated an existing garment in order to remove it from its “ethnic” context and make it more acceptable to both Hindus and Muslims. His son, Jahangir (1569–1627), synthesized Hindu and Islamic philosophy in the construction of great architectural works, miniature paintings, and dress. Mughal dress combined elements from different spiritual, ethnic, and aesthetic traditions to produce a style that was distinctive. The earliest Europeans arrived as missionaries and traders and left rich descriptions of dress and cultural practices. Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English trading companies established bases in Surat, Cochin, Pondicherry, and Calcutta from 1498, and India became a British colony after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The East India Company had been hugely successful, making British traders of textiles and tea extraordinarily wealthy. Subsequently, in the name of understanding its subjects better, the British Crown undertook numerous surveys and ethnographic reports including John Forbes Watson’s The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India of 1866. Dress during the late 19th century relected sometimes dramatic changes in Indian society. A new class of British-educated civil servants developed, who combined elements of Western and Indian dress. Referred to as the Bhadralok in Bengal, they were concerned with balancing social reform with nationalism. With the growing movement for Indian independence, Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) promoted khadi, a handwoven, hand-spun cotton fabric worn in the traditional manner (dhoti, chaddar or salwar kurta for men, sari for women), as a means to overturn British economic and cultural domination. Since Indian independence in 1947 dress in India has continued to evolve, selectively incorporating foreign inluences and materials. Tailored pants and shirts are the accepted daily wear for men while salwar kameez, once considered Muslim dress, is widely worn by Hindu and Muslim women. The sari is still the quintessential dress of Hindu women although it is not impervious to the effects of fashion. Sari blouses, in particular, relect changing tastes. Urban elites, college students, and the growing Indian diaspora introduce new styles including a taste for jeans and sportswear. Bollywood ilms spawn periodic interest in “ethnic” fashions borrowed from India’s tribal or ethnic minorities.

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Materials and Techniques There are a number of plants and animals indigenous to India used for the production of iber. Excavations of the sites associated with the Indus Valley civilization point to some of the earliest evidence of cotton processing. Mineralized fragments and other evidence suggest that cotton (gossypium arboreum) was already grown, spun, woven, and dyed from 1750 BCE. Textual sources point to its extensive trade and foreign appreciation of Indian technology. Silk was in use by the time the Arthaśāstra was written sometime between the second and fourth century CE. It notes a distinction between Indian and Chinese silks as well as Indian cultivated silk (bombyx mori) and wild silks (anthera paphia, anthera assama, saturnia assama), all of which were grown and processed in the areas corresponding to present-day Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh. Other bast ibers (jute, hemp, lax) were widely used for cordage and the production of mainly rough cloths. Indian sheep produce coarse wool that is not suitable for garments; consequently wool was little used for clothing. The exception is in the far north, particularly in Kashmir, where the cool, mountainous climate supported different breeds of sheep and goats with wool more suitable for garments. Intricately woven or embroidered cashmere shawls (produced from the wool of the Cashmere goat (capra hircus laniger) were particularly popular during the latter half of the 19th century. Indian craftspeople were highly skilled in all aspects of textile manufacture. Cotton grown in what is now Bangladesh was woven into muslins renowned for their ineness. Praised by Greek, Roman, and Arab authors, they were variously known as baf-thana (woven air) or shabnam (morning/evening dew), among other poetic names. Complex woven clothes are produced in various textile centers. Jamdani (intricately patterned woven cotton) is produced in West Bengal and Bangladesh, while silk and cotton brocades are made in Varanasi, Ahmedabad, Paithan, and Kanchipuram. Many of these centers are famous for their saris brocaded with gold or silver threads. Indian textile dyers are world masters of this art form. Early craftspeople developed methods of dying cotton with mordants that remained unknown in Europe until the 17th century. They also excelled at a variety of textile printing and embellishment techniques. It has been suggested that the “Priest King” unearthed at Mohenjo Daro (circa 2500 BCE) may be wearing a block-printed shoulder cloth called ajrakh because of its trefoil design and evidence of being colored red at one time. Block-printed ajrakh cloths are still produced and worn by Muslim men on both sides of the India-Pakistan border. Predominantly red with blue ajrakhs are a symbol of Sindhi identity, while predominantly blue with red ajrakhs are

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more associated with Muslims on the Indian side of the border. Block printing was highly developed both on the west and east coasts and traded widely. Kalamkari is a technique of block printing and/or drawing on fabric with a kalam (pen) to produce delicate, often loral designs. Kalamkari bed covers called palampores and later chintz fabric from the Coromandel Coast were exported to Europe in the 17th through 19th centuries. Chintz became so highly sought after in the 17th and early 18th centuries that British authorities imposed laws to protect local textile producers. The use of block printing in Indian dress is suggested by the depiction of richly embellished garments in miniature paintings and palm leaf manuscripts, among other sources. Tie-dye and ikat are other techniques that Indian craftspeople excel at. The most famous and highly prized is the Patola of Patan, Gujarat. The Patola fabric is a double ikat: both the warp and weft are tied and dyed prior to weaving. The Patola fabric has been exported to Indonesia since the early 15th century where it was worn by the nobility and associated with ancestor worship. In India, Patola saris are highly desired for weddings. Typically they have red grounds with various animal, loral, and geometric motifs in white, green, black, or yellow. Tie-dyed cloth is particularly popular in western India. Produced primarily in Kachchh in the state of Gujarat, it is made mainly by Muslim Khatris for a broad market. Memon and Khoja women traditionally wore very intricately tied and dyed tunics called abas with gathered trousers while other groups wore full, gathered skirts (ghagra) embellished with tie-dyed patterns. Tie-dyed veils remain an important gift from Muslim mother-in-laws to new brides (although many use machine-made imitations today). Embroidery is one of the many techniques used in India to embellish clothing and household textile items. Chikan embroidery involves stitching intricate designs usually in white cotton or silk thread on ine white cotton. It was produced in the vicinity of Dacca, Calcutta, and Lucknow; only chikan from Lucknow was produced for the local market and continues to be produced today. Kantha embroidery is practiced in Bengal where it initially developed as a form of making quilts from recycled cloth. Layers of old saris, for example, were stitched together with running stitches that formed designs culled from religious tales and everyday life. Today kantha-style embroidery embellishes saris and salwar kameez for urban consumers. Zardozi embroidery is another style associated with urban workshops employing men. Zardozi involves stitching gold- or silver-wrapped threads onto cloth. Embroidery is also widely used by various rural communities to create distinctive dress styles. The Indian state of Gujarat, for example, is famous for its ethnic diversity and richly embroidered folk dress. Many communities incorporate mirrors into their embroidery, creating a dazzling effect. The Banjara or Lambadi

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress are a seminomadic tribal community living across central and south India. Their dress style likely hails from Rajasthan; however, their embroidery, with its inclusion of mirrors, cowry shells, metal or plastic objects, and even bone, is distinctive.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress The difference between everyday and special-occasion dress is, in many parts of India, less about substance and more of degree. In urban centers, women will don more richly embellished versions of saris or salwar kameez and wear more and better quality jewelry. Where Hindu women may wear salwar kameez during the day, for special occasions and for religious observances, they are more likely to wear a sari. Being an uncut garment, it is thought to be more pure and therefore more appropriate for ritual activities. Similarly, silk or silk-like fabrics are preferred because of their apparent impermeability to pollution. Among rural communities, women will don garments made of more expensive fabrics with more embellishment as well as more jewelry. Among the Mutwa, a rural Muslim clan in Kachchh, women will wear their most heavily embroidered garments as well as veils embellished with bands of embroidery, and gold or silver jewelry including the nath (nose ring), which they do not wear every day. The Mutwa traditionally wore specially embroidered garments made speciically for the marriage ritual and included motifs associated with fertility. The women of neighboring Hindu communities, likewise, wear special garments that mark a young women’s transition and new status, generally tight-itting embroidered blouses worn with gathered skirts and veils. The dress associated with widows in both Hindu and Muslim communities differs from the dress of married women. Hindu women will remove their jewelry and dress in simple white garments while their Muslim sisters will also remove their jewelry and don more simple, darker colored versions of their traditional dress. Muslim men or women who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca may wear white garments without jewelry upon their return home. For many communities, special occasions are marked by the use of traditional dress styles seldom used for daily wear. In Gujarat, the festival known as Navratri involves nine nights of dancing with the dancers dressed in traditional styles. Men in urban centers across India tend to wear tailored pants and shirts for business. For weddings, funerals, and other ritual occasions, however, men don more traditional forms of dress. For Hindus this most often involves the untailored dhoti, chaddar, and turban, although there are rural communities who also wear short itted vests or jackets (anghuraka). Rabari men of Kachchh are renowned for their magniicently embroidered wedding attire consisting of kediyun (jacket), dhoti, and pagadi (turban). Muslim men most often don a Pathani suit for special occasions consisting of a pair of salwar (gathered trousers) and long tunic (kamiz) with or without a vest,

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shoulder cloth, turban, or a topi (cap). With the exception of the topi, embroidery is seldom used on Muslim men’s dress, although inely printed or woven textiles may be worn as turbans or shoulder cloths. Muslim men do not wear gold jewelry or silk because it is thought to interfere with prayers. The turban is an important marker of both respect and identity for men in India. Covering one’s head is a sign of marriage for women and speaks both to men and women’s honor. Laying one’s turban at the feet of another is an act of great humility. Turbans are also markers of group membership. From the voluminous white swathes worn by Ahir farmers in Gujarat to the intricate folds donned by Muslim dandies, turbans speak to age, caste, religion and ethnicity.

Component Parts of Dress Arguably the most traditional Indian dress consists of different lengths of cloth wrapped around the body. From the earliest date Indian men’s dress consisted of a cloth wrapped around the lower part of the body, another around the upper, and a belt or cummerbund. Women’s dress involved a cloth wrapped around the lower part of the body with a second worn around the upper body. The names of these basic types vary according to region, time period, style or draping, embellishment, and whether men or women wore them. The lower part of men’s bodies have traditionally been covered by what is referred to in Sanskrit as the antariya, a length of fabric which, depending upon its size and how it was draped, could form a loin cloth or nīvi, the skirt-like lungi or billowing trouser-like dhoti. The upper part of their bodies was covered by the uttariya, cloths subsequently referred to as a dupatta or chaddar depending on the size. Dhoti today are generally made of cloth 2.2–5.5 yards (2–5 meters) in length and are worn with a kurta or shirt. Women’s early dress was similar to men’s and consisted of a cloth worn around the lower part of the body, sometimes as minimal as a loincloth, other times more like a dhoti or skirt. A second cloth, also called uttariya for women, covered the upper part of the body to form the sari. Although stitched garments were known earlier, the irst centuries of the Christian era saw the introduction of new tailored garments. In both north and south India, from approximately 200 BCE tunics began to be worn as well as trousers, jackets, coats, and boots. The Kushans, for example, hailed from Central Asia and ruled over areas from Tajikistan to Pakistan and across northern India. They introduced a tunic called a chugha, which had a center-front opening and was embellished with borders down the front and along the hem. Initially worn by servants and soldiers, these became increasingly elaborate as the nobility adopted them. During the Gupta period, choli (itted blouses), gaghra

Camel trader wearing a dhoti at the Pushkar Camel Market in Pushkar, Rajasthan, India. (Mlenny Photography/iStockphoto.com)

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(gathered skirts), angarkha (a tunic with an opening), and quaba or jama (calflength coats) were worn. The Mughals reined and elaborated these garments, introducing new variations based on length, cut, opening, and embellishment. Contemporary Indians continue to wear stitched and unstitched garments modiied through interaction with Western culture and re-envisioned historic dress. Women’s dress consists of the sari worn with a petticoat and blouse, salwar kameez, skirts, blouses, pants, and dresses. Men’s dress, similarly, consists of dhoti or lungi worn with a kurta, as well as a variety of traditional jackets and tunics (e.g., anghurka), trousers, and suit jackets.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Jewelry is widely and proliically worn by men and women across India. It speaks to wealth as well as class, religious belief, life cycle, and ethnic identity. Dar has pointed to the importance of binding parts of the body in order to both control and contain malignant forces. Women’s hair, for example, is most often worn in plaits as loose hair is associated with wantonness. Similarly, women’s extremities are often encircled or “bound” with bracelets, arm bands, necklaces, belts, and ankle bracelets while their ears, noses, and other body parts are embellished with metal, plastic, or other ornaments. Speciic ornaments are associated with different ethnic groups, occupations, or regions. Muslim and Hindu women living in Banni, a geographical region in northern Kachchh, for example, wear chura, sets of plastic bangles on their forearms and upper arms. Traditionally these would have been carved out of ivory and speak to Kachchh’s maritime trade with East Africa. Worn in sets of 12, chura are graded in size to it snugly and are not removed until the woman’s husband dies. In rural communities, people most often wear silver jewelry. Gold is preferred, for those rural dwellers who can afford it, and in urban contexts. Jewelry marks ethnic identity and life cycle stage. Considered a requisite of marriage negotiations, prescribed pieces of jewelry are given to the bride from the groom’s family as well as her own. For the Mutwa the groom’s gifts should include jir (ankle bracelet), varna (ring), and varlo (heavy silver necklace) among other items, which, when worn, speak to the bride’s married state and legitimized sexuality. For Hindu women, there are ive traditional markers of marriage: bangles, a nose ornament, toe rings, sindoor (vermilion color applied to the front of their hair part), and most importantly, the mangalsutra (a necklace of black and gold beads). The bindi is a small dot worn in the middle of a woman’s forehead just above the eyebrows. Although once associated with Hindu marriage, it is commonly worn by women across India and broadly associated with beauty. Kumkum are marks made with powdered turmeric by devotees visiting a temple or offered to female guests

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress as a sign of respect or blessing. Larger markings are referred to as tika or tilak and worn by Hindu devotees. Men in India also wear jewelry although in less quantity than women. Unlike their Muslim brothers who avoid gold, Hindu men wear gold necklaces, rings, and occasionally bracelets. Wristwatches are worn extensively by men and often demanded as part of marriage negotiations. Men, women, and children also occasionally wear small protective amulets around their upper arms or necks. The men of certain communities wear distinctive earrings. Rajput men of Rajasthan, for example, wear diamond studs while Rabari men of Kachchh wear ghokh or toliya. Tattooing is widespread among adivasi and rural communities in India. Naga tribal women of Manipur, a state in northeastern India, wear elaborate tattoos that indicate group membership, offer protection, and generally speak to their strength. The Kanbi and Kharek women living in peninsular Kathiawar, Gujarat, tattoo their arms and hands. Muslims generally do not wear tattoos. Both Muslim and Hindu women paint their hands, lower arms, and feet with henna prior to special occasions. Prior to the wedding, urban brides are painted with particularly intricate geometric or loral designs. Rural brides paint the whole palms and soles of the feet with henna. Makeup is widely worn in India. Even in the most isolated villages young women wear nail polish, lipstick, and kajal (eyeliner) on special occasions. Men will also wear kajal on special occasions. Young children’s eyes are frequently smeared with it to ward off the evil eye and protect the eyes from the sun’s glare. Hindu bridal makeup can be elaborate with extravagant bindis and eyebrow tikas.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Many ethnic groups in India are reconsidering dress in the face of modernization and globalization. Even in the most remote corners of India, new materials are being incorporated, new ideas considered, and new meanings negotiated. Many communities are reevaluating their relationship with traditions and the past. For some embroidery is considered “backward,” while for others, the heavy inancial burden of producing a dowry of traditionally embellished garments is too much. Cultural tourism, however, in India as elsewhere is dependent upon the preservation of traditional culture, which includes dress. Members of different communities in Kachchh are not unaware of the economic value of their traditional dress and use it to their advantage. Similarly, traditional dress is implicated in the demonstration of sovereignty. Members of local communities, in Kachchh and beyond, periodically use traditional dress or elements thereof to demonstrate historic presence and political legitimacy. Ethnic dress has had a profound inluence on Indian fashion. Periodically it incorporates chunky silver jewelry, mirrored embroidery, and tie-dyed cloth. Indian

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ilms, too, borrow heavily from ethnic groups featuring vamps and other characters in midriff-baring, tight-itting embroidered cholis with swirling veils and jingling ankle bracelets. Khadi, the simple hand-spun, handwoven cloth associated with Indian independence, is still produced and used by nationalist-minded Indians. It is also popular among intellectual elites and is occasionally seen on Indian runways.

Further Reading and Resources Bayly, C. A. “The Origins of Swadeshi (Home Industry): Cloth and Indian Society.” In A. Appadurai, ed. The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp. 285–321. Bean, S. S. “Gandhi and Khadi, the Fabric of Indian Independence.” In A. B. Weiner and J. Schneider, eds. Cloth and Human Experience. Washington: Smithsonian, 1989, pp. 355–376. Bhandari, V. Costume, Textiles, and Jewellery of India: Traditions of Rajasthan. London: Mercury, 2005. Chandra, M. Costumes, Textiles, Cosmetics, and Coiffure in Ancient and Mediaeval India. Delhi: Oriental Publishers, 1973. Chatterjee, P. “Colonialism, Nationalism, and Colonized Women: The Contest in India.” American Ethnologist 16 (1989): 622–633. Cohn, B. S. “Cloth, Clothes, and Colonialism: India in the Nineteenth Century.” In A. B. Weiner and J. Schneider, eds. Cloth and Human Experience. Washington: Smithsonian, 1989, pp. 303–353. Dar, S. N. Costumes of India and Pakistan: A Historical and Cultural Study. Bombay: D. B. Taraporevala Sons, 1969. Forbes Watson, J. The Textile Manufactures and the Costumes of the People of India. London: Printed for the India Ofice, 1866. Goswamy, B. N. Indian Costumes in the Collection of the Calico Museum of Textiles. Ahmedabad: The Calico Museum of Textiles, 1993. Pandya, V. “Nose and Eyes for Identity: Accoutrements and Enumerations of Ethnicity Among the Jatha of Kachchh.” Journal of Material Culture, 7 (2002): 295–328. Tarlo, E. Clothing Matters: Dress and Identity in India. New Delhi: Viking, 1996. Watson, J. F. The Textile Manufactures and Costumes of the People of India. London: Printed for the India Ofice, 1866.

India: Nagaland Tribes Brenda Brandt

Historical and Geographical Background Naga hill tribe people are one of the most uniquely adorned tribes of the world. Sixteen major tribes inhabit Nagaland, a hilly region covered with dense vegetation in northeastern India and parts of Myanmar (formerly Burma). The dress and adornment of the Naga are not only decorative, but also serve as a method of identifying people according to birth, personal achievement, tribal afiliation, and status. The most important item of Naga dress is the shawl, which reveals a person’s identity in the tribe as well as the clan’s standing in the community. Shawls have fulilled the cultural and physical needs of the Naga for generations and continue to be worn with pride today. The origin of the term Naga is unclear, as well as the beginnings of the people themselves. Some scholars think the word came from the ancient Sanskrit word naga meaning mountain, while others suggest that the word meant naked, referring to their traditional state of undress. Another source traces Naga back to the word nok or people, which is found in a few Tibeto-Burman languages. Naga people probably migrated from northern and northeastern China and display cultural and social characteristics similar to those of Southeast Asian and Oceanic societies. Ancient Sanskrit manuscripts tell of a golden-skinned people of the sub-Himalayan regions, thought be to the ancestors of the present-day population. The Naga are said to be a predominantly Mongoloid people, and their movement into the highlands of South and Southeast Asia may have taken place as early as 12,000 years ago. Naga legends tell of a great migration that came from the north, areas that are today in China or Tibet, and the spoken languages support this. Signiicant events in Naga history include ierce resistance toward British colonial rule in the 19th century, a conversion to Christianity, the struggle for independence from India, and isolation from outside visitors until 1950. In 1961, the region became one of the smallest states within the Union of India. Today, about 90 percent of the Naga live on the Indian side of the border, with nearly 2 million people living in a territory similar in size to New Jersey, and engage in an agricultural

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economy. Over 100,000 Naga live in Myanmar to the east. The border between Nagaland and Myanmar is luid, and Naga may legally travel on both sides of the border without documentation. Nagaland is a remote part of India that borders the Indian states of Assam on the west, Arunachal Predesh on the north, and Manipur on the south. Living high in the jungle-layered hills along the slopes of the rugged Patkoi range, the Naga are a resilient and hardy people. The hills they inhibit remain pristine due to a low population density, a rugged landscape, and a lack of roads in the region. The Naga reside high above the broken misty valleys on hilltops and mountains, and clear land for planting and raising animals. These early settlements developed into small sovereign villages, composed of self-suficient communities of approximately 200 to 1,000 people which would wage war against each other. Each tribe could be subdivided into several or as many as 20 clans. Some groups like the Konyak tribe have a highly structured autocratic society; other tribes are more egalitarian and elect their leaders. The Angami are one of the largest and most politically conscious tribes.

Customs and Beliefs The cultural practice that has brought the most attention to the Naga in the past was head-taking; this tradition was ended by the Indian government and by the conversion to Christianity, primarily the Baptist faith. The human head was a common symbol in their culture, based on the belief that a man’s soul lives in the head. The soul remained as a fertile potency or life force inside the head and was used to diffuse, channel, and direct fertility for the good health and prosperity of the community. The reproductive nature of human sexuality and agriculture all tied into the Naga concept of fertility. Historically, when a head was taken from an enemy, brought back to a village, and put in a sacred place, the life essence would diffuse to the villagers, their crops, and their livestock. Naga warfare pitted one group or village against another and lasted for generations. Taking a head was the ambition of every male Naga for the sake of courage and warrior status, for the well-being of his village, and also for the speciic adornment that he was entitled to wear. Today, various alternatives to head-hunting and the right to wear certain ornaments are now in place. Ways to obtain head-taker ornaments include killing a tiger, making payments to village elders, hosting feasts of merit to provide rice and meat to one’s villagers, or through symbolic acts such as throwing a spear on the soil of enemy territory. All activities continue to promote fertility, a powerful inherent force or quality in nature, which serves as the life force in the continuation of Naga society.

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Adornment Traditional ethnographic artifacts that remain from the time when head-taking was allowed in Nagaland have been sold by the tribes to private collectors worldwide or displayed in British museums; some are kept by families or tribes in their homeland and worn for festivals and ceremonial occasions today. Head-taker ornamentation included boar’s tusk and tiger teeth necklaces, head-taker baskets, ivory bracelets, chank shell disk ear ornaments, elaborate tribal headdresses decorated with horns and animal hair, and various other glass and stone bead ornaments. These ornaments, made of a variety of animal-derived materials, were exclusively worn by men and handled with care due to their meaning and intrinsic power. Brass head beads or trophy beads also communicated a warrior’s head-hunting achievements and high status within the community. Tattoos on warriors revealed head-taking status, with facial tattoos in a cross or multiple line arrangements encircling the eyes, nose, and chin, and a stylized human being for each head taken on the chest, arms, legs, shoulders, and buttocks. Other materials for adornment were obtained through trade; cowrie shells were listed as an import from Tibet to neighboring Assam in the 19th century and Myanmar in the 20th century. The Naga traded slaves for chank shells, which are decorated with rows of incised black dots or geometrical igures. For various tribes, the chank shell from the Bay of Bengal was one of the most desirable materials available through trade and was used extensively in women’s ornamentation for necklaces. Carnelian beads were secured from Naga traders who imported them directly from manufacturers in Khambhat or Cambay (India), and brass alloy beads and armlets made their way into Naga adornment from other locations in India, with bracelets procured from the neighboring state of Manipur. Glass beads arrived in Nagaland via trade from the plains people of Assam and Manipur. Job’s tears, both a staple food when dried and a bead material, was indigenous to the Naga. Wood and bone beads, as well as canework in necklaces and girl’s bracelets, were also local. Naga tribes have a strong intrinsic feeling for beauty and are gifted artisans. In the past and today the Naga combine adornment in ways that are as varied and complex as the tribes themselves, while relecting overall unity among the various tribes with localized diversity. Their use of horn or bone spacers provide form and organization to multistrand bead constructions, and the wearing of several ornaments at one time combines to form a colorful, textural, and powerful aesthetic. In the past, at ritual occasions and festivities, it was essential for men and women to wear ceremonial adornment. A woman’s adornment as well as her children’s represented the status of her husband and father at these events. Women covered their bodies with colorful multiple-strand glass bead and carnelian necklaces embellished with chank shells and bronze coins and added arm bracelets and C-shaped earrings

Naga man wearing headdress made of woven cane decorated with wild boar tusks and fur, with tiger claw straps, 2009. (AP Photo/Sorei Mahong)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of metal and quartz or glass for a striking, yet harmonious appearance. Tattooing on the face, shoulders, torso, and legs revealed a woman’s tribal afiliation, her social status, and certain life states, such as womanhood, marriage, and motherhood. One string of beads or multiples of colorful glass trade beads—oranges, yellows, reds, and occasionally turquoise, blue, or green—were the ornaments worn on a daily basis by men, women, and children. Beads were the irst ornaments put on a baby, recognizing the newcomer as a member of the community. In some tribes, removal of beads from a corpse indicated the formal transition from being to nonbeing, and among other Naga groups, beads were considered to be the very essence of a person and were buried with the body.

Textiles Textiles played an equally important role in the maintenance of Naga tribal afiliation and revealed feats of merit and head-taking status among the Naga. Fabric of skirts, aprons, sashes, and shawls identiied the status of the male or female wearer, young or old. What an individual wore differed from one Naga tribe to another; each had its own distinctive symbolic designs and color combinations. Designs varied from a formal arrangement of lines to elaborate, complex patterns of diamonds and lozenge shapes. Simple woven-in straight lines, stripes, squares, and bands varying in width, color, and arrangements are the most traditional designs from the past. Stripes and bands were worn horizontally on the body, and textiles worn by men were more spectacular in color and design due to their status as warriors, heroes, and fathers. The shawl, also referred to as a body cloth, was worn by all Naga adults and children as a fabric wrapped around the body. Designs varied as to gender and age and relected class distinctions. Each tribal shawl was different, as all were hand-loomed and one-of–a-kind. Shawls ranged from simple white to elaborately designed fabrics with symbols and colors, and warrior shawls were reserved for speciic groups of men. A traditional polychrome (red, blue, ochre) man’s shawl with a human igure and triple circles stitched in cowrie shells communicated Chang adult tribal membership and indicated warrior/head-taker status. Traditionally, among the Chang, a cowrie-embellished shawl could not be worn before an adult man had taken six heads. Cowries were a trade item and used as money throughout India. Among the Naga, these shells symbolized immortality, resembled an eye to ward off evil, and enhanced female fertility. When stitched in circles, the shells revealed head-taker status and/or a wealthy man’s ability to provide feasts in his community. Circle designs also alluded to the moon as a successful time to carry out raids on enemies. A single-circle shawl of multiple tribal afiliations revealed warrior status, and the use of red-dyed dog hair squares symbolized setting an enemy village on ire. Another type of Chang shawl featured

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a zigzag design in alternating red and black colors on a blue band. The zigzag design in the shawl was required to fall uniformly when worn, or the young male warrior wearing it might die a premature death. Painting on woven shawls was practiced by the Ao tribe; a tsungkotepsu shawl featured a white horizontal band woven into a black and red striped fabric. The body cloth was worn by a warrior who had taken heads or by a wealthy married man who had hosted feasts of merit. Figures of elephants and tigers (to symbolize valor), mithuns (animals sacriiced at feasts of merit to symbolize wealth), and human heads (to symbolize success in head-taking) were painted in black on the white band. The color was prepared from tree sap and mixed Naga men wearing traditional woven shawls, with rice beer and leaf ashes; old men headdresses made of woven cane decorated did the painting in a free style. The ash with wild boar teeth, fur, and topped with of bamboo leaves was also used and hornbill feathers and tiger jaws, 2009. (Art Directors.co.uk/StockphotoPro) resulted in a grey liquid, which was applied with the pointed end of a bamboo stick. Any man wearing this shawl without permission and the achievements to do so had to answer to the village council and pay violation penalties. Ao women living in the Chungliyimit village are given credit for designing and weaving this shawl as a token to encourage their men to ward off head-taking attacks from neighboring tribes. Another Ao tribal shawl contained a red and indigo fabric with thick tassels of dyed dog’s hair and revealed ownership by a wealthy man who had hosted feasts of merit. His sons and daughters were also permitted to wear the shawl. Dog and other animal sacriices were common among different Naga communities. One of the most decorative shawls worn by the Angami people of the southern Naga groups featured embroidery as embellishment. These shawls originated in Manipur, which borders Nagaland to the south. The body cloth was received as a gift from Manipur rulers in return for favorable services from the Naga and was worn by wealthy feasts of merit hosts or warriors. The shawl contained a range of wild animals, including elephants, embroidered on a black background, which was

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress divided into horizontal panels by woven bands of color. Manipuri weavers used bright-colored yellow, red, green, and white yarns to create designs on the shawls. The name of this shawl, sami lami phee, when translated means “warrior cloth of wild animals.” Convention and custom also regulated shawls worn by other members of Naga tribes. Women’s shawls were distinctly different from those worn by men in some tribes, while for other tribes, shawls were interchangeable between the sexes. Women of the Angami tribe traditionally wore a white shawl with black stripes and a patterned border. A wealthy Konyak woman wore a special shawl, a shatni. This shawl was given to her by a rich father at marriage; she would preserve the shawl and it would be used again to wrap her body at death. Both women and men of the Angami tribe wore an everyday black shawl known as a ratapfe, and an Angami priest wore a distinctive shawl, the phichu-pfe. Among the Rengma tribe, a man who had not taken an enemy head or hosted a feast of merit was entitled to wear an ordinary type of shawl, a rhikho. This body cloth was white with four narrow black bands and worn by young and old alike, the only difference being the number of bands. Unlike other regions of India where much of the spinning and weaving were done by men, traditional spinning and weaving in Nagaland were done exclusively by women; men excelled at wood carving, metalwork, and canework. Every Naga woman was expected to spin and weave her own family’s textiles. Until recently, it was essential that every marriageable girl know how to spin iber and weave fabric. Cotton grew in abundance and was widely cultivated in the villages of the northeastern states of India. Naga women picked cotton by hand. Simple tools, including a short stick, rolled over the cotton on a lat stone or mat removed the seeds from the cotton ibers. Carding followed, by licking the ibers with a smallsized bow. Slivers were formed by hand-rolling the ibers with the help of a round stick over a lat stone. A simple spindle with stone weights was made of a spike of hard wood from the sago palm and used to add twist to the ibers to make a yarn. From the spindle, the cotton yarn was wound onto a double T-shaped stick, steeped in hot rice water, and when dry, wound on a bamboo frame. The inal step involved winding yarns into balls. Dyeing took place after the yarns were made into skeins. The Naga used black, dark blue, red, and some yellow dyes; white yarns were boiled for hours in rice powder. Today, manufactured colored yarns dyed with synthetic dyes, including green yarns, are bought to be used for weaving. In the past, taboos existed as to who could dye and when dyeing could take place, and women often did the process as a community, often accompanied by a song and prayer. Pregnant women were not allowed to handle any dye as it might affect the unborn child. Blue/indigo dye came from the leaves of a plant that grew on the outskirts of the villages or in patches cleared in the jungle. Each tribe’s method of indigo dye

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preparation differed; however, leaves were commonly boiled in a large pot, with yarns added and boiled for almost an hour. Yarns were then taken out of the pot and dried in the sun. The entire process was repeated if needed to produce a darker blue color. Red dye was used less than dark blue, and the color was obtained from creeper roots. Only old women took part in this dyeing process. It was believed that if a young woman participated, she would die a violent death or lose her head in a raid. Only a few tribes used yellow dye. The Angami tribe prepared it from the wood of a local plant. Bark was removed and wood was sliced into chips, which were boiled in water with yarn and then dried in the sun. Another tribe, the Rengma, made yellow dye from the lowers of a tree. The dyeing process did not take place before the annual harvest, as it was considered to be detrimental to the crops. The process of weaving fabric was also regulated by the yearly harvest; it began as soon as the new rice was harvested and eaten. Shawl weaving was done on a backstrap-type loom, also known as the Indonesian tension loom. The warp yarns were attached to the warp beam and securely fastened to a house wall or a wooden frame. A cloth beam was attached to the weaving belt worn by the weaver, and looped string (around a stick) heddles raised and lowered the warp yarns.

Naga women weave on a loom in their village in Assam, India, 1943. (Time Life Pictures/ Mansell/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The shuttle was shot through by hand and a beating stick held the weft in place. Designs were made by the combination of different-colored yarns in the warp and weft (ill), and after weaving the shawls were inished by twisting warp yarns and knotting to hang as tassels, or cut and stitched into the fabric. Extra weft weaving was also practiced as well as embroidery. Angami women excelled at weaving, and when not working in the ields, they could be seen sitting at their simple looms for hours, bending forward and interlocking the weft with the warp yarns. Weaving took nearly 10 hours to complete a plain strip of fabric, and 30 hours were required to make a complete fabric. Three pieces of fabric were woven separately and stitched together for adult shawls. The fabric in the center was more decorated than the border fabrics, which generally had more or less the same design. In body cloths/shawls for children, only two fabrics were stitched together. Again, as was the circumstance with adornment, the Naga placed great importance and value on clothing worn for ceremonies or festivals, at which time all Nagas embraced traditional dress.

Naga Today Naga people and their communities have undergone considerable change over the last two decades. Today, they are following a policy of economic and social modernization, and the old traditions are gradually disappearing in some regions. Traditional shawls have been traded or sold for clothing and other objects, which are more useful for present-day living, and it is almost impossible to ind authentic traditional tribal ornamentation. At a recent wedding, only tribal elders wore traditional dress and adornment. Other guests as well as the bride and groom wore Western dress. Weaving remains a cottage industry, with previous restrictions on weaving loosening and paving the way for experimentation with new designs, new color combinations, and usage of different yarns. At present, many elders in Naga tribes no longer insist on following the regulations for wearing particular shawls; however, not every community approves of the changing mind-set. Some regret that shawls that were once worn only during festivals are being worn whenever one chooses to, and that Naga textiles from the past have lost their signiicance as a powerful indicator of tribal identity and status. Rather, shawls today are purchased by outsiders as commodities for their ethnographic and aesthetic appeal.

Further Reading and Resources Broman, Barry.  “Myanmar Naga Adorned.” Arts of Asia (September–October 2002): 96–107.

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The Crafts and Artisans. “Tribal Textiles of Nagaland.” http://www.craftand artisans.com/tribal-textiles-of-nagaland.html.  Ganguli, Milada. A Pilgrimage to the Nagas. New Delhi: Oxford & IBH Publishing, 1984. Indianetzone. “Nagaland.” http://textiles.indianetzone.com/1/nagaland.htm. Stirn, Aglaja, and Peter Van Ham. The Hidden World of the Naga: Living Traditions in Northeast India and Burma. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 2003.

Indonesia Monica Murgia

Historical and Geographic Background Indonesia is an expansive archipelago consisting of 17,508 islands situated in the Paciic Ocean between Australia and mainland Asia. Indonesia’s economic stronghold has always been its geographic location. It has been a center of trade since the seventh century CE. The main island, Java, has a lucrative trade market on its north coast. The Java Sea is quite tranquil, enjoying a mild climate, and rarely experiences the typhoons and wild storms that plague much of Southeast Asia. The archipelago is the home of the famous Spice Islands, a favorite of early explorers. These attractive features promoted trade relations and drew merchants from all over the world. Trade had more than just economic repercussions in Indonesia. Many foreign people settled in Indonesia, creating an amalgamation of ethnicities. Religion was also greatly affected. Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam successively came to the various islands, each leaving an indelible mark on the development of Indonesian batik and regional dress. Early trade occurred with India and China in the ninth century. Cloves, nutmeg, and other spices were traded for silk, teas, and other goods. These trade relations also introduced Hinduism and Buddhism. Hinduism also brought the caste system, introducing new levels of linguistic formality according to rank and age. The caste system also changed the way people dressed, and certain batik designs were assigned to people of importance. This created a visual and linguistic hierarchy. Hindu, Buddhist, and Chinese mythological motifs in batik spread through the archipelago. Muslim communities had existed in Java in the 12th century, but it was in the 16th century that Islam lourished in Indonesia. This religious conversion was fueled by commercial and political aspirations. The Muslims were, at the time, the world’s leading traders, offering Indonesia new trade routes, alliances, and riches. Arab traditions discourage the use of depicting animate objects in art, thus batik in the Muslim tradition uses geometric patterns and calligraphy. 336

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The Dutch also reached Java in the 16th century, and soon established a commercial colony in 1602. This colony began aggressive advancement in Southeast Asia and seized control of many areas. The Industrial Revolution made transportation more accessible to the public, and the Dutch colonized Indonesia. The Dutch East India Company was chartered in order to promote trade efforts under a uniied policy. Batavia, present-day Jakarta, was the irst permanent trade center, established by the Dutch East India Company in 1619. Dutch occupancy increased over the years and by 1700 a colonial pattern was established. Colonial expansion continued throughout the 19th century. New patterns and motifs began to emerge, creating a modern batik style. These motifs included steamboats, trains, airplanes, card games, opera, and other themes of a colonial lifestyle. Full Dutch colonial rule occurred after the Javanese defeat in 1830 during the Java War. Motifs and styles were exchanged and collected through this new rule, including a bright color palette. The bright colors were synthetic dyes, introduced by the Dutch in 1890. Synthetic dyes allowed a broader range of colors to be used and allowed the production of batik in mass quantities. World War II led the Japanese to control Indonesia, which caused an uprising. Citizens were unhappy and formed an independence movement. In 1945, after the surrender of Japan, Indonesia declared its independence. Divided and colonized for millennia, Indonesia gained its freedom. Although uniied, there is a fragmented sense of national identity, since historical experiences varied drastically from island to island. Today, the islands are home to over 248 million people, of which there are more than 1,000 ethnic and subethnic groups. The largest ethnic group is the Javanese, representing 42 percent of the population. The Javanese have the largest inluence over national dress. Java has remained the fabric-making capital of Indonesia, producing the majority of batik fabrics. Cultural diversity is celebrated in the country; the national motto is Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or Unity in Diversity.

People and Dress Batik was exclusively made for clothing until the late 20th century, when batik became popular as art and wall coverings. There are several ways of wearing batik, and each communicates ideas of social class, rank, and gender.

Unisex The sarong is typically two yards long (180 cm) and consists of a badan, the main body of the cloth, and a kepala, or top of the cloth. A pagi-sore is a reversible batik cloth that can be used for daytime or evening dress, as it is divided diagonally

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and decorated in different designs and colors. The cloth is then draped and tied to reveal one side. The dodot is a royal garment consisting of two batik cloths sewn together lengthwise. It is worn over a pair of silk trousers, draped and folded as an overskirt, often with a train on one side. The kain panjang, or kain, is a cloth three yards long (250 cm) by 40 inches wide (107 cm) that is ankle length when worn. It is a more formal style than the sarong. Women will wrap the cloth left over right with narrow pleats in the front. Men will wrap the cloth right over left, the opposite of the women’s style, and wear it with broad pleats.

Women The kemben is a narrow batik wrapped around the breasts. Women often wear the kemben with a dodot. The kebaya is a long-sleeved blouse adorned with embroidery and lace. The selendang is a multipurpose accessory. It is a long narrow cloth used as a shawl and bag. It can even be used to carry a baby. Note that while the selendang is not being used to carry things, it is an accessory.

Men The iket kepala is a square headcloth used to make a turban. Since there is no real deviation in garment type, decorative motifs and color usage are essential in asserting individual style. Aside from variations in tying the cloth, colors and designs are the only manner in which individuals can assert a personal style.

Materials and Techniques

Woman wearing kebaya. (Krisna Haryadi/ Dreamstime.com)

Batik is a word of Indonesian origin referring to a wax-resist dyeing technique for textiles. Melted wax is applied to a textile in speciic areas of

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the design to prevent dye absorption. Beeswax is most commonly used, as it is abundant in the islands of Sumba and Timor. The wax can also be mixed with various resins to change the inish and color absorption. Eucalyptus and animal fat are widely used at many batik cooperatives, but the proportions of the mixture are guarded as proprietary secrets. Both silk and cotton are used. Silk is particularly popular on the North Coast and is much easier to dye. Cotton is generally used for mass production and is worn on hot days. Cotton was produced in Java as early as the 17th century, but the quality was very coarse. In 1824, the Dutch introduced a machine-woven cotton. Java became heavily dependent on this Dutch imported cotton for batik production. Cotton must be prepared before the dye process. It is irst measured and cut into appropriate lengths. Then it is washed and boiled to prevent shrinking and to remove imperfections. After boiling, the cotton cloth is treated with oil and lye, which create a base color. The cotton cloth is then rinsed, folded in one-foot-wide sections along the warp, placed on a wooden board, and then beaten with a mallet to soften the ibers. Beating the cloth also opens the ibers so they will absorb the wax. If silk is used, it must also be measured, cut, and hemmed to prevent fraying. The wax mixture can be applied in two methods: the tulis method or the cap (tjap) method. The tulis method is when wax resist is applied to the cloth freehand with a tool called the canting. The canting is composed of a wooden or reed handle and a thin copper sheet that is welded into a small container with a spout. Cantings come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and with several spouts to create different sizes of lines and dots. The designer will ill the container with the wax mixture and skillfully pour it through the spout to create a design. The canting is the oldest tool used for batik, predating written records. Tulis batik is the most time consuming and expensive to create. The cap method is a stamping method. The irst caps were introduced from India, as were crudely cut wooden blocks. This type of cap is carved by an artist, similar to block printing. Cap production became more sophisticated over time, evolving to a reined copper stamp. Most caps utilize two or more copper stamps, creating a repeating unit within the batik. Copper is designed and soldered into a design pattern. The cap is dipped into the wax mixture and pressed onto the cloth. Production in batik cooperatives exploded with the introduction of the cap, allowing Java to create an international batik textile industry. The tulis and cap techniques can be combined, resulting in a technique known as kombinasi. Both employ a shared tool called the cemplogen. The cemplogen is like a wire brush, used to scrape small spots of wax off the surface of a batik before it is dyed. This creates interesting patterns of small dots. The cemplogen has a wooden handle and steel needles.

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Woman uses a canting to apply wax to a traditional Indonesian batik fabric, 2005. (Stefano Alberti/iStockphoto.com)

The process of making batik is very gender speciic. Women primarily do the ine handwork and apply the wax. Designs are passed down from mother to daughter. Men are responsible for the dyeing process, as well as crafting caps. Men primarily control the cap method, as the stamping process is labor intensive.

Design Motifs Indonesia’s complex history of colonization and trade has created innumerable design motifs for batik. The lora and fauna of Indonesia is the most consistent motif. Indigenous folklore has also provided a constant source of inspiration for batik artists. The Garuda, a mythical bird, has been used throughout the ages. It can be stylized to show one wing, the Mirong, and a double wing, Sawat. The Garuda is considered to be auspicious and is depicted on the modern-day lag. Kantjil is another heroic mythical creature. An indigenous mouse deer, Kantjil outwits dangerous animals. This folk tale is told throughout the islands of the archipelago. Traditional Indonesian batik consists of three key elements: the bandan, the kepala, and the papan. The bandan is the main ield of the batik. The kepala is a

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wide perpendicular band located in the middle or at the end of the batik. The color and pattern of the kepala contrast with that of the bandan. The kepala often has a triangular geometric motif called a tumpal. The papan is the border of the batik. Common designs on the papan are ine lines made to look like fringe. Trade interaction with India and China brought representations of Buddha and Siva. The lotus with interlocking and intersecting circular designs, called kawung, was a style borrowed from Buddhist and Hindu temples. In the 16th century, the spread of Islam had reached Indonesia. Arab traditions discourage the use of depicting animate objects in art, thus batik in the Muslim tradition uses geometric patterns and calligraphy. The boteh (almond) pattern became popular during Muslim rule. The Dutch introduced new patterns and motifs, creating a modern batik style. Western industrial themes included steamboats, trains, and airplanes, which were adapted to batik. Motifs and styles were exchanged and collected through this new rule, including a bright color palette. The bright colors were synthetic dyes, introduced by the Dutch in 1890. Synthetic dyes allowed a broader range of colors to be used and allowed the production of batik in mass quantities. Colet was also developed after the synthetic dyes. Colet is the painting of small areas directly on the cloth by hand.

Uses for Indonesian Ethnic Textiles and Dress Batik made its international debut in the Western world via the Dutch East India Company during the 17th century. Western culture loved these exotic, colorful prints. Their popularity soared, and soon Western textile artists were imitating batik by various printing methods. Printing was less time consuming and more economical than the hand-drawn method, and Indonesia’s economy suffered until the 19th century when Javanese artists starting using the cap method. Contemporary batik is radically changing from the more traditional and formal styles. The batik process is largely being outsourced to Malaysia and India, where the process is done by silkscreen. Silkscreening, stenciling, and dye discharge have become attractive alternatives to traditional batik. These alternatives are attractive due to the expense in creating handmade batik. True batik is still created in Indonesia, but it is expensive and has become incorporated into art. Batik is still a fashion item for many young people in Indonesia. The batik fabric is now fashioned into contemporary shirts, dresses, or scarves. The kebaya is still standard for women to wear to formal occasions. Men also are permitted to wear batik in the ofice and on formal occasions. Traditional Balinese and Javanese dancers also wear traditional costumes. Oscar Lawalata is a forerunner in using traditional batik fabrics for contemporary ready-to-wear. Other Indonesian fashion

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Further Reading and Resources Drakeley, Stevens. The History of Indonesia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005. Elliott, Inger McCabe. Batik: Fabled Cloth of Java. New York: Clarkson and Potter, 1984. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996. Suryadinata, Leo, et al. Indonesia’s Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape. Singapore: ISEAS, 2003.

Iran Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood

Historical and Geographical Background Iran is a large and ancient country that lies at the crossroads between Asia, the Near East, and Europe. Over the centuries, numerous different peoples have settled in the country. As a result, there are currently about 100 different ethnic and religious groups (both Muslim and non-Muslim) living in the country. Iran’s ethnic diversity is relected in many aspects of Iranian culture, notably its literature, painted forms, as well as its traditional regional dress, especially that worn by women. In recent years, Iran has suffered a turbulent history. Originally called Persia until 1935, it was ruled over by a monarchy until 1979. In 1979, the shah was overthrown and forced into exile. Iran has been an Islamic republic since then. Speciic details about a region’s geographical and climatic characteristics are important as they affect what people wear. It is normal, for instance, to ind thick, baggy trousers being worn in mountainous regions where ease of movement and protection against rocks are essential. On the other hand, in hotter and latter desert regions, emphasis tends to be placed on keeping cool and being well protected against the effects of the sun and sand, while using a minimum weight of cloth. In the coastal regions of northern Iran, for example, the high Elburz Mountains and the presence of the Caspian Sea mean that the summers are very hot and humid, very different from the desert plains south of the mountains. The geographical and climatic conditions of northern Iran mean that it is possible to grow both tea on the mountain slopes and rice on the adjoining plains. The Zagros Mountains along the western borders of the country play an important role in providing both a barrier and a means of communications between various cities and groups. Here live large groups of Kurds, who have close connections with Kurds from eastern Iraq and Turkey, and together they have formed a separate nation all across the mountains. The Kurds are very proud of their separate regional identity and dress, and there are many variations being worn at the beginning of the 21st century.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The vast desert of central Iran has meant that communications were very dificult until comparatively recently, when a motorway system was built in the second half of the 20th century connecting the many oasis towns scattered throughout the desert. Towns such as Qom, Kashan, Isfahan, Shiraz, Yazd, and Kirman are still important communication and cultural links down the center of the country. This area is the home of the Persians, who are now the main group in the country, with other groups, including the Kurds, surrounding them in a great circle. Until the end of the 20th century there were still some isolated groups that retained their traditional dress, notably in the Abayaneh region, but many people long ago adopted pan-Iranian dress, which is based on Western styles of dress. Further to the south of Iran the mountains and desert regions are populated by various nomadic groups, including the Bakhtiari and Qashqa‘i, who are of Turkic origin. And further south, the centuries-old trading contacts with the Gulf region mean that there is a strong Arab cultural tradition. The southern coastal region of Iran, the Bandar or harbor area, has long been home to numerous different cultural and ethnic groups, including Africans, Arabs, Europeans, Indians, and Persians. The Bandar area is a relatively lat region that is cool in the winter and very hot and humid in the summer. Many people move inland in the summer to escape the worst of the heat. The inluence of India and modern-day Pakistan can be seen in the garments worn by the Baluch people, who live in the eastern deserts of Iran. These were originally a nomadic and trading people who traveled vast distances throughout the Indian Ocean and Gulf region. The northeast of the country is mainly settled by Turkmen groups who live throughout the northern parts of Iran, Afghanistan, as well as southern Russia and western Central Asia. There are numerous subgroups who live in this mountainous region of Iran and who have developed their own special cultural heritage. In addition, the religious center of Mashad lies in this part of Iran, so there is also a strong Persian community that tends to the spiritual and material needs of the thousands of pilgrims from all over Iran who visit the city every year.

People and Dress Iranian society is made up of many different groups living together in various situations. The population of Iran in 2012 was estimated at 78.8 million people. The largest group is the urban population. People are constantly being drawn to the large cities such as Tehran (population in 2009 estimated at 7.19 million), Tabriz (1.459 million), and Mashad (2.592 million) in order to ind work and better prospects for the future. In all of these urban regions there is a mixture of ethnic groups including Persian-, Arabic-, and Turkish-speaking peoples.

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In other areas of Iran, however, one particular group may predominate, such as the Kurds in the western part of the country. But it should be noted that it is not uncommon to have villages of different groups close to each other. For instance, outside the city of Ahwaz in southwestern Iran, one particular village may be regarded as Arabic, while the neighboring village is described as Iranian, namely Persian. There are also a large number of villages that have permanent and semipermanent inhabitants. The village near the Sasanian (early irst millennium BCE) palace of Firuzabad (located to the south of Shiraz in southwest Iran) includes a large number of Qashqa‘i people who live there during the hot summer months and then travel with the “black tents” in the winter. This is part of a deliberate policy by the Iranian government to encourage the settlement of nomadic groups. The following description of the main types of Iranian regional dress has been given in an alphabetical (Abayaneh to Zoroastrian) rather than geographical order to make it easier to identify the basic forms.

Abayaneh Dress Abayaneh is situated some 80 miles (130 km) south of Tehran. Until relatively recently, the region around Abayaneh was virtually cut off from the rest of Iran. Men’s and boys’ clothing in the region was based upon late-19th-century-style garments, namely a shirt (pirahan), a gown (qaba), a sash (kammarband), baggy trousers (zir-jameh), cloth shoes (giveh), and some form of headgear, such as a cap (kolah) or a turban (mandil). By the beginning of the 21st century, the remaining traditional feature is the loose-itting shiny black trousers with cuffs embroidered in a line motif. The dress of both girls and women is based on three items: a tunic (pirahan), knee-length “skirt” (shalwar), and a large headshawl (chargat). The “skirts” are not actually skirts, but extremely wide trousers. These garments are made out of at least eight yards of pleated black cloth. The Abayaneh headscarf is made out of a large square of cloth, which has a light-colored background with small colorful motifs. It is folded diagonally and then fastened under the chin.

Arab-Style Dress There are many Arab groups living in Iran, the largest of which lives in the southwest of the country. Unlike Arabs living further to the west, Iranian Arabs wear undertrousers rather than a hip wrap (lungi). The summer styles of these trousers are made of thin cotton fabric, while the winter versions are made from thicker, knitted fabrics. A gown (dishdasha) is worn over this. The summer version is made from lightweight cotton, while the winter style is of a much heavier material. The basic

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress head covering consists of a square of cloth folded diagonally and draped over the head. The Iranian Arabs do not wear a headrope (‘aqal) as men wear in Saudi Arabia. One of the most distinctive items of Arabic dress is the so-called cloak or aba. Two forms of aba are worn here, namely a light summer version made from loosely woven cotton, and a heavier winter version made out of good-quality camel hair or wool. As a generalization the wearing of abas is generally regarded as something older men do, especially in the winter. The basic outit of an Arab woman consists of undertrousers (shalwar), a long dress (libas), a loose overdress (sob), a head covering (shelagh), and an outer covering (abayeh). The most characteristic element is the sob or overdress, which is worn over the normal dress. A basic sob is made from a large rectangle of cloth with a hole cut out for the head. The sides of the garment are sewn together, with holes left for the arms. The Iranian sob is almost identical in construction to the thob worn by women in the eastern parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The basic headgear or shelagh is made up of a large rectangle of cloth, which is wrapped around the head, covering the neck and hair. Various forms of cloth are used, but most tend to be made from a lightweight cotton. Younger women tend to wear a lightcolor shelagh, while older women normally wear black versions. Finally, on top of the indoor garments, Arab women often wear a cloak-like garment called an abayeh when outdoors. In Iran, these garments are worn over the head in the Iraqi manner, rather than on the shoulders as is common in Saudi Arabia.

Bakhtiari Dress

A young Bakhtiari villager poses in his brightly colored national costume, Bakhtiari, Iran, 1968. (Roger Wood/Corbis)

The Bakhtiari are a conglomeration of various groups who probably migrated from Syria to Iran during the medieval period. They live in the western part of the country. A distinctive part of Bakhtiari male dress are the trousers (shalwar-gosad, tombun), which are black and cut very wide (120 cm, 47” around the leg) and are usually

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worn over long underpants (zir-shalwar). The trousers are held in place by a leather belt or a large sash or rolled white cloth (sal). Baktiari men are also famous for their piano-striped jackets called coga, which are made out of natural and indigo-dyed wool. Each tribe has its own design, making the identiication of a person from a distance much easier. The basic outit for a Bakhtiari woman consists of a pair of undertrousers worn with a long, full skirt (tombun-zanuna), which is usually made of between 8 and 10 yards of cloth. The material in the skirt is gathered at the waist. Over the skirt is worn a knee-length tunic (jowa or pirahan), which is slit at the sides in order to accommodate the full skirt. Bakhtiari women normally wear a small cap (lacak) to which a veil (meyna) is pinned in such a way as to frame the face without hiding it. The hair is normally parted in the middle and arranged in two braids that are joined together under the chin.

Baluch Dress Most Baluch are Iranian speaking who live in the south of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran. Most Baluch men wear the kameez or long shirt, worn with simple drawstring trousers (shalwar). Other elements of the male dress include a long scarf or shoulder wrap (pushtin) and a close-itting cap (topi) over which is wrapped a turban (pag). In addition, during colder weather other garments are added including a waistcoat (sadri) and an overcoat (kaba). Occasionally a woolen blanket or shawl (sal) is worn. The typical Baluch skullcap (topi), over which the turban is tightly wrapped, is usually made of cotton with ine silk or cotton embroidery in loral or geometric designs and incorporating small, round mirrors. The basic elements of a Baluch woman’s dress consist of a pair of baggy trousers. The older trousers of striped silk fabric are called kanavez, while the modern matching trousers are called shalwar. Other dress elements are a knee-length dress (pashk) with pleats (cheen) at either side of the waist, and inally, a large, rectangular shawl or head covering (chadar). Nowadays, the trousers and the dress are made in the same material, with a complementary colored head covering. Traditionally, the dresses are decorated with four speciic panels of embroidery (doch). These panels are a large yoke covering the chest (jig/jeg); a long, narrow rectangular pocket (pado, pandohl); and two sleeve cuffs (banzari). The form of embroidery used is called pakka, meaning irm or solid. These used to be hand stitched, with each group having their own form of patterning. Nowadays, however, machine-embroidered decoration is much more common. Sometimes, embroidered panels from worn-out dresses are cut off and resewn onto new garments.

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Bandar Dress The people of the Iranian shores of the Persian Gulf are often loosely known as Bandaris, from the Persian word for port or harbor. The Bandaris tend to be of Iranian, Arab, African, Baluchi, Indian, or European descent. The traditional male dress in the Bandar region is very similar to Baluch-style clothing and consists of a shirt (juma) that reaches below the knee and is fastened with buttons on the right side of the neck. The shirt is worn over loosely cut trousers (shalwar). On the head is worn a small white or colored cap (kolah), and over this is wrapped a length of cloth (lang, languta), which is about two yards long. Older men tend to use white (ratrah) or striped cloth, while younger men use colored material. The Bandar region is famous for the embroidered trousers (shalwar) worn by the women. The trouser cuffs used to be decorated with hand embroidery. The design found on the trouser cuffs used to relect where the wearer came from, but nowadays most women wear whatever design they prefer. The basic garment worn over the trousers is a dress (pirahan). The olderstyle dresses are made in colored cotton, either waisted (gavan style) or cut full (dara‘a). The head covering is normally made up of a rectangular (about 3 by 2 feet) scarf of thin black material (makna). Over all these garments, women generally wear a large, semicircular chador, which is made from a very lightweight cotton. Perhaps one of the most widely commented upon aspects of Bandar dress are the various types of face coverings. The type of face veil worn by a Bandari woman depends in the main on three factors, namely (a) her religious background (Sunni or Shi‘ite), (b) her ethnic origins, and (c) where she lives. Shi‘ite Face Veils Many Shi‘ite women in the Bandar region, for example, wear bright red rectangular masks of the battulah construction, locally known as a burqa, decorated with various patterns. Originally these were hand worked, but nowadays most are decorated using machine embroidery. The color and designs provide information as to which ethnic group the wearer comes from. Sunni Face Veils In general, Sunni women of Arab origin in the Bandar region wear either black face veils or gold mask-like forms. The main form of battulah (locally known as a burqa) that they wear is squarish and rather long in shape and black in color, as opposed to the red, rectangular shapes worn by Shi‘ite women described above.

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The Sunni battulah is made out of black cotton or black velvet. The veil is similar to a type of battulah worn in parts of Qatar, on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Some Sunni women in the Bandar region also wear a niqab-style face veil. They are usually in a loosely woven black cotton material. They are made from two layers of material with a small slit for the eyes. These veils are very similar in form and size to the more pan-Islamic niqab.

Gilani Dress Gilan is a region along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea in northern Iran. The traditional dress for men in Gilan consists of a short tunic (pirahan sey) or, more commonly, a Western-style shirt. Over the shirts are worn waistcoats (jeliqe), which are often made of sal, a locally made woolen cloth. In some areas a 19thcentury form of jacket called an alkaleq was worn, but this has been replaced by a Western-style jacket (kot). Men used to wear a type of trousers (sal-shalwar) made of sal or thick cotton (qadak), which reached to the ankles. By the end of the 20th century, however, it was usually only shepherds who wore such trousers. The shoes and stocking worn until very recently by men, especially shepherds, were also speciic to the Caspian region. The woolen stockings were hand knitted and had either plain or polychrome designs. At the end of the 20th century, the basic outit of a Gilani woman consisted of close-itting, ankle-length trousers (shalwar), over which were worn a full skirt (tuman) gathered at the waist. Women normally wear two or three skirts together, one on top of each other. The length of the skirt is often used to indicate the age of the wearer: a younger woman will have a calf-length skirt, while an older woman’s version may reach the ankles or the ground. Over the skirt is worn a tunic (koynak). There are two slits at either side of the garment to allow for the fullness of the skirts. A waistcoat (jerqa) is normally worn over the koynak. As a generalization, dark gray or black waistcoats are worn on a daily basis, while those for special events are normally in bright colors and ornamented with braids, beads, and coins. Another distinctive regional garment is the sash (chadarsab), which is a rectangular piece of cloth folded into a triangle and worn knotted around the waist with the point at the side or back. At home a woman may wear a scarf (lecek), which covers only the top of the head. In the eastern part of Gilan these tend to be made of plain black cloth folded into a triangle. Elsewhere the scarf may be white or a plain, light color. Outside the home, women normally wear a white shawl (yaylik). It is made from a square of material folded into a triangle and then knotted or crossed under the chin.

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Kurdish Dress The Iranian Kurds inhabit various parts of western Iran, but they also live in the northeast of the country. By the end of the 20th century there were three distinctive dress forms that were worn by both urban and nomadic Kurdish men. These were based on traditional costumes with some modern adaptations. These forms were the sal-sepik, the peshmerga, and the rank-o-choukhah. One of the oldest forms of Kurdish male dress is the sal-sepik, which consists of trousers (rank) and a V-necked jacket (coga). The best-quality examples are made out of striped mohair. Since the 1970s the inluence of Kurdish refugees from Iraq has led to a preference for the peshmerga dress. The suit is made up of a matching jacket (kava) and trousers (pantol) in black or brown, which is worn with a colored sash (pestand). The turban (pac) in a fringed dark print is normally folded diagonally to leave a triangle at the back of the head. The rank-o-choukhah consists of a shirt (keras) with a round neck and either straight sleeves or, less frequently now, pendant or funnel sleeves (soranis). Over this is worn a plain, long-sleeved jacket buttoned down the front, in a range of solid colors such as brown, cream, beige, black, or grey. An unbuttoned (cuka) version of this garment has an open neckline. The jacket is worn with matching trousers, which are baggy and gathered at the waist while tapering to the ankles. A long cotton sash (pestand) is normally wrapped tightly around the torso. Throughout the region the main headgear is based on a variation of a skullcap (kelaw) with a large cloth used as a turban. The colors and material used for these turbans can vary, including green for sayyids, white or black for sheiks and mullahs, while burgundy, gray, black, and white are used by other men. Turban cloth used by ordinary Kurds usually has a small printed design on it, which is often based on lowers. There are ive basic types of costume worn by urban Kurdish women in western Iran, namely those from around the cities of Maku/Khoy, Urumia, Mahabad, Sanandaj, and Kermanshah. The basic outit of the Jalali women living in and around Maku consists of trousers (darpe); a long, very full dress (keras); an apron (mizar); a long-sleeved coat (der); sleeve puffs; and a headdress, which is usually made up of a single headscarf (dastmal) for an unmarried woman and two or more scarves for a married woman. The basic Urumia outit consists of baggy trousers; a plain, shaped underdress or petticoat, which reaches to just above the knee; and a dress that is often made out of sheer material. The dress usually has a gathered waist and long sleeves, sometimes in a pendant shape. Over this is worn a long-sleeved coat with a wide scoop front. The sleeves of the dress are usually tied behind the back so that the woman can more easily work.

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The Mahabad outit consists of a shift; balloon-shaped trousers (darpe), which can be up to six yards wide and itted at the ankles; and inally a long, pleated dress (keras), which has a hem width of four to ive yards. The dress normally has a round neckline and long sleeves that may terminate in pendants (soranis). These extended sleeves are normally either wrapped around the wrists or tied behind the neck. Over the dress is worn a short waistcoat. Finally, a cotton sash (pestand) is normally wound loosely around the hips. This sash is made from three to six yards of patterned cloth. The traditional headdress is a low cylindrical cardboard cap (tas-kelaw) covered with velvet or brocade. The version worn by girls has a chin chain decorated with coins or more commonly plastic discs. The cap is normally wrapped in a long triangular shawl (dastmal), which is worn with the points of the triangle crossed over on the chest and the main point dangling down the back. Sanandaj female dress is made up of a similar range of garments to those described previously; however, the garments tend not to be so full or decorative. The main form of head covering from this region is called a kalagi and consists of a domed cap decorated with sequins or beads and wrapped with one or two scarves. Some of the caps are held under the chin with a beaded chain. Until comparatively recently, all married women used to wear a turban made from numerous scarves and tasselled lengths of fabric. Women from the Kermanshah region tend to wear various layers of clothing including long trousers (soval jai) under a long, full dress. Over the dress is a waist-length bodice or waistcoat, which is often in velvet and covered in sequins. The basic headdress consists of a sequined cap (koter) wrapped with one or several scarves. The caps worn by younger women and girls are usually decorated with either sequins or embroidery, while those of older women are normally of plain velvet or decorated with small black beads.

Eastern Kurdish Dress In addition to the Kurds living in western Iran there are Kurdish groups living near the cities of Bojnurd and Quchan in eastern Iran. Until the 1960s there were elements of traditional male garments such as a shirt of red or white silk, without a collar and with either a front opening or a slit on the shoulder. It was worn with a jacket (nivtana, panjak) or an ankle-length overcoat (kot) made of brown or black lamb’s wool with a wide collar and an opening in front. The headgear included a tasselled black cap, around which a shawl was wrapped, or an expensive type of hat made from lambskin (astrakhan). But by the end of the 20th century most of these garments had virtually vanished, and men, especially the younger ones, were wearing a mixture of Iranian and Kurdish-style garments or pan-Iranian style clothing with trousers, belt, and shirt.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The traditional outit for an eastern Kurdish woman is still worn and consists of a plain cloth tunic (salita) with long sleeves, the front of which is decorated with zigzag patterns. Under the tunic is worn a knee-length skirt (tambon) made from up to 10 yards of cloth. A variety of materials are used for the skirt depending upon age, status, and clan; for instance, an unmarried girl may wear a velvet skirt decorated with seven colors, while an older woman would wear a plain red skirt. White socks or stockings are often worn with the skirts. The headdress consists of three elements: a cloth (bonhani) directly covering the hair; a white shawl (chaharqad) consisting of a piece of unsewn cloth; and a kerchief (rosari), which is worn on top of the head over the chaharqad. All married women normally veil their mouths by pulling part of the white chaharqad across the lower part of their face.

Qashqa‘i Dress The Qashqa‘i are a Turkic-speaking people settled in the mountains of southwest Iran. Today, Qashqa‘i men usually wear urban styles of dress (long-sleeved shirts in dark colors), although they continue to wear the distinctive Qashqa‘i hat called a dogusi cap (“two-eared”), which is regarded by many as being the quintessential garment that identiies a Qashqa‘i man. The cap is made of orangey beige, tan, or gray felt and as its name suggests, it has two laps on either side just above the ears. A Qashqa‘i woman’s outit consists of baggy trousers (shalwar), which are cut very wide at the top, gathered onto a drawstring at the waist, and tapered to ankle cuffs. Over these are worn 2 to 12 underskirts (tuman-i zir), again with a cord at the waist. The greater the number of these skirts, the higher a woman’s social status. Over the underskirts is another, more lamboyant skirt (tuman-i rue), which is usually brightly colored and made from iner materials. Between 2 to 15 yards of cloth may be used for making each of these skirts. Over the skirts is worn a long tabard or dress (keynak), which has a high, round neck and long sleeves. These dresses are slit at the sides from the thigh downward in order to make room for the various skirts. A waist-length itted jacket (yal-i arsin fosol), is sometimes worn by wealthier women at festivals and weddings. The headgear worn varies according to age, status, and tribal afiliation. The basic form, however, consists of a small cap (kolahqcha), worn with one or more diaphanous triangular veils or kerchiefs. These are often made out of net trimmed with sequins. The veils are fastened under the chin with a brooch or fastener (asmaliq, chapa) of some kind. Over the veil is worn a band or illet of chiffon, silk, or net (yayliq), which is usually brightly colored. Unmarried women normally wear their hair outside the veil at the front, while married women tuck it inside.

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Qashqa‘i women wearing traditional dresses sit in a tent during a wedding ceremony near Dehpagah, Fars Province, 2006. (Kaveh Kazemi/Getty Images)

The same types of clothing are worn on a daily basis and are also worn at weddings and other festivals. Even while on migration, women will wear their splendid skirts while sitting astride their camel, horse, or donkey.

Shahsavan Dress The name Shahsavan is given to various tribal groups who mainly live in northwestern Iran. A distinctive and at times spectacular item of men’s clothing is the hat, with which men express their status within society. The Shahsavan hats are generally regarded as setting them apart from non-Shahsavan. There are two types. The oficial Iranian dress reforms of the 1930s meant that men had to adapt to Westernstyle clothing, including Western styles of headgear. As a result, homburg hats (säpo) became fashionable among the Shahsavan. After World War II, younger Shahsavan men began to wear the peaked jämsidi-style cap, while older men continued to wear homburgs. The jämsidi is now regarded by the Shahsavan as a tribal hat. A woman’s outit consists of ive main elements: a full-length tunic (könek), a tailored waistcoat (yel, jilitkä), several wide full-length underskirts (dizlik) gathered at the waist, a small skullcap (äräxcin), and two headscarves (yaylik and käläyagi). The bell-shape appearance of the women’s dress is achieved by wearing at least two or more full-length underskirts, while on special occasions up to ive

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress skirts may be worn. The waistcoats worn by younger girls tend to be made out of red material decorated with braids, buttons, and coins. The waistcoats of married women are normally more somber and are often made out of men’s suiting. The headdress is one of the most important elements of the dress worn by a married woman. Its shape, size, color, and complexity are used to denote the wearer’s status. The basic headdress is created with two scarves, both of which are made of hand-printed silk. The large scarf (yaylik) is about ive feet square and decorated in a variety of colors. The most common combination for the yaylik is white, yellow and oranges patterned with darker colours. The smaller scarf (käläyagi) is smaller and is normally the darker of the two. It is rolled diagonally and tied tightly around the large scarf and the skullcap in order to keep them in place. As a rule, Shahsavan women will partially veil their faces in the presence of unrelated men. This is done by bringing part of the yaylik across the lower part of the face covering the nose, mouth, and chin.

Turkmen Dress The region where the Turkmen live is divided among Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkmenistan. Traditionally there were considerable differences between the dress worn by male Turkmen from the various groups living in Iran. This difference, however, is now virtually nonexistent, as major changes have taken place in men’s clothing since the mid-20th century. The daily outit for most men is based on panIranian–style clothing. On special occasions, however, a more traditional form of dress is adopted. This consists of a shirt with the front opening coming from the right shoulder, a long robe or gown (don), and a small, embroidered skullcap (bark). The cap may be covered by a neat turban, which is made out of a square of cloth folded diagonally and then wrapped around the head. Another form of headgear associated with Turkmen is the telpek. This is a large, luffy cap made from black or white sheepskin. It is now mainly worn on special occasions. The basic dress of a Turkmen woman consists of under trousers (balaq), a dress (koynak), and a headdress. In addition, some groups also have a face veil (yasmak), a sash (sal qusaq, bil qusak), an indoor coat of some kind (cabit or kurte), and for outdoor wear, a second coat (chrypy), which is often worn over the head. Some Turkmen women wear a broad cloth sash around their indoor coats in order to keep the garments from opening, especially while they are working. Various forms of headdresses are worn by married Turkmen women depending upon which group they belong to and whether it is a day-to-day or more formal occasion; for the latter they tend to wear an elaborate hat decorated with various scarves, while on a daily basis the headdress is much simpler.

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At the end of the 20th century, for example, a Yomut woman’s headdress tended to be based upon a headring (aldarij, alan dangi) covered by a large shawl (yagliq, yaghg, or cargat), which was folded diagonally in half and then draped over the head and upper body of the wearer. In contrast, Tekke and Goklan women often wear a headdress, which is 10 inches high and made up of a cloth (qinyac uci, yasmak) wrapped around a structured framework. The frame may be made out of a variety of materials such as rushes, twisted cloth, leather, felt, or cardboard. Sometimes the cloth is used as a veil to cover the lower part of the face. One of the main features of the dress of a Turkmen woman used to be her jewelry, as it played an important role, namely that of “life insurance” giving inancial security. The jewelry included diadems (ildirqich), tiaras (egmeh), temple pendants (adamlyk), earrings, necklaces and collars (boqow), collar studs (gol yaqeh, gulyaqa), armbands and bracelets (bilezikl, bezelik), and inger rings. These are usually worn en masse and can weigh a considerable amount; a young bride, for instance, may wear up to 14 pounds (6.35 kg) in silver jewelry during her wedding festivities. By the end of the 20th century, however, gold jewelry was rapidly replacing the older silver forms.

Zoroastrian Dress The Zoroastrians are followers of the main religion across the Iranian Plateau prior to the introduction of Islam in the seventh century CE. Zoroastrians are followers of Zoroaster, who lived, or so we assume, at some point in the early irst millennium BCE. He introduced a monotheistic religion that is based around an omnipotent god called Ahura Mazda. By the end of the 20th century the Zoroastrians were a minority group concentrated around the city of Yazd. For centuries Zoroastrian men have been barely indistinguishable from their Muslim neighbors, and as a result there is no special clothing for them. In contrast, however, Zoroastrian women have developed and preserved their own distinctive form of dress. Up to the latter half of the 20th century the basic dress of a Zoroastrian woman in Yazd consisted of a pair of baggy trousers (shalwar), a panelled dress (qamis), and various forms of headgear. By the end of the century, many women were choosing to wear pan-Iranian garments, and within a short while the older form of clothing will no longer be regarded as everyday wear, although it may survive for festival occasions. The traditional trousers worn by Zoroastrian women are large and baggy, but women now tend to wear narrow, knee-high trousers that can just be seen below the hem of the dress. The dress includes a long skirt made out of green/brown or green/ purple panels. The bodice section is usually plain and in a contrasting color to the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress skirt sections. The traditional headdress can be quite complex and consists of various elements that can be worn together or by themselves, including a small triangle cap (lacak) with a chin band; a large headcover (maknun) made up of three yards of cloth placed under the chin and then folded over the head; and inally, in the winter, a large, diagonally folded shawl (chargat), which is often draped over the top.

Further Reading and Resources Allgrove, Joan. The Qashqa‘i of Iran. Manchester: Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester, 1976. Andrews, Peter, and Mugul Andrews. The Turcoman of Iran. Kendal: Abbot Hall Art Gallery, 1971. Beck, Louise. The Qashqa‘i of Iran. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1986. Bier, Carol, and Mary Martin. “Pasture and Product.” In Carol Bier, ed. Woven from the Soul, Spun from the Heart: Textile Arts of Safavid and Qajar Iran 16th– 19th Centuries. Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 1987, pp. 288–324. Encyclopaedia Iranica. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/clothing-index. A long entry by various authors who discuss the history and range of Iranian urban and regional dress. Tapper, Richard. Frontier Nomads of Iran: A Political and Social History of the Shahsevan. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 1997. Tapper, Richard, and Jon Thompson, eds. The Nomadic Peoples of Iran. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002. Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. “Iranian Regional Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5: Central and Southwest Asia. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 298–307.

Iraq John A. Shoup

Historical and Geographical Background In recent history, Iraq has been much discussed on the world stage as there has been a continuing war for the past decade. The history of the country is one of great tradition and it has long been a civilized country, since settled life in cities began in the fourth millenium BCE. Iraq was part of the Fertile Crescent where large production of grains such as wheat were irst introduced. The Sumerian civilization thrived for more than 3,000 years, after which Iraq was alternately occupied and fought over by many groups including the Anatolians, Amorites, Sumerians, Assyrians, Hittites, Babylonians, and Mitanni, who all controlled Iraq at some point in ancient history. The Babylonians assumed control from the Assyrians in 612 BCE with the last Babylonian king (Nabonidus) ending his reign in Iraq in 539 BCE. The Persians conquered Babylon and brought a period of tolerance and justice, and also ruled Anatolia, Syria, Lebanon, and Egypt. They allowed people to return to their lands, including the Jews. In the 20th century the British army took control of Baghdad in 1916 but were soundly defeated in the Battle of Gallipoli in that same year. None of this gave the Arab nationalists much hope, but also in 1916, the Sharif of Makkah, Hussein ibn ‘Ali, felt he had secure promises of British support for an independent Arab state after the war that he declared the Arab Revolt. The Arabs had equally poor success in attacks on Madinah, but in 1917, the Arabs were able to take the strategic fort at al-‘Aqabah in modern Jordan. With strong support by local Bedouins, the Arab army had more victories at Showbak and Tailah in Jordan that assisted British advances in Palestine. The Arab army entered Damascus to ind the Arab lag lying and the Turks gone. British advance troops arrived hours later. With the defeat of Germany and its allies in 1918, World War I ended. The British Mandate in Iraq continued until 1932 when independence was granted by the British. The Iraqi throne remained within the British sphere of inluence and, as a result, more Iraqis saw their own monarchy as merely a tool for continued British interference in the country. During the height of Pan Arabism of 357

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the 1950s, Iraq was not immune to the rise of strong Arab nationalist feelings and in 1958, in a very bloody coup, the king and his government were overthrown and many were killed including King Faisal II (ruled 1939–1958). Iraq’s new republican government was not only Pan Arab, taking on the Palestinian cause, but also anticolonial and anti-British. In 1941, long before the republic, the Iraqi army staged an anti-British coup and briely was able to rule the country. During the period of King Faisal II’s rule, there were eight attempted coups showing how unhappy many in the army were with the pro-British stance of the monarchy. Iraq (along with Iran) was drawn into the cold war on the British-American side, and the Iraqi republic withdrew from the Baghdad Pact and established good relations with the Soviet Union. In 1963, in another coup, the government was overthrown and another set of generals ruled the country. In 1968, they in turn were overthrown in a military coup and the Ba‘ath Party came to power with Ahmad Hasan al-Bakir as the president. In 1979, his cousin, Saddam Hussein, was able to take over the presidency and the Revolutionary Command Council without a ight. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq until the American-led invasion of 2003. He dealt with a Kurdish rebellion in the north of the country, and the Kurds were subjected to renewed Iraqi military offensive between 1975 and 1978; 200,000 Kurds were deported to other parts of the country. In 2003, the Americans and British invaded Iraq and in a brief war defeated the Iraqi army. Baghdad was occupied and Saddam Hussein led. Kurdish attempts to separate were defeated in a vote, and in the 2005 constitution the two districts of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah were uniied. Kurds behaved as if the north were a near separate state since 1992 when the Kurdistan Regional Government was formed under the tutelage of the American army. The American occupation of Iraq sparked an internal resistance, which began in 2003 and intensiied in 2004. Resistance groups were not only formed by the Sunni Arabs, but also the Shi‘ites began to form groups, and among the largest and most inluential were the Shi‘ites loyal to the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Al-Qa’idah became involved in the Iraqi Sunni insurgency. The American military operations from 2006 to 2008 helped bring most of Iraq under the Iraqi government’s control. In 2010, American president Barack Obama began the pullout of American troops, which was completed in 2011.

Geography Iraq has a hot, dry climate for the most part and rainfall happens in the winter months. Rain amounts to around 9.5 inches (250 mm) a year in much of the country. Much of Iraq is fairly lat with two major rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris,

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dominating the country. Most of the mountain range lies inside the Iranian border. The mountainous north is the ancient homeland of the Kurds. The Euphrates and Tigris nearly come together in Baghdad, but continue their separate courses until just north of Basrah they join together to make the Shatt al‘Arab waterway. The waterway has always been important, but its economic value increased with the shipping of oil from both Iraqi and Iranian terminals. North of Basrah is a large marshland that covers 7,700 square miles (20,000 square kilometers). The marshes have existed since ancient times; the Sumerians called them the Apsu or Eden, where life began. Today, attempts to revitalize the region have been successful in restoring around 56 percent of the marshes. Most of western Iraq is true desert and some of the most arid parts of the Syrian Desert. The Syrian Desert is inhabited by Bedouin Arabs who are mainly Sunni Muslim. Their pastoral patterns bring them into Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

People and Dress Iraq is a country with a diverse population in both ethnicities and in religious communities. The total population of Iraq in 2012 was estimated at 31,129,000. While a good portion of the Iraqi population has abandoned traditional clothing for a more standard Western style, some communities, such as the Kurds (who are mostly Sunni), maintain distinctive dress in order to mark themselves as different from Arabs, Turkmen, or Persian speakers. Iraq, like other Arab countries, has a major division between Bedouin (pastoral nomads), village, and urban communities, each with distinctive aspects of dress. Religion also has helped set certain types of dress for Armenians and Assyrians (both Christian) and, to a lesser degree, for Shi‘ites, who are mainly Arabs in Iraq.

Arab Bedouin Men’s Dress Bedouins are not a large portion of the Iraqi population, but do represent an important segment of the rural population. Bedouin men wear much the same types of clothes worn by Bedouin in Syria, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Men wear a long cotton shirt (thawb or dishdashah in Arabic) reaching to the ankles, usually made of white cotton in the summers and a colored cotton blend (linen or wool) in the winter. Wealthy men wear a shirt with color embroidery around the collar and down the front placket buttons. Underneath the shirt, men wear sirwal or trousers. Bedouin men prefer those with long, straight legs. Bedouin men wear a long white or black and white checked headcloth that is folded into a triangle; the point of the triangle hangs down the back. There are various names for this headcloth, but it is frequently called a kufiyah, named for

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Bedouin family in southern Iraq, 2005. (Susan Schulman/StockphotoPro)

the Iraqi city of Kuffah where they were irst made. The kufiyah can be wrapped around the head or held in place by a double rope of goat hair called an ‘aqal. Men in Iraq like the ‘aqal to be very thick (more so than in other Arab countries). In more recent times, Iraqi men have begun to wear slightly smaller ones, but similar to the Bedouin ones worn in Syria, they now are placed more on the crown of head than around the forehead. Bedouin men, rural elite, and even urban elite wear a ceremonial robe/cloak of thin woven camel hair called a bisht or ‘abayyah. The better types have gold thread embroidery around the neck and partially down the front. Less expensive ones have cotton thread embroidery. The summer version is lightweight and sheer but the winter version is made of wool or a wool/cotton blend. The bisht is made with openings for the hands, but generally the cloak is worn over the shoulders and the extra cloth brought up off the ground by folding it around the hands and arms in front. Few, if any, wear it with both hands through the hand openings. In the winter many Bedouin and rural elite wear a coat with a leece lining called a farwa. The farwa (which literally means fur/pelt in Arabic) is made of a woolen blanket cut to form the coat and then is lined with as many leece as the owner can afford, making it very warm to wrap up in on cold, windy winter days. Some Bedouin and rural elite men wear a short waistcoat or bolero jacket called a damir. The damir can be very decorative, made of velvet in a number of

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colors and decorated with gold or silver embroidery (or plain cotton embroidery) along the cuffs, down the sleeves, and down the front of the jacket. Bedouin men usually wear a leather belt, which in the 19th century was to be made with a pistol holster and with a cross-front bandolier for the bullets. In addition several knives and daggers were placed in the front of the belt. Today these are as likely to be made of black plastic. Bedouin men usually wore leather sandals and the type made in Saudi Arabia became very popular. These have a fairly wide leather top to cover as much of the foot as possible, leaving the tips of the toes and the heel exposed. Wealthy Bedouin and rural elite preferred to wear soft leather boots made of inely tanned goat hide with a irm heel and hard leather sole since they often rode horses and needed a good heel for safety in the stirrup.

Arab Bedouin Women’s Dress Bedouin women wear dark, mostly black clothes. Bedouin rural and urban women wear a large, black overcloak when leaving the house, generally called an ‘aba. Unlike the one worn by men, the women’s ‘aba is rarely decorated with metal embroidery and is usually plain. It is often made today of synthetic fabric, making it very hot to wear, but in the past, like the bisht worn by men, it was woven of camel hair and/or wool. The women wear their ‘abayyah over the top of the head, not draped on the shoulders as the men do, and therefore it is much longer. Bedouin women are less concerned with the religious fashions of the cities and, should a woman’s husband not be using his bisht, she may decide to borrow it to wear. Bedouin women, because they have lots of work to do, rarely veil their faces as urban and village women do. Instead Bedouin women wear a large, light (sheer) headcloth often called a shambar. The shambar is worn over the head and around the neck and held in place by a headband or scarf that can be decorated with lower prints, paisley prints, or block prints on silk. Unlike in Syria where Bedouin women make tall points out of the headband cloth, in Iraq the women tend to keep it all close to the shape of the head. While Bedouin women in Syria and Jordan frequently wear heavily embroidered dresses, Bedouin women in Iraq tend to wear plain dresses or ones that are made from cotton prints. Farther north dresses become more vibrant in color, such as red, and in decoration with rows of sequins. Bedouin women belt their dresses with a simple cloth sash wrapped around the waist with the end folded into the wraps. Some like leather belts and those who migrate to Syria like a type of belt made by special craftsmen in Damascus that are plaited and then attached to leather pieces with metal buckles. In the past, various belts were made for Bedouin and rural women by specialized jewelers who made belts of silver or other metals decorated with inlaid stones (such as cornelian agate

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress or turquoise) and glass, with rows of bells or small hands of Fatimah attached to them. The buckles were large and in the shape of the boteh or a paisley design. Bedouin women tended to wear simple leather sandals in the past or leather slip-on shoes made in the villages and in the urban centers where they would shop. These have been replaced recently by cheap imported shoes that are easy to take on and off.

Ma’din (Marsh Arabs) The Marsh Arabs are composed of seven separate tribes all claiming Arab ancestry, but most who have visited them note the close similarity of their lifestyle with that depicted in Sumerian art. The Ma’din wear clothes similar to that worn by the Bedouin and the villagers in southern Iraq. Their clothes, when home made, look rough and more like sackcloth than the iner cloth worn by Bedouin and most rural men. It is noted the men may wear very little and when working, strip to being naked. Men wrap their kufiyahs around their heads like turbans and mainly the tribal elite wear the ‘aqal. Due to their work in the marshes and on boats, men do not frequently wear shoes but sandals are worn to help protect the soles of their feet from thorns, stickers, or splinters. Women tend to wear voluminous black cotton dresses rather than ‘abayyah (worn when visiting villages and towns on the edge of the marsh) and use the excess amounts of cloth from the sleeves to tie around their heads as a covering. The large amounts of cloth allows the women to use their dresses as a means to carry various items including children and work at the same time. Women wear sandals or leather slippers that can easily be taken on or off when moving from the outside to the inside of their reed houses. As rural women with a good deal of work to do, Ma’din women did not veil their faces but used the folds of their dresses to bring up over their mouths and noses when they felt necessary. Most visitors to the Marsh Arabs note that the women are more open, free, and have contact with strange men with much less concern than village and urban women do. Contact with more conservative Iranians and Iraqis in recent years has not changed Ma’din customs for those who have chosen to return to the marshes. Those who have remained in towns and villages as refugees take on the customs and the dress of the village women.

Kurds Kurds maintain their traditional dress as a means of self-identiication and to differentiate themselves from others in Iraq. Kurdish men wear long, baggy trousers or shalvar that it tightly at the ankle; a short, tight jacket over a striped silk

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shirt; and a cummerbund of print or striped cloth wrapped around and around the waist. Wealthier Kurdish men have the jacket embroidered in cotton. Kurdish men wear leather sandals, but more frequently wear soft leather boots. Kurds live where it is cold and can snow in winter and, like the Bedouin, have a long colorful winter coat. Kurdish men like to wear kufiyahs with long, string-like tassels that, when the cloth is folded into a turban, are allowed to fall freely from the turban’s folds. Kurds wear the same large black and white checkered kufiyahs favored by the Bedouin and urban men in Iraq, except with the long tassels. Men may also wear more colorful cloth of silk or silk blends woven in Turkey, Syria, or Iran but again, want those that have long thin tassels. Kurdish women’s traditional garments are colorful and decorated with sequins, glass beads, coins, and semiprecious stone beads such as turquoise. Women cover their dresses, scarves, and hats with beads and sequins. Special holiday dresses are even more colorful and fully decorated with sewn-on beads rather than embroidered. Women like metal belts, and in the past ones known as lira belts were decorated with gold Turkish lira coins. While Kurdish women cover their hair, they usually did not veil their faces. They liked, and still like, colorful scarves such as the silk prints from Aleppo. Sometimes, women place black or white ostrich feathers in their headbands. Women wore leather slippers or sandals but today these have been mostly replaced by plastic shoes from China.

Turkmen The Turkmen tribes in Iraq are the descendants of the two great confederations, the Aq Qonyolu and the Kara Qonyolu, who once ruled much of Iraq, eastern Turkey, and western Iran. They have maintained their language and identity despite years of mixing with Arabs and Kurds. Men’s dress has maintained a greater difference than that of the women in that the men have maintained the large caracul wool hats of their ancestors. The hats are tall and the leece hangs in large loose coils, which move as the person

Man wearing typical clothing stands outside a house in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, 1995. (Nevada Wier/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress walks. Turkmen men also tend to wear a striped cotton belted jacket (or silk for special occasions) that is similar to the chapan of Central Asia. In winter, the jacket may be lined with the leece of a sheep or the men may wear the sheep’s leece coats made in Iran decorated with ine silk or cotton loss embroidery around the cuffs, the neck, down the front, and around the hem. Turkmen men wear dark trousers of the Turkish style and tall, black leather boots. Because they are horsemen, the boots have stiff leather soles and tall heels. Women wear colorful dresses much like those of the Kurds, though not as decorated with beads, coins, and sequins. Nonetheless, like the Kurdish women, the Turkmen women like bright colors of blue, orange, red, and yellow. The headscarf covers their hair and their neck and can be brought up over the nose and mouth should they be dealing with a strange man. Like most rural women, they do not wear face veils.

Lurs and Bakhtiar The Lurs and the related Bakhtiar people are pastoral nomads who move from the lowlands in the winter to summer pastures in the Zagros Mountains in the summer. Linguistically, their language is related to Kurdish and, in the years leading up to the Iran-Iraq War, Saddam Hussein deported to Iran a good number of both Lurs and Bakhtiaris as “Persians.” The Bakhtiari men wear distinctive clothes that include a black and white wool cloak/jacket called a chuqa or chukha and a black felt hat called a kulah namadi that stands up high on the head. Their dress distinguishes them from both the Lurs and the Kurds. The jacket is made with no sleeves but does have wide openings for the arms. It is mainly white with black stripes. The men wear trousers called shalvar dibit similar to those worn by Kurdish and Lur men and, given the fact they ride horses, the elite prefer to wear boots with stiff leather soles and heels rather than sandals. Bakhtiari women wear long dresses that allow for walking and headscarves that cover their hair and neck, but do not wear face veils. Like many pastoral women, the Bakhtiari women are open and have freedom of movement. They are modest in their dress and today many wear commercially made dresses of print cottons over which they wear sweaters and coats, given the cold of the mountains. Women often do not wear boots, but, like many poorer people in the Arab world, they wear plastic slip-on shoes made in China.

Contemporary Urban Use of Ethnic Dress Urban men today tend to wear more “Arab” fashions when dressing in traditional garb. The better known Bedouin long shirt or dishdashah, kufiyah, ‘aqal,

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and bisht are worn. However, older urban fashions included dress that can be seen as part of Persian dress with a long jacket, tight itting with long, tight sleeves made of silk, cotton, linen, or blends. The jackets had double rows of buttons or loop frog buttons and were inspired by Saffavid and Qajar court dress in Iran. Men wore long trousers to the ankles, often of similar fabric as the jackets, and black or gray felt hats that itted to the head but were tall and had a fold down the center. The hat lasted well into the 20th century and was worn with three-piece Western suits as well as more traditional clothes. Men also wore tightly bound turbans in fabrics matching their jackets. Urban men tended to wear high leather boots that again were similar to those worn by Persian courtiers. Leather slippers, wooden clogs, and sandals were more for inside wear or for the urban poor. Modern women also wear the large, black outer cloak or ‘aba or ‘abayyah as a modesty garment. The quality of the cloth used to make the ‘abayyah differs from expensive ine wool for winter to costly imported silk, but many today are made with synthetic cloth like rayon that look like silk. Iraqi urban women also wear a large black headcloth called an asha. They wear a separate face veil called a futa attached at the back of the head that covers the nose, mouth, and chin. Women usually do not wear the ‘abayyah or the asha while in the house. Iraqi women add small things to the modesty garments that are hardly noticeable to men, but are well known to other women. In order to make it easy to identify women (without being able to see their faces), women will sometimes fold the fabric, or wrap excess cloth differently, or some will add small bits of silver or gold jewelry such as pins, allowing a degree of individuality in the conformity of modest Islamic dress. Most Iraqi urban women wear colorful cotton in summer and lannel in winter. The dresses for everyday wear are not embroidered and women may wear knitted sweaters or short, tight jackets in the winter. Underneath the dress, women wear sirwal or trousers but, unlike those for men, these are embroidered.

Dress for Special Occasions For special holidays and celebrations, women wear a massive, gauzy dress called a hashmiyah similar to holiday dresses in the Gulf States. The hashmiyah can be embroidered around the neck, around the wrists, and down a front panel with metal thread and even with rhinestones set into the decoration. When wearing the hashmiyah, women often do not cover their hair, but allow it to low freely and toss it side to side while dancing. They hold the massive dress to the sides or pick it up with both hands in front to keep from stepping on it while dancing. Urban women used to wear either wooden clogs or leather slippers both in the house and when going outside. Both are still found in the market and the wooden

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress clogs (called qubqab from the sound they make when the wearer is walking in them) are a favorite for walking around in the bath house or hammam. Today, cheap plastic shoes from China have replaced the leather slippers. Those women who can afford it buy fashionable leather high heels, which now seems to go with the expansive hashmiyah dresses.

Resources and Further Reading Dickson, H. R. P. The Arab of the Desert (3rd ed.). London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983. Fernea, Elizabeth Warnock. Guests of the Sheikh: Ethnography of an Iraqi Village. New York: Anchor, 1995. Jabbur, Jabrail. The Bedouins of the Desert, translated by Lawrence I. Conrad. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Maxwell, Gavin. A Reed Shaken by the Wind: Travels Among the Marsh Arabs of Iraq. London: Eland Books, 2004. Roaf, Michael. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Equinox Books, 1990. Weir, Shelagh. The Bedouin. London: British Museum Publications, 1990. Weis, Walter, and Kurt-Michael Westerman. The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Israel Jill Condra

Historical and Geographical Background Although the idea of an independent Jewish state has been around for 3,000 years, it was not until 1948 that the parliamentary republic of Israel was established. In 1947 the United Nations’ partitioning of Palestine declared Israel independent of British rule. It is the smallest of the Middle Eastern countries and is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aqaba to the south, and is bordered by Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and the Gaza Strip. The borders of this country have been the subject of much discussion and disagreement since its establishment, and several wars have been fought in an effort to fairly divide this territory. To date, any efforts led by Western nations, such as the United States, have resulted in no resolution to the conlict and peace has not yet been established in the region. The capital of Israel is Jerusalem, but the industrial center is Tel-Aviv and the commercial and trade center is Haifa. Generally, within these cities, Jews and Arabs live separately in different neighborhoods and rarely mix. Israel is home to diverse geography with dry deserts and inland seas (e.g., the Dead Sea). The climate is largely subtropical but temperatures can vary greatly depending on the region of the country. Coastal weather is quite different from the inland dry deserts. Agriculture is practiced in two ways in Israel: the corporate farm and the kibbutz, a collective settlement of farmers sharing the work and proits. Farms produce a wide range of food products including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and livestock. Industrially, Israel is known for its production of electronics, chemical fertilizers, textiles, and for inishing (cutting and polishing) raw imported diamonds for the world market. The population is approximately 7.5 million people of which 75.6 percent identify themselves as Jewish (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012). Of the more than 1 million non-Jews, many different religions are represented including Muslim, Christian, Druze, and others. Israel is a nation made up of immigrants from all regions of the world. After World War II, Jews from all over Europe, many 367

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of whom had suffered through the Holocaust, found their way to Israel to settle among people who would not persecute them for their religion. Jews from Africa, Asia, and America have all immigrated to the Jewish state, making for a population uniied by religion, if not by culture. Of the Arabs who populate Israel most are Muslim, with around 10 percent being Christians. Israel is also historically closely tied to the Christian tradition, with locations of great signiicance to Christians, such as Jerusalem, and so many very devoted Christians also call Israel home. For the most part, Arab Israelis live in the rural settlements while Jews live in more urban settings. Though there is a wide range of devotion to the predominant religion, most Israelis would identify themselves as non-Orthodox. The Orthodox Jews are conservative, have larger families, and are strict about their practice of their faith. Women must cover their hair and only wear skirts (no trousers), and men and women worship on separate sides of the synagogue. Reform Jews are socially different from the Orthodox in that they attempt to separate their national identity and their religious identity. In both the conservative movement and the reform movement, women can become rabbis, and genders are integrated. Non-Orthodox Jews have smaller families and are more Western oriented, embracing social diversity and modern ways of doing business and living their lives.

People and Dress Jewish Traditional Dress The people known in ancient times as Israelites wore the simlah, a cloak, and a tunic with sleeves called a kethoneth under which they wore a loincloth called the exor. Men wore a headwrap with tassels called tzitzit on four corners to remind the wearer to be faithful and follow the commandments. The modern striped prayer shawl made of wool or silk (never blended together) incorporates the tassels of the ancient garments. As in many new countries and especially those largely made up of immigrant populations, identifying a particular style or method of dress is a real challenge. Looking at the people who make up the state of Israel, we see that dress from all over the world is represented. Russian Jews brought with them the particular styles worn in that country, while Moroccan Jews brought a completely different style of dress heavily inluenced by styles of North Africa. Israel is constantly trying to identify its culture, which is an ever-changing entity that is dificult to describe. Is the culture identiied as simply Jewish? This is not possible because even within the Jewish faith, depending on the sect of Judaism, the clothing and religious garments will be quite different.

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Component Parts There are certain pieces of clothing that are worn by many, often for religious ceremonies, and these can be deined as particularly Jewish. Ritual dress may not, however, be speciically identiied as Israeli. The tallit, for example, is a prayer shawl. It is worn by men when they pray, draped over the shoulders, and is usually white with blue stripes. Religious men and boys wear the kippah or yarmulke, or skullcap, on the backs of their heads as a sign of modesty before God. Chassidic (Orthodox) Jewish men are quite distinct in their dress and are easily identiied on the streets of Israel and in other countries. These ultra-Orthodox Jews are known to reject most modern ways and believe strongly in modesty. Men have very full beards, not tapered or rounded at the side, and short hair except for the peyos, long curls that fall down the sides of the head over the ears. Chassidic men must cover their heads and wear tall black hats with wide brims, long black coats, white shirts, and often wear small prayer shawls known as tallit katan. These men also wear a black hat made of fur (shtreimel) on Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath). The teillin is a small leather box worn on the forehead of young boys and men. It contains passages from the Torah. Orthodox women are also especially conservative in their dress. Upon marriage, women shave their heads or cover their hair with scarves or wigs, called sheitels, as a symbol of their faith and their place within society. Showing hair is considered immodest. Women wear long skirts and clothing that covers their bodies, such as shirts that cover their arms to the elbow. For the most part conservative women do not wear clothing that is at all revealing or ornately decorated. Historically Jews have often been required to wear symbols that differentiate them from non-Jews, due to persecution from Christian societies, such as wearing armbands (in medieval Europe) or distinct hats, or would Jewish man wearing tallit katan and teillin have had to wear their robes tied with in prayer at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Israel, 2011. (Dreamstime.com) ropes around the waist.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress In the 19th and 20th centuries Middle Eastern and Eastern European Jews may have appeared to wear clothing that was similar to non-Jewish dress, but there are details that made it uniquely Jewish. Jewish women in Yemen had embroidery that was black. Men had sidelocks and hats with checkered cloth shawls. Jewish Moroccan women wore the Muslim dress but with a smaller veil covering their faces. Solid black caftans were worn by Jewish men in Slavic countries along with Sabbath suits of black satin, not wool. Traditional Jewish people wore natural ibers such as cotton, linen, silk, and wool, but never mixed the ibers in one fabric. In the 19th and 20th centuries, men wore plain kneelength tunics in cream or blue, a long Ultra Orthodox family during Purim in Mea coat, a jacket or vest, pants, belt/sash, Shearim, Jerusalem, 2012. (Kobby Dagan/ and head covering. For warmth, outerDreamstime.com) wear may have been a sheepskin jacket and a sleeveless cloak draped over the shoulders. During the British Mandate in the mid-20th century, men wore European-style suits including jackets and overcoats to replace older, more traditional styles. Whether a man lived in a rural area or city dictated how much traditional dress he continued to wear. Urban men adopted more of the Western style of dress, and rural men largely adopted new styles and mixed them with traditional dress. The Druze men wore long black robes and white turbans, and men in the villages wore the qumbaz. Bedouin men, on the other hand, wore the thob tunic and the abayeh cloak.

Modern Israeli Use of Traditional Dress Modern Israeli dress is like dress in most other countries, where the young wear jeans and T-shirts, but it is still possible to see all kinds of other traditional dress worn by various groups. Muslim Palestinian and Bedouin women wear traditional thobs and veil their faces. Armenian men of religious orders wear long cassocks and tall hats all in black, and traditional Muslim women might show only their eyes and cover themselves completely in a black abayeh.

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As in many countries traditional dress is often saved for special occasions or festivals. In Israel the costumes of the many different peoples are worn on special days such as the Mimouna holiday for the Moroccans when they wear their distinct caftans, or at weddings when brides of different cultures wear the traditional clothing of centuries past. Palestinians will wear ethnic dress for the holidays of Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha. Orthodox Jews are the most loyal to wearing their traditional dress every day.

Further Reading and Resources Central Intelligence Agency, 2012. The Israel Museum. http://www.imj.org.il/eng/judaica/index.html. (Pictures of traditional costumes.) 2012. Leibowitz, Yeshayahu. Judaism, Human Values, and the Jewish State. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. Rubens, Alfred. A History of Jewish Costume, rev. and enl. ed. London: Peter Owen, 1981.

Italy Sara M. Harvey

Historical Background The country of Italy is a boot-shaped peninsula situated in the Mediterranean Sea. It borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia. Neighboring countries include Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Greece, Libya, and Tunisia. Italy is divided into 20 regions, called regióni in Italian. Although these regions have their own cultural lavor, they are ethnically and religiously similar. Non-Italian minority groups are a small population in Italy and comprise mostly German, French, Slovene, and Albanian Italians. The majority religion is Roman Catholic, but all religious faiths are provided equal protection under Italian law. Italy is known for its exports of olives and olive oil, durum wheat and pasta, and red wine. Art is possibly the most important contribution to world culture. Italy was the birthplace of the Renaissance and is still the home of some of the world’s most famous and recognizable works of art and architecture. Italy was originally inhabited by the Etruscans throughout the northern and central peninsula and was settled in the southern regions by Greeks in the seventh and eighth centuries BCE. Its name was thought to come from the Greek word Italoi, which meant veal or calf, possibly alluding to the cattle raised in the southern areas. The Roman republic emerged in about 500 BCE and was superseded by imperial Rome in the irst century BCE. Imperial Rome united the Italian peninsula for the irst time, but after its collapse, the individual regions became autonomous once more. The various kingdoms, principalities, and regions were often at odds with each other and outside forces. Central Italy, the area immediately surrounding Rome, was fairly stable and under the rule of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church. Warfare was common through the 11th century, but commercial success in the north and central parts of Italy led to an increase in trade and communication among the disparate regions. With the beginnings of the Renaissance, Italy became more ideologically united, but remained a country made up of iercely independent regions. This gave rise to a ruling class of merchants and burghers that controlled many of the major 372

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cities of Italy—Milan, Genoa, Venice, Florence, and Pisa—making them autonomous city-states called comuni. Residents of these city-states identiied strongly with them instead of with the region or country as a whole. Through the Renaissance and into the 16th century, the various regions of Italy reached an accord of peace among them and the idea of Italian unity began to cross the minds of the country’s citizenry. This was mainly due to the large amount of foreign inluence over Italy throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. Italy fell under the control of Spain, France, the Holy Roman Empire, and inally Austria. By the 19th century, the idea of Italian nationalism was very popular and a war for independence was brewing. Known as the Risorgimento, the ight for a uniied and independent nation of Italy became paramount. Several small and unsuccessful rebellions broke out in the 1820s, but it was not until the 1850s that any real success was realized. In 1861, Victor Emmanuel II was declared king of Italy. The nation at irst did not include Venice or Rome, but these two powerful city-states were inally brought into the union, Venice in 1866 and Rome in 1870. Rome was declared the capital of Italy in 1871. From 1870 until 1922, Italy was a constitutional monarchy with a parliament elected by limited suffrage. During the irst World War, Italy sided with the Allies, abandoning former alliances with Germany and Austria-Hungary. In 1919, with unemployment at record highs, the populace, desperate for change, elected a Socialist government. Benito Mussolini, a Socialist revolutionary, gathered a great deal of political and popular support behind him. He called his new political movement Fascismo. The word came from the Italian term fascio, which meant “union,” and was based on the Latin word fasces, which was a weapon fashioned from an axe tied into a bundle of rods to give strength to the haft. In 1922, Mussolini and his army marched into Rome and King Victor Emmanuel III named him prime minister. By 1926, Mussolini had assumed total power and had become the dictator of Italy. He established the Rome-Berlin Axis with Adolf Hitler in 1936 and assisted Francisco Franco in becoming the dictator of Spain, spreading Fascism across Europe. Italy entered World War II in June 1940. Mussolini’s supporters turned on him early in the war and the Allies were able to sweep through most of the country. Mussolini was captured and executed in April 1945. In 1946, Italians voted to abolish the monarchy entirely and create a republic with a new constitution. Through the postwar era, Italy enjoyed prosperity. In the late 1970s through the 1980s, Italy was once more the scene of political unrest. Corruption, scandal, and organized crime brought a great deal of unrest to the country as a whole. The government was reorganized in the 1990s, which allowed for more accurate regional representation in elections. In 1984, the Catholic Church was declared to be no longer considered Italy’s oficial state religion, although Vatican City has remained a sovereign and independent region within Rome.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress At the start of the 21st century, Italy’s political party structure was still undergoing many changes and restructuring with some parties merging with others and other parties disappearing entirely. As in Greece, Spain, and other European nations, the economy was struggling badly, with many out of work. The political climate was center-right at this time. Italy is very involved on the world political stage and an active member of the European Union (EU), the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and the Group of Eight (G-8). The population in 2012 was more than 61 million people.

Geographic and Environmental Background Italy is a Mediterranean country with generally mild and pleasant weather. In the south, the summers are hotter and more humid and the winters less severe. In the north, especially in and around the Alps, the winters are longer and snowy and summers are generally cooler than in the south. The large amounts of coastline allow for refreshing ocean breezes and are popular tourist destinations for locals and tourists alike. The Italian climate is suitable for growing a variety of crops; unfortunately the geography is not so accommodating. The Italian peninsula is primarily rugged, rocky terrain. The northern and north central areas have more open spaces and farmers raise a wide variety of crops including soybeans, sugarbeets, and assorted grains. Most cattle farming for meat and dairy is done in the north as well. The southern and south central areas concentrate more on fruits like citrus, grapes, and vegetables such as olives and tomatoes. Durum wheat, used for making pasta, is also primarily grown in the southern half of the country. Much of the country’s wine comes from the central and southern regions of Italy where the warmer, Mediterranean climates offer a longer, warmer growing season that can produce better quality, more lavorful grapes. A large portion of the population works in agriculture. Most farms are fairly small and are still run as family-owned businesses. In addition to agriculture, ishing is also a major part of the economy. With a vast coastline and access to several different oceans, ishermen catch various kinds of ish, as well as mussels, clams, crab, and other seafood. Aquaculture also represents a large portion of Italy’s exports. Italy is well known for its ine-quality textiles and leather goods. Italian leather is still considered to be some of the inest in the world and in the medieval period, Italy had cornered the market in silk production and trade. By the 13th century, Venetian merchants were importing silk to be traded to the rest of Europe. Although the Roman Empire had a great deal of interest in silk and traded for it often, it would not be for several hundred more years that sericulture would become a staple of the Italian economy. Italy was the terminal point of the Silk Road, an overland trade

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route that connected China, India, and the Middle East, and it became the European gateway to the East, importing not only silk, but tea, spices, jewels, and dyestuffs. Italy became a well-known exporter not only of whole goods received from the East, but of its own creations made from raw materials. Since mulberry trees grew well in the Italian climate, silk eggs were imported and Italy began its own sericulture, which allowed better control over the quantity and the quality of the silk. Fibers indigenous to Italy include wool and linen. Italians have bred sheep for ine wool since the time of the Roman Empire. In fact, the Roman togas were made from wool. The inest wool used in apparel today comes from the Merino sheep, which had originated in the pastures around Rome and was brought into Spain from Italy. During the imperial Roman era, Tarentum, now modern-day Taranto, was known for having the best-quality wool of Italy and produced wool cloth to make togas and ine clothes for the aristocracy. Both sheep and goats can be raised throughout the country and are used not only for wool, but for their dairy, meat, and leather products as well. The lax plant, used to make linen cloth, grows well in Italy’s mild climate and Italy is a top producer of ine linen products. The Italian skill in dyeing and inishing fabrics was not conined to silk, but was used in linen production as well, yielding rich and vivid colors in linen that were unrivaled anywhere else in the world.

People and Dress Although Italy’s traditional costume styles are as diverse at its population, there are distinct cultural ties throughout the country. While everyday wearing of folk dress has all but vanished since World War II, Italians are passionate about keeping their clothing traditions alive. Religious and cultural festivals still bring people out in their full skirts, detailed aprons, and elaborate hairstyles. Although the modern world takes precedence over the clothing choices for day-to-day life, and clothes are not as closely linked to wealth and status as they once were, Italians make sure to maintain those ties to the old days and the tradition of some of the inest in indigenous costume in all of Europe.

Dress in Northern Italy In northern Italy, the boundaries between countries have always been rather luid. People in the Italian Alps wore clothing almost indistinguishable from that of their Austrian neighbors. The area of Tyrol was actually in dispute between Austria and Italy, and the common culture is evident only in these border regions. In the northern regióni, in traditional styles of dress, women wear full skirts over petticoats with a tightly itted, sleeveless bodice. Popular skirt colors are black,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress plum, and red. The skirts can be gathered or pleated to the waistband and often are made with horizontal tucks at the hemline to make the skirt the correct length for the wearer. Size lexibility is important as these skirts are typically passed down from mother to daughter. Skirts were originally made from wool, but today are made from cotton, synthetics, or blends. Aprons are also an important article of the ensemble and are made in blue, plum, or red to match or contrast with the color of the skirt. Aprons are traditionally made from linen and would be worn plain or embroidered at the edges. Bodices are typically a dark-colored wool or velvet, usually black, but also deep red or green, cut low across the chest and laced with colorful laces over a front stomacher panel. The stomacher is often red or of a contrasting color and can be embroidered. Floral designs are the most popular embroidery motifs used in northern Italy, just as they are in the Alpine regions of Austria and Switzerland. Contrasting edging or metallic braid are two other popular trimmings for bodices in this region. In the Val d’Aosta region, which lies on Italy’s northwestern border with France, the bodice is replaced by a long-sleeved, snug-itting jacket made of black or blue velvet and decorated with an inserted panel embroidered with gold thread. In general, the look in this area is less Alpine and more French. The blouses favored by women in this area are very inluenced by Alpine dress. Almost exclusively white, the blouses have a high, frilled collar and very full sleeves. The construction of the blouse is reminiscent of the German halsband or halsmantel blouse, which is made with a deep, square yoke at the front. This yoke area can be left plain or it can be trimmed with braid or illed with embroidery. Women accessorize this blouse with a black velvet ribbon crossed over the throat and secured with a pin or brooch, or with a neckerchief worn crossed over the chest with the points fastened under the arms. Both of these styles are derived from Austria. Another popular accessory in the north of Italy is a set of long, trailing ribbons worn by young, unmarried women. These ribbons are typically gifts from their paramours and are worn tied around the waist with the long ends left hanging. Headwear throughout the northern region has many similar features. Women adorn their hair with lowers and ribbons throughout the area. Silver and gold hairpins are also popular as well, especially for weddings and festivals. In Piedmont and Trentino Alto Adige, northern border regions, silver hairpins used to be preferred, but have been supplanted by fresh lowers. But in Lombardy and Val d’Aosta, hair is coiled up into a bun and silver and gold hairpins are still worn. In Lombardy, whose principal city is Milan, the hairpins are extraordinary. They are long with iligreed ends and worn in such a way as to create a circular halo effect around the head. Hats across the region vary in shape and style. In many areas, no hat is worn with the traditional costume, but in others they are an option for

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Young adults dressed in national costume, Tyrol region of northern Italy, c. 1951. (Volkmar K. Wentzel/National Geographic Society/Corbis)

women. In the areas bordering France, women tend to wear a bonnet of stiffened lace, usually gold or white and decorated with lowers and ribbons. Elsewhere, the very Alpine-inspired black felt hat is popular. These hats are traditionally worn with a deep green hatband and a silver buckle and can have other lourishes such as lowers or feathers. Shoes for women are simple and sensible and often boot- or clog-like, made of black or brown leather. Stockings are hand-knit from white cotton, but occasionally red stockings are worn. The traditional Easter costume for young girls in Val d’Isarco is unique. Val d’Isarco is in the Dolomites, an area of the Italian/Austrian border in Southern Tyrol. The girls wear a full black skirt with a large, white lace apron that ties in the front with a pink ribbon. The bodice is traditionally red with a green edging and laced closed over a contrasting stomacher. The blouse is modeled after the German halsband and features a small, frilled standing collar and deeper frilling on the yoke. This ensemble is worn with white knit stockings and black shoes with silver buckles. In Venice, traditional costumes for the celebration of Shrove Tuesday, the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress last day before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, are especially spectacular. Called carnevale, it literally translates into “good-bye to meat” since observant Catholics forgo eating meat on Wednesdays and Fridays in Lent and some do not eat it at all throughout the 40 days. Masks are very popular for carnevale since the celebrations can get very risqué. The traditional dress for men in the north of Italy is also very much like that of their Austrian and Swiss neighbors. In the Italian Alps, men wear black leather breeches or shorts with broad suspenders that are usually embroidered with loral motifs. Their shirts are of white linen and worn under a red or black waistcoat and a red or black wool jacket. Jackets can also be made of velvet for more formal occasions. Stockings are primarily white and worn with black or brown sturdy low boots or leather clogs. The traditional headwear of the northern border regions is also very relective of the Alpine inluence, and the felt hats Italian men wear are much like those of their Austrian counterparts. Black felt hats are usually worn with a red or black hatband and decorated with the feathers of birds found in the mountains, including striking white feathers that can be two to four inches in length. These hats also feature a tassel at the back much like the hats men wear in Austria. Elsewhere in the northern regióni, men prefer green felt hats that are decorated with lowers in the spring and summer and in the fall and winter are worn with woolen balls that dangle from the left side. In South Tyrol, just across the Austrian border, men decorate their hats with cords wound around the hatband. Red cords are for unmarried men and red and green together symbolize a newlywed. When a man becomes a father, for a traditional hat, he wears only green cords and will continue to wear green cords for the rest of his life. A popular accessory for young men is a long handkerchief that is used in several traditional dances. Men wear them tucked into their waistbands or tossed over one shoulder. Another decorative element seen on young men of the north is the companion trinkets to the colorful ribbons the young women wear. If a couple is engaged, the man will wear ribbons that match his iancée’s pinned to his lapel. Away from the border areas long black trousers are worn instead of shorts or breeches. Waistcoats can be of wool or velvet and are made in a variety of colors and designs. The waistcoats are single-breasted and gold or silver buttons are very popular. Plain buttons are also used, but men like to match the buttons of their waistcoats to the buttons on their trousers. A brightly colored silk or cotton sash is wound around the waist. In the northerly areas the ends of the sash are worn tucked into the trousers; in the southern areas of the region the ends are left to hang loose. Shirts here are also white linen and long-sleeved. They can be made with or without a collar and usually have an opening at the neck.

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Dress in Central Italy Central Italy has the widest variety of traditional dress in the country. As the geography and climate change, so does the manner of dress. The traditional styles here are what most people think of as “Italian,” especially in Latium, the region of Rome, on the central west coast of the peninsula. Skirts are worn long and made of homespun black linen or wool; red skirts are worn for festivals. Blue is also a popular color in some regions. In some areas, the skirts are very somber in color but beneath them are worn brightly colored and patterned petticoats. Hems of the skirts are decorated with bands of contrasting fabric or with embroidery. The skirt is paired with a wide apron in blue, brown, or white cotton. An apron of loral brocade on a white ground is used with festival or more formal attire. For major festivals, such as Pentecost, aprons embroidered with traditional or heraldic designs are worn. Blouses are worn with full sleeves and are generally made of a white, black, or neutral color of linen or a linen-wool blend. Black leather slippers called ciocie are ubiquitous across central and southern Italy. Ciocie are very simple shoes that date back to antiquity. They it the foot snugly and are tied in place across the instep, or in some variations at the ankle or up the leg. One distinguishing feature of central Italian traditional clothing is the headdress. The tovaglia is worn throughout central Italy, but each region puts its own local lavor into how it is styled. In its most basic form, the tovaglia is a pastoral headdress of starched linen that is folded over the top of the head. It was originally designed to protect the head and neck from the sun and is still occasionally seen in the current, everyday dress of farmers. In Latium, the white linen is usually scalloped or edged in lace. The material is usually embroidered in whitework over the entire piece. For festival occasions, women might wear a second, colorful tovaglia on top of the white one, leaving the decorative scalloped edges to show from underneath. Women of Latium wear their tovaglia pinned to the head with decorative hairpins. Unmarried women use silver hairpins, while married women use gold. The silver hairpins are usually passed down from mother to daughter while the gold pins are a wedding gift or included as part of a bride’s trousseau. In neighboring Abruzzi, which has its coastline on Italy’s east side, a lightly starched lace or linen scarf is irst draped over the head and then the stiffer tovaglia is folded over the top. In the southern portions of Abruzzi, in Mascione and in Sulmona, it is just the opposite with a draped cloth called a fasciatrella worn over top of the stiff tovaglia. Women of Mascione prefer a green fasciatrella while those in Sulmona wear red trimmed in fringe. This cloth can be worn very long to the waist or folded up. In the Marches, which is on the east coast directly north of Abruzzi, the white linen is folded into three parts facing the back of the head. In Campania, just south of Latium on the west coast of Italy and straddling the central and southern areas,

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Parents, a married woman, and an engaged woman in the costume of Baranello, central Italy, c. 1900. (Alinari Archives/Corbis)

the color of the headdress has meaning: red for unmarried women, green for married, and black for widows. There are some unique and unusual styles of traditional dress found in central Italy as well. In parts of Abruzzi and its close neighbor, Molise, the bodice is made with sleeves that tie in, but that show large portions of the blouse worn beneath, a style relective of the sleeves worn during the 15th and 16th centuries. Traditionally the bodice is black or red velvet and form itting, cut low across the chest. The tied-in sleeves will leave a gap of ive to six inches (12.5–15 cm) between the top of the sleeve and the shoulder. The blouse sleeves are extremely full, often pleated or tiered, and worn luffed out over the top of the bodice sleeve with the frilled cuff visible at the bottom. A lace shawl or sheer ichu is usually worn tucked into the

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top of the very low-cut bodice. Areas within Abruzzi have resisted change and traditional dress lingered on as everyday attire far into the 20th century in the towns of l’Aquila and Scanno. L’Aquila has always been known for its lace-making and dedication to the handicraft is still seen there today. The areas surrounding the city were isolated for a very long time and the folk dress found in these outlying areas is considered to be the most authentic of Italy. In Scanno, the full blouses are always made in black and older women often wear it with a black skirt as well. Younger women might wear skirts of brighter colors, but the blouses are always black. In Scanno, the most popular form of hairdressing is to braid the hair, then wrap the braid in ribbons and arrange it on top of the head. On top was worn a series of folded black scarves. Widows would drape additional black scarves around their chins and throats. But one of the most unique items of dress in all of Italy is part of the Scanno bridal regalia. Brides wear a headdress of blue and white that bears a very Asian inspiration. This type of headdress is not seen anywhere else in Italy and probably entered the city in centuries past through trade with Byzantium. Men’s traditional dress in central Italy is very much like that of the lower areas of the northern region. But instead of trousers, men wear breeches of wool or velveteen that come in black, olive, green, or various shades of brown. The breeches can have a relaxed it or be very tight to the body. They usually reach to the knee and are fastened there by two or three gold or silver buttons or a colorful garter. As in the north, men of central Italy prefer a colorful, single-breasted waistcoat made in velvet, wool, or brocade that closes with buttons that match those on the breeches. Shoes are soft and moccasin-like and tie at the ankle with straps. While festival dress is the most colorful, color is important throughout the central area. In Mascione, in Abruzzi, the bridegroom wears a brightly colored jacket made from silk or wool with traditional purple trousers. In the mountains of Campania, the shepherds are also known for their bright-colored stockings and black felt hats with lourishes of mountain lowers and feathers. These shepherds also wear thick wool cloaks in the cold and wet seasons and use large cotton umbrellas to shield themselves from the sun.

Dress in Southern Italy Southern Italy has the mildest weather of the entire country with a small land area and many bays and inlets. Silk and cotton are used more often than linen and wool to help the residents stay cool and comfortable. Calabria, in the “toe” of Italy, has had a long and well-established silk industry and produces some of Italy’s inest silk brocades, patterned silks, and silk ribbons. Women of the south have the same tastes in colors as do women throughout Italy: black and red are favored. But the south has a reputation for having the most

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress colorful and some of the most costly traditional costumes in the country. Calabria, Apulia, and Basilicata form the toe and heel on the southernmost portion of the peninsula and women in all three regióni wear brightly colored pleated silk skirts. The pleats are set into the skirt fabric while it is still damp and create a very crisp appearance. Over time, these pleats become nearly permanent. The skirts usually have some sort of border or trim along the bottom for added interest and in all three areas two contrasting skirts are usually worn at once. The top skirt is folded back, tucked up onto the hips, or carried draped over the arm to reveal the underskirt beneath. The colorful skirts are paired with vivid, high-waisted jackets. The jackets and skirts are often paired in traditional color combinations: a dark blue jacket with a red skirt, a light blue jacket with a yellow skirt, a pink jacket with a blue skirt, and a green jacket with a brown skirt, although other color combinations are possible. Aprons are made in a variety of colors from very dark in some regions to so sheer that the color of the skirt may be seen through it. Aprons are generally decorated with embroidery depicting heraldry or lowers and are often trimmed with lace. Bodices are usually made from silk-velvet and are very tight itting. Again, black and red are very popular colors for bodices. Ribbons are a very important accessory for women who wear them in their hair, use them to tie up their bodices, and wrap them around their waists as belts leaving the long trailing ends to dangle. Stockings are usually white and worn with simple black leather or silk slippers with a small heel. Hats are small and more understated, often a circle of pleated silk or a small cap draped with fabric and ribbons. The Tarantella dance is very popular in the south and has its own version of the traditional costume. Female dancers wear a sleeveless black or red velvet bodice that is low-cut. Bodices are often laced with a brightly colored ribbon that may match or contrast with the skirt. The blouses are always white and have small, puffed sleeves and a wide neckline with a frill. The silk or cotton skirts are very full and fairly short, coming to just below the knee, and worn with several cotton petticoats. Favorite colors of Tarantella dancing skirts are red, green, blue, and black. The apron worn with this costume is small and either sheer or of lace. The idea is to be able to let the color of the skirt show through. The shoes are always black and resemble the shoes of the region. They are simple, lexible, and lightweight as the steps of the dance require nimble footwork. Sometimes the shoes are decorated with a red pom-pom on the toes. In contrast to this profusion of color, the small village of Alberobello dresses entirely in black and white. The structure of the clothing matches the architecture of the buildings in the town. Their style of dress is fairly simple except for festival days when women put on an extremely wide and stiff collar reminiscent of the starched ruffs of the Renaissance.

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Men’s traditional dress of the south is much like that of the central portions of the country. They prefer breeches of black, red, dark green, or brown that are made from velveteen or lightweight wool. The it is looser in that part of the south than it is in the central regions, but they still fasten the same way, either with two or three buttons or a garter at the knee. Waistcoats are made in silk or velvet or occasionally wool with shiny gold buttons that match the buttons on the breeches. The waistcoat and breeches may match or contrast, but contrast is important for the male Tarantella dancers. Jackets are made in velveteen and trimmed with silk ribbon. Shoes are simple leather slippers with a low heel and dancing shoes are especially lexible. A wide, fringed silk sash is a popular accessory for men and especially dancers. Hats of the southern areas are highly speciic to the region. Fishing is a major industry in the south and the isherman’s hat is not only popular but very practical. These hats are made in either red or black. The knit wool clings to the head and is not easily blown off by high winds. Wool also has the ability to retain heat even if it is wet, making it a very attractive iber choice for sailors and ishermen of all kinds. Hats for nonishermen are Spanish in style and have a tall crown and a dished brim. It is popular to wear this hat tilted rakishly to one side with pom-poms or ribbons trailing from it.

Dress in Sicily and Sardinia The island of Sicily is just off the coast of Calabria. The traditional Sicilian style of dress is very simple with a strong folk tradition, but employed very formal and sophisticated elements, especially in jewelry. The Sicilian costume has its roots in Greek folk dress from the days when Sicily gave refuge to Albanian Greeks leeing the Turkish oppression. For women, the skirts are plain, but deeply colored and usually feature contrasting ribbons sewn along the bottom. The Sicilian aprons are small and semicircular; they are trimmed with lace or can be embroidered. Some festival aprons are entirely made from lace. The bodice can be made with or without sleeves; it is modest and simple and often made in a color matching the skirt to create the look of a one-piece gown. These gowns can be very elaborate for festival and formal occasions, often dyed a rich red with bands of gold lace and gold fringe around the hem. Formal aprons are of black lace. Small lace laps are also worn decorated with red and gold. Densely embroidered shawls are draped over the very sheer white blouse. Because of the expense of this ensemble and the vanishing handicraft traditions of embroidery and lace-making, the traditional Sicilian formal costume is rarely seen in the 21st century. Sicily is best known for its jewelry. Rosaries are extremely popular accessories and often made with ine, iligreed components. Belts made from linked silver

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress plates are worn by both men and women. The best fasten with elaborate buckles and the plates are sometimes enameled with devotional images or family portraits. Sardinia has been under both French and Italian control. It is situated in the Mediterranean and sits parallel to peninsular Italy. It is equidistant from Italy, France, and Africa and maintains an autonomous traditional style of dress. In traditional dress, the women of Sardinia wear a bodice made of embroidered green panels. The stitching is done in black and the edging is piped in red. A rigid underbodice is worn for support and is usually plain white with a black border. The sheer white blouse is gathered and shirred. Skirts are primarily black with a dark red border and worn under a black apron with white polka-dots. They wear a black fringed shawl draped over the head. Overall the look is very old-fashioned, dating to the 16th century. For Sardinian men, traditional dress includes a scarlet bolero jacket with green panels also embroidered in black. Red piping is used on the men’s jackets as well. The shirt is very full and pleated and made of white linen, as are the breeches. A wide, embroidered belt made from felt or leather is worn with a lounce of skirting that matches the jacket. The lounce is given its shape by the decorative cording all around the hem. Men wear a knit wool cap that has a long tail like a medieval liripipe. The tail can be arranged in a variety of ways, either pinned up or left to hang. There is also a pocket in the tail and men carry their money or a snack inside.

Resources and Further Reading Frick, Carole Collier. Dressing Renaissance Florence: Families, Fortunes, and Fine Clothing. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002. Harrold, Robert, and Phyllida Legg. Folk Costumes of the World. London: Blandford Press, 1999. The Island of Sardinia. Sardinian Costumes: A Journey through Time. http://www .sarnow.com/sardinia/costu1.htm. 2003. Maginnis, Tara. Traditional Dress: Italy. The Costumer’s Manifesto. http://www .costumes.org/HISTORY/100pages/BOOKS/racinet/italy19th.htm. 2008. Snowden, James. The Folk Dress of Europe. New York: Maylower Books, 1979. Steele, Valerie. Fashion, Italian Style. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Wilcox, R. Turner. Folk and Festival Costume of the World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965.

Japan Jill Condra

Historical Background Japan has a long and culturally sophisticated history dating back thousands of years. The different periods in Japanese history (from the perspective of the Christian calendar) include many unique eras devoted to certain emperors including the Heian period (794–1185), Kamakura period (1185–1333), Muromachi period (1333–1573), Momoyama period (1573–1615), Edo period (1615–1868), Genroku era (1688–1704), and Meiji restoration (1868–1912). Clothing styles from these eras carried forward and evolved over time, and different variations of style were inluenced by each shogunate’s relationships with other countries, such as China, and later with European nations, interspersed with periods of great isolation (e.g., the Edo period). A shogun is a military and dynastic leader in Japan; each of these leaders had distinct cultural and political practices that separated them from other shoguns. Trade and political ties were formed throughout Japan’s history to help form the current system of government, a constitutional monarchy, with an imperial head of state, or emperor, and an elected political leader in the form of a prime minister who leads an elected government. Each era saw different levels of stability; for example, there were unstable times in the Muromachi period in the 14th and 15th centuries where there were many social changes and urbanization began in earnest. Class divisions and boundaries in Japan were strict, and one easy way to uphold the divisions was through the use of sumptuary laws that restricted the use of certain fabrics and colors or styles of garments to those in different classes. Clothing of the elite was strictly controlled and had great meaning, symbolizing where each person ranked in society in relation to others. Clothing highlighted an individual’s wealth or position in government. Peasants, those outside the class system, were strictly forbidden from wearing silk, which they would not have been able to afford anyway. In Edo Japan, great expansion of urbanization meant that each large urban center became known for certain activities, and depending on who was shogun, the capital of the country changed frequently. Kyoto was the imperial city and the 385

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress center for crafts and arts, and Osaka was the traditional center for commerce. Edo, at this time, was the political center. There was a strict four-class system. The samurai warriors were at the top of society, followed by the agrarian class and artisans, and then in the lowest class were the merchants, who were often very wealthy. The common folk in Edo Japan included those in the merchant class and the artisans who became the most inluential in terms of fashion innovations. They were known as the townsmen (chonin). The highest of all in society was the imperial family and aristocracy, and the most disreputable were completely outside the very inlexible class system and counted for nothing in society. These people would have had such professions as prostitution, acting, or gravedigging. Japan was a cash-based society with wealthy merchants and agriculturalists lending money to the often poverty-stricken, yet upper-class samurai. There was no way for the merchants to spend their money to buy their way into a higher class strata, or to advance themselves politically, so instead they spent lavishly on art, pleasure, and beautiful textiles. It was the wealthy merchant class that dictated fashions that showed off their family’s wealth. More traditional and conservative dress was still worn by the conservative aristocracy who wore the imperial styles. The shogunate often made strict regulations about who could wear certain colors and patterns on their kosodes (the precursor of the modern kimono) and the dyeing methods they used to make the garments. The laws were enforced part of the time, and only for certain people. Punishment could be harsh, in the form of losing all land and other property. Depending on the shogunate and how conservative it was, sumptuary laws were either very strictly upheld or people could get away with wearing what they wanted. Purple dyes were commonly restricted in many cultures including Japan’s because they were expensive to produce, and the artisans in Japan who undertook the dye production were revered as great artists, recognizable for their dark, dyed ingers. Their hands marked them as people to be respected within society. Near the end of the Momoyama era in 1615, many years of civil war and unrest followed a longer period of stability and peace led by the Tokugawa shogunate. The 200 years of the Edo period, the Genroku era, and the Meiji restoration were largely free of inluences from other countries, and were periods when Japan developed its unique and strong cultural identity. In the 19th century Japan’s isolation ended. The Treaty of Kanagawa of 1854 meant that Japan, with the help of the United States, began to develop a very strong industrial base with modernization leading to changes to Japanese culture. Japan gained great economic strength throughout the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and was very much an empire-building society looking to dominate all of Asia. Japan overtook both Russia and China in the region and occupied territories including South Korea and Taiwan, as well as Manchuria in 1932, and all of China by 1937. Japan famously attacked the United

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States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. This attack provoked the United States into action, and it joined World War II on both the European and Paciic fronts, protecting European interests in the region. The nuclear bombing by the United States of the city of Hiroshima in Japan brought ighting in the Paciic region to an end. The end of World War II meant certain defeat of the Japanese, and the territories they had gained were returned, for the most part, to their previous status. Parts of Asia remained under the control of Great Britain, Portugal, and the United States, but in the case of Macau (Portugal) and Hong Kong (Great Britain), only for relatively short periods that ended in the late 1980s, when these territories reverted back to China. Japan suffered militarily after the war when forbidden by the Allies in World War II from forming aggressive armies that would threaten peace in the region, and so instead turned their attention to, and heavily invested in, intense industrialization and manufacturing of electronic goods and automobiles for sale in the Western world. Under conditions of surrender, Japan was bound by law to minimal military spending of only 1 percent of its GDP, leaving room to invest in infrastructure and growth of the economy. Japan and the United States became allies, and with U.S. help, the Japanese economy lourished for 30 years with unprecedented economic growth and great wealth for many Japanese people. The people of Japan are known for their strict and strong work ethic and for being very adept at technology. By the 1990s there was a decline in economic growth in Japan to adjust to the excessive debt loads of the very large Japanese corporations. The country has steadily declined in economic growth and was overtaken by China and India in terms of growth in 2011, making it the fourth largest economy in the world.

Geographical Background Japan’s population was 127,368,088 as of July 2011. The people are largely Buddhist or follow Shintoism, and many identify themselves as followers of both. There are relatively few Christians in Japan. The country is an archipelago of 6,852 islands located in the Paciic Ocean, east of China and North/South Korea and bordered by the East China Sea in the south and the Sea of Okhotsk in the north. Most of the population of Japan resides on four main islands including Hokkaido, Honshu (where 80 percent of the population lives), Shikoku, and Kyushu. The population is largely homogenous, with only approximately 2 percent who are not ethnically Japanese. Tokyo is the largest city in Japan with nearly 9 million people, followed by Yokohama (approximately 3.7 million) and Osaka (2.6 million). Japan has a largely temperate climate, but there is great variation from the northern parts, with long cold winters and lots of snow, to the mountainous regions, such as Shikoku, with mild weather throughout the year. There is a rainy season in Okinawa

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress in May, but the season does not start in Honshu (a little farther north) until June, culminating in typhoons in August and September. In 2011, Japan was devastated by the massive Tohoku earthquake, which was followed by a giant and incredibly destructive tsunami in the northern part of the country. The Japanese islands are in a highly volcanic zone known as the Paciic Ring of Fire that often has large, damaging earthquakes and volcanic activity. There are over 100 active volcanoes.

People and Dress Materials and Techniques Technical perfection of textile production, from weaving to dyeing and assembling the garments, has long been a point of pride with the revered artisans. The ine, high-quality textiles produced for centuries in Japan are carefully produced. The silkworms are raised in controlled conditions to produce the best quality ilament that will in turn become an excellent quality fabric once spun and woven, but the designs and techniques for applied design and color changed dramatically from one period to another as fashions changed. Early fabric dyeing was not seen as a ine art by many Japanese in the textiles industry, as the all-over embroidery patterns were so ine and detailed, and time consuming and expensive, that they were considered higher art forms. Dyeing became, however, a form of textile arts that was popular with the people and several different techniques developed over time. Shibori is the overall term used to describe resist dyeing in Japan. This may be more familiar to Westerners as a complex and intricate form of tie-dye. A few shibori dyeing techniques included tying the fabric into speciic patterns with thread (kanoko shibori), and gathering/pleating the fabric using a running stitch, then dyeing it (nui shibori). Tsujigahana dyeing, used for ancient kosodes fabrics, incorporated a combination of methods, including shibori methods along with embroidery, application of metal foils, and drawing. The nuishime method is also a resist dye method, but employs a stitched pattern where the dye will not penetrate, thus revealing a pattern. Kanoko shibori became a ine art and was so special that it was controlled by sumptuary laws in the Edo period. Textiles were also painted in the kaki-e method or the haku method, where metal leaf was applied to the fabric, along with complex embroidery using ine loss called nui. The motifs applied to the ine fabrics depended upon who the wearer was and his or her political and societal afiliation and wealth. Warriors, for example, may have worn clothing with motifs highlighting arrows in the patterns. The kosode is an important garment in the Japanese historical evolution of fashion for traditional women and men. The kimono, now mainly associated with Japanese national dress, is really a descendant of this most culturally important

Woman’s kosode, silk plain weave with yuzen dyeing, 19th century. (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania/The Samuel S. White 3rd and Vera White Collection, 1967/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress garment. The kosode was made from a very long and narrow piece of fabric made into two long panels joined together in the center back and open in the front. The sleeve was also constructed from long, narrow pieces of fabric and attached at the shoulders. The kosode was tied at the waist with the left side overlapping the right and held in place with a sash, known as an obi. This was a simple garment with little structural design elements or tailoring, but what made it so spectacular was the color and applied designs that covered the fabrics with stories and themes. Sleeve design was used to distinguish age and marital status. The furisode sleeve, characterized by its lowing and swinging design, was worn only by unmarried young women. The length of the sleeve was shortened upon marriage, and the bright colors of youth were replaced with subdued hues as the woman aged. A very wide, stiff sleeve was worn only by those aristocrats who spent their days at court.

History of Dress The kosode was worn by both men and women and was really the same garment, made distinct by the styles of applied design and the way it may have been worn. Chinese and Korean styles of dress heavily inluenced the development of this garment, with long-lasting effect and use in Japan. Before the Heian period, which began in the eighth century, both men and women wore shirt-styled garments under a frontwrap coat, similar to the kosode. Men wore trousers underneath, and women wore another skirt layer called the mo. At irst, the kosode was worn as an inner garment, and women wore multiple layers of outer garments, known as the kasane shozoku style. The patterns of embroidery, dye, and woven design were mainly applied to the outer garments, and the early kosode was simply made with white silk. Common people began wearing the kosode, but it was not made of ine silk, but of rougher ibers, such as linen. For the common people, this garment was worn on the outside, unlike the aristocracy who wore it only as an inner garment. They were likely to be undecorated, due to restrictions on application of color and design for the poor. It was not until the end of the 15th century that the kosode was worn as an outside garment by everyone in Japan, no matter his or her class. What varied was the iber content, the elaborateness of the applied design, and dye methods. The kosode was replaced at the end of the Edo period in the late 1860s with the kimono, which simply means “a thing to wear.” Before the mid-1900s, women made kimonos for their whole family and cared for them with great attention to washing and drying the garments.

The Kimono Like the kosode, the kimono is an outer garment that ties at the waist, and for the most part, it is the same design for both men and women. Men rarely wear the kimono now, but it is considered traditional dress for both sexes. The fabric used

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in the making of a kimono comes in bolts of fabric that are 12 yards (11 m) long and only 14 inches (30 cm) wide. The fabric is cut into the eight pieces needed to construct the garment (two sleeves, two pieces joined at center back, two pieces at the front, and collars). There are several different styles of kimono, and the level of formality of the occasion dictates which one is the appropriate one to wear. While most people in Japan only wear their kimono for special occasions, such as weddings and for festivals, there are still traditions associated with the use of the garment. Traditionally, Japanese people changed their clothing seasonally; the kimono was more heavily lined or quilted for winter and lightly lined for summer in cotton or silk. The quilted kimono was mainly worn at home and not out in public. The men’s kimono is now worn for formal occasions and is made from very formal fabrics, such as lustrous black silk, and adorned with the family crest. Placement of the family crest is important, and when there are ive crests on the garment, it is a formal kimono, but when only three crests are found, it is a less formal occasion where the kimono will be worn. Men must wear additional garments in the most formal of settings, including a shorter kimono worn over the black formal one and silk trousers. The least formal kimonos are made of other ibers, including warm wool, cool cotton, or linen, and with newer iber technology, man-made ibers are used as cheaper alternatives to the expensive silks used in the past. For women, the kimono design and color must be chosen with great care and attention to her marital status and age. As in days gone by, festive kimonos are often brightly colored with all-over patterns and designs containing great meaning. The longest sleeve design reaches the hem of the kimono, close to loor length, and are worn for weddings by the bride, and shorter sleeve lengths are worn by the guests. The black crepe tomesode is worn by married women, and the lashy colors of her youth are replaced with family crests and designs limited to the hemline. The obi (a long sash) is used by both sexes to hold the kimono together. Woodcut print shows two women wearing The sash is most often tied at the back kimono and platform clogs called geta. One but certain types of women (e.g., the woman brushes snow from the geta of the geisha) may tie it at the front and have other, Japan, 1776. (Library of Congress)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress long ends hanging down the front to the loor. The woman’s obi is often close to 13 feet (4 m) long and 12 inches (30 cm) wide. Women can have this tied in many different styles, including a simple square bow in the back. A man’s obi can vary according to the formality of the occasion. The three-inch-wide obi is made of very stiff silk and is tied in a half bow. It is known as the kaku-obi. The very wide (20 in./51 cm) obi wraps around the waist at least twice and is then tied or tucked in the waistband. Both men’s and women’s obis can have elaborate applied designs, and for very formal occasions are the showpieces of the outit. They can cost even more than the kimono. Under the kimono, men and women wear several different sets of garments, traditionally held together not with buttons, but with elaborately designed belts to help hold everything in the right place.

Footwear Women’s footwear is meant to show off the kimono, so is not necessarily elaborately decorated, but it is distinctively Japanese. Japanese people are very strict about not wearing shoes indoors, and so removing shoes is necessary before entering anyone’s home. Ease and grace were expected when removing shoes, and bending down when dressed in a full kimono outit was dificult and inluenced the styles of footwear. Wood is the main material used in the production of traditional footwear. There are two types of sandals for women. The most recognizable of these is rice straw sandal (zori), with the strap between the toes. Thong-style sandals with large wooden pieces lifting the foot off the ground are called the geta. The geta often feature very tall stilts, sometimes only two slender pieces of wood touching the ground, and were useful for wet, snowy walking paths, helping to keep the feet clean. These were often worn with white cotton socks (tabi) with a separate toe section for the big toe. These socks are acceptable for wearing indoors. Rice straw and other types of vegetable ibers were useful for making into boots and shoes suitable for harder labor. Even ish skins were used to make boots and were then tied with a cord to keep them snug on the feet.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress As in most cultures, the wearing of traditional national dress is no longer a day-to-day endeavor. Western-style clothing such as jeans and T-shirts dominate the mainstream culture. There is also a particularly Japanese adoption of uniforms that have in some ways replaced the old kimono culture. Japan has been, for much of the 20th century and the early 21st, a culture where from the beginning of school days, children are dressed in uniforms for daily activities throughout their childhood

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and teen lives. Once in university, the uniformity is to some extent abandoned, but until fairly recently, even college-age students wore uniforms. To a large extent this period of de-uniformity has led to teens and young adults experimenting with Western dress and making it unique in look and style to their own identities as young Japanese. Once these young people enter the workforce they are often once again forced to wear certain uniforms that represent the culture of their company and allow for a uniformity of behavior and pride in the place of work. This disciplined attitude to uniformity in dress is partly attributed to the culture of pride in workmanship and great care in organization shown throughout the centuries in Japan, resulting in economic success. Traditional Japanese dress is still sold in regular department stores in Japan and is still worn, if only for special occasions, by most Japanese people at some point in their lives.

Further Reading and Resources Bata Shoe Museum. http://www.batashoemuseum.ca/collections/permanent/japan/ index.shtml. Condra, Jill. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Dalby, Liza Crihield. Kimono: Fashioning Culture. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001. Four Centuries of Fashion: Classical Kimonos from the Kyoto National Museum. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 1997. Gluckman, Dale Carolyn, and Sharon Sadako Takeda. When Art Became Fashion: Kosode in Edo Period Japan. New York: Weatherhill, 1992. Imperatore, Cheryl, and Paul Maclardy. Kimono Vanishing Tradition. Atglen, PA: Paul Schiffer Publishing, 2001. Ishimura Hayao and Maruyama Nobuhiko. Robes of Elegance: Japanese Kimonos of the 16th–20th Centuries. Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1988. Kamachi, Noriko. Culture and Customs of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999. Kawamura, Yuniya. “Japanese Fashion,” in The Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion, ed. Valerie Steele. Farmington Hills, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2005. Kyoto National Museum. http://www.kyohaku.go.jp. Liddell, Jill. The Story of the Kimono. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989. Munsterberg, Hugo. The Japanese Kimono, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. Murasaki, Shikibu. The Tale of Genji [translated by E. Seidenstricker]. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress National Museum of Japanese History, Nomura Collection. http://www.rekihaku .ac.jp/e-rekihaku/110/cover.html. Nomura Shojiro and Tsutomu Ema. Japanese Kimono Designs. New York: Dover Publications, 2006. Shimizu Yoshiaki, ed. Japan: The Shaping of Daimyō Culture, 1185–1868. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1988. Stinchecum, Amanda Mayer. Kosode: 16th–19th Century Textiles from the Nomura Collection. New York: Japan Society, 1984. Swinton, Elizabeth de Sabato. Women of the Pleasure Quarter: Japanese Paintings and Prints of the Floating World. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1996. Tokyo National Museum. http://www.tnm.jp/?lang=en.

Encyclopedia of National Dress

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Encyclopedia of National Dress Traditional Clothing around the World Volume 2

Jill Condra, Editor

Copyright 2013 by Jill Condra All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Encyclopedia of national dress : traditional clothing around the world / Jill Condra, editor. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-313-37636-8 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-313-37637-5 (ebook) 1. Clothing and dress—Encyclopedias. I. Condra, Jill, 1968– GT507.E535 2013 391.003—dc23 2012040568 ISBN:

978-0-313-37636-8 (set) 978-0-313-37638-2 (v 1) 978-0-313-37640-5 (v 2) EISBN: 978-0-313-37637-5 17 16 15 14 13

1 2 3 4 5

This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit www.abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, LLC 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116-1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper Manufactured in the United States of America

Contents

Entry Guide

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Introduction

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The Encyclopedia

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Museums with National Dress and Textile Collections

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Selected Bibliography

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About the Editor and Contributors

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Index

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Entry Guide

Afghanistan, 1 Albania, 11 Algeria, 19 Angola. See Southern Africa Armenia, 29 Australia, Aboriginal, 44 Australia, Settlers, 53 Austria. See Germany and Austria Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, 62 Belgium. See The Netherlands and Belgium Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, 71 Bolivia. See Chile and Bolivia Bosnia and Herzegovina, 81 Botswana. See Southern Africa Brazil, 93 Bulgaria, 100 Burkina Faso. See Niger and Burkina Faso Canada, 111 Caribbean Islands: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, and Lesser Antilles Islands, 121 Chile and Bolivia, 131 China, 140 Costa Rica and Panama, 150 Crete, 160

Croatia, 167 Cuba. See Caribbean Islands Denmark, 177 Dominican Republic. See Haiti and the Dominican Republic Egypt, 183 El Salvador. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua England. See Great Britain and Ireland Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, 191 Ethiopia, 204 Finland, 212 France, 220 Germany and Austria, 231 Ghana, 237 Great Britain and Ireland, 252 Greece, 269 Greenland, 280 Guatemala, 289 Haiti and the Dominican Republic, 294 Honduras. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua Herzegovina. See Bosnia and Herzegovina Hungary, 303 India, 312 India: Nagaland Tribes, 326 Indonesia, 336 Iran, 343

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| Entry Guide Iraq, 357 Ireland. See Great Britain and Ireland Israel, 367 Italy, 372 Jamaica. See Caribbean Islands Japan, 385 Jordan. See The Palestine Region and Jordan Kenya, 395 Korea, 406 Laos (Hmong), 416 Latvia. See Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Lebanon and Syria, 426 Lesser Antilles Islands. See Caribbean Islands Libya, 440 Lithuania. See Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania Madagascar, 448 Malaysia, 461 Mauritania, 471 Mexico, 478 Mongolia, 488 Morocco, 499 Namibia. See Southern Africa Native North American Dress (United States and Canada), 510 The Netherlands and Belgium, 519 New Zealand, 527 Nicaragua. See Belize, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua Niger and Burkina Faso, 536 Nigeria, 545 Norway, 557 Pakistan, 567 The Palestine Region and Jordan, 574 Panama. See Costa Rica and Panama The Philippines, 585

Poland, 594 Portugal, 602 Puerto Rico. See Caribbean Islands Qatar. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates Romania, 612 Russia, 621 Russian Federation Republics, 633 Rwanda and Uganda, 640 Saudi Arabia. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates Scotland. See Great Britain and Ireland Slovenia, 649 Somalia, 656 South Paciic Islands, 663 South Africa. See Southern Africa Southern Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, 672 Spain, 682 Sweden, 690 Switzerland, 700 Syria. See Lebanon and Syria Thailand, 708 Tibet, 717 Turkey, 726 Uganda. See Rwanda and Uganda United Arab Emirates. See Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates United States: Hawaii, 740 United States: Hispanic West, 746 United States: New England, 752 United States: Puerto Rico. See Caribbean Islands Vietnam, 758 Wales. See Great Britain and Ireland Yemen and Oman, 764

Kenya Neal Sobania

Historical Background East Africa is one of the great crossroads of the world, where peoples and cultures from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia have been meeting and interacting for hundreds of years. As a result, the region contains an astonishingly rich array of ethnic and cultural diversity. When the internal migrations and local networks of trading were joined by seafarers in their dhows, who rode the monsoon winds across the Indian Ocean from the Persian Gulf to Africa’s east coast and back to trade, the alcoves and bays where they anchored quickly made Kenya part of a global trading system. Evidence of this trade, from at least the ninth century, is found in the archaeological remains of the towns and urban centers that dot the coast from Somalia to Mozambique (Nelson, 2002). The introduction of cloth, as well as Islam, brought new styles of dress that while still worn as wraps, greatly expanded both the variety of materials and the way these could be worn. With the arrival of Chinese ships at the beginning of the 15th century and the Portuguese at the end, this trade became still more global. Peoples at the coast sought cloth from India, metalwork from the Middle East, and ceramic ware from China in exchange for ivory, rhino horn, wood, and slaves captured in the interior. Portuguese domination of the Indian Ocean in the 16th century lasted until an alliance of locally powerful Swahili families and Omani Arabs forced/pushed them out in the 18th century. Broad-ranging social and political changes brought numerous inluences to bear on the local populations, which continued with subsequent British colonial involvement and domination from the end of the 19th century. With the British came a new range of inluences, all of which impacted patterns of dress. Colonial administration, from the village-level appointments of headmen and chiefs to the enlistment of police and soldiers (askaris), were each associated with particular forms of attire. Evangelization by missionaries resulted in still more change with the particular focus being on decency in dress and schooling of youth, again with each having signiicant impact on what was to be worn. The opportunities for employment and the recruitment and hiring of labor, which 395

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress often included people migrating from one region to another, were similarly associated with certain clothing, for example on the railroads, in the courts, and on white settlers’ established farms, especially in the central highlands, accompanied by the growing cash crops such as coffee, tea, and sisal. Market inluences continued to have an impact on dress up to independence from Britain in 1963 and through to the present day. In different eras each of these forces inluenced what had been traditionally worn at different times in the different regions of the country.

Geographic and Environmental Background The ive major regions that usually identify Kenya geographically give deinition to its having one of the most diverse landscapes in the world. The coastal plain, with an extensive offshore coral reef along the Indian Ocean, was also home to towns and urban centers that from the irst millennium engaged in trade. The Great Rift Valley, which runs the length of the country from north to south, consists of savannas and lakes, and separates the temperate central highlands in the east from the western highlands that continue westward to Mount Elgon and into Uganda to the shores of Lake Victoria. Although it is the central highlands with Mount Kenya (17,058 feet) that are generally thought of as Kenya’s most distinctive geographic region, nearly 70 percent of the country’s total land mass is the pastoral corridor, which stretches from Somalia in the east across northern Kenya and into northern Uganda. Here on plateaus, semiarid plains, and deserts, herding peoples graze the livestock—cattle, camels, sheep, and goats—upon which their existence depends. Yet, the total population of these pastoralist peoples, among which the most numerous are the Somali, Turkana, Maasai, Samburu, and Borana, make up only 4.5 million of the country’s now estimated 36-plus million people (Kenya Census, 2009). Seventy-ive percent of the total population lives in a highly productive agricultural belt that stretches from just north and east of Nairobi across the central and western highlands to the border with Uganda, yet it makes up only 10 percent of the country’s land mass. What has evolved across this varied landscape, from centuries of historical and political processes, is not one Kenya, but many Kenyas; not a single Kenyan culture, but many Kenyan cultures. Today a “Kenyan” is a citizen of the country of Kenya.

People and Dress Thanks to travel brochures, ilm, magazines, and glossy coffee table books about Kenya, the dominant image of this East African country’s people is of spear-carrying men wrapped in shoulder to knee red cloaks, tending their cattle, camels, sheep,

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and goats, or of women similarly wrapped either in a shoulder-draped leather skin or red-colored cloth or blanket with their necks, ears, and wrists adorned with multiple strands of colored beads. Seldom pictured are the school-age children dressed in uniforms of smartly pressed shorts or skirts with white shirt or blouse, a contrasting colored sweater, and school tie, or on the weekend in a T-shirt, soccer jersey, and blue jeans. Also rarely appearing are people riding in a bus or taxi van, or driving a car to and from work in skirts or trousers with blouse or shirt, inished off with a cardigan or coat and tie with even iner outits reserved for Sunday or special occasions. As is apparent by these “new” traditions, evidence of colonial times remains. However, even these two contrasting patterns of dress, the irst found on the semiarid plains and savannahs of Kenya’s north, east, and south, and the second in urban cities and towns, do not capture the diversity found throughout the country. Not all of Kenya is semiarid and not all of it is urban. Nor is any of what passes as “traditional” dress timeless, unchanging, or even disappearing. The assumed authenticity of glossy photographs, coupled with the loaded words in their captions depicting social customs and lifestyles of natives and tribes living in primitive huts and wearing costumes, only perpetuate an impression of static cultural practices and hide an ever-changing dynamic and vibrant reality. Kenya is in fact a multiplicity of customs and traditions, just as is most of Africa. In this respect, patterns of dress mirror the diversity found in the country’s coniguration of housing design, religious practice, modes of economic production, types of literature, and art.

Ethnic and Religious Diversity The citizens of Kenya represent more than 40-plus ethnic groups, along with considerable numbers of people of Arab, Asian, and European descent. Nearly all Kenya’s ethnic groups have emerged as a result of immigration, migration, and trade. None have lived in such total isolation as to be immune from the inluences of others, whether neighbors, enemies, or trading partners. Indeed, Kenya’s ethnic groups recount, in the genesis traditions that support their formation as a distinctive people, the incorporation of others whom they encountered along a migration path, gave refuge to, and later absorbed in a time of ecological disaster, or those they traded with who later stayed and never went home, wherever home was. Moreover, the archaeological record indicates trade routes from 4,000 years ago that brought materials used for personal adornment long before Indian Ocean dhows at the end of the irst millennium began to carry trade goods including clothing and cloth of cotton and silk from the Middle East, India, and beyond (Nelson, 2002; Kusimba, 1997). As a result, the ethnic identities associated with particular named groups, whether for example the Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luhya, or Maasai and

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Samburu, are today nearly all an amalgam of peoples who came together over time. While boundaries between ethnic groups were not totally luid, they were, as a result of marriage ties, gift exchanges, and trading relations, more permeable than is usually understood. The ability to move, shift, and over time even take on a new ethnic identity was all part of an adaptive strategy that enabled peoples to survive, especially during times of natural and human-made disasters such as drought, epizootics, and raiding (Waller and Sobania, 1994). Because national boundaries, beginning from the mid to late 19th century and in some cases well into the 20th century, were demarcated, contested, and later altered again, many Kenyan peoples include community members with the same ethnicity but different citizenship. Often these are close family members who live across an international boundary such as the Maasai in the south (Tanzania), the Luo in the west (Uganda), the Dasenech in the north (Ethiopia), and the Somali in the east (Somalia). Similarly, across an international frontier are found ethnic groups so closely related as to be nearly indistinguishable in terms of dress and adornment. Just as ethnicity and languages carry across national borders, so too do types of ethnic and regional dress. As a result, this has led to styles of dress both locally and regionally that share this richness of diversity. The religious diversity found in Kenya similarly relects this multiplicity of origins. Kenyans are predominantly Christian, including both Protestant and Roman Catholic (31.5 million). At the coast there is a long-established, historically dominant Muslim population, and in the urban centers are communities of Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims, whose existence in Kenya dates to the turn of the 20th century and the building of the Uganda Railway from the coast to Lake Victoria. Today, communities of all these great enduring religions are found across the country, often beside fast-growing Pentecostal and independent evangelical Christian churches. Within each of these is found a wide range of believers following a multiplicity of religious practices, including a still strong element of practitioners of traditional belief systems. These can include systems in which ancestors play a strong role and others that look to a higher being, albeit a rather distant force, that can bring unity and harmony. The Borana and Gabbra identify this as Waq, the Maasai and Samburu as Engai, and the Turkana as Aakuj. The Maasai-speaking peoples also have a strong tradition of diviner-prophets, laibon, as do the Kalenjin peoples. With today’s contemporary mixing of still evolving traditional types of dress and adornment, with the increasingly widespread availability of Western-style clothing, it is sometimes dificult to identify by the clothing worn what ethnic group an individual may belong to. Nevertheless, there are “traditional” patterns of dress that are historically identiied with particular ethnic communities.

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History of Dress The dominant style of dress across the interior of East Africa has historically been some form of apron or wrap. Made in some regions of sisal or palm iber, but more typically of leather, such garments could be made from a single skin but were more commonly from two pieces—one worn in front, the other in back. The area of coverage and length were often both markers of gender (male and female), age (child, adult), social status (unmarried, married), and, one must presume, availability and personal choice. For example, in the early decades of the 20th century, married Kikuyu women wore long leather skirts, nyathiba, that draped toga-style over one shoulder. If this type of skirt was coupled with long hoop earrings, hang’i, of beads threaded on wire, it further identiied the woman’s status as one whose eldest child had been circumcised. In contrast, unmarried girls were dressed in only kneelength aprons with multiple strands of beaded leg bands that announced their eligibility for marriage. Beyond a waistband of beads, very young children wore little to nothing (Muriuki and Sobania, 2007: 3–8). Among the vast majority of ethnic groups, males passed into adulthood through different stages of life from child to youth to warrior to elder with each transition marked by a speciic ritual. Distinctive clothing, adornment, and hairstyles were typically associated with each age grade and related to new and appropriate behaviors, privileges, and responsibilities. This also included the passage from one social status to another and indicated the separateness of the initiate as he made this passage. For example, among the Maasai and Samburu, the initiation that marked the passage of a male adolescent to warriorhood was denoted by his being housed in a separate enclosure wearing a black- or blue-colored skin or cloth, his mother’s earrings, a crown of stuffed dead birds, and his face painted with white chalk. Among the Kikuyu a dance, gichukia, was performed by warriors and initiated girls. For this occasion, the young men, painted face to ankles with white ochre/clay and wearing short leather coverings decorated with grass and beads, carried staves topped by pom-poms and colobus monkey hair—staves rather than spears to indicate the peaceful nature of the event. Just as historical photographs are important sources for studying the changes in patterns of dress in Kenya, invaluable are the 700 or so watercolors and drawings completed by Joy Adamson over some six and a half years beginning in 1948. Best known for her books on Elsa, the lioness cub, Adamson’s portraits of named individuals, which were commissioned by the Kenya government, document in exceptional detail the traditional clothing, adornment, customs, and ceremonies of peoples from all parts of the then-colony. She relied on community elders to authenticate what each subject wore when she painted or photographed him or her for this project (Adamson, 1975).

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Men’s and Women’s Dress While the apron and wrap style of dress found in Kenya’s interior can today still easily be seen, it is increasingly giving way to blouses or shirts with full skirts for women and shirts with jean and trousers or shorts for men. In urban centers, men add a suit or sport coat and the skirts and dresses of women may have more contemporary styling, but this is generally more a factor of the availability of a broader range of options and personal choice inluenced by education and employment. Some of the most distinctive and colorful ways of dressing are found along the East African coast, where people have had the longest ongoing contact with traders from all along the Indian Ocean rim. Here the men, especially the Swahili, wear the white, one-piece kanzu (Arabic: thawb). Recognized across the Middle East and the African continent, this lightweight and loose-itting robe or caftan is ideal for the hot and humid climate at the coast. Essentially a long cotton dress shirt than extends from the shoulders nearly to the ground, it can also be worn more formally, for example in a wedding, by topping it with a vest, cloak, or suit jacket. In the past a long, dark-colored coat-like joho, with richly embroidered shoulder decorations, was worn on top, but today is seldom seen. Whether in the past or today, the kanzu is nearly always worn with a koia, a hand-embroidered white cotton cap that also serves as a marker to identify the wearer as a Muslim, just as it is throughout the world. The black cloth covering worn by some Muslim woman is called a buibui at the coast, and when worn with a veil only the eyes and hands are visible. Worn when going about out of doors, this protects the women from the eyes of men who are outsiders and not part of her family. Indoors Swahili women traditionally wore richly colored trousers and dresses made of imported silk. Also at the coast, able to be worn by both women and men, but especially men, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, is a long, square piece of colMaasai men wear the traditional shuka, in orful cloth called a kikoi. Wrapped southern Kenya, 2005. (AP Photo/Leigh Murray) around the chest or waist it resembles

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the sarong from Asia and is one of three different wraps that originate at the coast. Elsewhere in Kenya, especially when worn by the Maasai or Samburu in various shades of red, it is called a shuka. The rectangular khanga is similar but worn exclusively by females and woven or manufactured as two identical pieces. These can be worn singly, for example as a sleeping garment, or tied and used as a baby carrier, or as a pair—matching skirt and head covering or skirt and shawl. Unique to the khanga is the Swahili proverb found on each one. The meaning of these proverbs can be short and to the point as in Atakae hachoki (a person in need never gets tired) and Mapenzi hayana Macho ya kuono (love is blind) or require more relection: Utabakina na chokochoko utaambulia ukoko (by causing misunderstandings you’ll end up with leftovers) or Mtaji wa maskini ni nguvu zake (a poor man’s capital is his body strength). The third type of warp is the kitenge, and like the kikoi, it is found in many parts of Africa. It is a heavier cloth manufactured in bright colors with designs made using a batik printing method. At one time the kitenge were imported from Indonesia via Holland, but today they are manufactured across Africa with those from Congo particularly favored in East Africa. Today older khanga, with their proverbs, are sometimes collected, but it is the kikoi that are sold commercially to tourists as beachwear, part of a growing fashion industry. So too is the red shuka, “the fabric with a culture” sold commercially under the label “Warrior Wear.” For the Kenya manufacturing industry, there is concern that these colorful, attractive, and charming cloths do not go the same way as the kiondo baskets woven by the Kikuyu and Kamba, made popular in the United States reportedly by actress Diane Keaton when she used the basket as a shoulder or tote bag in the ilm Annie Hall and now reported to have been patented in a number of Asian countries.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiication Adornment is not a particular feature of dress at the coast, except among a wealthy class of women who wear anklets and bracelets of silver. More common, especially at weddings and other special occasions, is the painting of intricate designs on a bride’s hands and feet. In the interior, however, is found an astonishing array of earrings, necklaces, bracelets, and anklets of beads, shells, seeds, metal wire, and other forms of personal adornment, including hairstyles and headdresses. Some times singly but more generally in combination, these distinguish ethnicity, gender, social grouping, and status, with certain ensembles particular to speciic occasions, such as age and puberty ceremonies, marriage, and other clan or society rituals. Kamba women were known for the wide, beautifully patterned blue and white beaded belts that they used to help secure the goatskin skirts they wore. Typically, as women

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress approached marriageable age, the number of beaded necklaces they wore increased. Conversely, as people aged and women became mothers and men became elders, the number of strands worn decreased. At the same time, some ethnic groups were identiied with certain colors of beads, such as the Kikuyu using pink and the Kipsigis with turquoise. Among Turkana women the color of beads worn denoted to which tribal section the husband belonged. However, what was fashionable in one era often changed in another, often simply as a matter of availability and access to what traders brought. Beads have been a dominant form of visual expression for thousands of years in East Africa and are found Turkana woman wears beaded necklaces, throughout the archaeological record. near Baragoi, Kenya. (Corel) Just as cloth later replaced animal skins, so beads took the place of plant and tree seeds, seashells, and beads of ostrich shell, bone, and stone. Initially, the introduction of colored European-made beads found their way to the interior over short, interconnecting, local trade networks that linked neighboring peoples with complementary resources and different object-making skills, for example, metalsmithing and pottery making. Later, as long-distance caravans from the coast found their way deep into the interior seeking valuable commodities such as ivory, rhino horn, and slaves, these were followed by European travelers and adventures, who sought to “discover” and name Africa’s lakes and rivers, and especially in East Africa to identify the source of the Nile. The trade goods they brought with them included these colored beads, brass and copper wire, and cloth. It is clear that from the second half of the 19th century leather wraps were being oversewn with beads and in some instances pieces of metal, either for decorative purposes or a further status indicator. However, from the standpoint of dress, the most important product the traders and travelers from the coast introduced was unbleached U.S.-made cotton cloth that came to be known across the region as “merkani.” A number of peoples in the pastoral corridor wear their hair under distinctive mud caps. These include the Dasenech, Pokot, Turkana, and others across the Ethiopian and Ugandan borders. The hairstyle that so distinguishes the warrior

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generation of Maasai, Samburu, and Rendille is long strands of hair, often interspersed with extensions of grass, and then heavily covered with red ochre. Body modiication in East Africa has largely been limited to the ears and chest, although there was a time when the Kamba iled the front teeth of males. Ears are pierced, not in one place but in many, often at the top and the bottom. Most widely recognized as Maasai, but also practiced by the Samburu and Rendille, are enlarged lobes that enable the insertion of ivory earplugs. Scariication on the chest among certain peoples in the pastoral corridor was used to denote the number of enemies killed in cattle raiding. But just as enlarged holes in earlobes are disappearing, so too is scariication, although more as a matter of contemporary social pattern rather then declining deaths from raiding.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Increasingly, for people who only 20 and 30 years ago were thought of as living in remote areas, manufactured cloth and clothing is the new norm. This is true even in the pastoral corridor where garments of tanned animal hide are certainly seen less frequently today, but where they still have a certain practicality. For example, here, where water is at a premium for drinking by both people and livestock, tanned leather does not require regular washing. Similarly, it is not practical to sew beads, metal wire, and other sorts of traditional identifying adornment on cloth (Sobania, 2003). For a time in the irst decades after independence, there was a budding clothing industry in Kenya. Then from the 1980s, the arrival of airplane containers full of used clothing put a pinch on local production, as a wide assortment of apparel, including shoes and caps, was sold in shops and markets across the country. Today the continued popularity of ilms about Africa and the growing presence of sophisticated marketing irms, most notably in Nairobi, who promote local production of all Maasai-inspired design at Fashion Week in things Kenyan, has given this industry Nairobi, Kenya, 2004. (Simon Maina/AFP/ new life. The annual Fashion Week, Getty Images)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sponsored by banks and automobile manufacturers, shows off the work of local designers. It both attracts an international audience and gives local designers an entrée to other parts of the world. The creation of accessories, including jewelry using traditional designs for inspiration, is being fashioned in local shops and by NGO-sponsored workshops. In the early 1990s there were, in many parts of the country, emotional and highly charged debates that had begun a decade or more before over the wearing of Western-style clothing, hairstyles, and cosmetics. In urban areas people were accused of forgetting their roots; in the rural areas people were criticized for being backward and not covering their naked bodies. Today, while such debates have not entirely ended, with the power and intensity of the global media and the world’s interlocking economy, what was once identiied as “Western” is increasingly understood as marking a higher degree of education, a desired standard of living, and an acquisition of material possessions that nearly all Kenyans are both aware of and desirous of obtaining. Preserving traditional culture and values is important, but so too is the sense of pride in Kenya being a modern nation, worthy of playing a valued role in the contemporary world.

Further Reading and Resources Adamson, Joy. Peoples of Kenya. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1975. History of the Kanga website. www.glcom.com/hassan/kanga_history.html. Hay, Margaret Jean. “Changes in Clothing and Struggles over Identity in Colonial Western Kenya.” In Jean Allman, ed. Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. Kenya Census 2009. “Population & Housing Census Results.” August 31, 2010. www .scribd.com/doc/36670466/Kenyan-Population-and-Housing-Census-PDF. The Kikoy Co. website. www.kikoy.com. Klumpp, Donna. “Maasai Art and Society: Age and Sex, Time and Space, Cash and Cattle.” Unpublished PhD dissertation. Anthropology Department, Columbia University, 1987. Klumpp, Donna, and Corinne Kratz. “Aesthetics, Expertise, and Ethnicity.” In Thomas Spear and Richard Waller, eds. Being Maasai: Ethnicity and Identity in East Africa. London: James Currey, 1993. Kratz, Corinne, and Donna Pido. “Gender, Ethnicity and Social Aesthetics in Maasai and Okiek Beadwork.” In Dorothy Hodgson, ed. Rethinking Pastoralism in Africa. Oxford: James Currey, 2000. Kusimba, Chapurukha. “A Time Traveler in Kenya: An Archaeologist Rediscovers the Roots of the Swahili People in the Course of His Research in Kenya.” Natural History 106 (1997) (5): 38–48.

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Muriuki, Godfrey, and Neal Sobania. “The Truth Be Told: Stereoscopic Photographs, Interviews and Oral Tradition from Mount Kenya.” Journal of Eastern African Studies 1 (2007): 1–15. Nelson, C. M. “Evidence for Early Trade Between the Coast and Interior of East Africa.” In The Development of Urbanism from a Global Perspective. Uppsala: Uppsala Universiteit, 2002. www.arkeologi.uu.se/digitalAssets/9/9638_Nelson All.pdf. Ngugi wa Mbungua. “Saga of Samburu Postcard,” Daily Nation, February 27, 1991. Parkin, David. “Textile as Commodity, Dress as Text: Swahili Kanga and Women’s Statements.” In Ruth Barnes, ed. Textiles in Indian Ocean Societies. London/ New York: Routledge, 2004. The Peoples of Kenya Gallery website. www.peoplesofkenya.com. Sobania, Neal. Culture and Customs of Kenya. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003. Waller, Richard, and Neal Sobania. “Pastoralism in Historical Perspective.” In Elliot Fratkin, Kathleen A. Dalvin, and Eric Abella Roth, eds. African Pastoralist Systems: An Integrated Approach. Boulder, CO/London: Lynn Rienner, 1994, 45–68. Wipper, Audrey. “African Women, Fashion and Scapegoating.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 6 (1972): 339–49.

Korea Aleasha McCallion

Historical Background Old Choson is the earliest known state in Korea and spanned a legendary age of 2333–108 BCE on the Korean peninsula. Taken over by the Han Chinese, Old Choson would not be the last Korean kingdom to be inluenced by China. In the last century BCE, the Korean kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla rose in power, bringing about the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE). Depending on their political or geographical circumstances, all three kingdoms were inluenced by alternating alliances with China and Japan, including socially, aesthetically, and religiously. After 500 years of intrakingdom warring, Silla emerged dominant in the seventh century with the assistance of Tang China. Prior to uniication the Silla kingdom held a distinctive native culture that had developed due to its greater distance from mainland China and is credited as a strong basis for independent Korean culture. Silla fell in 935 CE to the Koryo dynasty (918–1392), and a period of increased northern pressure from Mongol invasions ensued. Their inluence was intense and invasive; however, it was a time of civil sophistication, Buddhist publications, and cotton cultivation. The later Choson dynasty (1392–1910) was a period of extensive Chinese inluence but also of the revival of the Silla-developed Korean identity. Korea became a vassal state to Ch’ing China and this increased the exporting and paying of resources and goods as tribute. However, even though there was extensive economic and scholarly trade, with political cooperation evident throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the export of resources diminished the economic strength of Korea. At a time when the class structure was strictly polarized in that the Yangban or aristocrats held elite social positions of power and had inluence over the king, Catholicism spread among artisans and farmers. The last years of the Choson dynasty were tumultuous with isolationist policies against foreign inluence and trade, internal Catholic persecutions, and peasant wars (1812 and 1862). This era was the last of the independent neo-Confucian Korean state before the annexation by Japan in 1910. 406

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Under Japanese control (1910–1945) the Korean populace was subjected to political, economic, and cultural oppression, and although there were uprisings like the March 1, 1919, independence demonstration, Japan retained restrictive power and absorbed Korea’s resources including Korean conscripts for the war effort. At the end of World War II came the liberation of Korea in 1945 and a brief time of optimism, which quickly turned to a far greater challenge than occupation, that of civil unrest and political polarity. The northern territory of Korea was under communist Soviet guardianship and the southern territory had a U.S.-supported elected president (1948), Syngman Rhee, who in short order created a dictatorship. When the North, led by Kim Il Sung, invaded the South with Soviet military arms in 1950, Korea’s people were launched into what would become the Korean War. Casualties numbered an estimated 900,000 soldiers including 160,000 South Korean soldiers and 38,000 United Nations soldiers, as well as an estimated 2 million civilians killed or wounded. In 1953 a demilitarized zone that was four kilometers wide was established along the 38th parallel and the North and South were ultimately divided. North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a communist regime under Kim Il Sung’s leadership, was supported by trade relationships with the Soviet Union and the production and exports of armaments and minerals. The people of the northern state embarked on a rigidly regulated life including work, dress, and religion; any who resisted were considered to be treasonous and tortured, killed, or disappeared in prison labor camps. With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, North Korea lost subsidized trade and the economic state worsened for its people with widespread malnutrition and starvation due to food shortages and little ability to earn reasonable wages. North Korea emerged into the 21st century with the fourth largest army on the planet, approximately 1 million people in uniform each day policing and managing a population of 23 million, mainly Confucianists and Buddhists, and a gross domestic product equivalent to $1,000 U.S. per person. South Korea, the Republic of Korea, remained under the control of Syngman Rhee’s leadership until 1960 when he was forced into exile, after which the country emerged, through expansive export trade, into today’s thriving economic state. With a population of 48 million, the democratic country by comparison has a gross domestic product equivalent to $19,600 U.S. per person, and there is religious freedom. People are predominately Buddhists or Christians.

Geographic and Environmental Background The Korean Peninsula in northeast Asia borders China and Russia with the Yalu or Amnok and Tumen or Toman-gang rivers serving as natural borders, and reaches out from the main continent southeast toward Japan. The southern reach of the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress peninsula boasts 3,000 small islands off the coast, amid the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea. The climate offers full seasons and spectacular changes for the river basins, waterfalls, and lakes, as well as diverse vegetation that offers plum blossoms in spring and iery maple leaves in the fall. The range of natural landscapes in Korea is diverse, from the islands and beaches in the south, through agricultural land pockets and loodplains, to mountain ranges throughout and into the north where they dominate. The rich agricultural land produces core food products of rice, corn, potatoes, soybeans, and livestock as well as indigenous ibers including hemp, ramie, and jute and the introduced super iber of cotton. As well, there is the long tradition of sericulture, which provided a wealth of silk textiles throughout history. Silk was restricted to the elite during the Three Kingdoms period, but later commoners wore dyed colored silk. The climate and environment affected traditional dress, the range of layers, and the usage of different textiles during the course of the seasons. Ramie and later cotton were worn in the warm summer months in plain weaves, which are breathable and naturally cooling. The cold winter months were met with the use of wool garment layers and winter accessories such as deerskin footwear and the pungchas or hood, which was fur lined and covered the head and ears down to the jawline.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Despite struggling to keep an independent cultural and political identity, the Korean people have one of the longest national histories in the world. They are a single ethnic family anthropologically distinguished from both their Chinese and Japanese neighbors and claim descent from several Mongol tribes. The Korean language is spoken; however, a uniquely Korean written alphabet was not developed until 1443 by King Sae Chong the Great. Buddhism was brought into Korea through China in the fourth century and grew to be a powerful force by the sixth. A nature-aligned and nature-respecting practice was successful as it paralleled an older philosophy of relating humans with their natural surroundings. The Korean cultural expression is inluenced by this awareness of nature and is relected in the costume classiications of beauty of nature, personality, evil, and tradition. In the 10th century, the united Korean state of Silla (668–935) was irmly established, and Buddhism, the oficial state religion, had inspired the state’s intellectual and artistic achievements.

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The Ch’ing style code of Confucianism was integrated into social life in the 15th and 16th centuries and the Choson dynasty regulated costume based on status, including fabrics, colors, motifs, and accessories. A Confucian scholar’s ceremonial costume of red and blue robe, chobok, with a reversed apron or lower back panel that has a belt tie in the front and symbolic embroidered details exempliies the absorption of the religion into Korean society and dress. In the 17th century, after surviving several invasions from Manchu and Japan, the Korean identity became a national project. The sporadic exposure to Western ideas through China and Japan encouraged the study of Korea’s own history and geography. Soon there was a movement away from Chinese themes in art as artists started to focus on the Korean common people rather than Chinese characteristics. Paintings by Cho Yongsok (1686–1761) and Kim Hongdo (1745–before 1818) exemplify this trend. The artistic expression of Korea, despite other Asian inluences, has been reined in a unique and identiiable style.

History of Dress Although there are references to previous periods, the Choson dynasty (1392– 1910) is the time period when the costume of the Silla kingdom was gradually altered into the recognized traditional Korean hanbok, or costume, in the forms known today. Modestly covering almost all of the body, the colors, ibers, and ornamentation of the hanbok were purposely chosen to relect themes of cultural belief, the wearer’s particular guild or position in society, and adherence to sumptuary laws that were present during the Choson dynasty. The origin of the hanbok is traced to Manchurian and Northern Koreans who wore daily white gowns or robes with large sleeves and pants, and adorned silk brocade or embroidered clothing on special occasions. The art of the Koguryo tombs of the Three Kingdoms period are the strongest reference to early forms of costume; these are, however, portrayed within a Chinese-inluenced art aesthetic. The women are dressed in waist-length or longer V-neck tops and generous long skirts over pants, while the men are shown wearing a similar style top garment with a wide-leg pant. The costumes of men of the later Silla court, on the urging of royalty, were adaptations of the Tang style of oficial costumes brought back from China in 647. Women’s clothing at court and eventually royalty would also adapt Tang, Yuan, and later Ming dynasty styles; however, the traditional Korean clothing aesthetic persisted as the common population was less affected by such fashion trends. It was in the later 13th century that Korean royalty submitted to the encouragement to marry Mongol princesses, after which Korean costume, particularly women’s, was greatly inluenced by the style of the northern invader.

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Materials and Techniques The basic hanbok was designed and made in the home by women, until the inluence of Western clothing production. Although the elite classes and royalty were not restricted in fabric choices, the lower or laborer classes were limited to fabric created from hemp (sambe) plants and to some degree from ramie (moshi) plants, which were produced in great amounts at the beginning of the Choson period. Ramie later increased in value and quality, declined in production, and was only attainable by the upper classes. The dominate iber and iber production for the general population of the late Choson period was that of cotton (myon), which was in healthy cultivation after being introduced in 1367. Weaving cloth by hand and by traditional methods has a long history in Korea with natural ibers like ramie, hemp, and silk and ranges from perfection in plain weaves to patterns and complex weaves, which began emerging after the seventh century over the course of the Uniied Silla period (668–918). Sewing is traditionally women’s work that was done exclusively in the company of other women—mothers and daughters, friends and neighbors, sitting together and hand-sewing garments, wrapping cloths, and other household textiles. Wrapping cloths are a unique textile art that is completely functional and an exquisite example of a range of sewing and embellishment techniques; they are square and made up of small geometrical, usually square or rectangular scraps of fabric, pojagi, and were used to cover items for storage or gifts for delivery. Embroidery in Korean history is rich, colorful, and diverse both in how many objects it was applied to and in symbolic forms. Nature-inspired motifs of lowers, trees, and birds, as well as mountains, waves, and clouds are some of the classic choices for embellishing everyday or special-occasion objects and garments. In the modern era, handcraft is well recognized in Korean society, speciically in South Korea where it is seen as artistry and respected for its skill and expression. The ive colors of blue, red, yelWoman in traditional Korean hanbok. low, white, and black have powerful (B.T. Renkel/iStockphoto.com)

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natural, elemental, and spiritual interpretations in the Korean aesthetic and tradition. Some interpretations are seasonal changes, the four directions and their center, as well as wood, ire, metal, water, and earth. These colors can be seen on the sleeves of ceremonial robes for men, women, and children and communicate a distinctly Korean style. Alternating positive and negative color placements are seen within the sleeves of upper garments, as well as the color scheme between the upper and lower garments in an ensemble.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Traditional garments of choice for everyday were predominantly the natural cellulose white; however, with natural dyes there were a number of colors that were used to ornament costume. During a time of extensive hierarchical organization, class-based costume was dictated by sumptuary laws. Costume colors, materials, motifs, and accessories relected the status of the owner and the occasion or function, and this is still true in modern times for special occasions and festivals. Colors reserved for those of status or for special occasions varied; purple and pink garments can be found in the royal collections of queens, while the jackets of courtesans or princesses were often green. Prior to marriage, a high-status woman wore an attractive combination of a yellow chogori and red chi’ma; once married, women wore colors that relected their husband’s social station. The most exquisite examples of traditional Korean costume are of the Choson dynasty royal costumes. The queen and noblewomen had the privilege of wearing luxurious fabrics of silk, cotton, hemp, or ramie, all of which were greatly available from royal gifts, imports, or domestic production. Noblewomen wore the Samhoejang chogori, which would have been worn by the upper-class women on special occasions. The queens of the Choson period layered several embellished garments including an outer ceremonial jacket, hwangwonsam; in this manner, the chogori was not the outer layer as it would have been for women of lesser status, except for their wedding day. Beaded and embroidered geometrical headdresses were an addition on a woman’s wedding day and were perfectly set at the front center of the head, with a dangling beaded tassel that rested on the forehead. The Choson king’s robes changed slightly with each reign; however, the hongnyong-po or oficial costume included a long, wide-sleeved red, blue, or yellow robe decorated with large elaborate golden crests on the front chest, back, and two shoulders with the royal motif of a dragon with ive claws. The footwear of the king was the basic design of a day-to-day pointy toe and thick elongated ankles, but they were eloquently made of deerskin dyed black and had a prominent sole.

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Men’s and Women’s Dress The Korean chogori, compared to the Chinese robe and the Japanese kimono, has basic form similarities but also unique characteristics relecting Korean style and aesthetic. Stylistic norms demonstrated in Korean costume are natural, soothing lines and gracefully exaggerated human shapes. In the 16th century the shape was more similar in an A-line or fan-shaped body and in sleeve structure to that of the Chinese robe, especially in the garments for men. The basic hanbok for women is the ch’ma-chogori. The ch’ma refers to the highwaisted full skirt with narrow shoulder straps that wraps to overlap in the back and lows in slight pleats to the ankles. The chogori top is a jacket or blouse with long curved sleeves, sohme, that has evolved to a short bolero length and is overlapped to close right of center front and ties above the bustline with two long sashes, korum, in a large loop. The collar, kit, has a thin, replaceable outer layer, tongjong, of white woven material, hemp, cotton, or ramie, to protect the garment from wearing at the neckline. The ch’ma-chogori was worn over undergarments reminiscent of an earlier pant underlayer, and it could be accompanied by an overcoat, dooroomakee, or outer cloak or veil, chang-ot. In place of pockets, small geometrical pouches, yeomnang or gangnang, hung on ties and were embellished with the embroidery of auspicious symbols. The ch’ma skirt has changed little over time except originally it had ties at the ankles and eventually demonstrated class or marital status. The chogori has undergone many alterations to the shape of the main body, kil, hem, and sleeve arc. Also, the characteristics of the collar, armhole, panel positioning, sashes, and component measurements changed the garment over time. Controversially revealing, cropped lengths in the 17th and 18th centuries were popular even when women’s rights were limited by the Confucian state. Women, however, also wore overcoat styles that originated from men’s garments, especially those women of status, even when the principle of three obediences gave men control over a woman for her entire life. The hanbok for men, paji-chogori, includes the wide-leg trouser, paji, and an earlier, longer version of the chogori. The men’s chogori length has remained more static over time, reaching to just below the waist. Additional layers of long coats, turumagi, or overcoats, dopo, had wider sleeves and collar, and were generally considered as more formal wear. The dopo’s tie position was adjusted above that of the chogori’s so that the two ties would not overlap on a man’s chest; however, an additional tie belt, tti, that was thin and usually black was fastened around the outside of all the jacket layers. Although children’s clothing relected in miniature the attributes of adult garments, including the padded socks (beoseon) and heukhye, footwear with pointy toes, the head ornamentation styles were extremely different until their wedding

Ensemble for a Korean man: shirt, robe, socks, bag, hat, hat liner, sash, and tie (four), c.1922. (Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania/Gift of Harry A. Franck Jr., Katharine F. Huettner, Patricia F. Shefield, C. William Frank & Peter W. Franck, 1988/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress ceremony. Children wore a bonnet-style embroidered hat (gulle) with a number of dangling ribbons or tails depending on the region. In warm weather women wore a peaked hat, gokkal, made of paper or cloth that is folded repeatedly and ixed to the hair; dark fur- and silk-detailed nambawi hats were worn by fashionable women and offered warmth in the winter. The men’s hats are the most intricate and diverse; there are different designs for nobles and oficials, as well as Confusian scholars and religious leaders. The nobleman’s hat, gat, was stacked onto a headband, mangeon, and high cap, tanggeoun, and then fastened to the head with a tie around the chin. The wide brim was positioned carefully to sit lower in the front. The samo or coronet hat of the oficial was woven with side wings out of bamboo or horsehair, whereas the jegwan or the Confucian horsehair hats are architecturally tiered upward from the crown of the head in geometrical shapes and points. Royal men wore taller black silk cylindrical coronet and some kings wore the Confucian jewgwan.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Body paint and jewelry in traditional Korean costume could be described as comparatively minimal compared to those of other world cultures and include rouging of the cheeks of women for wedding ceremonies, but mainly the wearing of pendants, hairpins, and miniature knife accessories. Pendants that were attached to clothing at the tie or belt level were a combination of metal or semiprecious stone and textile knots with speciic meaning and long tassels. The pendants are bundled in multiple ways, especially for wedding ceremonies, but normally are either singles, danjak norige, or triplicates, samjak norigae. Delicately ornamented hairpins were worn regularly; those of the aristocratic or royal women included metal and jewel-adorned hairpins while more common were hairpins fashioned from bamboo. Hairpins it as a focal point for adornment with the traditional but functional low-placed hair bun at the nape of the neck. An accessory that was common for men and some women was a small knife (jangdo), often with ivory detail, which was attached to a belt at the waist or hip and used rarely for its original purpose of self-defense.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Through the history of Korean society, the traditional costume characteristics have relected the social, political, national, and economic changes of the society, yet still maintained the religious or spiritual preferences and practices of the Korean people. The simplicity and uniqueness of the Korean traditional costume is a recognizable symbol of the Korean aesthetic among an extensive and world-renowned

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Asian textile culture. Contemporary use of traditional dress is reserved for special occasions such as wedding ceremonies, birthday celebrations, public festivals, and a range of traditional performing arts.

Further Reading and Resources Kim, Kumja Paik, and Huh Dong-hwa. Profusion of Color: Korean Costumes & Wrapping Cloths of the Choson Dynasty. Seoul, Korea: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco and The Museum of Korean Embroidery, 1995. The Korean National Folk Museum. http://www.nfm.go.kr:8080/english/main.jsp. Kwon, O-Ch’ang. Korean Costumes during the Chosun Period. Trans. Kim Eunok. Soul-si: Hyonamsa, 1998. Kwon, Yoon-Hee Suk. Symbolic and Decorative Motifs of Korean Silk, 1875–1975. Seoul: Il Ji Sa, 1988. Paciic Asia Museum. http://www.paciicasiamuseum.org/. Roberts, Clair, and Huh Dong-hwa. Rapt in Color: Korean Textiles and Costumes of the Choson Dynasty. Sydney, Australia: Powerhouse Museum, 1998. Seoul Museum of Korea. www.museum.seoul.kr.

Laos (Hmong) Geraldine Craig

Historical and Geographical Background The Hmong people of Laos are an ethnic group independent of geopolitical boundaries, and their traditional dress is a relection of the deliberate effort to remain stateless for many centuries. Even before Chinese attempts at cultural integration precipitated a Hmong migration into Laos and other mountainous regions in Southeast Asia, paj ntaub (translated as lower cloth) signiied Hmong ethnic independence. The Hmong have lived in southwest China for thousands of years as an ethnic group separate from the Han majority culture. The Hmong are a subgroup of the Miao minority in China, although it is a commonly held misconception that Miao and Hmong are different names for the identical ethnic group. While the Chinese gave the Miao their derogatory name (considered to mean “barbarian”), the Hmong who migrated outside of China have been successful in recapturing their Hmonglanguage name for themselves, a deining act of self-determinism. The Hmong language is suficiently different from other Miao languages that it is unintelligible to other Miao subgroups and has different roots. Also, while Miao and Hmong textiles share a similar visual language, the patterns are differentiated by locale and particular histories of ethnic subgroups, including the Hmong subgroups—White Hmong, Blue or Green Hmong, and Striped Hmong are the most common. In the mid-19th century, attempts by the Chinese to subjugate and assimilate the Hmong led to migrations from China into the northern mountainous parts of southeast Asia, with the greatest concentration of Hmong settling in northern Laos and Vietnam, and later northern Thailand. Just as there had been vertical segregation in China, the Hmong in Laos chose to live isolated at the highest altitudes at the top of the mountains in a closed society for generations. In traditional villages, Hmong practiced a subsistence economy of swidden (slash-and-burn) agriculture and followed traditions of shamanism and animist spiritual beliefs. In order to keep outside inluences away from their traditional society, they generally avoided outside contacts and produced everything they needed except salt and metal goods obtained by itinerant traders. According to Hmong scholar Dr. Dao Yang, “They 416

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believed that the teachings of their ancestors had helped them preserve a moral, spiritual and physical harmony across many centuries and, therefore, did not wish to risk change” (2004). One of the most important traditions was the production of colorful handmade clothing that was strongly integrated into their identity and cosmology, in particular ritual practices around birth, marriage, and death. Traditional forms of Hmong paj ntaub were inluenced by external sources from the mid 1950s as Westerners who visited Laos wanted a souvenir of the ine stitching that appeared on Hmong dress. Later there were efforts made by missionaries in the late 1960s to market paj ntaub squares and coasters to buyers in the United States and France to obtain inancial assistance. Making and selling paj ntaub squares became a lucrative business for the less remote villages and inspired the development of larger decorative hangings. While small squares of paj ntaub were exchanged by Hmong in Laos as a sign of friendship—and also enabled sharing ideas for new pattern designs—this was different from the “decorator squares” that began to be produced for the tourist market (Cohen, 2000). These acculturated textiles were removed from the original cultural context and ritual functions of Hmong identity and spiritual protection that marked the traditional clothing forms and were not “activated” by the same belief systems. In the early 1960s the most dramatic upheaval to Hmong village life came when the United States waged a secret war in Laos against communism as part of the Vietnam conlict. When the communist Pathet Lao gained control of the Lao government in 1975, the Laotian Hmong that sided with the U.S. CIA forces led from retaliation across the Mekong River into refugee camps along the borders of Thailand. A few Hmong were given permission to immigrate as political refugees to the United States, France, and Australia right away, but many Hmong were in the Thai camps for more than a decade. This period from the early 1960s to the present has been a period of highly accelerated cultural change, in particular for Hmong textile language in Laos and the diaspora. New representational forms of embroidery have developed for wall hangings and art quilts that have a completely different visual language from the geometric abstract patterns on clothing. Knowledge of arts and crafts as part of daily life has been severely diminished, yet the textiles remain primary visualizations of Hmong culture and cultural change. The population of Laos in 2012 was estimated at 6,586,260.

People and Dress Cosmology and Rituals in Dress The important rituals and protections connected to traditional paj ntaub are complex and layered, spanning birth to death. A belief shared by Hmong refugee

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress women is that paj ntaub, especially baby carriers and hats, disguise the children as lowers so evil spirits will not pluck them from the earth. Spirits are called dab; evil spirits called dab qus are the kind of wild forest spirits that seek human souls to capture or attack, especially those of young children. For traditional Hmong religion and medicine, the root of much illness is when one of the many souls leaves the body; this makes it vulnerable to capture by the malevolent dab qus. Souls leave the body during sleep, and the playful “chicken soul” likes to wander and go play with the souls of other children. The richly embellished Hmong baby carriers not only hold the baby onto the back of the mother, but also bind the soul to the body psychically through the material culture that is family, clan, identity, and Hmong society. Simple silver neck rings also serve a spiritual function, believed to hold the souls to the body and keep them from wandering. A Hmong baby receives the irst neck ring at the ceremony held in his or her honor to celebrate the survival of the irst 30 days of life (Cooper, 2008). Creation of clothing for families by the women was in progress all year, although most productive during the months after the harvest cycles of crops— rice, vegetables, and opium as a cash crop for trading. Paj ntaub production peaked in late fall as the New Year festival in early December approached. However, funerary clothing was made throughout the year well in advance of old age to guarantee that the right garments would be complete whenever the time came. Funerary textiles were made by a young wife for her parents and her new in-laws, with great importance attached to the textiles and their presentation to one’s parents. They would show honor to the parents when used for their burial. The paj ntaub offered protection and symbolic way-inding (a kind of map) in the textile patterns used, so the deceased could make the long journey back to his or her birthplace. Preparation for death began at birth, when Hmong fathers buried the placenta (called “birthshirt” or “coat”) after birth in the packed dirt loor near the center of the house pillar for boys and near the place of birth for girls (Cooper, 2008; Symonds, 2004). The deceased must wear all new clothes for the journey to his or her birthplace to collect the birthshirt before traveling on to his or her ancestral village. Hemp sandals are placed on the feet to cross to the Otherworld safely, a journey backward in time to the origins of humanity where the deceased must return before being reborn. Since all that is buried in the grave must perish if effective reincarnation is to take place, no metal, jewelry, or synthetic materials can accompany the corpse (Cooper, 2008). Funerary robes can now be purchased in Hmong markets as craft skills in the current young generations diminish. They seem to be made of all-natural ibers, unlike the polyester New Year’s skirts. However, modern urban life and hospital births have broken traditions around the birthshirt beyond recognition, and possibly with it contact with the knowledgeable ancestors who can show the way.

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Extravagant clothing for a young woman’s dowry was of great importance, as it was part of her “bride wealth” that her family sent with her to remind the husband’s family that there was love and protection in her natal home. This is different from the bride wealth that the groom’s family paid in silver bars to the bride’s parents in exchange for the young woman’s care in their home (also called “mother’s milk”) and for losing a productive member of their household since she would now work for the husband’s family when she moved in with them. The bride wealth, also called bride price, paid by the groom’s father also helped to guarantee that the bride would be well treated in her new life in the husband’s home, as the steep bride price would not be returned in cases of divorce unless the wife committed adultery (Cooper, 2008). Although the young woman might have made many articles of clothing for her dowry, they were considered the property of her parents until she wed and constituted part of her bride wealth from them. They had paid for the threads and cloth, and had allowed the young woman time away from child care or agricultural work to produce the labor-intensive garments. The Hmong New Year was and is most signiicant for young women of marriageable age to reveal new garments

New Year’s ball toss courting game in a Hmong village, Xieng Khuang, Laos, 2009.The fur and beaded hats are a contemporary style imported from China. (Courtesy Geraldine Craig)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and display their needlework skills. Mothers and grandmothers assist with sewing for daughters and weaving and batik if knowledgeable in those techniques. While today most of the skirts are pleated polyester and not hemp—white or machine printed to look like Blue Hmong batik with embroidery—the counted cross-stitch apron (sev) and collars appear to be the traditional elements still stitched by hand. Young Hmong women in villages mostly embroider their own aprons and feel they should not buy them in Hmong markets (where they are available for sale). Women would sew for husbands, brothers, and sons so they would have new garments for the New Year festival as well, but most Hmong men at the 2009 New Year’s festival in Xieng Khouang wore Western clothing, not traditional dress. Although the traditional-style costume is worn by most of the young women, it appeared nonexistent for the young men. A young male Hmong translator/guide said that the young men don’t care about wearing traditional clothing, but when looking for a Hmong bride at New Year’s, they still cared a lot if the woman was wearing a Hmong dress with hand-embroidery and appliqué. He indicated one important reason was because she would need to make funeral clothes for his mother.

The Importance of Hmong Dress The importance of Hmong dress is revealed in an oft-repeated legend that claims the Hmong used to have a written language, but when the Chinese made it illegal to speak or write Hmong, the Hmong women hid the alphabet in the folds of their skirts. With complex patterns of embroidery, appliqué, and batik in skirts made of 24 feet of cloth compressed into tiny pleats, the legend gains currency when understood in context. While the traditional designs were not an alphabet in the strict linguistic deinition, they did serve as a visual language that was understood by fellow Hmong and were important in a shared history and the ritual functions of paj ntaub. Geometric abstract patterns drawn from sources in nature—such as spirals for snails or triangles for ish scales—reinforced animist beliefs and ritual protections in Hmong village life. The three primary reasons for wearing traditional dress were to identify oneself as Hmong; to display the wealth of one’s family at celebrations, especially the Hmong New Year festival; and to prepare oneself for the passage into the spiritual world after death. The costume pieces (hats, jackets, funeral pillows, etc.) afforded the wearer spiritual protection or assisted in recognizing/claiming an individual’s spirit by the clan ancestors after death. Clothing is so linked to Hmong identity in Asia that subgroups of Hmong were and are deined by the patterns and style of women’s traditional dress. White Hmong women wear white skirts, Blue or Green Hmong women wear indigo-dyed skirts, and Striped or Armband Hmong wear jackets with pieced stripes on their

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sleeves. The Kohler Arts Center catalog (Hmong Art: Tradition and Change, 1985) describes a legend that suggests how the Striped Hmong dress style originated. A young girl lost in the forest disguised herself as a tiger by sewing stripes on her sleeves. It was believed this protected her from being attacked by tigers, so it was adopted by Hmong in her clan and their descendants. Young Hmong girls began learning cross-stitch embroidery when they were as young as ive years old, and learned the more complex processes of hemp processing and weaving, appliqué, indigo dyeing, and garment construction as they grew older. It was widely reported that a young woman’s industriousness and textile skills were among the most highly regarded attributes of a partner when a young man was searching for his future wife. A woman’s inventiveness in textile pattern design was also reported to be an indicator of her future fertility in childbirth. The knowledge to produce “Hmongness” passed from one generation to the next is more than a supericial indication of Hmong identity, it is material charged with psychological meaning—a psycho-material narrative of unconventional language that constructs Hmong family, society, identity, and history with a particular Hmong aesthetic.

Materials and Techniques In spite of widely shared patterns and design motifs passed from one generation to the next, the Hmong maintain a high regard for design innovation as meaning was not ixed. The use of bright colors (like lowers) has remained a distinguishing feature of the embroidery and reverse appliqué, stitched into abstract patterns usually derived from nature. The design motifs as documented by Dewhurst and MacDowell (1984) often have several Hmong names, such as the double spiral with a jagged interior called a dragon or rooster comb. Other motifs cannot be translated, such as kab lij tshooj, centipede-like arachnoids indigenous to Southeast Asia, a wonderfully animated motif based on right-angle geometry. Whether it is an image or element drawn from the rich store of Hmong craft design over centuries, or a derivation of a traditional form, there is always a strong Hmong palette and aesthetic that remains intact. In traditional Hmong life, paj ntaub clothing was created from handwoven hemp or cotton that had been acquired through trade. All pieces except the White Hmong skirt were richly embellished by hand with embroidery, appliqué, reverse appliqué (a top layer of cloth is cut and turned under to reveal another color beneath in the negative space), and indigo-dyed batik among the Blue (also called Green) Hmong. Batik is a process of applying hot wax to cloth to resist or block color absorbing into the cloth when immersed in a dye bath, and the wax is boiled out once dyeing is complete. One constant in Hmong women’s traditional clothing in

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress all subgroups is the approximately knee-length skirt comprised of hundreds of tiny, vertical pleats that allowed freedom of movement. White Hmong women wore black pants for everyday, reserving the white hemp skirt for special occasions, while Blue Hmong wore old skirts for work in the ields each day as they created a new indigo batik skirt for the next New Year’s celebration. Skirts were made from hemp in all Hmong subgroups as it had the irmness to hold the many ine pleats. Cotton and silk was used for appliqué or possibly as a base in the middle section of the skirt to allow the inest batik work. The hemp was grown along with other crops on the sides of the mountains. The plant ibers were harvested in July/August, split into rough strips, softened with repeated pounding with the rice pounder, then hand-spun with a homemade spinning wheel and wound into skeins of yarn. Once the yarn was bleached it would be woven on a loom in a simple over/under weave. The loom was constructed from bamboo and wood and used the body of the woman to create tension in the warp threads as she wove, a combination of loor loom and backstrap loom that was common in China, Korea, and Japan (Cooper, 2008). Usually middle-aged women wove the hemp while older women would spin the ibers into thread. Another constant in all Hmong women’s traditional clothing styles in Laos is the long front sev. According to Symonds (2004), a good Hmong woman would never leave the house without this modesty panel as it would relect poorly on her character. It was often black or with a colored edging for everyday, but richly embellished with embroidery and reverse appliqué for festival wear. Women also wore long belts or sashes that wrap the waist many times to add fullness and were heavily worked in reverse appliqué and embroidered designs. Today the sashes are often lengths of bright pink or lime green cloth without embroidery and may not be layered as full, as young Hmong adapt to Western standards of beauty of thinner waistlines and a different proile. In village life, Hmong women wore leggings or gaiters around their calves to protect their legs when working in the ields. The gaiters were usually plain black with perhaps colored ribbon ties at the top, although White Hmong women might wear white leggings for New Year’s and special occasions. Women also stitched elaborate collars that were attached at the back of the neck like a small sailor’s collar, with great attention to the quality of the craftsmanship and design. White Hmong women wore the embroidery side out, but usually Blue Hmong women wore the embroidery turned underneath. Different styles of elaborate hats, turbans, or hairstyles wrapped around forms to exaggerate the shape such as a large bun or horns. Blue Hmong men throughout Southeast Asia and China wore plain black skullcaps with a bright pink pom-pom on top. Hmong men in all groups had complex stitching on the ends of sashes worn around the waist with black pants. The difference in pants between subgroups was primarily shape: Blue Hmong men

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White Hmong belts, purchased in Laos 2009, probably stitched before 1975. (Collection of Geraldine Craig/Photo courtesy Kansas State University Photographic Services)

wore baggy pants with the crotch sewn very low, close to the ankles, while White Hmong men wore pants with the crotch seam much higher like Western or Chinese trousers. Hmong children, boys and girls, wore a miniature version of adult dress except for the more colorful, elaborate hats when young. Men and women both wore a traditional short jacket of blue or black that was usually embellished along the neck or front overlap with embroidery and/or appliqué for both everyday and festivals. Both wore elaborate silver jewelry handcrafted by the men, another visual testimony of the family’s wealth. While much of the jewelry is now made of less expensive aluminum, the intricate designs based on small interlocking parts remain similar. According to Cooper (2008), the men in Laos would wear their neck rings infrequently outside of holidays, while Hmong women would rarely be seen without them. Most compositions of Hmong design motifs and composition of batik patterns were based on a square unit, often framed or edged by many layers or borders. The square unit in a batik pattern would be combined with other squares for the length of yardage needed for a skirt. Likewise, compositions in counted cross-stitch or reverse appliqué would use the square as an organizing design principle, which continues with refugee makers of paj tnaub even when the symbolic meaning of traditional design motifs or patterns is lost. Due to many Hmong living in refugee camps for almost a decade and the steady growth of tourism in Southeast Asia at the end of the 20th century, textile techniques, palette, and designs have changed to meet Western non-Hmong

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress tastes. However, traditional clothing has not changed dramatically in style since it was not a primary sales commodity; the smaller, less expensive squares of the reverse appliqué, batik, and cross-stitch were created for tourist price points. The development of pictorial narrative story cloths in the refugee camps also has not been incorporated into traditional clothing styles. Camacrafts (a nonproit that began working with Hmong in the refugee camps in Thailand in the late 1970s to maintain traditional craft skills) encouraged adaptation to Western taste, with miles of taupe and sky blue fabric becoming a standard for tourist story cloths and reverse appliqué squares. Camacrafts has continued to insist on a very high level of craftsmanship from Hmong producers, so many dificult techniques— especially the wax batik and indigo dyeing—have been maintained. Because of this market, more traditional patterns and skills that have always been used in clothing production have not been completely lost and may survive for the next generations.

Contemporary Use of Hmong Traditional Dress The irst Hmong refugees arrived in the United States from Laos after 1975. Due to displacement and the resettlement necessitated by war and its aftermath, there has been a dramatic upheaval in all forms of traditional Hmong culture, in Laos and the diaspora. Urban Hmong everywhere assimilate to a different life that is based on wage labor, not self-suficient agriculture. This leaves little time to produce the labor-intensive paj tnaub garments, although stylistically Hmong festival dress remains quite similar to traditional forms, now with less handwork, more machine production, and synthetic materials. The traditional design motifs as a shared visual language are almost lost, as is a cosmology in which nature was the connection to deeply held beliefs in ancestors and animist spirits. But of course the Hmong have never been part of a ixed cultural tableau. Culture changes. Young Hmong designers presented a fashion show in St. Paul, Minnesota, in November 2010 that had a requirement that one outit be inspired by traditional designs, but Hmong elders would not recognize (or possibly approve of) the majority of the garments. The markets in Phonsavan, Laos, and St. Paul, Minnesota, now sell the same polyester pleated skirts from China for Hmong New Year’s and weddings; only the wealthy can afford a hemp skirt. No longer is Hmong identity instantly recognizable in everyday life; most Hmong have adopted Western-style garments or the sarong skirt in Laos for daily use. Paj ntaub production is no longer a pervasive feature of Hmong life, and traditional dress is reserved for special occasions even in most villages. However, in the attempt to ind new forms of meaning when connection with old ways are broken, the psycho-material value of an artistic language stitched in cloth may regenerate a feeling of Hmongness and ease the pain of integration and change.

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Market in Phonsavan, Laos, 2009. The cross-stitch on garments is done by hand, but most borders and trims are machine-made. A traditional hand-stitched baby carrier is in the upper right. (Courtesy Geraldine Craig)

Further Reading and Resources Cohen, Erik. The Commercialized Crafts of Thailand: Hill Tribes and Lowland Villages. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000. Cooper, Robert. The Hmong: A Guide to Traditional Life. Vientiane: Lao-Insight Books, 2008. Dewhurst, C. Kurt, and Marsha Macdowell, eds. Michigan: Hmong Arts. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, 1984. Hmong Art: Tradition and Change. Sheboygan, WI: John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 1985. Hmong Studies Internet Center. www.hmongstudies.org. Mallinson, Jane, Nancy Donnelly, and Ly Hang. Hmong Batik: A Textile Technique from Laos. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996. Symonds, Patricia V. Calling in the Soul: Gender and the Cycle of Life in a Hmong Village. Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 2004. Yang, Dao. “Hmong Refugees from Laos: The Challenges of Social Change.” In Nicholas Tapp, Jean Michaud, Christian Culas, Gary Yia Lee, eds. Hmong/Miao in Asia. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 2004.

Lebanon and Syria John A. Shoup

Historical Background Lebanon and Syria form most of the Levant in the eastern Mediterranean, which has a long history stretching back to the Neolithic period some 8,000 years BCE. Syria has the two oldest continually inhabited cities in the world, Damascus and Aleppo; both proudly claim the distinction of being the oldest cities in existence. Syria and Lebanon were occupied alternately by a number of different powerful peoples at different times in their ancient histories including the Hittites, Hurrians, Egyptians, Romans, and Palmyrans. In the Byzantine era, in 306 CE Constantine became emperor and Syria was one of the most important provinces in the eastern Roman Empire. In 330 Constantine dedicated his new capital on the site of ancient Byzantium as Nova Roma, but it would become known as Constantinople or the city of Constantine. Although Constantine did not convert to Christianity until on his deathbed, his mother Helena became a devout Christian (later St. Helena) and made a pilgrimage to Palestine in 326 to identify most of the places mentioned in the New Testament, and her identiication has remained to this day. In what is known as the Islamic period, while the great powers of Byzantium and Persia fought themselves to a standstill, events in Arabia began that set the history of the region to the present day. During the month of Ramadan in 610 the Makkan named Muhammad ibn ‘Abdallah was meditating and fasting in a cave outside of Makkah, and suddenly on the 27th night of the month the angel Gabriel came to him with the irst revelation of the Qur’an (Surah 96 al-‘Alaq). Islam grew rapidly and by 636 the Byzantine emperor Heraclius lost Syria for good to the Arabs and Islam. In northern Syria the Bedouin-based Hamdanid dynasty established itself in Aleppo in 944 and was able to rule much of northern Syria until 1003. The 10-year occupation by the Egyptians under Muhammad ‘Ali Pasha ushered in the modern period in Syrian history (ruled 1805–1848). Reforms, such as equality among all citizens of the empire, were not popular with all of the people and sparked a civil war among Muslims, Druze, and Christians in 1860. The civil war between Druze and Christians in Lebanon spilled over into Syria with Muslims 426

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and Christians ighting each other in Damascus. The rioting was swiftly put down by the Ottoman authorities, but the enmity between the Druze and the Maronite Christians of Lebanon festered until the civil war of 1975–1990. Arab provinces began awakening to their own history and literature, and Arab writers began to experiment with literary forms rather than simply imitate past styles. Ideas of nationalism began to penetrate into Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. Arab youth trained in institutions such as the Syrian Protestant College, founded by U.S. missionaries in 1866 (in 1920 it became the American University in Beirut), were instrumental in the growth of Arab nationalism. Arab nationalism grew and Syrians were among the most active. Various secret organizations were established that promoted Arab independence from the Turkish state, and contact was made with the sharif of Makkah, Hussein ibn ‘Ali, who was under house arrest in Istanbul, and his sons. In 1908 the Young Turks or the Committee for Union and Progress (CUP) overthrew the Ottoman sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid II and restored the constitution, limited the role of the sultan, and set up a new government that had a Turkish nationalist agenda. The Arab citizens did not feel the new government represented their interests, especially after new laws were passed that required all citizens to speak Turkish. The British encouraged Arab nationalists and in 1916 the Arabs under Sharif Hussein declared the Arab Revolt against the Turks. Arab soldiers in the Turkish forces were encouraged to defect, but British defeats at Gallipoli in 1915 and in Iraq in 1917 did not encourage the Arabs. The Arab forces were defeated outside of Madinah in 1916. In 1917 the Arab army took the strategic port of ‘Aqabah in modern Jordan and opened up the way to Damascus. In a strategy of guerilla war tactics, the lightly armed Arab army was able to strike fast and strike again miles apart. They constantly cut Turkish supply lines, and in the spring of 1918 the British forces and the Arab army launched two successful attacks on the Turkish forces in Syria. The Arab nationalists tried to set up an independent Arab government under Faysal, one of Sharif Hussein’s sons; however, the British and the French had already signed an agreement in 1915 to split the former Ottoman Empire between them. Syria under the French was in constant political turmoil. The French sought a policy of divide and rule and tried unsuccessfully to exploit the regional rivalries and religious communities in the country. In 1925 the Syrians rose in rebellion. The revolt was not put down until 1927. The result of the rebellion was, in part, a victory for the nationalists. They forced the French to agree to rejoin the country into a single entity and to allow for a parliament to be elected. The French agreed to that in 1936; however, in 1940 (in World War II) France fell to the Germans and the large French colonial empire was left for the pro-German Vichy government to control. Lebanon and Syria were surrounded on three sides by the British

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress in Palestine, Jordan, and Iraq, and in 1941 the British moved in and defeated the Vichy forces. Syria declared itself an independent republic in the same year, but it was not recognized by the Free French as such until 1944, when the British forced the Free French to give up their claim and evacuate their forces. Syria was a founding member of the Arab League in 1945 and of the United Nations also in 1945. Syria was unstable during the irst decades of independence, and Lebanon’s government remained weak, allowing regional powers inside the country to arm. Syria uniied with Egypt in 1958 and formed the United Arab Republic. Egypt, with its larger population, dominated the government and the military, which caused popular opinion in Syria to swing against the unity. In 1961 the Syrian army rebelled and withdrew the country from the unity with Egypt. Syria did not emerge as politically stable. Political direction was provided by the Ba‘ath Party, which emerged with the 1963 coup that brought to power Amin al-Haiz as president. In 1975, Lebanon descended into a bloody civil war between politically conservative pro-Western Maronites and Arab nationalists who were mainly Muslim and Druze. The presence of Palestinian refugees and the growing power of the Palestine Liberation Movement in the Palestinian refugee camps heightened the tensions. Various private militias in Lebanon belonged to different political parties and the situation reached a breaking point in 1975 with the Lebanese thoroughly divided. By 1976 the Syrian presence in Lebanon was recognized by the Arab League and Syria became a major power broker in Lebanon till its inal withdrawal in 2005. The Lebanese civil war dragged on for 15 years with much switching of sides and alliances. It was hard to know where a particular militia stood vis-à-vis others on a daily basis. By the end of the war, the most underrepresented portion of the Lebanese population, the Shi‘ites, emerged as one of the strongest militias, irst al-Amal and then the even more powerful Hezbollah, particularly after the Israeli invasion and U.S. intervention of 1982, both of which the Shi‘ites claimed to have defeated. Lebanon has been able to emerge from its civil war, but the issues of sectarianism and Palestinian refugees have not been settled. In Syria, the regime of Haiz al-Asad survived his death in 2000 and he was succeeded by his son Bashar. Bashar al-Asad began by promising a number of political reforms, but the Ba‘ath Party’s old guard prevented these from coming to fruition. Syria’s economy was opened up and participation with the allies in the 1990–1991 Gulf War helped end much of its political isolation. Syrian involvement in Lebanese politics resulted in international condemnation for the assassination of Lebanese prime minister Raiq Hariri in 2005. Although Syrian involvement was never proven, deep suspicions have not been cleared away. Bashar al-Asad’s government faces a more important challenge from internal forces who want an end to the regime. Violent ighting has continued since March 2011, with the UN Human

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Rights Council estimating that more than 9,000 people had been killed between March 2011 and March 2012 (Central Intelligence Agency, 2012).

Geography of Lebanon and Syria Syria and Lebanon are the largest (in area) countries bordering the area of the eastern Mediterranean (with Israel south of them). The population of Syria was estimated to be 22,530,750 in 2012. Lebanon’s population was 4,140,289. The climate is typically wet, with cold winters and dry, hot summers. Most of Lebanon is mountainous, made up of the Jabal Lubnan or Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon or Jabal al-Sharqiyah Mountains. The mountains of Jabal Lubnan, Jabal al-Nasiriyah, and Jabal al-Shaykh receive over 39 inches of rainfall a year while only 38 miles further inland yearly rainfall drops to 10 inches in Damascus. The Great Rift system of valleys starts in southern Turkey, runs south through Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan, and exits Asia at the Gulf of ‘Aqabah, then turns south in the Red Sea, comes inland again in Ethiopia, runs along the Lakes region of eastern Africa, and exits again into the Indian Ocean. The whole system is characterized by volcanism and earthquakes. The most fertile areas of Syria and Lebanon are part of the river systems that drain the highlands of the Rift and include the Ghab along the Orontes or ‘Assi River in Syria and the Baqa‘a valley in Lebanon. To the east lies the next major feature in the area, a wide fertile plain that is around 62 miles (100 km) wide in the north, near Aleppo, but narrows as it extends south until it merges with the desert. The region has long been incorporated into nomads’ migrations where in the summer herds and locks are allowed to graze in the stubble ields in exchange for the fertilizer the animals leave behind. Farther to east is the desert of Badiyat al-Sham, the Syrian Desert that extends into Iraq and Saudi Arabia where the Nafud Desert marks the end of Syria and the start of the Arabian Peninsula. There are several important oases in the Syrian Desert. The Euphrates forms the northern border of the Syrian Desert and the region between the two major rivers is one of the most fertile areas. A number of dams on tributaries and on the Euphrates are used for massive agricultural schemes for increased wheat and cotton production. The other major waterway is the Tigris, which brushes briely along Syria’s northeastern border with Turkey and Iraq.

Clothing in Syria and Lebanon Lebanon and Syria have long traditions of sophisticated urban populations open to changes in fashion as well as ethnic and religious communities who wore (and still wear) distinctive styles of clothes as a means of identity. In addition, the clothing traditions are broken into two major categories of urban and rural with numerous

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress variations within each. Syria has a long history of making a number of high-cost fabrics in silk and silk blend that have been used to make both men’s and women’s clothes. Therefore, clothing traditions maintain high taste in what they are made from and relect the urbane tastes of the people.

Syria: Women’s Clothes The wearers of traditional women’s clothes in Syria fall into three major divisions: women from large urban areas such as Damascus, Homs, Hamma, and Aleppo; women from rural villages; and women from the Bedouin tribes of the Syrian Desert. Each of these groups of women wore and still today wear different types of fashion with Bedouin women being the least affected by larger trends in women’s fashion. In addition to the clothes, in many countries such as Syria, jewelry is an integral part of women’s fashion and can be an important part of regional costumes. Urban women’s fashion in Syria has always been part of the larger, even global fashion scene. Urban women of more recent historic times wore the same sorts of clothes associated with the Turkish ruling elite in Istanbul, and by the early 20th century, Western fashions were well known in the large cities. The main market street in Damascus called al-Suq al-Hamidiyah was rebuilt and reorganized in the 19th century to display mainly “modern” clothing and imported cloth (Keenan, 2000, p. 185). More traditional clothes were sold in nearby markets such as Midhat Pasha and al-Suq al-Jumrukiyah. Today, al-Suq al-Jumrukiyah sells mainly women’s undergarments and baby clothes imported from East Asia. Urban women wear traditional clothes for special occasions and these include long dresses and button-down coats made in Damascus silk brocades, silk, or cotton and linen blends. Damascus brocades are world famous. Queen Elizabeth II of England’s coronation dress was made of specially ordered Damascus brocade with a bird motif. In 2010, the maker still had a small amount of the cloth for sale although nothing large enough to make even a shirt. Damascus brocade is available in a number of color combinations from the simplest three-up to the very hard to make seven-color thread, which have very complex designs. Unfortunately, the number of skilled craftsmen is dying out and may today number no more than three in the whole country. Other types of silk or silk blend used for outer coats are atlas and hermesy made in narrow strips of red, green, and yellow silk or ghabani, colored cotton cloth with chain stitching in geometric or loral patterns. Atlas refers to a yellow and red striped fabric made in Damascus and exported throughout the region, used in men’s and women’s clothing. The word atlas means “shiny” in Arabic and today the term is used to describe a number of shiny fabrics including silk, synthetic silk, and cotton. Ghabani, sometimes called aghabani, is made

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of cotton with chain-stitch embroidery in gold or yellow. It was, and still is, made into long strips used in men’s turbans or for belts, women’s scarves, or for tablecloths. Today, it is rarely used for dresses. Hermesy is a silk, like atlas, made of green, yellow, and red stripes and is still popular today in the region for both men’s and women’s clothes. Urban women wore large belts in silver or white metal decorated with red or blue glass or agate insets. Frequently the belt’s buckle was large, shaped in the boteh (paisley) design with metal chains ending in crescent moons or small silver coins hanging from the bottom of the belt. They were inset in colored glass, agate, or even turquoise and pearl beads for weddings or other special occasions (Kalter, 1992). For urban women, these were in imitation of Ottoman fashions from Anatolia. Urban women wore a large, black outer cloak when leaving the house that fully covered them. In addition, women, even many Christian women, covered their face with a black gauze material (called a burq‘ah) that allowed the woman to see but did not give others a clear view of her face. The gauze material was ixed to the main outer garment just above the forehead; when it was lifted, the entire face was visible. Women usually wore a headscarf even while at home but let it fall off when there were no men about. The headscarf could be quickly brought up over the head when needed. The scarves were made of a number of different textiles, some with long fringes and embroidered with red, yellow, green, and blue geometrics or loral designs, often embroidered by the women themselves, although it was possible to buy ones already embroidered. Urban women did not tend to wear the gauze shambar that covered the head, neck, and shoulders, but both village and Bedouin women did and many still wear it today. As part of their clothes, urban women wore gold or silver necklaces, bracelets and bangles, rings, earrings, and head disks. These were as much for other women to see and notice as for their husbands, and the forearm covered in gold bangles was an indication of how much a woman’s husband loved her. In addition, many urban women wore wooden clogs called qubqab while in the house or at the hammam or public bath house. Wealthier women wore qubqab decorated with inlaid mother of pearl and silver wire. The strap that she put her toes through and that held the shoe was frequently made of silk or velvet with gold or silver metal thread embroidery. Village women were less in contact with the Turkish ruling elite and their costumes did not change until the 20th century during the French mandate (1920–1945). Syria’s villages have maintained traditions in ine embroidery particularly in the north and in the oasis of al-Sukhnah, located between Tadmur and the Euphrates River. Other towns and villages famous for embroidery are Khan Shaykhun, Ma‘arat al-Nu‘man, and Saraqib. Women from the far northern region near Qala‘at Saman

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and Kafr Tasharim, close to the Turkish province of Hatay, embroidered and lined their outer coats with appliqué in atlas silk like women in Galilee (see the entry on Palestine and Jordan). Best known to collectors today are the dresses and coats from Mhardah and Saraqib (Rajab, 1989). Most women prefer to use black cotton or a cotton and linen blend for the body of the dress and use mostly reds for the embroidery with highlights in yellow, white, green, and blue silk loss. Saraqib, Khan Shaykhun, and Ma‘arat al-Nu‘man are distinguishable by the color combinations used, but generally women use similar designs, some clearly based on jewelry worn in the past, on the upper body, both front and back. Side panels, Detail of the back of a dress, Syria. (Courtesy John A. Shoup) sleeves, and seams are also embroidered in varying degrees. Women from Saraqib produce not only for themselves, but more and more produce dresses for the tourist market. The oasis of al-Sukhnah is also famous for the embroidered items its women make. Unlike most Syrian villagers, the women from al-Sukhnah do not wear a long, single-piece dress (fustan or thob), but instead wear a long, wide skirt in black silk heavily embroidered in various shades of red. Under the skirt they wear long trousers or sirwal that are embroidered in red from hip to ankle. Over the skirt and shirt, the women wear a black, equally heavily embroidered coat; side, front, and back panels are fully embroidered mainly in reds. The main design used is called nakhlah or palm tree. Al-Sukhnah remains unique in Syria and the women make use of a wide range of individual designs—that is, the meanings are individual to the speciic woman. Marriage between al-Sukhnah and other nearby settlements has given rise to an expansion of where the designs are used. On the head, the women of these villages wear a black shambar or milfa’ held in place with a headband or ‘asbah of loral cotton prints or, for special occasions, silk prints from Aleppo. Other village communities have developed other styles such as those along the mountainous spine of western Syria where women have developed dresses that reach to above the ankle and wear trousers that form it around the lower leg

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that are either heavily embroidered or lare out at the bottom. The trousers are often made in bright red, pink, green, yellow, or white, which shows the embroidery. The dresses may have minimal embroidery on them and may instead use rickrack strips or cloth appliqué. Where much of the embroidery may be found is on long sleeves that can be attached or detached with minimal effort to make an ordinary dress one for a special occasion. In Damascus and Aleppo today it is possible to buy these special sleeves separately from the dresses. The designs include a wide selection of small, tightly made lowers, trees of life, and so on using a number of different types of stitch from cross-stitch to chain, couched, satin, herringbone, and buttonhole stitch. The long sleeves can be tied behind the wearer when she needs to keep them out of the way and kept clean, or can be allowed to swing when she is dancing. Over the dress, women wore and still wear short jackets of atlas or hermesy silk or plain cotton with minimal embroidery or cloth appliqué. Women in and around the towns of Hama, Homs, and Damascus are adept in making tie-dye cloth in what is called plangi. They use mainly dots and circle designs and make dresses with matching scarves in red, blue, black, and green cloth. The designs are similar to the embroidery also still found in the region, but tie-dyeing is easier and quicker. Druze women wear distinctive clothing in order to distinguish themselves from their Muslim and Christian neighbors. They tend to wear a long, full skirt in plain black cotton or a brocade or velvet dress with the front open nearly to the waist. They wear a white or black shirt and a plain white headscarf. If wearing the dress, they stuff the sides of the headscarf down inside the dress. On their heads they wear a short tarbush frequently covered in gold thread with a metal disk on top or the tall metal piece called a tantur as do Lebanese women. In the past, the tantur was worn by recently married women to mark her change of status. The tantur is a tall cone with two long side pieces that is ixed to the head by a cloth headband of silk or silk brocade. Over it is placed a long cloth that reaches about midway down the back. The tantur’s origin is unknown, but as a piece of women’s costume it is shared with the Mongols of the 13th century, and it may have inluenced women’s hats of Europe’s high Middle Ages. Bedouin women in Syria include styles from Jordan, Iraq, and northern Saudi Arabia, areas where Syria’s Bedouin traditionally traveled in their yearly migrations. Though few Bedouin make these long treks with their livestock today, nonetheless they remain in contact with Bedouin from these and other countries in the region that inluences their clothes as well as other aspects of their lives. Syria’s Bedouin women, like Bedouin women in Jordan, used to wear the massive thob ‘ob or folding dress. The dress, around 3 meters (approximately 9 feet) in length, was belted and then pulled up through the belt and allowed to fall in folds back

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress down to the ground. It had equally massive sleeves that were long and pointed. One was folded up over the woman’s head and held in place by a cloth headband. The other was tied behind the back to allow the woman’s arms and hands to be free to work. The dress had minimum embroidery, mainly along the seams to enforce places where the dress could tear. Over the dress, women wore short jackets in atlas and hermesy silk similar to those worn by village women. Syrian Bedouin women frequently wear a long outer coat called a sayah, sabunah, or durra‘ah made of dark cloth decorated in metallic threads down the front, around the collar, and around the hem. These are usually purchased in the markets in towns such as Dayr al-Zawr, Aleppo, Homs, and Damascus, and today many are made from imported Chinese cloth. They are worn so that the woman places her arms through the sleeves, which it tight around her wrists. The coat is cut so that the sides are open and allow the woman better freedom of movement; it can be folded up and tied to carry things purchased in the market, children, and even bundles of irewood. When not being used to carry items, the coats are elegant as they low with the woman’s walk. Under the coat, women wear a simple black cotton dress with minimal embroidery or colorful cotton print. In keeping with the older styles of clothes, they often have short sleeves that are tied behind the woman’s back. Her arms are protected by a shirt she wears under the dress. Bedouin women in southern Syria and northern Jordan wear a distinctive headpiece that is a large piece of jewelry called the ‘arjah. The ‘arjah is both a headpiece and a piece of dorsal jewelry (Rajab, 1989). It has a headband of ine metal chain decorated with a row of beadwork and gold or silver coins along the bottom. In order to help hold it in place, another metal chain is attached to the middle of the headpiece and is brought up over the head and attached to the back. Where the two pieces are joined, a long, wide strip of folded cloth is attached that runs down the back of the wearer to end below the waist. This is then decorated with silver coins, usually Maria Theresa thallers (locally called Abu Rish for the eagle on one side of the coin) and/or Ottoman silver pieces, and ending in a large silver amulet (called a maskah) and large silk tassels. ‘Arjah are still worn on special occasions but are becoming collector’s items due to their rarity and high cost. The ‘arjah and other headbands hold in place a light, gauze-like cloth called a shambar or milfa’ that covers the hair, neck, and shoulders of the wearer. Today these are usually plain pieces of black material, but in the past and for special occasions today, women wear more decorated ones with a wide strip of embroidery in red along the bottom. Many Syrian and northern Jordanian Bedouin women wear a large, expensive piece of brocade cloth folded over and over and then wrapped like a turban around the head. This cloth is made in Homs or Aleppo and is usually called a kasrawaniyah or humsiyah (Bouilloc et al., 2009). They are

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generally red, green, blue, or black in color and the lancé or brocade designs are made in gold metallic thread. They have always been expensive and today, like many other such items, they are quickly becoming collectors’ items. In northern Syria Bedouin and Kurdish women still tie colorful silk scarves made in Aleppo as their headbands. These scarves are made in a lime resist–dying process where the cloth is treated irst with a lime solution, stamped, washed, and restamped in color. Aleppo remains the only place where the process is done, but today fake silk is often sold to unsuspecting tourists as real silk. However, it is easy to see the difference between the two as the silk remains soft and the whole scarf can be easily pulled through a inger ring. The makers today use a number of designs and invent new ones as well as using older, more traditional ones (Kalter, 1992). In Syria, Bedouin women tie their headbands into tall cone shapes, much taller than is worn in Jordan or Iraq.

Syria: Men’s Clothes Syrian men’s clothes are less varied and have been more open to Ottoman and European fashions. With the exception of Bedouin and some rural men, most men today have abandoned traditional fashion in place of Western shirts and jeans. Urban men began wearing Ottoman-inluenced clothes in the 19th century when Western-styled threepiece suits and the tarbush replaced more traditional forms of dress as part of the Tanzimat movement; the tarbush irst appeared in the 1826 reform to Ottoman military uniforms. The more traditional format worn by urban and village men included Turkish pants or sirwal, a wide Kashmir or silk sash around the waist, a waistcoat or short jacket made of atlas or hermesy silk, and a silk or cotton shirt. Men wore turbans of various materials, the cost of the cloth being a means to demonstrate socioeconomic class. In the 19th century British cotton and cotton-wool blends entered the market Man with water pipe, Aleppo, Syria, 1995. competing with Syrian-made cloth, (Tibor Bognar/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and many men switched to having their trousers made from British cloth. Generally men in Syria wore high leather boots or a leather slipper when going outside. Some men wore wooden clogs or qubqab in the house or at the public bath house. Men’s qubqab are simple affairs of a plain wooden sole with a leather strap over the foot to hold it in place. Some ethnic or religious groups developed speciic dress to set them off from others, such as the Kurds and the Druze. Kurdish men wear plain-colored cotton clothes, usually in browns or blacks, that consist of trousers that are lared from waist to ankle. They wear a black and white striped or a plain white shirt and a short jacket in the same plain cloth as the trousers. On their heads Kurdish men wear a black and white checkered kufiyah or headcloth that is decorated with long, thin, straight tassels. They tie the cloth into a turban, allowing the tassels to fall down around the turban. Druze men dress in black and white. They wear Turkish trousers in black, a white shirt, a black cloth sash belt, and a short black jacket. On their head they wear a pure white kufiyah with no headband or over a short tarbush. Bedouin men have retained more of their traditional clothes, which consist of a long, ankle-length shirt under which are trousers. Bedouin trousers are simple and straight legged, made usually of white cotton cloth. The long shirt is called a thawb or dishdashah, and today many have button-down collars and fronts to midway between the neck and the waist. The dishdashah is made of different weights of cloth with heavy dark-colored cloth for the winter and lighter ones for the summer. Frequently dishdashahs are purchased from urban clothing merchants, and the amount of money that can be spent by the customer can allow some of them to be heavily embroidered around the neck and collar, and down the line of buttons. Bedouin men wear a kufiyah on their head held in place by an ‘aqal. These items are rarely made by the man’s wife today, but are purchased in shops in towns and urban centers. The quality of the kufiyah is an important indicator of wealth, and they run from fairly inexpensive cotton to very expensive silk and cotton blends. The best are still made in Syria with Aleppo being a major supplier while Japanese and Korean models are highly competitive. Syrian Bedouin prefer the thinner type of ‘aqal made in Aleppo and Damascus that end in a single long braid down the back of the wearer. These often end in a design such as a star and crescent in twisted and braided black goat hair. The Syrian style is placed directly on the crown of the head and is small enough not to be able to reach to the sides as the Jordanian ones do. Bedouin men wear a large overcoat or cloak of inely woven camel hair called a bisht (Dickson, 1983). The bisht is trimmed in gold, silver, or colored cotton thread and, though there are sleeves and hand openings, it is usually worn draped over the shoulders. They come in a number of colors, black, brown, tan, and the like, and there are two main weights, a

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light, see-through one for the summer and a dark, heavy one for the winter. Both Damascus and Aleppo are major suppliers of the inished product not only for Syria, but for the Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. In winter, Bedouin men still wear a large coat lined with a sheep’s pelt called a farwa. The term farwa means a pelt of fur in Arabic and the coat takes its name from the pelt used to make it. The outside is often highly decorated with couched stitch embroidery or with rickrack appliqué. It is possible to buy the coat without the pelt and have it lined with your own sheep’s pelt. In recent years it is possible to buy ones made with synthetic wool.

Lebanon: Women’s Clothes Lebanon, like Syria, was heavily inluenced by the Ottoman reform movement and the importation of Western fashions. The urban elite abandoned more traditional fashions early on and even during holidays, they rarely wear traditional clothing. Initially styles from Istanbul were commonly a three-piece suit for men in dark colors and a tarbush. These were quickly replaced with more European fashions following the end of WWI, leaving only rural people wearing traditional clothes. In recent years, somewhat fanciful dress has appeared in dance troupes, relecting a more general version of Arab clothes than a Lebanese one. Lebanese women wore clothes similar to their village and urban sisters in Syria. In 1920, the French established Greater Lebanon and joined several regions of Syria to the country. Therefore, dress between the two countries was hard to differentiate. Women tended to wear clothes similar to those of villages and towns in nearby Syria. Dresses were long, though not always down to the ankles. Long trousers were worn underneath that tightened around the lower legs and ankles and were heavily embroidered or lared open along the bottom hem with lace. Women wore large, often white head veils, and many village women, Christian, Muslim, or Druze, wore the tall tantur. The tantur was adopted in the 1950s as part of Lebanese national dress and today is recognized as such throughout the Arab world. The tantur is a tall, conical piece of metal that often has two long side pieces that it tightly to the side of the head to help hold it in place. The metal center can be heavily worked in designs or have red glass, cornelian, and turquoise inlays. It is then wrapped in a turban of colorful silk cloth bound tightly and sometimes with rows of gold or silver coins along the forehead of the wearer. Over the top of the tantur a large piece of white cloth or striped silk is suspended that hangs down to at least the middle of the back if not longer. There is no real knowledge about the origin of this headpiece, though Mongol women as far back as the 13th century wore them (Rajab, 1989). Some speculate that the hennin of medieval European women was borrowed after contact with the Middle

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress East during the Crusades (Rajab, 1989). If not wearing a tantur, women wore a head veil that was not usually as decorated with embroidery as those worn by Palestinian women. Nonetheless, cultural conventions of modesty were followed by Christians, Muslims, and Druze, meaning the hair, neck, and shoulders were generally covered.

Lebanon: Men’s Clothes

Man from Lebanon in traditional dress, c. 1873. (Library of Congress)

Lebanese men’s dress used to be very similar to that of villagers in Syria. Men wore dark, often black, baggy Turkish trousers with a wide cloth sash belt in atlas or hermesy silk. Men wore a shirt often of striped white and black silk and a tight-itting short vest or jacket heavily embroidered in gold metal thread. Some of the jackets had extra wide shoulders with open sleeves with large slits, left unbuttoned at the wrist. In the most exaggerated form worn by the dragoman or tarjuman (translators for the foreign embassies) in the 19th century, there was a good deal of colorful silk used for nearly every piece of attire. Unlike villagers in Syria or Palestine, Lebanese men wore a tall, brown felt hat that came to a rounded top similar to a tarbush. This hat was then wrapped around the bottom with a white piece of cloth or with ghabani and tied in a knot on the side, leaving the ends loose. This felt hat was adopted as part of Lebanese national dress by the state when it started the process of establishing a national dress as well as national food, music, and dance in the 1950s. Starting in the early 20th century this hat began more and more to be replaced with a kufiyah, with a

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plain white one being the most common. Some Druze preferred black kufiyah that it with their general use of black for trousers, shirt, and jackets. Very few Lebanese men wore the bisht, but it was part of the dress for even urban elite males when visiting rural estates. The bisht, being made in Damascus, was often very costly, made in the inest of camel hair and trimmed in gold thread.

References Bouilloc, Christine, Arnaud Maurrières, and Marie-Bénédicte Seynhaeve. Tapis et Textiles du Maroc à la Syrie: Tissage ruraux de la’Afrique du nord et du ProcheOrient. Paris: Hachette Livres/Le Chêne, 2009. Central Intelligence Agency. CIA World Factbook: Syria. 2012. https://www.cia .gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sy.html. Dickson, H. R. P. The Arab of the Desert. Ed. and abridged by Robert Wilson and Zahra Freeth. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983. Jabbur, Jibrail. The Bedouins of the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East. Trans. and ed. by Lawrence Conrad. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. Kalter, Johannes. The Arts and Crafts of Syria. London: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Keenan, Bridgid. Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City. London: Thames and Hudson, 2000. Rajab, Jehan. Palestinian Costume. London: Kegan Paul International, 1989. Shoup, John. Culture and Customs of Syria. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2008. Weir, Shelagh. The Bedouin. London: British Museum Publications, 1990. Weir, Shelagh, and Serene Shahid. Palestinian Embroidery. London: British Museum Publications, 1988.

Libya John A. Shoup

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any North African communities have maintained cultural ties with those of the historical past and perhaps nowhere as much as in Libya. Much of the clothing worn in Libya connects to similar pieces from the past from Greek, Roman, Berber, or Arab origins. Libya, although mainly Arab today, has Berber/ Imazighin, Tuareg (who are also Berbers), and Tebu (also called Tubu) populations with their own cultural heritage.

Historical Background Libya’s history begins in the Sahara during the Neolithic period where cattle were domesticated and where a vibrant culture developed. The ancestors of the Berbers migrated into North Africa during the Neolithic period and may have inluenced aspects of early ancient Egyptian life. In the west, Tripoli came under the control of the Berber Numidian kings and remained so until the defeat of the Berbers by the Romans. The Emperor Justinian (ruled 527–565) brought an end to the Vandal kingdom in Tunisia. The Byzantines found it impossible to revive the ruined cities and the old imperial institutions. In the seventh century CE, their kingdom collapsed and the pastoral nomads moved in to take control.

Islam In 642, Arab cavalry from Egypt crossed the border into Cyrenaica and the region fell to the Arabs. In 663, the great Arab general ‘Uqbah ibn Nai‘ conquered Fezzan for Islam. The Coptic Christians of Cyrenaica saw the Arabs as gentler occupiers than the Byzantines who had persecuted them. The Arabs were fellow Semitic peoples with a similar language. The pastoral nomadic Berbers of the interior accepted Islam quickly, but did not accept Arab domination; but unlike in Tunisia and Algeria, they did not rise in revolt.

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The Ottomans conquered Tripoli in 1551, effectively separating Tripoli from control of Tunis and making it one of the inest cities in the Mediterranean. There was a pattern of military coups until 1711, when Ahmad Karamanli took power. Libya later became the object of the European scramble for Africa and the Berlin Conference (also called the Congo Conference) in 1884 where European powers agreed who would take what parts of Africa. Neither France nor Great Britain wanted Libya and allowed Italy to invade and begin its long conquest of Libya. The Ottoman era ended when Italy invaded with the blessing of France and Britain. Resistance to the Italians was greatest among the Bedouin in the region of Cyrenaica where the Sanusiyah Sui brotherhood was strong. The Italians were forced to ight the Bedouin, who were hard to defeat. A concerted effort was made after World War I when Italy fell to the Fascist government of Mussolini, who sent one of his toughest generals (Rudolfo Graziani) to Libya to bring an end to the costly war with the Libyans. Graziani used concentration camps where he placed as many of the Bedouin as he could ind. Between 1928 and 1932, it has been estimated, the Italians killed or caused the deaths of over half of all the Bedouin of Cyrenaica. In 1935, the Italians were inally able to crush the Bedouin in Libya. The areas taken from the Italians were administered by the British and the French until an independent government could be formed after the war ended. In 1951 Libya became a constitutional hereditary monarchy with a national parliament. In 1959 oil was discovered in Libya, changing one of the world’s poorest countries to one of the richest. However, misuse of the oil revenues caused resentment to begin to build. In 1969, Mu‘ammar al-Qaddai, from an unimportant tribe near Sirte in the middle of the country (between Tripoli and Cyrenaica), instigated a coup and overthrew the king, who withdrew to Egypt where he lived out his days and died in 1983 at the age of 94. At irst Qaddai was a popular leader, but he had no real political agenda until several years after the revolution. In much of Africa, Qaddai was seen as a hero and one of the few leaders that could be counted on for needed inancing. In Libya, he began to favor groups such as the Teda from the south, but actively persecuted Libya’s Berbers, concentrated in the Jabal Nafusah, who joined the revolution against him in the spring of 2011. In 2008 he declared himself to be the “King of Kings of Africa” and dressed lamboyantly in African fashion, not Arab clothes. His cruelty was known from several coup attempts where in retribution large numbers of people were killed. The Libyan people could no longer tolerate him in 2011 and followed the lead of Tunisia and Egypt, who had toppled their leaders in popular uprisings. Within months the rebels had toppled Qaddai and killed him. Libya began a new post-Qaddai era in October 2011 with the establishment of the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress new government under ‘Ali Tarhuni to organize elections and a new constitution. The population of Libya in 2012 was estimated at 6,733,600.

Geographical Background Libya is mostly desert with only a few areas with enough natural rainfall to support agriculture. Most of the country’s rain falls on the Jabal al-Akhdar or Green Mountains in Cyrenaica. The mountains rise to a height of 500 meters (1,600 feet) and have natural stands of forest. Other parts of Libya can have no rainfall for decades and when it does occur it can be devastating downpours. In addition to the Jabal al-Akhdar, Libya has several other highlands and mountain ranges, but most of these are too far inland to catch the winter rains common to the Mediterranean region. South of Tripoli is the Jabal Nafusah range, which is part of the Jafarah Plateau that separates the coastal plains and the interior. The mountains rise to around 750 meters (2,460 feet) in height but are not able to catch much moisture, being too far south of the Mediterranean rain shadow, but farmers are able to raise small stock, such as goats, and cultivate olives. Other highlands include the Jabal Akakus, a spur of the Tassili N’Ajjer along the Saharan border with Algeria. Most of the Tassili is inside Algeria, but the Akakus north of the oasis of Ghat is in Libya and like other Saharan mountain ranges has important collections of Neolithic rock art. Along Libya’s southern border with Niger are the Air Mountains and along the border with Chad are the Tibesti Mountains, home of the Tubu or Teda peoples. Near the southeastern border with Egypt and Sudan is Jabal ‘Uwaynat that rises to a height of 1,934 meters (6,345 feet), the highest in the eastern Sahara. Libya also has several large oases in the Sahara that have supported populations for centuries. Jaghbub near the border with Egypt is part of the same series of depressions that also forms the Siwa oasis. Kufrah in the deep south of the country is an important place for agriculture and trade with Sudan and Chad in the past. Ghadames, just inside the Libyan border at the southern tip of Tunisia, served as a major stop in the caravan trade from Tripoli south to central Africa. Most of the rest of Libya is Sahara and includes some of the most impressive sand dunes in the Great Sand Sea along the border with Egypt and the Ramlat Rabyanah north of Kufrah.

People and Dress Men’s Dress Libyan men’s clothes tend to be similar no matter where the person is from and consist of a long white shirt or qamis or jilbab, long (usually straight legged)

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trousers or sirwal that end at the ankles, and over the shirt a vest or short coat or sidriyah, often in black and heavily embroidered in black silk or cotton thread. The front of the vest or coat has embroidered buttons and loops. Libyan men wear the closeitting headwear called the chechia or shashiyah, like the ones made in Tunis, although Libyan men usually do not wear the long tassel or qubbitah common in Tunisia. The hat is red or black felt. Tripolitanian men prefer black shashiyah to help distinguish them from Tunisians where red is the preferred color. In Cyrenaica, red is worn as often as black. Libyan men also wear a tight-itting knitted or crocheted cap called a taqiyah Elderly Libyan man wearing a ksa and a black shashiyah, near the Tunisian village of Dehiba, underneath, which they keep on when 2011. (AP Photo/Pier Paolo Cito) inside. For outdoors, the shashiyah is worn over it. The taqiyah can also be made of white cotton cloth with white cotton thread embroidery around the sides and on the top. Men feel comfortable wearing the taqiyah when they go to pray, and it serves a similar purpose as the Jewish yarmulke (yamaka) or kippa. Some Libyan men wear a cloth similar to the kufiyah as well, and in recent years, kufiyahs from Syria and Egypt have become available in Libya. The main piece of men’s clothing in Libya is a large outer cloak called a ksa made of cotton, wool, or blend of both that is wrapped around similar to the Roman toga. In Libya, it has ties that can be joined together at the right shoulder and the remainder of the cloth is brought around, behind the wearer, up over the head, and folded over the left shoulder leaving both arms and hands free. The cloak is belted in place once the folding is set. The belts worn by Libyan men tend to be in leather, although some are of woven or plaited wool. The cloak is expansive enough to allow mounting and riding a horse without problems. Libyan men tend to wear soft leather boots with stiff soles and a heel because men, particularly in Cyrenaica, ride horses. The heel is needed for the stirrup. If not wearing boots, men wear leather sandals or slippers. Fezzan men wear sandals more often while the more urban Tripolitanian men wear slippers similar to their Tunisian neighbors.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress During the winter months, men in Tripolitania used to wear jallabahs made of rather rough-spun wool. The jallabahs were similar to those made and worn in southern Tunisia, but were generally natural, off-white (wool) and black (wool or goat hair) in thin stripes running down the length of the garment. The hoods were large and the piece was sewn together down the front and pulled on over the head. The sleeves were wide, and the garment reached to just above the knees. The jallabah was worn as an outer coat over everything else.

Women’s Dress Women in the major cities tended to wear an all-covering modesty garment called a haik or safsari that allows them freedom of movement without being seen by strangers. However, in Libya, where many are of Bedouin origin, women have needed greater freedom of movement because they work with their hands. Libyan women like to wear colorful clothes and choose shiny cloth with bright colors and designs. The cloth is used to make a dress by attaching large silver brooches at the shoulders called khilalah in Arabic and tizerzai in Berber. The dress is belted at the waist and a second piece of fabric is wrapped around as the modesty garment. Sometimes, the brooches also attach a shoulder drape or kitiyah that helps to cover the shoulders and neck of the wearer. In addition, women in the rural areas also covered their heads with a cloth, some of rather large size and many that are fairly heavy woven pieces similar to a rug. In the Jabal Nafusa area, the term for these is a tajirah and they are embroidered and embellished with colorful pom-poms in cotton thread. The tajirah are similar to the head veils worn in southern Tunisia and most likely are from the same Berber cultural origin. Women wear a headband called an ‘asabah of plain dark cotton or, in some cases, in dark tie-dyed cotton. The ‘asabah can be worn alone, used to hold in place a lighter piece of cloth that covers the woman’s hair and neck. A larger piece of cloth worn over everything else is called a bakhnuq msarrar or bakhnug, which can be embroidered and tie-dyed. For cut and sewn dresses, Libyan women used to follow the pattern common throughout the Arab world for rural dresses, being cut in a large “T” shape with long, wide sleeves and with a decorated chest panel. Libya women preferred striped cotton or cotton and silk blends. Such dresses were common in the oases such as Kufra and Jaghbub, inluenced by the dresses worn by women in the Siwa oasis. Unlike the Siwan women, Libyan women did not spend a great deal of time in embroidering their dresses and let the material form the designs. Women of the large, powerful Bedouin tribe, the Awlad ‘Ali, wore leather boots that were similar in shape to short cowboy boots. The boots were then embroidered in purple, yellow, orange, and red cotton in loral and arabesque designs. Few women wear the boots today except for special occasions.

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Young women wear traditional Berber clothing and jewelry during a folk festival in Kabaw, Libya, 2000. (Reza/Getty Images)

Libyan women, like all women throughout the Arab world, wore large pieces of silver jewelry that have been replaced in recent years by gold. Bedouin women liked to wear massive bracelets 4 to 6 inches wide (10 to 15 cm) or bracelets called dimlidj worn in pairs, one per wrist, embossed with ish, birds, or a sunburst (sometimes called a sunlower). A distinctive necklace is called al-salahat, made of silver crescent shapes or hilal and silver ball and red coral bead spacers. The crescent shapes can be all of the same size or graduated from larger on the front to smaller ones on the sides. Matching earrings are also worn. Libyan Bedouin women wear other large pieces of jewelry, but the large silver brooches that in the past were used to attach corners of cloth to make a dress are among the most spectacular. These are usually made of silver, but in the 20th century Bedouin women began to have the silver brushed with gold, or those who could afford gold bought them of gold rather than of silver. The khilalah or brooches/pins have a long pointed pin and a semicircle to help hold the pin in the cloth, and both are attached to a decorative silver base. In Tripolitania, the long pin was especially long, similar to those made in southern Tunisia, while the base was relatively small, being in some cases only a large silver coin and the other two pieces welded to it to make the brooch. In addition, a silver chain was attached to both brooches so that should one come undone, it would not be lost. The chain was

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress then decorated with silver “hands of Fatima” or khamsah or other charms to ward off the evil eye. Today, such pieces are quickly becoming collector’s items and are less and less made for women to wear.

Tubu/Teda The Tubu (with various spellings) or Teda (with various spellings) are a nonArab people who inhabit the southern Sahara and the Tibesti Mountains of northern Chad but some live within Libya as well. The Tubu are perhaps one of the oldest populations of the Sahara and could be descendants of those who created Saharan rock art during the Neolithic period. The sheep and goats raised by the Tubu do not produce enough wool and hair to be used in weaving, and the women make their tents from woven grass or palm fronds. They make no cloth of their own, but buy cloth (and completed clothes) from urban merchants. Prussin notes that among the Tubu, the craftsmen called the Azza wear homemade clothes of inely tanned leather, which is abhorred by the other Tubu. This refers to the general Islamic belief that a Muslim should not wear animal skins (being “unclean” and therefore preventing men from praying). Tubu men wear clothing similar to that of others who live in the Sahara; a large piece of cloth that is wrapped around the head, chin, and neck is one of the most important pieces. Color is less important to the Tubu than it is with the Tuareg, who prefer to wear blue or white turbans. In the past, Tubu men wore a long, anklelength shirt and a pair of trousers underneath that it tight just below the knee and were embroidered. Unlike the elegant styles developed by the Hassani Arabs of Mauritania or the Tuareg, the Tubu (who are generally poor nomads) style of dress was practical and often they wore what was available in local markets. Tubu women like bright colors and wear an outer garment of print cotton cloth similar to the milhifa’ worn by Hassani Arab women or Sudanese women. Cheap factory-made prints now dominate, but in the past, cloth from Kirdasah in Egypt or Tunisia was traded, or women wore the cottons woven by settled farming peoples or traded by Hausa traders from Nigeria.

Further Reading and Resources Baines, John, and Jaromir Màlek. Atlas of Ancient Egypt. New York: Equinox Books, 1990. Bouilloc, Christine, Arnoud Maurières, and Marie-Bénédicte Seynhaeve. Tapis et Textiles du Maroc à la Syrie. Paris: Hachette Livre/Le Chêne, 2009. Fakhry, Ahmed. Siwa Oasis. Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1990.

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Hachid, Malika. Les Premiers Berbères: Entre Méditerranée, Tassili et Nil. Aixen-Provence: Edisud, 2000. Moseley, K. P. “Téda/Tubu.” Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia. Edited by John A. Shoup. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Prussin, Labelle. African Nomadic Architecture: Space, Place, and Gender. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution and the National Museum of African Art, 1995. Robinson, Francis. Atlas of the Islamic World since 1500. New York: Equinox Books, 1987. Vivian, Cassandra. Islands of the Blest: A Guide to the Oases and Western Desert of Egypt. Cairo: Trade Routes Enterprises, 1990. Weiss, Walter, and Kurt-Michael Westermann. The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998.

Madagascar John G. Hall

Historical Background The written history of Madagascar began in the seventh century CE when Arab merchants established trading posts along the north coast of the island. European contact began in 1500, when Portuguese explorer Diego Dias sighted the island after being separated from a leet bound for India. In the 17th century, the French established trading posts along the east coast. The Dutch and English also reconnoitered the island. From about 1774 to 1824, Madagascar was the port of notorious pirates, including Americans, one of whom brought Malagasy rice to South Carolina. These were the years when the island of Madagascar, and the Malagasy people who lived there, made their debut in the wider world. Few of these traders, explorers, adventurers, bandits, and representatives of imperialist governments, including missionaries, had any idea that Madagascar had a history reaching back almost beyond memory. The irst people to migrate to Madagascar were Austronesian-speaking people that probably originated from Indonesia. They brought with them their oral traditions, technologies, like their mode of transportation, and other aspects of their belief and customs. They had free range of the island for several centuries. Around the fourth century CE an Asian population from Indonesia arrived on the island. Little is known about them. Their exact origin is questionable; so is their reason or reasons for choosing Madagascar. There is, however, linguistic evidence that suggest a link between Indonesian vocabulary and Malagasy language. In terms of material culture, Malagasy outrigger canoes, musical instruments, and second burial rights can be traced through these migrants back to Indonesia. The low of immigration continued from the ifth to 15th centuries. Asians, believed to have traveled along the Indian coast, into East Africa, and through the Persian Gulf, arrived sometime during the ifth century. Arab merchants arrived during the seventh century. They established trading posts along the coast. They operated in the Indian Ocean and voyaged as far as China. From this period we have written sources from Arab merchants and writers. They also brought with 448

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them their religion, their knowledge of divination and astrology, which spread throughout the island. Circumcision was another practice that they brought with them. Africans from East Africa took part in this great expansion. They brought with them cattle, musical instruments, and games. Many Malagasy expressions for domestic animals and material items, including clothing, are African in origin. The irst European arrived on the island in 1500. Diego Dias, a Portuguese explorer, landed on the island after his ship became separated from a leet bound for India. Dutch, English, and French traders soon followed. Initially, these were brief stops to replenish supplies and trade for other valuables. In time, however, slaves became part of the precious cargo bartered on the shores of Madagascar. The use of guns and gunpowder as trade goods disrupted and changed irrevocably the political power of many Malagasy people. The rise of centralized kingdoms among the Sakalava, Merina, and other ethnic groups produced the island’s irst standing armies during the 16th century, which were supplied with cannons and other irearms. By the 19th century the Kingdom of Imerina, supported by British mercenaries, was able to bring much of the island under Merina control with a standing army of 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers. This antagonized the French who were seeking to control the coastal areas. France invaded Madagascar in 1883 in what became known as the irst FrancoHova War. At the conclusion of hostilities, Madagascar became a French colony in September 1885. The royal family was sent into exile. Madagascar remained under French rule until June 26, 1960.

Geographic and Environmental Background The Republic of Madagascar is an island country located in the Indian Ocean along the coast of East Africa. It is opposite Mozambique and separated from it by the Mozambique Channel. With an area of 226,657 square miles, 1,000 miles from north to south, 360 miles wide, and with a coastline of nearly 3,000 miles, Madagascar is the fourth largest island in the world, somewhat smaller than the state of Texas. Madagascar is home to over 10,000 species of vegetation spread out over ive distinct regions characterized by their topography, climate, soil, and, the most important, the people who have adapted their ways of life to meet the demands and possibilities of each of these zones. In the central highlands, except in some well-watered valleys and hilltops that have sacred value, the primary forest has been replaced with eucalyptus and pine trees. During the cool season temperatures can be cold. The Malagasy who live here cultivate rice. The east coast, exposed to trade winds, registers a heavy rainfall. As a result, a narrow band of lush vegetation and rain forest lines the entire coast. Plants like the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress fan-shaped traveler’s palm of Madagascar and bamboo are common. Rice cultivation and the farming of cash crops such as coffee, cinnamon, cloves, and vanilla are valued in this region. The west coast is characterized by a hot, dry climate. A dry season of up to seven months is broken by a short but intense rainy season from December to April. Much of the area is savanna dotted by the satrana palm and the occasional towering baobab tree. The open plains have encouraged the raising of Madagascar’s humpback cattle or zebus. But farming is also carried out in bailboho, loodplains that provide some of the island’s most fertile soil. Fishing from outrigger canoes is a full-time activity for one group of Malagasy called Vezo. The north receives a blend of climates from the east and west. The soil is largely of volcanic origin and fertile for many kinds of farming, including introduced cash crops like vanilla, coffee, cloves, and ylang-ylang, a tree whose lowers contain an essential oil used as a base for perfume. The extended coastline makes ishing proitable. The south is the least naturally favored zone with an annual rainfall of less than 12 inches. The vegetation is stunted and thorny, consisting mainly of fantasticlooking spiny, but succulent, shrubs and trees. Their spindly shape, along with another plant that resembles cacti, has earned the area the name of “spiny forest.” The people who live in this semidesert have adapted to their homeland by raising cattle, sheep, and goats. They gain water from cactus fruit and digging wells from the dry riverbeds.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity As of 2012, the population of Madagascar was estimated at 22,585,500. During the period from 1896 to 1960, the French colonial administration divided the Malagasy population into 18 oficial ethnic groups. This division was completely arbitrary and beneited the French while ignoring the unique history of the Malagasy people. Aside from smaller groups of Comorians, French, Indian, and Chinese, the majority of Malagasy people are descendants of ancestors from Indonesia, Arab and Bantu settlers from Southeast Asia, the Arab Peninsula, and East Africa. Despite these differences the Malagasy culture exhibits great homogeneity. People throughout the island speak a single language of Austronesian origin and African inluences. All Malagasy believe in the power ancestors have over the living and their ability to determine the fortunes of their descendants. As a result, many Malagasy rituals revolve largely around seeking the ancestors’ blessings. This is one of

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the reasons for wrapping the dead in the nicest lamba that the family can afford. Aside from ancestor worship, many Muslim practices such as circumcision and the use of astrological ritual calendars and horoscopes also contribute central features to Malagasy culture throughout the island. About 50 percent of Malagasy people practice traditional religions, which tend to emphasize links between the living and the dead. The Merina in the highlands particularly tend to hold on tightly to this practice. This veneration of ancestors has also led to the tradition of tomb building and the famadihana, a practice whereby a deceased family member’s remains may be taken from the tomb to be periodically rewrapped in fresh silk shrouds known as lamba before being replaced in the tomb. The event is an occasion to celebrate the loved one’s memory, reunite with family and community, and enjoy a festive atmosphere. Residents from surrounding villages are often asked to participate. Approximately 41 percent of Malagasy are Christians, divided almost evenly between Catholics and Protestants. However, many Christians integrate their religious beliefs with traditional ones relating to honoring their ancestors. Many may bless their dead in church before proceeding with traditional burial rites at the tombs of their ancestors. Many invite a Christian minister to consecrate a famadihana reburial. Besides traditional and Christian beliefs, Islam is practiced on the island. Islam was irst brought to Madagascar during the Middle Ages by Arab and Somali Muslim traders who established several Islamic schools along the eastern coast. Although the use of Arabic script and loan words and the adoption of other Islamic practices spread across the island, Islam never really penetrated beyond the coastal areas. Today, Muslims constitute about 7 percent of the Malagasy population. Muslims are divided between those of Malagasy ethnicity, Indians, Pakistanis, and Comorians. More recently, Hinduism was introduced to Madagascar through Gujarati people emigrating from the Saurashtra region of India.

Men’s and Women’s Dress Despite the belief system, the one thing that has remained constant in Madagascar is the attachment to cloth. Because of this attachment, weaving rose to the level of an art form and the Malagasy people most associated with this form of expression were the women of Madagascar. Their mastery of weaving became so developed, varied, and widespread it became impossible to decipher its meaning without understanding the social and symbolic importance it held for its creators: Malagasy women. They made cloth not simply as a technical act but as an integral component of female identity. Furthermore, proliic or skilled weavers might trade their surplus at local markets. This economic importance was greatest in the central

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress highlands, home of the Merina and Betsileo, where by the 18th century full-time weaving supported many households. There was obvious prestige bestowed on women weavers but this reverence brought with it great demands because people judged a woman’s skills, intelligence, and industry largely by her weaving. It was a mother’s duty to teach her daughters to weave, and a dereliction of this duty relected badly on both generations. As a result, the act and the art of teaching required more than normal devotion because the care weavers took to produce ine cloth also stemmed from the fact that they made it not for unseen or unknown recipients but for sons, fathers, and husbands, who were also judged by the quality of the clothing they wore. Therefore, for Malagasy women, making clothing was a labor of love. The traditional dress of the Malagasy people of Madagascar is the lamba. It is said that an individual is born, lives, and sleeps for all eternity with a lamba, a versatile cloth either handwoven or factory made, that both men and women have worn down through history until the present day. Although there are many reasons for wearing a lamba, it is believed that one of the most compelling is a desire to preserve and promote Malagasy cultural heritage. Both Madagascar’s leaders and ordinary citizens adorn lambas as a matter of pride. A lamba and the cloth it is woven from is highly symbolic, serving both a secular (functional) and sacred purpose in Malagasy culture. It is a traditional garment worn by both men and women and consists of a rectangular length of cloth wrapped around the body. Traditional lambas used for burial are often made of silk while those for daily use are often made of rafia, cotton, or bast. These could range in color from common undyed or solid white cloth, to striped red, white, and black, which are found in most parts of the island. Some with geometric patterns in unique shades of green and brown are produced in small Sakalava villages. Lambas with a brilliant multicolored, complex weave were favored by the precolonial Merina aristocracy. Unfortunately, during the colonial years, the handcraft of weaving lambas was all but neglected, so much so that today it is common to ind printed cotton and rayon lambas produced in India for the Malagasy as well as those fabricated in Madagascar. Aside from its daily use as clothing, the lamba serves a variety of functional purposes such as a sling or backpack for mothers to carry on their backs while keeping their hands free. They can also serve as a cushion when transporting heavy objects on the head. On a more symbolic level lambas are also traditionally exchanged between a man and woman as part of their engagement ceremony. And, on more than one occasion, lambas have served as diplomatic gifts of friendship from Madagascar to the leaders of other sovereign states. For example, in 1886, Queen Ranavalona II extended a gift of two detailed silk lamba akotofahana, one multicolored

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and the other white-on-white, to the president of the United States, Grover Cleveland. And, as stated above, one of the most sacred functions of the lamba is to wrap the remains of ancestors during burial and reburial. The term lamba is the name in the Highlands dialect of the woven cloth that traditionally formed the essential article of clothing throughout Madagascar. This garment is known by other names in various regions where other dialects are spoken. In some parts of the east it is called simbo. It is more than just what the name signiies. There are many other speciics that are involved. The color, print, and type of cloth also vary from region to region. In some regions, the largest lambas (lambamena) are made of heavy white silk and are used to wrap the bodies of Malagasy woman wearing a lamba with a the deceased before placing them in a baby secured in the back, 2008. (Elia Viel/ family tomb. There is nothing neces- Dreamstime.com) sarily mystical about this act because the more durable the lambamena, the better its chances of surviving the natural elements like rain-soaked earth and human deterioration. As already suggested, there are numerous types of lambas produced in Madagascar. The names can serve to distinguish the material used, pattern types, and the ritual purpose of the garment or the intended wearer. Names vary from region to region according to the local dialect. Color patterns are also distinguishing factors. Because color patterns convey symbolic messages, color combinations and decorative themes are very carefully and deliberately chosen. Red, for example, indicates blood, ire, or royalty. Yellow is a symbol of fertility, health, and abundance. Blue suggests excellence; green evokes plants and harmony; white communicates wealth and the acquisition of good fortune. This symbolic culture helped create an atmosphere in which individuals played important roles in determining the meaning of colors and the inal use of a cloth. The colors they chose communicated deinite messages that they fully understood. For example, in the highlands for over a century, the cloth worn by the living is called a lamba whereas when used as a burial shroud it is called a lambamena.

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Malagasy woman weaving a traditional cloth, 2007. (Antonella865/Dreamstime.com)

Until about 1950, Madagascar was home to a lourishing and varied weaving tradition. The island’s divergent ecological zones made available a wide variety of ibers including rafia, reeds, bark, cotton, hemp, banana stems, indigenous silk, and imported mulberry silk. Women spun, dyed, and wove ibers into panels of cloth to be wrapped gracefully about the body. Men wore a narrow panel as a loincloth, and both men and women wore rectangle striped outer wrappers. Although this form of dress might appear indistinguishable to visitors to the island, the Malagasy have a complex system of classifying cloth based on its shape, iber content, striping patterns, and decoration. This became more evident during the height of the Merina Empire beginning in the 17th century. Although there were varied uses for Madagascar textiles, because of its traditional importance, the primary article woven by women was the lamba, which consisted of two identical panels sewn together to form a rectangle. The most common method of wearing a lamba for both men and women was to drape it gracefully about the shoulders. But it was also worn in a variety of other ways. It could be pulled over the head to shield against cold weather and rain, or it could be pulled

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tightly around the waist as an indication of action or determination. For mourning the lamba was worn in a distinctive manner under the arms. Other than clothing, the Malagasy people used the lamba for numerous practical purposes. It has already been mentioned that the lamba was used as permanent slings or cradles for carrying children and as a cushion when transporting heavy objects on the head but, when necessary, it became a blanket to protect from the cold. It also served as an apron, table or kitchen cloth, a scarf, belt, bedding, turban, bag or suitcase, and sundry other useful items. It could also be made into a tent or mosquito netting. The Malagasy were inventive in other ways. In addition to the lamba, they made other shapes and kinds of clothing that varied according to the gender of the wearer. Men wore a loincloth, a panel of cloth that was wrapped between the legs and several times around the waist so that the two ends fell before and behind the thighs. However, by the 19th century, men’s costume on the east coast included a large smock (akanjobe) tailored with a single panel of fabric. Women, on the other hand, wore a smaller cloth (kitamby, sikina) wrapped around the waist. Along the east and west coasts, the two narrow ends of cloth were stitched together to form a loop or tube (simbo, salovana) that was belted with a fabric belt. Until the 20th century women throughout the island also wore a small, tight-itting shirt called akanjo that left the midriff exposed. Only the poorest of women didn’t have one.

Materials and Techniques Fiber content was another way in which the Malagasy classiied cloth. Madagascar was home to a remarkably diverse range of textile ibers, a relection of the island’s varied ecological zones—from rain forest to semidesert savanna. Because of the historic distribution of rafia, cotton, silk, and other ibers the island can be divided into ive general zones. The inhabitants of the irst four zones became specialists in the materials locally available, and they were largely self-suficient in producing their daily needs. The East and West Coasts: Rafia The leaf of the rafia palm (Raphia, rufia) was the staple textile iber for people inhabiting the east coast and the northern end of Madagascar, home to the presentday Sihanaka, Tsimihery, Antakarana, northern Sakalava, and Betsimisarka. Rafia leaves were cut and scraped, combed into narrow strips with a metal instrument, and then knotted end-to-end. Preferring cloth that reached to the feet and thus conveyed dignity, Sakalava women of the west coast made wide panels for their clothing. They also made short, square panels to serve as Islamic prayer rugs and

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress impressively large panels up to 7 meters (approximately 22 feet) in length. Weavers on the east coast made shorter rafia wrappers (simbo) and tailored durable rafia smocks for their husbands. Both garments served well in the mud, rain, and standing water of the rain forest homeland. The Southeast: Reeds (Sedges) and Beaten Bark In the southeast, clothing was not woven on a loom but made from beaten bark or plaited mats of harefo (Eleocharis plantagines). For the Tanala, Antemoro, Antambahoaka, Tefasy, eastern Bara, and the eastern Betsileo, mat clothing (taitsihy) was the primary form of dress for men and women of all social classes. A woman’s dress consisted of two or three rectangular mats of harefo reeds stitched together to form a tube. It could be belted at the waist or pulled up over the shoulder. Young girls reaching puberty, who began “to know shame” (mahilala henasty), also wore a breast cover made of mahampy reeds. Men wore a tunic or jacket mat, with long sleeves for older men, over a loincloth of beaten bark. This cloth, generically known as fanto, was made from materials from a variety of trees. The inner bark was stripped off and the ibers were beaten with a mallet. By the 19th century this beaten bark cloth was considered the specialty of the southeastern region. The Southeast Hinterland: Spun Bark Cloth Women’s skilled hands could also transform the inner bark of various types of trees into a soft, shimmering yarn that rivaled the ineness of silk. This was achieved by the Zaimaniry and eastern Betsileo people who inhabited the rain forests of the southeastern hinterlands. They irst dried strips of the white bark above a ire, then boiled the strips for several hours and over several sessions. Next they washed the bark on a rock, dried it in the sun, split it, knotted it end-to-end, and rolled it on the right thigh to provide a twist. After the cloth was woven on a backstrap loom, it was beaten with a mallet to soften it and add sheen. This cloth could last for ive or six years and thus was suitable for wrapping the dead. The South and West: Cotton and Wild Silk In the south and west, cotton is the essential iber for clothing. Today women gin it by hand and spin it with a spindle. The Bara and Betsileo people use a highwhorl drop spindle while southwestern women use a horizontal thigh-supported spindle that is rolled on the thigh to create a twist. Throughout this area of the island, newly spun cotton yarn, before it is dipped into a stiffening solution, is called fole velo or living yarn. Other than for clothing, this cotton yarn is believed to possess magical powers. Healers (ambiasa), for example, tied a simple strand of it around the wrist as a protective charm, and sometimes wrapped skeins of it around the bodies of participants in certain rituals such as circumcision.

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Another iber used for weaving silk is derived from a type of silkworm indigenous to local forests in the south and west. The Malagasy generally referred to this kind of silk as landy because of the type of tree on which the worms feed. The preferred type of silkworm, at least in the dry forest of the southeast, fed on the leaves of the aiafy and pisopiso trees. But it was the landy from tapia trees in the Isalo region of Bara territory that were the most highly valued throughout the island even though the silk was thick and uneven. It was twisted by being rolled on the thigh or a block of wood and usually was coarse but with thick threads. And even though it is not aesthetically pleasing it served the purpose of the Malagasy people who made it. The Central Highlands: Hemp, Banana-Stem Fiber, Mulberry Silk The central highlands is the historic homeland of the Merina and Betsileo people. It was here, beginning in the 17th century with the rise of the Merina Empire, that the island of Madagascar and its textiles underwent dramatic and irrevocable transformations. For example, the Merina people used a multitude of ibers to overcome environmental limitations through trade and other strategies. At its height, the Merina Kingdom emerged as one of the most important centers of textile production on the island, supplying high-prestige cloth to other regions. This transformation began, in part, with three types of ibers that were indigenous to the area in limited distribution. Weavers harvested hemp ibers from the stalks of cannabis plants. The hemp ibers were left in their natural white color and trimmed with red at the border. Dwarf banana stems were highly valued for their ibers, unlike hemp ibers, especially until the introduction of silk from the mulberry worm. Banana-stem cloth was as ine and glossy as silk and could be worn only by nobles, and Merina sovereigns distributed it as gifts until the 18th century. Among the Betsileo, however, the cloth appears to have served as ordinary costumes for commoners. Indigenous silkworms also made their home in the highlands. A much valued variety lived in the forests of tapia trees that stretched along the western slopes of the highlands. Many important weaving centers emerged near these resources. Until the mid-19th century weaving was the single most important income-generating activity. Another option available to highland weavers was imported Chinese mulberry silk, purchased from Arab and Indian merchants. Colored striping was the primary decoration of Malagasy textiles and the main criterion for distinguishing among various types and styles of cloth. Women used the island’s abundant dye sources to great effect. The details of the dyeing operation vary depending on the colors that are to be used, whether natural or chemical, and the mordants they require. Care must be taken to use the proper timing for each dye bath, or ibers may become brittle. Once

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Malagasy women wearing lamba, between 1910 and 1927. (Library of Congress)

the desired color is obtained at each step, the tied threads are removed, washed, dried, and untied or retied as necessary for the desired pattern. Methods of tying vary and are handed down within families. As there are no overdyes, the last color dyed is always the brightest. The ingredients used in the dyeing process are chosen meticulously and like the weaving itself, it is a labor of love, a skill passed down from generation to generation. Although there were potential sources for a wide range of hues, weavers faithfully produced only ive colors that were culturally named and recognized: white, red, black, yellow, and green. Madagascar’s textiles have gone through many changes since the 19th century and the collapse of the Merina Empire. The vast majority of Malagasy people dress in factory-made, Western-style clothing, shirts and pants for men and dresses for women. Most weaving households are inding it dificult to make a living from burial cloth alone. The demand for this is seasonal, because reburial ceremonies take place only in the winter. Moreover, the growing scarcity of wild silk has greatly inlated prices, putting it out of reach of most families. The price of a silk lamba of $100 represented four months of income for the average rural farmer. An increasing popular alternative is an imported nylon fabric that meets

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both demands of the handwoven lambamena for wrapping ancestors. It provides warmth and it is indestructible.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Perhaps one of the most momentous events that take place among the Malagasy people is the burial and reburial of ancestors. It is not just an event for the bereaved family, it is a collective celebration of the entire community and other relatives separated by time and distance. As part of one ceremony, a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, accompanied by her extended family, friends, neighbors, community members, and maybe even strangers left the ancestral compound and walked to the tomb to re-enshroud their ancestor. The festive air was illed with the music of lutes and drums. Everyone was dancing. She was draped with a silk lambamena. Other young women were similarly draped. In addition to the lamba, women perfected their beauty with elaborate hairstyles. Some wore inely braded plaits, arranged in curls behind the head or above the ears. Along with the elaborate hairstyles women wore bead necklaces, bracelets of beads, copper, silver, or sometimes gold. The relationship between Malagasy and their ancestors is complex. Even after death they continue to honor those individuals who fathered all the customs and traditions, embody great power, and can bless or curse the lives of their descendants. Reburial ceremonies are perhaps the most important events that take place in the lives of the living. It can also be one of the most dangerous if not managed respectfully. Although the prospects for the future look bleak for handwoven cloth, it is not true in every sense. For Malagasy cloth is both social and sacred, and necessary. It is one of the most compelling aspects of their cultural heritage. The Malagasy are born, live, and sleep for all eternity with their lamba.

Further Reading and Resources Brown, Mervyn. A History of Madagascar. Princeton, NJ: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2002. Campbell, Gwyn. An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire (African Studies). London: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Goodman, Steven M., and Jonathan Benstead. The Natural History of Madagascar. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 2007. Kreamer, Christine Mullen, and Sarah Fee. Objects as Envoys: Cloth, Imagery, and Diplomacy in Madagascar. Washington, D.C./Seattle: Smithsonian Institution

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress National Museum of African Art in association with the University of Washington Press, 2002. Kusimba, Chapurukha M., J. Claire Odland, and Bennet Bronson. Unwrapping the Textile Traditions of Madagascar. Los Angeles: Field Museum and the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2004. Raddrianaja, Solofo, and Stephen Ellis. Madagascar: A Short History. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009. Tyson, Peter. The Eighth Continent: Life, Death and Discovery in the Lost World of Madagascar. New York: William Morrow, 2000.

Malaysia Stephanie Ho and Jaime Koh

Historical Background Until the 15th century, the Malay Archipelago—which includes the country that is now Malaysia—was ruled by a succession of kingdoms and empires, such as Srivijaya, Langkasutra, and Majapahit. One of the most signiicant empires was the Malacca sultanate, founded by Parameswara, a prince from Palembang, around the year 1400. Parameswara, also known as Iskander Shah, had founded the city of Malacca after leeing the ancient kingdom of Singapura (present day Singapore). The Malacca sultanate’s wealth and power was built on the foundation of lourishing trade. Its rule extended over the south of the Malay Peninsula and much of Sumatra. It was also from Malacca that Islam spread throughout the region. The Portuguese were the irst Europeans to set foot on the Malay Peninsula, arriving in Malacca in 1509 on a trade mission. Two years later, in 1511, they defeated the Malacca sultanate and established Portuguese rule in the city. In 1641, Portuguese Malacca fell to the Dutch. As part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1824, the Dutch handed Malacca over to the British, who in return relinquished control over several islands in today’s Indonesia to the Dutch. From the 19th century, the British established varying levels of control over the Malay states and North Borneo mainly for the purpose of trade and commerce. Malaya then was a grouping of largely independent states with their own local rulers or sultans. By the early 20th century, the Malay Peninsula could be categorized into several groups: the federated states, administered under the advice of a British resident (Perak, Pahang, Selangor, Negri Sembilan); the unfederated states, which had relative autonomy (Terengganu, Kelantan, Perlis, Kedah, Johore); and the Straits settlements that were under direct British rule (Penang, Singapore, and Malacca). Sabah and Sarawak on the island of Borneo were British protectorates. After World War II, the Malay states were amalgamated and jointly administered irst as the Malayan Union, and two years later, in 1948, as the Federation of Malaya. The federation was granted independence from the British in 1957. In 1963, Singapore, Sabah, and Sarawak joined the federation to form the Federation 461

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of Malaysia, but Singapore left the federation two years later to become an independent nation.

Geography and Climate Malaysia, located in Southeast Asia, is spread over 127,320 square miles just north of the equator. Its neighbors include the island of Singapore to the south and the islands of Indonesia to the west and southeast. Malaysia is a federation of 13 states and three federated territories. Of the 11 states, two—Sabah and Sarawak—are located on the island of Borneo, separated from the mainland by the South China Sea. Sabah and Sarawak share borders with the Indonesian state of Kalimantan and the Sultanate of Brunei. Located near the equator, Malaysia’s climate is tropical, characterized by high humidity (average 84 percent), high temperatures (average 80.2oF), and heavy rainfall (average about 79 to 98 inches a year, or 2,000 mm to 2,500 mm annually). Rainfall is typically most heavy during the monsoon seasons—the southwest monsoon from April to October and the northeast monsoon from October to February. More than half of Malaysia’s land area is covered in tropical rain forest. The country is also rich in natural resources such as tin, petroleum, timber, copper, iron, ore, natural gas, and bauxite.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Malaysia is a multiethnic and multireligious society. Its population of 28.3 million people (as of 2010) are made up of four major ethnic groups: the Malays (63.1 percent), indigenous tribes (4.3 percent), Chinese (24.6 percent), Indians (7.3 percent), and minority groups such as the Eurasians and Peranakans (Department of Statistics, 2011). The Malays and indigenous tribes are regarded as bumiputra—the “sons of the soil,” the native. Islam is the oficial religion and has a strong inluence on Malay dress. In adherence to Islamic requirements of modesty, most Malay women dress in garments that cover their entire body except for their hands and face. The indigenous tribal communities—mostly found in Sabah and Sarawak— live in the rain forests or along the coasts. They were originally animists who worshipped nature and animals, although many have since converted to Christianity. Pockets of Chinese and Indians have lived in Malaysia for centuries although the largest migration occurred during the 19th century. The Chinese and Indians were attracted by the trading and economic opportunities under the British colonial administration. In Malaysia, the Chinese and Indians claim allegiances to diverse

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religions: various Chinese religions including Confucianism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity. Some early Chinese migrants intermarried with the local Malay women, and their offspring have come to be known as Peranakan (meaning local born). The Peranakan communities live mainly in Malacca and Penang and boast a hybrid Malay-Chinese culture. Most practice Chinese religion although they share similarities with the Malays in language, food, and dress. Another ethnic group of mixed ancestry are the Eurasians who claim both European and Asian descent.

History of Dress Malaysia’s earliest inhabitants were probably attired like the Orang Asli—the indigenous tribal people who inhabit the remote forests of Malaysia. Their garments were derived mainly from their natural environment. The men wore loincloths make from the bark of trees and the women wore skirts made from leaves or roots. Other accessories such as headdresses or necklaces were made from leaves, lowers, roots, rattan, and vines and were worn for their supposed magical powers. The indigenous tribes in Sabah and Sarawak were similarly attired. William Krohn, an American who visited Borneo in the 1920s, observed that tribal men wore three types of garments—a loincloth made from tree bark, a seat mat made from animal skin or woven cane, and a rattan hat covered in animal skin and/or feathers. Photographs of tribal women also show them with nothing worn on top and only a piece of cloth tied around their waist. Children were shown running around unclothed. Although their daily dress may be simple, the tribes developed elaborate costumes for religious ceremonies and rituals. The costumes are also an important part of tribal identity. The Iban, one of the largest tribes in Sarawak, have a distinct type of ceremonial costume. The Iban warrior wears a jacket (kelambi) of either woven cotton or bark cloth, often embroidered with motifs embedded with special meaning; a loincloth called a sirat that can measure up to six yards; and a rattan cap with feathers. The Iban woman wears a heavily embellished tube skirt known as a bidang. It usually has elaborate patterns, with beads and shells sewn on the skirt and bells, tassels, and coins added to the fringes. The rest of the costume consists of a corset made of rattan inished in silver or brass known as the rawai, a beaded collar, and a sash. Traditional costumes have been affected by modernity and Westernization. The conversion to Christianity and Islam meant that some costumes have to be adapted to it new conceptions of modesty. For daily wear, tribal people are more often seen in factory-made T-shirts and shorts than a loincloth. Ceremonial wear only makes an appearance during festivals and now incorporates modern components.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Machine-woven cloth has replaced handwoven textiles, and mass-produced sequins, beads, and gold and silver thread are used as embellishments. The Malays wore different clothes depending on their rank and wealth. As Malacca was a well-known trading port, the Malaccan royalty and people had access to a variety of textiles from China and India. The traditional costume of the time was the baju kurong—a long-sleeved shirt worn over a full-length sarong. Although the concept was essentially the same, there were regional differences in how the baju kurong was made and worn. The baju kurung Teluk Belanga, for instance, was said to have been developed in the early Malay girl wearing baju kurung. (Rusdi Yahya/ 1800s in an area known as Telok Dreamstime.com) Belanga in Singapore, then the seat of the Johor sultanate. The tunic had a round neckline and stretched below the knees. Paired with a sarong, it was worn by both men and women. Some time later, a modiied style known as the baju kurung cekak musang emerged. This baju had a 1.5-inch (4 cm) collar and three pockets. It was worn with a pair of trousers and a sarong. The Malay women in Malacca traditionally wore a long and loose-itting top known as the kebaya or baju panjang, fastened in the front with pins or brooches known as the kerosang. The long kebaya is worn over a folded sarong fastened with a girdle or belt. It is said to have been introduced by the Portuguese. Besides the Malay women, the Peranakan women also wore the kebaya. The difference is mainly in the kebaya (itted top); the Peranakan version is often elaborately embroidered and revealing and is often trimmed with lace and made of sheer or translucent material, showing off a camisole underneath or, since the late 20th century, a bra. In addition, the kebaya is only part of an ensemble that includes matching jewelry and shoes. Given the wealth of the Peranakans, the kebaya top is held together not by buttons but by a set of three ornate gold brooches, often with embedded diamonds or precious stones (kerosang); the batik sarong is held together by a silver linked belt. This outit is combined with hand-beaded slippers known as kasut manek.

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Malaysian Muslims wear traditional baju melayu at a mosque in Kuala Lumpur, 2009. (Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters/Corbis)

Away from the cities, Malay clothing was more casual. W. A. Graham, who visited the northern state of Kelantan at the turn of the 20th century, noted that the Malay man typically wore a sarong tied around his waist and slung another over his shoulder. He went about barefoot. The women tied the sarong around their bosom in a fashion known as berkemban, like the word kemben, a piece of batik worn in a similar fashion in Indonesia. The practice of wearing the berkemban, however, faded as religious consciousness grew. Sultan Mansur, who ruled Kelantan between 1890 and 1899, declared that any women caught wearing the berkemban in public would be smeared in mud. The women were supposed to wear clothes that covered their hair and shoulders. In some instances Malay women wore three sarongs: one tied around the waist and hanging down to the ankle, the second tied underneath the arms to cover the bosom and hanging down to below the buttocks, the third serving as a scarf to cover the head, face, and shoulders. The baju kurong continues to be the basis for Malaysia’s oficial dress today, although the style has since evolved. Malaysia’s national dress is the baju melayu for the men and baju kurong for the women. The baju melayu consists of a longsleeved shirt with a raised collar and a pair of trousers. A kain samping, a short sarong, is often worn over the trousers. The baju kurong consists of a collarless long-sleeved tunic worn over a full-length skirt.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The majority of Chinese in Malaysia were peasants from southern China who dressed simply. Laborers or coolies wore comfortable, loose-itting shorts and a plain shirt or a singlet, while the women did their work in a cotton trouser suit known as a samfu. The sam is an upper garment with a mandarin collar and sleeves of varying lengths. The garment has an asymmetrical front opening sloping toward the right underarm that is fastened either by Chinese frog buttons or by metallic snaps. It was worn with a fu, a pair of ankle-length trousers. As the Chinese became wealthier, they began to adopt the fashion of the Chinese elite. Rich Chinese men wore long silk tunics buttoned at the neck, with silk trousers, and their wives wore the cheongsam. The term cheongsam originally meant a loose-itting long dress that could be worn by both men and women. Men often wore it with a pair of trousers and women with a long skirt. By the 20th century, the cheongsam evolved into a high-collared, igure-hugging dress with cap sleeves. The dress had two side slits, and the hem fell just below the knee. The Chinese community has generally abandoned traditional ways of dressing except during Chinese New Year and at formal occasions such as weddings. Despite giving up traditional garb, some Chinese still observe cultural fashion norms that encourage the wearing of bright and “lucky” colors such as red and orange for the Chinese New Year and avoiding them for mournful occasions such as funerals. Most Indians in Malaysia originated from southern India where the traditional dress is the dhoti for men and the sari for women. The dhoti is a lower garment for men draped to form front pleats. It is usually worn with a shirt or a loose longsleeved shirt known as the kurta or nothing at all. The sari is essentially a piece of cloth, about 6 to 9 yards in length, wrapped around the waist several times and then draped over the shoulders. The sari is usually worn with a short, tight blouse known as the choli. In the early 20th century, the choli had a high neckline and long sleeves, but since the 1960s it has become shorter, with sleeves ending above the elbow and the choli itself ending above the navel. Wealthier Indian women also typically wear the sari with gold jewelry ranging from hairpieces, earrings, and necklaces to wrist and ankle bangles. In more recent times, the Indians also wear a northern-inluenced blouse and pant combination known as the salwar kameez or Punjabi suit. The salwar is a pair of drawstring pants, usually narrow at the ankle, while the kameez is a long tunic with side seams usually left open below the waistline.

Materials and Techniques Before the availability of commercial textiles, tribal communities spun cloth out of materials in their environment using natural ibers from vegetables and fruits such as pineapple, plantain, and palm. They also used the bark from trees such as

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the breadfruit tree and the ipoh tree. The inner tree bark is stripped and pounded till soft. Then it is made into garments such as jackets and loincloths. Subsequently most textiles were hand-spun or woven on a hand loom. One of the most common weaving techniques used in Malaysia (and throughout Southeast Asia) is the ikat method. The word ikat means to tie or to bind. Generally ikat cloth is made by irst dyeing spools of yarn, which are then woven. The yarn is irst tied into bundles, which may be covered in wax or bound by dye-resistant materials so that selected areas would not be colored. This resist-dye procedure is repeated depending on the colors desired. Once ready, the yarn is then woven. The two main types of ikat techniques are the warp-ikat and the weft-ikat. In warp-ikat, the dyed yarns are used as the lengthwise yarn, which is tied across the loom. In weft-ikat, the dyed yarn is used as the weft, which is drawn through the warp to create the cloth. One variation of the ikat method is the double-ikat, in which both the weft and the warp are colored and used in combination to create the ikat cloth. The most treasured fabric for the Malays is kain songket, often worn by royalty, and used for ceremonial attire worn at weddings and oficial functions. The fabric is woven on a loor loom called a kek tenun that is operated by two transverse foot pedals. Gold and silver threads from France or Japan are interwoven with silk yarn from China and cotton yarn from Japan, and the richness of the gold thread is highlighted by using maroon, brown, and blue as base colors. Songket weaving is mainly done on the east coast states of Kelantan and Terengganu. It can take a weaver about six to eight hours a day to weave an intricately patterned sarong. In the Iban culture, woven cloth was as important to the women as trophy heads were to the male headhunters. The better the women were at weaving, the higher their status. The Iban women used the sungkit method to produce the highly prized pua (ceremonial blankets). This technique required the use of a needle to wrap colored threads around the warp at the intersection of the weft in order to create an almost identical pattern on both sides of the cloth. The motifs and patterns used in their textiles were drawn from the natural environment and served as a visual record of tribal beliefs and values. Batik is one of the most recognizable textile traditions. Although the people of Malaysia have worn batik since the ninth century, they did not produce batik until the 20th century. Until then, most of the batik was imported from Indonesia, where it originated. There are two main techniques used to create batik textiles. The most traditional method is by hand-painting. Using a pen-like instrument known as a canting, the artist draws a design with molten wax on a piece of cloth that has been stretched taut over a wooden frame. Once the design is completed, she then paints the fabric with colored dyes with a brush or a sponge. After the fabric is dried, the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress cloth is treated with sodium silicate, after which it is washed to remove the wax and excess colors. The other technique is block printing. Once a design for the cloth is determined, it will be shaped into a block with copper, brass, or tin. The design block is dipped into wax and stamped onto the cloth. The stamping is repeated until the whole cloth is covered with the design. After that, the cloth is dipped into a dye bath and hung to dry. The process of dyeing and drying is repeated, depending on the number of colors needed. Once the entire process is completed, the cloth is washed in boiling water to remove the wax.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Today, Western forms of clothing ranging from T-shirts and jeans to formal business suits are popular everyday wear in Malaysia, as in many urban areas in the world. Although some people do wear their ethnic dresses regularly, they are most often seen during festive occasions and festivals. Weddings, in particular, are times when traditional dress in the inest materials is favored. A Malay wedding will see the bridal couple decked out in the full Malay regalia for the day as “king and queen.” It is the only time that commoners are allowed to wear the royal color of yellow. The guests also come in their baju melayu and baju kurong. At Chinese weddings, it is not unusual for the bride to have two wedding gowns: a white one in the Western tradition, and a kwa for the Chinese tea ceremony. The kwa is an impressive two-piece outit, typically red and decorated with gold and silver embroidery with dragon and phoenix motifs.

Component Parts Headgear is important for Malay men and women. Malay men often wear a songkok, a traditional Malay hat that resembles a brimless cap. This can be made from cotton or velvet, and designs range from plain black to batik prints. Some of the more elaborate songkoks have embroidery, and these are often worn during festive, formal, or religious occasions. A man who has performed the haj to Mecca wears a white songkok. Royalty and aristocrats wear a folded headdress known as a tengkolok during ceremonial occasions. Bridegrooms wear this on their wedding day. Made out of a folded rectangular piece of cloth, usually songket, it is worn differently depending on a person’s social status. The Malay sultans typically have the state crest on their tengkolok. Many Malay women wear a headscarf known as a tudung. Although the tudung is worn mainly for modesty purposes, they need not be dull. There are a wide

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Many Muslim women in Malaysia don the tudung as part of their everyday wear. (Photo by Jaime Koh)

variety of tudung designs, ranging from the highly sequined and beaded or loral patterned to plain black.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications Tattooing was a traditional practice for many of the indigenous tribes, but it has begun to die out with modernization. In the past, tattoos were believed to have strong curative or protective powers. Both men and women would have tattoos. An Iban warrior would typically have a collage of powerful images on his back that celebrated his hunting prowess such as the hornbill, scorpion, and water snake. In the Kayan group, girls were tattooed at puberty as recognition of their status as an adult, to attract men, and to provide protection against evil spirits.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Modern technology has made traditional outits more affordable and wearable. For example, in the sarong kebaya worn by Malay and Peranakan women, the beautiful kerosangs on the kebaya have been replaced by press studs and the silver belt by a waistband and zipper on the sarong. In addition, the modern Malaysians often integrate traditional dress with modern clothes. In the cities of Malaysia, it is

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress not uncommon to see modern women wear the kebaya or baju top with jeans and high heels. Ethnic dress also serves as an inspiration for fashion designers. The form-itting style of the sarong kebaya is the inspiration for the uniforms of the air stewardesses on Malaysia’s national airlines.

Further Reading and Resources Andaya, Barbara Watson, and Leonard Andaya. A History of Malaysia (2nd ed.). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001. Chin, Lucas, and Valerie Mashman, eds. Sarawak Cultural Legacy. Sarawak: Society Atelier Sarawak, 1991. Department of Statistics, Malaysia. http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/index.php ?option=com_content&view=article&id=1215%3Apopulation-distribution -and-basic-demographic-characteristic-report-population-and-housing-census -malaysia-2010-updated-2972011&catid=130%3Apopulation-distribution-and -basic-demographic-characteristic-report-population-and-housing-census -malaysia-2010&lang=en. Accessed December 2, 2011. Guynup, Sharon. Painted Past: Borneo’s Traditional Tattoos. National Geographic Channel website. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0618_ 040618_tvtattoo.html. Hood Salleh, ed. Encyclopedia of Malaysia, Volume 12: Peoples and Traditions. Malaysia: Archipelago Press, 1998. Krohn, William O. In Borneo Jungles: Among Dyak Headhunters. Malaysia: Oxford University Press, 1991. Lu, Sylvia Fraser. Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989. National Art Gallery. Baju + Sarong: Dressing a Nation. Kuala Lumpur: National Art Gallery, 2002. Ong Liang Bin, Edric. “Sarawak Costume.” In Lucas Chin and Valerie Mashman, eds. Sarawak Cultural Legacy. Sarawak: Society Atelier Sarawak, 1991. Zubaidah Sual. “The Malay Costumes.” In Khunying Maenmas Chavalit and Maneepin Phromsuthirak, eds. Costumes in ASEAN. Bangkok: ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, 2000.

Mauritania Keri Cavanaugh

Historical and Geographical Background The Islamic Republic of Mauritania is located on the Atlantic Ocean in North Africa. It shares a border with Senegal, Western Sahara, Algeria, and Mali. Mauritania was named after the Roman territory of Mauritania. Ironically, the borders of modern-day Mauritania do not overlap with the borders of Roman Mauritania. The largest city and the capital is Nouakchott. Aside from the short Atlantic coastline, the climate in Mauritania is generally hot and dry. Mauritania is largely covered by the Sahara Desert, which makes much of the land unhospitable. The population density is only about eight people per square mile, making it the ninth least dense country in the world. Today, the population is a mix of Arabs, black Africans, and Afro-Arabs, but in ancient times the population was made up of nomadic Berbers who were part of the Ghana Empire. In 1076, Moorish Islamic warriors conquered modern-day Mauritania. The Beni Hassan tribe fought against the Arabs in the Mauritanian Thirty-Year War from 1644 to 1674 in the inal act of resistance by native black Africans but lost. Since then the population has become Arabized and nearly half of the population is of mixed race through intermarriage. France began assuming control of areas in modern-day Mauritania in the early 19th century because of their strategic location on the Senegal River. It was a French colony from 1904 to 1960. The population remained largely poor and nomadic with little infrastructure but did beneit from the French colonizers outlawing slavery and interclan warfare, ushering in a period with few racial tensions. After independence from the French, there were severe droughts in the 1970s, which reignited racial tensions, and a caste system was reinstated in which the Arab Moors ruled and the “Black Africans” were treated as a lower caste and sometimes even enslaved. Slavery in Mauritania is an ongoing issue drawing international attention. According to some estimates by international aid organizations, there may be as many as 600,000 people enslaved in Mauritania. With the caste system that developed, there was also an effort since the 1970s to 471

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Arabize the entire population. Arabic is the oficial language and aside from a very small group of Catholic worshippers, the population is nearly 100 percent Muslim. In 1976, Mauritania and Morocco each annexed a portion of Western Sahara, a disputed territory located on the Atlantic Ocean between Mauritania and Morocco. After several military losses from 1976 to 1979 to an Algerian-backed militia (the Polisario, who were seeking independence for the native population in Western Sahara, the Sahrawi), Mauritania resigned its portion of Western Sahara to Morocco. The dispute over Western Sahara continues today even though there has been a United Nations–sponsored cease-ire in effect since 1991. Injuries and deaths still occur as a result of the many old landmines throughout the territory. As a result of the war there are an estimated 100,000 Sahrawi refugees in Algeria and tens of thousands of Moroccans have been displaced from Algeria. Since Mauritania retreated in 1979, it has remained largely neutral. The oficial stance is that it wishes to have an expedient solution mutually agreeable to all parties. Mauritania’s relationship with the United States and European nations has been anything but smooth. It publicly sided with Iraq in the irst Iraq-U.S. war in 1991, which weakened its relationship with the United States and other Western countries. The United States did not maintain an embassy and therefore had no oficial diplomatic relationship with Mauritania from 1991 to 1999. Mauritania’s relationship with the United States and other Western countries has improved since 1999 when an agreement was reached with the United States establishing a full diplomatic relationship. Mauritania also became one of only four countries in the Arab League to oficially recognize Israel, which further withdrew it from political isolation with the West. Today Mauritania is an Islamic republic led by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. In 1992, the democratic process was adopted, and the irst presidential election was held after many years of military rule. The 2003 presidential elections were signiicant because presidential candidates included the country’s irst female candidate and the irst candidate from the Haratine or slave class, though neither won the election. A coup in 2005 restored military rule until 2007 when Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was elected by democratic vote. General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, who was the head of the Presidential Guard under Abdallahi, organized a coup in 2008 after being dismissed from his position by Abdallahi and assumed control. As a result of the coup, Mauritania has returned to some of its political isolation. Many Western countries canceled aid projects in protest of Abdallahi’s imprisonment and Abdel Aziz’s administration’s denouncement of Israel. In 2009, Abdallahi formally resigned under pressure and was released from prison and is now held under house arrest. These changes paved the way for Abdel Aziz to be oficially elected president (although some still dispute the legitimacy of the election), and he is now

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generally accepted as the leader by Western countries including the United States. The population of Mauritania in 2012 was estimated at 3,359,200. Mauritania is a vast, lat country. Over 75 percent of the country is categorized as desert or semidesert. It is the 29th largest country in the world, similar in size to Egypt or about three times the size of New Mexico. Plateaus mark the landscape in the center of the country but it is still very dry and arid. The highest point in the country is Kediet ej Jill at 3,281 feet. Spring-fed oases can be found around many of the plateaus but it is otherwise dry with few lakes or rivers. Mauritania, along with other countries throughout sub-Saharan Africa, has faced an increase in droughts since the 1960s as climate change has caused the Sahara Desert to expand rapidly. Despite the many mineral deposits (iron ore accounts for 50 percent of exports from Mauritania) and the discovery of oil in Mauritania in 2001, it remains one of the poorest countries in Africa. The harsh desert climate has made it dificult to capitalize on the natural resources. Most Mauritians are subsistence farmers or raise livestock. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, repeated droughts forced many nomads and agriculture workers into the capital, Nouakchott. It is estimated that over 40 percent of the population now lives in an urban area. Unemployment in urban areas is high, but sporadic work can be found selling merchandise at markets or working at the nearby deep sea port. Although the waters along the coastline were once rich with ish, the economy sees little beneit because the waters have long been overished and exploited. Of the more than 3 million Mauritians, approximately 40 percent are mixed Arab and black. The remaining 60 percent are split almost equally between Arabs and blacks with a very small percentage of French and Spaniards. Despite the different ethnic backgrounds, the country is 99 percent Muslim (Sunni). Arabic is the oficial language, but French is spoken among the educated class. Tribal languages including Pulaar, Soninke, Imraguen, and Wolof are still spoken in rural areas. Life expectancy is low (about 54 years) and infant mortality is high at nearly 8 percent. Despite the poverty, obesity levels in women are shockingly high. Being overweight is seen as beautiful, so women strive to be obese, which has a negative effect on their health.

National Dress Mauritania is perfectly positioned, geographically and culturally, as the bridge between Arabs and black Africans. This is evident in the national dress, which incorporates elements of Arab and West African fashion. Malafas are the traditional dress of Arab women in Mauritania, although many women in urban areas, regardless of their ethnicity, will be seen wearing them. Malafas are lengths of lightweight cotton wrapped around the body and tied at one

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Mauritanian women wearing malafas fetch water in the village of Barkeol, 2002. (Georges Gobet/AFP/Getty Images)

shoulder with the remainder of the fabric being draped over the head or shoulders. The lightweight fabric is sold in 13-foot lengths and is worn uncut and untailored. Traditionally, malafas were a deep blue color achieved with indigo dyes. Indigo dyeing is a dificult, time-consuming, and costly traditional craft. Indigo does not bind well with fabric and rubs off on anything it touches, including skin. Arabs in West Africa were called “blue Arabs” because of the blue tint the indigo left on their light complexions. Today many malafas are printed with bright or pastel lowers, an umbra effect (color is graduated from light to dark and often into stripes of varying shades), or other designs. Indigo dyeing requires a high level of expertise and is expensive, so most malafas are made out of less expensive machine-printed fabrics imported from China or India. Both the light weight of the fabric and the light colors are helpful in the intense dry heat. The entire body is covered from head to heel. This fashion evolved both out of the need to protect the body from the desert heat and wind as well as to uphold modesty required by the Muslim faith. To protect the wearer’s modesty, the malafa is often worn so long that it drags on the ground. This causes the wearer to appear slow and encumbered. Although it is often not the case, women who wear their malafas long are thought to be wealthy or slave owners because they are so encumbered that housework and cooking would

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be dificult. It is assumed that they are wealthy enough not to have to perform such duties. It is also considered fashionable or lirtatious to continuously adjust the veil or lift the skirt off the ground to reveal an ankle or any bare skin. The fanciest and most expensive jewelry is worn only where it will be seen by these motions. Ankle bracelets that peek out as the wearer walks or earrings that are revealed by adjusting the veil are very fashionable and seductive. Jewelry and accessories are very important and are worn by women of all ethnicities in Mauritania. Earrings and necklaces are usually sold and worn as matching sets. Many accessories have painted pendants made out of metal or wood. The pendants are worn strung on long strings so they hang to waist level. When a baby turns 40 days old, it is traditional to adorn it in amulets at a ceremony to commemorate the occasion. The amulets can be anything from glass beads to metal charms wrapped in leather with special Arabic inscriptions to ward off evil spirits and illness. Female children often get their earrings pierced at this time and wear gold studs or small hoop earrings throughout their childhood and adolescence. Kiffa are powdered glass beads that are unique to Mauritania. The colorful beads are worn as hair decoration and on necklaces and bracelets. There is evidence that Kiffa beads may have been made in Mauritania as early as the ninth century. The beads are named after Kiffa, the town in western Mauritania where the art form was irst created. Kiffa beads have always been made exclusively by women. Kiffa beads are unique because they were made from powdered or pulverized glass instead of hot blown glass like most inexpensive beads that can be purchased today. Kiffa beads also use a wet form technique, which results in a high level of detail and design. These beads feature a variety of geometric designs, chevrons, circles, crosses, and triangles. The beads themselves also come in a variety of shapes including conical, circular, and oblong. Blue, yellow, black, white, and red are the traditional colors of Kiffa beads. The last of the traditionally trained bead makers died in the 1970s, so it is a lost art. Today, beads that resemble Kiffa beads are made by women in Mauritanian workshops or collectives. They are made of polymer clay instead of glass and have never managed to reach the same level of artistry and design as traditional Kiffa beads. Other fashionable accessories for women are kohl and henna. Kohl is a dark substance worn as a thick eyeliner. Henna is a natural dye used to stain the hands and feet in decorative patterns. The patterns range from solid blackened henna (it is blackened by using ash) to elaborate loral and scrolling designs. Mauritanian women wear their hair in elaborate braids that frame the face. In southern Mauritania, unmarried women will often wear their hair so there is a slight roll at the forehead with braids hanging to the side. Married women wear three thick braids

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress tightly following the head from the forehead to the nape of the neck. Women in the southern regions of Mauritania tend to wear the traditional West African outit of matching wrap skirt, blouse, and head wrap. There is sometimes a fourth matching component that is folded and tied around the waist or used to carry babies and small children on the back. All four sections are made out of the same cotton fabric, which is often printed with a colorful geometric pattern. Other popular patterns feature objects that represent wealth such as cell phones, diamond rings, and oil pumps. These outits, commonly called by the French term pagne, are also used to disseminate political or public service messages and are printed with the image of politicians running for ofice or Mauritanian delegate to the United Nations wears a boubou, March 3, 2011. (UN Photo/ simple graphics showing how to stop Jean-Marc Ferré) the spread of AIDS or other diseases. The skirt is a single untailored piece of cloth, wrapped around the body and tied or secured at the waist. They are usually worn ankle length. The tops can have any number of styles. Most are long and full. The sleeves may be very voluminous and there may be a decorative collar or yoke with trimming. Similar to the malafa, this style is well suited to protecting a woman’s modesty according to the rules of Islam but also protects the wearer from the heat and intense desert sun. Men in both parts of the country wear the traditional Islamic garment called a boubou. A boubou consists of a long, loose tunic-style shirt over loose pants; for more formal occasions, a turban and shawl will be added. White is the traditional color of Islam, but boubous are found in many colors. The lightweight cotton is usually solid or has a faint stripe but may be embellished with embroidery around the neckline and tunic yoke. Boubous are normally bought ready-to-wear in standard sizes as opposed to women’s outits that are usually made to order. Men in urban areas or government oficials (including schoolteachers) often choose to wear Western styles including suits, jeans, and button-down collared shirts instead of a boubou.

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Further Reading and Resources Eicher, Joanne B., ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Volume 1, Africa. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 2010. Popenow, Rebecca. Feeding Desire: Fatness, Beauty, and Sexuality Among a Saharan People. London: Routledge, 2004. Trigingham, J. Spencer. A History of Islam in West Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1975. U.S. Department of State. Mauritania Country Speciic Information. www.state .gov/p/af/ci/mr/. 2011.

Mexico Marie Botkin

Historical and Geographical Background Mexico is a land of contrasts, whether one is considering the geographical differences between the mountains and valleys, looking at culture in small villages in contrast to large urban cities, or comparing past traditional clothing to current fashions. Mexico also has a rich history with artifacts that date back thousands of years and records of some of the earliest civilizations in the world. The past continues to inluence aesthetic and social patterns, but global pressures also weigh heavily on contemporary culture. Belief systems from other cultures, changes in trade, and economic luctuations have all inluenced the country in many ways to become the nation it is today. The population of Mexico in 2012 was approximately 115,000,000. One of the reasons for the variety of styles of clothing and clothing decoration is the variety of geography present throughout the country. Early dress styles evolved to protect their wearers in the variety of temperatures and environmental conditions. Within the borders of the country, there are fertile valleys, dry desert conditions, mountains, and tropical forests. The borders of the country, which covers approximately 761,600 square miles, connect Mexico to the United States in the northernmost regions, and to Belize and Guatemala at the southern tip. Along with the inevitable cultural inluence from the north and the south, Mexico is also graced with long coastlines that border the Paciic and the Caribbean, as well as lending its name to the Gulf of Mexico. Protective clothing for centuries was designed to it the needs of people who lived from the warm beaches on the coastline to the tallest mountains in the Sierra Madre mountain ranges. The epicenter of this wide variety of geographical environment lies within the central plateau in the city named after the nation, Mexico City. Mexico City is the cosmopolitan center of the country and has fashion that mirrors the styles of the great fashion capitals of the world such as Paris and New York. Everyday clothing that is worn by Mexicans varies with their age, class, and fashion interest, just as it does in other nations throughout the world. Young Mexicans enjoy fashion and wear 478

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T-shirts, blue jeans, and athletic shoes with brands that could be seen in any major city. Other large cities like Monterrey and Guadalajara are similar. However, as soon as the traveler moves outside of the larger cities, there is much more variation to the styles worn and produced in the various provinces. Central Mexico consists mainly of mountainous areas with several valleys and basins. These geographical features tend to isolate the people who live in small villages in the area and create a rich environment for a variety of designs and styles of decoration unique to the individual villages. The traditional folk styles of Mexican clothing display great artistry, aesthetic variety, and creativity. Bright colors and patterns are common features and may symbolize speciic information to the wearer. Fiber use has ranged from native agave plants to silk that was imported from Spain. Some of the techniques to fabricate these garments are done with a machine, and some are still done by hand, with lessons taught through generations of men and women.

Historical Mexican Dress Historically, the major changes in Mexican folk costume can be divided into three periods: preconquest, postconquest, and contemporary. Some of the traditional garments worn today come from early styles that were created thousands of years before. For example, representations of the huipil, a loose tunic-like garment that is still worn today, can be seen in the Mesoamerican clay statues of the Teotihuacán peoples, who lived between 100 BCE and 650 CE. Major changes occurred with the arrival of Cortés, when the indigenous civilization began to change under the inluence of the European Spanish styles and customs. Garments worn in preconquest civilizations such as those of the Maya and the Aztecs could indicate social status and geographical location through their design. Much of the information on ancient costume comes from original sources of evidence such as clay igures and some early examples of books called codices. From these resources, we can see that the most common garments worn by men in ancient Mexico include several variations of loincloths, capes, and ritual wear. The maxtlatl was a loincloth worn by men of all classes; it was worn wrapped around the body with a tie in front and could have decorative features such as colored fringe for members of the elite classes. The tilmatli was a rectangular-shaped cape that was worn wrapped around the shoulders and considered to be important in representing status. Warriors that were victorious on the battleield received capes that showed their higher place in the hierarchy in Aztec culture. The ichcahuipilli was a heavy cotton fabric used to fabricate armor for warriors. It is described as being “two ingers thick” and was an effective protection for battle. Ceremonial garments included the kilt, which was a wraparound skirt worn by gods, priests, and the humans who interacted with the gods. It is shown only in connection with the pictorial representations

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of the Mixtec peoples of Oaxaca. The tlahuiztli was another military garment. It was constructed with sleeves and legs and decorated with feathers. It was associated with great symbolic power and could represent a variety of different animals such as eagles, coyotes, or jaguars. Like the tilmatli, it was given to brave warriors as a reward for their feats on the battleield. Ancient costume for women included a mixture of general styles and ceremonial garments. The cueitl was a wraparound skirt made out of a simple rectangular shape of cloth and tied at the waist with a sash. Elite women wore decorated versions. The huipilli was the basic garment for the upper body, worn by all classes. It was constructed out of a rectangle of cloth Aztec warrior wearing a tlahuiztli, from La with a hole cut at the center for the Historia antigua de la Nueva Espana, 1585. neckline. The sides were sewn shut (Library of Congress) with openings at the top for armholes. For outer garments, women wore capes, although representations of them are relatively few. Decoration was an important part of the garments, and women who were skilled at weaving complex cloth and embroidery also gained social prestige. Design motifs for all classes were both rectilinear and naturalistic forms. Many animal designs appeared, such as forms representing eagles, butterlies, jaguars, and snakes. Some of the geometric patterns were named and potentially held symbolic meanings. Women also decorated their faces with early versions of makeup and perfume, using natural dyes such as yellow ochre and copal incense. Footwear and headdresses for both sexes could be highly decorative for the elite; there is evidence of use of gold, gemstones, exotic animal skins, and embroidery as well as feathers from tropical birds. One of the most important distinguishing characteristics of Mexican costume is the use of decorative textiles. The major ibers used through the ages have changed from native plants to imported cotton, and currently to a predominance of synthetic ibers because they are cheaper. Ancient civilizations such as the Maya and the Aztecs had elaborate systems of hierarchical social divisions, including sumptuary laws that prevented common people from wearing certain materials and

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styles. The members of the elite ancient Mexicans wore cotton while the common classes wore bast ibers that were much rougher to the touch.

The Backstrap Loom Many of the techniques used to fabricate the textiles have not changed since colonial times. Spinning is now less frequently seen even in small villages because of the availability of synthetic yarns. However, it was traditionally done for centuries by women, who irst used a drop spindle and later a spinning wheel. One of the most common fabrication methods that dates back several thousand years is the use of the backstrap loom for weaving. A backstrap loom is unique in its design as it is signiicantly easier to move, less expensive to create, and simpler to maneuver than traditional wooden looms. Instead of anchoring yarns onto a large wooden frame the threads are tied around the waist of the weaver and anchored onto an object such as a tree, making the entire process completely portable. The materials used to make it can be as simple as one stick used to stretch out the width of the fabric; the remaining setup is made up of yarn. One of the unique features of cloth woven on a backstrap loom is that it is sized almost perfectly to it the human body. For this reason, cloth was not cut and tailored to it the body until the arrival of Cortés, when European fashions became part of the upper classes’ preferences. When Cortés arrived in 1519, these garment styles remained, but were accompanied by an inlux of European fashions that were worn by fashionable elites and sometimes in combination with earlier folk styles. The Indian styles worn by the Aztecs were met by the initial travelers from Spain with both distaste and admiration. The lack of modesty inherent in the style of the loincloths was of immediate consternation to the Catholic Spaniards, but the level of decoration in the warriors’ cloaks was approved of, and Cortés was given a costume to represent the feathered serpent Quetzalcoatl. Many of the opinions and observations of the irst settlers are recorded in chronicles and tell us much about the customs and clothing worn by the Aztecs when the Spanish arrived. Among other references, one of the most thorough was written and illustrated by a Franciscan friar named Bernardino de Sahagun. It recorded the language of the Aztecs and documented daily life. It is now called the Codex Florentine, being named after the city where it is housed. Life for the Aztecs changed drastically with the invasion of the conquistadores. It is estimated that between one-third and one-half of the population of Indians died from the smallpox disease that the Spanish carried to their lands. Aside from this, many Indians were abused for labor and ended up working as slaves to mine for gold, labor on estates, and weave. A two-tiered social system began, with the European Spanish colonists forming the elite classes and the Indians making up the lower classes. Clothing styles quickly separated the two classes visually. One

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Women wear rebozos in the painting Market in Mexico City (1850) by Jose A. Arrieta. (DeAgostini/Getty Images)

of the biggest changes in the clothing worn by the Indian population was enforced by the missionaries that arrived soon after Cortés. These friars and priests considered the male loincloth an article of clothing that was far too immodest, and they worked to enforce new standards alongside their efforts to convert the Indians to Catholicism. For the most part the new costume consisted of plain trousers and shirts. Indian women, on the other hand, kept many of their traditional garments including the huipil tunic top and the wraparound skirt. New garments for the Indian population included the sarape, which was a poncho-like garment worn by men, and women began wearing the rebozo, which was a head covering or shawl. Some historians connect the rebozo with the Spanish lace mantilla and the new demands of modesty required by the Spanish Catholic clergy members. The Indian population continued using many of the simple textiles they had worn previously, made of rough bast ibers and other plant ibers. But with the settlers came several innovations in agriculture, including a more widespread production of cotton. Where previously it had been against the law for Indians who were not part of the elite Aztec society to wear cotton fabrics, cotton became available to all classes after the conquest. Women produced much of the cloth worn with the familiar

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technology of the backstrap loom. There were some members of the Aztec society that managed to garner favor with the conquistadores, and they sometimes wore the clothing preferred by the colonists. The colonists wore styles that were in fashion in their home country. Readyto-wear clothing was scarce in the early period of the conquest and was among the top imports from Spain to Mexico. Early Spanish settlers came from a variety of classes and wore the clothing appropriate to their station in life; religious men wore simple robes, and nobles wore an ensemble that was at the peak of fashion in Europe. Men’s fashions at this period included shirts of ine linen with gathered necklines and cuffs with hose, garters, and short puffy breeches. Very wealthy men sometimes donned a ruff, which was a high rufled collar that varied in width and could be made of starched linen or lace. For outerwear, they wore belted doublets, short capes, or jerkins, which were tunic-like garments. A hat inished off the entire ensemble. Many of these garments, excluding the shirts and underlayers, were made of luxurious brocades and velvets that were imported from the Philippines. A wealthy colonial woman would be costumed in a two-piece ensemble that was itted tightly to the body and consisted of a long-sleeved bodice and long skirt. The bodice could be low cut in front and worn with inserted chemises that were highly decorated with lace and embroidery. The overall silhouette of the ensemble was created by an undergarment called a Spanish farthingale, which was an elaborate petticoat that reached out to widen the skirts. Fashionable women also covered their heads with lace textiles called mantillas. Women’s garments were also fabricated of the elaborate textiles imported from the East and could be decorated with pearls and jewels, depending on the wealth of the individual. The common people who had migrated to New Spain from the continent wore much plainer clothing. They came to make better lives for themselves, and were made up of merchants, farmers, artisans, sailors, and other laborers. Their garments were made of coarser cloth in muted colors. Men wore basic garments such as breeches with tunics over them, and women wore long gowns that lacked the decoration and the aristocratic petticoats that made it extremely dificult to do any physical work.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress in Mexico By the 20th century, much had changed. After centuries of colonial rule, Mexico won back its independence after the revolts of 1810. However, in terms of clothing styles, change varied depending on location. Many Indian women carried on the craft of weaving the familiar styles of the huipil and decorating it with embroidery that had stylistic origins from the Aztecs, thousands of years ago. The ibers used in contemporary Mexico have changed with the times. Cotton is still popular because of its availability, appropriateness to the warm climate, and ease

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of care. It is grown in small crops by individuals and sold in bulk to the villagers who are still able to spin yarn themselves. Wool is available in a similar manner. Sheep may be kept in small locks, and the wool is prepared, spun, and either fabricated into winter garments or sold at the market. While the numbers of young women who learn to spin and weave continue to wane, there are still some places where mothers teach their daughters at an early age the virtues of the textile arts. There is evidence that girls learn to weave complex patterns by age 11. Men’s clothing in contemporary Mexico is a combination of Western styles that can be seen all around the world and folk costume that is unique to the smaller villages less inluenced by global culture. The typical ensemble includes a white shirt and calzones, which are loose-itting pants. The shirts worn by men are usually plain and tailored, with long sleeves. Some variations include brocaded embroidery styles that are worn in Oaxaca and striped designs that are made by Mixtec weavers. The guayabera shirt, emblematic of Cuba and worn in other Spanishspeaking countries, is also popular in parts of Mexico. This shirt can be long- or short-sleeved and is distinguished by its four patch pockets, two at the chest and two at the hips. The shirt has a collar and center closure, and two lines of either pleats or embroidery running down the front from shoulder to tail. These distinct decorations are sometimes also adorned with buttons that match the buttons on the center panel and cuffs. Calzones are worn in a variety of lengths, including those that resemble Western shorts. Men may tighten the trousers at the waist with belts or elaborate colorful sashes that are woven on backstrap looms. Sashes are often fabricated with distinctive designs that connect the wearer to a speciic geographical location. For outerwear, men may wear Western-style jackets or the sarape poncho garment that has been worn for centuries. Headwear such as the traditional sombrero began to be worn by agricultural workers who were plagued by laboring in the sun for hours at a time. Women’s clothing in Mexico likewise has been recently more and more inluenced by Western materials and trends. But some women continue to wear garments that echo the past folk styles worn by their foremothers. The huipil continues to be worn in southern Mexico and may be decorated with a variety of different embroidery and weaving techniques. The tunic-like garment continues to be fabricated with textiles woven on a backstrap loom, but since factory-made fabric is often the most economical choice, there are many versions that use it. Other folk styles worn by women include the quechquemitl, which is a triangular-shaped blouse. It is almost always decorated around the neck with appliqué or embroidery and may have fringes at the bottom. Women also wear wraparound skirts that are similar to those worn by their historical ancestors. Contemporary styles are made of both handmade and commercial textiles and can be found in white and black as well as a variety of colors. Lengths of skirts vary with tradition and geographical

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location, although it is common for modern young women to wear shorter skirts than their older relatives. Like men in small communities, women also wear distinctive highly decorative sashes that range in width from 1 to 17 inches. Designs include animals, lowers, and geometric forms. In addition to sashes, women continue to wear the traditional rebozo, a type of shawl, which today has a variety of uses. It is used as it originally was, for warmth and to cover the head in church, as well as to carry babies or fruit from the market. In addition to clothing worn in everyday life, special occasions were celebrated with great fanfare and frequently included special costumes. Ceremonial dress has been important to Mexican peoples as early as any information was recorded. From the earliest clay igures found by archaeologists that date back 4,000 years, to Aztec warrior capes awarded to the bravest in battle, to present-day iestas, dressing up for special occasions has been an integral part of the Mexican spirit. This tradition has continued in various forms in contemporary Mexico. Some of the most visible costumes worn for celebrations can be seen at both religious and social ritual occasions. One of the traditions that is celebrated exclusively for young girls is called the quinceañera, which is a coming of age ritual for many young women in Latin American countries. It marks speciically the 15th birthday of a young woman and with it her passage into womanhood. The young woman is celebrated by her family and friends with a large coming-out ceremony where she is dressed in a formal gown and a fancy headdress such as a tiara. Often she is lanked by maids of honor and chamberlains, who are their male counterparts. The gowns are often strapless, loor length, and usually made in pastel colors. There are also vibrant costumes worn to celebrate the Day of the Dead, which is fundamentally tied to a religious ceremony on the irst two days of November every year. Young girls dressed in satin blouses, white pinafores, and patent leather shoes perform the ritual offerings at the graves of their loved ones who have passed on. Some of the offerings associated with this holiday include skulls made of sugar, paper lowers, and elaborate dolls that are skeletons dressed in traditional folk costume. After the visit to the graveyard, many Mexican towns have a parade through the town to celebrate. Mexicans also celebrate their Independence Day with the colors of the Mexican lag, as well as Cinco de Mayo, which represents the Mexican victory over Napoleon’s army in 1862. Typical Mexicans may celebrate iesta days by wearing their best, most colorful garments with elaborate decorations, including sashes with festive designs, blouses with loral or animal designs, and decorative sombreros or other headwear. Other elaborate costumes associated with Mexican culture include the clothing worn by charros, who are skilled horsemen that perform in rodeos and festive events. The charro igure has been connected to Mexican history for hundreds of

Woman dances at a Cinco de Mayo celebration, 2010. (Richard Gunion/Dreamstime.com)

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years, and there are distinctive costumes and equestrian accessories that are associated with it. Charrería events began when the conquistadores introduced horses and horsemanship to the indigenous members of the Aztec society in the 16th century. Both men and women participate, with male participants riding horses in roping and horsemanship events and women performing daring feats while riding sidesaddle. The men wear several speciic costumes that are connected to their functions. There are ive costumes in all for a male charro: working attire, mid-elegance, elegance, grand elegance, and black tie. The outits are typically extremely decorative and feature colorful embroidery and sombreros. Female performers wear one of two classic ensembles, which are long gowns that tie at the waist. The Adelita dress has long sleeves that are puffed at the top and tight at the wrist and a long gathered skirt worn over rufled petticoats. It may be colorful and frequently has metallic embroidery. This ensemble is worn with a rebozo and a plain sombrero. The China Poblana outit is a colorful type of dress with various inluences that include Spanish-style skirts, sequins and beads, a typically square-necked blouse with puffed sleeves, and all decorated with traditional Mexican embroidery.

Further Reading and Resources Berdan, F., & Barber, R. Spanish Thread on Indian Looms: Mexican Folk Costume. Trans. by R. Correa. San Bernardino, CA: California State University Press, 1988. McMenamin, D. Popular Arts of Mexico: 1850–1950. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2000. Sayer, C. Mexican Costume. London: British Museum Press, 1985. Scalzo, W. Mexican Popular Art: Clothing and Dolls. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing, 2008. Takahashi, M. Mexican Textiles. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2003.

Mongolia Timothy May

Historical Background Mongolia has been the domain of nomads. Since the domestication of the horse (circa 3000 BCE), pastoral nomadism, aided by the “ive snouts” (horses, sheep, goats, cattle/yaks, and camels), has been the primary mode of economy for Mongolia. Some towns and permanent settlements appeared throughout the ancient and medieval history of Mongolia, but they tended to be ancillary—usually trading posts inhabited by foreign merchants or imperial capitals that also housed large numbers of foreign staff and diplomats while the imperial court nomadized in the vicinity. Mongolia irst appears as a signiicant factor during the period of the Xiongnu Empire (209–71 BCE) created by Modun (r. 209–174 BCE). Under his leadership, the Xiongnu dominated the steppe from Manchuria into Kazakhstan and controlled much of the Silk Road trade. During the Xiongnu era it alternately raided and traded with the Han Empire of China. Often the raids were used to secure more favorable trading terms with the Han for goods the Xiongnu could not produce themselves. The horse, as it would be for centuries, was the primary object that came from the steppe in exchange for manufactured and luxury goods. An alliance between the Han and other steppe tribes tired of Xiongnu hegemony broke Xiongnu power. A number of other steppe confederations dominated much of Mongolia, but often their power was ephemeral until the rise of the Kok (Blue) Turks (552–750 CE) in the sixth century. Their empire eventually reached the Black Sea. The empire’s unwieldy size ultimately led it to split into eastern and western wings with the split occurring roughly around the Ili Valley in modern Kazakhstan. The Kok Turk Empire, like so many steppe empires, fell apart as disgruntled tribes seized power from the dominated group of the confederation (which usually also lent its name to the confederation). Other steppe powers came and went including the Uighurs in the ninth century as well as the Khitans, who also ruled much of northern China and Manchuria as the Liao dynasty (916–1125). The apogee of steppe empires came in the 488

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13th century when Temüjin (c. 1162–1227) united Mongolia and was crowned Chinggis Khan (ierce, irm ruler) in 1206. He altered the social structure, eliminating much of the leadership of other steppe groups so that the only legitimate leaders came from his offspring and relatives. This ended the process of steppe confederations that dominated Mongolia up to this point and united all groups under the ethnonym Mongol. Chinggis Khan and his successors created the largest contiguous empire in history, which reached a size of approximately 14 million square miles (or roughly the size of Africa). Mongolia became the center of the world with the establishment of a capital by the second khan, Ögödei (r. 1230–1240). Trade was rerouted to it by generous purchasing on the part of Ögödei. After the death of the fourth khan, Möngke (r. 1250–1259), a civil war occurred over the succession to the throne, with Khubilai Khan (r. 1260–1294) emerging as the victor. Complete unity was never restored to the empire, although some token resemblance of it manifested periodically. Mongolia, however, became a backwater province as Khubilai Khan moved the capital to Shangdu, in the environs of modern Beijing. From there, he and his successors ruled east Asia as the Yuan dynasty. The Yuan Empire ended in 1368 during the Red Turban Rebellion and the rise of the Ming dynasty. With the collapse of the Yuan, Mongolia entered a period of disorder. Although a strong khan emerged periodically and leadership remained solidly in the hands of Chinggisids, other groups appeared to challenge it such as the Oirats or Western Mongols. Ultimately, however, unity in Mongolia did not return until its conquest and incorporation in the Qing Empire (1616–1911) in 1690. Initially, Mongolia played an important role in the Qing Empire by providing troops and oficials, but by the late 18th century its importance diminished. When the Chinese nationalist revolution overthrew the Qing in 1911, Mongolia broke away and became independent, although this was leeting. In 1921, the Red Army invaded in pursuit of White Russian troops. As a result, Mongolia became the second communist country in the world. While independent, Mongolia became in reality the 16th republic of the Soviet Union. Its policies mirrored those of the Soviet Union from Stalinesque purges to social and economic purges. The change, however, occurred in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mongolia successfully transitioned to a democratic government, although it was not without dificulties. International pressure to move to a free market economy caused numerous problems in education, health care, and social life—with all suffering negative effects. In the 21st century, Mongolia is rebounding and enjoys a vibrant economy due to the exploitation of its numerous natural resources such as coal, copper, and gold. Excessive and unregulated mining, however, threaten its fragile ecosystem as well as the nomadic lifestyle that 40 percent of the population still enjoys. In 2012, the estimated population of Mongolia was 3,180,000.

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Geographic and Environmental Background The geography and environment of Mongolia has traditionally been one of extremes and thus has had a profound impact on dress. With average temperatures ranging from –30 degrees Fahrenheit during the winter and the cold weather lasting from October to April, rising to the 90s during the summer, Mongolians have focused on warm clothing but they also take into consideration the seasons, which are well deined. Additionally, Mongolia’s continental climate experiences little precipitation, averaging fewer than 16 inches per year. There is extreme cold in the winter and relatively little snowfall, although harsh ice storms known as zhuds have occurred with increasing frequency. These storms have decimated the herds of many nomads, ruining them economically. Most of the precipitation, however, occurs during the summer months. With global warming, the climate is changing. Less of Mongolia has permafrost as well as less snowfall. The increasing aridity thus is leading to erosion, which is also worsened by more goat herding, because the goats’ sharp hooves damage the grasslands more severely. The increase in goats is largely due to Mongolia’s entry into the cashmere market. Geographically, Mongolia ranges from the Gobi Desert in the south to mountains and forests in the north. The Gobi consists of both sand and chol or gravel deserts. The major mountain ranges also help deine Mongolia as they frame the Mongolian plateau, making 80 percent of the country over 1,000 feet above sea level. The major mountain ranges are the Altai Mountains in the southwest, the Sayan Mountains in the northwest that border Russia, the Khentai Mountains in the northeast, and the Khangai Mountains in central Mongolia. While forests are found in much of the northern part of Mongolia and comprise about 8 percent of Mongolia, the country is best known for the grassy steppes that cover the rest of Mongolia. With the low annual precipitation, farming is relatively dificult in Mongolia. The steppes, however, allow for pastoral nomadism to thrive if herds are carefully managed. Contrary to popular belief, nomads do not wander around aimlessly; rather, they have planned migration patterns that prevent overgrazing. Those nomads situated near the mountains tend to transition from the higher elevations in the summer to lower valleys in the winter, while those who are in the steppes move from one region to another. Although land is not owned by nomads, use of certain pasturelands has became a tradition and is respected by other nomads.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity While not homogenous, the vast majority of Mongolia is Khalkha (80 percent). Other Mongolian groups exist as well such as the Dariganga (1.4 percent)

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and Darkhad (less than 1 percent). The largest difference among the Mongolian groups is observed in the dialectal Mongol language, although traditional dress varies too. Other non-Mongolian groups are the Kazakhs in western Mongolia, particularly in Bayan-Ölgii aimag (province) and the Tsaatan or Dukha in northwestern Mongolia. In the 1990s, much of the Kazakh population immigrated to Kazakhstan; however, many returned after inding few economic opportunities there. In addition to ethnic differences, although the Kazakhs are also a result of the dissolution of the Mongol Empire, the Kazakh language is Turkic, not Mongolian. While they do share words with Mongolian, the language is signiicantly different. Their traditional clothing also resembles those of Kazakhs outside of Mongolian, although Mongolian inluences are apparent. The other signiicant difference is that the Kazakhs (10 percent of the population) are largely Muslim. This is in stark contrast to the Mongol population whose members tend to be Buddhist. That being said, shamanism and Christianity have grown in popularity. Christians tend to be either Catholic or Mormon in faith, with the latter growing rapidly in the 21st century. It is not clear whether this is due to Mongolia’s emergence from a Soviet-imposed oficial atheism and the destruction of the Buddhist community in the 1930s, or an increasing attraction to Western religious ideologies, or a combination of both. Nonetheless, Buddhism remains the most popular religion. The Dukha are reindeer herders of Turkic ethnicity and language (Tuvan). Traditionally they have nomadized in Mongolia and Tannu Tuva in Russia. They number only a few thousand and are largely found only along the northwestern border. Religiously they tend to favor shamanism, although exceptions can be found.

History of Dress Since the prehistoric era, Mongolia has largely been a land of pastoral nomads. Making a living with the help of horses, cattle, sheep, goats, and Bactrian camels, the inhabitants of Mongolia have survived for centuries. Considering the climate of Mongolia, the primary concerns about clothing have been pragmatic ones—functionality and warmth. Trousers appear to have been invented by nomads as they make riding horses easier and more comfortable than other garments. Furthermore, trousers provide better protection to the legs from thorns, branches, as well as chaing. Boots also suited the nomadic life in providing protection and warmth for the feet. The upturned toe that developed over the centuries also assisted in insulating the boot as the pocket of air would warm from body heat and thus keep frostbite at bay in combination with felt socks. The upper body was protected by the deel (pronounced dell), a long-sleeved robe or caftan that reaches just below the knee. Among the Mongols it was

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress fastened on the right. Evidence suggests that Turkic groups prior to the rise of the Mongols fastened it on the left as many observers who had contact with pre-Chinggisid Mongolia remarked on this difference. Often the deel was insulated or layered to provide warmth. In warmer weather, men might wear it unfastened so that the right side of their body was exposed and cooler. Like boots and trousers, the deel was and remains a unisex article of clothing, although colors and decorations might vary. A few towns or settlements have appeared throughout history. These settlements have largely been the result of steppe-based empires. The irst signiicant empire was that of the Xiongnu. Although they remained pastoral nomads, the Xiongnu did establish a few permanent settlements. In addition, they also raided the Han Empire, Man wearing Mongolian national dress, including pointed-toe boots and deel, 2010. and they traded with their neighbors in (Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto.com) China as well as Central Asia. At times, the Xiongnu enforced more favorable trade terms, resulting in larger amounts and a better quality of goods moving north to their domains. The goods usually included silk. Other empires succeeded the Xiongnu, including the Turk Empire. One advisor to the Khaghan (emperor), Tonyukuk, advised the ruler to eschew silk as it was not suitable to the rough life of a nomad—it tore easily and lacked the practicality of felt, the primary cloth worn by nomads. The rise of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century with its capital at Karakorum in central Mongolia had a signiicant impact on clothing. One factor was that the Mongols brought numerous artisans including weavers to their camps as well as to Karakorum. While the style of garments did not change signiicantly, the materials became more luxurious. Silk was not the only cloth that became ubiquitous among the Mongol elite. Their love for the gold brocade known as nasij led to a increase in nasij production that led to the movement of skilled weavers across Eurasia—much of it involuntarily. In addition, Mongol-style clothing became fashionable, particularly among courts where the ruler took a Mongol princess as a

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wife, such as Korea. Others adopted some aspects due to proximity to the Mongols such as among the Rus’ princes, whose clothing began to include a caftan similar to the Mongol deel. Other fashion inluences included the transfer of decorative clothing and headgear. Mongol writing inluenced decoration along the hems of clothes in much of Eurasia. The Phagspa script introduced during the reign of Khubilai Khan with its square-shaped cursive letters was imitated as a decorative form on dresses and robes among the elites. The tall hats worn by the female Mongol elite gave rise to the conical “princess” hat of the European high medieval period. Mongol hats with brims and a peaked top also became the model in the European imagination for the headgear of witches and wizards. With the collapse of the Mongol Empire, clothing did not change drastically. With Mongolia’s incorporation into the Qing Empire, the most notable change in dress appeared in headgear for the nobility as they adopted some of the attire of the Manchu court. Some Buddhist inluences also crept in, but traditional attire of boots, trousers, and the deel remained a constant. The next signiicant historical phase occurred in the 20th century with the Soviet Union’s domination of Mongolia. Although never formally a part of the Soviet Union,

Married couple wearing deel—the woman’s is bright purple whereas the man’s is a customary muted shade of brown. The man also wears a trilby hat which is typical of modern Mongolian dress, 2008. (Wade Davis/Getty Images)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Mongolia’s internal policies were closely linked to directives made in Moscow. Even though more Western attire appeared, such as business suits, ties, and dresses, the omnipresent deel remained the standard attire for most Mongols. Buddhist inluences also declined due to the oppression and destruction of the Mongolian sangha or Buddhist community and monasteries. The most notable switch, as in the Qing era, was in headgear. Although traditional hats continued to be worn, the trilby hat became a standard accoutrement for Mongolian herdsmen as well as urban dwellers. Schoolchildren also wore uniforms similar to those in the Soviet Union. Westernization continued in the 1990s with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Mongolia embraced a third neighbor (anyone beyond Russia and China). Headgear continued to change as baseball caps and blue jeans became popular. The most important inluence, however, came not from the United States or Europe, but Korea, called the Korean Wave. Korean investment as well as Mongolian immigrant workers in Korea introduced styles and fashions from Korea.

Materials and Techniques The traditional pastoral nomadic lifestyle in combination with the climate has greatly inluenced Mongolian national dress. With an abundance of sheep, wool became the primary medium for clothing. Unlike in other societies, wool was not developed into yarn or thread as this would have required a spinning wheel or other cumbersome object that would then have to be packed and transported when the nomads moved. Instead, the nomads transformed the raw wool into felt. Wool consists of many scales at the microscopic level. When lattened these scales interlock, thus forming felt. The felt can then be used in large sheets to cover the ubiquitous dwellings of the nomads, known as gers or yurts. It is also the basic item for clothing ranging from socks and the lining for boots. Trousers and shirts have also been fabricated from felt. Of course, felt can be a bit uncomfortable at times, particularly in warmer weather, so other materials have also been used. Silk, when available, has been used for both inner layers next to the skin, as well as on the outside in order to present a more attractive appearance for the garment. Silk loss has often been used for insulation as well in many garments. The extreme cold of the Mongolian winter has also affected clothing. Curiously gloves or mittens are a more recent development. Historically, the nomads and others used the long sleeves of their deel to keep their hands warm. Fur-lined hats have been worn for centuries with a brim or lap that could also be pulled down to cover the ears and neck. When furs have been used for clothing, the fur is usually turned to the inside to keep the individual warm, unlike Westerners who usually displayed the fur as a luxury item. For the nomads on the steppes, the use

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of fur was based on pragmatic purposes. Indeed, John de Plano Carpini, a Franciscan monk who journeyed to the Mongol court in the 13th century commented that the Mongols wore the skins of any creature. In the harsh environment of the steppe, there was little reason to waste anything of use. As mentioned earlier, the medieval Mongols adored nasij, the gold brocade made by artisans from throughout their empire. After the end of the empire, the Mongols lost the expertise to manufacture this. Indeed, it largely declined throughout the world without the insatiable demand of the Mongol royalty. Silk, however, never declined and remains a standard item in the manufacture of higher quality deels with stitched and appliqué patterns. While felt clothes are less common, cashmere has grown in popularity. Indeed, more nomads raise cashmere-producing goats than ever before. Leather attire has also become quite fashionable in boots and jackets, although woolen overcoats in a Western style demonstrate that wool has not disappeared from the Mongolian fashion world.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress The traditional dress of Mongolia in the past, present, and probable future is the deel, the long, loose robe that comes down to approximately somewhere between the knees and mid-shin level with the front overlapping on the right side of the body. It is fastened by two buttons on strings on the overlapping side with loops, connecting on the upper right-hand side and then at intervals on the right side. It is usually also fastened with a sash. Underneath, trousers are worn by men and women and boots as shoes. While the deel is worn less in the 21st century, it remains one of the most practical forms of clothing in the world. For the nomads it can serve as a coat or as a blanket, while also providing some privacy for bodily functions on the open steppe. At the same time, the deel varies with the season and purpose. The basic deel, known as the dan deel, is a plain and unpadded deel that is often worn as a housecoat or work shirt. They tend to be a drab color such as earth tones or gray. In colder weather, people wore a deel known as a terleg. The difference is that the terleg is padded and insulated and even worn over a dan deel. In very cold weather, a terleg might be lined with a sheepskin and wool or stuffed with cotton. While the design is ubiquitous, a deel can also show individualism and be decorative by revealing gender differences as well as tribal or familial identity through patterns and color. Subtle differences exist between male and female deels. The male version is wider and has more muted colors while the female version uses brighter colors. Deels worn for special occasions or events are often made of blue, green, or deep red silk. Other colors are possible, but these tend to be favored. The collar,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress sleeves, and chest are often trimmed with brocade, fur, or leather. The buttons and fastening loops vary in material. Around the waist, a long silken sash is tied. Traditional Mongolian boots are heelless with upturned toes and are consistently uniform in shape for both feet. The boots advance to about mid-calf and are stiff, being made from leather and lined with layers of felt to protect against the cold. Meanwhile, on the foot one wears a thick, quilted sock made from cotton or felt. Much like Western cowboy boots, the Mongolian boot is decorated in a myriad of styles and patterns. Today other shoes are more likely to be worn in the cities. They include high heels, loafers, boots, and name-brand sneakers that one would typically ind anywhere in the world. Hats and headdresses are also part of the traditional dress. Among traditional ethnic dress, the style varies greatly across the country and has gender, ethnic, and social differentiations. The basic hat in winter is simply a fur hat with sides that can be turned down to protect the ears or kept up in warmer weather. The Kazakh form has a longer brim or laps that swoop backwards. Other, nonwinter hats also denoted social status in the past. These styles are still sometimes worn, but no longer carry a meaning. Typically the hat is round, made from felt, and dyed in a variety of colors, with upturned brim pieces and a cord knot on top of a peak. The hat is often decorated with patterns sewn on the sides. Nonetheless this form of hat, which stems from the Qing period, demonstrates its importance in the symbolism of its construction. Thirty-two stitches fasten the cone or peak together with each stitch representing a Mongolian tribe. The knot on top of the hat symbolizes Mongolia’s unity. Social rank was also demonstrated by the height of the hat. The broad upturned brim represents the country’s inaccessibility. Red ribbons attached to the top were worn in the past to represent the rays of the sun. This custom rarely appears today. For women, another traditional hat or headdress is the tolgoin boolt, which varied with region and tribal identity. Prior to the 1921 revolution, the tolgoin boolt was common among noble women, but now they appear only during festivals and special occasions. The headdress consists of silver, decorated with a variety of precious and semiprecious stones. Some forms of the tolgoin boolt included an elaborate frame and hair extensions. Combined with ceremonial deels, often with padded shoulders, it transformed the wearer into a striking image. Americans and indeed, most people outside of Mongolia may be most familiar with it as one of the fashions worn by the Queen of Naboo, Padme, in the Star Wars movie The Phantom Menace.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Although the deel continues to be the daily wear for most of the rural population, the urban reality is quite different. Although one might see people wearing a

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deel, and the average Mongolian might not even turn their head, most urban Mongolians wear Western-style clothing. Seventy years of Soviet inluence have made Western fashions a common part of Mongolian life. Indeed, shortly after the 1921 revolution the government targeted traditional fashions as a symbol of nationalism and an anathema to the communist ideal. The suit and tie and Western-style laceup shoes became the norm; however, the deel did not disappear by any means. For instance, in the 1960s a nomad might have worn a deel, but his hat was usually a fedora or trilby hat. Today, however, men usually wear a baseball cap. While Western fashion is now the norm in the 21st century, it does not originate from Russia, the United States, or even Europe. Rather, it emanates from South Korea. The Korean Wave, as the spread of Korean inluence is often called, has inluenced Mongolia in many ways. Thousands of Mongolians study or work in South Korea and then return home to Mongolia, bringing various elements of Korean culture with them. The most apparent, outside of the numerous Korean restaurants in Ulaanbaatar, is fashion. The style and cut of blue jeans, shirts, dresses, and shoes is inluenced by fashion trends in Seoul, although other countries also exert some inluence as well. Mongolia, however, has not completely submitted to outside fashion. It has adapted its own styles to the 21st century. The khurem jacket is one such example. Made from felt and with long sleeves and buttons down the front center of the jacket with the looped buttons similar to the deel, the khurem is a young man’s jacket. It is trimmed with cloth in traditional knot patterns. This style has also carried over into other clothing forms such as leather jackets and sweaters. Traditional Mongolian clothing has also inspired modern women’s fashions as well. In the female form, the khurem is a coat that extends to just below the knees, but otherwise resembles the khurem. Dresses and blouses bear a certain resemblance to the deel in that they fasten on the right side. Mongolia also produces a number of very stylish sweaters and blouses made from cashmere. As the world’s second largest producer of cashmere, Mongolian fashion designers have taken advantage of the locally produced material and the local elite have responded favorably. In addition to cashmere, trendy sweaters are also manufactured from the wool of the Bactrian camel. This produces not only a stylish sweater, but also one that is very warm. A sash is usually worn with the deel and in the past, it had multiple purposes. In addition to assisting in fastening the deel and adding color to the deel, it also historically served as a corset. Mongolians were less concerned with keeping a small waist than the support the sash provided while riding for long distances. The sash alleviated some of the pounding and bouncing the body took on long horseback rides across the steppe. More mundane uses, particularly during the Qing period and early 20th century, included the task of holding things, such as the knife and

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress chopsticks, a snuff bottle, lint and tinder box, and a tool to clean a pipe. The pipe rested in the boots. In addition to the sash, some of these accoutrements were also attached via belts and sheaths. Often the belts were studded or decorated with silver, which appeared to be a preferred ornamental metal despite Mongolia’s gold deposits.

Further Reading and Resources Allsen, Thomas T. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Atwood, Christopher. Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire. New York: Facts On File, 2004. Avery, Martha. Women of Mongolia. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996. Bruun, Ole. Precious Steppe: Mongolian Nomadic Pastoralists in the Age of the Market. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2006. May, Timothy. Culture and Customs of Mongolia. New York: Greenwood Press, 2009. Natsagdorj, Tsegmediin. Mongolia of Chinggis. Ulaanbaatar: Monsudar Publishing, 2004. Plano Carpini, Giovanni di. The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call the Tartars. Trans. Erik Hildinger. Boston: Branden Publishing, 1996. Rossabi, Morris. Modern Mongolia: From Khans to Commissars to Capitalists. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.

Morocco John A. Shoup

Historical and Geographical Background Morocco is located in North Africa and is, in modern times, a constitutional monarchy where the king holds executive powers but with an elected parliament that governs day to day. The most common languages spoken in Morocco are Berber and Moroccan Arabic. Historically, Morocco was a Berber state and was part of the Roman Empire until the Vandals invaded and brought Roman rule to an end in 429 CE. Islam irst arrived in Morocco with the great raid by ‘Uqbah bin Nai‘ between 680 and 683. ‘Uqbah’s great raid into non-Islamic North Africa sparked a number of local histories of conquest and subsequent marriages between the general and local women establishing valued Arab lineages. The conquest of Morocco happened rapidly following the defeat of the last Berber resistance in eastern Algeria in 701. In 702 Tangiers fell to a mainly Berber army headed by the Berber commander Tariq bin Ziyad. Morocco remained a cultural backwater of the new Umayyad Empire (661– 750), and cultural centers of western Islam developed in Spain at Cordoba and Seville and in Tunisia in cities such as Qayruwan. Moroccan Berbers quickly converted to Islam, but were attracted to the more egalitarian Kharaji and proto-Shi‘ite forms of the religion. The Idrisids were the irst independent Muslim states in Morocco following the Islamic conquest. In time, the Idrisid rulers weakened, and the Umayyad ruler ‘Abd al-Rahman III (ruled 912–961) removed the last Idrisid in order to defend his kingdom from Fatimid expansion. The Party King era lasted from 1023 to 1091 and they were easy prey for the growing power of the Christian north, the kingdoms of Castile and Leon, Aragon, and Navarre. The Muslim princes made alliances with the Christians in wars against each other and in 1085 the great city of Toledo fell to Castile and Leon. The number of Christians was small as many had already converted to Islam. When the Muwahhidin took Muslim Spain, they moved the capital from Cordoba to Seville and made Seville a second capital to Marrakech in Morocco. The Muwahhidin became involved in the wars in Spain to prevent the Christian kings 499

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress from conquering Muslim cities and in 1195 defeated the Castilian King Alfonso VIII (ruled 1158–1214) at Alarcos. The Marinids’ legitimacy to rule was questioned after they were unable to defend their own lands in Morocco from Christian raids. In 1415, the Portuguese seized the port city of Sabtah/Ceuta and by 1513 all of Morocco’s coastal cities had fallen to the Portuguese. Morocco was ruled by many different dynasties and alternately inluenced by France, Spain, and Portugal throughout its history. Dynastic families divided the country. In 1666 the Alaouite dynasty reunited the country and remains the ruling house of Morocco. The French and Spanish ruled a divided Morocco after 1912 and the Treaty of Fez only divided the country. During much of the colonial period, Morocco was governed by French civilians in the major cities, and military oficers from the government department Affairs Indigènes. The French drew borders on their maps for speciic pastoral people and they were not to leave their area without French authorization. It was not until 1956 that Morocco regained independence when France became embroiled in Algeria, and made the decision to give up Morocco and Tunisia in order to keep Algeria. The inluence of France and Spain remains evident in the society today and people still speak French. The present king is Muhammad VI (1999–), who is often thought to be more progressive thinking than the majority of Moroccans with initiatives including political reform under a new constitution, women’s rights, and social reform. The population of Morocco is estimated at 32,309,200.

Geographical Background Morocco is mainly mountains and high, arid plateaus and only the far south, the Western Sahara, is true desert. In the north are the Jabaliyah and the Rif mountains. The large part of the central area and the southeast are composed of the Middle, High, and Anti-Atlas ranges. Other mountainous regions such as the Saghro and Siroua are found between the High Atlas and the Sahara and the Anti-Atlas range. High altitudes mean that winters are cold, and the African continental record for cold was set in the Middle Atlas town of Ifrane at –8°F (–22°C), although it is most likely that places where temperatures are not recorded in the High Atlas are colder. Winters generally have snow in the high elevations and winter storms blow in off the Atlantic. Summers tend to be warm and mild with some places hot with temperatures close to 122°F (50°C). Morocco’s south has a number of oasis communities that have grown up where water is available either from streams or wells. Only the far south of Morocco, the disputed Western Sahara, is true desert receiving 6 inches (150 millimeters) or less of rain a year. This is the land of the Arab Bedouin Awlad

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Hassan tribes who form a large “cultural area” from Guilmim in Morocco to the Senegal River in Mauritania and across the Sahara, skirting the Saharan side of the Anti-Atlas to the oasis of Tuwat in central Algeria and south to the Niger River in Mali at the city of Timbuktu. Much of the Sahara is composed of stony plains; much more of it is rock than sand, although the Hollywood stereotype is large ields of sand dunes. The Bedouin are camel pastoralists and are rarely found in the sand ields where there is no food or water for their herds.

People and Dress Moroccan dress has signiicantly changed during the course of the 20th century, and many elements have disappeared or have been subject to change/modiication for both men and women. Like most people today, Moroccans tend to dress in Western clothes, and the youth closely follow contemporary fashion. Generally, only rural and elderly people still wear traditional clothes day to day. Otherwise, Moroccans wear traditional clothes at religious feasts and holidays, weddings, circumcisions, and other special occasions. The Moroccan population is ethnically diverse with Berbers, or Imazighin, Arabs, Muslims, and Jews. In the past, such distinctions were signiied in dress, marking as much regional variation as any other distinction. Jews, being a special religious group within the larger Muslim community, wore certain clothes that distinguished them, although this is no longer the case. Urban dress in Morocco used to be subject to regional styles and inluences. In Fez, Tetouan, Tangiers, Salé, and Rabat, Andalusians settled in fairly large numbers following the conquest of the last Muslim state in Spain. Andalusians brought their clothes, food, and music and subsequently have come to represent the high court culture of Morocco.

Dress of Andalusian Men and Women Andalusian styles for men’s clothes are best represented by those seen in the city of Salé, where on special occasions men dress in the style of their corsair ancestors called the kiswa del bahriyah, or dress of the seaman. The kiswa consists of a colorful striped cotton shirt and a short tight bolero-style vest of pastel cotton. Over the vest men wear one or two short bolero-style coats of the same color and fabric as the vest. All are heavily embroidered in gold, yellow, silver, or white cotton or silk yarn. Men’s trousers are sirwal that it tight around the upper calf. The sirwal is made of cotton like the vest and jackets and is heavily embroidered around the pocket and down the outer seam to the cuff. The cuff is tight and ornately embroidered as well. A wide cotton or linen belt called a kurziyah is worn

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress like a cummerbund. On the head, they wore a red felt cap with a short cloth tightly wrapped around the bottom of it. Men wore leather slippers called balghah. Urban women also wore clothing inluenced by the Andalusians, and some cities such as Rabat, Meknes, and Fez became important centers of embroidery. Embroidery was bright yellow loral designs. Some women wore massive dresses of stiffened material such as heavily embroidered velvet. Fez became famous for large silk belts called hizam sqalli. These valuable belts are now collectors’ items and have generally been replaced with much cheaper macramé-type belts today. Most urban women wore a caftan in the house, which is a collarless robe with wide sleeves. Caftans were introduced in the early Islamic period from Iran to Andalus and then, with Andalusian refugees to Morocco. Caftans could be made of rich silk brocade or something fairly plain and simple. For inside the house, women wore wooden clogs called qubqab and for going outside, leather slippers or balghah with rich silver or gold embroidery. For everyday wear, women frequently wore a takshitah, a skirt with long open panels that can be tied at the waist when working. Under the takshitah women still wear light sirwal or trousers with heavily embroidered cuffs that it tight at the ankles. When leaving the house women would wear a large modesty cloak called a haik. The haik’s color was associated with the woman’s home city and different colors were used, for example, in Taroudant (dark blue) and Essaouira (bright white). The cloth is large, around 5.9 feet (1.8 meters) in width and 16.4 feet (5 meters) long, much larger than the man’s ksa. The haik was pinned or tied at the shoulders and then wrapped and folded around the body and over the head. Under the haik women wore a headscarf that was tied to cover the lower part of her face. Scarves used as head and face covers were often of inely woven cloth and were decorated with embroidery in loral and arabesque designs. In the 1940s and 1950s Moroccan women began to wear men’s jallabahs in response to the speech by Lalla ‘A’ishah, sister to King Muhammad V, calling on Moroccan women to support independence, leave their houses, and work. Noting that the haik restricted movement, Lalla ‘A’ishah appeared wearing a jallabah stating that it covered women well yet allowed them to work. Subsequently, Moroccan women have adopted the jallabah and modiied it to be more feminine with more embroidery.

Dress of Salé Men Salé men have a unique form of dress. While the rest of Morocco’s urban men dressed more or less in the same long jallabah and silham as the main outer dress, some urban notables wore the ksa, a large piece of cloth folded and wrapped around the body like a Roman toga, over the jallabah and the silham or burnus (burnoose)

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with an attached hood over everything else. All of these pieces of clothes were made of cotton for the summer and wool for the winter. Some Moroccan men still wear two jallabah when going outside, a light inner one in white and a darker, heavier one as dress for walking outside the house. Under the jallabah, urban men usually wore a light cotton or linen shirt and trousers called a jabador or jabaduli. The term jabador refers mostly to the shirt, which hangs below the waist and is not belted. The trousers or sirwal were belted with a bit of cord that is tied in the front. Men wore a variety of headdresses from simple cloth turbans to a combination of felt hats and turbans. The shorter tarbush (commonly called a fez by Westerners) from the Ottoman lands was made and worn in Morocco. In more recent times, men wear a tarbush associated with Muhammad V and Moroccan independence, called the tarbush watani or nationalist hat, made of brushed felt with a crease down the center. The tarbush watani could be any color and today men match the color of their jallabah to their tarbush. Urban men in most Moroccan cities also wore a vest called a bdaiyat over the jabador. The vest was made of a heavier type of cotton or cotton/linen blend and embroidered in the same color cotton yarn around the neck, down the front, and around the pocket.

Dress of the Berbers Berbers generally did not move to Morocco’s cities in large numbers until after independence in the mid-1950s. Many of the special clothes they wore have disappeared since the 1950s and 1960s. The basic men’s wear was, and remains, the jallabah. In the past, some rural men wore them knee length. Rural jallabahs were made from home-spun wool or goat hair of natural off-white, gray, and black. Those who lived in the south and had access to camels also used spun camel hair to make men’s clothes. Some places developed particular colors or color combinations that are still worn. Around Sefrou, the Ait Warayn wear off-white jallabahs with black checkerboard designs while in the region of Azrou, they like a chocolate brown and white design. In the north, men wear aqshab made of wool over their other clothes. Over the jallabah, rural men wore and continue to wear a large cloak called a silham. The silham can be made of inely woven brushed wool, cotton, or camel hair and although it has a hole for the head, men like to wear it tossed over their shoulders even when they bring the hood up over their head. Few men in Morocco will wear it as it was intended. The place for the head to go through, which is embroidered to provide strength, is to it over the top of the chest. The long sides of the silham can be wrapped around the body for warmth. It is snow resistant, if not rainproof. Among the Ait Wawazgit of the Anti-Atlas, the silham is made of black

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress goat hair and decorated with red and white embroidery depicting a salamander, a Berber symbol of longevity. This type of silham is called an akhnif . Under the jallabah men wore a long shirt and short, full trousers, or sirwal. Rural men often wore woven leather belts, sometimes decorated with leather or cotton thread embroidery. Rural men carried a large bag made of stiff leather called a shakurah. Shakurah are still made to carry a man’s sabsi pipe and his stash of kif. Rural men wore a number of different types of footwear. In the past, men in a number of different regions of the country wore sandals made of woven grass called disira nuruwari in the Rif. In the southern part of the country, such sandals were made from the leaves of the doum palm. Men wore a combined leather shoe and woolen stocking sewn together called a loqshini in the High Atlas and an ijekjad in the Anti-Atlas. Unlike the urban balghah, all of the shoes worn by rural people were made with a collapsible heel and were walked on or stood up to form the back of the shoe. Most rural men wore and continue to wear a small turban made of any short piece of cloth. It is tied into place by irst putting it over the head and allowing a small bit to hang down the back, then twisting it at the forehead, bringing it around the head, and tucking it into the side of the turban. Berber men of the Ait ‘Atta and Ait Murghad in the south are known for their large turbans made from a long piece of cloth twisted into a round coil and wound around the head. Often, the center of the head is left exposed to the sun. Zemmour men wear a large straw hat with a wide brim decorated in bright cotton yarn in geometric designs and tassels called a taraza. In more recent years, they have added sequins to them so that they sparkle in the sunlight. In the past, Moroccan Berber women made a wide variety of woven textiles. Unfortunately, most women have stopped making such fabrics, which have been replaced by cheap mass-production materials from overBerber woman dressed for the celebration of Moussem, Tarhjijt, Morocco, 2005. (Olivier seas. Many of the items women used Martel/Corbis) to make for themselves to wear are

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now collectors’ items and are priced above what a woman would be able to pay for them. Berber women wore a large cotton cloth pinned at the shoulders and draped, then wrapped around their bodies and over their heads like the haik. This was called a tafawout or adrar in the Anti-Atlas region. The tafawout, unlike a haik, included embroidery and small silk pom-poms. Women from the Anti-Atlas and parts of the High Atlas wear a wide lat red or black belt with geometric designs. In the Middle Atlas, women wove and wore a reversible cape called handirah. It was made with tie strings and was usually made of cotton and natural off-white wool. It was woven to have strips of wool pile that was worn on the inside in the summer and on the outside in winter to keep the snow and rain from soaking the garment. In the irst decades of the 20th century, metal sequins were introduced by the French and Middle Atlas Berber and women immediately loved them. Even today, women cover their weaving with rows of sequins that sometimes makes it very hard to see the quality of their ine weaving. On the summer side of the handirah, there are woven geometric motifs in rows of dark blue, black, or red. Underneath the handirah, women wore an izar. The izar dress was often dark blue or black cotton cloth that was pinned at each shoulder with a ibula. In Morocco’s south, women used to wear massive ibulas set with glass or semiprecious stones or decorated with cloisonné. The two ibula were linked usually with a silver chain that hung down to the abdomen where women from some communities such as the Idu-u-Semlal had a large silver egg suspended. This large silver egg was called a lagumnut and represented the woman’s fertility. In addition, women wore headscarves even if the tafawout or haik was also brought up over the head. The headscarves also helped indicate the different communities. Some were made of cotton or cotton/wool blends and decorated with designs done in henna. Others were heavily embroidered such as those that used to be made by women of the oasis communities on the Saharan side of the Anti-Atlas or the Aitu-Baha from the Sus region. Among the most intricate of embroideries are those of the Ait-u-Baha who used a large piece of plain black cotton and then with a variety of stitches covered it in yellow, red, green, and orange loral and arabesque designs. Women also wore tie-dyed cloth as a head cover, and a type of weaving called sprang is still used. In addition to the head veil, women used to wear massive coifs. Berber women’s footwear was much the same sort of leather shoe or leather and woolen stocking as men wore. The major differences are that the women’s shoes are more ornately decorated than those worn by men. Women also wore knitted leggings called tarriwin to keep the lower leg warm in the winter. Unfortunately, today all of these traditional items have been replaced by cheaper massmanufactured fabric and plastic shoes. Traditional dress is worn only on special occasions and at folklore presentations for tourists.

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Dress of Awlad Hassan The Arab tribes that inhabit the deep south of Morocco, the disputed Western Sahara, are similar to their cousins in Mauritania, Algeria, and the Azwad of Mali. They are the “Blue Men of Morocco” because they wear cotton dyed with indigo, which rubs off on their skin, staining their skin dark blue. Men wear a large overcloak/robe called a dir‘ah or dira‘iyah with massive sleeves that are folded back over the shoulders. These cloaks are usually white or light blue with silver or gold thread embroidery along the chest, around a front chest pocket, and down the front panel. Under the dir‘ah men may wear a shirt made of similar cloth with gold, yellow, silver, or white embroidery around the collar, the cuffs, and down the front, although in the past many men did not wear a shirt. Today, most dir‘ah are made from a waxed cloth from Mali called Khomeni that has a star and crescent motif woven into the cloth. The Khomeni cloth was so named because of its association with the Islamic revolution in Iran and the symbolic use of the star and crescent showed support. Men wore and continue to wear trousers underneath made of similar cloth to that of the dir‘ah that are similar to what in English is called “Turkish” trousers (Arabic: sirwal.) The sirwal it tightly around the bottoms, which may only reach to the mid-calf of the leg. The cuff is heavily embroidered in the same color as that of the dir‘ah. The sirwal is also embroidered around the pockets and down the outside seam to the cuff. The sirwal is held in place by a braided leather belt called a tijirkit or khazamah. The end of the belt hangs down below the knee and some even reach the ankle. Some of the iner examples are made from several strands of round braided leather stained red and green. Some belts have a metal buckle while others are simply knotted or looped in place. Hassani men wear a turban called a hawali and a litham or veil. Among the Hassani Arabs most of the turbans are made from a long piece of black or blue indigo cloth that is wrapped around the head and lower face of the wearer. Most Hassani men do not use the turban as a head cover except during dust storms. In general the cloth is worn more like a bandolier, crossed over the chest with the ends tied together behind the back. On their feet, Hassani men wear leather sandals or na‘ala (plural: n‘ail). Some of the better quality sandals have inely painted geometric patterns on the sole of the shoe and have soft leather straps that it between the large toe and the next one and around the ankle to hold it in place. On others, the front folds back to protect the toes and ties into the leather strap that its between the big toe and the next one. A man will frequently wear a decorated leather pouch around his neck. The pouch is the bayt or “house” for his small, straight tobacco pipe, called a tuba; his tobacco; and a lint and steel lighter called a zanad. In addition, he may also have

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Moroccan men participating in a fantasia or black powder gun play on horseback. Moroccans wear traditional clothes to such celebrations. (Courtesy John A. Shoup)

on the same strap a decorated metal combination knife, punch, and tweezer tool called a mungash. He may attach a small, decorated leather pouch to keep a stick of miswak used to clean the teeth. Men frequently wore their camel stick or debus suspended from a leather strap on their wrist. Wealthier men, such as tribal leaders, wore a Moroccan-made kumiyah, a curved knife with a thin blade. The daggers were suspended under the arm with a colored, braided woolen cord and attached to rings on the dagger’s scabbard. Boys wore very little until they were old enough to attend Islamic school. They were then dressed in a simple cloth pinned or tied at one shoulder (the other shoulder was left bare). Different ages and different Hassani groups shaved parts of the head, leaving a cock’s cockerel or tufts of hair on the side, top, and back of the head. This practice mostly died out during the second half of the 20th century. Once the boy grew a bit older, the simple cloth was replaced with a child’s version of the dir‘ah. When seen to be an adult, boys and men wore their hair long and frequently stiffened by wind and dust so their hair stood up on end. Hassani women wear a large cloth called a milhafa’ (plural: malahaf) tied or pinned at both shoulders and then wrapped round the head and shoulders with the loose end folded over a shoulder. In the past women preferred white or dark indigo dyed cotton cloth called a shandura. Since the 20th century a light gauze-like

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress cotton cloth decorated with tie-dye techniques has been very popular. The border town of Kahadi (Kaïdi) along the Senegal River is one of the main producers of the milhafa’, but recently both the Mauritanian and Moroccan governments have encouraged other women to learn how to make them. In the past, women usually wore nothing under the milhafa’ but today, women frequently wear shirts, trousers, or a dress because of the see-through gauze material. In the past, women used to attach a long thin sachet illed with cloves or other fragrances used for incense along the front neckline of the milhafa’ called a hafayid. The hafayid was hooked into place with a set of bone or ivory buttons called maqfalat that were used to tie the milhafa’ at the shoulders. In recent years, the milhafa’ has increased in popularity among non-Hassani people in Morocco, Mali, and even Niger, where it is a convenient means of modesty dress for women who cannot afford a large wardrobe. It can cover the whole body and has extra cloth that can be used like a purse to hold money, keys, and other items. Hassani women wear leather or wooden sandals (wooden sandals are called n‘ail sadar); both types are called na‘ala (plural: n‘ail) as they are for men. The main difference is that those for the women are made with more care and are decorated with red, black, green, and yellow paint in arabesque motifs. Those with a wooden sole are relatively thick in comparison with those made of leather. Both the wooden and the leather styles of sandal are secured on the foot by a system of leather straps attached to the sole and fastened at the instep. Hassani women like to have their hair done into distinctive braided coifs, called dhairah, which indicate tribal afiliation and social class. In order to build the elaborate hairstyles, women use a metal frame called a sharwitah, bent to a particular shape distinct to each area, which is then covered with black wool or human hair and woven into place on the head. False braids made from human or animal hair are added to the woman’s own natural braids and decorated with glass, gold, semiprecious stones, and shell beads, each shape having a speciic name. The number of these hair ornaments as well as their placement and materials are used to signify the tribal afiliation of the woman and her social class (free, hartaniyah, or slave). Jewelry plays an important role among Hassani women, and they wear an assortment of necklaces of semiprecious stones called qiladah or to use the Berber term, azlaga. Many of the individual beads are from the Neolithic period (before 6000 BCE) and are made of semiprecious stones, while others have a well-known silver “cross” called a mughdad in Hassani Arabic and khamisah in Moroccan Arabic. Women wear wide silver or gold bracelets. The more delicate arsaq types are made of pieces of wood set in a silver frame (today replaced with cow horn or black plastic) and inlaid with thin silver wire. Among the most spectacular pieces of a woman’s jewelry are the massive anklets worn by Hassani women that can weigh up to 2.2 pounds (a kilogram) each. The anklets (khukhal) are decorated

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with ine engraved designs. Hassani women wear different-sized and -shaped silver rings on every inger, each with its own name, although, in general, a ring is called a khatim. A distinctive piece of Hassani jewelry is the large tasbih or string of prayer beads. Men and women wear them like a necklace around the neck. They are made of glass, semiprecious stones (mostly agate), and wooden beads inlaid with ine silver wire. Those worn as a necklace end with two large silk tassels in multicolors. The clothing of modern Moroccans remains quite traditional and many of the overall styles are worn all over the country, though they are distinct from urban to rural populations. What has changed to a larger extent is how the garments and jewelry are produced. While in the past much of the textiles were homespun close to home, now fabrics are more commonly imported and made of lesser quality ibers. Still, the traditional dress lives on here more than it does in many other countries.

Further Reading and Resources Bennet, Michael. The Battle of Stoke: The Simnel Rebellion. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Bouilloc, Christine, Arnoud Maurières, and Marie-Bènèdicte Seynhaeve. Tapis et Textiles du Maroc à la Syrie. Paris: Chëne/Hachette Livre, 2009. Dodds, Jerrilynn D., Maria Rosa Menocal, and Abigail Krasner Balbale. The Arts of Intimacy: Christians, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008. Khalili, Nasser D. Islamic Art and Culture: Timeline and History. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press, 2008. Morin-Barde, Mireille. Coiffures Féminines du Maroc au Sud du Haut Atlas. Paris: Edisud, 1990. Panetier, Jean-Luc. Volubilis: Une Cite du Maroc Antique. Paris: Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002. Pean, Richard. Tunisia’s Berber Heritage from Prehistoric Times up to the Present. Tunis: Edition Regie 3/Agence Nationale du Patrimonie, 1995. du Puigaudeau, Odette. Arts et Coutumes des Maures. Edited by Monique Vérité. Paris: Ibis Press, 2002. Rabaté, Marie-Rose, and Frieda Sorber. Berber Costumes of Morocco: Traditional Patterns. Paris: ACR Edition, 2007.

Native North American Dress (United States and Canada) Jennifer Moore

T

he dress of North American native peoples is rich and complex. Its history and development includes the inventive traditions of the preindustrial and precontact past as well as the diverse customs of individual tribes whose living traditions are an important part of Native American cultural expression in the present. Information about Native American dress customs can be derived from photographic evidence (after about 1840), paintings, written accounts, oral traditions (lore), artifacts, and contemporary accounts. However, understanding Native American dress is far more than simply understanding the materials and techniques used to make exquisite and expressive clothes. The clothes made by Native Americans both past and present embody tribal values, pan-Indian ideals, and personal power. Given that no single tribal culture was ever hermetically sealed, diversity, evolution, and intermixing of traditions have always been normative in the dress of Native American peoples. Deining and describing speciic garments and their innate properties must be done with caution and with the understanding that “traditional” dress is expressive of evolving traditions. According to the 2008 U.S. Census, there were approximately 5.1 million American Indians and Native Americans. In Canada, there were 1,172,790 according to the 2006 Canadian Census. Whether considering garments from the historical past or the present, it is imperative to understand that the dress of Native American peoples of all tribes are valuable expressions of both self and tribe. Garments are largely handmade and hand embellished even in the 21st century. They are therefore imbued with the spiritual energy of the maker and are considered to be alive with sound, spirit, and meaning. Initially garment forms, the materials from which they were made, and the manner in which they were decorated were largely determined by climate, natural resources, and tribal culture. The lora and fauna of a region determined what could be used in the manufacture of dress, whereas the ecology and climate determined how garments were made. Notably, the archaeological record left by early native peoples indicates that evolution and diversiication were a part of dress traditions from the beginning. Although some speciic garments (or speciic 510

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features or innovations thereof) or decorative patterns may be traced to speciic geographical regions and even tribal groups, over time, dress became increasingly pan-Indian and multicultural. This phenomenon is the result of intertribal interactions, contact with Europeans and their trade goods, and later, a response to the suppression and fragmentation of Native American culture by the governments of the United States and Canada. The combination of these forces stimulated innovation in old forms and adoption of new ideas and identities.

People and Dress Materials and Techniques In the preindustrial period Native Americans used hides, pelts, grasses, bark, moss, and hair in the construction of their garments. The materials were largely selected based on regional availability and need conditioned by the environment. As a result skills and styles evolved in conjunction with the unique properties of regions. Across North America the Native Americans realized ways to work these natural hides and ibers with great skill and imagination. Josephine Paterek, writing in the Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume (1996), has suggested that the Lower Creek women were said to have worn white mantles made of thread from the bark of the mulberry tree, a tree native to the Georgia-Alabama border region where they lived. The quality of this thread was believed to be as ine as the best thread from Portugal, though stronger. Native Americans of the southeast were unique in the ability to spin and weave cotton centuries before contact with European spinning and weaving technologies. Native American clothes have a long tradition of using animal hides or buckskin for their construction. Hides from bear, rabbit, deer, elk, and buffalo have long been used, whereas Kalispel Indian woman with wrapped braids deerskin and synthetic buckskin are wearing white stripes painted on hair, shell widely used today. Concurrent with disk earrings, and a blanket dress decorated the widespread use of hides was the with elk teeth, c. 1910. (Library of Congress)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress use of sinew, bone, feathers, teeth, and claws. The eyeteeth of elk (of which there are only two per animal) were especially prized. Feathers were important for the decoration of hair and headdresses, including war bonnets, but were also used in the construction of mantles. Although modern garments still utilize feathers, the feathers are generally purchased and may be dyed in order to create an “authentic look,” as the sacred feather of the American bald eagle may no longer be used due to federal protection of the species. Although bone may still be carved, it is more common to ind modern Native Americans using synthetic bones, teeth, and claws in the adornment of dress. Native American dress from the precontact period could also be made of woven fabrics. Many woven textiles were made through inger-weaving techniques such as twining or braiding. In the southwest, a true loom with a heddle was in use by the 16th century. Cotton, wool, and yucca were handspun and hand-woven by preand postcontact native peoples and are still used today. With European contact came increased use of textiles. The introduction of sheep by the Spanish into the southwestern United States affected the weaving traditions of the Navajo. Broadcloth, known as “saved list” or “Indian cloth,” as well as “stroud cloth” (a felted fabric) were imported from England and sold or traded to the native peoples of the northeast, who began to utilize the ready-made textiles. Pendleton blankets, woven by the Pendleton Mills of Oregon, were popular among the Pueblo Indians of the southwest as were Czechoslovakian shawls. Increased contact with Europeans, industrialization, and the decimation of animal herds precipitated increased use of textiles, especially white cotton fabric. Beads made of shells, bone, and stone were used to decorate garments before trade routes carrying non-native goods became established. Perhaps the most important and valuable decorative beads were wampum, beads that were meticulously hand-fashioned from purple or white shells. With trade came Italian glass beads, both faceted and unfaceted. Pony beads and their smaller counterpart, seed beads, proliferated between 1800 and 1870. The ready availability of these beads replaced the use of quillwork (porcupine or avian) to a large extent. Other decorative devices that became available through trade in the 19th century included brass bells, dentalium shells, brass sequins, and prepared paint. Many materials made available through trade with non-natives were named for where they came from or for who brought them (as in the case of “Siberian beads,” introduced by Russian traders, and “pony beads,” named for how they arrived. The making of garments (including preparing hides or pelts, preparing ibers, spinning, and weaving) and the decoration of garments (including beading, painting, and executing quillwork) were originally women’s tasks, except for the decoration of some ceremonial and commemorative garments, which was executed by the men who would wear them. In the 20th century this gendered division of labor

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became less stringent, whereas in recent decades the creation of traditional garments, especially those used for the powwow, is often done in concert among the wearer and friends and family. Pieces of regalia worn by modern dancers may be made or purchased by relations of the dancers while the dancer himself/herself will make and buy parts of the regalia as well. Some aspects of garment making and decoration have a long tradition of communal creation. For example, Cheyenne women of the 19th and early 20th centuries completed elaborate beadwork within the structure of a guild. Making and decorating a garment incorporates both tribal and pan-Indian customs passed through generations as well as personal dreams and visions. The act of skinning a deer, tanning a hide, and shaping quills has a longstanding tradition of incorporating contemplation of existence and connection to the spirit realm.

History of Dress Historical garments can largely be dated based on the trade goods that were employed in their manufacture and decoration. The transition from traditional to European fabric and then to European garment forms is a part of the story of Native American dress. By the middle of the 16th century Native Americans and Spanish explorers had made contact, and as early as the 18th century some tribes (among them the Creek) had already largely abandoned native dress customs in favor of skirts, pantaloons, shirts, and coats. For most tribes, adoption of European dress styles came later, mostly in the 19th century with the proliferation of massproduced fabric. Tribes including the Apache, Hopi, and Navajo were inluenced by the dress traditions of Spanish Mexico, adopting white cotton breeches and tunics. In the northeast tribes such as the Chippewa, Delaware, and Huron would have had access to broadcloth and calico—both printed and plain—that could have been fashioned into skirts, shirts, dresses, and leggings.

Men’s and Women’s Dress In terms of traditional garments, mantles and “wearing blankets” were perhaps the simplest garments in the dress of native peoples. Worn in the historical past by members of tribes who lived in climates that necessitated outerwear, mantles could be made of hides, feathers, or pelts. The most highly valued mantle was a buffalo robe, which was most commonly worn by Plains Indians. Buffalo robes were worn with the fur inside and the exposed hide painted. In some cases the hide was painted by the male wearer, who documented his war exploits in pictographic records. Native Americans wore woven blankets in the Southwest. This was an iconic tradition among the Navajo but was also found among the Hopi. Wearing blankets were

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress traded through tribes such as the Pima and Apache and could be of Native American or European/mass-produced origin. Wearing blankets, also known as “chief blankets,” were irst woven of cotton, then of wool, and later of unraveled bayetta, a red baize cloth. By the late 1860s these blankets were highly sought after by white people who purchased them and used them as rugs or tapestries for hanging on their walls. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, blankets that were produced by the Hudson Bay Company of Canada or the Pendleton Company of Oregon were adopted for use as apparel by virtually every tribe in North America, except those that lived in geographical regions in which heavy outerwear was not required. This was done as a result of the depopulation of buffalo herds and the decreased availability of their hides for robes. Additionally, white settlers set a high value on buffalo robes and handcrafted blankets, and actively sought them in trade. Today both companies still produce blankets of the same designs that were traded with Native American tribes. The Pendleton Company currently makes jackets that interpret the “Indian” patterns that have been woven into their blankets for the past 150 years. Many women’s dresses were made of hides, and their construction became progressively more complex over the course of the 19th century. A side-fold dress consisted of a single hide, with an overfold consisting of two legs to form a cape and a single seam to close the side. Evidence of such dresses exists for tribes living in the regions of the upper Missouri River, the Great Lakes, and the Northeast Plains. Speciic tribes whose dress customs evidence these constructions included the Blackfoot, Mandan, and Nez Perce. By 1830 there is evidence of dresses made of two hides. These are sometimes referred to as “tail dresses.” These full-skirted dresses, Early Sioux woman’s dress is decorated with with capes formed from the hind quarquilled stripes and red tassels, beadwork on the cape, and a metal cone fringe around the ters and legs, were made of the hides skirt, about 1830. (Werner Forman/Corbis) of deer, elk, or bighorn sheep. They

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evolved over time (especially among the Crow) to include tapered sleeves cut from separate hides. Both lore and physical evidence indicate that the hides of female animals were preferred for their magical properties, and the tails of the animals were left intact, a further indication of the spiritual connection maintained between wearer and animal. Dresses of this design were found among the tribes of the Great Plains (including the Crow, Dakota, and Mandan) and also among the tribes of the plateau region (Yakama and Nez Perce). By 1870 a three-hide dress was in use. One hide was used for the yoke, and two hides were used to make the skirt. The volume of skin permitted elaborate and extensive decoration. Modern examples of hide dresses tend to freely interpret this last form. Synthetic buckskin, satin, or calico fabric may be used in conjunction with innovative or modern design motifs (such as Christian symbols, military regiment insignia, or other symbols of personal signiicance). Exceptionally long fringe is also a common decorative motif that is applied to modern interpretations of these dresses as the swaying fringe is in keeping with modern dance traditions as well as current tastes. Breechclouts (loincloths) made of tanned hides or breechcloths made of textiles were worn almost universally by Native American men. The cut of these ubiquitous garments varied in terms of the amount of coverage that the garment provided (whether it included front and/or back laps). The manner of decoration was also highly varied. For example, breechclouts worn by Native Americans of the Great Plains, the vast “big sky” region spanning from the foothills of the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River, tended to include fringe trimming of substantial length. The use of the breechclout and breechcloth has been abandoned by modern Native Americans. Long-sleeved shirts were worn by both men and women and could be made of a woven textile or buckskin. Women’s shirts, which were often cut somewhat like a poncho, would typically be paired with a wraparound skirt of simple design. Buckskin shirts were often beaded and included fringe, especially across the bust and up the back of the sleeve. Shirts based on traditional designs continue to be made and worn today in what may be described as pan-Indian tradition. Both men and women from nearly every First Nations group wore leggings, most often made of hide. Men’s leggings generally ended mid-thigh while women’s leggings ended at the knee. Leggings could be tubular in structure or might consist of a lat panel with thongs to bind it to the leg. Leggings could be elaborately decorated, especially with beadwork or quillwork techniques, which were common in different design motifs throughout North America. Moccasins were the most ubiquitous type of footwear worn by Native Americans, although they differed in design depending on regional climate. Moccasins could have either a hard or soft sole and the height of the ankle shaft varied. Terrain (rocks, thistles, swamp) as well as the severity of the weather determined the design

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Decorated skin leggings with quillwork and animal hair. (Werner Forman/Corbis)

of the moccasin. The Kiowa and the Teton Sioux of the Great Plains wore hardsoled moccasins whereas the Cheyenne of that same region, as well as the Jemez of the southwest and the Yurok of California, for example, wore soft-soled moccasins. Moccasins could be lined with fur for winter or attached to leggings to lend additional insulation for the wearer. These characteristics were common for many tribes, among them the Ojibwa of the Lake Huron region, the Cheyenne of the Great Plains, and the Kutenai of southern British Columbia and northern Montana. Moccasins were often elaborately beaded. Some examples from the 19th and 20th centuries have beaded soles. Although moccasins were essentially the last piece of native apparel to be retained as Native Americans adopted European dress customs, today most Native Americans who utilize traditional dress purchase ready-made moccasins, which are manufactured in both buckskin and synthetic fabrics. Native Americans also wore sandals and boots in both the precontact and postcontact periods. Accessories included belts, pouches, and knife sheaths. Headgear was not generally adopted for daily use; however, the Plains Indians wore elaborate war

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bonnets adorned with plumes of feathers. Jewelry was decorative, symbolic, and a means of transporting wealth on the body. Jewelry was typically made of silver, and gold was rarely used. There is some evidence that the Haida of the Northwest worked in gold in the 19th century, producing objects for trade. The Seminole of Florida also worked in gold, prized booty gleaned from Spanish explorers and their shipwrecks.

Special-Occasion Dress Special garments were and still are made for ceremonial events including the celebration of rites of passage and rituals that include calling upon the powers of the spirit world. Among the dress traditions that have been abandoned over the course of the last century is the Lakota (North and South Dakota) custom of completing a pair of quilled or beaded moccasins during the seclusion mandated during the irst menses of a young girl. With changing societal mores and the widespread use of mass-produced footwear, this speciic custom of moccasin production has been abandoned. The Crow, who were tobacco farmers in the preindustrial period, had a tradition of creating special dresses for the women who planted the tobacco seeds. When the economy of the Crow ceased to depend on this form of agriculture, the garments were abandoned. Ghost Dance dresses, a unique aesthetic of the late 19th century, were painted with powerful symbols of nature and the elements that beseeched the universe to come to the aid of the Lakota people. They were created largely in response to the massacre of the Lakota at Wounded Knee, but when the magic of the garments failed, the dress tradition was abandoned. Although many ceremonial garments have fallen out of use, garments worn in celebration of the modern-day powwow are rich and multifaceted examples of the enduring traditions of ceremonial dress among modern Native Americans.

Body Modiication Both permanent and temporary body modiications have a long history of use among Native Americans. There is ample documentation that body paint was widely used in the postcontact period. Paint was worn during athletic events and in times of war as a means of designating opposing sides and making apotropaic markings. Body paint was also used ceremonially. Historically, the Comanche would mark their irst-born child with a line (of cosmetic paint) from ear to ear. Body paint in the form of mass-produced cosmetics and clown makeup is still used, especially by those who perform at powwows. Tattooing was also widely used in the past. It was largely adopted by males as a marking of rank and could serve as a rite of passage. Some tribes tattooed females.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress For example, the Seminole tattooed the wives of their chiefs. Among the Omaha, Cherokee, and Creek tattooing has long been considered a mark of honor. In the past, cosmic symbols were commonly tattooed on the neck or forehead, whereas today symbols are derived from across cultures and frequently applied to forearms or chest. Tattoos are especially common among the many Native Americans who serve in the United States military. Ear piercing has had a long and lasting history of use among both men and women, whereas numerous tribes prior to the 20th century favored ear lobe elongating. Skull lattening was performed by the Choctaw through the early stages of the postcontact period.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress If you were to visit a community of Native North Americans in Canada or the United States, you would likely see the majority of people wearing the same clothes as you would see on any street in any contemporary city. If you attended any festival or tribal gathering you would more likely see many people dressed in the traditional clothing of their individual nations or tribes. As with many cultures, the ethnic dress is reserved for special festivals or ceremonies to celebrate the culture of the people. The living traditions of Native North American dress customs are rich and varied. The study of both historical and contemporary practices reveals aspects of Native North American culture, including personal and tribal values, spirituality, and ecology. As dress traditions continue to evolve in tandem with the culture itself, no doubt the revelatory power of the garments will also evolve.

Further Reading Brasser, Ted J. Native American Clothing: An Illustrative History. Richmond Hill, ON: Firely Books, 2009. Her Many Horses, Emil, ed. Identity by Design. New York: Harper Collins, 2007. Kaufman, Alice, and Christopher Selser. The Navajo Weaving Tradition: 1650 to the Present. Tulsa, OK: Council Oak Books, 1999. NativeTech: Native American Technology and Art Culture Areas and the Locations of Tribes with Illustrated Clothing source. http://www.nativetech.org/clothing/ regions/regions.html. 2012. Paterek, Josephine. Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

The Netherlands and Belgium Michelle Webb Fandrich

Historical Background In the northwestern region of Europe lie the Netherlands and Belgium. The cultural, political, and clothing histories of these two countries are very much intertwined. In the 15th century, these countries were united in the Burgundian union of 1433. Before this, they were to a lesser or greater extent iefdoms of the Holy Roman Empire. Together with Luxembourg, they were referred to as the Low Countries. With the advent of the 16th century, these Low Countries were divided in half, with the southern portion comprising most of modern-day Belgium. In 1815, these countries were once again united as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. It wasn’t until 1830 and the Belgian Revolution that Belgium would become an independent constitutional monarchy. The area that is known as the Netherlands today is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Referring to this country as Holland is a misnomer. North and South Holland are in fact only two of the 12 provinces that make up this country. The Netherlands is a parliamentary democracy with its capital seated in The Hague. The population of Belgium is estimated at more than 10,400,000 people, and the population of the Netherlands is estimated at more than 16,700,000.

Geographic and Environmental Background The Netherlands, as a country, is divided in two by the Rhine River and its main distributaries, the Waal and the Meuse. This naturally occurring geographic divide has had cultural implications on the country, creating and allowing the continuation of linguistic and social differences between the northern and southern halves of the Netherlands. The country is further divided into 12 provinces: Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, North Holland, Flevoland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Gelderland, South Holland, Zeeland, North Brabant, and Limburg. The Netherlands is bordered on the east by Germany and to the south by Belgium.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Belgium is divided into three distinct geographic regions. The coastal plain of northwestern Belgium and the central plateau are two; they are both part of the Anglo-Belgian Basin. The Ardennes uplands in southeastern Belgium make up the third and are part of the Hercynian orogenic belt. Both the Netherlands and Belgium possess a maritime temperate climate, like most of northwestern Europe. They share a tenuous environmental state. In the late 19th century, the last of the native woods of the Netherlands were destroyed and today the majority of woodland in the country is made up of non-native trees. The shape of the Netherlands has also been affected by naturally occurring and humaneffected looding.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The Netherlands is among the most secular countries in Western Europe today, with a little less than half the population reporting no religious afiliation. Among the religions represented in the Netherlands, the Roman Catholic Church is the most popular with the Protestant Church of the Netherlands following close behind. On the other hand, Belgium has remained a largely Roman Catholic country. Religious freedom is a protected right in Belgium; however, the Roman Catholic Church continues to play a strong role in the political scene of this country. The languages spoken in each country relect their interconnected cultural history. In Belgium, three oficial languages are recognized, “Flemish” or Dutch being the most prominent, with French almost equally represented. German is also spoken, though to a lesser extent. In the Netherlands, Dutch is the predominant language though a variety of dialects are spoken. In Friesland, Frisian is spoken, and this is the only region where this language is oficially recognized. The province of Groningen is known for its dialect of Frisian and Dutch. In the northern and eastern provinces of the Netherlands, Low Saxon is spoken. This is among the many languages that are recognized as a “regional language” by the government.

History of Dress As in most of Western Europe, the regional costumes of Belgium and the Netherlands were reined and recorded in the late 19th century. Many aspects of the regional dress in the Netherlands, in particular, can be traced to the fashionable dress of a century before. Styles and silhouettes of the 18th century are relected in the national costume, along with elements of the 17th century as well, particularly in the men’s costume. The history of these costumes, like those in other parts

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of Western Europe, is linked to the dress of the peasant class of earlier centuries, though many of the reinements relect the taste of the upper classes as well.

Materials and Techniques Wool, linen, and cotton are most typically used in the manufacture of regional dress in the Netherlands and Belgium. These may be ornamented through printing, embroidery, or in the case of some contemporary kroplaps, the bibs worn by some women in the Netherlands, painting. Leather is typically used for shoe construction though the iconic or rather infamous carved clog of the Netherlands is made of wood. Metal plays an important role in the creation of some of the Netherlands’ most remarkable accessories, however, such as the notable headwear of the women in the province of Friesland. For Belgium, the materials are much the same as these two countries shared access to similar resources and trading routes.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress The costumes from the towns of Marken and Volendam and the Zeeland and Friesland provinces in the Netherlands are the most iconic. Of these, Volendam is perhaps the most well known and frequently represented in terms of Dutch national costume. Situated in the province of North Holland, Volendam is located on the coast and is the product of a 14th-century land-reclamation project. Volendam was originally a harbor for the nearby Edam, but it was later settled when the residents of Edam dug a canal to the nearby sea and illed in the dam to create Volendam, the town. Women and Girls For women, the Volendam silhouette dates back to the 17th century, when padded hip rolls were worn. The shape of the skirt extends from the waistline and drops to the ankle. In addition to a padded hip roll, the silhouette of the dresses of the women of Volendam may be shaped by several layers of underskirts. In current usage, women are more likely to wear one or two petticoats and forego the older style padded hip roll. Over this is worn an ankle-length skirt. Their white sleeveless underbodices are ornamented with a dickey-like garment called a kroplaps, which is also similar to a bib. The kroplaps are squares of fabric with loral designs. This bib or dickey is fastened at the neck and then secured to the costume at the bottom with ribbons. This element is found in regional costumes throughout the Netherlands and may relect a foreign inluence on the national costume, as they are similar to those worn in parts of Germany. Early versions of the kroplaps were embroidered with an all-over design whereas contemporary ones are usually made of printed fabric or with a painted or embroidered motif at the center front. Made

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Children from Volendam, the Netherlands, wearing their national costume, 1930. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

in two square-shaped pieces, the kroplaps are joined at the shoulders and a solidcolor short standing-collar is attached at the neckline. The kroplaps extends to just above the bustline and is covered with a dark wool jacket or overbodice. This is the kletje, which it is sometimes made with a short skirt or peplum attached at the back. It fastens at the center front (with hook-and-eye closure in contemporary usage) and has a trimmed square neckline, front and back, to better display the kroplaps underneath. Aprons of lowered material are worn over their skirts. A white ichu or neckerchief is worn, with the ends tucked into the jacket or kletje. White stockings and leather buckle shoes are worn. The famous wooden clogs that are so iconic to the Netherlands are really meant for rough outdoor wear and would not be worn indoors or with formal attire of any kind. On the head, the iconic bonnet of the Netherlands is worn, made of white lace with starched wings that extend from the side of the head and wrap toward the back. Necklaces of coral in several strands, sometimes ornamented with a metal buckle, are worn close to the neck. These are called Edelkraal and may relect a belief in the healing powers of coral that was commonly held through the 19th century. This basic costume for women is modiied to signify age and for special occasions such as weddings. In the wedding guest costume, for example, the skirt worn

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is vertically striped in red and black and worn with a black or navy-colored apron over it, which may or may not be trimmed with a printed fabric at the top. For market days, a black or navy-colored wool skirt is worn and may be covered with a striped apron. Frequently, these aprons are smocked at the waist, executed in brightly colored threads. The white ichu may also be replaced by a more utilitarian knitted shawl or scarf. The white starched lace cap is not worn for everyday wear and the kroplaps and white underbodice are replaced with a printed bodice. In this very informal costume, the head is covered by a small black cap (which is typically worn under the lace cap), and the kletje may be discarded entirely. The costume for young girls, as in many other countries, is much simpler, made up of a matching skirt and bodice and lacking embroidered or printed adornment. Young girls do not wear the kroplaps like their elders; however, contemporary Volendam costumes for girls may include the high-peaked winged lace cap worn over the black undercap. Men The men of Volendam also have one of the most recognizable costumes in the Netherlands. Their wide-legged blue short trousers are fastened with silver metal buttons in a fall-front fashion. These are worn with a white shirt and vest in either stripes or red. Nearby, the town of Marken shares many of Volendam’s costume traditions. However, there are some pointed differences in the way some costume elements are worn. The most striking is the women’s striped skirt. In Volendam, it is worn just underneath the apron in the most formal version of that town’s costume. The women of Marken, however, consider this striped skirt more of an undergarment and while it is worn, only the hem of it may be seen under the outer skirt. Because men in both Marken and Volendam traditionally worked on the water, a similar silhouette is seen. This is a good representation of the role occupation plays in the development of regional dress (and dress in Fisherman from Marken, the Netherlands, general). Work on the water requires c. 1900. (Library of Congress)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress freedom of movement, and baggy knee breeches provided the right it for their maritime occupations. The most striking difference between the two costumes is in color—the breeches of the men of Volendam are typically dark blue or black, while those of the men of Marken are white. The costumes of Marken appear more colorful and decorative in contrast to the dark blues and blacks of those of Volendam. Printed chintzes and loral embroidery are plentiful, even in the traditional dress of children. The structure of their bodices also differs from those of Volendam. In Marken, the kroplaps is not seen. Instead a laced bodice is worn, either laced in the front or the back based on the age of the wearer. The lace caps of Marken women and girls are less dramatic, itting closer to the head and sometimes covered with a lowered chintz cap as well. Aprons in dark solid colors and displaying elaborate horizontal folding are worn over the whole costume. The northern province of Friesland possesses a variety of regional costumes. The town of Hindeloopen is perhaps the most different from others throughout the Netherlands. The basic silhouette for women is changed slightly with the addition of a long overdress and a starched bonnet with wings at the back made of checked or solid fabric. The traditional dress of Hindeloopen offers an excellent example of the role historic fashionable dress plays in shaping a regional costume. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Hindeloopen was a very prosperous and worldly town, seeing the beneits of trade with the east. Citizens of Hindeloopen would frequently use their wealth to purchase the printed fabrics being imported from India from the Dutch East Indies Company. The use of these all-over loral prints is a notable feature of Hindeloopen’s regional costume for women and men, both young and old. Elsewhere in Friesland, the use of large amounts of lace in the regional dress represents the general wealth and prosperity in its past. Metal cap brooches were used to afix the outer, often large, lace “German-style” bonnet to the undercap. The wearing of these was a mark of age, as girls were not given them until adolescence. In the south, the towns of Walcheren and South Beveland in the province of Zeeland share other iconic, if less known, features of regional dress in the Netherlands. The silhouette for men and women is quite different from the majority of the country. For women, a brightly colored underbodice is worn with a itted, low-cut jacket bodice. Vertically striped skirts are covered with solid, often dark-colored aprons. It is with the costumes of the Zeeland province that the closest link to the national dress of Belgium can be seen. The national dress of Belgium is most heavily inluenced by Zeeland and the regional dress of Germany. The Dutch inluence may be seen in both men’s and women’s folk dance costume worn by Flemish dance troupes of today. A two-piece dress is typically worn by the women and covered by an apron. The hair is covered with a starched cap of colored fabric and a kerchief of patterned material is worn over the shoulders. For men, the costume is typically made up of dark blue or black

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long trousers, worn with a matching short jacket and white chemise-style shirt. A short-billed cap may be worn in the fashion of the men of the Netherlandish province of Zeeland.

Component Parts Women wear pockets called zijzak attached under the apron. Reticules or other purses are rarely seen in the regional dress of the women of the Netherlands, though they are not unheard-of in modern interpretations. Perhaps the most recognizable feature of Dutch national dress, the high-peaked cap of the Volendam costume, is a relatively modern addition to the costume. This exaggerated style appeared sometime around the turn of the 20th century. Before then, the black undercaps and white overcaps were less peaked in shape, though the wings did extend out to the side. Another equally recognizable component is the wooden clogs, which frequently feature in representations of national dress in The Netherlands. These utilitarian shoes, carved from wood and meant for wear alone or over cloth or leather shoes, most likely originated before the 17th century. Today, they may be seen in some festival wear but are not the only footwear that is worn. Historically, leather buckle shoes offer a more accurate interpretation of what would have been worn throughout the region.

Jewelry The wide-winged, high-peaked lace cap of Volendam may be the iconic symbol of traditional dress in the Netherlands. However, it is the headgear of the Zeeland province that is perhaps the most striking in this country. Here golden helms are worn under lace caps, with corkscrew-shaped cap pins extending outward toward the front, next to either temple. In Walcheren, these are ornamented with gold metal discs that are chased and circular. Those of North and South Beveland are typically rectangular in shape. On top of the lace cap, a straw hat may also be worn. The multiple strands of coral that make up the necklaces worn in the many of the regional costumes of the Netherlands are not necessarily an iconic feature of dress in this country, though the fashion in which they are worn—choker-style and often fastened with a large metal buckle—is unique.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Today, the regional costumes of the Netherlands are most frequently seen at regional dance festivals throughout the United States and Europe as well as in the historic villages of the Netherlands. Volendam’s market days are particularly well

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress known for the appearance of regional dress. Museums in the Netherlands, such as the Openluchtmuseum, began collecting regional costumes early in the 20th century, just as the traditions were beginning to die out. As a way of preserving their national heritage, these collections preserve and exhibit historic and contemporary examples of regional dress from throughout the Netherlands.

Further Reading and Resources Belgium National Costume. (Images and discussion about Belgian national costume.) http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/articles/belgium/belgium-national -costume/ 1922. 2010. de Gardilanne, Gratiane, and Elizabeth Whitney Moffatt. The National Costumes of Holland. London: George G. Harrap, 1932. Hijlkema, Riet. National Costumes in Holland. Amsterdam: J. M. Meulenhoff, 1951. “Holland Lace in Friesland.” Friesmuseum website. www.friesmuseum.nl/index .php?=2594. Mann, Kathleen. Peasant Costume in Europe, Book II. London: A. & C. Black, 1936. Mode Museum. http://www.momu.be/. 2012. Musee du Costume et de la Dentelle (Costume and Lace Museum). http://www .museeducostumeetdeladentelle.be.  Sitwell, Sacheverell. The Netherlands: A Study of Some Aspects of Art, Costume and Social Life. New York: B. T. Batsford, 1952. Smolar-Meynart, Arlette. Dentelle de Bruxelles. Brussels: Musee du Costume et de la Dentelle, 1982. Zuthem, Hannah, and Adriana Brunsting. Het Streekdrachten Boek (The Regional Dress Book). Zwolle, The Netherlands: Openluchtmuseum 2007.

New Zealand Chanel Clarke

Historical Background Until European discovery of New Zealand in 1642 when the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman entered New Zealand shores, followed by Captain Cook in 1769, this island nation was largely isolated 900 miles east of Australia in the Paciic Ocean. New Zealand comprises two main islands (the North and South Islands) and several smaller islands. The islands were settled very late in human history. The irst peoples to populate the islands were the Polynesians who came to New Zealand in the latter half of the 13th century where they developed what was to become known as the Māori culture. In the early part of the 19th century Māori were still largely in control of their own affairs. They maintained their own political autonomy, had signiicant landholdings, and were socially and economically thriving. However, by 1858, Māori were suffering from population decline due to internal warfare and introduced diseases. As a result, with increased immigration and European settlement Māori were outnumbered by Europeans and thus became a minority population within their own country. They suffered major land losses as a result of this European settlement, which was accelerated after the New Zealand wars, as large tracts of Māori-owned land was coniscated by the settler government. Late in the 19th century Christian missionaries began converting Māori people to Christianity. New Zealand ended up a British colony when the French (who had colonies in the South Paciic such as French Polynesia) threatened to colonize New Zealand, at which point New Zealand’s United Tribes asked for protection from the British. Captain William Hobson was sent by the British Crown to claim the islands for Great Britain. Immigration increased to the islands and the population ratio of Māori to European became skewed to favor a high percentage of whites living in and governing the country. Despite their signiicant contribution to both World Wars, the Māori continued to suffer from discrimination and unjust government policies. There were very few opportunities for those in rural areas and as a result a large proportion moved to the cities for employment and educational opportunities. 527

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress New Zealand declared itself a Dominion within the British Empire in 1907 and remains a part of the British Empire in the same way Australia and Canada do, with an independent parliament headed by a prime minister and governed by a cabinet of elected members of parliament. Wellington is the capital of the country where Parliament meets and governs the nation. The population in 2012 was approximately 4,328,000, 15% Māori.

Geographic and Environmental Background The North and South Islands are long and narrow and separated by a short distance (14 miles, 22 km) in the Cook Strait. The islands that make up New Zealand have varied geographical characteristics, with dramatic mountain ranges on the South Island and the North Island mountains prone to volcanic eruption in the Taupo volcanic zone. Sitting on particularly active tectonic plates means New Zealand is also prone to earthquakes. The climate is varied but temperate year round and suitable for agricultural production including fruits (apples and kiwis) and grazing for cattle and sheep. The climate varies, however, depending on the region, from the wet West Coast to an arid climate in central Otago. A subtropical climate can be found as well in Northland. The climate is in part the reason New Zealand can compete in world agricultural trade with fruit, dairy, and wine being sought-after commodities around the world. Wool, once the mainstay of domestic trade, is less important as diversity in economic endeavors has proven beneicial to the standard of living enjoyed in the country.

People and Dress Materials and Techniques Aotearoa—New Zealand—located in the far southwest of the Paciic Ocean, was the last substantial land mass to be reached by the Polynesian ancestors of the present-day Māori. Arriving in successive waves from around 1300 CE, these early settlers were greeted with a much cooler climate than they had been accustomed to in their tropical homelands. Their knowledge of weaving was used to produce a multitude of garments and utilitarian objects; irst for protection from the elements, and second to signify identity, status, and relationships. These early ancestors introduced mammals such as the kurī (Polynesian dog, which is now extinct) and kiore (rat), which were used for both food and clothing. They also brought other raw materials such as the taro, yam, paper mulberry, coconut, breadfruit, and kūmara (sweet potato). Many of these plants did not survive the harsher climate, and protection from the elements therefore became a key

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priority. Substitutions for clothing, shelter, and food had to be found from the local lora and fauna. The Māori found harakeke (New Zealand lax) an excellent alternative to the pandanus plant and used it in much the same way to weave baskets, containers, and mats. They also discovered that its leaves yielded a strong iber from which the basic items of clothing were created. These basic clothing elements included apron-like waist coverings as well as a variety of garments draped from the shoulders. The lax was cut with a mussel shell, and the outer epidermis of the leaf was scraped to reveal the ine white iber known as muka. Once extracted, the iber was prepared into lengths This cloak with decorative borders is made of muka (lax iber) and is known as a suitable for rain capes, or the more kaitaka. The band of taµniko (inger weaving) prestigious forms of cloaks such as the at the bottom and sides includes colored kahu kuri (dogskin) and kaitaka, a lax wool. (Auckland Museum 815/Photographer iber cloak with decorative borders. Krzysztof Pfeiffer/© Auckland War Memorial All garments were produced using Museum 2010) off-loom inger-weaving techniques. These methods included raranga (plaiting), whatu (inger twining), and tāniko (inger-twined decorative borders). Although the color palette available was limited, visual interest and pattern was achieved with the use of various bark dyes. Brown/tan and yellow were supplemented with black dye obtained from paru, which is mud that is high in iron salts. Natural white iber provided a fourth color choice. Sometimes garments were rubbed with kōkōwai (red ochre) to provided a red hue. Our knowledge of customary dress is derived from the observations and written accounts of the earliest explorers. European exploration and settlement introduced new materials and techniques, and Māori clothing has been strongly inluenced by the outside world ever since. These new materials were enthusiastically adopted by the Māori and were integrated into their existing dress almost immediately. They coveted the commercial cloths and blankets that the explorers and subsequent traders brought with them. Woolen blankets and clothing fabrics were unraveled, the wool yarn untwisted, and then incorporated into tāniko (inger-weaving) patterns

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress or other decorative elements on cloaks. As well as integrating introduced materials and trying new techniques on their existing garments, the Māori also adopted garments of European manufacture.

Maµori Dress Kakahu is the generic Maori term for clothing. It can include customary elements of dress such as cloaks, capes, and skirts or more modern elements of clothing such as jeans and dresses. While customary cloaks and capes have speciic terms depending on the style and techniques used, the term kakahu is often used when describing them in a general way. The piupiu is a skirt-like garment that typically has a plaited or woven muka (lax iber) waistband and knee-length cylindrical tags. Often portions of the hanging tags are dyed black to create distinctive patterns across the skirt. A pari is a type of women’s bodice with straps. They were initially constructed from muka (lax iber) and became increasingly popular toward the middle of the 20th century for concert parties and kapa haka groups (dance groups). They continue to be popular today and are created as the uniform top covering for women during kapa haka (dance) performances. These days however, the pari is made with a type of aida cloth using a cross-stitch method to create a pattern that is relevant to the group. This is then backed with a cotton fabric and inally straps are attached. A kaitaka is a particular type of cloak that has a muka (lax iber) foundation and decorative tāniko (ingerwoven) border. The foundation of the cloak is usually plain in color with the decorative borders featuring colored patterns. A dogskin cloak is typically woven with a muka (lax iber) foundation and strips of dog hair attachments are sewn across the surface. Sometimes Performer dressed in a piupiu (cylindrical dogskin cloaks could be constructed tag skirt) and pari (bodice) for a contempoby sewing whole skins together with rary kapa haka competition. (Photographer Chanel Clark) the fur still intact.

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The Māori were still very much a majority population in the early stages of European settlement and as such, motivations for acquiring European dress were carefully mediated. The European provenance of these garments were what made them desirable, particularly for tribal leaders, who were eager to impress upon their followers the advantages that would accrue with continued European connections. While the Māori were actively adapting to European dress, how they were wearing that dress was often either in combination with their own everyday garments or in a manner not typical for the garment. For example, shirts and trousers were found to restrict movement and were often worn around the neck or waist for display purposes rather than functioning as leg coverings for protection from the elements. As conversion to Christianity became more widespread, traditional dress disappeared or was replaced with European clothing that concealed previously exposed body parts, certainly one of the causes of missionary opposition. In New Zealand an ankle-length full skirt and blouse became the preferred dress for Māori women with trousers and shirts being adopted by Māori men. However, both males and females continued to wear their traditional garments, such as piupiu (lax skirts) and kākahu (cloaks), for special occasions in combination with this European-style dress. Careful use of their dress occurred depending on the particular circumstances in which the Māori found themselves. Their location, the occasion, the nature of their presentations, and their status all had a bearing on what they chose to wear. With almost everyone adopting European dress by the late 19th century the cloak became the predominant article of clothing to express Māori values and signify cultural identity. Today, cloaks are only worn for the most signiicant of occasions. Often, they can be seen draped over the cofin of a deceased person, or during particular ceremonies such as university graduations or investitures, to afirm the wearer’s mana (prestige), status, and tribal or family afiliations. The second half of the 19th century became the era of the concert party with the development of the action song and when giving personal pleasure through song and dance as opposed to ritual observance prevailed. This was also the period when a standardized dance costume developed and clothing that had previously been everyday dress became costume, usually only donned for important ceremonial occasions or performances for entertainment purposes. The advent of large-scale organized tourism centered on the thermal wonderland of Rotorua in the central part of the North Island assisted greatly with this transition. Rotorua became the center of tourist entertainment and the local Te Arawa tribe has inluenced the style of public entertainment by the Māori to this day. Tour guides such as the famous Te Arawa (Rotorua tribal grouping) leader Maggie Papakura organized touring concert parties and took a Māori dance troupe to the Festival of Empire in London in 1911.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Traditional clothing became increasingly refashioned as theatrical costume. The dancing Māori girl in a costume of piupiu and bodice coupled with the warrior-like Māori male with protruding tongue performing the haka (male dance) came to signify and represent Māori culture, both at home and abroad. The image of New Zealand portrayed in Tourist Department publicity and by travel companies almost always depicted a Māori maiden in a costume of piupiu (lax skirt) and pari (bodice), which developed as the standard top half covering for women during this period. The pari was the speciically constructed dress for kapa haka (the concert party, or performance of song and dance). While its basic Makereti (Maggie) Papakura wearing a construction was European in design feather cloak and headband over her European dress. Maggie lived at Whakarewarewa, using fabric and tapestry techniques, the motifs decorating it acted as signiin the Rotorua region, where her guidiers of Māori culture, enabling groups ing services were well known. (Auckland Museum C18154) to express their collective identity. Sometimes speciic tribal emblems and associated landmarks were depicted, which signaled belonging to a group both within and beyond New Zealand. Often these performances became the only taste of Māori culture that Europeans had. Kapa haka enabled the Māori to maintain aspects of their culture in a fast-changing world. The accompanying costumes became canvases for displaying identity and a vehicle for the Māori to maintain their cultural heritage in what was becoming an increasingly diversiied society. The beginning of the 20th century was characterized by this renewed interest in the past and a revival of cultural life, particularly the creative arts. The arts of carving and weaving lourished with the support of key Māori leaders. As in many countries, there was a large movement of rural people to urban centers in the latter half of the 20th century. One of the consequences of this ruralurban drift was the formation of pan-tribal groups and Māori youth clubs within the cities where the Māori could maintain family connections and continue to practice their cultural traditions such as song and dance. This also cemented the change from

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performance for ritual, religious, and ceremonial purposes to almost exclusively for enjoyment, revival, and competition. While regional kapa haka competitions had been going since the 1930s, the irst national competition was inaugurated in 1972 with the Aotearoa Traditional Māori Performing Arts Festival. The competition occurs in different locations around New Zealand every two years and is today known as the Te Matatini Festival. The most well-known of Māori dances, the haka, is performed with great vigor at these national festivals; however, it is actually only one component of the competition. There are a total of six performance items, including costume, and each item is judged separately by a panel of adjudicators. These highly choreographed affairs are televised nationally, and competitions have provided a platform for the unique expression of group identity via costume to large and diverse audiences. This high visibility via the media has seen costumes become an integral part of performances. In the early years of the festival costumes were usually comprised of the standard form that had developed in the concert parties of the previous decades. These consisted of lax or plastic knee-length piupiu and bodice for women with cotton underskirts and shorter piupiu for men. In more recent years with a revival in traditional Māori arts such as the making and playing of traditional Māori instruments, there has been a concurrent interest in some of the more customary aspects of Māori dress, which has been translated into costuming for kapa haka performances. There has been a renewed interest in traditional ibers and weaving techniques as groups have begun to explore old materials in new ways. Furthermore, whereas previously groups would have supplemented their costumes with the addition of painted tattoos, today with the reintroduction of tā moko (tattoo) as a result of the general cultural renaissance among Māori one can see the proliferation of permanent tattooing, which is proudly displayed as part of one’s entire performance costume.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications In addition, the Māori took great pains to supplement their clothing with numerous body adornments such as necklaces, earrings, and feathers. These were usually passed down the generations as family heirlooms and held great spiritual mana (prestige). Other modiications included the mixing of oils and ochre for application to the body as well as the more permanent tā moko.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress More recently the Super 12 national competition has evolved, which provides more scope for kapa haka to be combined with other performance aspects such

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress as theatrical acrobatics, and movement where performers take to the stage with trimmed-down teams of 12 members as opposed to the 40-member teams allowed in the larger festivals. The most innovative costumes are those developed and conceived for the Super 12 kapa haka competitions. Teams have embraced the more freestyle nature of the competitions by making a variety of innovative costumes using new materials in new ways. Spandex, bold motifs, and bold colors are commonplace for Super 12 costumes, as are costume styles such as shorts and tights that are a far cry from the traditional costumes of the concert party and the more regular national kapa haka competition. These innovative costumes are not restricted to local stages at home in New Zealand but are also evident in the costumes donned by overseas-based Māori cultural groups as well as student groups participating in the annual Auckland Secondary Schools Polynesian Festival, which is recognized today as the largest festival of its kind in the world. While the Māori have used the kapa haka costume as a means of expressing group identity and pride, others have adopted aspects of traditional Māori dress to portray a distinct and authentic New Zealand identity both at home and abroad. The promotion of New Zealand as a tourist destination on the world stage has consistently involved using images that depict people in Māori dress. New Zealand’s contribution to world fairs and other such international occasions has also seen the promotion of a New Zealand national identity through Māori culture. Just as the haka has been appropriated as a cultural tradition unique to New Zealand and performed by both Māori and non-Māori alike, so too has the standardized Māori costume of piupiu skirt and bodice been appropriated as national attire instantaneously recognized as emblematic of New Zealand, particularly on a world stage. On several occasions customary Māori dress has been the inspiration for the national costume of New Zealand’s representative at international beauty pageants. Similarly on the sporting ield aspects of Māori design have been incorporated into national representative uniforms, such as those for Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams. Despite major social and economic upheaval over the centuries, the Māori have continued to adapt and evolve their dress to meet their changing circumstances. Initially adaptation occurred due to environmental conditions and for protection from the elements. With increased European inluence during the 19th century customary dress was quickly refashioned into costume worn only for special occasions and as identity markers. Today the vibrant range of costumes the Māori employ continues to show distinct cultural traditions albeit in revitalized and redeined forms. Often seen at its best during cultural festivals, Māori dress has been and continues to be employed by both the Māori and non-Māori alike in the promotion of a unique New Zealand identity.

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Further Reading and Resources Buck, Peter Henry. The Evolution of Maori Clothing. New Plymouth, New Zealand: Avery & Sons, 1926. Buck, Peter Henry. “On the Maori Art of Weaving Cloaks, Capes and Kilts.” New Zealand Dominion Museum Bulletin, No. 3. Wellington, New Zealand: Dominion Museum (1911): 69–90. Clarke, Chanel. “A Maori Perspective on the Wearing of Black.” In Doris de Pont, ed. Black: The History of Black in Fashion, Society and Culture in New Zealand. Auckland, New Zealand: Penguin, 2012. Mead, Sidney. Traditional Maori Clothing: A Study of Technological and Functional Change. Wellington, New Zealand: A. H. & A. W. Reed, 1969. Pendergrast, Mick. “The Fibre Arts.” In D. C. Starzecka, ed. Maori Art and Culture. Auckland, New Zealand: David Bateman Limited in association with British Museum Press, 1996, pp. 114–146. Pendergrast, Mick. Te Aho Tapu: The Sacred Thread. Auckland, New Zealand: Reed Methuen, 1987. Te Kanawa, Diggeress. Weaving a Kakahu. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books Limited in association with Aotearoa Moananui a Kiwa Weavers, 1992. Wallace, Patricia Te Arapo. “Introduction to Maori Dress.” In Margaret Maynard, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Volume 7, Australia, New Zealand and the Paciic Islands. Oxford: Berg, 2010.

Niger and Burkina Faso Keri Cavanaugh

Historical and Geographical Background The West African nations of Niger and Burkina Faso share many common traits, not least of which is national dress. Similarities in history and geography as well as a vast shared border have contributed to this. Additionally, the remoteness and isolation of some ethnic groups in both countries has allowed traditional dress to evolve with little Western inluence. Both sub-Saharan countries are landlocked former French colonies. This, combined with scarce natural resources, has had a great impact on economic and political development and has to a large extent limited export ties with Western countries. Both countries are consistently ranked among the poorest countries in the world on the United Nations Development Programme, Human Development Index, which measures life expectancy, education, and standard of living. In 2009, Niger was ranked 182nd out of 182 while Burkina Faso was ranked 177th out of 182. The main economic activity in both countries is subsistence farming (farming that produces only enough crops to feed the family and leaves little or nothing to sell at markets). Niger is approximately twice the size of Texas but 80 percent of it is covered by the Sahara Desert, making arable land for agriculture limited and highly sought after. Droughts and locust invasions are always a threat to subsistence farmers in Niger. Nearly the size of Colorado, Burkina Faso has more land suitable for farming, but food shortages and access to water remain a constant concern for subsistence farmers here as well.

Niger Today Niger has a population of approximately 17 million people, 1 million of whom live in the capital city of Niamey. It is predominantly a Muslim country with small groups of Christians and animists (a spiritual or religious belief akin to Voodoo that spirits exist in humans, animals, and natural features). Archeological evidence suggests that people settled in modern-day Niger as early as 4000 BCE 536

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when it was a fertile grassland. Lions, monkeys, and other animals were once common in Niger, but today many are extinct or live only in the national wildlife park, Parc W, in southern Niger. The last known wild giraffe herd in West Africa can also be found in southern Niger where, thanks to recent protection efforts, their numbers are actually increasing. Niger today is made up of many different ethnic groups. The two largest ethnic groups are the Hausa (53 percent) and Zarma (21 percent), accounting for nearly 75 percent of the country’s population (U.S. Department of State, 2012). There are also signiicant populations of Tuareg, Toubou, Kanuri, Wodaabe, and Fulani. Despite this ethnic diversity, there is relative peace between the groups. Hausas and Zarmas have largely become sedentary farmers while the other groups tend to be nomadic herders. This has created a symbiotic relationship between the groups with nomads hired to herd the sedentary peoples’ livestock and nomads using payment to purchase staple crops such as millet and sorghum from the sedentary farmers. There are occasional organized violent attacks by Tuaregs and Toubous against the central Nigerien government in an attempt to gain greater representation in a government largely dominated by Hausa and Zarma politicians to secure a greater share of health and education services. Niger was a French colony from 1922 to 1960, and between 1960 and December 1999, the country was ruled by various civilian and military regimes. Niger was a relatively stable democracy for the next decade, until a coup in early 2010. The military regime now in power has promised to hold elections but as of this writing has not set a date. Subsistence farming is the main economy in Niger. The main crops are millet, sorghum, cassava, and onions. Niger experienced a small economic boom during the cold war (1970s and 1980s) because of uranium ore deposits that were exported for use in manufacturing nuclear weapons and France’s civilian nuclear program. Niger’s uranium deposits came to international attention again in 2002 when the U.S. government claimed that Iraq was purchasing uranium from Niger to make nuclear weapons (a claim that was later repudiated), leading in part to the Second Iraq War (2003–2011). Today, uranium accounts for 72 percent of Niger’s exports. However, nearly one-half of the Nigerien government’s budget comes from foreign donations in the form of aid. Large oil deposits have been discovered in Niger but as of yet have not been capitalized on due to lack of infrastructure, making export costly. This may change in the near future, though, with China’s recent involvement in pipeline construction. Transportation in Niger has made both the export and import of all goods dificult. There is no railroad, so people must rely on the few paved roads that traverse the country. The Niger River is shallow and broken up into small tributaries, making large-scale river navigation dificult. Historically, camel caravans were

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress important for trade, carrying salt from deposits in the Sahara Desert in Niger to Algeria and onward by sea to Europe and Asia. While camels are still used by some nomadic animal herders, they are not viable for use in large-scale trade.

People and Dress Clothing and grooming is a matter of great importance and esteem in Niger. As in most societies, clothing can indicate a person’s social status as well as ethnicity. Many Nigerien men go south to the coast of Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, and Togo or north to Algeria and Tunisia in search of seasonal employment due to high unemployment at home. When the men return (usually after six months to several years), it is expected that they will bring gifts of fabric and clothing for their wives and families.

Component Parts The most common women’s outit consists of four pieces cut from the same printed fabric. These consist of a wrap skirt or pagne, a loose-itting top, a headscarf, and a second rectangular fabric folded and tied around the waist or used to carry a baby. To carry a baby on the back, the fabric is wrapped around the chest and midsection and tied or secured in the front. This outit, often referred to by the French term complet, is seen in the cities as well as in the villages and on women and girls of all ages and ethnicities. For formal occasions such as weddings, funerals, or going to market, they will wear their newest four-piece outit. For work in the village, they may wear a T-shirt or soccer jersey with a pagne instead of the matching top. The layers and loose women’s clothing serve to maintain modesty as well as show wealth. The more fabric one wears means the more fabric one can afford. The cloth is sold at markets and in stores in urban areas in units of three pieces, each measuring approximately 2.8 yards (2 meters) long by 1.75 yards (1.6 meters) wide. An elaborately tailored top can also signal wealth. Tops will often have embellishments such as large puffy sleeves, rufled edges, or fabric braided and sewn around the neckline. Finally, the size and complexity of headwraps vary depending on the occasion and fashion sense. Traditionally, batik fabric prints were created by hand using the wax resist method. Today nearly all prints are mass-produced in factories. There are few textile manufacturers in Niger, so even inexpensive fabrics have to be imported. “Dutch Wax” cloth is a popular type of mass-produced imported fabric, so much so that women often wear their cloth so that the “Dutch Wax” label is clearly visible in the selvage. Large, colorful prints are very popular and sometimes depict items associated with wealth such as shoes, computers, cell phones, and candy. Large, repeating

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geometric prints are also very popular and can be purchased in many colorways. Politicians and aid groups use textiles to inform and educate, too. Politicians may have large cameos of candidates’ faces printed and distributed around election times. Aid groups may have simple graphics printed on fabric to represent health initiatives such as breastfeeding, drinking iltered water, or immunizing children. This method of information dissemination is especially important in countries like Niger where there is a high level of illiteracy. Male Nigerien dress varies greatly. Younger men often wear urban-style oversized jeans and T-shirts or polo shirts. These can be purchased new or in secondhand markets known as “dead man markets” because it is assumed that only a dead person could afford Woman from Niger wearing a traditional pagne, loose-itting blouse, and headscarf, to give away his clothing. The selec- 2011. (Bouereima Hama/AFP/Getty Images) tion at secondhand markets is mainly from unpurchased donations to charities such as Salvation Army and Goodwill. Garments that may have been misprinted or contain misspellings and are unsuitable for sale in the United States or European countries where they were intended to be sold are also commonly found in secondhand markets. Common motifs are of the deceased rapper Tupac, singer Celine Dion, and promotional materials from the ilm Titanic. Male professionals such as teachers or government oficials mainly wear fonctionnaire (French for civil servant) suits. The style of these suits is partially inluenced by Western suits but altered to accommodate the humidity and heat found throughout West Africa. The suits are usually made out of lightweight, brightly colored solid or printed pagne fabrics. They are often short-sleeved and the jacket is worn with nothing underneath and buttoned up the front. Because the suits are tailored, they indicate the wearer is of a higher social status. The babban riga (big robe) was traditionally worn by Hausa chiefs and prominent citizens. Today, it is worn by Hausa, Zarma, and other ethnic groups alike. Because of their cost, they are often saved for dressier occasions such as holidays, naming ceremonies, and market days. The outits consist of drawstring trousers

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and a large loor-length tunic that is sometimes worn over a long-sleeved tailored shirt. As with formal women’s dress, the robes and pants are usually made from the same cotton fabric. The fabric is usually a solid color with a high gloss inish. In some examples, the robes have an intricately embroidered design around the neckline and down the leg of the pants, and a turban is often worn. Both the Hausa and Tuaregs of Niger are known for their special indigo dying technique that creates a deep blue color and is then beaten to produce a smooth inish with a metallic or silver sheen. The process of making indigo dye is very expensive, so true indigo fabrics are precious, making it rare to see a complete outit of this fabric. Anyone who owns such an outit is showing his wealth and power. Often, instead of having the entire outit made of indigo fabric, men will wear only an indigo turban with a cotton babban riga. The indigo dye does not set well in fabric and will rub off on anything that touches it. Because of this, Tuareg men are known as blue men because the indigo dye from their clothes rub off on their faces and hands, turning their skin blue. Tuareg women can be identiied by their unique dress comprised of an anklelength wrapped skirt with a loose long-sleeved blouse. The blouses are often solid black or white with embroidered geometric designs decorating the chest and upper sleeve. They wear their hair in long braids covered by a dark headscarf draped over the top of the head from side to side. In addition to running camel caravans, Tuareg men are traditionally silversmiths and leatherworkers. Men and women alike adorn themselves in earrings, necklaces, and bracelets made of silver and leather with geometric patterns etched into the silver or with ebony inlays. Wodaabes are another nomadic group in Niger with very distinctive clothing traditions. Wodaabe men and women also wear indigo-dyed cloth, but with multicolored chain-stitched embroidery covering large portions of the garments. The cloth is woven on the traditional loom, which produces thin strips of fabric approximately 4–6 inches (6–15 cm) wide. The thin strips are then sewn together to create a larger fabric. Women wear this fabric as wrap skirts with loose tops or dresses over it. Their wrap skirts often have thin white vertical and horizontal lines woven in. Men wear long embroidered robes or vests over pants and a slim itted top. The embroidery motifs are often symbolic representations of family histories, homelands, and general lifestyles. Each year as many as 1,000 Wodaabes meet in the Sahara Desert to participate in traditional charm dances in a festival called the Cure de Salee. Men don their most elaborate clothes to perform dances, which are judged by women to select their husbands. Men are considered desirable if they are tall and have very white teeth and eyes. To accentuate the whiteness of their eyes and teeth, the men apply

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Wodaabe men celebrate Cure de Salee, Niger, 2008. (Iconotec/StockphotoPro)

yellow paint to their face and wear black lipstick. A dance is then performed with the men in a line standing on tiptoe. They make exaggerated faces to accentuate their desirable traits as the women judge them.

Burkina Faso Historical and Geographical Background The name Burkina Faso means “The Land of Up-right People” in Mòoré  and  Dioula, which are two of the most commonly spoken languages in Burkina. The country was renamed in 1984 after being known as the Republic of Upper Volta (so named for the three rivers that low through the country—Red Volta, White Volta, and Black Volta). For many years there was a struggle between Great Britain and France for control of the area known today as Burkina Faso. The colonial struggle resulted in the country being split up, becoming part of Côte d’Ivoire, French Sudan, and Niger between 1919 and 1947, when it was reconstituted along the traditional borders as a French colony.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Evidence of human farming settlements begins between 3600 and 2600 BCE, but it is believed that Burkina Faso was irst home to hunter-gatherers as early as 14,000 BCE. Today Burkina Faso is home to approximately 17 million people who mostly make their living in agriculture. Farmers grow the staples of their diet, which include sorghum, millet, rice, maize, and yams. Peanuts, beans, and okra are also common crops used to make sauce to accompany pates made from the stable grains. Though there is not a great abundance of natural resources found in Burkina, there are small deposits of manganese, limestone, marble, and gold. Overall Burkina Faso has a relatively dense population, with 20 percent of inhabitatants living in an urban area. Burkina Faso is approximately the size of Colorado. Ouagadougou is the capital city and largest city with nearly 1.5 million residents. Most of the country’s population lives south of Ouagadougou where there is more arable land and a tropical climate. The main employers in Ouagadougou are food processing factories and textile manufacturers. Although poverty and illiteracy are widespread, Ouagadougou boasts an active art scene with a biannual ilm festival (Festival Pan African du Cinéma et de la Télévison de Ouagadougou or FESPACO), which draws visitors from around Africa and the world. Burkina Faso is also home to some of the best craft markets in West Africa including the biannual Le Salon International de l’Artisanat de Ouagadougou (SIAO). Crafts and arts represented at SIAO include jewelry, textiles and clothing, handmade musical instruments, leather goods, paintings and batiks, pottery and ceramics, and sculpture. Similar to Niger, the high rates of unemployment (80 percent of the population are subsistence farmers) force a large number of men to leave the country in search of work, making the number one export from Burkina Faso labor. An estimated 3 million Burkinabè live in neighboring Côte d’Ivoire alone. Many Burkinabe families rely on money sent home from those who emigrate to ind seasonal work. Due to recent unrest in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and other surrounding areas many Burkinabè have been forced to return home or have been unable to ind seasonal work in these countries, contributing to greater rates of unemployment and poverty in Burkina. Ethnically, Burkinabè are 40 percent Mossi with the remaining 60 percent made up of Mande, Gurunsi, Senufo, Lobi, Bobo, and Fulani. Although French remains the oficial language, there are many national languages spoken in Burkina Faso including Mòoré, Fulfulde, and Lobi. The most recent census (2006) estimated that about 61 percent of the population practices Islam, but a common expression in Burkina sends a different message: “50 percent are Muslim, 50 percent are Christian, and 100 percent are animist,” meaning that traditional practices are still commonplace but practiced in secret.

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People and Dress Traditional dress for both men and women in Burkina Faso consists of looseitting garments to shield the body from the intense sun and heat and protect modesty in accordance with the rules of Islam. The most common women’s outit consists of four pieces in a matching print: a wrap skirt or pagne, a loose-itting top, a headscarf, and a second wrapper folded and tied around the waist or used to carry babies on the back. This outit is seen in the cities as well as in the village. Young girls also dress in this type of outit but may have a smaller head covering and will sometimes wear Western style T-shirts instead of the traditional tailored blouse. T-shirts are available in most local markets and are less expensive than tailored blouses, so they are commonly worn during work while the tailored blouses are worn for better occasions. Decorative elements on tailored blouses include fabric rosettes, rufles, ruching, and lace. Pagnes or cloth is sold at markets and in stores in urban areas in units of three. One full unit is worn as the skirt, one can be used by a tailor to create the top, and the third can be used for the headwrap and the one worn around the waist or as a baby carrier. A headscarf of the same fabric or of a lightweight pleated fabric is worn. Fabric tends to be very colorful and printed with large patterns. It is uncommon to see an outit in a single color. Younger men often wear Westernstyle jeans or pants and T-shirts or polo shirts. Professional men such as teachers or government oficials wear two-piece suits consisting of tailored pants and a short- or long-sleeved buttoned-up jacket worn as a top. The suits are made out of brightly colored solid fabrics or printed pagne fabric. Men also wear long tunics over drawstring pants. The tunic is generally collarless and has a breast pocket on one side. White is a common color for men’s clothing because white symbolizes Islam, but these outits are also made out of colorful patterned pagne fabric. Small white or embroidered pillbox-shaped hats are worn by Mus- Man wears the traditional dress of Burkina Faso, 2007. (Gillespaire/Dreamstime.com) lim men with the tunics and pants.

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Further Readings and Resources Anawalt, Patricia Rieff. The Worldwide History of Dress, New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Beckwith, Carol, and Angela Fisher. Passages: Photographs in Africa. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 2000. Beckwith, Carol, and Marion van Offelen. Nomads of Niger. New York: Aradale Press/H. N. Abrams, 1993. Eicher, Joanne B., ed. Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time (Berg Ethnic Identities Series). Oxford, UK: Berg, 1995. Hendrickson, Hilda, ed. Clothing and Difference: Embodied Identities in Colonial and Post-colonial Africa. Durham: Duke University Press, 1996. Human Development Report 2009, Niger. http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/ country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_NER.html. 2010. U.S. Department of State. Travel.State.Gov. Niger Country Speciic Information. travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_986.html. 2012.

Nigeria John G. Hall

Historical Background Like so many other African countries, Nigeria is the creation of European imperialism. Several sources suggest that its name was derived from the Niger River in the 1890s by British journalist Flora Shaw, who later became the wife of colonial governor Frederick Lugard. Nevertheless, the history of modern-day Nigeria, encompassing more than 250 ethnic groups of widely varied cultures and modes of political organization, dates largely from the consolidation of colonial territories in 1914. But some of these “Nigerians” could trace their histories through oral traditions that extended back for centuries before the earliest European contact. These histories, as well as archaeological evidence and written documentation, indicate the existence of dynamic societies, some of which possessed well-articulated political systems that extended beyond colonial rule and remained meaningful institutions after Nigeria became independent. Many of the most outstanding features of modern Nigerian society relect the strong inluence of three regionally dominant ethnic groups: the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Yoruba in the west, and the Ibo in the east. The Nigerian people of today have many different indigenous languages, historical memories, traditional lifestyles, and social frameworks with roots reaching into the distant past. These roots must be recognized for their signiicant contributions to the development of human society throughout West Africa and for the historical legacies that they left to subsequent generations. The irst known human remains, perhaps 10,000 years old, were found at Iwo Eleru in southwestern Nigeria, roughly coinciding with the Late Stone Age (LSA). While humans must have lived in this area before this period, the LSA is signiicant for a variety of reasons. Some evidence supports the theory that this period was characterized by unprecedented levels of migration in the greater Nigerian area, particularly as people moved south from the savanna into the forest zones to escape the rapid desiccation of the Sahara. Also, it was during the LSA that humans in the greater Nigerian area began using tools, called microliths, such as arrowheads and stone axes. This in turn led to the development of pottery and 545

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress other forms of ceramics. This was continued by grain farmers in stable agricultural communities between 4000 BCE and 1000 BCE. Ultimately, the development of agriculture provided the opportunity to establish permanent settlements like villages and village groups. The development of permanent settlements allowed for the diversiication of economies and the creation of more sophisticated sociopolitical conigurations. One major example of economic diversiication can be seen in the growth of ironworking in many parts of the greater Nigerian area during the irst millennium BCE. Unlike those in Europe or the Near East, most West African societies transited directly from the use of stone tools to iron tools without an intervening period of using softer metals, such as copper or bronze. There is evidence of ironworking and iron tools that dates from the seventh century BCE at Taruga, near Abuja. The Taruga site is also known as the center of the Nok culture. The Nok people are most famous for their large terracotta sculptures. One of the most distinctive aspects of these sculptures is the elaborate detailed hairstyles and jewelry that adorn many of the igures.

Geographical and Environmental Background Nigeria is in West Africa, along the eastern coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and just north of the equator. It is bordered on the west by Benin, on the north by Niger and Chad, and on the east by Cameroon. Nigeria covers an area of 356,669 square miles; it is roughly 650 miles from north to south and 750 miles wide. It is comparable to the size of Venezuela. The territories that constitute modern-day Nigeria exhibit diverse geographical characteristics with climates ranging from tropical to arid. Typically, northern Nigeria is mostly plains. The south consists primarily of lowlands. Plateaus dominate the so-called central belt. The country as a whole experiences alternating dry and rainy seasons. The length of the rainy season increases from north to south. In the south, where Nigeria borders the Gulf of Guinea, the rainy season lasts from March to November with a slight respite in August. In the northern part of the country near the Niger Republic, the season lasts approximately ive months, May to September. Depending on location, the amount of rain varies. For example, the far north receives 20 inches of rain in a year, whereas southern Nigeria receives almost six times that amount of rain. Climate, land, and natural resources impact the lives of individuals that live in a particular region. In the 20th century Nigeria is perhaps most famous for its oil resources but, historically, agriculture was the dominant way of life for the majority of Nigerians. Palm trees, cocoa, and rubber have been cultivated in many parts of Nigeria.

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People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity There are roughly 170 million people living in Nigeria, with a combined 250 ethnic groups and languages, which makes Nigeria the most populous country in West Africa and the seventh most populous country in the world and accounts for over half the population in West Africa. Less than 25 percent of Nigerians live in the cities; however, at least 24 cities have populations of more than 100,000. Many of these urban or city dwellers, especially the “elite,” are heavily inluenced by Westernized customs and dress. Out of the 170 million people, there are three dominant groups with large populations: the Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo. The Hausa-Fulani are located on the northern savanna and account for roughly a quarter of the population, while the Yoruba, located in the southwestern part of the country, make up approximately 20 percent, and the Igbo of the southeast represent slightly less. There are other ethnic groups with relatively large populations. These include the Ijaw in the Niger delta region, the Kanuri of the Lake Chad region, the Ibibio around the Calabar in the southeast, and the Nupe and Tiv of the middle belt region. There are many circumstances that must be taken into consideration when discussing the ethnic and religious diversity in Nigeria. First, there has been a major shift in population. In 1950, the United Nations estimated that 88 percent of Nigerians lived in rural areas and practiced a relatively agrarian form of existence. Although farming cash crops and herding still form a substantial way of life for many Nigerians, only about half the people remain in rural areas. Many others, especially the young, have migrated to the larger cities like Lagos and Kano. Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, has more than 10 million residents. Kano has a little more than 3 million. Abuja, the capital, has 1.8 million, and Kaduna has roughly 1.5 million. This is just a small listing. There are many, many others but Lagos seems to be the primary attraction, and it is predicted that if the growth continues it will be one of the most populous cities in the world. It is estimated that nearly half of all Nigerians are 14 years old or younger. This will have a signiicant impact on the country as this group grows older, especially if they gravitate from the rural areas to the larger cities and adopt Western customs and lifestyles. This would present a serious threat to traditional ways of life This trek toward an urban way of life has brought with it mixed blessings. Cities like Lagos are places where people from many different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds interact on a regular basis. Under these circumstances, a mutual understanding and respect for differing points of view and beliefs

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress can be fostered. However, at the same time, the cities can become the breeding ground for ethnic, religious, and class tensions. Other conlicts are born out of these uncertain encounters. Culturally, Nigerians are guided by their loyalties to their traditional values and religious beliefs. Urban life challenges these worldviews. For example, traditional forms of entertainment such as indigenous juju and palm-wine music, the telling of stories, and even oral histories are forced to coexist with radios, televisions, videos, movies, computers, and other forms of technology. Along with television, Nigeria has its own home-grown cinema called “Nollywood,” which experienced so much growth during the 1990s and 2000s that it has become, behind India’s Bollywood, the second largest ilm industry in the world. In 2011, Forbes magazine reported that Nollywood is now an $800 million industry that employs more than 300,000 people. It is ironic that an industry like Nollywood can thrive in a country where the majority of people exist on a minimum of $1.00 a day. Nigerians belong to many different religions but the majority identify with Islam, Christianity, and/or indigenous/traditional religions. About half of Nigeria’s diverse population is Sunni Muslim. Muslims are more concentrated in the northern savanna, where Islam irst appeared between the 11th and 14th centuries. Until the jihad of Usman dan Fodio, who established the Sokoto caliphate in 1809, Islam was primarily a religion for the elite. Kings and wealthy merchants adopted the religion as a means to extend their commercial and diplomatic ties to Islamic states in North Africa and the Middle East. The Sokoto caliphate grew out of the desire to establish a spiritual community in northern Nigeria. The jihad succeeded in consolidating an empire, which included modern Nigeria, Benin, Niger, and Cameroon. The vast majority of Hausa, Fulani, and Kanuri became Muslims. About a third of the Yoruba became Muslim as well. Many Muslim leaders disdained Western dress and inluences and appeared in their inest traditional dress for public affairs. It is possible they wore the widesleeved robe called the grand boubou or bubu in Nigeria, which is often worn by men in West and North Africa. Other common names for this garment are the aghaba (worn by the Yoruba ethnic group), babban riga (worn by the Hausa group), and k’sa (worn by the Tuareg). This garment became popular in West Africa through trade and migration of ethnic groups, such as the Fulani. The women of northern Nigeria wear a similar garment called the m’boubou, made with similar construction techniques, but that is worn in a different style from the men. Women also commonly wear the caftan, which is a version of the boubou, for formal occasions, along with headscarves.

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Historically, the grand boubou was worn by chiefs of the Yoruba of Nigeria, Dagomba of Ghana, and Mandinka. Today, even though it is still mostly worn by Muslims, it is gaining popularity as a fashionable form of attire by Christians in West Africa. Roughly 40 percent of all Nigerians belong to the Christian faith. They are mostly concentrated in the southern coastal regions of Nigeria and along the middle belt region. Whereas Muslims were irmly established in the northern regions of Nigeria at least by the 11th century, Christianity did not made any inroads into the country until the 19th century, nearly 400 years after European contact. During the 15th century European relations with Nigeria were dominated by commercial interests and there were no attempts to convert Nigerians, particularly the political and merchant classes. There were a few attempts by missionaries in places like Benin, but they were not successful. But in the 19th century, after the abolition of slavery, British missionaries achieved greater success that continued throughout the next century. Christian conversion in these early years was not motivated by a desire just to preach the gospel but to redeem Africans from their barbarian and economic deprivation; to create an industrial class that would produce for the market; and to produce a new educated elite that would be the agents of change. Christianity brought with it many aspects of Western culture and ideas about society to Nigeria. Converts were expected to abandon indigenous religions and various aspects of their culture. Some fundamentalist Christians wanted a complete abolition of the traditional “old ways” and a complete submission to their adopted faith in Christ. While many Nigerians did not reject their traditional values worldview, nevertheless, many were altered by their conversion, affecting the way that they viewed themselves, their community, and outsiders. Western values became almost seductive and many Nigerians were drawn to European food, music, books, and clothes.

History of Dress One of the essential aspects of Nigerian traditional dress, for both men and women, is a rectangular cloth called the wrapper, which is worn draped around the body and secured under the shoulder or around the waist. Although it might be common attire throughout Nigeria, this piece of garment has taken centuries to evolve into what it represents today, and tracing this textile will lead to the meaning it holds for most Nigerians. Indigenous ibers such as rafia, bast, and cotton were used to produce the oldest existing examples of cloths that have been unearthed in the Niger region of West Africa. Copper and copper alloys preserved some very early textiles at the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress archaeological site of Igbo-Ukwu. Dating from the ninth century, Igbo-Ukwu provides the earliest direct evidence of weaving in the region. Over 20 cloth fragments were excavated; all of them were woven on a loom in plain weave of various densities from coarse to ine. The types of ibers used indicated indigenous manufacture. Unfortunately, even though the evidence discovered at Igbo-Ukwu establishes the antiquity of weaving and ceremonial regalia, it is unable to provide vital information about the kinds of textiles that were worn in the ninth century. It is not until the 13th century, according to Colleen Kriger (2006), that there is clear evidence of particular types of textiles being used as clothing. For example, the burial site excavated near a king’s palace in Benin City was no ordinary grave. That this was a ritual sacriice is apparent: As many as 40 young women were thrown together into a pit or cistern, along with decorated bronze jewelry and beads made of glass and agate. Their clothing or burial shrouds, too, were impressive. Some of the textile fragments were densely woven in plain weave, while others included more complex structural embellishments such as network and openwork. These were exceptional cloths, perhaps made speciically for this occasion and, since it was created before or during the 13th century, it provides ample evidence that it predates the arrival of the Europeans. Much less is known about the early dress and weaving in the Yoruba kingdoms. But given the likely historical links between Ife, an ancient Yoruba city, and Benin—as supported by oral traditions and linguistics—it is reasonable to suggest that in Yorubaland too, royal and ceremonial dress included certain types of imposing, locally woven textiles. Indeed, one eloquent example of visual evidence comes from a igural sculpture portraying a Yoruba king, the Oni (he who owns the land) of Ife, cast in brass and dated to the early 14th or early 15th century. To say that this is a rarity is an understatement because of all the statues found at Ife, it is the only full-length igure to have survived intact. He was discovered standing in an erect frontal position. Beads worn in his crown wrap his arms and encircle his legs. Ropes and strands of beads cover his torso, topped off by a heavy beaded collar and his badge of ofice. Furthermore, he wears a cloth wrapper folded at the waist and cinched by what appears to be a cloth belt trimmed with beads. Other emblems of his authority are a ram’s horn held in his right hand. Finally, he displays the power and splendor of his ofice, an ofice held during the period of Ife’s cultural lorescence, when protective walls surrounded the town and the loors of some buildings were paved with potsherds carefully laid down in striking patterns. From the end of the 13th to the middle of the 15th century, cloth and the art of weaving took on a greater meaning for the people of West Africa. According to

Figure of an oni, Ife (zinc brass),Yoruba Culture, 14th century. (Private Collection/© Dirk Bakker/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress oral traditions one of the Obas of Benin (perhaps Ohen) established a merchant and artisan association, the Royal Weavers Benin or Owina n ‘ido, which initiated a new stage in the history of manufacture in the kingdom. Similar events were taking place in the Yoruba kingdom of Ijebu-Ode and other regions of Nigeria. Oral tradition suggests that Ijebu-Ode had a long history of patronage of weavers. Ijebu-Ode was another of the earliest textile-producing centers that was speciically mentioned by European traders. Therefore, it seems reasonable to suggest that people, ideas, and items regarding the art of weaving circulated among kingdoms as did craft workers and their skills. As a result, weaving was well established at least by the 15th century, increasing the possibility that some weavers made cloth for everyday use while others specialized in weaving ceremonial cloth for political oficials, religious leaders, and the elite. Whatever the situation might be, the market for textiles was already established by the time international commerce opened on the Bight of Benin and foreign merchants had to adapt to this existing market. However, in some special cases imported novelties were universally admired and assimilated. Imported red wool was one example and there are a variety of reasons to explain this. In some Yoruba areas, scarlet cloth was imported to be unraveled, the bright thread was rewoven into ceremonial colors, some to display at funerals, others to be worn as costumes to honor ancestors. It must be mentioned, however, that for the majority of the population traditional dress was revised but not revolutionized by the international trade in textiles. During the 17th and 18th centuries clothing relected a variety of social divisions that were deined by age, gender, and class. Adult men wore plain or patterned wrappers cinched at the waist. Adult women wore plain or dyed-blue cloth wrapped around the torso and folded over at the waist, sometimes with a smaller cloth over the breast. Social positions were also evident in the number of cloths worn at a time; “ordinary” people wore a single wrapper while the rich might wear as many as four, draped and layered in such a way as to show them off. For the most part, yardage straight from the loom was preferred over sewn, seamed, and itted garments. Long lengths of fabric were cut down to the proper size for making wrappers, shawls, and underclothes that continued to serve as traditional dress. European merchants quickly learned that adherence to such matters of taste was crucial if there were to be any successful trading. This is another example of how important culture was in shaping markets and mediating economic transactions. But this balance of power would undergo an irrevocable transformation during the 17th and 18th centuries at the height of the African slave trade.

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During the 16th and 17th centuries, African exporters took European merchandise on credit and they traveled miles to inland workshops to have cloth made over the next six to seven months. They became ensnared in the unrelenting equation of supply and demand. They faced numerous obstacles. First, the art of weaving had not changed in generations. There was no reason to change. But now they were faced with the changing technology they had used to weave cloth and they had to produce more cloth than they had ever made. It had reached the point where the market had begun to control their lives.

Materials and Techniques One of the reasons that Nigeria is of great importance is the prominent role the region played in the trade, consumption, and manufacture of textiles. It is the place where cotton and other ibers, like rafia and bast, were produced and where textiles were imported via caravans that crossed the Sahara and, later on, via merchant ships that plied the seacoast. It took great ingenuity to turn these raw ibers into usable textiles. A special kind of loom, sometimes called the vertical or the continuous warp loom, was used in settlements in the tropical rain forest along the bights of Benin and Biafra. It is uncertain when it was invented, but the many structural variations suggest that speciic groups of weavers made adaptations and modiications gradually over a period of time and in different locales. Weavers with vertical looms used rafia, bast, and cotton, either gathered in the wild or cultivated. Some were spun into threads. Some were not but, either way, these early forest textiles were probably woven from unspun ibers that required soaking, beating, and combing before being dressed and woven on the loom. One of the most important ibers from this early period came from the palm leaves of the rafia tree. It was sturdy and resilient and many rafia wrappers were woven almost as inely as silk, which suggests that many in the region preferred it for many purposes including ceremonial occasions. The advent of spinning brought with it noticeable improvements in weaving cloth. It offered weavers the ability to weave longer, wider, and more densely woven cloth. Several types of ibers, usually referred to as bast, made this possible. Bast was made from the leaves of a variety of tall trees found in the tropical rain forest. The cloths made from these leaves continued to be used in the 20th century for weaving treasured cloths for funerals and other sacred rituals. Wild silk ibers were used throughout the region. Unlike the glossy silk cultivated from Asian silk, the wild silk of West Africa consisted of coarse brown or white ibers that had to undergo labor-intensive processing before it could be spun

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress into threads. The iber itself was created by several varieties of caterpillars, which nested in and fed on particular trees and bushes. After being gathered the ibers were degummed and boiled in an alkaline solution before being dried, corded, and spun. The Yoruba and Nupe people used wild silk yarn to weave elegant cloth that was sometimes blended with hand-spun cotton. Among the Hausa people wild silk was for embroidering imagery on trousers and robes. Along with rafia and bast, cotton is one of the oldest ibers used to produce textiles in West Africa, but it is not certain when it was irst cultivated in the region. There is some belief that it was introduced by Muslim merchants via the subSaharan trade routes. However, there are two certainties regarding the role of cotton. It became an indispensable cash crop for Europeans. It played a signiicant role, both as currency and fabric, in the lives of people living in the Nigerian region of West Africa. Part of the reason is because of a particular loom, which was said to have also been introduced into the area of northern Nigeria through trade networks established by Muslim merchants. The treadle loom, also called the Sudanese treadle loom, was used speciically for weaving cotton and sometimes silk. Its woven strip cloth served a dual purpose. First, the strip cloth woven on the treadle loom was made into tailored garments with embroidered decorations. Many of these embroidered motifs were associated with the history of Islam among the Hausa in northern Nigeria and met the standards prescribed by sharia law. This was important for the founders of the Sokoto caliphate, which incorporated much of the Hausa, Nupe, and northern Yoruba during the 19th century. The cloth represented wealth, power, prestige, and leadership. Second, the narrow strip of cloth Nigerian foreign minister Chief Tom Ikimi woven on the treadle loom was used as wears a grand boubou while attending currency in Muslim trading networks a state function in November, 1995. (AP throughout West Africa. It was carried Photo/David Hallet)

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by caravans into the Saharan routes and much of the savanna regions as well as the rain forest zones.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Nigerian national dress communicates age, gender, occupation/class, ethnicity, power, and prestige. It also expresses religious beliefs: Christian, Islamic, traditional. Particular dress is also worn at celebrations and ceremonial and ritual occasions. In a strange way, dress projects one’s geography; in rural northern Nigeria, people wear traditional clothing as their everyday work clothes. In the southern region, among the elite, Western dress styles are more dominant. People wear suits, skirts, and blouses and baseball caps. Suits, shoes, and dresses are all imported from different countries. However, in spite of these enormous inluences, tradition has not completely gone away even in the urban centers. There is the ever-present “wrapper,” which is a frequent and popular garment worn by the people of Nigeria. Women wrap cloth from their waist to their knees, calves, or feet. Sometimes they wrap the cloth under their arm to shield their breast and lower body. Another important garment is the grand boubou or bubu. As one would imagine, the grand boubou has more decorative design in the form of elaborate embroidery and is mostly worn for special occasions or religious ceremonies such as the Islamic Eid festival or perhaps a wedding or funeral, and even Friday prayers. Women also wear the boubou but in different styles. The grand boubou is worn either to the knee or full length. The wide, round neckline allows for a generous display of necklaces and other adornments. For wealthy women, the boubou can also serve as an additional layer on top of a blouse and wrapper. In many situations, the head is part of traditional dress. Turbans are preferred by Muslims. But others wear head ties and men wear caps. The most common is the ila, a closeitting cap slightly bent at the corners. There is an older design among the Yoruba called the abeti-aja with a lap Nigerian man wearing a ila cap. (iStockphoto.com) to cover the ears.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress While wealthy women wear hats like Europeans, Muslim women wear veils that cover the head and face. Scarves can be used to tie back the hair and for decoration. The gele or head tie is common among the Yoruba. Women’s hairstyles are both an occupation and an art. They also indicate a person’s ethnic or class background. For instance, there are traditional styles like suke and kolese among the Yoruba. Some styles are reserved for royalty, while others are for religious devotees. The Kanuri, Fulani, and Hausa adorn their hair with a variety of ornaments such as beads. Rings, necklaces, bracelets, anklets, armlets, and earrings made of gold and silver and other valued materials like ivory and cowrie shells are popular body adornments. The materials and craftsmanship are suggestive of status. Finally, an individual’s traditional dress may express his or her belonging to an ethnic, occupational, or religious group. To understand the traditional dress of the people who live in Nigeria means realizing that many complex factors contribute to the choices Nigerians make about what to wear at any particular time.

Further Reading and Resources Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. Connecticut: Fawcett Crest, 1959. Adams, Sarah. “Marcia Kure.” NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art. http:// www.inglettgallery.com/admin/press_pdfs/174.pdf. 2003. Emechta, Buchi. The Bride Price. New York: George Braziller, 1976. Falola, Toyin. Customs and Cultures of Nigeria. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Falola, Toyin, and Matthew M. Heaton. A History of Nigeria. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Gillow, John. African Textiles: Color Creativity Across a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Kriger, Colleen E. Cloth in West African History. Lanham, MD: Altamira Press, 2006 Steele, Valerie. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004.

Norway Laurann Gilbertson and Carol Colburn

Historical Background The irst archaeological evidence of humans in Norway dates from about 8000 BCE. The people of the so-called Komsa, Fosna, and Nøstvet cultures arrived from the east or south and subsisted by hunting and ishing. During the Bronze Age (1800–500 BCE) Norwegians began to trade with northern Europe for bronze, gold, amber, and other luxury goods. Norway was one of several “homelands” during the Viking Age (793–1066). Norwegian Vikings sailed as far west as Newfoundland and as far east as Russia. In addition to warfare and taking spoils, the Viking Age is characterized as a period of exploration and trade. By the end of the Viking Age, Norwegians were uniied into a single kingdom ruled by an inherited monarchy. The Hanseatic League was formed in the 13th century with north German towns to trade ish and furs for grains. Merchants and tradesmen from Germany, Holland, Scotland, and Denmark came to live and work in western Norway, particularly in the city of Bergen. The Black Death arrived in Oslo in 1348. At least half of the population died. This was the beginning of Norway’s cultural dark ages, which would last 150 years. The country was still reeling from the results of the Black Death in 1380 when Norway came into a union with Denmark because there was no direct heir to the Norwegian royal throne after the death of King Haakon V (1299–1319). In 1536 Norway was declared a province of Denmark. Denmark was forced to cede Norway to Sweden in the Treaty of Kiel in 1813 following the Napoleonic Wars. The Swedes took a lighter hand with Norway, and Norwegians viewed this as a step toward independence. Full independence came in 1905. Norwegians elected Prince Carl of Denmark, who took the name King Haakon VI to reestablish the old line of Norwegian kings. Although historically most Norwegians farmed, the farms were often small and many farmers were tenants or laborers on the land. Many families undertook other work for cash: ishing, logging, trade, and making handicrafts. Fishing for herring, 557

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress cod, sardines, and whales has been important for individuals and families, and supported entire industries of boatbuilding, barrel making, salting, and canning. The relative isolation of Norway from continental Europe delayed industrialization until the mid-19th century. As the 20th century progressed, the development of hydroelectric power and other natural resources began to enrich the country. In 1971, Norway’s economy was transformed by the discovery of oil in the North Sea. However, Norway continues to be deined by its rural and agricultural heritage. From 1820 to 1930 Norway lost more than 700,000 people, or nearly 25 percent of its population, to emigration with most seeking economic opportunities in the United States and Canada. Since the 1960s, Norway has been receiving work immigrants from Pakistan, India, Turkey, Morocco, and Poland. In addition, Norway has accepted refugees from Chile, Iran, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Vietnam. In 2012, the population of Norway was approximately 4,707,270.

Geographical and Environmental Background Norway’s far northern border and its 1,100-mile coastline help deine much of the nature of the culture. In the western and central parts of Norway the land consists of steep mountains, with deep valleys created by glaciers, rivers, and fjords. Norway’s eastern lands share a long border with Sweden, where latter and forested areas dominate. Finland and Russia share short borders with north Norway. Rock and lakes cover 74 percent of the land; forests cover 23 percent, leaving only 3 percent that is arable. Geography and cultural distinctions divide Norway into ive regions that will be referred to in this entry. These are North Norway, Mid-Norway, West Coast, East Lands, and South Lands. The development of many forms of distinctive folk culture and dress in Norway corresponds to climate and geography. The coastal areas have been open to northern European inluences and cultural exchanges over time, while inland areas, isolated by rugged mountains, did not have easy access to quickly changing cultural ideas. This relative isolation resulted in distinctive language dialects and equally distinctive regional rural dress.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The largest percentage of the population has been ethnically north European and, since 1030, Christian. The country was declared Lutheran in 1536 and that remained the state religion until 2012, with plans for the Parliament to disestablish

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it as the oficial state religion later in the year. The indigenous Norwegians are called Sami or Saami and today make up less than 1 percent of the population. They are culturally more similar to other Sami people in Sweden, Finland, and Russia than to other Norwegians. Originally nomadic and engaged in ishing, trapping, and hunting wild reindeer, the Sami began domesticating herds of reindeer in the 16th century. Some Sami families have relied entirely on following their herds of reindeer, while others have settled along coastal and inland waterways. Today, Sami political and cultural interests are encouraged and protected by an elected Sami Parliament. Norwegian national costume on a ChristIn the 19th century Norway be- mas postcard, early 1900s. (Vesterheim came more ethnically and religiously Norwegian-American Museum) diverse. Jews had been banned from entering Norway, except with special permission, until 1851. After 1852 Norway received approximately 1,200 Jewish immigrants from Denmark, northern Germany, and Eastern Europe while in the 20th and 21st centuries Buddhist and Muslim immigrants have been moving into Norwegian society.

History of Dress What little is known about clothing in the Bronze Age (1800–500 BCE) and Iron Age (500 BCE–800 CE) indicates that Norwegians dressed similarly to other northern Europeans at that time. Archaeological sites have revealed simple garments, caps, and shoes made of hide, leather, animal ibers, and plant ibers that were created by sewing, weaving, netting, and looping. Throughout Scandinavia during the Viking Age (800–1030) women’s clothing consisted of a simple wool dress over a pleated linen shift. Brooches, bracelets, neck rings, and other jewelry were an important part of the dress. Men wore wool tunics, leggings or trousers, and cloaks fastened with ring brooches. Norwegian dress during the Middle Ages (1030–1537) continued to be similar to dress in other parts of northern Europe, with fashionable impulses traveling with

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress traders to the coast and by way of Denmark and the Danish political and religious oficials working in Norway. After the Middle Ages, urban Norwegian dress matched that in other northern European cities. What is commonly thought of as Norwegian ethnic dress today is the clothing that was worn in rural Norway between about 1650 and 1850, or later in some areas. Folk dress often includes elements of European fashion, worn in combination with home woven and sewn garments and accessories. In many areas women adapted fashionable ideas, such as creating with embroidery the patterns they admired in expensive, imported damask and brocade fabrics. Clothing boundaries often followed geographic features, such as valleys. People dressed similarly within a region, but with differences according to economics, personal taste, and personal skill. Historically, the people in North Norway (Nordland, Troms, and Finnmark counties) were most concerned about wearing clothing adapted to the climate. Along the coast, ishermen wore specially adapted clothing including leather or oilcloth outerwear. Sami dress can be divided into two general styles: north and south. The north Sami dress was a hide or wool tunic (longer for women) with a high standing collar. The tunic was belted at the waist by women and at the hip by men. Both men and women wore hide leggings held up with woven bands wrapped around the lower leg, and reindeer hide or leather shoes with turned-up toes. Women wore silk shawls and brooches for festive occasions. The south Sami tunic had a deep V-neck in the front and a high standing collar in back for men. The women’s outit was a long tunic or dress with a deep V-neck. Both included a front piece to ill the neck and chest area made of colorful wool and decorated with pewter-thread embroidery or beads. Trondheim, a center of trade, religion, and education, is located in MidNorway (Sør- and Nord-Trøndelag counties), bringing many fashionable impulses to this region. Around 1800 women wore striped skirts, printed cotton aprons, and itted jackets of imported fabric. A print or plaid scarf over the shoulders and one around a cap appeared in many variations. Men wore wool coats, vests of imported brocade or striped fabric, and wool or leather knee pants. The cut of the coat and vest followed the fashion of the times, long in the 1700s, shorter in the 1800s, but the rural styles often lagged behind those of the city. The East Lands, too, have received many fashionable impulses through neighboring Sweden and the port city of Oslo, the country’s capital. The people in the counties of Akershus, Østfold, Vestfold, and Hedmark dressed like those in MidNorway, while people in the counties of Oppland and Buskerud wore clothing that was fossilized from previous urban style periods.

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Hallingdal (Buskerud county) had a distinctive style of clothing retained from the early 19th-century Empire period. Women wore a very short bodice made of embroidered, brocade, or damask fabric, which was sewn to the skirt. A very short black wool jacket was worn. The headdress was quite elaborate and clearly distinguished unmarried and married women. Men wore a white wool jacket with standing collar and multicolor embroidery, red vest, and embroidered black knee pants. The red cap was a style held over from the Middle Ages. The coastal areas of the South Lands (Telemark, Aust-Agder, and Vest-Agder counties) were active in shipping and trading, so residents wore fashionable dress. But in the inland valleys the trend was quite the opposite. In eastern Telemark county women’s dresses had short bodices that showed off richly embroidered blouses and several silver brooches. The full black skirt was made even fuller by a wide, stiff band of trim at the hem. There was a dark-color apron and a wide tablet-woven belt wrapped high around the waist. The short red jacket had an asymmetrical closure and rich embroidery. Men wore a white wool jacket with high standing collar and a vest, black knee pants, and stockings, all with baroquestyle embroidery. The woman’s dress in Setesdal (Aust-Agder county) featured a tiny back piece and straps decorated with silver ribbon and embroidery. The attached calf-length black skirt was inely pleated in back and smooth in front. Bands of stiff red and green wool were sewn to the hem to add dimension. Finally, there was a short black jacket with green wool trim and embroidery. Men wore long gray or black trousers with a bibbed top. The bib and sometimes the trouser cuffs were embroidered. There was a large patch of leather on the seat of the trousers. Since the late 1800s, the embroi- Front and back views of the dress worn in dered jacket has become sleeveless to Setesdal, Aust-Agder, Norway, early 1900s. (Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum) show off a pattern-knit sweater.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The West Coast had a rich tradition of folk dress. Renaissance features were held over in the Hardanger (Hordaland county) woman’s ensemble. It consisted of a black wool skirt, red or green bodice, white apron with needlework trim, white blouse with white or black needlework trim, and a prominent headdress for married women. The bodices were cut with a wide front opening that was illed with a beaded or embroidered breastplate. Men wore a white, red, or black coat with a high back collar, contrasting wool vest, knee pants, and a felt hat or knit wool cap.

Materials and Techniques Norwegians successfully cultivated and used wool and lax for their clothing needs. Since Viking times, domestically produced ibers and textiles have been supplemented by imported silks and cottons, but availability and climate favored ibers of local production for clothing. The spelsau sheep is a breed that was known in Norway since prehistory. This wool was historically considered best for clothing due to its light weight and waterrepellent qualities. The breed is still maintained to supply the wool favored by traditional textile makers. The earliest cloth for clothing was woven on a vertical, warp-weighted loom. By around the year 1000, the horizontal loor loom for hand weaving came into use, which sped up cloth production. Vadmel, a coarse woolen cloth that has been fulled or felted to make it dense and warm, was commonly woven for clothing. Improvements to the loor loom during the Renaissance and baroque periods made complex pattern variations possible. Cottage and factory production of woolen cloth took place throughout the 19th century. In the 20th century, farm production of woolen cloth for garments continued, and today artisans are handweaving fabric for folk costumes. Small band looms have been important for creating trim and accessories. The folk dress of many regions featured colorfully patterned woven bands for hair ribbons, stocking garters, belts, and trim. Norwegian handcraft is famous for two-color pattern knitting. Each region had distinctive colors and styles of knitted gloves and mittens, hats, sweaters, and other accessories. Perhaps the most familiar Norwegian knitted item is the lusekofte of the South Lands valley of Setesdal. This “lice-patterned sweater” is named for the distinctive pattern of white stitches scattered on a black ground.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Norwegian everyday and special-occasion dress were similar, but everyday clothing was made of sturdier fabric without embellishment. Men throughout Norway wore a work shirt called a busserull of wool, linen, or cotton. It was constructed

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of square pieces of sturdy handwoven fabric, often striped, with a narrow banded neck and cuffed full sleeves. The busserull was often worn as a protective jacket over a shirt and vest. In Norway, a type of folk dress that fell between everyday dress and special-occasion dress was church dress. Church dress was worn for Sunday services and for special occasions involving members of the parish. Accessories such as embroidered mittens and gloves and silk scarves were received as gifts at conirmation, engagement, or marriage. Children, who typically dressed as small adults after infancy, had special clothing when they were christened. Christening garments included Wedding of Gudrun Kløve Juuhl and Tarjei handwoven blankets and swaddling Johannesen Vågstøl,Voss, Hordaland, Norbands, embroidered wraps, buntings way, 2004. (Courtesy Marta Kløve Juuhl) and caps made of imported silk, and tiny brooches. Young people were conirmed at approximately 14 years of age, at which time they received new church clothing. A young girl often participated in the making of her own conirmation ensemble, which served as a means of showing off her textile skills. The most elaborate costume was reserved for a woman’s wedding ceremony. The bride wore jewelry intended to surpass all others attending the occasion, and in many regions her display included a silver or gold-plated crown. After the ceremony, attendants would dress the bride as a married woman. An important aspect of the transformation was the covering of her hair, when the crown was replaced by a married woman’s headdress distinctive to her locale. A bridegroom appeared in his best church-going clothes.

Component Parts The function of folk dress in communicating group membership and sociocultural standing was more important than communicating economic levels within society, as the Norwegian population never included a signiicant aristocracy. The

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress garments and accessories of previous generations could be used in combination with new components. Thus, the signiicance of dress for individuals included family associations as well as signals that were understood community-wide. A woman’s headdress was the most important garment of symbolic communication. Unmarried women and girls wore handwoven bands wrapped in their hair. A kerchief, cap, or headdress that completely hid the hair signiied that the wearer was married. An example is the pure white headdress from the Hardanger region, which, once pleated and arranged over a frame, extended from the head as much as ive inches to either side, creating a silhouette that could be instantly recognized from a distance. As long as church rituals were observed and the social structure remained static in a region, these distinctions continued to be important. By the latter part of the 19th century, the ubiquitous use of the headdress declined.

Jewelry Jewelry was an integral part of Norwegian folk dress and Norwegian folk culture. Along with its function for closures, silver showed the wealth and prosperity of the wearer, was easily portable, and could be sold in times of economic hardship. Silver jewelry also had important spiritual functions, including protecting against evil spirits. Each time it was worn in church or was handed down to the next generation, it became even more powerful. Men’s jewelry was in the form of collar pins, vest and coat buttons, and shoe buckles. Women wore brooches called søljer (singular, sølje), collar pins, jacket and purse clasps, belt clasps and ornaments, inger rings, and shoe buckles. One feature common to many pieces of Norwegian jewelry has been dangling ornaments. Dangles took the shape of bowls, rings, even-sided crosses, cut-out “sun wheels,” or diamonds. An early belief was that the dangles relected the light and thus relected away the evil forces.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Folk dress is used in Norway today in a more standardized form called bunader (singular, bunad). Where traditional folk dress served symbolic functions in the context of family structure and communities in rural Norway, the bunad has evolved to serve symbolic functions in the context of changing Norwegian national society and in the global context. The development of this revival form began just after the mid19th century. An intense national consciousness found expression in the use of rural folk dress symbolizing Norway’s aspiration to be an independent nation. Public

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events required a recognizable costume, which resulted in a Norwegian “national costume” inspired by the festive dress from Hardanger (Hordaland county). The Hardanger-style national costume was widely used for folk dance. Hulda Garborg (1862–1934), a leader in the folk dance movement, wished to promote a variety of Norwegian regional dance styles. She redesigned a number of regional folk dress styles to make them either more to her taste, or easier to use as dance costumes. Her enthusiasm for reviving folk dress and the simultaneous political achievement of Norwegian independence in 1905 served to propel the use of the bunad into the 20th century. The steady increase in the use of bunader since the 1960s has been accompanied by a desire to preserve handwork techniques and to maintain standards for high quality. In the 21st century, young people commonly receive their irst adult bunad at conirmation. Supplemented with jewelry or accessories inherited from family, the new bunad can be worn by an individual throughout his or her lifetime. A bunad is considered appropriate for Norwegian formal and festive events. Urban and rural Norwegians choose the costume of a region that represents their family background. In North Norway among the Sami, where the dress also symbolizes their status as indigenous people, traditional dress can be seen daily. One of the key times bunader are worn is on Norwegian Constitution Day (May 17). Norwegian bunader came into the international spotlight when Norway hosted the Winter Olympics in 1994. The opening and closing programs were performed in bunader from all the regions of Norway. Since that event, Norwegian bunad makers have had a steady stream of customers, and an increasing cross section of Norwegian families show pride in their heritage through this form of dress.

Further Reading and Resources Bunad [Magazine]. [In Norwegian.] www.bunad-magasinet.no. Bunad and Folk Dress Council website. [In Norwegian.] www.bunadraadet.no. Charbonneau, Claudette, and Patricia Slade Lander. The Land and People of Norway. New York: HarperCollins, 1992. Fossnes, Heidi. Folk Costumes of Norway. Trans. Elizabeth S. Seeberg. Oslo: J. W. Cappelen Forlag, 1995. Gilbertson, Laurann. “To Ward Off Evil: Metal on Norwegian Folk Dress.” In Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs About Protection and Fertility, ed. Linda Welters. Oxford: Berg, 1999. Haugen, Bjørn Sverre Hol, ed. Norsk Bunadleksikon. 3 vols. Oslo: N. W. Damm & Søn, 2006.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Libæk, Ivar, and Øivind Stenersen. A History of Norway: From the Ice Age to the Age of Petroleum. Trans. Jean Aase. 3rd ed. Oslo: Grøndahl og Dreyers Forlag, 1999. Noss, Aagot. “Rural Norwegian Dress and Its Symbolic Functions.” In Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition, ed. Marion Nelson. New York: Abbeville Press, 1995. Skavhaug, Kjersti. Norwegian Bunads. Trans. Bent Vanberg. Oslo: Hjemmenes Forlag, 1982. Ugland, Thorbjørg Hjelmen. A Sampler of Norway’s Folk Costumes. Oslo: Boksenteret Forlag, 1996.

Pakistan Tracy Buck

Historical and Geographical Background The nation of Pakistan was created on August 14, 1947, coinciding with the moment of the Indian subcontinent’s independence from British colonial rule. British presence in the subcontinent became established in the mid-18th century with the East India Company. Following the Indian Rebellion (also known as the Sepoy Mutiny) of 1857, the areas today known as Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh (originally East Pakistan) were under British rule until independence and partition in 1947. The desire for a Muslim state separately governed from Hindu-majority India was irst expressed by poet Muhammad Iqbal; the concept was more clearly solidiied in the 1930s and promoted by the All India Muslim League during the early 1940s. Initially seen as politically impractical and largely unnecessary, interest in the creation of Pakistan grew during the struggle for independence, spurred by fears of underrepresentation of Muslims in political matters. The concept of a separate Muslim nation, to be created from the single but regionally diverse subcontinent that was loosely uniied under British rule, was promoted by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was leader of the Muslim League and later known as the founder and irst governor general of Pakistan, serving in this role from August 15, 1947, until his death on September 11, 1948. British judge Cyril Radcliffe devised the border dividing Pakistan and India, referred to as the Radcliffe Line. The splitting of the Indian subcontinent into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan is known as partition, and this act ushered in the single largest episode of displacement and migration in modern history as between 12 and 14 million people left their homes to take up residence across the border. The scars of partition continue to run deep. An estimated 1 million people died during the migration, largely due to the communal violence that occurred as a direct result of partition, and an estimated 50,000 Hindu and Muslim women were abducted and separated from their families and religious afiliations. Pakistan today comprises the provinces of Balochistan, East Bengal, the North-West Frontier Province, Sindh, and West Punjab; the latter state was split 567

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress between India and Pakistan at the time of partition. Bangladesh—originally known as East Pakistan and part of Pakistan—became a separate, Muslim-majority independent country in 1971. Kashmir, originally a princely state that acceded to India in late 1947, today is overwhelmingly Muslim and remains a source of conlict between Indian and Pakistan. Pakistan borders Afghanistan, China, Iran, and India. With a population of approximately 190 million in 2012, its capital is Islamabad, with Karachi its largest and arguably most culturally active city. Although several regional languages are recognized (most notably Pashto, Punjabit, Balochi, Saraiki, and Sindhi), the two oficial languages of Pakistan are English and Urdu, a language grammatically similar to Hindi but written in the Persian script (nastaliq) and inluenced by Persian, Arabic, and Turkish. The geography of Pakistan is varied and features some of the world’s highest mountain peaks in the northern highlands, the Thar Desert to the east, and expansive plains along the Indus River. The climate of Pakistan relects the varied landscape and is characterized by a monsoon season, which entails a summer rainy season from approximately June to September.

People and Dress Dress became a particularly important symbol of Pakistani and Muslim identity during the period immediately prior to and following independence, due to the efforts of nation building. It continues to be signiicant in establishing identity and regional and/or religious afiliation today. The national dress of Pakistan, for both men and women, is the shalwar kameez, which consists of a long tunic-length shirt and long pants, and the sherwani, or long coat, and Jinnah cap, both worn by men. Other common types of clothing traditionally worn in Pakistan include the kurta, or long-length shirt worn over either loose or tightly itting long pants, and, for women, the lehenga, a long, full skirt typically worn with a choli, or blouse, and a scarf or veil. Traditional clothing is today typically worn to most festival celebrations, as well as to religious and ceremonial functions, such as weddings. In addition to ceremonial or festival use, traditional styles of Pakistani clothing, particularly the shalwar kameez, are commonly worn on a daily basis throughout the country, particularly by women, while men may be more readily seen wearing Western-style trousers and shirts.

The Shalwar Kameez and the Kurta The shalwar kameez is a style of suit that consists of a long, loosely itting tunic-like shirt (shalwar) and long pants, which are loose-itting with a drawstring

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Pakistani women wear shalwar kameez, Lahore, Pakistan, 2009. (Art Directors.co.uk/ StockphotoPro)

or elastic waist, and straight-legged or tapered to the ankle (known as kameez). Alternatively, the shalwar may also be worn with long pants that are tightly itted (known as churidar). The shalwar kameez suit is worn by both men and women, with gender variation in color, cut, and embellishment. Shalwar kameez for women generally feature more embroidered or lace embellishments and brighter colors than those for men; the garment for men is generally black, white, navy, or of a similarly neutral, solid color. Embroidery work is, in general, the most common decorative element to the shalwar or to the kurta (the tunic worn by men, generally). Shalwar for women may be long- or short-sleeved or sleeveless and for men they generally have long sleeves. The length of the tunic for either gender may fall to mid-thigh, knee, or calf-length, with a slit (chaak) at either side to the hip or waist. As part of the suit, women also typically wear a dupatta, also called a chador, or long scarf, generally in a matching or coordinating fabric and color. The dupatta is worn across the collarbone with the ends over the shoulders, so that the center of the scarf drapes over the chest. It may also be worn over one shoulder. In addition to its style element the purpose of the dupatta is in part to serve as a modest covering. It can also be used to cover the wearer’s head in social

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress situations requiring increased modesty or reverence, or for religious reasons. It has been considered by some to be a less stringent means of adapting the hijab in function. The shalwar kameez was originally worn in Afghanistan and in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Shalwar kameez is sometimes viewed as a traditionally Muslim style of clothing. Because the suit was traditionally associated with the region of Punjab, it is sometimes referred to today as the “Punjabi suit.” Following Indian partition and the creation of the Muslim country of Pakistan in 1947, the shalwar kameez came to be associated with Islam more generally as it became the national dress of the newly formed country. Today, throughout India and especially in the northern regions and in larger cities such as Delhi, the shalwar kameez is worn frequently by Muslims and non-Muslims alike; the style for women has been widely adopted as an alternative to the sari and to Western clothing, particularly by college-age and unmarried young women. Although some styles are more itted and some fabrics more revealing than others, in general the style is viewed as being modest while also practical and functional. Worn generally for formal occasions and similar in style to the shalwar, the pishwas or anarkali for women is a long dress, sometimes worn over churidars, often heavily embroidered and embellished with beadwork. The design of the pishwas varies from the shape of the shalwar in that it is more itted at the waist and lares into a skirt, is generally of longer length, and does not feature side slits or chaak. The pishwas is associated with the Mughal Empire of the 17th century and is sometimes called anarkali after Anarkali, the legendary court dancer from Lahore who was said to have been involved romantically with Prince Nuruddin Saleem. Pishwas during the Mughal period were associated with court and palace life; today they are worn largely for such events as wedding ceremonies. The lehenga, a long skirt worn by women, is paired with a short, itted blouse, or choli, and a veil or scarf that typically drapes over one shoulder or over the head. The lehenga choli is today worn less frequently than the shalwar kameez, most often for formal occasions, and is as a result typically heavily embellished with beadwork or embroidery. In appearance, the lehenga, choli, and scarf or veil worn together create a look similar to that of the Indian sari. The kurta for men is similar in form and style to the shalwar kameez. The kurta, or tunic-length shirt, is collarless or has a mandarin- or Nehru-style collar. The garment falls in length to above or below the knee. It often has a V-neck with embroidered edges, which may or may not close with buttons or ties; the opening may be at the garment’s center or to one side. Sleeves are traditionally long and fall straight—that is, do not taper to the wrist or end in cuffs. The kurta may be worn with pajama or shalwar (loose-itting, drawstring waist pants), churidar (itted pants), or, as is sometimes seen today, particularly in urban areas, Western-style

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jeans. The shorter kurti is worn by both men and women, with traditional styles of pants and, today, with jeans. Commonly worn by men with the kurta, the sherwani is a long coat with button closure at front to waist level, mandarin- or Nehru-style collar, and long sleeves; it generally falls to approximately knee-length. It is most commonly made of a heavy fabric, such as wool, in a dark color such as gray or black. Originally associated with Muslim aristocracy during the period of British rule, the sherwani’s connection to Pakistani identity and nationalism was established by Muhammad Ali Jinnah. Although today more common, the garment was irst worn frequently by early politicians in Pakistan in opposition Young men wear kurta in Karachi, Pakistan, 2006. (Dmitry Pichugin/Dreamstime.com) to Western-style dress and it accordingly became a symbol of nationalism, similar to the manner that clothing made from khadi cloth became a symbol for Indian identity and self-rule during the same period. The achkan is a coat similar in appearance to the sherwani but generally made of lighter fabrics. Equally evocative of Pakistani identity is the Jinnah cap, worn by men. The Jinnah cap is a style of karakul (qaraqul) hat, which is worn throughout Central and South Asia, and, in particular, Afghanistan. The Jinnah cap is named after Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan at the time of independence from British rule and partition from India in 1947. The Jinnah cap, much like the sherwani, was worn by early nationalists and politicians of Pakistan as an indication of national identity and pride. Traditionally the hat is made from the wool of the Persian lamb, or qaraqul. The hat is lat and rectangular in shape and peaked at front and back when worn. Similar to the Jinnah cap is the Rampuri cap, made of velvet and made popular by the irst prime minister of Pakistan, Sahibzada Liaqat Ali Khan. Because of its associations with independence from the British Raj, the cap is often connected to independence from colonial powers in general, as in Africa. The shalwar kameez and the similar kurta are commonly worn on an everyday basis throughout Pakistan, particularly by women, and, by incorporating various fabrics and styles, has been adapted for formal, work, and casual wear. Fashion

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress styles vary in sleeve length and cut, tunic shape, as well as other variations in fabric type and design. Seasonal styles may vary largely in regard to fabric—breathable fabrics such as silk or cotton for the hot summer months; for winter, the garment may be constructed of a thicker cotton or wool. Ready-made shalwar, kurta, churidar, and kameez are widely available but are often tailor-itted to the wearer. For more formal occasions the garments are often custom-made. For Pakistani weddings, events heavily associated with traditional costume, the groom typically wears a sherwani and a sehra or turban; the sehra may be decorated with garlands of marigolds or other lowers. The bride wears a shalwar kameez, lehenga, pishwas, or gharara, which is similar in form to the shalwar kameez suit but with pants that lare dramatically and feature ornate embroidery or other embellishment at the knee. The color of the bride’s outit, as in India, is typically red but may also be of a similar bright color. The burqa is less commonly seen throughout Pakistan today than in the past, but is currently present in some areas, particularly the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Northwest Frontier Province) and also in the bordering areas of Punjab in the central east and Balochistan in the southwest. The burqa is worn by some Muslim women outside of the home in accordance with their cultural and religious beliefs regarding the covering of the female body in public. It is a body-covering garment with an opening for the eyes or face and hands. A common style of burqa in the parts of Pakistan where it is worn features a net face opening (called the “shuttlecock” burqa).

Regional Styles The shalwar kameez and kurta are worn widely throughout Pakistan, with regional variation in design elements. Accessories or additional garments and styles, as well as patterns and materials, vary according to region. Arjak, a style of block-printed shawls, is closely associated with the southeast province of Sindh. The shawl is generally constructed of a cotton fabric decorated with a trefoil, circular, or similar repeating pattern that is printed using a woodblock. Commonly used colors are dark reds and blues, as well as black and white. The garment is worn as a shawl or, by women, as a dupatta; men also tie the arjak around their waists or wear it as a turban or head covering. The jamavar, a type of shawl, is associated with the northern regions of South Asia and particularly Kashmir. Traditionally handmade of Pashmina wool in Kashmir, jamavar are also made on a larger scale and by machine in cities such as Lahore. The pakol (sometimes referred to as khapol) is a type of hat worn in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Northwest Frontier Province). The hat, worn by men, is round in shape and typically made from wool; the sides are rolled to create a band. The

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hat is worn on the top of the head in the style of a beret. It is associated with the Pashtun tribes and is seen by these groups as an alternative to the traditionally worn turban. The taqiyah, sometimes called simply the topi (“cap”), is a style of short, rounded hat commonly worn by Muslim men in Pakistan with shalwar or kurta. The taqiyah or topi may be in any color, sometimes with embroidered embellishments, or may relect regional designs and styles. More broadly, the taqiyah is commonly worn by Muslim men throughout the world.

Further Reading and Resources Bachu, Parminder. Dangerous Designs: Asian Women Fashion the Diaspora Economies. London: Routledge, 2004. Hay, Stephen, ed. Sources of Indian Tradition, Volume Two: Modern India and Pakistan. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. Khan, Yasmin. The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007. Pandey, Gyanendra. Remembering Partition: Violence, Nationalism, and History in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Tarlo, Emma. Visibly Muslim: Fashion, Politics, Faith. New York: Berg Publishers, 2010. Textile Institute of Pakistan. www.tip.edu.pk. 2010.

The Palestine Region and Jordan John A. Shoup

Historical and Geographical Background Both the Palestinian region and Jordan have been inluenced by their long historical, economic, and cultural connections with Syria, Egypt, and the Arabian Peninsula and the newer nation of Israel, established in 1948. Jordan and the region of Palestine are located in the Arabian Peninsula. The borders of these countries have varied throughout their long and complex histories. The present borders of Palestine (not oficially recognized as a nation by the UN, the United States, Israel, and other Western countries) in particular have been under violent dispute since they were implemented in 1947 with the United Nations’ partition plan allowing Israel to have its own state in the region. Jordan is a neighbor of the Palestine region and also is bordered by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, and Israel. Jordan’s population was estimated at 6,508,887 people in 2012. The population of the Gaza strip, the land east of the Mediterranean Ocean where Palestinians and some Israelis live, was estimated at 1,710,250. Dating back as far 8000 BCE there was organized village life in the city of Jericho with kingdoms including Ammon, Edom, and Moab in this region. Frequent invasions from Egypt, Babylon, Persia, and Assyria peppered the history of this region with different leaders implementing different religious and societal pressures on the people. The north and south of Jordan have signiicant differences in their heritage with the south having been ruled by Arabs and the Romans inluencing culture in the north until the early Christian period. After the seventh century Muslim Arabs established the Ummayyad caliphate at Damascus, thus promoting a long-lasting tradition as an Islamic land. Ottoman Turks conquered in 1517 and dominated the region until the early 20th century and the Great Arab Revolution against the conquerors. The Turkish Ottomans were defeated in World War I and Jordan, under King Faisal, however briely, became a Syrian kingdom. The French, though, defeated Faisal and the Emirate of Transjordan was incorporated in the League of Nations Palestine Mandate. Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan were created when Britain divided the region in 1922. The Jordan River was the 574

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border between the two. The head of the Hashemite family, known as Abdullah, was adamantly opposed to the establishment of the Jewish state of Israel in Palestine, as was pledged by Britain in the Balfour Declaration of 1917. Nine years later, however, he signed the declaration that essentially established separate territories in the British Empire. Abdullah was a unique leader in the region and during World War II, he remained an ally of Britain ighting against the Nazis. After the war ended, Great Britain acknowledged the independence of Jordan and its ruler, Abdullah I, in 1946. When it came time to partition Palestine, Jordan was opposed to the idea and the Arab League joined together to ight against the establishment of the Jewish state in what is known as the Arab-Israeli War of 1948. The partition plan set boundaries with the West Bank, Golan Heights, and Gaza as Arab. Modern history continues to see disputes over the borders of these countries, especially troubled relations between Palestinians and Jews in Israel.

People and Dress Men’s clothes in Jordan and rural Palestine areas were less inluenced by Western and Turkish dress than in the urban centers. Women’s dress in Palestine, starting in the second half of the 19th century, greatly changed with some areas abandoning the time-consuming hand-embroidered items to wear those commercially available from off-the-rack Western/Turkish fashions. Following the 1948 war and the establishment of Israel, Palestinian embroidery took on a new life as an aspect of distinct regional and “national” identity.

Dress in Palestine Women Palestine was a region with a large number of village communities linked by trade to a number of small- and medium-sized towns found throughout the country; and, from them, to larger centers such as Damascus, Beirut, and Cairo. In the larger urban centers, dress was inluenced by Ottoman Turkish and European dress, particularly among the Palestinian urban elite. Palestinians developed a complex set of regional and local styles primarily for women’s dress using the color of the main dress cloth (usually locally woven white or black cotton and/or linen, or multicolored silk from Damascus) as the irst division. Generally, Palestinian women preferred black or dark indigo blue for their dresses (usually called thob or thawb), but around Jaffa and Bayt Dajan, both in present-day Israel, and in Ramallah, women preferred to use dress material that was white or natural off-white. Bethlehem women preferred using green,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress red, yellow, or gold silk cloth sewn together lengthwise in strips of varying widths. Women heavily embroidered the front chest panel, the sides, the sleeves, around the bottom, and up the back panel in different colors of silk or cotton loss. Different designs, types of embroidery stitch (cross-stitch, couched stitch, satin stitch, etc.), and colors differentiated speciic villages as well as Muslims and Christians. In addition, different types of caps and head veils also helped distinguish regions and villages. Head veils were left white or cream, the off-white (natural) color of the fabric, among Palestinian village and urban women while Bedouin women preferred black veils. Women’s fashions in the region of Palestine responded to international women’s fashions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries as well as to cultural codes of modesty. Palestinian women’s clothes it into regional styles. The main regions were Nablus and Janin, the Galilee, Jerusalem and the nearby towns of Bethlehem and Ramallah (each with its own speciic colors and styles), Hebron, Gaza, the southern and central coastal plain of Majdal, Isdud, Jaffa and Bayt Dajan, and the Negev and Sinai. The northern areas of Nablus and Janin and Galilee are known for women’s clothes that were undecorated and where embroidery was seen as an indication that the woman had little real work to do. Women in the region were engaged in heavy farm work alongside their men and embroidery was considered to be “frivolous” work. Professional dressmakers were employed to make a bride’s dress, but in general, dresses were plain and color was provided by using different-colored cloth. Small embroidered stripes were used in wedding dresses or those for major feasts. Majdal cloth was given by the groom to the bride to make her trousseau. Celebration dress included a wide sash or zunnar of white and blue silk stripes used as a belt. A Majdal cloth outer dress belted with the silk zunnar was called khamsat alaf wa khamsa mi’ah or “ive thousand, ive hundred” by women of the region to indicate how expensive the cloth was to buy. Women in Galilee wore embroidered dresses and long coats until around the middle of the 19th century, but by the 1860s, most had abandoned them in favor of the Turkish styles of baggy pants, long shirt, and long coats. Women made and wore the Galilee wedding coat or the jillayah into the early 20th century before they were also abandoned in favor of Western styles. The jillayah is an outer coat worn over a plain white shirt or thob and pants or sirwal underneath. The jillayah was of dark blue cotton on the outside, but had an inner lining of atlas silk. The coats were made to it fairly close to the upper body with long, straight sleeves. The coats were worn open from the waist down and made to lap open while walking to reveal the inner lining. There was minimal outside embroidery that followed the lines of securing the inner lining and the seams, along the row of buttons from neckline to just above the waist, and around the collar. The cuffs of the sirwal

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were richly embroidered as were hats/caps that included gold and silver coins. The woman’s costume was completed with a bolero-style jacket or taqsirah heavily embroidered in gold and silver thread, often made in Damascus. Women from Nablus wore a horseshoe-shaped hat decorated with rows of silver or gold coins called a samadah. These went out of fashion in the early 20th century and were replaced with another style of hat called a taqiyah. The taqiyah was slightly pointed and made of atlas silk from Damascus. Most sources note that the taqiyah were made by professional hatmakers and not by the women themselves. The hatmakers embroidered the hats with silk loss in mainly reds and yellows. The taqiyah was held in place by two long cords attached to both sides and tied under the chin. The cords were usually black and ended in an Ottoman gold coin or a khamasiyah, taking the name from the fact that the coin was a Turkish ive-lira gold piece. Women’s clothes from the central region of Palestine were, and remain, in sharp contrast to those of the north. They are richly embroidered and display a good deal of wealth in the materials used and the urban/urbane lifestyle of the people. Women heavily embroidered dresses not only for festive occasions, but also for everyday wear. In the 1930s, women from other parts of Palestine stopped making their dresses and bought ones made in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was a primarily Christian Arab town and exerted its inluence over the nearby villages of Bayt Jala and Bayt Sahur. Generally, women in Bethlehem preferred to use silk for their dresses; reinforcement areas, such as the shoulders, were in velvet, making them very expensive. Women used locally woven silk and cotton blends or imported hermesy silk for the main body of their dresses, called Thawb Malaki Abu Wardah (meaning royal dress with lowers) or Thawb Akhdari (meaning green dress, from the use of green silk cloth in the body of the dress), or in ghabani cloth from Aleppo or Damascus. Bethlehem was famous for its use of couched stitching in metal threads, mainly gold and silver, which is different from the types of stitching used by other Palestinian women. Couched stitching is done by laying the thread on the surface and then using another needle and thread to sew it to the surface. This is done on the qabbah or front panel, on the sleeves, and on the main body of the dress. Bethlehem’s Christians embroidered crosses into the patterns on the dresses to mark their religion. Other patterns include lowers, lower pots, tree of life, and songbirds, among others. Some of the embroidery designs are ancient and are shared with other art forms while others are new. Palestinian women were exposed to a number of European embroidery books starting in the second half of the 19th century that came along with shipments of silk loss from France. Companies sent books with embroidery designs along with the shipments of threads and merchants gave out the books to the women who wanted them. This introduced a number of

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Street market in Bethlehem on the West Bank. Palestinians use national dress as a means of identity and men wear the kufiyah and ’aqal and women wear traditional embroidered dresses. (Courtesy John A. Shoup)

new designs to the existing corpus, and in some cases, new designs replaced older ones. European designs tend to be more representational of lowers, trees, and even people than the more geometric and stylized representations in more traditional Palestinian embroidery. The older dresses have large, long, wide sleeves, though not as big as the sleeves worn by most Bedouin women. The large, open sleeves needed to be pushed back up the arms or tied together behind the woman’s back while working in order to keep them out of the way and prevent them interfering with her tasks. A distinctive head covering in Bethlehem, today only worn at special occasions, is the shatwah. The shatwah is a conical hat made of stiffened material and covered in a red cloth that is heavily embroidered in colored silk thread. The front of the shatwah is encrusted with rows of gold or silver coins, red coral pieces, and charms or hijabs. Photos from the 19th century show women wearing rather short versions of the shatwah, but in the irst half of the 20th century they grew in size into tall hats that prevented the wearer from carrying loads on her head. The shatwah was held in place by a metal chin strap that attached to side laps. The chin chain was often made of ine silver and weight was added by silver or gold coins suspended along the sides and at the bottom of the chain. These chin chains were

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common to many Palestinian women’s hats, but they disappeared by the 1950s and were replaced by simple black ribbon. As a head veil over the top of the shatwah, women wore a white, off-white, or cream-colored cloth of cotton or cotton and linen called a ghudfah or khirqah embroidered on the sides and on the back in bright reds, yellows, and greens. Women from Bethlehem frequently included igures of birds similar to the ones found on their dresses in their head veils. The women from the villages around the town of Ramallah preferred to wear white or off-white dresses made of locally woven cotton or cotton and linen blend. The white background was used to set off cross-stitch embroidery in mainly dark red and black silk loss with highlights in yellow, blue, purple, and green. During the winter months, some women changed to dark black or indigo blue dresses, again heavily embroidered in red. The older dresses, like those of Bethlehem, had large, wide, open sleeves sometimes with cloth ties at the bottom tips of the sleeves that could be used to tie them at the back of the wearer. The women wore a samadah of atlas silk with rows of silver coins along the front. Over the samadah women wore a ghudfah or khirqah of white cotton or cotton and linen heavily embroidered in red silk loss. One of the most common patterns used on both the back panels of the dresses and on the head veil is what is called the nakhlah ‘ali or tall palm tree. Women from Jerusalem, like those from Bethlehem, liked to wear dresses made up of strips of red, green, and yellow silk sewn together and then heavily embroidered with couch stitched gold and silver thread. Sleeves were long, open, and wide until the second half of the 20th century when closer itting long sleeves became the fashion. Other women from the region preferred black cotton dresses with inely embroidered chest panels. Women wore simple embroidered caps with little other decoration, over which they wore a white ghudfah or khirqah with minimal or no embroidery. Jerusalem’s urban elite stopped wearing such clothes in the 19th century, and by the middle of the 20th century such dress was for the urban poor or recent migrants from rural areas. Urban women had abandoned such traditional clothes for modern styles from Europe or North America. The women of Hebron and its nearby villages developed some of the most elaborate styles of clothes in all of Palestine. The dresses were usually black in color with shoulder yokes in atlas or hermesy silk. The sleeves were heavily embroidered from shoulder to wrist cuff; the front panel or qabbah was also heavily embroidered as were both the front, side, and back panels of the dress. Unlike most other dresses in Palestine, the front panel also included strips of silk appliqué that were embroidered to nearly the waist of the wearer. Nearly the entire dress was covered in appliqué or embroidery. Sleeves, even in many of the early dresses found in museum collections, tend to be long and straight with tight wrists. Hebron’s women wore several different types of head veils or shawls. A milaya was long enough to fall to the ground, then gathered up around the waist and

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress brought back up over the head, similar to urban dress in Damascus. The Hebron version of the ghudfah was known not only for the ine quality of the embroidery in dark reds, but also for the inished tassels. Women of the region wore a shambar or veil made of black crepe material either dyed red or, more frequently, heavily embroidered in red. The shambar was worn over the head and around the neck and shoulders. It could be brought up over the nose and mouth easily when a woman met a stranger. The shambar was once worn by nearly all women in Syria, Palestine, and Jordan, but is now mainly worn by Bedouin women. The southern and central area was inluenced by the cloth-producing center of Majdal and the ine embroidery done by the women of Bayt Dajan. Bayt Dajan was particularly known for the ine work done by its women and the inluence exerted by their work on the region. Women of the region borrowed embroidery techniques from Bethlehem; and like styles from Hebron, used silk appliqué as well as embroidery on the body of the dress. Certain designs, such as the Zahra al-Burtugal (orange blossom), were inluenced by the number of orange groves in the area. Women wore dresses in white, black, and indigo blue and the chest panels, backs, sides, and sleeves were heavily embroidered in shades of reds, blacks, blues, and yellows. Women generally wore a shambar in red or black with a strip of red; but in the late 19th century, red silk copies of Chinese or Spanish shawls with loral patterns became popular as head veils. By the 1930s, women in Bayt Dajan had abandoned their unique styles for those they could buy from Bethlehem, though the older styles did not totally disappear from memory. Women from Bayt Dajan have kept their unique traditions alive among the refugees in camps in Jordan where they have recently revived the traditions of Bayt Dajan dresses. Gaza, like Majdal, has long been a center of cloth weaving; the term gauze derives its name from Gaza. Gazan women wore a distinctive dress made of black cotton cloth with stripes of yellow and red the length of the dress. Very little decoration was used other than short stripes of embroidery called musht or combs. The dress has three-quarter-length sleeves that are form itting. Other dresses from the region also make use of the same type of cotton cloth—usually woven in Majdal— with embroidery running along the sides, the front chest panel, and down the sleeves in red and yellow. Designs are geometrics and are shared with those used by local Bedouin. The head was covered with a long, white cloth with minimal or no decoration. Bedouin women in the Negev wore styles that relate more to the Bedouin in Sinai and can be considered an extension of Sinai dress. Bedouin women’s fashions have been inluenced by Palestinian women in changes about sleeve shape and size and embroidery designs. Bedouin women make use of large geometric patterns, but do include humans, animals, and lowers. In general, the major colors chosen are codes about the women: Blue embroidery indicates an unmarried

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Older Bedouin woman wearing a face veil of gold coins, Sinai, Palestine. (Courtesy John A. Shoup)

woman; use of lots of colors, but especially red, indicates a married woman; while blue with minimal use of color indicates the women is a widow. Sleeves are large, long, and wide and are called Abu ‘Irdan and are tied behind the woman’s back as she works. More recent ones are made with the long straight sleeves that have become fashionable with Palestinian women. Bedouin women wear a black shambar or a qun‘ah in black with mainly red embroidery. In addition, similar to the Sinai Bedouin, many women wear a burq‘ah or face veil. The burq‘ah are made of an embroidered head strap to which a piece of red cloth is attached. The cloth is lightly embroidered in red and the whole is decorated with silver and gold coins. Side pieces are attached that are often combinations of silver or white metal chains that end in silver bells or triangles. The side pieces can be long chains of white immature sea shells. Unmarried women wear a cap called a wuqqiyah made of atlas or hermesy silk decorated in front with silver coins, but having a long tail heavily embroidered and ending in long silk tassels. A special piece of cloths worn by Bedouin women in the Negev, Sinai, and parts of Jordan is a decorative short coat called a kibber. The kibber is made from black cotton cloth and is heavily embroidered, especially in the back. In Sinai and the Negev, women line the bottom with small silk tassels ending in white glass

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress beads. The kibber has unusable tight sleeves and is worn over the shoulders rather than with the arms and hands going through the sleeves. In addition, Bedouin women in Sinai and Negev make woven and plaited belts that mark their marriage status. Certain ones with red in them, decorated with cowrie shells and coins, are worn only by married women. In the past the woman made her own belt, and long tassels in plaited red wool could be added as separate parts to the belt. Men By the middle of the 19th century most Palestinian urban men had already abandoned traditional clothes for Turkish and Western styles they could buy ready made. Dark three-piece suits became fashionable with only rural men keeping to older traditions. Most traditional men’s clothes were very similar to those of Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. Men wore plain cotton sirwal, a cotton or linen shirt, a wide belt made of different types of cloth (depending on the wealth of the owner), and a vest or jacket made of atlas or hermesy silk. Until the 1930s, most village and urban men wore the red Turkish tarbush sometimes wrapped in ghabani cloth or wore a turban also made of ghabani cloth. The black and white kufiyah, more commonly called a hattah in Palestine, appeared with the 1936–1939 revolt against the British as a means to hide rural ighters among the general population. By the 1940s, the kufiyah had replaced the turban. More rural men wore a plain thawb over the shirt and pants and belted it on the outside with a wide leather belt or used a cloth sash. For festivals and events, men like to wear a qunbaz or outer coat or a thawb made of atlas silk from Damascus.

Dress in Jordan Women Jordanian women, like those in the Palestine region, liked to wear dresses with elaborate embroidery. Jordanian women, unlike those in Palestine, were not inluenced as much by Turkish or Western fashions until after the 1940s. Jordan’s people were more rural in comparison to those in Palestine and preserved traditional fashions longer. Women’s clothes were basically divided between those of settled village women and the Bedouin. Until the early 20th century many Bedouin women wore the extra-large dress called a thob ‘ob. These are massive, being three meters (nine feet) in length with equally massive sleeves. To be worn, the dress was folded over a belt and fell back to the ground, giving the woman lots of cloth to be used for storage. The sleeves were so large that one could be folded over the head and tied in place with a cloth headband. It was noted that a woman could use the other sleeve to keep an infant near her while working. While these went out of fashion by the irst decades of the 20th century, subsequent Bedouin dresses

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maintain the idea of needing to tie the sleeves out of the way behind the wearer’s back, even if there is no real sleeve left on the dress. Another such oversized dress was made in the town of Ma‘an in southern Jordan and is still worn for holidays. The dress is made of red and green silk in large strips, not unlike the Bethlehem ikhdari dress. The difference, though, is that the Ma‘an dress has little to no embroidery on it and the colors of the strips of cloth make the design. Today in Jordan Bedouin women embroider their dresses with special emphasis on the chest panel. Bedouin women like bright colors such as yellow and red in addition to the geometric and loral designs. Bedouin and village women in northern Jordan prefer to use silk brocade cloth from Syria as their headpiece, which they tie over a black shambar. Those that cannot afford the costly silk use the cotton black and white or plain white kufiyah. Men Jordanian men, both settled villagers and Bedouin, tended to wear more or less the same pieces of clothes. The main item of clothing was the thawb or dishdashah, usually in plain cotton cloth, though different colors can be used. Today, men can have a three-piece suit usually made from a British wool and cotton blend, the dishdashah, a vest, and coat. In the past, Jordanian men, like Palestinians, wore a long outer coat or qunbaz in Damascus-made silk. Jordanian dishdashah are distinctive with small side slits up the sides that allow better ease in walking. The main headwear is the kufiyah with those that are red and white being more popular than the black and white ones. Many men wear fully white ones in the summer, and the red and white checked in the winter. The better ones are called shamagh in Jordan and are of cotton and silk made in Syria, though today many are made in Japan or Korea. The Jordanian variety has tasseling added along the sides and each end has longer sets of tassels in white cotton thread. The headpiece Jordanian man in dishdashah and kufiyah, is held in place with a black ‘aqal made 2010. (Eliaviel/Dreamstime.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of woven and wrapped goat hair. In Jordan, men prefer ones that end in a number of long tassels that hang down the back and distinguish Jordanians from others who wear them. Young unmarried men often wear the ‘aqal in a jaunty manner low to one side while married and older men wear it straight on the head. In winter men tend to wear dishdashahs made with heavier cloth in darker colors than for the summer. There are short coats in blue, red, green, or brown wool cloth decorated with dark strips of cloth in geometric designs that were worn in the winter. While these are sill made in Damascus, they are mostly purchased by tourists. A somewhat larger version of this with a lining of lamb’s leece is still made in Damascus and worn among the wealthier Bedouin and villagers. Cheaper ones with synthetic wool linings or a plain woven wool interior are also worn by many Bedouin.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress In the Palestinian Territories and Jordan today, most men and women wear Western styles that they can buy at any local store or, for Islamic women, modern Islamic dress. More traditional clothes are worn at special occasions and holidays. Among Palestinian women, embroidery traditions are passed on to daughters as part of preserving national identity. Palestinian women have adapted their embroidery to a wide variety of household items including computer cases, backpacks, and cell phone cases, as well as more traditional items such as headscarves, pillowcases, and the like. Traditional dress has also adopted new features such as close, tight-itting sleeves for women’s dresses and frangi or European-style collars for men’s dishdashahs.

Further Reading and Resources Dickson, H. R. P. The Arab of the Desert. London: George Allen and Unwin, 1983. Granqvist, Hilma. Portrait of a Palestinian Village. London: The Third World Centre for Research and Publishing, 1981. Jabbur, Jibrail. The Bedouins of the Desert: Aspects of Nomadic Life in the Arab East. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1995. Rajab, Jehan. Palestinian Costume. London: Kegan Paul International, 1989. Shoup, John. Culture and Customs of Jordan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Weir, Shelagh. The Bedouin. London: British Museum Publications, 1990. Weir, Shelagh, and Serene Shahid. Palestinian Embroidery. London: British Museum Publications, 1988.

The Philippines Laura P. Appell-Warren

Historical Background The history of the Republic of the Philippines is divided into four distinct periods: the pre-Spanish period (before 1521), the Spanish period (1521–1898), the American period (1898–1946), and the postindependence period (1946–present). Philippine prehistory begins with Negrito, proto-Malay, and Malay people migrating to the Philippines via land bridges from Borneo and Sumatra. A 2010 archeological ind of a metatarsal bone in the Callao Caves north of Manila indicates that the Philippines may have been settled much earlier than previously thought, and uranium series dating of the bone indicates that it is 67,000 years old (Henderson, 2010). Archeological, linguistic, and genetic evidence also strongly suggests that successive waves of migrants came from Taiwan using rafts or boats. Mainland Chinese merchants and traders arrived and settled in the Philippines during the ninth century, sometimes traveling on the ships of Arab traders. It was these Arab traders who introduced Islam to the southern part of the Philippines. The MalayoPolynesians remained the dominant group in the Philippines until the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. On March 16, 1521, Ferdinand Magellan was the irst Spaniard to sight the Philippine archipelago. Magellan landed on the island of Cebu, claimed the land for Charles I of Spain, and was killed shortly thereafter by a local chief. Spain subsequently sent several expeditions to the Philippines, but the irst settlement was not established until 1565. Spain had three objectives in the Philippines. The irst was to acquire a share in the spice trade, the second was to develop contacts with China and Japan in order to further Christian missionary efforts there, and the third was to convert the Filipinos to Christianity. The long rule of the Spanish was marked by many Filipino uprisings. However, it was in 1896 that the inal uprising against Spain began. Under the leadership of Emilio Aguinaldo the revolt continued until the Americans, during the Spanish-American War, defeated the Spanish leet in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Aguinaldo then declared independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, but Spain 585

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress ceded the Philippines to the United States under the Treaty of Paris (September 10, 1898), and the United States began its occupation of the Philippines. Undeterred, Aguinaldo continued his war of resistance against the United States, and thousands of Filipino and American soldiers died between 1898 and 1901 when Aguinaldo was captured. The United States Administration of the Philippines was declared to be temporary, and efforts were made to develop institutions and a system of education that would encourage a democratic government. In 1935 the Philippines, under the Tydings-McDufie Act, became a selfgoverning commonwealth with Manuel Quezon elected as president. The goal was to prepare the country for independence after a 10-year transition period. However, World War II broke out and Japan attacked the Philippines, placing the island under Japanese control. On October 20, 1944, General Douglas MacArthur landed on Leyte and fought the Japanese until they surrendered in September 1945. Despite the disruption of the war, plans for the independence of the Philippines proceeded, and the Philippine Islands oficially became the independent Republic of the Philippines on July 4, 1946. The postindependence period in the Philippines was marked by continued unrest, including the communist-led Huk Rebellion (1945–1953). President Ramon Magsaysay (1953–1957) successfully suppressed the Huk Rebellion, and the succeeding administrations of presidents Carlos P. Garcia (1957–1961) and Diosdado Macapagal (1961–1965) sought to expand Philippine ties to other Asian countries, to implement domestic reform programs, and to develop and diversify the economy. President Ferdinand Marcos (1965–1986) initially governed the Philippines in accordance with the transitory provisions of a new constitution. However, in 1972 Marcos declared martial law as a result of a perceived communist rebellion. His actions served to suppress the democratic institutions and to restrict civil liberties, and he began to exert his power to rule by decree. Marcos’s presidency was marked by human rights violations and corruption. On August 21, 1983, Marcos’s chief rival, Benigno Aquino Jr., was assassinated when he returned to the Philippines. Bowing to political pressure, Marcos called for a presidential election in 1986 and Benigno Aquino’s widow, Corazon, was elected president. As president, Corazon Aquino oversaw the creation of a new constitution, which limited the powers of the presidency and established a bicameral legislature. Her administration also emphasized civil liberties and human rights. At the end of her term, in 1992, Fidel V. Ramos was elected president. During his six years in ofice, Ramos was credited with revitalizing and renewing international conidence in the Philippine economy. In 1998 Joseph Estrada, a former actor, was elected president. His presidency was marked by allegations of corruption and, facing an impeachment trial, he left ofice in 2001. In 2001 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, daughter of former president

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Diosdado Macapagal, was elected to be the 14th president of the Philippines. Her tenure as president was plagued by political unrest and threats of terrorism. In 2010 Benigno Aquino III, son of former president Corazon Aquino, was elected president.

Geographic and Environmental Background The Philippines is an archipelago of 7,107 islands, and has three main geographical divisions: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is located in Southeast Asia in the western Paciic Ocean. To the southwest, across the Sulu Sea, is the island of Borneo. The Celebes Sea separates the Philippines from Indonesia to the south. On the east the Philippines is bounded by the Philippine Sea, to the west the Philippines is bounded by the South China Sea, and to the north, across the Luzon Strait, lies the island of Taiwan. Situated in the Paciic Ring of Fire, the Philippine Islands are subject to earthquakes and typhoons. The climate of the Philippines varies depending on the geography and elevation; generally speaking, however, it has a tropical marine climate. There is a monsoon season in the summer, from May to October, that brings heavy rains to most of the islands, and a winter season, from December to February, that brings cooler, drier air to the islands. Much of the lowland areas, including Manila, are hot and dry from March to May. The average year-round temperature is 78°F (26.6°C), and annual rainfall measures as much as 197 inches (5,000 mm) in the mountainous east coast section of the country, but less than 40 inches (1,000 mm) in some of the sheltered valleys.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The Philippine Islands are home to more than 100 different ethnic groups, each with its own language, culture, and religious practices. The total population is estimated at 103,775,000. It is the 12th largest country in the world in terms of population. The indigenous peoples are descendants of the original people of the Philippines. Perhaps the most well-known ethnic group in the Philippines is the Tagalog people. The Tagalog group is represented in a large geographic proportion of the Philippines (13 provinces) but are just over a quarter of the total population. Other provinces with signiicant Tagalog populations include the provinces of Palawan, Tarlac, and Zambales. There are about 22 million speakers of the Tagalog language, and Tagalog became the oficial national language of the Philippines in 1930. While larger in number, the 33 million Visayan people are mainly found in the Visaya region and in some parts of the Mindanao region of the Philippines. The

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Visayans speak a large number of dialects that are collectively referred to as the Bisaya language. Although the members of the indigenous ethnic groups practice their own form of religion, Christianity, having been introduced by the Spanish in the 1500s, is the majority religion in the Philippines with 91 percent of the population belonging to a Christian religion, primarily Roman Catholicism or Protestantism. Islam is the oldest recorded monotheistic religion in the Philippines, having been brought there by Arab traders in the 12th century, and the Muslim minority in the Philippines hovers between 5 and 9 percent of the population. In revolting irst against Spanish rule and later against the United States, the indigenous peoples became increasingly conscious of a national unity transcending their original ethnic identities. The Philippine national identity emerged when lowland Christians, originally belonging to a variety of ethnic groups, called indios by the Spaniards, began referring to themselves as “Filipinos.” This categorization excluded Muslims, upland tribal groups, and ethnic Chinese who had not been assimilated by intermarriage (Dolan, 1991).

History of Dress The national costume in the Philippines for men is the Barong Tagalog and for women the terno. Both of these costumes have their origins among the Tagalog people and were initially popularized by the Spanish during their rule of the Philippines. In the Tagalog language baro means dress and ng means of, hence the name of the national costume for men is Barong Tagalog, which can be directly translated as the “dress of the Tagalog.” This national dress for men is based on the traditional ethnic dress of the Tagalog men, who wore a tunic that reached just below the waist and was called a canga. This tunic was made of rough material. It had long sleeves with no cuffs, an opening in the front, and was worn untucked. Covering their legs Tagalog men wore a richly colored cloth, edged with gold, wound around their waists. The material was brought up between the legs to form trousers. Under the inluence of the Spanish and Chinese the Barong Tagalog underwent many changes. The collar would at times be in a mandarin style and other times would be a rufled affair, reminiscent of an Elizabethan collar. Embroidery would embellish the entire shirt, rather than just the front of the shirt, as it had originally. Legend has it that the Spanish declared that all Filipino men should wear the Barong Tagalog as a way of distinguishing them from the Spanish colonizers, and that the baro must be sheer to ensure that the men were not carrying hidden weapons. During the presidency of Manuel L. Quezon nationalism was high, and he declared the Barong Tagalog to be the oficial national dress of Filipino men. The Barong Tagalog of this period and of the post–World War II period was embellished

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with the lag of the Commonwealth of the Philippines and with scenes of Filipino life. There was also a pocket on the left side of the baro. However, U.S. inluence on the Philippines was strong, and during the 1950s most men rejected the Barong Tagalog for American-style suits and, for formal wear, tuxedos. The Barong Tagalog regained favor when President Ramon Magsaysay wore a Barong Tagalog at his inauguration and subsequently at all oficial functions. Within a decade the Barong Tagalog was worn by bridegrooms at their weddings and several new, more casual, styles were introduced. The short-sleeved version, called the Polo Barong, became extremely popular and soon became the unoficial uniform of Filipino men. However, it was Ferdinand Marcos who was responsible for the true resurgence of the Bar- Philippine foreign secretary Alberto Romulo ong Tagalog as the national costume wears the traditional Philippines’ barong of the Philippines. In 1975 Marcos tagalog, 2007. (AFP photo/Jay Directo/Getty declared the week of June 5 to June Images 11 as Barong Tagalog Week, and at the same time he decreed that the Barong Tagalog would once again be the national attire for the Philippines. According to historians of the Barong Tagalog the presidential act was meant to focus nationwide attention on the Filipino national dress as an incentive for more Filipino men to wear the national costume. In addition, Marcos wanted to enhance the export potential of the Barong Tagalog. Marcos initially popularized the Pierre Cardin tapered Barong Tagalog, then in the 1980s Ferdinand Marcos and his cabinet ministers all wore Barong Tagalog designed by J. Pitoy Morento. The Barong Tagalog worn by Marcos and his cabinet ministers was made of linen or voile, was long-sleeved, and was beige or light blue. The original national dress in the Philippines for women was the baro’t saya, which is a contraction of the words baro at saya; baro meaning blouse and saya meaning skirt. Traditionally the women of the Tagalog ethnic groups wore a saya, a long wraparound length of cloth covering only the lower half of the body, with

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the torso being covered with a baro, a short-sleeved, collarless blouse. During the period of Spanish colonization this basic style of clothing was embellished and evolved into a many-layered ensemble. Another variation of the baro’t saya was the Maria Clara gown, which takes its name from the female protagonist of the national epic Noli me Tangere written in 1890 by José Rizal. Based on the baro’t saya, the terno, from the Spanish meaning “to match,” has been called a masterpiece and a national treasure. In the 1950s a Filipino designer, Ramon Valera, simpliied the women’s national costume by removing the pañuelo and the overskirt, then joining the bodice and the skirt. The development of the terno, however, was not only the work of Ramon Valera, but also the melding of the innovations of, among many, designers Pacita Longos and Juanita Roa. The name terno alludes to the matching of the blouse and skirt, which is joined at the waist to form a one-piece dress, as opposed to the original many-pieced baro’t saya. In addition, the terno was inluenced by the American evening gown. Designer Juanita Mina-Ross created a twoin-one terno that featured detachable sleeves so the terno could be transformed into an American-style evening gown. In addition to being seamless, the terno has several other innovations. These include the hallmark feature of the terno, the upright sleeves that rest lat against the shoulder like butterly wings (and which draw their inspiration from the stiff pañuelo), the low neckline, and the nipped waist that allows the slightly full skirt to fall gracefully. Like the Barong Tagalog the terno fell out of favor during the period of Americanization. The terno was revived and made popular by First Lady Imelda Marcos in the 1970s. It has been argued by Roces that Imelda Marcos, like her husband, manipulated her use of the terno in an attempt to equate herself with the body politic. As the most powerful woman in the Philippines she popularized the modern terno, which does not feature the pañuelo, and was seldom seen wearing anything else. Her use of the terno led to her satirization in political cartoons as “The Iron Butterly,” a reference to the oversized butterly sleeves she favored. During the American colonial Imelda Marcos wearing a terno, 2010. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) period, when the wearing of the Barong

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Tagalog and the terno was at an all-time low, the women of the Philippines were considered the embodiment of national identity through the wearing of the terno. The terno, however, has, in recent years, been relegated to special occasions while the Barong Tagalog, and the men who wear it, have become the symbol of the Philippines and of national pride. Some argue that this is because of Imelda Marcos’s close association with the terno: When Corazon Aquino became president she did not want to be associated with the Marcos regime and therefore only wore the terno on the rare occasions when politicians are expected to appear in Filipino dress.

Materials and Techniques The inest Barong Tagalog are traditionally made from piña, jusi, or banana fabric, all of which give the Barong Tagalog its sheer qualities. Piña fabric is handloomed from pineapple leaf ibers in a process that takes up to four months to produce 22 yards (20 meters) of fabric. Because there are fewer and fewer skilled weavers of piña, the scarcity of this delicate cloth makes it used only for specialoccasion Barong Tagalog. Banana fabric is handwoven from the ibers of the banana leaf. This material is another sheer fabric used for formal-occasion Barong Tagalog and is native to the islands of the Visayas and Negros. Banana fabric is known for the geometric design details woven into the fabric. Jusi refers to a silk organza fabric made in China that is primarily used for special-occasion Barong Tagalog. Everyday Barong Tagalog are made from polyester organza fabric—a synthetic fabric with a sheen or shiny appearance—or linen. The terno is most commonly made of jusi or polyester organza, but it can also be found in piña. The Barong Tagalog is perhaps most well known for the embroidery that covers the material. When making a Barong Tagalog out of piña the embroidery process is as painstaking as the process of making the fabric. The pattern is irst chalked onto the fabric; the fabric is stretched on a wooden frame called a bastador; and the embroidery is done with thread that is of a slightly contrasting color. Because hand embroidery is tedious and time consuming, Barong Tagalog made from jusi or polyester can be machine embroidered. The process of embroidering the terno is similar to the process of embroidering the Barong Tagalog.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress While each ethnic group in the Philippines wears a different type of clothing that is indicative of the ethnic group to which they belong, the majority of Filipino people wear Western dress. However, the Barong Tagalog continues to be worn by many men for everyday wear. Designer Barong Tagalog can be ordered for special occasions, and many grooms wear the Barong Tagalog when they are married.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The terno, however, is no longer favored by women when they are getting married, a shift that occurred in the 1990s; instead Filipino women prefer to wear a Western-style wedding dress. In 2009 a new line of contemporary ternos, marketed as evening and special-occasion wear, was introduced by designer Raffaela. These ready-to-wear terno celebrate the traditional terno with butterly sleeves and use indigenous fabrics, such as piña, as well as the more traditional jusi.

Component Parts Historically, the baro’t saya consisted of an inner shirt (made of a sheer embroidered material) called the kimona, an outer shirt called the baro, a shawl called the pañuelo (which was starched to achieve a raised look), a petticoat called the naguas, and a skirt called the saya. The terno, by contrast, consists of a single dress with no separate component parts. The terno is characterized by the “butterly” sleeves and by embroidery and beading primarily on the bodice but sometimes on the skirt. The skirt of the terno is generally long. The Barong Tagalog has either a stand-up, mandarin-style collar, or a European-style collar. The shirt falls to midthigh and can have side slits. The sleeves are long and feature a cuff. More modern variations of the Barong Tagalog include the Polo Barong, which features short sleeves and is considered informal.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiication While the indigenous people of the Philippines are known for a variety of body modiications, including the puberty ritual of the sharpening of the 14 top front teeth among the Manobo peoples of Mindanao, there are no instances of jewelry, body paint, or body modiication being an integral part of Filipino national dress.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Today the Barong Tagalog is worn by government employees and many corporate employees, and it is the uniform of the male Philippine Airlines domestic light attendants. It is also the formal wear that is recommended for men traveling in the Philippines, to be worn in lieu of a coat and tie. By contrast the terno has been relegated to special occasions and celebrity television events only. For example, in 2008 the television show Project Runway Philippines featured an event entitled “The Terno Challenge.” During this event the designers were tasked with creating a 21st-century version of the terno. The designers listened to a history of the terno delivered by Imelda Marcos and then pitched their sketches to her, further linking the terno to Imelda Marcos and to the Marcos regime.

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Further Reading and Resources Arcilla, José S. An Introduction to Philippine History. 4th ed. Manila: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1999. Cruz, Eric V. The Barong Tagalog: Its Development and Identity as the Filipino Men’s National Costume. Quezon City: Ofice of Research and Publications, College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines, 1992. Cruz, Eric V. The Terno: Its Development and Identity as the Filipino Women’s National Costume. Quezon City: College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines, 1982. Dolan, Ronald E., ed. Philippines: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1991. Fox, Robert B. The Tabon Caves: Archaeological Explorations and Excavations on Palawan. Manila: Monograph 1, Manila National Museum, 1970. Henderson, Barney. “Archeologists Unearth 67,000-Year-Old Human Bone in Philippines.” The Daily Telegraph (London), August 4, 2010. Go, Kitty. “A Question of Identity: A Terno Is More Than Just a Fashion Statement, Finds Kitty Go.” The Financial Times, April 10, 2004:8. Quizon, Cherubim A. “Costume, Kóstyom and Dress: Formulations of Bagóbo Ethnic Identity in Southern Mindanao.” Ethnology 46(4), 2007:271–288. Roces, Mina. “Gender, Nation and the Politics of Dress in 20th Century Philippines.” ITAS Newsletter 2008. Roces, Mina. “Women, Citizenship and the Politics of Dress in Twentieth-Century Philippines.” NIASnyyt 1(2004): 8–9. Roces, Mina, and Louise Edwards. The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2010.

Poland Pamela Smith

Historical Background The borders of Poland have been drawn and redrawn numerous times over the centuries, and there have been periods when it ceased to exist altogether as an independent state. In the mid-20th century it suffered occupation and the carving up of lands at the hands of both Nazi Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union, but this was only the most recent of many changes in its territorial and national unity. The Poles are a Slavic people, descended from tribes who settled in central and eastern Europe around the 5th century CE, adopting Christianity at the end of the 10th century. The period considered to be the golden age of Polish culture was the late 15th to late 16th centuries, when kings of the Jagiellon dynasty were in power, the nobility were strong and prosperous, cities grew, arts lourished, and living conditions improved for much of the population. Expansion of territory occurred when the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was established in 1569. From the mid-17th century the huge state entered a period of decline caused by deterioration of its system of government and catastrophic wars, including many confrontations with the Ottoman Turks. The Commonwealth’s independent existence ended in 1795, following a series of invasions and partitions by the other great European powers of the day—the Kingdom of Prussia, the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire. Poland did not exist again as a separate state until the end of the First World War in 1918, by which time these powers had dwindled. The new Republic of Poland survived only until 1939, when it was invaded by Nazi Germany. After World War II, Poland was a satellite state of the Soviet Union until the breakup of the Communist bloc in the 1990s. Poland has since been established as an independent parliamentary democracy. Today, its population is estimated at more than 38,400,000. Despite all these upheavals, the development of dress in Poland matched that in other central European countries, with the nobility and wealthy townspeople wearing fashionable dress inluenced by the styles and materials favored in the West. Meanwhile the rural population retained their traditional ethnic dress. As 594

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the 19th century progressed, changes appeared in peasant dress, but at different periods according to when they achieved emancipation from serfdom and were granted the right to own and cultivate their own land. This led to greater prosperity and villagers chose to express their wealth through ever more decorated and elaborate clothes for festive wear. Emancipation occurred over a period of time as different parts of Poland came under different jurisdictions. For example, the Prussian Empire abolished serfdom in 1807, while Polish peasants under Russian rule did not beneit until 1864. As well as increased income, the growth of industry and transport links were factors that enabled the rural population to obtain machinemade fabrics and accessories, such as ribbons and braids. The periods showing the most creative decoration in festive dress were from 1850 to 1870 in the north and west, and from 1870 to 1890 in the east and south.

Geographic and Environmental Background Most of Poland is lat, being part of the great plain that stretches uninterrupted by rising land between north Germany and the Ural mountains, at the eastern limit of European Russia. It is bordered to the north by the Baltic Sea. This terrain has allowed for ease of movement over the centuries, for both peaceful settlement and hostile invasion. It also dictates the climate of short hot summers and long severe winters, when there is little protection from icy conditions coming from the east and north. The soil and climate are suitable for growing hemp and lax (from which linen is made). These were originally the most commonly used materials for everyday clothes, being cool and lexible for ease of working in the ields. In the south of the country, along its borders with the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Ukraine, rise the Carpathian Mountains, where sheepherding was the traditional way of life. Ethnic dress here featured woolen cloth, leather, and sheepskin, as well as home-woven linen. Variations in ethnic dress developed in the different regions of Poland according to the wealth of the wearers, their ability to obtain new manufactured materials, and their exposure to ideas of fashion from the higher classes. An early inluence was the Hanseatic League, a trading system that operated throughout northern Europe, including through Danzig (now the Polish port of Gdansk) from the 13th to the 17th century. Its activities facilitated the spread of luxury goods and ideas of fashion, which made an impact irst on the dress from northern and western Poland. Villagers from these areas were the irst to abandon the use of homespun textiles for their festive dress in favor of factory-made materials and to embrace urban fashions. Poland can be divided into a number of regions for the purpose of examining differences in styles of dress. These include Wielkopolskie (“Greater Poland,” in the west), Pomerania (in the north, on the coast), Mazovia (central Poland),

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Podlasie (in the east), Malopolskie (“Lesser Poland,” in the south, including the mountains), and Silesia (also partly mountainous, in the southwest).

People and Dress The form of dress for everyday wear was the same as that for festive wear, but made from poorer materials and without embellishment. Variations in color and choice of garment, such as type of headwear, denoted the age, marital status, and social status of the wearer. When worn out, adult clothes were cut down and used to dress children. Winter and summer clothes were not essentially different. In summer people would still wear their sheepskin coats and jackets as a display of wealth, and in winter they put on several layers of the same clothes they would wear in summer. The most elaborate clothes were reserved for weddings, for the bride, groom, and best man. As in other Slav countries, the custom was for unmarried girls to keep their heads uncovered, except for a headband or arrangement of ribbons in their plaited hair, until their wedding. At the ceremony the bride’s headband would be removed, her hair unbraided and hidden under the married woman’s headdress. She would keep her hair covered in public with a scarf or other form of headwear from that time on.

Men’s Dress

Young couple from Krakow. He wears a white sukmana, wide leather belt, and four-cornered hat with peacock feathers. Her skirt is of calico, and long woven ribbons adorn her headdress. (Courtesy Pamela Smith)

All over Poland men wore the sukmana—a long, rustic-style coat made of homespun woolen cloth. The most common colors were black, brown, or gray, though in the area of Krakow they were white. They were often decorated with applied braid, embroidery, or edging in cloth of a contrasting color. Under the coat the man wore a linen shirt, often embroidered on the front and sleeves for festive wear, and a waistcoat or short jacket with decorative buttons. Either

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the jacket or the outer coat would be pulled into the waist with a belt. Woven belts, typically found in Mazovia, Podlasie and Malopolskie, were very long and wound round the body many times. Highlanders and men from Krakow wore spectacular wide leather belts, decorated with embossed patterns, metal studs, and buckles. The cut of trousers varied according to the fabric. Natural-colored, brown, or black linen trousers had wide legs that were tucked into high leather boots. Highlanders wore closely itting woolen trousers and kierpce, simple shoes made out of a single piece of leather. Men’s headwear took various forms. Peaked caps were popular throughout Poland. Felt hats were sometimes made to resemble the top hats of urban fashion. In winter, especially in the mountains, fur caps with laps covering the ears and nape of the neck were worn. Four-cornered hats made of woolen cloth were widespread in Malopolskie; some had a pom-pom at each corner. The Krakow version was very distinctive, in red and decorated with peacock feathers.

Women’s Dress The cut of women’s shirts was similar to the men’s, but for special occasions they were more highly decorated with embroidery and often had elaborate collars trimmed with lace. The bodice (gorset), worn over the shirt, was made of an attractive fabric such as silk or velvet and embellished with embroidery and beadwork. Usually the skirt was a separate garment, but in some regions it was attached to the bodice. All over Poland, except among some of the highlander groups, the apron was an essential part of festive dress, and much time and effort was lavished on decorating it, especially with beads and hand- or machinemade lace. In Mazovia and Podlasie striped woolen material was used for the whole outer dress, with the colors or width of stripes on the apron contrasting with those on the skirt.

Unmarried girls from Łowicz, wearing the distinctive striped woolen skirts and aprons of their region. Their linen shirts are embroidered and they wear strings of coral beads. (Courtesy Pamela Smith)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Headwear also varied according to locality, and some forms were speciic to a particular community. There were different ways of arranging and fastening scarves or shawls over the head. Unmarried girls from the Biskupizna group in Wielkopolska wore impressive tulle bonnets constructed of several parts, tied under the chin and with quantities of white tulle arranged in a concertina shape on top of the head. In the Kaszuby area of Pomerania, where fashionable dress affected ethnic dress quite early, the most striking element of the married woman’s outit was the złotnica. This was a type of bonnet richly embroidered in gold or silver thread, with motifs in Renaissance or baroque style. It is thought that the designs were inluenced by church embroidery done in the local nunneries, where young girls from the gentry and from wealthy peasant families would learn to sew. Jewelry was an important part of festive dress, especially for young women and girls. Most popular were necklaces of natural coral beads, which had to be imported and were very expensive. The red color was believed to have the power to protect the wearer against evil charms and disease. The quality and number of beads indicated her social and economic status. The most valued were those of the most intense red color, polished smooth into spheres or cylinders. Sometimes the largest bead, placed in the middle, was set into a silver or brass mount, or a cast metal cross was suspended from the necklace. There were superstitions concerning the number of strings of beads worn. In some areas an even number was considered essential, in other areas the opposite. Especially in southern Poland they formed part of the dowry—the collection of household textiles and items of dress that every girl collected from a young age in advance of her wedding. She would make many of the textile items herself, but money was needed for jewelry. To earn it, girls from poorer families often took jobs in service to wealthier families or went abroad to work on a seasonal basis when not needed at home for farm labor. Amber necklaces were also worn, predominantly in the north of Poland, as amber was found along the Baltic coast. Gdansk has long been a center for the production of amber jewelry. The women of Łowicz, who wore the colorful striped outits, tended to wear coral beads with predominantly red woolen dresses, and amber with the orange-colored ensembles that became popular at a later date. At the turn of the19th century a set of imposing silver jewelry was adopted into the ethnic dress of Cieszyn in the region of Silesia (near the border with the present-day Czech Republic). This style of embellishment was borrowed from the fashion of the local wealthy merchants’ wives. It comprised an elaborate belt made from cast or iligree silver, chains worn as necklaces or attached to shoulder straps, and hoczki, a set of clasps used to fasten the bodice, which were cast in shapes such as mermaids or mythological beasts. Many examples can be found of the way inluences coming from outside a community or locality can affect its dress. In the early 18th century a number of

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villages near Poznan, in Wielkopolska, were depopulated due to war and cholera, and the local authorities invited Catholic inhabitants of an overpopulated area around Bamberg in southern Germany to settle in the villages and farm the land. The immigrants were given favorable terms, and later generations became very prosperous. They brought with them their own style of dress, which was at irst rather modest, but developed by the end of the 19th century into an impressive outit full of decorative detail, combining elements of the ethnic dress of both south Germany and Poland, and also of fashionable urban dress. This distinctive “Bamberg style” was meant to convey the afluence of the wearer and the community. The women’s outit included many items of clothing and accessories, exaggerated in terms of cut and decoration. A very full skirt made from expensive silk or ine wool was arranged over three quilted and several other petticoats. Other elements were richly embroidered muslin and tulle aprons, and white shawls arranged over the shoulders and cross-tied on the back. The most spectacular item was the festive kornet headdress worn by unmarried girls and brides. This tall structure was made on a base of cardboard and wire, which was covered with lace, ribbons, artiicial lowers, glass baubles, and tissue paper. As late as the 1920s, on Sundays and feast days, trailers were hitched to trams in Poznan to accommodate Bamberg women in their voluminous outits on their way to church. The Bamberg men gave up wearing traditional clothes quickly after settling in the area. Their work brought them into contact with the townspeople of Poznan and, to it in, they quickly adopted the urban style of dress.

Highland Dress In the mountains of southern Poland, where the climate and terrain were harsh and communities could be isolated, a distinctive form of dress developed and remained in use longer than most other varieties of Polish ethnic dress. Highlanders had to be self-suficient and create their clothes from the materials close at hand. They processed linen and wool, using homemade looms to weave cloth. The woolen cloth that was the basis of men’s dress was treated by fulling—a process whereby wet wool was pounded with wooden hammers, creating a dense and hard-wearing material. Some types of garment were made and decorated by artisans in village workshops, such as sheepskin coats and jackets. Making trousers and coats from the heavy woolen cloth was hard work and done by male tailors, who stitched by hand with linen thread. Home-processed cow hides were used for shoes and belts. Typically trousers were close-itting and made of the fulled woolen cloth in white. During the 19th century the way these were decorated for festive wear became increasingly elaborate. Young men returning from duty in the Austro-Hungarian

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress army brought home their uniforms with their embroidered jackets and braided trousers. It is thought that the distinctive parzenica design, which became an indispensible element of Polish highland dress by the beginning of the 20th century, also originated in Hungary. The parzenica motif was embroidered in colorful woolen thread on the trousers, beneath the waistband, and down the thighs. Different communities favored speciic forms, such as loops or heart shapes. The iconic man’s headgear was the round black felt hat with a brim. These were obtained from markets, embellished originally with small animal bones strung on a thread around the crown, and later with cowrie shells Dress from the highland region of southsewn to a red leather band. The shells ern Poland. The man’s woolen trousers are came from the Adriatic coast and were embroidered with the parzenica motif. The brought to the highland villages by woman wears an embroidered bodice fastened with ribbons. (Courtesy Pamela Smith) traveling salesmen. Young unmarried men wore an eagle- or grouse-feather in their hats, and when they married, as the bride gave up her maiden’s headdress, so the groom had to give up wearing the bachelor’s feather. The women wore linen shirts and skirts, which they made themselves at home. During the later 19th century, ideas of fashion began to arrive from Krakow, and bodices decorated with embroidery, sequins, and beads, tied in front with red ribbons, became part of highland dress. But the Krakow fashion of wearing glass beads was not adopted, as highland women and girls preferred their traditional coral necklaces.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress By the end of the 19th century, while the wearing of ethnic dress was waning as an integral part of village life, its beauty and signiicance as a national symbol was being recognized and romanticized by artists and intellectuals from the Polish urban elite. Painters such as Stanisław Wyspiański depicted peasants from the picturesque highland regions in traditional dress. The Podhale area of Malopolskie,

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in the Tatra range of the Carpathian mountains, became a tourist destination and center for the display of Polish folk culture, including dress. Three varieties of particularly striking and decorative regional dress began to be thought of as the most typical of Poland, and so emerged as types of national costume. These were the Podhale highlander dress, the Łowicz-area dress, with its distinctive striped materials, and the Krakow-area dress. In the 21st century new versions are being made for wearing at folk festivals and by dance troupes. They also appear at local and national celebrations and at solemn religious occasions, such as the Corpus Christi procession in Łowicz. There are ine displays of historical ethnic dress in Polish museums, notably the ethnographic museums in Warsaw, Łodz, Poznan, and Krakow.

Further Reading and Resources Bartlett, Djurdja, ed., and Pamela Smith, asst. ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion—Vol. 9: East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Frys-Pietraszkowa, Ewa. Folk Art in Poland. Warsaw: Arkady, 1988. Gadomski, Stanisław. Strój Ludowy w Polsce. Folk Dress in Poland. Warsaw: Fundacja Kultury WSI, 1990. Gutt-Mostowy, Jan. Podhale: A Companion Guide to the Polish Highlands. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1998. Piskorz-Branekova, Elżbieta. Polskie Stroje Ludowe. Polish Folk Dress (3 vols.). Warsaw: Sport I Turystka—MUZA SA, 2003, 2005, 2006. Rosinska, Iwona. Suknia Wydaje Ludzkie Obyczaje. Dress Gives Away People’s Customs (Folk Dress from Wielkopolska in the Collection of the Ethnographic Museum). Poznan: Muzeum Narodowe w Poznaniu, 2005. Turnau, Irena. History of Dress in Central and Eastern Europe from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Warsaw: Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, 1991.

Portugal Sara M. Harvey

Historical Background Portugal, oficially known as República Portuguesa, is located on the westernmost edge of the Iberian Peninsula and borders Spain. Its capital is Lisbon and Portuguese is the oficial language. The population of more than 10,700,000 people is mainly homogenous with small percentages of African and Eastern European minorities. The vast majority of the population is Roman Catholic and there is a very high literacy rate. The Portuguese are very proud of their heritage and assert their autonomy both culturally and genetically from the rest of Europe, especially Spain. The country is one of the oldest states in Europe, having secured its independence from Castile in Spain in 1140 CE. The modern borders of Portugal were set in 1249 by King Alfonso III. Throughout the following centuries, Portugal proved itself to be a formidable naval power and settled colonies across the world including Brazil, Macao, and outposts along the west coast of Africa. The inest sailors of the Renaissance were Portuguese and the country had early trade relations with Japan, which created an exchange of culture that still resonates in the languages and foods of both countries. The outlying island territories of Madeira and the Azores were both encountered during Portuguese exploration. Madeira and its sister island of Porto Santo were discovered by accident by sailors blown off course in 1419. King Henry the Navigator ordered the islands to be colonized at once. The Azores were discovered by other ambitious explorers in 1427, starting with the islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel. São Miguel was the irst island to be regularly populated in 1444. Terceira, Graciosa, and São Jorge were discovered and subsequently populated later in the 15th century with the four remaining islands developed in the early 16th century. In 1580, succession issues brought Portugal back under Spanish control under King Phillip II of Spain. But after a revolt in 1640, the House of Braganca took and held the Portuguese throne until 1910 when the country abandoned the monarchic system in favor of forming a republic. The new republic was unsteady and 602

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collapsed into a military state in 1926. Economist Antonio Salazar came to power as prime minister in 1932. He and his handpicked successor held Portugal in an authoritarian state until 1974. Although Portugal was basically a dictatorship during this time, it was still active on the world stage and joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Portugal did not participate in World War II. By the 1960s, agitation and unrest in Portugal’s many and far-lung colonies were putting an extraordinary economic and political strain on the country. A clandestine force calling itself “The Armed Forces Movement” formed in 1973 and sought to change the course of the government through the military; they took control of the country the following year. The transition from a dictatorship to a parliamentary democracy was rocky and a provisional military government sat for nearly two years. But in 1976, Portugal ratiied its constitution. It brought the military and presidential powers under greater civilian control and allowed for privatization of previously nationalized industries. Portugal was awarded entry into the European Union in 1986 and has become very well integrated into the politics and economy of Europe. The islands of Madeira and the Azores are recognized as Autonomous Regions of Portugal. Although Portugal still has some control over Madeira and the Azores, it has relinquished all claims to Brazil, Macao (back to China), and its African colonies. Cultural ties and inluences still remain in many of these colonies, however.

Geographic and Environmental Background Portugal has a landscape suitable for farming and raising livestock, as well as an expansive coastline. There are mountainous regions to the north and rolling ields in the central and southern areas. The Tagus River creates a natural border not only between the north and south of the country, but also between the mountains and the ields. The country is very long and narrow with the Atlantic coast making up all of its western and southern borders. The average temperatures are between 41ºF (5ºC) to 77ºF (25ºC). Although Portugal is a very modern country, its economy still relies heavily on traditional export industries. One of the largest Portuguese exports is cork. Portugal also produces textiles, clothing, footwear, porcelain, glass, glazed earthenware, and wine. Portugal had also been attractive to the automotive and durable goods industry for its ability to offer competitive bids and lower salaries compared to elsewhere in Europe. But as the European Union continued to grow and include more Eastern European countries, Portugal saw that particular economic edge disappear. Portugal has once again focused on its lucrative export trade. Textiles and shoes are two Portuguese exports rising in popularity. Portugal grows cotton and has created a strong market for cotton textiles, especially ine

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress percale and lannel bed linens. Portuguese leather shoes are also in high demand across Europe and the United States. Both of these industries are integral to the southern economy. Mining is done in the mountains to the north and Portugal is able to produce iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten, silver, gold, and uranium. Traditional porcelain and earthenware handicrafts are also perennial favorite exports. The symbolic rooster is a very popular item for tourists to bring home as a memento. The rooster has come to be symbolic of Portugal from a folkloric tradition of a falsely accused man in Barcelos who swore his innocence on the rooster being eaten for the magistrate’s supper. The man said that, by all the saints in heaven, the roasted rooster would sit up and crow to proclaim his innocence. The magistrate sent the man to the gallows and sat down to dinner, only to have his chicken dinner sit straight up off the plate and crow. The magistrate immediately stopped the hanging and set the man free. Since that day, the rooster has been a national symbol of luck, justice, innocence, and the power of faith. Roosters are made from the dense reddish clay found in the region and then painted in a traditional pattern. Although the rooster in the original tale was dead and cooked, the rooster igurines are painted in imitation of a live bird. Called the Galo de Barcelos, the body is painted black, red, or white, with red hearts and yellow, white, and blue swirls and dots applied in a stylized manner. The islands of Madeira and the Azores have their own unique geography. Madeira and its sister island, Porto Santo, are located about 620 miles (1,000 km) southwest of the mainland in the Madeira Archipelago. The two islands are surrounded by small and rocky uninhabited island groups called the Ilhas Desertas and the Ilhas Selvagens. The Azores are a system of nine islands located about 930 miles (15,000 km) off the coast of Portugal. The exact date of the discovery of the islands is unknown, but the islands of Santa Maria and São Miguel were found circa 1497. Over the next 150 years the remaining islands were settled. The Azores (Açores) were named after the hawks seen circling above them. Because the Azores are so far from the mainland, the inhabitants developed a rich heritage of handicrafts. The geography of the Azores as a whole is quite varied. People of the Azores also created their own styles of textiles made from the ibers and dyestuffs available to them and relecting motifs from the islands.

People and Dress The Portuguese people possess a strong national spirit and are generally thought of across the rest of Europe as a happy and energetic people. Religious, agricultural, and historic festivals called festas happen regularly. The dress of the Portuguese also relects this joyful free-spiritedness with its simplicity of form and rich

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color and detail. Throughout most of Portugal’s history, the population was primarily poor farmers. Because many rural areas are very isolated, traditional costume remained the primary mode of dress well into the late 20th century. The artistry in Portuguese dress comes primarily from the colors and patterns used in the weaving of textiles and in their surface decoration of embroidery. While there is an overall conformity of dress across the country, many of the districts exhibit very speciic regional styles. Red and black are the two most popular colors, and across the country from the coastal areas to the mountains black felt hats in a variety of styles are worn by both men and women. Women’s hats are short through the Girls from Barcelos, Portugal, wear tradicrown and have a “porkpie” shape tional dress and hold Galo de Barcelos, 2004. and a small brim. Men’s hats can be (Richard Klune/Corbis) small-brimmed or wide-brimmed in the Spanish style. Women primarily wear their hats over a simple headdress of a scarf draped over the top of the head. Women often wear contemporary men’s hats as well as traditional women’s hats. When the ubiquitous black felt hat is not worn, Portuguese women might instead wear a pad beneath the scarf known colloquially as a “mother-in-law.” These head shawls come in a wide variety of styles and colors and are worn with the ends hanging down or tied beneath the chin or behind the neck under the hair. Even at the turn of the 21st century, older women, especially widows, still wear plain black headshawls. Rural Portuguese women are famous for carrying a variety of items balanced on the tops of their heads. Women carry baskets of fruit, vegetables, or ish; jars of wine or water; bundles of laundry; and even cages or baskets containing chickens, ducks, or other small livestock perched on the top of their heads. If a load is too heavy or precarious to balance alone, a coiled pad of fabric is worn for extra cushioning and support. Skirts are generally full and worn with petticoats. Overskirts can be drawn up to show the layers beneath, but unlike in other countries, the Portuguese women do not tuck their skirts up from the hem, but rather pull them up over the hips, creating a puffed look at the hips. Those living in coastal areas do not wear shoes. For

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress formal or festival occasions, women wear backless mules or clogs called chinelas. Men in coastal areas prefer sandals if any footwear is to be worn. Elsewhere in the country, soft leather boots or shoes that lace are preferred. The basic Portuguese man’s dress consists of breeches or trousers worn with a simple shirt or possibly a waistcoat. Men also wear black felt hats, but in the 20th century, the “newsboy” hat became increasingly popular. By the late 19th century, men had adopted a more modern style of dress and had almost left off traditional styles entirely except for ishermen, ranchers, and others whose occupations dictated their attire. The traditional wedding ensemble for Portuguese brides is a long black velvet dress worn with an embroidered apron. These aprons are worked with exquisite detail in gold thread and jet beads. A white lace mantilla is worn draped over the head and the bride is adorned with dozens of gold necklaces. Although Portuguese traditional dress is relatively homogenous across the small country, there are areas of unique and specialized costume. One of the iconic traditional costumes in Portugal is in the northern province of Minho. The women of Minho are renowned throughout the country for their beauty, charm, and stylish dress. Like the rest of the Portuguese, the people of Minho love the color red, especially paired with black or deep blue. The costume of Minho is one of the most colorful and detailed of continental Portugal. The blouse is made with long, full sleeves and usually in white cotton or linen. Other colors are acceptable, but white is the most popular. Many women decorate the neckline and cuffs of the blouse with a contrasting color of embroidery similar to the Spanish style of blackwork embroidery. A snug, sleeveless bodice of black or red wool that laces up the front is worn over the blouse. Colorful, woolen embroidery in geometric or loral patterns decorates the bodice. Skirts are worn very full and gathered to the waist to fall in deep drapes over the hips. Skirts are made of cotton, wool, or linen and generally worn to the top of the ankle or slightly shorter. Red, black, pink, and yellow are popular skirt colors and vertical striped and other woven designs are widely used in the region. A wide red or black sash is tied around the hips to puff the skirts up below the waist and add fullness in the hips. Women also wear a richly embroidered wool pouch or pocket hung from the waist. Simple black leather slippers are worn with white stockings. The true artistry in the dress of Minho is found not only in the embroidery, but in the accessories themselves. All Portuguese women are fond of gold, but the women of Minho take wearing their myriad chains and pendants to a new level of stylist display. Crosses, hearts, coins, igures, and iligree charms hang from chains as various as the pendants from ine to heavy, both linked and twisted. The headdress of the north favors a scarf alone instead of a scarf and hat combination. The shawl is colorful, wide, and fringed and often worn with the ends wrapped over the head in an almost turban-like style.

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In Esposende, a seaside town in the province of Minho, the women often walk to the shore to meet their menfolk and help with the day’s catch off the ishing boats. They use their traditional dress in a more everyday manner, wearing older, mismatched, or mended garments to work down at the shore. The women mend nets and clean the ish, carrying the bounty home to their kitchens and to the town’s markets. Their costume consists of a light-colored cotton skirt—pink is very popular—worn with a white blouse and a knitted wool shawl, usually in red or green. A second wool shawl, this one black, is worn tied around the hips. The women cover their hair with a silk head kerchief and wear a black felt hat with a narrow brim tilted toward the front atop it. What makes the hats of Esposende and neighboring areas special is that they usually include a small mirror on the brim. The mirror glints in the sun and the relections can be seen out at sea. Traditionally, it lets the ishermen know when they are near to shore and that the women are there waiting for them. The men of Minho often wear a black suit with a jacket that curves away from the center front to the hips. The jacket can be trimmed in white or red and often has white buttons on the sleeves. A red sash is worn at the waist beneath the jacket. Minho has several of Portugal’s most unique men’s costumes. In Apulia, a city on the coast, special attire is worn by the sargaceiros, the seaweed gathers. The harvest is done in July and it is only during this harvest time that this costume is worn. It consists of a white wool tunic or coat with long sleeves and short trousers. The tunic is worn long to the knee and belted with a wide leather belt so the trousers beneath are barely seen. The headwear for this ensemble is a leather hat shaped like a Roman helmet. In the province of Tras o Montes, the inland neighbor of Minho, the men of Miranda do Douro, a city very near the Spanish border, wear a lavish dance costume. A three-tiered skirt with frilled and embroidered edges is worn and belted at the waist with a brightly colored scarf with long trailing ends. Men wear a black waistcoat over a long-sleeved white shirt and drape a fringed shawl over their shoulders. A black felt hat is worn and decorated with ribbons and lowers. The ensemble is completed with black ankle boots and stockings knitted with horizontal stripes. The dance associated with this costume is not unlike the Morris dances in England. The town of Nazaré lies on the central coast of Portugal, well north of Lisbon. The women of this ishing city are famous for their unique dress. Like the women of Esposende, they wait by the shore and clean ish and mend nets while the menfolk of the town are out ishing. The boats in Nazaré are unlike any in all of Portugal with high prows covered in Phoenician glyphs. Traditionally, they were dragged up onto the ine sandy beaches by oxen, but in modern times they lie at anchor in the harbor so that tourists may enjoy the beach. Nazaré was in contact with many cultures, not only the Phoenicians, but also the Scots and the Britons

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress who introduced plaids to the area. The women and men both enjoy wearing as much tartan plaid garments as possible. What makes the costume of Nazaré so unique is the sete saias or “seven skirts.” This is the tradition of wearing seven petticoats, although as few as ive or three may also be worn. The idea was to allow women freedom of movement and skirts short enough that they would not become bogged down in the sea, but still let the women remain modest and decent while they went about their work, or danced when they were inished for the day. The order of petticoats is very particular. The irst is white, followed by two or three lannel petticoats, often of plaid. Next was a set of pockets and over that another petticoat in cashmere or lightweight wool. Another pocket would follow and the crowning layer was a very wide apron. The petticoats are usually decorated with pinked or scalloped edges or with a trimming like lace or rickrack. For festival days, the petticoats are starched and only the inest ones with the most eye-catching edge treatments are worn. The festival apron is black or red satin embroidered with rich loral motifs. The blouse for everyday wear is simple, white, and has long sleeves, but for festival days it is made of loralprinted cotton and has wide lace sleeves in a bell shape. Stockings are only worn during festival times; most other days women go bare-legged in their varnished, backless, clog-like chinelas. Headwear for women in Nazaré is predominantly black. In its simplest form it is a black or loral kerchief tied over the hair. The hat for Nazarene women is a short, cylindrical felt cap with no brim and a thick wool pom-pom at the front. This is worn over the head kerchief. Gold chains and gold hoop earrings are as important as accessories in Nazaré as they are elsewhere in Portugal. They tend to be more subdued in Nazaré, with fewer pendants and complicated iligree patterns, but they are just as important for showing wealth and were traditionally used to show a girl’s dowry. In modern Nazaré, many women are still fond of the traditional dress and wear it regularly, especially older women, those that sell ish at traditional ish stalls, and others who interact with the many tourists that visit the city. Women do like to keep up with the times and fashionable skirt lengths, colors, patterns, and fabrics are often seen in modern Nazarene petticoats. All the local women enjoy dressing in their festival inery for Carnival, which is celebrated in Nazaré from February 3 until Shrove Tuesday. Men wear wide-legged cotton trousers woven into plaids and will often wear a plaid shirt that may or may not match. Black or plaid waistcoats are also popular. Men’s traditional dress has not held onto as much popularity as has that of women’s. Men do wear their traditional clothing during festival times, but modern dress has become more popular among Nazarene ishermen. They still, however, wear the wool stocking cap that has been popular for generations. The cap is black and made in a long, triangular shape with a tassel or pom-pom on the end. A combination of properties of both the knitting and the wool used in the cap make it fairly

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water repellent and able to cling well to the head. This is a great boon during the frequent Atlantic storms. In the central region of Portugal, south of the Tagus River that bisects the country, the main industry is not ishing, but ranching. In Ribatejo, the campinos are Portuguese cowboys who are renowned for their bull breeding. These men are masterful riders and wear distinctive costumes of black or brown knee breeches. The side seams at the knee and hip pockets are decorated with gold buttons. They wear a short waistcoat over a full, long-sleeved shirt in cotton or linen and a bright red sash wrapped around the waist with the ends tucked back under the sash. Although they are far from the sea, the long knit stocking Fishermen from Nazaré dressed in plaid and caps are favored here in the center of wearing the cap typical of the area, 1936. the country. Called the verdegaio, it is (W. Robert Moore/National Geographic made from green and red wool. Dur- Society/Corbis) ing festival days the waistcoat is made from ine red wool and worn with a wool jacket. The women of this region wear a long chemise under their full skirts, but for festival days a shorter and more structured blouse is worn. Aprons and head kerchiefs are very common in this area of Portugal and are very ine and highly decorative during festive occasions. In the central regions, sheep and goats are also an important livestock commodity. Shepherds wear heavy, loose trousers in black, blue, or brown and quilted coats and jackets for warmth. They are also fond of carrying thick woolen blankets lined with checked cotton lannel that functions as a cloak and a bed in the ield. The area in the far south of Portugal, Algave, is an extremely popular tourist destination. As in Nazaré, many locals retain their traditional dress for the beneit of the tourists. The women’s costume consists of a blouse worn long to the hips and not tucked into the skirts. The apron is then tied snugly around the waist, causing the hem of the skirt to lare over the hips. Women wear a rounded black felt cap over the loral head kerchief. Men sport a very dashing attire entirely of black: trousers, waistcoat, stockings, shoes, and hat offset by a crisp white shirt.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Portugal is more than the mainland, however, and some of the country’s very unique attire belongs on the islands of Madeira. Madeira is known as the Pérola de Atlântico, the Pearl of the Atlantic. In a country known for its lush lowers and vegetation, Madeiran costumes are very colorful, but also simple, much like the island’s lora. Women prefer a full, colorful skirt of red wool striped vertically with yellow, green, blue, white, and black. The hem is often bound with yellow, red, or black trimming. A white blouse is worn with the skirt that has puffed sleeves, often short, but can also be worn long and very full. A front-lacing corselet made to match the skirt is worn over the blouse and a red wool cloak is a popular accessory for the occasional chilly island weather. But the most remarkable aspect of the traditional dress of Madeira is the hat. Called a carapuça, it is a brimless wool cap that its closely to the head and has a long pigtail that dangles from the center of the crown. The hat is made in either black or red and is worn by both men and women. Both genders also wear the same style of shoes, the ankle- or shin-high botacha boots. Botachas are white, beige, or pale yellow and made from goatskin. These soft boots are usually worn without stockings and were thought to have been introduced to Madeira by Baltic sailors that traded the oak used for wine casks. The soft boots were easily duplicated by Portuguese leatherworkers and were both comfortable and versatile, going easily from the coast to the mountains. Men in Madeira wear voluminous shirts made from either cotton or linen, paired with full linen or wool breeches in black or white. They wear the breeches tucked into the top of the botacha boots or fastened with buttons below the knee. Men’s carapuça caps are almost exclusively black, whereas women often choose red instead. The splash of color for the male costume comes from a brilliant red sash with long fringes tied around the waist. In the Azores, the costumes are similar in cut and style to those in Portugal and in Madeira but with a distinct regional lavor. The Azores is quite far from the mainland and from its neighbor, Madeira. The climate is generally warm but with quite chilly nights. Wool and linen are very popular textiles and the color scheme is primarily in dark or navy blue and white. Although regional clothing differences do occur among the Portuguese, there are many stylistic constants such as cut, it, materials used, and color. The overall silhouette is much like that found in the rest of Europe following a centuries-old example of a bound torso and nipped-in waist coupled with full skirts, often worn in layers. Although the cultural dress in Portugal is being rapidly replaced by modern clothing, much of the country’s rural areas were so isolated for so long that traditional modes of dress are still worn, often mingled with modern elements, on a daily basis. With tourism a large part of the Portuguese economy, many popular destinations utilize traditional dress as part of the vacation experience.

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Lisbon is emerging as a world-class capital city and is the home of a budding couture fashion industry. Traditional dress is almost never seen in the bustling modern city of Lisbon, but just a few miles into the country skirts and head kerchiefs become the normal mode of dress. In some areas, far from the tourists and the trafic, farmers still walk alongside their oxcarts in their traditional, ancestral clothing.

Further Reading and Resources Harrold, Robert, and Phyllida Legg. Folk Costumes of the World. London: Blandford Press, 1999. Lick, Sue Fagalde. Stories Grandma Never Told: Portuguese Women in California. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, 1998. Município da Nazaré (Oficial Website of the Municipality of Nazaré). The Traditional Dress of Nazaré (English version). http://www.nazare.oestedigital.pt/ custompages/showpage.aspx?pageid=a59db9ff-bf9c-4397-91f0-56036f9b95d8 &m=b79. 2012. Snowden, James. The Folk Dress of Europe. New York: Maylower Books, 1979. Tyson-Ward, Sue. Portuguese Language, Life, and Culture. Lincolnwood (Chicago): Contemporary Books, 2002. Wilcox, R. Turner. Folk and Festival Costume of the World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965.

Romania Christina Lindholm

Historic Background Mention Romania and the images that leap to mind are of Dracula and Gypsies, both of which are surrounded by centuries of myth and misinformation. While Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (1431–1476), known as Vlad the Impaler, was born in Sighişoara, Transylvania, Romania, there is no evidence that he was a vampire, and it has long been proven that the wandering people known as Roma or Romani (Gypsies) originated in India, not Romania. Bucharest, the capital city located on the Danube, still has numerous spectacular, though often crumbling, Art Nouveau buildings harkening back to a more opulent past. Romania has a long and varied history with evidence of human presence back to prehistoric times. In 440 BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus described the Gatae tribes living north of the Danube as “most brave and honest’” (Herodotus [Beloe], 1859). Gold and silver ore attracted the Romans in 88 CE, leading to an inlux of Roman colonists. After their third-century departure, tribal invaders such as the Huns, Goths, and Cumans invaded the area that is now Romania. The regions of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania emerged as principalities, gaining and losing independence, before ultimately becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in the 17th century. Several wars followed in the 19th century with Romania inally gaining independence in 1877. Although initially neutral during World Wars I and II, Romania eventually joined the Allies in World War I and the Axis in World War II before changing sides to ight with the Allies. This resulted in a military occupation of Romania by the Soviet Union, which lasted from 1944 to 1958. Nicolae Ceauşescu came to power in 1965 and his harsh and autocratic leadership led to dire poverty for many Romanians. He was overthrown and executed in 1989. Romania is now recovering socially and inancially and has established a democracy; however, the yearly average income remains very low.

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Geography and Environment Romania is a country of great beauty and contrast, with a varied topography of mountains, hills, and plains in almost equal amounts. Thirty-one percent of the country is mountain, hills and orchards comprise 36 percent, and plains account for 33 percent. The crescent-shaped Carpathian Mountains bisect Romania into north and south and provide tourists and residents with myriad outdoor activities such as hiking, skiing, and climbing. Moldoveanu Peak is the highest peak at 8,349 feet. The Transylvanian plateau is nearly surrounded by the arc of the Carpathian Mountains and is home to many charming villages, which have changed very little despite inluences of Soviet rule and modern democracy. The Danube River runs from the Black Forest in Germany and forms the Danube Delta in Romania, a 2,200-square-mile area of rivers, marshes, lakes, and canals, before emptying into the Black Sea. There are approximately 150 miles of coastline along the Black Sea, a major tourist area that draws vacationers in the summer months from all over Eastern Europe. Romania enjoys four distinct seasons and has a climate similar to that of New York, although there are signiicant temperature differences between the capital of Bucharest, the Black Sea region, and central Romania.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Romania has a population of around 20 million with roughly half living in rural areas. The vast majority, upwards of 90 percent, are Romanian, with a small percentage of Hungarians. Romani people, nomadic travelers, account for less than 2 percent of the population. The majority of the population practice Eastern Orthodox Christianity with Roman Catholics and Protestants each making up only around 5 percent (BBC News World Proile, 2012).

History of Dress Various records from diaries, travelers’ tales, trade documents, paintings, and murals indicate that Romanian dress has changed little over time. It was inluenced by available materials and many external inluences including the Ottomans, the Hapsburgs, and the Germans.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Men The basic element in men’s dress is a traditional white shirt. It is cut very geometrically using the full width of cloth, so nothing is wasted. It has long, straight sleeves, side panels, and one length forming the front and back. Variations of this garment are seen not only all over the Balkans, but all over the world. It pulls on over the head and features a front neck slit. One style has underarm gussets that allow greater ease of movement, while another style has panels that lare out at the hem. A 20th-century version of the shirt features a yoke and a collar. The shirt can be fairly short, ending below the waist, or much longer, to mid thigh. It was worn over trousers and held close to the body with a wide cloth belt. Traditional trousers are also often white, and may be close itting or very loose. The tighter style is constructed of a rectangle for each leg with a third panel running from the waist, between the legs, up to the small of the back. The top edge of this garment was folded down and stitched to form a casing for a belt or cord. The looser trousers were made from entire widths of cloth and somewhat resemble modern culottes. They range in length from just below the knee to ankle length and were also held up with a drawstring cord. Dark colored trousers with a deinite Turkish silhouette appeared in the 19th century from the south. This garment is wide and gathered in at the waist, like the loose trousers, but tapers to a close it from the knee to the ankle.  Animal skins and hides provide much needed protection in the colder and mountainous regions. Sheepskin coats, cojoc, have been worn throughout much of this region. In some areas, the leece is worn to the outside, and in others, the leece is worn next to the body. In Romania, they are worn with the leece to the outside and usually extend to the ankle or calf. They may have a straight silhouette or lare out wider at the hem. There are two styles of traditional Romanian peasants in traditional dress. (Library of Congress) men’s outerwear made from cloth. The

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shepherd’s cloak is a sleeveless vest made from felted wool. It is a simple design and widely found in the region. The fabric is woven in neutral-colored geometric stripes or checks. A hooded version of the cloak provided shepherds with additional warmth and could be used as a coat, but also as a sleeping bag, and the hood could be used for carrying food. Decoration is minimal on garments intended for service and hard use, while those meant for special occasions are lavishly embroidered and appliquéd. The second type of outer garment is a leecy jacket called a gubă. It is worn by both men and women in the winter in colder climates and is made from naturalcolored white, grey, or black wool. The luffy effect was created by either adding additional yarns into woven wool or by vigorously brushing wool cloth to draw up the ibers for a fuzzy effect on the surface. The jacket is cut in a square shape and extends to the hipline. It is frequently lined with a patterned cloth and often has the edges bound with dark velvet. Căciulă is the men’s hat worn all over Romania. This hat is constructed from either fur or felt for winter and made of straw for summer. There are regional differences in the shape of the hat, from a brimless or small-brim hat to a wide brim. A remnant from Hapsburg days is the green trilby hat, still seen in many parts of Romania. Hats may be plain or decorated with embroidery, ribbons, beads, or feathers. Women Women also wear a geometrically cut garment, similar to the man’s shirt. It differs from the men’s shirt in length, extending past the knees or to the ankles. There are two basic styles. The cămaşă has a front/back made from a single piece of cloth with a head opening. Long sleeves are added at the sides and may be left straight or gathered at the wrist. This garment seldom has a collar but is buttoned or tied at the neck opening. An alternate style of the cămaşă features a gathered neckline, sometimes by means of a decorative drawstring, or with colorful smocking. The gathered garments usually have an A-line shape to the body with underarm gussets added for extra fullness. Aprons are worn over the cămaşă, but the term apron is misleading. Only the catrinţă is a straight apron, which is tied around the waist. It is a lat piece of cloth, usually worn in pairs, with one in the front and the second in back, so that the white cămaşă shows at the sides. Another apron style called the fotă resembles a sarong and is wrapped around the hips and tied or fastened. Oddly, the fotah of a similar style is the predominant men’s garment in southwest Yemen and is also found in Indonesia as women’s wear. Pleated or gathered aprons are called şort and they are worn only in front. A inal alternative is a seamed skirt, worn over the cămaşă. While the catrinţă tends to be black with woven horizontal or vertical stripes, the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress rest of the aprons feature colorful woven stripes or are embroidered with bright patterns. Most women wore a kerchief over their hair. It could be square, triangular, or rectangular and was tied in different ways depending on local traditions. They also wore hats of either felted wool or straw, depending on the season. Hats were often highly decorated with embroidery, ribbons, beads, and lowers. Many older women still wear some type of headscarf in Romania today, though it is seldom seen on young women. Women’s outerwear consists of the same leecy jackets as men. They also wear sheepskin jackets as well as the sleeveless sheepskin or felted vests. As with men’s outerwear, those garments meant for work remained fairly plain while those made for festive occasions were highly decorated with embroidery. Men and women both wore opinci, a simple sandal made from a single piece of leather. The rectangular shape was pierced along the edges and had a cord threaded through to draw up the leather around the foot. This was worn over either foot wraps or knitted short socks. These socks are almost always knitted by hand in the round from white wool and feature fancy pattern stitches. Opinci may still be purchased today, but are worn more as part of special-occasion dress than for daily wear. Mass-manufactured shoes are more commonly worn now with the opinci worn with folk dress for holidays. Upper-class members of society were allowed to wear the boots that became popular during Ottoman times, but this luxury item was not available to the majority of the population. Like so much else from the West, boots are now readily available and worn by men and women alike. Children As in so many societies, children were traditionally dressed in smaller versions of adult clothing. Today, however, babies and small children almost entirely wear Euro-American–style garments. An interesting aspect to this is the speciic gender identity practiced by most Romanian parents, even on the tiniest infant. Girls are dressed in pink, lace, and rufles and often have pierced ears and wear earrings and bracelets. Boys wear tiny jeans, T-shirts, and sneakers. Little girls have long hair with ribbons and bows, while boys have masculine haircuts similar to that of their fathers. There is no mistaking the gender of a small child.

Materials and Techniques Traditional cloth was made from cotton, hemp, wool, and leather. Fur was used for making some styles of hats. The cloth used for traditional clothing was handwoven on small looms with either two or four heddles. Wool fabrics were

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intentionally shrunk (felted) to produce a thicker and warmer cloth for trousers and jackets. Leather could be made from the hides of sheep, cattle, goats, or pigs, animals found in great numbers in Romania. Processing skin into useable leather initially occurred in the home, but was eventually taken over by craftsmen. Mineral and vegetable materials were used to attain colors from red to yellows and browns to grays and blacks. Like leatherwork, tailored garments were relegated to the skillful hands of craftsmen. By the 19th century, entire villages devoted to making overcoats existed in Moldavia to supply both individual customers and the greater mass market. The cut of an overcoat was largely identical throughout the region, with villages establishing local identity by the use of color and placement of embellishment. Embroidery is one of the most beautiful features of Romanian folk dress. As the most basic garment is white, colored thread, often in red, is used to create elaborate patterns. The patterns might be geometric or organic in shape or a mixture of both. The techniques of embroidery used included cross-stitch, where contrasting thread uses multiple Xs to form a design, freehand or organic designs, and drawn thread. Drawn thread requires that some of the woven threads of the base cloth be carefully removed and the remaining threads fastened together to form an open, lacy appearance. Cross-stitched designs are frequently seen around the neck, front chest, sleeves, and cuffs. Freehand designs seem to have an Asian inluence and are more organic in shape, depicting lowers and birds. Queen Marie (1875–1938) was frequently pictured in colorfully embroidered peasant dress, and this set the trend for upper-class women to adopt embroidered traditional folk dress.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress There was little difference in the cut of everyday and special-occasion dress. Special-occasion dress was made from iner cloth and generally featured more embroidery and lace. It was often more colorful and had greater complexity in the weaving patterns. The basic style and construction of the garments were the same.

Jewelry Jewelry is not as prevalent in Romanian costume as it is in other areas. Men wear almost no jewelry, beyond the beads and feathers used to decorate their hats. Metal jewelry made from brass or copper is sometimes part of women’s dress. Women have a traditional necklace made from coins. A short version is popular in Moldavia, while a larger and longer version is common in Transylvania. Wealthy women would sometimes wear these necklaces made from gold coins as an expression

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of wealth and status. Some women wore belts with metal stud trim, small chains, and metal rings.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Folk dress is still commonly worn in rural areas for weddings and religious holidays. Simple versions, such as plain trousers and traditionally cut shirts for men and long skirts, head kerchiefs, and aprons, especially for middle-aged or older women, are not uncommon for daily dress. Many of the traditional weavers and garment makers have retired or died. Several of the craft cooperatives that opened after World War II have Young dancers wearing traditional clothes closed, but a number of craftsmen participate at a wedding in Sancraiu, Romaoperate businesses providing customnia, 2005. (Salajean/Dreamstime.com) made traditional dress for individuals, folk groups, and souvenir hunters. Authentic traditional garments can easily be purchased. In Bucharest, new versions can be bought off the rack or custom-made. The Folk Museum has racks of vintage, primarily women’s, dress for sale. Although many people have adopted factory-made Westernized styles, remnants of traditional styles appear in combination with modern dress, with a belt here, a hat there, or traditional vests or overcoats.

Modern Dress Euro-American fashion is easily available in Romania, especially in the larger cities. Numerous secondhand clothing dealers offer a vast amount of both used and factory seconds clothing. Brand infringement is rife and knockoff fashions exist side by side with authentic designer-logoed garments. Contemporary dress in Romania is highly gendered. Young women are carefully dressed in speciically feminine styles, regardless of location or time of day. From cities to villages, women dress in skirts or dresses ranging in silhouette from

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Euro-American to more traditional styles. Whether close itting, revealing, and provocative, or conservatively pretty, the Romanian women dress only in female attire. Unisex styles borrowed from male dress such as tailored shirts, suits, tailored jackets, or even slacks are almost completely absent in a woman’s wardrobe. Waist-length hair is common among girls and young women, especially in smaller towns. Careful attention is paid to appearance. Footwear is also highly feminine with nary a sneaker in sight on a female foot. Men, on the other hand, have adopted Euro-American styles almost completely. In the cities, suits and other types of work clothes prevail, while in the smaller towns, casual dress of a shirt and trousers is the usual attire. For leisure wear, jeans, T-shirts, and rubber footwear (lip-lops) or sneakers are widely worn. It is not uncommon to see a carefully turned out young woman with makeup, styled hair, and fashionable clothing walking with a young man who looks as though he grabbed the irst two articles of clothing he found in his wardrobe. A possible explanation of this is that men have better jobs and incomes and therefore do not have to make as much of an effort to attract a suitable mate.

Resources and Further Reading Bâtcă, M. The Romanian Folk Costume. Bucharest, Romania: National Centre for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture, 2006. BBC News World Proile. “Romania.” 2012. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/ country_proiles/1057466.stm. Carey, Henry F. Romania Since 1989: Politics, Economics and Society. Oxford: Lexington Books, 2004. Cook, Bernard Anthony. Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia. London: Routledge, 2001. Eliznik Romania Pages: Traditional Folk Costumes, Dances, Music from the Ethnographic Regions of Romania. http://www.eliznik.org.uk/. Hancock, Ian. We Are the Romani People. Hertfordshire, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2002. Herodotus. The Ancient History of Herodotus by Herodotus [William Beloe]. New York: Derby & Jackson, 1859. Jianu, Angela. “Romania: Urban Dress, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” In Joanne Eicher, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Jianu, Angela. “Women, Fashion and Europeanisation in the Romanian Principalities 1750–1830.” In Amila Buturović and Irvin C. Schick, eds. Women in the Ottoman Balkans—Gender, Culture and History. London: I. B. Tauris, 2007.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Mellish, Liz. “Romania: Ethnic Dress.” In Joanne Eicher, ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Queen Marie of Romania papers. [Finding aid for her papers.] http://speccoll .library.kent.edu/women/marie/queen.html. Victoria’s Grandchildren: Queen Marie of Romania. http://www.tkinter.smig.net/ QueenMarie/MammaRegina/index.htm.

Russia Tanya Williams Wetenhall

Historical and Geographical Background Russia is the biggest country in the world with a huge landmass that covers the whole northern part of Eurasia. Russia borders many countries including Finland, Norway, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Georgia, Ukraine, Belerus, China, Mongolia, Azerbaijan, and North Korea. Alaska in the United States is very close to Russia and shares a maritime border in the Bering Strait. Such a big country has many different climatic and topographical characteristics, with notoriously cold areas such as Siberia and warm vacation spots in the south of the country. Moscow is the capital city from which the now democratically elected government is run (though there has been recent unrest about election procedures that favor certain candidates, such as President Vladimir Putin). The population in 2012 was estimated at more than 138,000,000, with Moscow estimated to have more than 10,500,000 people. Russia is rich in natural resources and has mineral and gas reserves that are exported all over the world. There are hundreds of lakes, and Russia possesses onequarter of all the freshwater on the planet. Russia adopted the Orthodox Christian religion from Byzantium in the 10th century CE, and now many Russians practice Russian Orthodox Christianity with its own calendar. The majority of the land now encompassing Russia was uniied after the Mongol invasion with the Grand Duchy of Moscow attaining independence in the 14th century. By the 1900s one of the largest empires in the world emerged. The Russian Empire bordered Alaska in the east and Poland in the west. The czars were brutally overthrown in the revolution of 1917, whereupon Russia became the Soviet Union, a socialist state and eventual superpower that competed with U.S. interests for much of the 20th century. When communism failed in Europe in 1990, the Soviet Union was dismantled and former Soviet countries became independent.

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People and Dress History of Russian Dress Embroidered linen, bright colors, and sumptuous fabrics cut and sewn into voluminous forms worn multilayered are familiar characteristics of Russian dress. In tracing the history of Russian dress, historians are often challenged as visual references to the traditional dress worn prior to the 18th century is limited due to two reasons: Russian painting was largely concerned with religious subjects, rendering secular subjects absent from depiction until the end of the 17th century; and in 1701, Emperor Peter I (reigned 1682–1725) issued a decree forbidding his subjects to wear regional dress at court, therefore when Russian individuals do appear in portraits, they are usually dressed in Western fashions. In 1700, Peter I completed a European tour that better acquainted him with the culture of Western Europe. Upon returning home, Peter was struck by the non-Western and somewhat backward nature of Russia. Peter set out to change everything about Russia; dress did not escape his sweeping reforms. Prior to 1700, members of the Russian court appeared in long lowing caftans, jackets of sumptuously adorned silks, and sheepskin hats and coats. These lengthy and capacious garments hailed from various regions of the empire, a land so vast that both Asiatic and European inluences were present. Peter saw the indigenous dress worn by his subjects as an obstacle to attaining the social, political, and economic reforms needed to boost the Russian Empire’s standing with other European nations. He also understood that the cumbersome nature of regional dress hampered the wearer’s productivity. Impressed by the tailored cut and unobtrusive nature of Western European dress, Peter instructed his male courtiers to wear short coats in the “German style” and to cut their beards. In 17th-century Russian “German” had come to refer to “foreigners” as well, so essentially the directive was for foreign dress to be worn at court and in major cities by nobles, courtiers, and city dwellers. The czar’s decree, one of many aimed at dress reform, was intended to visually unify the appearance of his court in line with Western tastes. Asiatic inluences in Russian dress were eradicated as they were perceived by 18th-century Westerners as backward or barbaric. The abandonment of many forms of ethnic dress through the period of Russia’s turn toward the West has left scholars and historians of Russian culture with very little to study. Eighteenth-century monastic forms of dress and the dress of Russia’s upper classes and court have survived. Articles of clothing worn by other classes of Russian society have been mostly lost with the exception of 19th- and early 20th-century examples of holiday or festival dress.

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Regional Dress Russia has been divided into administrative regions or oblasts since the early Empire. Each region had its own particular set of dress elements that over time melded with fundamentals of dress from neighboring regions. Dress that has distinct elements deemed “Russian” hails from the northern and southern regions of Russia, including signiicant items from Archangelsk, Yarolslavl, Vologda, Tver, Ryazan, Tambov, Orlov, and Voronezh. Extant dress examples from the 19th and 20th centuries are generally the products of women that arduously spent whatever free time they had available to sew and embroider articles crafted of homemade fabrics or acquired via trade with neighbors. Accessories, such as headdresses, were also made at home with materials bought from peddlers or at various markets that specialized in selling beads, sequins, yarns, and silk threads, as well as silver and gold galloon. The display of such dress at various harvest festivals and holidays, such as Easter, veriied the worth of the girls and women that made the garments: Accomplishments in sewing and the possession of artistic skills needed to create such items signiied that a woman was a good and productive wife or possessed the desirable traits of a promising and prospective bride.

The Southern Provinces: Oryol, Kursk, Ryazan, Tambov, Tula, Kaluga, and Voronezh The oldest Russian dress forms hail from the southern regions of Russia— Oryol, Kursk, Ryazan, Tambov, Tula, Kaluga, and Voronezh. These areas from the ninth to the 12th centuries were collectively known as Kievan Rus, the predecessor to the czardom of Muscovy and the modern-day states of Russia, Ukraine, and Belorussia, settled by Scandinavian traders known as the “Rus” in the ninth century. The dress of these regions displays elements of ancient Russian dress and undoubtedly shares components of dress common to all of Europe, such as the chemise. The long or short chemise, rubakha ( ) in Russian, was the basic component of dress throughout the Russian Empire for both men and women. It is most closely associated with the dress of Russia’s southern regions, perhaps because it was suitable for warmer climates if worn alone, yet in the colder climes of the north it could be layered with other elements of dress for warmth. Donned for work and festivals, the chemise was generally the unique creation of the wearer and was made from homespun linen, although versions in cotton and wool are found. The long version when worn by itself was belted and was the dress uniform of young girls.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Married women could also wear the chemise in this manner, but only if they were working the harvest. A married woman’s chemise was usually covered with a wool dress component—a skirt or sarafan—for propriety. The chemise of a woman differed from a young girl’s in its construction. In fact, dress of women and girls consistently differs in Russia, indicating a woman’s marital status. Younger women wore chemises that were understated in their decoration. The chemise of a married woman was elaborate not only in its decoration, but also in its construction. It was comprised of varied shapes of cut cloth pieced and sewn together. In diagramming the construction of chemises of the northern and southern regions, Russian costume historian Irina Nikolayevna Saval’yeva notes that women’s chemises, although made of numerous components, were remarkably similar in very far-reaching regions of the empire, attesting to the chemise’s longevity as a basic of dress. Ornamentation of the chemise was important and the parts intended for public view were heavily embellished. Along the neckline, shoulders, back, hem, and cuffs, women embroidered geometric patterns incorporating ancient propitious or zoomorphic motifs. The depiction and placement of symbols representing the sun, ire, goddesses, frogs, and birds indicate a strong belief in a garment’s ability not only to provide protection to the wearer, but also to promote fertility. Embroidery stitches placed at vulnerable areas, such as the wrists and neck, acted as folkloric talismans against evil spirits attempting to enter the body via its susceptible points. These embroidered designs were executed with red cotton thread or thick red cord. Embroidery authority Sheila Paine in her studies notes that the use of the color red is ubiquitous in all folk embroideries as it is symbolic of life itself. In many of the chemises of Russian districts, red embroidery is most certainly present, but examples of black and polychrome embroidery can be found in the southern provinces as well. Since the 17th century, the southern regions of Russia experienced a signiicant inlux of Ukrainian settlers. The inluence of vividly colored Ukrainian costume most certainly affected southern Russian dress, which shows a propensity for bright, polychromatic garments. The chemises of girls and young women had full, billowing sleeves decorated with geometric embroidery in black or red. The voluminous silhouette was the result of gathering the top sleeve panels around the neckline and inserting gussets of kumacha ( )—a red calico—in the underarm area. Many sleeves terminated in large, frilly cuffs trimmed with pieced fabric and lace. Chemises worn by a bride at her wedding had extremely long sleeves that hid the hands. To expose the hands, the sleeves were pushed up and braced in place with wide bracelets. For important church holidays and festivals, the chemise was adorned with extra embellishments of gold-wrapped threads, sequins, beads, and ribbon. An upper garment, the navérshnik ( ), could be worn over the chemise and skirt or dress ensemble. Trapezoidal in shape and sleeveless, it was made of linen and embroidered to harmonize with the ornament of the chemise.

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Unless working in the ields, married women were obliged to cover their chemise with a second garment. The dress-like sarafan ( )—worn in both the south and north—was one option, but it was the skirt-like garment, the ponyóva ( ) that was preferred in the south. Researchers believe this skirt or apronlike garment is derived from Neolithic forms of dress. In its most basic state, the ponyóva was made of black or dark blue wool cloth woven with a striped or checkered pattern. Left unadorned, it was suitable for older women. For festival days, younger women richly adorned the back and lap of their ponyóvas with vividly colored, cascading rosettes of ribbons, beads, and bells. There were three distinct styles of ponyóva. The irst was made of three pieces of rectangular panels of cloth. These panels were either sewn together and attached to or hung separately from a cord tied around the waist. A fourth panel of dark fabric was inserted or suspended over the front opening, appearing as an apron. This variant could also incorporate strips of fabric—often of richly ornamented red-colored cloth—pieced between the panels or placed as a decorative border along the hem. A second style used the same rectangular panels, but instead of the panels hanging straight to the ground, the wearer could hitch and drape the skirt around her backside by opening and lifting the side panels from the front edges and then tucking those edges into the waistband. A third style worn as late as the 20th century used the same fabrics, but instead was constructed and sewn as a skirt from four or more rectangular panels of cloth. The ponyóva was often accessorized with a multicolored woven belt of wool. Over the chemise and ponyóva, a perednik ( ; plural, peredniki) was sometimes worn. This pinafore-like garment was sleeveless and was left open in the back or fastened. An alternate version, a zabórnaya zanavéska ( я ), was long in the front with a shorter back ending just below the shoulder blades. Generally made from homespun and handwoven cotton and linen fabrics, the perednik was white or a combination of white and colored fabrics and was left unadorned for everyday wear. For festivals, peredniki were richly decorated at the armholes, sleeves (if present), and hems with patterns that complemented the chemise. Another article hailing from the southern regions and worn over the chemise and ponyóva was a shushpan ( ). Common to Voronezh and Ryazan, as well as many southeastern districts including Tambov, Tula, Kaluga, and Penza, the shushpan is a short, jacket-like garment made from white or sometimes brown smooth, light woolen cloth. It could also be made of coarse white linen. Like the ponyóva, the shushpan is derived from ancient Russian dress. It was worn open without a front closure and was not belted. Other versions of the shushpan appear as a tunic passed over the head, or as an open-front garment worn with the right arm passed through one sleeve, the other sleeve passed under the left arm. Shushpan

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Russian women wearing a pinafore-like garment called zabórnaya zanavéska, between 1880 and 1924. (Library of Congress/Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection)

sleeves were generally elbow length, but could also be wrist length. The length of the shushpan on the body could be to the knees or slightly shorter. Younger women generally wore shushpans, and when worn at festivals such as Easter or Whit Sunday, they were brightly decorated on the borders and hem with red and green braid or strips of calico fashioned as ribbon. A woman in mourning wore a shushpan edged with black braid. Older women in society also wore this variety, as well as undecorated shushpan.

The Northern Provinces: Vologda, Tver, Yaroslav, and Archangelsk The element of dress strongly associated with Russia is the sarafan ( ). Historians are uncertain of the origins of the sarafan: like the ponyóva, it too could have originated from ancient apron-like garments or from dress found in Eastern lands. Linguists believe the word sarafan is possibly derived from the Persian word sarapa meaning “the entire body, from head to toe.” Mentioned in Russian texts since the 14th century, where it was often referred to as the long dress

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of men, the sarafan, since the 16th century, has described a woman’s long or “tall” skirt garment with button closures, suspended from straps. Since the 17th century, the sarafan worn over a long-sleeved chemise has constituted basic dress in most of the northern provinces, as well as in the south. During the Petrine reforms, the sarafan, previously worn by the nobility, was relegated to being the dress of peasants only. By the 19th century, it was adopted by many of the southern provinces of Russia as a more modern form of dress preferred to the ponyóva. Most forms of sarafan consist of a long, slightly lared dress with wide or narrow straps, the latter depending on the preferences of the region. The front of the sarafan could be unadorned or with a button-front opening that ran the length of the garment. A woven or braided belt was often placed just below the bustline. Sarafans were worn for both daily wear and for festivals until the 20th century. Richly patterned luxury fabrics such as brocaded silks and velvets were also used, but for daily use, the sarafan was made of printed and plain types of cotton available on the market. The rules of fabric and pattern used in sarafans of the north were often set according to the preferences of each region, although it is hard to ind an exact formula for what colors were used and on which occasions. What is generally agreed upon by many historians is that the light of the north was not as bright as in the south, therefore northern dress can be identiied by its softer colors and patterned fabrics. Many 19th- and early 20th-century artists and photographers illustrate these preferences in their works. An additional northern article of dress worn over the chemise and sarafan was the dushaygréya ( я). Made of rich fabrics such as velvet or brocaded silk, the dushaygréya was made in sleeveless and long-sleeve forms. Generally it was worn open at the front with a closure at the top. It skimmed gracefully away from the upper body, falling to the hip. The back could be lounced or gathered in barrel pleats. Dushaygréya often translates into English as “body warmer.” When trimmed with fur, it undoubtedly gave the wearer an added layer of warmth on the upper body needed in the colder climes of the north. Not solely limited to northern districts, the dushaygréya was also worn in districts located along the middle and lower Volga River and in Siberia. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the dushaygréya was a documented part of Russian dress and was worn in particular by the married women of the boyar (advisors to the grand dukes of Kievan Rus from the 13th to 17th centuries) and merchant classes. By the 18th and 19th centuries, the dushaygréya was seen little and was worn mostly by village peasants. In the early 20th century, it was an important component of the wedding dress worn by wealthy peasant brides-to-be, particularly in northern provinces such as Archangelsk and Vologda. The dushaygréya as an element of ceremonial wedding dress is often found in Russian museum collections today. The epan ch’ka ( ), a similar,

Peasant woman’s sarafan from the northern Russian province of Archangelsk, second half of the 19th century. (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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but shorter garment than the dushaygréya, was also worn over the chemise and sarafan ensemble. Suspended from wide-set straps, its stiff conical shape loated on the upper body with its lower edge hovering away from the natural waistline. It too was made of sumptuous materials or wool. The back of an epanеch’ka is frequently barrel pleated or folded; its front, worn completely closed, is often richly embroidered and trimmed with galloon or lace. When laid lat, the epanach’ka almost forms a circle.

Headwear Each province in the north and south, and even some villages, had its own form of headdress. In Russia, the manner in which the head was covered provided information about a woman’s marital status. For this reason, scarves and shawls are strongly associated with bridal traditions even today. In the 17th and 18th centuries, a young bride-to-be was often presented with a scarf or shawl known as a kanavat ( ), which would cover her head once married. The importance of head coverings in Russian dress is linked to a pre-Christian belief that the uncovered head of a woman was considered inappropriate and linked to bad luck. If a married woman left her head uncovered, she could bring misfortune to her village in the form of poor crops, famine, and disease. Young unmarried women were allowed to leave their hair uncovered, their hair plaited into one braid. Headdresses worn for festivals and special occasions continued the rule, clearly distinguishing for suitors the unmarried from the married. The most basic head cover and ornament for both married and unmarried women at all times, whether they were working in the ields or attending church, was the scarf. Since the 17th century, the headscarf, referred to as an ubrus ( ), was a cloth made of linen and embroidered on the ends. Married Russian peasants often tied their headscarf to enclose their entire skull and forehead, so no hair could be seen. A maiden also wore a scarf, particularly if working in the ield. Her scarf was folded oblong and secured only around the crown and then was tied at the nape of the neck; the loose ends were left to hang down the back or they were returned to the top of the head and knotted. In this manner, the back of the head was always visible, advertising that the young girl was unmarried. A more elaborate form of headdress that was worn throughout European Russia and was reserved for young, unmarried women was the perevyazka or povyazka ( я or я ). The headdress comprised of a crown made of bent bark was covered with fabric that continued around to the nape of the neck where it was tied in a bow or knotted and left to hang down the back. The fabric-covered crown was usually embellished with gold and silver threads and seed pearls. The hair of the wearer was visible.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress An ancient form of headdress inluenced by Finno-Ugric settlers in the southern regions of Russia in the 10th to the 13th centuries was the keech’ka ( ). A small head covering reserved for married women, it covered the top of the head completely as well as the sides of the hair with various attachments. Often made from two to three pieces of fabric, such as calico, velvet, or silk, it was fashioned into a hat with wings or other various forms. This form was then attached to a crown piece. Depending on the province, it was worn with the wings oriented side-to-side and folded and tucked down or oriented toward the front and back with one or both wings Russian peasant girl wearing perevyazka folded and tucked. Beaded fringe was headdress, 1909. (Library of Congress/ often added to the sides to cover the Prokudin-Gorskii Collection) hair completely. The keech’ka could also be placed with the wings facing side-to-side and pointing in an upward position resembling horns or bird wings. For special occasions accessories to the keech’ka were pom-poms of down or feathers. Suspended from the inside of the headdress, one pom-pom was worn next to each temple. Perhaps the best-known headdress of Russia is the kokoshnik ( ), which has been recorded in paintings since the 17th century. Worn in the north, but ubiquitous throughout European Russia, it too in its many forms was reserved for married women. The kokoshnik appears in many shapes, but mainly the following: crescent moon with points that curve to extend below the ears toward the shoulders; high triangle decorated with small cones covered in seed pearls—this shape often exposes the full forehead, but covers the ears; tall conical form swathed with a scarf or shawl crossed under the chin and tied at the back of the neck or left to hang loose over the shoulders; diadem with crown piece with lat top cloth insert, often with applied laps to the side and back, covering the hair. The idea behind the high, almost loating proile of the kokoshnik was to provide ample room for the head and upper body to be covered, as often a scarf was tied over the kokoshnik to hide a married woman’s hair. The kokoshnik was the headdress of merchants and upper classes for festivals and weddings.

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Men’s Dress Since the Petrine reforms clothing for men was more homogeneous throughout Russia. The common elements were the shirt or chemise ( ), trousers known as porti ( ), and braided belts. The shirt was ornamented with similar, but more modest decoration when compared with the ladies’ version. Longer in length, it extended to the mid-thigh and was belted. The most common version of the male shirt, the kosovorota ( ), had a slit placed to one side of the neckline and fastened with a button. The trousers of plain or striped wool or other home- or factory-made fabrics were long or ended just below the knee and were generally tucked into boots. Woolen caps trimmed with fur or with a peak or brimmed hats constituted men’s headgear.

Footwear For the most part, footwear of men and women in Russia was similar. Dark leather shoes or boots with low heels were typical. Often the leather was ornamented with studs in geometric patterns or the leather itself was worked by embossing. Knitted wool stockings provided extra warmth in cold weather. A shoe hailing originally from the central provinces and worn by peasants was the lapti ( ). Woven of bast fibers, lapti were worn over leg wrappings of linen and held to the foot and legs by long ropes that crisscrossed and wrapped the calves.

Jewelry Women adorned themselves with earrings, bracelets, necklaces, and rings. Seed pearls, rock crystal, and semiprecious stones were worked into lacy conigurations for earrings. Necklaces of amber, semiprecious stones, and glass beads could be worn close to the neck or in long strands that ended at the chest. In the south, men and women wore long necklaces past their waistlines of silk braid with medallions of wool fringe and beads.

Outerwear In the winter, both men and women wore coats of fur or wool trimmed with fur. A variation was a coat of fur worn with the hide “out” and the fur “in.” In the fall or spring, coats of wool and other heavy materials were worn and generally followed the lines of the dress underneath. For men the caftan was the most common silhouette. For both men and women, outwear extended to the knee; when overlapped it generally closed to the left; and for men, it was held closed with a belt or sash.

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Further Reading and Resources Aleshina, T. S.  History of Russian Costume from the Eleventh to the Twentieth Century: From the Collections of the Arsenal Museum, Leningrad; Hermitage, Leningrad; Historical Museum, Moscow; Kremlin Museums, Moscow; Pavlovsk Museum: Catalogue. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977. Anawalt, Patricia Rieff. The Worldwide History of Dress. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2007. Eimova, L. V. (Luiza Vladimirovna), and T. S. Aleshina. Russian Elegance: Country and City Fashion from the 15th to the Early 20th Century. London: Vivays Pub., 2011.  International Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico. www.internationalfolkart .org. Artifacts of Russian dress, including garments and accessories, are included in the collection’s 20,000 items of international folk dress. Russian Museum of Ethnography, St. Petersburg, Russia. www.ethnomuseum.ru. Russian and English websites provide an overview of the collection, which includes articles of dress from the various peoples of Russia. Saval’yeva, Irina Nikolaevna. Relationships of Harmony in Dress of the Russian People (Zakonomernosti garmonii v kostium’e narodov Rossii). Moscow: RosZITLP, 2002. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. www.hermitagemuseum.org. Russian and English websites provide an overview of the Russian Culture collection, which includes costumes, textiles, and tapestries. 

Russian Federation Republics Pamela Smith

Historical and Geographical Background The vast territory of the Russian Federation includes 21 autonomous republics representing areas of non-Russian ethnicity and named after their indigenous ethnic groups. The groups do not necessarily make up the majority of a republic’s population as Russians have also settled in these areas, but many of the original peoples remain culturally apart from their Russian neighbors, not least because of their distinctive dress practices, some of which are still apparent in rural areas in the 21st century. There have been secessionist movements in most republics since they were irst subsumed into the Russian Empire, later the Soviet Union, and now the Russian Federation, but only a few still hit the headlines in the international press, notably for conlicts in Chechnya, Ingushetia, and Ossetia in the Caucasus region, along the border with Georgia. The desire for ethnic autonomy often manifests itself in adherence to the traditional dress of the group. During the Soviet era, that is, most of the 20th century, the traditional culture of all minority ethnic groups, including their dress practices, was suppressed and Western-style clothing universally adopted. In some of the more peaceable republics, such as Yakutia in Siberia, a resurgence of interest in ethnic dress followed the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, since when it has been increasingly seen at cultural festivals and events aimed at tourists. The areas where many of the republics are situated—the Ural and Caucasus mountain ranges and Siberia—are particularly rich in natural resources such as gold, silver, copper, and minerals, which have often been incorporated into dress. The jewelers of Tatarstan and of Dagestan were celebrated throughout Russia and beyond for their skill in working with these materials. Semiprecious stones mined in the Urals were widely used to adorn ethnic dress. Garnets and carnelians were especially prized. Being the talismanic color red, they were considered to have healing and protective qualities. The Tatars from Kazan on the Volga were renowned for their use of topaz, aquamarine, turquoise, amethyst, and jasper set into silver. 633

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Their pieces were valued as part of dress not only locally but also in Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Jewelry in the Caucasus often incorporated nephrite (jade), which was worn as a charm against heart disease, lightning, and earthquakes.

People and Dress The Volga Region: Mordovia, Mari El, Chuvashia, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Bashkortostan, Komi Republic In the east and southeast of European Russia, along the banks of the rivers Volga and Kama and in the area of the Urals, several ethnic groups have lived together with the main mass of the Russian population but with their own individual cultures and dress. These included the Mordovians, Komi-Zyrians, Udmurts, and Mari, who spoke Finnish, and the Chuvash, Bashkirs, and Tatars, whose language was Turkic. From ancient times this area was settled by tribes coming together from both east and west. A number of common features evolved in their dress. Poorer people wore home-woven linen, wool, or hemp, while from the late 19th century the wealthy, especially among the Tatars and Bashkirs, used only bought, factory-produced materials such as silk, velvet, fur, and woolen broadcloth. Men’s dress lost its original features before the women’s dress, which survived into the early 20th century. Women wore a tunic-shaped shirt trimmed with red embroidery on the chest, sleeves, and hem, together with an embroidered apron and woven sash decorated with pendants and tassels. An open caftan was added on top in cooler weather or for festive occasions. Lavish embroidered or woven ornamentation in geometric patterns was important on both men’s and women’s clothes, especially among the Mordovians, Mari, Chuvash, and Udmurts. Mordovian embroidery was worked in terracotta red and blue woolen thread, with outline stitchery to accentuate each element in the design. Applied decoration on women’s clothes included tassels; beads of glass, pearl, or coral; buttons, coins, and cowrie shells, especially on headdresses and chest-pieces. The most colorful and lavish effect was reserved for brides and young married women. It was said of the Mordovian bride that she could be heard before she was seen, on account of the quantity of rustling and rattling decorations hanging from her clothes. The Tatars and Bashkirs were Muslims, unlike most of the other groups who had become attached to the Russian Orthodox faith. Tatar women’s headdresses were embroidered with symmetrical compositions of realistically depicted bouquets of lowers worked on velvet or silk, reminiscent of designs prevalent in the Turkish Ottoman Empire. Both men and women wore rings engraved with Koranic verses, and on holidays women wore sashes diagonally across the body on which were attached amulets or Koran cases.

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Women from Tatarstan,Volga region. Their ine silk clothes, embellished with embroidery and jewelry, indicate their wealth and status, c. 1900. (Library of Congress)

The Caucasus Region: Adygea, Kalmykia, KarachayCherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia–Alania, Ingushetia, Chechnya, Dagestan Over 50 ethnic groups inhabit the region of the Caucasus Mountains, the northern part of which is within the Russian Federation and includes eight republics. In Dagestan alone there are 10 distinct peoples, apart from those originally from Russia and neighboring states, and over 30 languages are spoken. Of all the regions of Russia the Caucasus has the most dramatic scenery. Climatic zones range from polar at the top of the mountains, temperate in the shelter of the valleys, to semidesert on the Caspian Sea. But despite the diversity of terrain, climate, and ethnicity there are elements of cultural unity because of the peoples’ many centuries of economic and social ties. A common feature on women’s traditional dress was gold thread embroidery, which was famous far beyond the Caucasus in the 18th and 19th centuries. Women’s outits generally consisted of a cotton or silk shirt, calico or silk trousers, a skirt, and an outer dress or caftan. Luxurious fabrics for festive wear had long been

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress imported along the Silk Road, one strand of which ran to the south of this area along the fringes of Azerbaijan and through neighboring Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The region itself supports the growing of cotton, hemp, lax, and mulberry trees for silkworm breeding, as well as sheep- and goat-breeding, producing skins and wool for broadcloth, felt, cashmere, and mohair. Traditional headwear varied according to the wearer’s ethnic origin, age and social status. When Kabardian and Cherkessian girls were considered old enough for marriage they put on a golden cap, which they continued to wear after their wedding until the birth of their irst child. On festive occasions Dagestani women wore a kind of turban constructed of a large number of kerchiefs embellished with coins, beads, and gold braid across the forehead or silver niello discs at the temples. Women and girls of all ages in Dagestan wore much locally made silver jewelry, including rings, bracelets, earrings, and belts, and various types of amulets attached to their clothes. Necklaces, pendants, bibs, and aprons were made of medallions and coins. Men’s dress in the Caucasus evolved to suit their way of life. In a wild and often hostile mountain environment, they were warriors and horsemen but also herdsmen and tillers of the land. Their clothes had to be convenient and protective in many different circumstances. They wore a shirt and caftan, and over the top the characteristic Caucasian garment, the cherkeska. This was an open topcoat with rows of pouches across the breast displaying gaziri—decorative caps, originally of gunpowder cartridges, which became purely an embellishment. The cherkeska was usually made of homewoven woolen cloth, but those made from expensive factory-made broadcloth or from camel’s wool were especially valued. Camels are still bred near the Caspian Sea. Couple from Dagestan, Caucasus region. Mountain shepherds wore sheepImage by Sergei Prokudin-Gorskii, who took skin coats with the leece inside, the photographs throughout the Russian Empire outside being left plain or covered for the last tsar. The man wears a cherkeska with broadcloth. They were close itcoat. The woman’s garments are made of cotton and silk. (Library of Congress) ting and tightly fastened for protection

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from wind and cold, and short for ease of movement on horseback. The bourka, a type of cloak, was thrown over the shoulders and shielded the wearer against extremes of temperature in summer and winter. It could also serve as bedding or a tent during the nomadic herding of animals, leading to the local expression “a bourka is a home away from home for a man.” Men and boys wore hats all year round, especially the cylindrical papakha, made of the tightly curled pelts of lambs, or the long shaggy type of sheepskin. In severe winter weather in the mountain villages, both men and women wore the shuba—a long sheepskin overcoat, sometimes with false hanging sleeves. Even at the beginning of the 21st century, many Caucasian women remain in their villages and retain some of the traditional styles of dress in all their ethnic variants, while men travel more and have adopted Western styles.

The Northwest: Karelia In the northwest of the Russian Federation, the republic of Karelia borders on Finland. The border has shifted back and forth over history, with conlict and treaty in the 1940s leading to most of the territory known as Karelia being handed from Finnish to Soviet rule. Karelians, like the Finns and Estonians, have Finno-Ugric ethnic origins, distinct from the Slavic ethnicity of Russians, but Karelian peasant dress bore many similarities to that of Russians of the northern climes, with the basic garments for girls and women being a long linen shirt, covered with a sleeveless dress known as a sarafan. Counted-thread embroidery on the sleeves and hems of women’s shirts and aprons featured stylized goddess igures, sacred trees, horsemen, and birds, and particularly deer. The married woman’s festive headdress (soroka) covered her hair and was decorated with metal spangles and gold thread embroidery. Summer footwear was woven from strips of lime or birch bark; in the long harsh winters fur or reindeer skin coats and boots were worn by all.

Siberia: Yakutia (also known as Sakha), Altai, Khakassia, Tuva, Buryatia The Yakut live in the largest republic of the Russian Federation, in the northern part of Siberia, along with smaller ethnic groups such as the Evenk and Chukchi. For centuries they made their living by breeding horses and were thus known as “the horse people.” In the past their dress relected this way of life, with horsehide garments being commonly worn. Hats were made of horsehair, and a key accessory was the deibyr, a long switch of tail or mane, which was carried hung over the arm and used to ward off mosquitoes, which plague people

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress and animals in the Siberian summer. Both men and women wore long coats or caftans made of cloth in summer and fur in winter. Garments and footwear were decorated with beads and embroidery worked in reindeer hair or horsehair. The Yakut woman’s festive dress included a fur coat or jacket with a tall fur hat and soft horsehide high boots with pointed toes. A leather belt decorated with engraved metal plates had useful objects attached to it and featured in both male and female dress. Altai, Khakassia, Tuva, and Buryatia are a collection of republics in southern Siberia, bordering Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Many of the ethnic groups living here and in Yakutia follow archaic beliefs through the practice of shamanism. The priests, or shamans (male or female), were regarded as intermediaries between the natural world and the spirit world, and the ritual clothes they wore when entering into a state of trance or meditation were highly decorated with objects believed to enhance their power. The coat was made of animal skins, with fringes along the sleeves and down the back. Many metal pendants and braids woven from pieces of fabric, birds’ wings, and feathers hung from it. The use of metal was signiicant as this material was believed among some peoples to be inhabited by the spirits who aided the shaman. Metal jewelry was important to all the women of the southern Siberian republics. Buryat women wore metal chest-pieces, belt ornaments, and pendants ixed to their braided hair. More long pendants hung down the chest, attached to a beaded headband at the temples. Pieces of turquoise, blue lazurite, coral, and amber were also applied to festive headdresses. A few practical elements of traditional Siberian dress such as reindeer-skin boots remain in use, alongside the homogenized Western clothing, which has almost entirely overtaken it. Fabrics and garments developed by new technologies often provide better insulation against the extreme cold than what was worn in the past. The Yakut have devised a reconstructed national costume for special occasions, featuring bead decoration and embroidery in traditional designs.

Further Reading and Resources Bartlett, Djurdja, ed., and Pamela Smith, asst. ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion—Vol. 9. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Chenciner, Robert. Daghestan: Tradition & Survival. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 1997. Kalashnikova, N. M., and G. A. Pluzhnikova. Odezhda narodov SSSR. National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples. Moscow: Planeta, 1990. Kelly, Mary B. Goddess Embroideries of the Northlands. Hilton Head Island, SC: Studiobooks, 2007.

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Paine, Sheila. The Golden Horde. London: Penguin, 1997. Sidorenko, V. A., et al. Narodnyi Kostium Penzenskoi Gubernii. National Costume of Penza Province, Late 19th–Early 20th Century. Penza, Russia: Pelican, 2005. Torchinskay, Elga, and Galina Komleva. Jewellery (from the Museum of the Ethnography of the Peoples of the USSR). Leningrad: Aurora, 1988.

Rwanda and Uganda Christina Lindholm

Historical Background Rwanda Evidence shows that the area that is now Rwanda has been inhabited by a hunting and gathering pygmoid group as far back as 35,000 years. Agriculture lourished in the 7th to 10th centuries under the Bantu-speaking Hutu peoples while the Tutsis, a pastoral people, arrived in the mid-14th century. A Tutsi dynasty emerged that ruled the country until the late 19th century. Europeans explored the region starting with J. H. Speke in the late 1850s. The Germans assumed rule of Rwanda in 1899 and soon afterward Catholic missionaries arrived to convert the population. German rule gave way to Belgian administration after World War I and a concerted effort began to Westernize the country. Rwanda and Burundi formed an administrative union with the Congo in 1925, and Rwanda-Burundi became a UN trust territory under Belgian administration in 1946. A Hutu-Tutsi conlict occurred in 1959 and lasted sporadically until 1964, during which Rwanda gained independence in 1962. Corrupt politics led to years of economic struggle and political strife, and the Hutu-Tutsi division ultimately led to the genocide during which Hutus are reported to have slaughtered 800,000 Tutsis in three months in 1994. The current government, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RFP), seeks to provide a multiethnic idea of Rwandan national identity by promoting equal rights for all Rwanda citizens. The current population estimate for Rwanda is 11,689,700.

Uganda The Kingdom of Buganda had a well-developed, centuries-old political system when it was “discovered” by Arab traders in the 1830s. The traders were followed in the 1860s by British explorers and then by Christian missionaries in the late 1870s. A charter granting control of the area was assigned to the British East Africa 640

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Company in 1888 and later acknowledged by an 1890 Anglo-German agreement, which conirmed Britain’s management of Uganda. The kingdom became a British protectorate in 1894. This arrangement was changed in 1961 when Britain permitted internal self-government. Benedicto Kiwanuka of the Democratic Party was elected as the irst chief minister, although Uganda retained its membership in the Commonwealth. Full independence was achieved in 1962. Competing ideologies began to create strife soon after. Citizens in favor of a centralized state competed with those in favor of an informal coalition of locally based tribes. Prime Minister Milton Obote ousted the ceremonial president and vice president and declared the country a republic in 1967. January 1971 saw a military coup led by Idi Amin Dada who declared himself president and amended the constitution to obtain absolute power. The ensuing eight years saw the expulsion of various ethnic groups, massive economic decline, and outrageous human rights abuses. The International Commission of Jurists estimates that at least 100,000 people were murdered during Amin’s reign, while others estimate a much higher igure. Kampala, the capital of Uganda, was captured in 1979 by Ugandan exiles backed by Tanzanian armed forces. Amin led and Yusuf Lule established the shortlived Uganda National Liberation Front. Years of political upheaval followed with various factions assuming control and ruling in a wide manner of political systems. In 2011, Yoweri Museveni was elected as Uganda’s fourth president with 68 percent of the vote. The current population estimate is approximately 35,873,250.

Geographic and Environmental Background Rwanda Rwanda is known as the “land of a thousand hills.” About the size of Maryland, Rwanda is surrounded by Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania. It is a country of steep mountains, volcanoes, and high plains with most of the country at least 3,300 feet above sea level. It has few natural resources and the economy is agriculturally based, accounting for about 41 percent of the GDP (2010). It is estimated that 90 percent of the working population is engaged in some type of farming. The major cash crops are coffee and tea, which grow well on the steep mountain slopes. Lake Kivu, the Ruzizi River, and the Kagera River are the major bodies of water. The high altitude provides a consistent and moderate climate. Major shifts in temperature occur when traveling from the lowlands to the mountains, the highest of which, Mt. Karisimbi, is snowcapped. There is a long rainy season from February to May and a shorter one in November and December. Rwanda’s silverback mountain gorilla tribes, found in the Virunga Mountains, are

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress a popular tourist attraction. The ilm Gorillas in the Mist, depicting the life and work of Dian Fossey, was ilmed here. Hotel Rwanda, a ilm about the genocide, was also produced in Rwanda.

Uganda Uganda is a small, landlocked country roughly the size of Oregon. It is rich in natural resources with hydropower and deposits of copper, cobalt, limestone, and salt. It is basically a plateau rimmed with mountains and it enjoys a mild climate with plenty of rainfall. About 25 percent of the land is arable and agriculture accounts for about 23 percent of the gross domestic product. Export crops including vanilla, vegetables, fruits, cut lowers, and ish have been steadily increasing, while traditional exports such as cotton, tea, and tobacco continue to be mainstays. Uganda is the second largest African producer of coffee and agriculture employs more than 80 percent of the workforce. About 45 percent of the country is grass and woodland, and roughly 13 percent is set aside as national parks, forests, and game reserves. Four of East Africa’s lakes are either on or within Uganda’s borders. These beautiful lakes and mountains make Uganda a popular tourist destination.

Ethnic and Religious Diversity Rwanda All three of the early settler groups of Rwanda are still present today. About 1 percent of the country is Twa, also known as Pygmies; 15 percent are Tutsi; and 84 percent are Hutu. The small number of Tutsis is a relection of the above-mentioned genocide and it also accounts for the very young median age (18.7 years) of Rwandans. There is also a very high incidence of AIDS, which further impacts rates of life expectancy. The oficial languages are Kinyarwanda (a Bantu language), French, and English, although Swahili is widely spoken in the commercial centers. Rwanda is the most densely populated country in Africa by size. Its 11,370,425 residents are predominantly Christian. Roman Catholics account for 56.5 percent, Protestants 26 percent, and Adventists 11.1 percent. Muslims make up only 4.6 percent of the population, and there is a tiny percentage of people who either still hold indigenous beliefs (0.1 percent), or express no religious belief (1.7 percent).

Uganda Uganda currently has a population of about 34.6 million people, composed of more than 30 ethnic groups. The Bagada are the largest group, representing about

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17 percent of the population, and the Bunyoro and Batoro are the smallest with about 3 percent each. The oficial languages are Swahili and English, although many local languages are still in daily use. The population is largely rural, with the largest concentration of people in the southern region and the capital city, Kampala. Life expectancy is approximately 53 years. Christianity is practiced by 66 percent of Ugandans and is equally divided between Catholics and Protestants. Muslims account for 16 percent of the population while indigenous beliefs are still held by 18 percent.

People and Dress Rwanda Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress The study of traditional dress in Rwanda has beneited greatly by early European explorers who arrived armed with cameras and a desire to document what they saw. Thus photographs from the late 19th and early 20th centuries depict Rwandans wearing softened animal skins, hides, and elaborate headdresses. These garments tended to have two or three pieces; men wore a wrapper at the waist extending to the knees or ankles and a rectangle covering the upper body tied like a toga at the shoulder. There was an additional skirt for adult women, worn under the wrapper. This underskirt, the inkanda, was the most costly of the garments as it was made from cowhide and marked the wearer as a married woman. The two men’s garments were generally made of sheep, goat, or antelope hide for the upper body piece, with the belt or wrapper made from the skin of a male calf. After World War I, Rwanda was ceded to Belgium and Western-style dress with a strong French inluence became more popular. A hybrid tradition evolved for women that relects the shape of the early skirt, top and cloth tied toga style at the shoulder. This style Rwandan woman wears a combination is still popular today and called a bazzin of traditional and western dress, 2010. or a pagne. These may be constructed (Dreamstime.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress of imported lightweight silky polyester jacquard weaves or of heavier printed cloth, usually cotton, from western Africa. Whether wearing traditional style or Westernized dress, women almost always wear skirts or dresses. Trousers on a woman are almost never seen, but when they are worn, it is almost always by a younger, trendy woman in the city. Women in rural parts of the country wear a top and skirt with the additional cloth wrapper tied either around their waist over the skirt or tied higher up under their armpits. For men, a Western shirt and trousers are the usual dress. Appearance is important, so suits and jackets are common for professional men. Any type of Western fashion is considered desirable, so wealthy, educated, upper-class men are usually well turned out in starched shirts, silk ties, and tailor-made suits. Children wear uniforms to school, but are otherwise dressed in Western children’s styles of T-shirts, shorts, and jeans. These, along with a plethora of adult clothing and accessories, are readily available at the markets where a lively trade in both new and secondhand Western clothing provides much of the clothing for the country. Literally, any type of merchandise might be found at the markets: underwear, casual wear, business attire and even white Western-style wedding dresses. Jeans are popular as are branded athletic team wear. One of the results of prizing Western dress is that printed T-shirts are worn by people who possibly have no idea what the saying means. Two examples of these T-shirts were seen in the summer of 2011 in rural Rwanda. One T-shirt was printed Wrigley Field 1914, referencing the baseball home ield of the Chicago Cubs, while another stated “Fat People are Harder to Kidnap.” The markets also offer an abundance of cloth cut into 6.5-yard (6-meter) lengths in a wide variety of colors and prints. Much of the cloth is cotton with batik wax print designs, but Western synthetic cloth is also available in the market stalls. Tailors are on hand with their sewing machines to make small repairs or to take orders for custom-made garments. Footwear varies by occasion. Bare feet are common in rural areas, and for informal activities, Western thongs, lip-lops, and rubber sandals are inexpensive and quite common. Athletic shoes and sneakers are also available. Dressier events require more formal Western dress shoes for both men and women. Prisoners are a common sight in Kigali, the capital city. Their two-piece uniforms of pullover tops and loose trousers indicate something about their crime and sentence. Prisoners in green are usually being transported from one location to another and still have a signiicant amount of time left to serve. Prisoners dressed in blue are nearing the end of their sentence and are seen working in public on community service projects. Those prisoners dressed in pink have been found guilty of participating in the genocide and are serving a lifetime sentence.

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Materials and Techniques Early Rwandan clothing was made entirely by hand of skins, pelts, and bark cloth, but with the arrival of European explorers and the resulting intrusion of colonialism, cotton cloth became available and was quickly adopted into dress practices. Bark cloth was used early, but disappeared almost entirely after contact was made with Europeans. A 1907 photograph of King Musinga portrays him in an anklelength sarong of white cloth with what appears to be an imported belt. Eventually, imported sturdy cotton cloth would replace nearly all other materials for dress. Jewelry and Adornment Jewelry and adornment in Rwanda was worn in the form of protective amulets. A married woman would tie a multitude of charms onto her belt throughout her life and it was common for children to wear similar amulets. These were made from various natural materials including teeth, horn, claws, seeds, and roots. The amulets were fastened to the body with strong grass, string, leather, and even wire. Adults also wore charms as protection against illness, injury, and magical and natural spirits. Amulets, particularly those worn by adults, were often concealed. Other adornment conveyed status, such as the mother’s headband announcing her role as a fertile female and an adult. Men from southern Rwanda occasionally wore a wide wooden bracelet, which protected the hunter from the backlash of the hunting bow. Tattooing and scariication were evident and often on the chest and arms. Glass beads and cowrie shells were highly valued items available only to the king and the very wealthy. Hair is usually worn short by both men and women; however, in Kigali it is not uncommon to see the occasional woman with hair extensions. Printed cloth turbans are popular in Kigali and are usually coordinated with the print of the dress. Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Ethnic dress has entirely disappeared from Rwanda. Echoes of early skin and hide garments are seen in the shape of the women’s three-piece dress of top, skirt, and wrapper. For formal occasions, the wrapper is always tied over the right shoulder. The head wrap or turban is the only non-Western item seen consistently in the country.

Uganda Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress The large number of Uganda’s ethnic groups makes a uniform discussion of Ugandan dress impossible as each group had a particular style of dressing. There was no singular Ugandan national dress.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Prior to Western contact, dress in Uganda was achieved through wearing animal hides, skins, bark cloth, and feathers. Various types of hide, such as leopard and lion, and certain feathers were reserved for the leaders as visible declarations of status and power. Ordinary men wore sheep or goat hides. Women wore two skins fastened around the waist, covering them to the ankles. Female children were dressed only in a narrow beaded belt, while prepubescent males wore a goatskin cloak around their shoulders. The arrival of Christian missionaries in the 1800s started a trend toward Westernized dress. Embarrassed by nudity, the missionaries encouraged Woman wears a gomesi in the Nakasongolo the local population to adopt more district of Uganda, 2007. (Andy Aitchison/In Pictures/Corbis) covering garments. This resulted in an ankle-length, Victorian-style dress called gomesi or busuti. This garment typically has a square neckline set into a square yoke, which usually has two decorative buttons on the left side. The body of the dress is stitched into the yoke and falls freely to the ankles. It is tied around the hips with a contrasting wide sash whose ties also reach the ankles. A notable characteristic of the gomesi is the highly peaked, gathered sleeves, which extend to the elbow. The dress is made from industrially manufactured cloth, often a brightly printed cloth or a shiny satin-type cloth. It requires about six yards of cloth to make a gomesi. While it is always worn at celebrations, it is not uncommon to see the gomesi worn for daily use. For ceremonies women spend time carefully arranging the left side of the gomesi into pleats that fall directly under the decorative buttons. The kanzu is the preferred ceremonial garb for men. It was introduced by Arab traders and is now worn for all special occasions including the introduction ceremony (a prewedding ceremony), weddings, and last rites. The kanzu is a hand-sewn tunic reaching to the ankles. Occasionally, long trousers are worn underneath. Originally constructed of bark cloth, the modern kanzu is made from cotton, linen, or other natural-colored cloth. It may be plain or decorated around the neck and down the entire front with maroon-colored Omulela patterns. Kanzus are an important part of the wedding ceremony. The groom’s family is required to dress in kanzus and to present kanzus to the bride’s male relatives.

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Both genders may wear a kitenge outit. This suit is cut from a brightly colored six-yard length of cotton cloth imported from West Africa. For women, this popular outit is comprised of a wrapper worn sarong style as a skirt, a wide-necked blouse, and a one-yard turban. Men wear kitenge cut as a pair of loose trousers and a long tunic. Children are dressed entirely in Westernized children’s wear. Materials and Techniques Approximately 300 years ago, the Baganda tribe developed the ability to beat the bark of the ig tree into a ibrous semilexible cloth. It was worn by the royalty of Baganda until the 19th century. Animal skins and hides were used as well as natural grasses. All early work was done by hand. With increased trade and Western religious inluence, imported industrially produced cloth replaced skins and hides. Jewelry and Adornment Adornment varied widely by region. It included necklaces made from beads, earrings, nose and lip ornaments, and bracelets. Materials used were ivory, copper, iron, brass, grass, and seeds. As in most other aspects, Western-style jewelry has largely replaced traditional jewelry. Other nonjewelry decoration featured tattoos, piercing, scariication, body painting, decoration with ghee (clariied butter), and headdresses. Tribal initiation or medicinal rites may include the removal of selected teeth. Adornments were sometimes interspersed with charms and herbs, which served to protect the body as well as beautify it. Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Twentieth-century communication in the forms of Internet, television, and print media as well as increased international travel have introduced Ugandans to global fashion. Traditional dress of all ethnic groups is now rapidly being replaced by Western attire. Uganda offers a large market for secondhand clothing imported from Europe and the United States. It has become a proitable business and competes equally with new garments and textiles. Many Ugandans who cannot afford entirely Western dress combine kitenge and other parts of local dress with pieces of imported clothing to present their unique and individual fashion style.

Further Reading Allen, Tim. “Understanding Alice: Uganda’s Holy Spirit Movement in Context.” Africa 61 (3): 37–39, 1991. Bernt Hansen, Holger, and Michael Twaddle, eds. Developing Uganda. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1998.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Bernt Hansen, Holger, and Michael Twaddle, eds. Uganda Now: Between Decay and Development. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1988. Bukenya, Jude. “‘Kansu,’ a Traditional Costume.” Ultimate Media, 3 April, 2007. Carr, Rosamond Halsey, and Ann Howard Halsey. Land of a Thousand Hills: My Life in Rwanda. New York: Plume, 2000. Des Forges, Alison. Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, 1999. Geary, Christraud M. In and Out of Focus: Images from Central Africa, 1885– 1960. Washington, DC: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; London: Philip Wilson Publishers, 2002. Jennings, Christian. Across the Red River: Rwanda, Burundi, and the Heart of Darkness. London: Phoenix, 2001. Nakazibwe, Venny, and Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza. “Uganda.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Otiso, Kefa M. Culture and Customs of Uganda. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Trowell, Margaret, and Klaus Wachsmann. Tribal Crafts of Uganda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953. Ugandans at Heart. “Gomesi” as a National Dress of Uganda? http://ugandansat heart.org/2009/01/08/gomesi-as-a-national-dress-of-uganda/. Wagner, Michele D. “Rwanda and Uganda.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9. Oxford: Berg, 2010.

Slovenia Pamela Smith

Historical and Geographical Background Situated at the center of Europe, Slovenia is a country of 7,827 square miles (20,273 square kilometers), sharing borders with Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Croatia. Its diverse terrain includes a coast on the Adriatic Sea and inland a landscape of mountains, valleys, and forest, with climate types ranging from sub-Mediterranean on the coast, continental with hot summers and cold winters inland, and Alpine in the uplands. It is a popular tourist destination, particularly for its mountain scenery and beautiful lakes, such as Lake Bled and Lake Bohinj, and winter sports. Slovenia has had a complicated political history, being subject in turn over the last 250 years alone to many different power structures—among them the Holy Roman Empire, the Habsburg monarchy, the Austro-Hungarian dual monarchy, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Slovenia became an independent republic in 1991, after the breakup of communist Yugoslavia. Its current population is nearly 2,000,000. It was only after the First World War in 1918, as part of the new state of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, that the Slovene people achieved a degree of autonomy. Previously the territory of Slovenia had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This explains why the development of Slovenian dress styles relates more to those of Western and Central Europe, rather than Slavic Eastern Europe, even though the Slovenes and their language have Slavic origins. For example, close-itting bodices and caps were, historically, important components of women’s dress in Slovenia, as they were in countries such as Germany, Austria, and Hungary. Historically the peasantry was almost exclusively ethnically Slovene, while the upper-class families often originated from other parts of the ruling AustroHungarian Empire. A common factor across all classes was adherence to the Roman Catholic Church. The custom of married women modestly covering the head was a religious and social norm.

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People and Dress For much of its history the development of dress in Slovenia was clearly deined along two distinct paths. Urban dress rapidly absorbed inluences from beyond Slovenian borders, facilitated by the social and trade links that spread throughout the various larger political structures of the region. The dress style of the nobility and bourgeoisie was not prone to provincial or regional particularities, being shaped by the current European fashions. In contrast, the peasants’ way of life in the countryside, including their dress, remained relatively static until the mid- to late-19th century, though regional differences were evident. Slovenian ethnic dress of the 18th and 19th centuries has been deined by ethnographers as falling within three basic regional types: the Alpine, the Primorska, and the Pannonian. The differences between them arose from inluences coming from the ethnic dress of neighboring countries.

Alpine Dress This style of dress was common over most of northern and western Slovenia, apart from some areas along the Adriatic coast. In design, it closely resembled peasant ethnic dress found throughout Central Europe. The men’s dress consisted of relatively tight-itting, three-quarter-length trousers of woolen cloth, dyed linen, or leather, fastened below the knee. For festive wear these were decoratively quilted. Linen shirts with an open front were often collarless. Over these, vests of woolen cloth or velvet were worn, often featuring a row of large metal buttons. The vest was an indispensable item of both festive and work attire. Headwear included wide-brimmed felt or straw hats and fur or dormouse-skin caps in winter. The common types of footwear were leather shoes or knee-high boots with the tops folded over, worn with or without stockings. Wooden clogs were worn at work. For festive occasions colorful silk, cotton, or woolen scarves were tied around the neck, and in some places wealthy peasants wore a wide red belt. Winter outerwear for peasants consisted of jackets, rather than long coats. Prosperous farmers might wear fur coats decorated with wool embroidery or leather appliqué. Women’s dress of the Alpine type was of several varieties, noticeable in the cut of the shirts, the length and folds of the skirts, and the forms of headwear. The most common basic garment was a short, white linen collarless shirt with long sleeves, over which was worn a sleeveless bodice, fastened or tied across the breasts to support them, and sewn to the ankle-length skirt. The bodice was usually of a different fabric from that of the skirt; brocade bodices with decorative velvet ribbons were

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particularly prized. Long, wide, gathered aprons were part of both festive and work wear. In the early 19th century these were white, later more often black, blue, or multicolored. Women wore leather shoes or short boots, and clogs for everyday and work use. Their warm outerwear was a short-waisted or longer jacket, rarely a fur or cloth coat.

Primorska (or Mediterranean) Dress This type was commonly worn in the coastal region of Istria and neighboring Brkini, and some villages around Trieste. Men’s dress was close to the Alpine type, but the Postcard illustration by Maksim Gaspari three-quarter-length trousers were (1883–1980) depicting the style of dress wider. Peasants’ winter trousers were from Gorenjska, adopted as the “national long and tight-itting, made of white costume.” Lake Bled can be seen in the cloth with a decoration of applied blue background. (Courtesy Pamela Smith) cords, while vests and short and long jackets were of coarse brown cloth with applied edgings in different colors. Townsmen wore long-sleeved jackets of ine woolen cloth. Their vests of factory-made fabrics had double rows of buttons. Men of all classes wore low shoes fastened with laces or a clasp. In Istria and Brkini both men and women also wore opanke (soft-soled leather sandals with ankle straps)—a type of footwear found in many of the warmer parts of Eastern Europe. Women wore long loose garments in layers, unlike the very itted bodices and skirts of the Alpine style. The irst layer was a straight linen undergarment with long, wide sleeves decorated with colorful ribbons or inset lace. Over this they put on two long sleeveless garments, open down the front; the irst of white linen or cotton and the top one of white, brown, or black cloth. The festive versions were embellished with parallel folds running down from the breast and from halfway down the back. With these dresses women wore a wide apron (dark-colored for married women or light for girls), and the outer dress was tied with a woolen belt. The most common type of headwear was a white embroidered headscarf, together with a similar shoulder scarf.

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Pannonian Dress This was worn in the eastern part of Slovenia, with both men’s and women’s dress differing considerably from the Alpine and Primorska types. Until the 1870s the principal material used for garments of both sexes was undyed linen, leading to this type often being referred to as the “white dress.” In fabric and cut it was closest to the dress of neighboring Hungary and the northern part of Croatia, but also had similarities to that of Czechs, Slovaks, and southern Poles. Men’s dress comprised a shirt and long trousers, both of linen. In winter trousers were tight-itting, made of white woolen cloth decorated with colored cords. A waistcoat of white, dark red, green, or blue cloth and a wide leather belt were common elements. Winter outerwear included various types of white cloth jackets. In parts of northeastern Slovenia cloth coats inspired by Hungarian and Croatian fashions were worn, as well as black or white fur coats. Headwear included black hats or red cloth caps without a brim. Women’s dress consisted of a shirt and a skirt of white linen. Variations occurred in Štajerska (Slovenian Styria), where peasant women also wore colored linen or woolen skirts. Outits were completed by a white linen apron and a brightly colored or black woven belt.

Headwear The most distinctive element of Slovenian ethnic dress was women’s headwear. From the 15th century onward the most common type for married women of all classes and regions was the white headscarf, the peča, arranged in various ways. In the 17th and 18th centuries it was usual to wear a close-itting bonnet underneath. Scarves were folded on the head or tied to it, covering the hair and neck. For festive occasions the fabric chosen was either brightly colored or as white as possible. The undyed linen cloth originally used for everyday wear was whitened to some extent by sun, dew, and frequent washing, but this was gradually replaced by cotton, especially for those wealthy enough to afford the ine, soft, and very white fabric imported from the west. While the wearing of headscarves linked Slovenian dress with that of other Slavic nations, the Slovenian white scarf evolved along its own path, with form and decoration becoming increasingly elaborate. Scarves were often embroidered or trimmed with lace, in black or gold for the wealthy and white for peasants—decorative features attributed to rococo fashion trends coming from western Europe. From the 1870s onward industrially manufactured headscarves of white muslin or tulle became common in central Slovenia, worn on festive occasions. These large cloths were tied in a knot on the top of the head, with the tail ends decorated with gathered starched lace and ixed upright by means of pins, wire, or stitching.

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The style was known as the “cock’s comb.” This way of tying a scarf is today often erroneously said to be the most Slovene, but it was not worn all over the country. Because of its conspicuous appearance it became an element of the ensemble considered as the national costume. Another form of headwear that has survived into the 21st century for folklore events and performances is the richly decorated high bonnet (avba) of the type originally worn in the 16th century by prosperous women, particularly in the Gorenjska area around Lake Bled. It consists of a voluminous crown of gathered white fabric with an attached wide band covered in goldthread embroidery framing the face. A large ribbon covers the nape of the neck, its ends falling down the back. Unmarried girls wore the zavijačka, a white, triangular scarf with a similar embroidered band. The gold decoration on both represented the wealth and status of the wearer.

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Woman at the Kamnik Folk Festival wearing a modern creation of the avba headdress, from the Gorenjska region, 2009. Long woven ribbons are attached to the back. (Courtesy Pamela Smith)

Jewelry The use of jewelry was rare among the majority peasant population until the mid19th century, when it became more affordable due to new techniques and cheaper materials. Peasants were able to buy imported mass-produced jewelry and the products of domestic metal craftsmen from traveling peddlers and at fairs. The most popular items were earrings, pendants, clasps, decorative buttons, and metal belts. Peasants regarded wearing jewelry as appropriate only on feast days and special occasions, whereas the nobility and the bourgeoisie used expensive items daily to indicate their status. The clasp is the item of jewelry most associated with the style of dress that evolved as the Slovenian national costume. Wire clasps decorated with glass beads were used to fasten shirts and scarves across the breast all over Slovenia until the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress mid-19th century, when they survived only in Bela Krajina in the southeast. Gilded or silvered clasps, made of thin sheet metal, silver with a stone, or silver coins, were also worn in the 19th century. Gilded metal belts (sklepanec) were worn by the upper classes in the Middle Ages and were later adopted in simpliied forms, and cheaper materials such as brass, in the dress of peasant women. The original practical purpose of such belts was to carry attached keys, useful tools, and so on, but they subsequently became a purely decorative item and an element of the national costume.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress During the last decades of the 19th century, many peoples of Central and Eastern Europe, who were subjects of the great empires of the day, began to assert their individual national identities. Educated Slovenes expressed this by promoting the use of the Slovenian language in public life and literature over the dominant German. A form of dress was established as a representative national costume, symbolizing the new ideas and aspirations. It was modeled on early-19th-century peasant dress, because the rural population was of Slovene ethnicity, unlike the nobility and bourgeoisie. The chosen style imitated only the most luxurious Gorenjska variety of the Alpine type, developing over time with increasing stylization, richer materials, and accessories into a more or less static form, such as had never existed in peasant life. This costume was worn at events such as national awakening meetings, celebrations to welcome visiting dignitaries, and religious processions. Between the two World Wars, the Gorenjska dress was joined by others, such as Bela Krajina, Primorska, and Carinthian dress. All in stylized forms of the original 19thParticipants in the Kamnik Folk Festival, century ethnic dress, these assumed 2009. They wear dress of the Alpine type. equal status as national costumes. Note the woman’s metal belt (sklepanec) In the 21st century the clothes and man’s three-quarter-length trousers. (Courtesy Pamela Smith) worn in Slovenia are generally indis-

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tinguishable from the Westernized style seen anywhere in the developed world. It is only on occasions such as folk festivals, events aimed at tourists, and regional or national celebrations that traditional ethnic dress may be worn to express a particular Slovenian identity. Every year in September a festival of folk culture takes place in the small town of Kamnik, not far from the capital city, Ljubljana. Established in the 1970s, the highlight of the event is a parade of people from all over Slovenia wearing the traditional dress from their particular locality. Both rural and urban styles are represented. Many of the participants belong to groups who meet regularly to preserve and celebrate their traditional culture, often through folk music and dance, and wearing the appropriate form of dress is an important part of any performance. At events such as the Kamnik festival there are opportunities for the enthusiast to buy either original or recreated items of folk dress, such as elaborate pleated headdresses, intricately woven shawls, or leather boots with decorative stitching.

Further Reading and Resources Bartlett, Djurdja, ed., and Pamela Smith, asst. ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 9: East Europe, Russia, and the Caucasus. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Slovenia—Board of Tourism. “Days of National Costumes.” http://www.slovenia .info/en/prireditve-festivali/Days-of-national-costumes.htm?prireditve_ festivali=66337&lng=2. 2012. Žagar, Janja. Pokrivala. Headwear. Ljubljana: Slovenski Ethnografski Muzej, 2004.

Somalia Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi

Historical and Geographical Background Somalia is located right on the Somali peninsula in the northeastern Africa that gave rise to the name Horn of Africa. On its northern side are the Gulf of Aden and the Republic of Djibouti, on its eastern side is the Indian Ocean, on its west is Ethiopia, and on its south is Kenya. The Somali people, after whom the country is named, have lived for millennia in this part of the world. Islam arrived early among the Somali; thus, Somalis have been part of the Muslim world for over a thousand years. Climatically, the land is mostly semiarid to arid, although it cannot be described as a desert, except in some areas near the shore. In the north, the main land feature is the Golis range of mountains, which runs east and west, and is close to the coast in the east. There are two main rivers, the Shabelle River and the Juba River, which rise in Ethiopia. The Juba reaches the Indian Ocean near the town of Kismayo in the south, while the Shabelle ends in a marsh near the town of Baraawe in the south. Temperatures are moderate to high depending on elevation; for example, the climate in the Golis range is temperate, while it is hot in coastal areas. For millennia, Somalis have been pastoralists for the most part, because of the dry climate; but they have also been farmers in areas where agriculture is possible. Many people are also seafarers and traders, traveling to places such as Arabia, India, and the Indonesian islands. Along the coasts and in some inland places, after the arrival of Islam, they developed sultanates and city-states. As a result, in the Middle Ages, they had numerous wars with the Christian Abyssinians to their west. In recent times, the land of the Somalis was divided into ive regions. Great Britain took the northern areas; France took the northernmost part that would become the Republic of Djibouti; Italy took the southern region; Great Britain again took the southernmost part that would become today’s northern Kenya; Abyssinia, renamed Ethiopia, took the western region. This division of Somali territory is symbolized in the ive-pointed star of Somalia. After independence, the Italian territory and the British territory of the 656

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north united in 1960 and formed the Somali Republic, known popularly as Somalia. After nine years of civilian regime, in 1969, the army led by General Mohamed Siad Barre seized power; thus began the Barre dictatorship whose errors of justice and governance led to popular revolts, and ultimately to its collapse in 1991. However, instead of a return to civilian rule and democracy, Somalia entered a continuing period of turmoil, characterized by a prolonged civil war, warlords, religious fundamentalists, and piracy on the high seas. Only in the ex-British Somaliland to the north has a semblance of order and governance been restored. However, that part has declared secession on the basis of its different colonial history as well as injustices suffered under the union, in particular during the regime of Siad Barre. Today, it calls itself Somaliland, but it has yet to be recognized as a separate country. Because of past history, Somali culture, including dress, shows strains from the different cultures that Somalis had come into contact with over millennia. In 2012, the population of Somalia was estimated at 10,085,640.

Materials and Techniques Somali clothing in the past was locally produced; the fabric was made from woven, mostly cotton textiles using traditional looms. In the 14th century Mogadishu was

Somali man makes traditional cloth called allendi in Mogadishu, Somalia, 2010. (AP Photo/ Mohamed Sheikh Nor)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress a textile-producing center and exported its products to places such as Egypt. However, the textile industry started declining after the introduction of cheap American cotton textiles in the 19th century. Still, traditional Somali weaving has persisted to this day, in particular in southern areas such as Mogadishu, where artisans produce woven fabric used mostly in the production of traditional clothes. After the weaving process, the fabric is dyed in bright colors and is sold to merchants and consumers. This type of fabric is known as allendi. It must be said that most fabrics and dresses are imported and ready made, making the styles of dress more homogenous.

People and Dress Somali traditional dress is not worn often these days, and for some younger people, the traditional dress styles are completely unknown. Traditional dress is often worn only for ceremonial purposes or as an expression of authentic Somali culture. The decline of Somali traditional dress is largely due to two factors: adoption of European-style dress and adoption of Arab-style dress. In particular, since the 1990s, Arab-style dress, assumed by some to be synonymous with Muslim dress, has become widespread for both men and women. However, these garments actually originate from Arab Bedouin tradition and not Arab urban civilization, which for a long time has known the shirt and trousers, as well as the Arab embroidered jacket.

Men’s Traditional Dress Traditionally, men’s dress consisted of three pieces. The irst piece is the loincloth (go in Somali). This is a blanket that is either wrapped around the waist or sometimes worn in the manner of the Roman toga. When it is worn in the latter manner, it is a large blanket wrapped around the body and tied at the shoulder, leaving the arms bare. Sometimes instead of tying the ends of the cloth at the shoulder, the extremities of the blanket are left to hang from the shoulders facing the back. This loincloth is accompanied by a shirt or more recently by a Europeanstyle shirt. The third piece is another blanket that is draped around the upper torso in a loose manner when it is cold and carried on the shoulder when it is hot. This second blanket (also called go) is particularly useful when sleeping out in the open as it covers the top of the body and keeps away the biting insects. That is why even today, men in the countryside still carry a blanket on the shoulders even when they are dressed in trousers and a shirt. Another type of traditional dress for men is a wraparound, loose-itting sarong called the ma’awis. The ma’awis, wrapped around the waist, is often similar to the brightly colored cloth used in some Asian countries. Somalis adopted it a long time ago, because of their trading relationships with places like Indonesia, Malaysia, and

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southern India. Nowadays, in the urban areas the ma’awis has totally replaced the go, which is associated with the countryside. The ma’awis, still mostly imported from Indonesia, comes in various styles and fabrics. Better styles and fabrics are more expensive than the ordinary ones, and wearing these higher quality garments symbolizes a man’s social standing and wealth. With the ma’awis, one wears a shirt, sometimes accompanied by a blanket thrown over the shoulders. Traditional style headwear is either a turban (umaamad) or a skullcap (kooiyad) that comes down to the ears. The skullcap, usually worn by older men, has geometric embroidery. The more complex the embroidery, the more expensive the cap is. For footwear, Somali traditional style means a pair of Somali sandals, called jaangari. These are sturdy sandals made from leather; the front tip is curved and tipped slightly upward. Today, the jaangari are rarely worn, but are sometimes worn for cultural demonstrations.

Women’s Traditional Dress Women’s clothing styles vary more than men’s do. The most elaborate garments are called gareys. This is also of a cotton fabric and is also formed from a simple blanket, several yards long, which is wrapped around the body in a way that allows both movement and grace. Finally, the ends are tied together at the shoulder. The arms and parts of the shoulder are left bare. Sometimes, a fold that falls to the back is fashioned out of the same blanket wrapped around the body. This fold is used as a hood when sand blows or when the weather turns cold. At other times, a shawl or a scarf (in Somali garbo-saar, literally “shoulder wear”) is worn with the gareys. Sometimes a yarn belt comes with the gareys. Such a belt with a bright-colored tassel hanging down is called a boqor and is worn by girls who have come of age. A modern version of the gareys is the guntiino (literally “knot”), which is also wrapped around the body in the manner of the Indian sari; the main difference between the gareys and Somali women wearing gareys greet each guntiino is the volume of the cloth. other, Mogadishu, Somalia, 1951. (Studio A guntiino is less voluminous than a Patellani/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress gareys. Today, it is rare to see a gareys worn by women except at ceremonies. Instead, in the south, sometimes a jacket of cotton cloth is worn by women with the guntiino, instead of a shawl. A second type of traditional dress for women is a long robe with short sleeves, usually made of patterned cotton. This is called a toob in Somali (from Arabic thawb). A shawl can be worn with the toob. Another traditional dress for women is a type of a short robe reaching just above the knees and a long skirt, accompanied by a shawl wrapped around the shoulders. Women wear a kerchief (called masar) over the hair and tied in the back. This headwear is made of brighter colors for young women and more somber grays for older women. Traditionally, nubile girls often went without a kerchief and wore their hair plaited (braided). Female children do not have to wear anything on the head, although this is changing now, due to current trends in religion. In the old days, after the hair of a young girl was shaved off, a portion was left on the top of the head in the manner of the tonsure of European monks. Among women, traditional dress is usually accompanied by traditional jewels and ornaments. These include necklaces of silver, gold, or amber, with earrings and bracelets from these same materials. A particular heavy necklace is called a muriyad. The muriyad consists of metallic beads, usually of gold or silver, on a string. Another necklace made of gold is the hersi. The hersi, always made of silver, is a necklace with a box as the pendant. Sometimes the box contains a piece of paper inscribed with some verses from the Koran to ward off the evil eye. Traditional footwear for women means the female version of the jaangari, described above, which is a lighter version also with some decorative patterns.

Children’s Traditional Dress In the past, children’s dress was just reduced versions of adult dress. However, younger children, without regard to gender, used to wear a tunic, much like a collarless shirt, that reached down to their ankles. This tunic for young children is still used in the countryside.

Men’s Modern Dress Among Somalis of today, men’s dress is either Western style or Arab Bedouin style. In Western style, this means trousers and a shirt. The shirt is usually not tucked into the trousers among ordinary folk. A tie and jacket/coat is also sometimes worn by government oficials, businessmen, or Somalis from the diaspora visiting their hometown.

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The Arab style, wearing long robes (called khamiis in Somali), is often accompanied by a skullcap or a turban, sometimes worn in the Afghan style. Although wearing the khamiis was a style of dress known among Somalis, its current popularity is a relection of the increasing religious fundamentalism in Somali society.

Women’s Modern Dress Sometime in the 1970s, a loose-itting tunic with bright colors, approximately pronounced as dirih, came into being and became the universal Somali woman’s dress, so much so that the young people may think that it is part of the traditional Somali garments. With the dirih comes a bright-colored shawl wrapped over the shoulders or sometimes over both shoulders and head. While the dirih is still popular, there is an increasing use of clothing deemed Islamic by some sections of Somali society, in particular those of the fundamentalist persuasion. This Arab-cum-Islamic women’s dress (called the jalabeeb) consists also of a large tunic, but in a gray color and of much tougher material than a dirih. It is accompanied by an equally gray coverall called a dalad (literally “umbrella”), which covers practically the whole body; however, shorter versions that reach only to the waist or knees also exist. Sometimes a third piece accompanies the previous two; this small sheet, called shareer or niqaab (the veil), is usually black in color. The shareer is placed just below the eyes on the face and then tied at the back of the head; there is a version that covers the head and face and has slits for the eyes. Sometimes, the jalabeeb contains the veil itself, and there is no need for a separate one. This type of dress has spread widely since the 1990s. Certainly, the veil was not totally unknown among Somalis, as it was used by some minority communities of non-Somali origin, in particular in the Mogadishu area; but this was more as a mark of ethnic heritage than as anything else, as these minority communities claim an Arab heritage instead of the African heritage of the Somalis. However, the generalization of the veil among Somali women, who barely a few decades ago wore the guntiino that left the arms uncovered, let alone the face, is certainly in line with the rise of religious fundamentalism among Somalis in the last two decades. Never before in Somali history were Somali women veiled, with the exception of the above-mentioned minority communities.

Children’s Modern Dress In line with the decline of Somali traditional dress, today dress for children means mostly of the universal European type, since children’s clothes are imported, and people buy what is available in the market. However, for young girls the jalabeeb (the coverall cloth) and the niqaab (the veil) have become commonplace.

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Special-Occasion Dress Religious Dress In the old days, the clothes worn by men of religion consisted of a ma’awis (loincloth), a shirt, and a turban—that is to say, traditional Somali clothes. Today, the long Arabian robe is the norm for a man of religion, accompanied by the skullcap or a turban. Elder Dress Traditional leaders, chiefs and elders, usually differ only by the presence of a piece of cloth rolled into a broad strip, hanging from the shoulders. This is known as the umaamad. This piece can also serve as a turban if needed. However, traditional leaders usually use the more expensive types of ma’awis (sarong) and carry a bakoorad (cane), usually with some ornate decoration, as a symbol of their position. Bridal Dress For weddings, Western bridal attire is usually worn by both the bride and groom. However, traditionally, a bride wore the same dress that was traditionally worn by girls who have come of age, augmented with necklaces and bracelets, while the groom wore the traditional men’s dress described above.

Further Reading Akou, Heather Marie. The Politics of Dress in Somali Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2011. Diriye Abdullahi, Mohamed. Culture and Customs of Somalia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Loughran, Katheryne, John Loughran, John Johnson, and Said S. Samatar, eds. Somalia in Word and Image. Washington: Foundation for Cross-Cultural Understanding, 1986.

South Paciic Islands Christina Cie

Historical Background The term “South Paciic” refers to an assorted collection of islands in that area with an independent yet shared history, reaching up to and around the equator. There is also some relationship with Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea. Countries considered in this area and in this entry include the following (populations in parentheses): New Caledonia (260,166), Fiji (890,057), Tonga (106,146), Niue (836), Samoa (194,320), the Cook Islands (10,777), the Federated States of Micronesia (106,487), French Polynesia (274,512), Easter Island (5,000), the Pitcairn Islands (48), Vanuatu (227,574), Wallis and Futuna (15,453), Tuvalu (10,619), Tokelau (1,368), the Solomon Islands (584,578), Nauru (9,378), and Kiribati (101,998). This represents a wide spread geographically as well as socially, historically, and politically, and space prevents the consideration of individual countries. However, the relatively small scattering of populations fall reasonably into three recognized, related, but distinct groupings due to centuries of migration, which makes a group entry for these island nations a feasible proposition. Speciic countries merit in-depth, specialist research. The islands were probably settled by migration occurring gradually from the mainland and islands of Southeast Asia progressively outward across the South Paciic, although there are differing theories on this. Migration likely progressed successively, away from the larger landmasses to the islands, reached by humans like a series of stepping-stones across the southern area of the Paciic. Fiji and New Caledonia, along with Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, lie in the area known as Melanesia. Peoples from this area generally fall into a particular ethnocultural group and may differ genetically from other peoples from the Micronesian and Polynesian areas of the South Paciic. Kiribati (often pronounced “Kiribas”) and Nauru are the northernmost island nations considered in this entry. They lie in an area commonly designated as Micronesia, which also includes the nation named the Federated States of Micronesia. Islands in this area came under European dominance quite early, beginning 663

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress with Spain reaching out from the Philippines in the 17th century. By the early 20th century, the area had largely been divided into colonies shared between the United States, Germany, and Britain, although Japan continued to have inluence. The area known as Polynesia covers a signiicant area of the Paciic, roughly triangular in shape from Hawaii in the north, down toward New Zealand in the south, and out toward Easter and Pitcairn Islands. The Pitcairns, however, have their own distinctive history of settlement, being largely populated by Tahitian and English descendants after the mutiny on HMS Bounty in the mid-18th century. This area also includes Tonga, Niue, Samoa, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna, Tokelau, and Tuvalu, as well as many other small islands, coral atolls, and territories. This area was largely colonized by France and Britain, and Hawaii remains part of the United States.

Geographic and Environmental Background Encircled by a “Ring of Fire” of vigorous, even violent volcanic activity and earthquakes, the Paciic Ocean is the largest of the world’s oceans. Landmasses include islands that are volcanic, most notably New Zealand, and even created by volcanic activity; others may be coral atolls. An atoll is essentially a coral reef, often ringing a lagoon. While most of the reef may be underwater, some areas may project above the water and are large enough to begin to sustain terrestrial or land-based life, including human life. Such low-lying lat lands are said to be at the earliest risk of global warming, due to rising sea levels. The climate is tropical or subtropical, typically ranging from hot and humid to warm and wet, allowing coral to grow as well as a wide range of bird, plant, and marine species. Most people have moved away from ishing and subsistence farming, with tourism being a signiicant factor in the economy of some nations. Some areas beneit from mineral deposits. Remittances from family members working overseas are often a signiicant contribution to many family incomes.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity While the indigenous population still makes up the majority of the population of these areas, there have been some signiicant migrations from outside the area, which have affected the culture and customs of a few of the island nations. In Melanesia, for example, Fiji experienced a signiicant inlux of mostly Hindu workers from India during the latter part of the 19th century. These were brought in by the British to work particularly on sugarcane plantations, moving labor from

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one part of their empire to another. Tension remains between the indigenous and Indian communities. The European colonial powers’ most signiicant legacy has been Christianity, which has displaced previous indigenous, often animistic religions. Various forms of Christianity are now practiced by very large sectors of the populations.

History of Dress One deining feature of many forms of Christianity is a notion of modesty coupled with a strong distaste for nudity. In a tropical or subtropical climate, however, cultivated land was given over to food crops as there was little need for fabric or clothing, in the European sense of the term, for protection or trade. Protestant missionaries from northern Europe, particularly Britain, brought clothing deined by that climate and culture as well as their religious concepts. This clothing was to cover the colloquially termed “half-naked savages,” yet in fact these missionaries, like other travelers before them, were encountering entirely different concepts of nudity, clothing, and morality, and the assumptions that they consequently made were not always correct. It is dificult to trace historical dress forms in this situation because the climatic conditions lead to rapid degradation and disintegration of ibers, and few garments are left to examine. Unfortunately, the moai or massive statues of Easter Island (or Rapa Nui) give us little clue as to what was worn. Pictorial records exist, both painted and photographic, from the mid-19th century, but for these to exist, the subjects in view must have had contact with European settlers with this technology. It is dificult to know, therefore, how much their dress style has been inluenced by this contact. Throughout the South Paciic, physical decoration not only relected personal worth, but also family or tribe status, conveying both the individual but also the collective value. Society is stratiied throughout the South Paciic to varying degrees, with movement between levels possible to varying degrees, and high or low status relected in more or less elaborate dress. Historical images of ordinary people on islands in Polynesia can be dificult to source, but generally, the lower half of the torso and genitals was covered to approximately the knee for both men and women. Both men and women may have worn the “grass skirts” of long dried grasses hanging like fringing from waistband to knee or lower, with men particularly supplementing these for ceremonial and formal dress with shorter grass fringing wrapping around and hanging down from above the bicep and also from above the calf and sometimes ankles. Necklaces were often worn to decorate the otherwise naked torso. Feet were bare, but hair was often a distinctive feature, maybe decorated with lowers, feathers, or headdresses made from these as well as shells

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Young women in Fiji wearing native dress and accessories, c. 1881. (Gerrard Ansdell Collection/Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand)

and woven grasses. Across the region, however, the differences that have evolved within this general framework are what deine the dress of a particular area. In Melanesia, New Caledonians may wear longer, fuller grass skirts so no underskirt is necessary. Necklaces with large single pendants of distinctive shell or tusk (pigs accompanied early Paciic Islanders on their migrations as an ongoing food source) decorated the upper half of the body. Hair was often combed to stand out from the head and to carry decoration. Solomon Island women may wear multiple strings of small shells or beads as long necklaces, with a corresponding headdress strapped across the forehead. High-ranking Fijians may have worn the wasekaseka, a collar-style necklace of carved whalebone reaching out to the shoulders and down to the chest. A grass skirt, bare top and lower legs, with adornment at the neck and simple decoration with lowers, feathers, or grasses in the hair to emphasize height and width may be assumed.

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A reclining Samoan woman of great beauty, c. 1900. (State Library of South Australia)

Micronesia as an area includes several small distinct nations, and styles of national dress show elements also seen in both Melanesia and Polynesia. Kiribati women may match woven headdresses with one or several woven grass necklaces draped across the shoulder, echoing the crosswise-slung beaded necklaces seen in the Solomon Islands, with necklaces draping to form a cross between the breasts. Styles from the Federated States of Micronesia may include multicolored fulllength grass skirts with an additional short full layer of fringing hanging to hip length. This is particularly seen in costumes for traditional dance performances, also seen in Tahiti and the Cook Islands in Polynesia, where visual emphasis on the hips enhances the style of dance. It must be noted, however, that costumes for dance may draw on traditional dress forms, but the emphasis is on performance rather than historical accuracy. In Polynesia, moving farther away from large landmasses, and in some cases farther south resulting in a relatively cooler climate, the grass skirt translates into a ine, close-woven mat, perhaps giving greater warmth. Tapa, a nonwoven material formed from bark beaten, is sometimes worn as a skirt. Grass may also be woven into a high, elaborate headdress as seen in French Polynesia (including Tahiti), although simpler headdresses made of fresh dark green grass or lax, instead of the dried blond form, may also be seen.

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Materials and Techniques Fine mats can take many months to weave from prepared grasses, and are often woven collectively. Due to the narrow width of the grass used, the mats are ine and pliable, and are not used on the loor. Instead they are worn at ceremonies, particularly by the chiely class, and given as gifts or exchanged as a form of currency. They are an integral part of status and ceremony, and many are treasured and very highly valued. Tongans will often wear a ine mat over their clothes, wrapped high on the waist or even over the chest, tied with a dark-colored narrow tie belt, when attending church. Tapa, also known as bark cloth, sits somewhere between paper and cloth. It is made from the inner bark of the paper mulberry or breadfruit tree, stripped and beaten intensively to latten and soften into strips, and later joined together. This is physically demanding, often communal work done by women, who may help the work pass by beating rhythmically rather than randomly. The sheets of tapa are often large, stretching several feet in length, and decorated in local styles by dyeing or smoking, and rubbing, painting, stenciling, or stamping with a pattern often drawn from local surroundings, lora and fauna, usually in a black or rust-brown color. There are strong regional differences in the style of tapa and its decoration. Like the ine mat, it is worn at ceremonies and given as a highly valued gift. Patterns used to decorate tapa are now also used to decorate fabric and clothing sold locally.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Many populations in this region have now adopted European-style clothing for everyday use. As seen in other areas, however, this has been adapted to suit the local climate and conditions, and may be mixed with elements from earlier styles of dress. European-style dress worn by women is often accessorized with a fresh tropical lower tucked behind the ear. While the missionary introduction of Christianity was responsible for signiicantly altering the indigenous styles of dress, the clothing that it introduced has now evolved and hybridized into distinct regional styles. As dress customs have moved on in Europe, these styles of dress are now often unique to a particular area. The “Mother Hubbard” dress, much like an old-fashioned nightgown, worn buttoned high to the neck and cuff, and draping loosely to cover the ankle, was introduced by Christian missionaries in an attempt to cover as much skin as possible. Now often featuring short sleeves, lower necklines, and sitting above the ankle, the various versions from different countries often feature brightly colored, locally derived patterns, particularly lowers such as hibiscus and frangipani.

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Similar fabrics can be seen in brightly colored men’s “Hawaiian” shirts. Local designers continue to adapt and evolve the styles. Another signiicance of the widescale adoption of Christianity in contemporary times has been that churchgoing provides a regular occasion for the wearing of a contemporary but traditionally informed style of dress, featuring ine mats, tapa, woven grass hats, and garments featuring patterns drawn from traditional iconography. As such, it could be argued that the church has been inadvertently responsible for preserving some of the traditions that its efforts almost eradicated.

Component Parts Throughout Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia in the South Paciic, there are shared elements in traditional dress, with variations in length, volume, color, and so on used to deine national and regional differences. Accompanying this will be some idiosyncratic elements unique to the individual, as physical decoration relects personal worth, as well as family or tribe status, conveying both the individual but also the collective unit. Generally, the lower half of the torso and genitals are covered with a fringed or woven grass skirt to approximately the knee or lower for both men and women. An underskirt will be worn as necessary. This may be supplemented, particularly for dance, by shorter grass fringing wrapping around and hanging down from above the bicep and also from above the calf and sometimes ankles. Necklaces feature large single pendants of distinctive shell or tusk to decorate the upper half of the body. Women traditionally went bare-breasted, but now cover themselves in various ways, from modern blouses to woven grass bras, and the practical and resourceful use of two halves of a coconut, stripped, polished, and strung into a bra, often worn by dancers from the Cook Islands. A woven grass fan may be carried for the heat, and woven hats or headdresses worn. Feet are still often bare, but glossy, abundant long hair and shiny skin is a distinguishing feature, with particularly Polynesians using coconut and fragrant oils. In many cultures, the cutting of hair continues to have ritual signiicance.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiications While body and face paint may be used particularly toward the eastern area of the Paciic in Melanesia and Micronesia, further travels to the west and south see an increase in tattooing for body adornment. In climates too warm and humid to make clothing necessary for comfort, it is common for the body itself to be decorated. This can be in a nonpermanent form, with items such as lowers or feathers worn in the hair, necklaces, and paints made to pattern the body, particularly for

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress ceremonial events. Adornment, particularly indicating status, may also occur in a more permanent form such as piercings or tattooing. The word tattoo in English is derived from a Polynesian word. The act of tattooing was highly ritualized, particularly due to the pain involved and the risk of infection. Both men and women might be tattooed from puberty onward, but the patterns and areas were often gender speciic. Above the knee up to and including the buttocks and lower waist were common areas for tattooing, as opposed to the current popularity of upper arms and shoulders. The face was rarely included, with New Zealand Māori being a distinctive exception. Ritualized tattooing appears to periodically rise in popularity, particularly as a way of expressing cultural identity for those living in Europeanbased societies away from the South Paciic.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Necklaces, with large single pendants of distinctive shell or tusk, often feature for men or women to decorate the upper half of the body. These are sometimes worn formally with European dress, resting outside the garment, perhaps over the tie when worn with a suit. Another common form of decoration worn at the neck is commonly known in English as the “lei.” Known by various terms in the different languages, this is a necklace of lowers, leaves, or shells, but in contemporary times may also include brightly wrapped candies and money. These are given to recipients on arrivals and departures from journeys, and also at celebrations such as birthdays and graduations. For everyday wear, many populations in the South Paciic wear European-style clothes, but there remain some vestiges of traditional clothing styles. Some societies, particularly Polynesian, have adapted the grass skirt into formal wear made from cloth, known by various regional names such as lava lava, pareo, or sulu. Worn by men with a jacket or dress shirt, this straight wrapped garment, hanging to just below the knee, may be seen on churchgoers as well as oficials such as government ministers and the police. Women often wear a version that reaches to the ankle. The principle use now for traditional dress is in performance. Tourism is a signiicant industry in the area, and there is a correspondingly high demand for cultural performances in local hotels and restaurants. Costumes for such performances may be derived from traditional costume, but this will be altered for stage effect. There are also local and regional festivals, such as the Paciic Arts Festival, where costumes as well as performances must satisfy an exacting local crowd. The migration of people overseas, often for economic or educational opportunities, has also led to the creation of cultural performance groups as a means of asserting cultural identity in a foreign land.

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Further Reading and Resources The British Museum. http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection _database.aspx. Colchester, Chloë, ed. Clothing the Paciic. Oxford: Berg, 2003. Kuchler, Susanne, and Graeme Were, ed. The Art of Clothing: A Paciic Experience. London: UCL Press, 2005. Museum of New Zealand. Te Papa Tongarewa. http://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/ search.aspx. National Library of Australia. http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/picture australia. National Library of New Zealand. http://www.natlib.govt.nz/collections/types-of -items/photographs.

Southern Africa: South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola John G. Hall

Historical Background The indigenous people of southern Africa, including the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Angola, are commonly referred to as “Bushmen.” In South Africa, for example, they are oficially referred to as the San. Traditionally they were hunter-gatherers but, beginning in the 1950s, they gravitated to farming. The San are one of the 14 extant ancestral populations from which modern-day humans supposedly evolved. The San are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa. However, through physical and linguistic characteristics, they are related to the Khoikhoi or Khoi, which, together, are part of the Khoisan ethnic group. Unlike the San, the Khoi were part of a pastoral culture. After the Bantu-speaking peoples, like the Zulu and Xhosa, migrated into the region, the Khoisan people remained predominantly west of the Fish River in South Africa. With intermarriage with the Bantu and the arrival of Boer farmers of Dutch descent, the Khoisan population began to diminish. During the colonial era, the Khoisan survived in South Africa, Namibia, and Botswana. A similar scenario occurred in Angola.

Geographical and Environmental Background Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably deined by geography and geopolitics. Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa are three of the ive countries that constitute southern Africa. The other two are Lesotho and Swaziland. Although Angola is not part of southern Africa proper, it is, however, one of those countries that is included in the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which was established in 1980 to facilitate cooperation in the region. The terrain of southern Africa is varied, ranging from forest and grasslands to deserts. The region has both low-lying coastal areas and mountains. Angola is about the size of Texas, bordered by the South Atlantic Ocean, Namibia, and the 672

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Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is semiarid in the south along the coast, while the north has a cool, dry season from May to October and a hot, rainy season from November to April. Its population is estimated at 18 million. Botswana, on the other hand, is lat and up to 70 percent covered by the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. It has a population of just over 2 million, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is also one of the poorest countries in Africa. Namibia is a landlocked country bordered by Angola, Botswana, South Africa, and Zambia. The Namib Desert is along the coastline and the Kalahari Desert to the east. The climate is hot and dry with sparse and erratic rainfall. Namibia’s population is estimated at 2.2 million. South Africa is located at the southernmost tip of Africa. It has over 1,700 miles of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The country is bordered to the north by Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe to the east, and Mozambique and Swaziland, while Lesotho is an enclave surrounded by South African territories. South Africa is twice the size of Texas, with a climate that is semiarid, subtropical along the coast, with sunny days and cool nights. The population is estimated at 48.8 million people, with 3.6 million people living in its largest city, Johannesburg.

People and Dress Khoisan San and Khoikhoi or Khoi were the earliest inhabitants of southern Africa, with the San (Bushmen) being the most prominent. They were hunter-gatherers, while their counterparts were cattle, sheep, and goat herders. While the Khoi lived in fairly stable, small communities, the San were constantly on the move in search of the hunt and the nearest water supply. The women gathered while the men hunted for game such as the eland. Judging from the detailed rock and cave engravings, as well as oral histories, San people had a sophisticated religious worldview. All forms of life

Hunter in Botswana prepares to go hunting. He has with him his bow and quiver full of poisoned arrows, late 20th century. (Peter Johnson/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress held meaning for them. They revered the animals they killed for food by offering their gratitude for the sacriice they made. Although Khoisan wore very few clothes, the women adorned themselves with beads made of ostrich shells. All adults scarred their bodies, not just for decoration, but to bring them luck during the hunt. Changes leading to the 21st century were dramatic. A group of Bantu-speaking Africans migrated into the southern region of Africa: Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. They arrived between the 7th and 15th centuries. These immigrants entered southern Africa several centuries before the irst Europeans. This might not have happened simultaneously but it did happen over time and the original inhabitants were displaced. Some were absorbed into the new culture and some retreated into distant, safer lands. The precolonial people of Angola built states and kingdoms. These states, at least in part, possessed a centralized political authority in which a ruler exercised power and legislated for the people, assisted by chiefs. Over time there were rivalries and some rulers created armies to either extend or maintain their power. The Ndongo Kingdom of Angola had several queens that ruled the province.

Ethnic and Religious Diversity The irst European explorers to arrive in Angola were the Portuguese. Following the explorers were the missionaries whose goal it was to convert the people to Roman Catholicism, which was widespread before the end of the 15th century. The slave trade was rampant in the beginning of the 16th century when an estimated 4 million people were exported from Angola between 1500 and 1850. Then colonialism began in earnest with other Europeans including the British, French, Dutch, and Belgians claiming parts of Africa for their own. Although this process took different routes in other countries, the outcome was nearly the same. At present, the majority of the countries in southern Africa are multiethnic and predominantly Christian, although some traditional religions exist. The countries are populated with a mix of white and black people with different histories, but all call themselves African. Botswana has a variety of ethnic groups with the largest being the Tswana or Setswana. Although the largest portion of the population speak Setswana, the oficial language is English. Namibians are 87 percent black, with a 6 percent white population. English is the oficial language even though Afrikaans is the most commonly spoken language. With a population of a little over 2 million, 80 to 90 percent are Christian. Ten percent still practice their traditional religion. South Africa, with a population of nearly 50 million, is the most populous country in southern Africa. Zulu, Xhosa, and Afrikaans are the dominant languages,

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with Zulu being the oficial one. Along with its myriad ethnic groups there are also a variety of Christian dominations, Protestant, Zionist Christian, and Methodist. Islam is also included.

History of Dress It appears that the people of southern Africa were remarkably self-suficient prior to the arrival of Europeans, especially when it comes to the creation and embellishment of national dress. Instead of needing imports from around the world, southern Africans used resources that existed in their natural environment. All clothes were made from plants, animal skins, and other indigenous ibers and held particular signiicance for the wearer. For African people, attire deines the individual. Dress reveals a person’s age, gender, status, and ethnic afiliation. From birth until death, dress distinguishes the roles of men and women.

South Africa Traditional dress in South Africa was originally made from plants, beaten bark, animal skins, and brayed hides, but the advent of woven and manufactured cotton and other fabrics revolutionized the use of materials and styles. The indigenous industry evolved over time and by the end of the 20th century, South African attire had gained the attention of Westerners. Early dress for many women in South Africa consisted of an apron, cloak, or shirt. The apron was often short and fringed with strings of beads or cords of rolled gazania leaves. This was particularly common among the southern Sotho. Initially, the skirt was made from animal skins but over time woven fabrics were used and the style of skirt varied. It consisted of a large wrapper wound around the waist, with a small apron hanging over the top. The cloak could also be fashioned into a full skirt as worn by the Zulu and Tsonga people. Women did not always cover their breasts and most women went topless until after they were married. This seeming lack of modesty was dificult for European missionaries, who made it their goal to teach women that it was wrong to have a bare chest. The Xhosa bore the brunt of missionary indignation because they were one of the irst groups of South Africans to have direct contact with Europeans. Perhaps as a partial concession, Xhosa women wore a breast covering tucked under the arm, tied at the back or around the neck with a beaded panel with fringes of beads attached and hanging loosely or tightly over the breast. Generally, men wore loincloths or a type of apron, which usually wrapped around the waist. On top of the loincloth or wrapper, Swazi men used two aprons,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress one in the front and the other in the back, both of which were tied at the right hip. To keep warm, men usually covered the top of their torsos with a skin cloak, which is called sinokoti when made from antelope or cattle hide, or siphuku when made from goat hide. On becoming adults, Zulu men wear a frontal apron. If they have the resources they will acquire the qubulo dress, which was worn at weddings and the annual festival of the irst fruits. Ceremonial dress and costumes varied according to age, gender, and sometimes by ethnic group. These types of dress are still sometimes used for ceremonial purposes. Young boys going through initiation wore costumes of palm leaves, grass, or other plants to conceal their identity. Bantwane and Pedi females shed their clothing before entering their initiation lodge. This was a symbolic gesture of leaving their childhood. Their elaborate grass garment, rings, wristbands, and other ornaments represent fertility and their roles as future wives and mothers. Sotho girls had their seminude bodies whitened with clay or powdered sandstones. They wore beaded masks, clay beads, and rings of plaited and bound grass waistbands. Ornaments and adornments are important and great attention is paid to the hair. Often, the hair is shaved except for a small patch in the front that grows into a thick mass. Hair can also be twisted into long pigtails. Greasing and dressing the hair in long strings, and winding ibers around the greased and plaited hair are also considered fashionable. Cosmetics are used by various groups. Among the Xhosa, Thembu, Sotho, Venda, and Zulu, butterfat is mixed with red ocher to form not only a protective balm, but as a body beautiication and for certain rituals. A mixture of sour milk and red ocher, fat and aloe leaf ash, soot, charcoal, antimony, and white and yellow ocher are some of the many cosmetics used for body and hair. Before the introduction of glass beads, a variety of other materials were used for adornment. Some of these include reeds, wood, and roots for necklaces and bangles. There were also a variety of metal objects like copper and iron. Almost anything that was available in the environment was turned into something useful. By the 19th century, traditional dress was inluenced by Western fashions and styles. But even with the changes there was something distinctively African about the clothes that were worn. Special-Occasion Dress A Zulu bridal procession consists of the richly beaded bride and more than 12 of her friends who escort her to the kraal of her future father-in-law. An Ndebele bridal procession is not so elaborate. The bride, with a decorously beaded blanket

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A Zulu mother puts the inishing touches on her daughter’s wedding costume, near Melmoth, South Africa, c. 1990–2000. (Roger De La Harpe; Gallo Images/Corbis)

and garments that she made, is escorted by her bridesmaid, usually a niece or the eldest daughter of her eldest sister. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, traditional dress made from indigenous ibers suficed, but the advent of woven and manufactured cotton and other fabrics brought about unforeseeable changes. The permanent settlements of Europeans and their fashions caused some Africans to step away from their traditional dress. Some, but not all Africans adopted European fashions and began to wear shirts and trousers for men, and skirts, blouses, and gowns for women.

Botswana In Botswana it was the close contact with Christian missionaries that helped break down that bearer between traditional African dress and the latest European fashions. Missionaries here also disapproved of the indigenous dress, and clothing and bodily adornments became two fronts along which early missionaries measured their success of trying to convert the Tswana people of Botswana. They reached an unsettling compromise. While some wealthy and important Tswana adopted Western clothing as a sign of status or evidence of their conversion to

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Namibia In most cities in Namibia, most people wear Western clothes. Women wear dresses, pants, and skirts. Men wear business suits. Both men and women wear uniforms based on their occupations. However, there are two ethnic groups, the Herero and Himba, who wear their traditional dress throughout their lives.

Young girl in the village of Himba in northern Namibia, 2009. (Thoron/Dreamstime.com)

Himba Dress The Himba have intricate decorative styles, adorn themselves in jewelry and red ocher, and have very elaborate hairstyles along with traditional dress. Himba children do not wear clothes when they are very young and are simply adorned with a beaded necklace. As they age, children are dressed in the traditional apron made of leather or goatskins treated with a mixture of butter, ash, and ocher, smeared all over. Young girls have their hair braided at the front of their heads and boys have one braid at the back of their heads. The beads they wear are much like their parents’ and are often made out of distressed copper or shells.

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When Himba children reach puberty, the girls begin wearing smaller plaits covered with otjize, while males are given two plaits at the back of their heads. A married man wraps his head in a turban. This is removed only in mourning for his wife. Typically, both men and women wear adornments. Men’s ornaments are made from large white shells. Women wear large beads carved from the nut of the makalani palm. Herero Dress Herero women in Namibia wear the same voluminous dresses and petticoats, but also add the required shawl, which dates back to a time before the missionaries. The shawl is also a component of many other ethnic groups in Namibia, including the Nama, Damara, and Baster. Herero women also sometimes wear an apron, which predates the missionaries.

Angola Like Namibia and the other countries in Southern Africa, the culture of Angola is enriched by its traditional dress even though it is distinguished by different styles, designs, and a variety of fabrics and other materials. Dress in Angola is symbolic of an individual’s preferences and character, and the way a person dresses for formal or ceremonial occasions deines his or her social status, level of education, religion, ethnic group, and marital status. Even with the predominance of Western clothing in Angola, traditional dress continues to retain its cultural and symbolic importance even when some form of Western inluence is involved. For example, it is not uncommon that traditional Angolan clothes are made from handwoven cotton fabrics, although animal skin wear is worn by some ethnic groups. Traditional dress takes on heightened importance during cultural festivals and ceremonies such as initiation rites. During the initiation ritual for boys between ages 8 and 12, the makishi, masqueraders, wear a variety of complex attire for the mukanda, rites of passage. Among some ethnic groups the body costume, from shoulders down, is made of vegetable iber or beaten bark. The mask is made of designed wood or resin. Although the aim of mukanda is to transform boys to manhood, it is also of singular importance because it is a means of passing heritage and cultural values from one generation to the next. Parents pay fees for their sons to participate. People who have moved away return in an effort to keep the tradition alive. Mukanda begins with circumcision and continues for three months. The ritual serves as a rite of passage. Its unifying theme is death and rebirth. An individual

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress enters mukanda as a child, and following its conclusion the participant reenters the world as an adult. Although Angolans have a rich dress culture, it has become signiicantly modernized. After centuries of colonialism, Western and European styles have a long history in Angola. Christian missionaries and Portuguese colonial policy strongly discouraged indigenous African culture, regarding it as “uncivilized.” This meant that to be educated and “civilized” Angolans were encouraged, in some cases forced, to abandon their traditional African dress and adopt European styles. However, regardless of their manner of dress, Angolans tend to take great pride in their appearance. Many people are not able to dress in expensive clothing, but neatness is emphasized. Jewelry, body modiication, and other forms of adornment are important in traditional dress. The practice can be traced back to the original inhabitants of southern Africa. In Angola, elaborate body adornment and scariication have always been part of the culture. Men wear tattoos that are sometimes representative of status and prestige and other times for a particular festival or to participate in a sacred ritual. Women and young girls usually adorn themselves as a sign of beauty. They can wear elaborate hairstyles that might include weaving or braiding extensions that hang to the shoulder. Necklaces, bracelets, anklets, and beads are other forms of adornment. Ovahimba women, who lived in southern Angola and northern Namibia, used red ocher and fat as a protection against the heat. The makishi adorn themselves with a variety of materials. It is usually woven vegetable iber or beaten bark made into aprons and loincloths. Among the Zulu and Swazi, married men wear a head ring made from a circle of plant ibers or roots. Then honeycomb black wax is applied and left to dry before the ring is greased and polished with pebbles and leaves. The ring is worn indeinitely, only to be removed when the man is mourning the death of his wife.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Many people in southern Africa have adapted to more Western styles of clothing, whether they be jeans and T-shirts, or earlier versions of Western-style dress introduced by Europeans who lived in Africa. Original indigenous dress can still be seen on tribespeople in different parts of the continent, with some women continuing to bare their chests, despite the best efforts of Christian missionaries. Modern African dress using woven cloth is still distinctly African, although it was inluenced by Western technology in that the clothing is not made from bark or animal hides. African block-patterned fabrics, wrapped around the body in artful ways, are often seen on women in the region even today. While these may be worn with T-shirts, the wrappers are still distinctly African. In full dress, the wrapped

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head and torso make an extraordinary impact of bright cheerfulness. Ceremonial dress is most often more formal and traditional, but some women are starting to adopt Western-style white wedding gowns, rather than wearing traditional dress from their region.

Further Reading and Resources Afolayan, Funso. Culture and Customs of South Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Biko, Steve. I Write What I Like: Selected Writings. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002. Denbrow, James, and Phenyo C. Thebe. Culture and Customs of Botswana. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Ejikeme, Anene. Culture and Customs of Namibia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO, 2011. Mandela, Nelson. Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela. New York: Back Bay Books, 1995. Oyebade, Adebayo O. Culture and Customs of Angola. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000. Traditional African Clothes. http://www.rebirth.co.za/traditional_african_clothing .htm. Accessed January 27, 2012.

Spain Lucy Collins

Historical and Geographical Background Spain is located on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe. The country is bordered by Portugal on the west and France to the north. Spain is a particularly mountainous country with the Pyrenees mountain range serving as the border between Spain and France. Historically, Spain was populated by the Basques, Celts, and Iberians. For many years, the country was controlled by the Moors from North Africa. After the Moorish reign ended, as Columbus discovered America, Spain become a world power and exerted a major inluence over Europe and the developing world. This period during the reign of Isabella and Ferdinand is known as the golden age of Spain. Then various wars including the Napoleonic invasion and the Spanish Civil War shook Spain’s position as a world power and left the country in a slightly diminished position globally. However, Spain is still regarded as a major player in European and world politics. Madrid is the capital of Spain. Spain is a fairly afluent country with high living standards. Roman Catholicism dominates the country. The Spanish tourism industry is the second largest in the world, with most tourists visiting the lovely beaches and coast. The population of Spain in 2012 was approximately 47,043,000. Although Spain is a rich and diverse country, it’s the southernmost region of Andalusia that deines the image many have of Spanish culture. Andalusia is separated from the rest of the country by the Sierra Morena mountains and has nurtured a distinct culture inluenced heavily by the Moors and Gypsies (gitanos). In the south, the Strait of Gibraltar, a sea channel connecting the Atlantic Ocean on the west with the Mediterranean Sea on the east, separates Andalusia and Spain from Morocco. At the strait’s narrowest area, Spain and Morocco are separated by only eight miles. Music, dance, and costume are an important part of Andalusian culture, so it became an important spot for European visitors and tourists to see while visiting Spain. As this area became more and more popular

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it began to exemplify how others around the world envisioned Spanish culture. The Andalusian inluence is especially demonstrated through dress.

People and Dress Spanish clothing is very rich and distinctive. The inluence of Spanish styles of dressing can be found throughout fashion history and across the globe. In fact, during the 16th century Spain was the center of fashionable dress. The Moorish inluence in Spain accounted for the detailed embellishments on Spanish clothing including gold and silver embroidery and the pearls and jewels accentuating the fabric. The austere elegance, stiff fabrics, and ornate decoration of Spain inluenced fashion across Europe and beyond. Although much of what is perceived as classic Spanish dress is actually limited to the Andalusian region in the south where clothing is much more colorful and dramatic, several particular items stand out as traditionally Spanish. Because of Spain’s rich Roman Catholic heritage, feminine modesty has been an important value, so it makes sense that the mantilla, a lace headscarf, is one item considered to be uniquely Spanish. A mantilla is a lace or silk veil worn over the head and shoulders.

Women wearing mantillas take part in procession during Holy Week in Cordoba, Spain, 2012. (Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress This head covering made it possible for women to enter Roman Catholic churches abiding by the dictate that women cover their heads. The mantilla is long and can be either circular or triangular. A mantilla is still worn by traditional Spanish women during rituals and celebrations as well as by brides during their weddings. The mantilla is held in place by a tortoiseshell comb called a peineta. The peineta is intended to enhance the height of the wearer and is worn directly on the top of the head. Spanish women brought the farthingale, or hoop skirt, into popularity during the 16th century. Women also wore a high fan-shaped collar called a wisk. Two particular Spanish cultural activities have inluenced Spanish dress extensively—lamenco dance and bullighting. These two performance-based art forms are arguably responsible for the lair and lamboyant nature of many Spanish garments. The costumes associated with each are, for many, equated most directly with Spanish styles of dressing. Both lamenco and bullighting are unique Spanish symbols that speak to the sense of drama and adventure that deine the Spanish people.

Flamenco Flamenco describes a certain genre of music and dance originating in Andalusia. Flamenco is very energetic and lively and is said to have evolved from Gypsy music. Guitars are most commonly used in lamenco. The costume of the lamenco dancer is almost synonymous with Spanish clothing. The traje de lamenca or lamenco outit is a long dramatic dress with rufles on the skirt and the sleeves. The dress is typically very brightly colored and can be solid or patterned, black, red, or white, usually with polka dots. Female lamenco dancers traditionally wear their hair in a bun with a lower or rose pinned beside the bun. The lamenco dress evolved from the dresses worn by the Spanish Gypsies and the female vendors who worked with livestock. The Seville Fair of 1929 marked the occasion when the dress became the oficial costume of lamenco dance. The skirt length of the dress has varied over the decades, but most traditionally the skirt of the traje de lunares has remained long or to the ankle. The dancers also wear high heels. A large shawl called a manton is also worn. The manton is embroidered with loral designs. Spanish men’s clothing is reminiscent of lamenco styles as men still dress in high-waisted pants of black or blue with white rufled shirts. They also may wear red bandanas or hats on the head and maybe a red sash or belt. Flamenco dresses have inspired fashion designers throughout the years, most notably Yves Saint Laurent, John Galliano, and Valentino. Flamenco dresses are themselves a fashionable item as Seville hosts the Salon Internacional de la Moda Flamenca, a show to celebrate new designs in lamenco, every year.

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Bullighting The custom of bullighting in Spain has a very rich history, although it is beginning to lose its luster in present times due to concerns about animal cruelty as well as the always-present danger to the bullighters and to their ring companions. The spectacle of the bullight began in medieval Spain during the Spanish War of the Reconquest. The allure of the Iberian bull, whose intelligence and ingenuity made him a worthy opponent, initially led to the practice. The irst bullight, or corrida, took place at the coronation of King Alfonso VIII. Bullighting was historically an activity limited to the nobility and associated with great status, but as commoners began excelling at the sport, bullighting became a more democratic activity. However, the ornate costumes of the bullighter have always evoked the Spanish aristocracy. For many Spaniards, bullighting is not a sport, but rather a spectacular art form similar to ballet. The matador, or primary bullighter, encounters the bull on foot in the ring. The third and inal stage of the bullight is the most visually dramatic and involves the most symbolic aesthetic elements of the spectacle. During this portion of the bullight, the matador faces the bull head-on with his muleta, or small red cape, and a sword. The signiicance of the bullighter’s red muleta has been misinterpreted through history. It’s often thought that the color provokes the bull’s anger, but in fact the cape is red to camoulage any of the bull’s blood that may damage the cape. The matadors’ or toreros’ traje de luces, translated as “suit of lights,” is one of the most notable aspects of bullighting. The red and gold of the suit is to symbolize the blood and sand of bullighting. The costume is highly detailed and the torero even dresses in a speciic ritual to ensure his good fortune in the ring. A matador’s suit is composed of many sequins and metallic gold and silver thread, which glint and glimmer in the bullring. It’s this sparkling effect that is responsible for the name “suit of lights.” The bullighter wears a hat called a monetera. The slim black tie, typically tied in a bow, is called a corbatin. The primary components of the bullighter’s suit are the jacket and the pants. The highly decorated and embroidered silk jacket, called a chaquetilla, is short and stiff, reinforced at the shoulder, and only fastened at the upper arm. He wears a white shirt underneath the chaquetilla. The matador wears close-itting tights called taleguilla that are worn with decorated gaiters and tasseled cords to secure them. The taleguilla stop just below the knee. Two pairs of medias, or long socks, are worn. The pair worn on the inside is white and the outside pair is the lamboyant pink often associated with matadors. On their feet matadors wear shoes similar to ballet shoes. The zapatillas or soft lat slippers are fastened with a bow. Historically, bullighters wore

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress their hair in a bun that was then cut off when they left bullighting. In contemporary bullighting, however, matadors don’t always have long hair, so they use detachable hairpieces. Additionally, the bullighter wears a highly decorated cape upon his entry into the ring. The cape, or paseo, is for ceremonial purposes and is taken off before the bullight actually begins. Other clothing customs afiliated with bullighting are the white garments worn in Pamplona by the city’s citizens during the Running of the Bulls. At this time people wear the traditional white shirt and pants with a red bandana tied around their necks. This costume evokes the image of those who work in the ields with bulls.

The Maja Traditionally, the most striking image of Spanish dress from the Andalusian region was that of the maja. The maja were female dandies or street vendors whose sense of clothing was exaggerated and especially dramatic. The maja and the gitanas, or gypsy women, were the two types of women who had a speciic regional costume for this area in Spain. The maja costume that became a signiicant symbol of Spain consisted of tiedon sleeves, an inner vest, and a functional or nonfunctional outer jacket, always left open. The jacket has much decoration on the sleeve, possibly lacing to create a tight it across the forearm. A red sash was sometimes worn and a redecilla (hairnet) or mantilla and comb was worn in the hair. Maja also often wore a montera, a small black hat, cocked to the side with a lower. Because the upper classes in many of the more urban areas tended to imitate French customs or styles of dress, it was thought that the maja, or lower-class women, represented what was more uniquely Spanish. The lower classes couldn’t afford to imitate French fashion so their clothing tended to be more individualized and original. Eventually, when the Spanish upper classes decided to once again dress in a Spanish style, they turned to the maja look for inspiration. If Spaniards throughout the country were imitating Andalusian styles, it’s no wonder that Andalusia became as signiicant an image of Spanish style and dress as it did. The dress of the maja was made especially popular by the paintings of Francisco Goya and other painters of the era. The many remaining portraits of aristocratic women dressed in clothing of the maja give us a diverse and accurate record of this particular style of Spanish dress. Although these paintings tend to romanticize the dress of the maja, it is still a valid reminder of the importance of this style for Spanish identity.

A Maja and Gallants by Francisco Jose de Goya, 1777. (Prado, Madrid, Spain/Giraudon/The Bridgeman Art Library)

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Men’s Dress Andalusian men are traditionally perceived as either bandoleros (thieves) or vaqueros (cowboys). These symbolic roles have determined male fashion in the region. Vaqueros wear the traje corto, which is composed of high-waisted pants with a colored waistband and a white shirt. Vaqueros also wear a widebrimmed sombrero. Bandoleros wear a similar outit except with a red bandanna on their head. Spanish men are known for wearing a gilet. A gilet is a sleeveless itted jacket that was traditionally itted and embroidered. Gilets are made to suit the occasion as there are speciic variations that work for warmth, fashion, and athletic activity.

Spanish Children Spanish children dress as miniature adults. Because children are expected to interact with adults and behave as respectful participants in any activity, their dress code speaks to these expectations. Young girls in Spain even wear tiny mantillas for special occasions and religious ceremonies. Andalusian boys especially wear the short jackets adult men wear.

Contemporary Spanish Dress Although the Roman Catholic Church has had less inluence in Spain in modern times, Spanish dress is still considered relatively modest and conservative. Spanish people are elegant and reined and don’t approve of lagrant or provocative clothes for the most part. In north-central Spain, women still dress in traditional folk styles, wearing aprons and wide bell-shaped skirts. They also wear comfortable wooden shoes like clogs. Men in this region wear knee-length pants and short jackets. One cannot discuss Spanish clothing without noting famed Spanish couturier Cristobal Balenciaga. Balenciaga left a legacy of superb design and craftsmanship that has inluenced designers such as Ungaro and Givenchy, among many others. In many ways, Balenciaga continued the conversation between Spain and France as his company often brought Spanish lair and expression to fashion by way of France. The contemporary ilmmaker Pedro Almodovar has captured much of the Spanish eccentricity and lair for the dramatic in many of his ilms, revealing the colorful and idiosyncratic ways that Spanish people express themselves in their clothing.

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Further Reading and Resources Fashion from Spain. http://www.fashionfromspain.com. 2012. Hajana, Milena, and Laura R. Bass. Spanish Fashion in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012. Leblon, Bernard. Gypsies and Flamenco: The Emergence of the Art of Flamenco in Andalusia. Hertfordshire, UK: University of Hertfordshire Press, 2003. Marbella Guide. “Traditional Spanish Dress.” http://www.marbella-guide.com/ traditional-spanish-dress/. 2010. Vincente, Marta. Clothing the Spanish Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Worth, Susannah. “Maja Dress and the Andalusian Image of Spain.” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, vol. 12, no. 4, Summer 1994: 51–60.

Sweden Michelle Webb Fandrich

Historical Background Located in the Scandinavian peninsula of Northern Europe, Sweden emerged as a uniied, independent nation as early as the Middle Ages. Though it expanded its holdings as an empire throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, by the 19th century Sweden was contained within the bounds of the peninsula with its neighbors Norway and Finland. Today, the country is a constitutional monarchy, which supports a parliamentary democracy. It had an estimated population of more than 9,100,000 people in 2012. In terms of national dress, Sweden is particularly interesting to scholars and enthusiasts due to the early and vast documentation that exists regarding the diverse forms of regional costume throughout the country.

Geographic and Environmental Background Afinity in national dress among the Scandinavian countries is illustrated in the costumes of Sweden. Geography is most certainly a factor in the development of Swedish national dress, and the inluences of the country’s neighbors can be seen in details such as color, shape, and accessories. Despite these common factors across regions, there is no uniied national costume representative of Sweden. Each region has unique features and idiosyncratic details that set it apart from the rest of Sweden. Though components might be shared—such as aprons for women—their shape, color, and material varies. Most identify the costumes from Dalarna (of which a description follows) as the archetype of Swedish national dress. This is most likely because the region has retained the traditions of wearing regional dress long after other regions have abandoned the practice. Despite the differences among regions, there are some generalizations that may be made about Swedish regional dress. What follows is a brief description of these, with more detailed descriptions of regional costumes from selected areas.

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People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity There are many factors that go into shaping the regional dress of Sweden. One factor that affected the appearance and retention of Swedish peasant dress can be seen in the role gender and status play in society. The fact that a homogeneous style was apparent in the peasant dress of women within any one region of Sweden can be linked to the lack of mobility of women in society. Men were more likely to mix with those outside their regions in the course of exchange of goods and services. With these more frequent interactions, their style of dress was more likely to be altered to suit a prevailing style. Therefore, men were quicker and more likely to dispose of traditional forms of dress on a daily basis. Women’s costume, on the other hand, remained static within a region because this kind of exposure and exchange of dress elements was not available to them. Women were slower to adopt more “modern” modes of dress because they were simply not exposed to them. In terms of the role of religious practice in shaping regional or peasant dress, this is seen most predominantly in regions such as Dalarna. Here, the requirements of speciic forms and styles of dress for speciic Sundays and other holidays were so taxing, and often so subtle, that a Costume Almanac was developed. This almanac would provide guidance on which style of apron, for instance, was to be worn on any given Sunday. Again, one sees how different elements of peasant dress (among women in particular) were tied to religious holidays. Sumptuary laws also affected peasant dress as much as fashionable dress in Sweden. Just as the economy of any given region was a deciding factor in the kind of materials used in the dress of that region, sumptuary laws most frequently dictated the kinds of materials that members of each social strata might use. The effects of other factors that inluenced peasant dress, and therefore the national dress, of Sweden are most frequently seen in the construction of different garments.

History of Dress As early as the 18th century, Carl Von Linnaeus and others began collecting information on the differences in peasant dress seen in the various regions of Sweden. This early interest was primarily spurred on by the “picturesque” quality of these clothes when compared to contemporary fashionable dress. The use of color and material in these peasant costumes differed so greatly from the more urbane dress of Sweden’s city centers that Von Linnaeus and his contemporaries began to regard the peasant costume as something more “genuine,” expressive of the

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Illustration of Swedish national dress from History of Mankind, 1883. (Ivan Burmistrov/ iStockphoto.com)

national identity. Originally, their studies led to the adoption of peasant dress for use in “fancy dress” and festivals by those in the upper classes. By the 19th century, the motivation for studying and collecting examples of Sweden’s peasant costume had changed slightly. At that time, peasant dress took on the role of truly being a form of national dress when it was used in several international world’s fairs to express the national identity of Sweden. In Paris (1867), Vienna (1873), and Philadelphia (1876), peasant dress from different regions of Sweden was worn as a national dress in this country’s representative pavilions. With this early interest in peasant dress as a form of national costume, the clothing quickly transitioned from being something that was worn on a daily basis to a form of clothing reserved for special occasions and worn by even those who were not residents of the region from which it originated. Swedish museums began collecting examples of “authentic” peasant dress for preservation and display in the mid-19th century, and with the foundation of the Nordiska Museet in the 1870s, the importance of peasant dress in shaping the national costume of Sweden was cemented. Cataloguing and preserving examples of peasant dress became a priority as its role shifted from practical garment to ceremonial or special-occasion dress.

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Materials and Techniques The materials used in peasant dress throughout the country relect its agrarian heritage. Regional peasant dress differed so drastically in appearance from the clothing found in more cosmopolitan regions of Sweden because the peasants retained a self-suficient style of living in the primarily agrarian society. Natural ibers that could be grown or raised (through animal husbandry) locally and processed in the household were predominant. Homespun linen, wool, and handtooled leather were the primary components of Swedish peasant dress (though store-bought fabrics occasionally appear). When store-bought materials do appear in the peasant dress of any region, this typically relects an economic upturn for that region. For example, Skåne enjoyed a particularly strong economy during the 16th century, allowing the farmers of that region to adopt more fashionable forms of dress. But the depression that followed this economic boom in the 17th century caused the regional style to remain static. Therefore, Renaissance and baroque elements are more clearly seen in this region’s dress.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Men Men’s regional peasant costume in Sweden was more often inluenced by the prevailing fashion than women’s. In Sweden, as in most other Scandinavian countries, men’s traditional dress is made up of knee breeches, a waistcoat or vest, a white shirt, knitted stockings, and leather shoes. These items may be adorned with metal buttons, embroidery, and knitted trim, with the style and amount varying from region to region. The white shirt worn by the men of Sweden typically features a great deal of embroidery as it was traditionally used as a canvas to display the handiwork of the wearer’s wife or bride-to-be. The collar is low and closes at the throat with buttons or a colorful ribbon. Waistcoats are frequently constructed in red or green fabric and fasten down the front with metal buttons. Headwear is also commonly worn and can vary from tight-itting skullcaps to wide-brimmed hats. Women Long-sleeved white blouses are common among most regions in Sweden. The sleeves are typically gathered at the wrists and may feature a turned-down collar trimmed with embroidery. Over this blouse, a tight-itting (sometimes laced) sleeveless bodice is worn. This bodice or corselet is usually made of red or black fabric and may feature pewter or silver eyelets, referred to as snörmärlor. These garments are worn with a long, full skirt, typically devoid of decoration. When the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress skirt is trimmed, it is usually only at the hem. Over this, an apron is worn. The style and material of the apron varies from region to region. Accessories seen throughout Swedish peasant dress include braided belts, from which an external pocket or reticule is suspended, caps or coifs, and shawls. Metal jewelry, lace, and embroidery are noted features of Swedish national costume and much has been written about their embroidery in particular. It appears most frequently on shirt collars, the hems of skirts, pockets or reticules, and on some headdresses. Children Regional costumes for both boys and girls are often more relective of regional customs than their grown-up counterparts. Differences in costume between young girls and their marriageable older sisters differ in areas such as headdress, embroidery, and trim, for example. The individual elements of costume do relect, however, the style of their elders. Where the men are dressed in breeches, so too are young boys. Where women don two-piece dresses, so too do most of the girls. It is in the area of headwear where the most differences in age-speciied dress can be seen. The shape of the headdress is typically universal while its trim and color may designate the age or marital status of the girl or woman wearing it.

Dalarna Of all the regions in Sweden, Dalarna retained the custom of wearing traditional dress every day the longest. This may be why most identify the national costume of Sweden with the clothing found in this province. Dalarna is particularly rich in variety, with styles varying from parish to parish. In the parishes around Lake Siljan in the middle of the Dalarna province some of the oldest folk costumes can be found and these will be described in greater detail below. The roots of these costumes can be traced back to the 17th century. In many parishes, changes made to the costumes date back only as recently as the 19th century. Scholars point to the retention of centuries-old village structure when explaining the longevity of these costumes. Unlike most of Sweden, the core parishes of Dalarna (the Siljan region) were not affected by the land redistribution schemes of the laga skifte or agricultural reform of the early 19th century. While other villages were split and long-held social patterns were disturbed with this land redistribution, these villages remained compact and clustered, retaining their social structures and costume rituals. As is true throughout most of Swedish regional dress, the costume for men in Dalarna is made up of breeches, a white shirt, and a waistcoat or vest. There is, however, some difference in what is worn over these pieces throughout the province. A

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Dalarna women pose in their parish’s distinctive national costumes, 1928. (Gustav Heurlin/National Geographic Society/Corbis)

leather or chamois apron is worn by the men of Mora, Orsa, and Våmhus. In Mora and Våmhus, a long collarless coat in white homespun is worn over the apron while in Orsa the outer garment is a short jacket of the same color homespun. In Rättvik, Boda, and Leksand the men’s ensembles are executed in darker hues, primarily blue with red trimming with the breeches, constructed in yellow fabric. Coats for festival wear and special ceremonies (such as weddings) often feature embroidery at the shoulders and pockets. Headwear varies within the region as well. In Rättvik, it is used as a signiier of marital status. The short-brimmed wool hat is trimmed with a braided band and wool balls, which are black for unmarried men and red for men who are married. The same wool balls can be seen attached to garters in this costume, worn with blue or black knit stockings. Black leather tie-shoes are universally worn. Throughout Dalarna, women consistently wear a white blouse and neckerchief, often with delicate embroidery at the wrists or lace inserts at the shoulder seams. Skirts are of black material and pleated, except in the parishes of Rättvik and Boda where a blue skirt with a laterally striped panel inserted at the center front (breddan) is worn. Aprons are worn over both styles of skirt and typically feature striping along the hem or an inserted border of a contrasting color as the only decoration. In Rättvik, it was only in the late 19th century that it became

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress fashionable to wear the skirt without an apron covering the laterally striped insertion. Previously, aprons of different materials and colors depending on the day and occasion would have been worn. A jacket is worn over the blouse and many parishes, such as Våmhus, also feature a laced bodice worn over the blouse and under the jacket. The colors and fabrics of which the jacket is made vary from region to region. Women’s costume in Leksand appears to be the most modern of the parish costumes. Women’s skirts are black but much shorter than those in other parishes. A striped and laced bodice is worn over the ubiquitous white blouse. A striped apron (blåmadg) is worn over the skirt. Over this a green or black jacket is worn. Headwear can be seen as an indicator of marital status among women as well. A white cap trimmed with a black and white band is worn by married women while single women may wear either a red wool or a printed muslin hood. In other parishes, a white cap or bonnet is almost universally worn throughout the province, with slight variations from parish to parish. A pocket, waist-bag, or skirt bag is worn by most as well, and is frequently made from leather featuring intricate cutwork or appliquéd designs. Stockings are usually red or white and worn with low black leather tie-shoes.

Skåne Skåne is of particular interest to those who study traditional or peasant dress because it is one of the richest in terms of costume heritage. Here, the styles of regional dress have remained static. This characteristic can be attributed to many things, including the economy of the region as well as the political climate. Changes in these two factors had a “retarding” effect on the dress, helping to retain an older style while the dress in other regions evolved and changed with the inluence of fashionable dress. Because of an economic downturn in the 17th century, costume traditions that had been established in the 16th century (during Skåne’s economic boom time) became so deeply entrenched that the costume saw very little change even when the economy improved again in the mid-19th century. Medieval features can be seen in various elements of the traditional dress of Skåne. Another interesting feature of Skåne is the cohesive quality of style seen across parish lines. Variations from parish to parish may have existed but are not well documented, and early-19th-century documents suggest that conformity between parishes was encouraged (Berg and Berg, p. 52). When discussing the dress of this region, it is easier to divide it into four distinct areas—northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest—noting that the areas in the south retain the most historic features. For men, jackets or doublets with shoulder wings, a feature that relects the inluence of Spanish fashionable dress of the Renaissance, were common in this

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region until well into the 19th century. However, this fashion was dropped in favor of the more common and simply constructed jacket and coat. A signiicant feature of most men’s traditional dress in Skåne is a striped vest or waistcoat, usually constructed of homespun material. Breeches and long trousers are worn throughout the region. Women’s dress in Skåne is strikingly different from that in other regions of Sweden. Here, it is highly ornamental and the use of metal-wrapped thread embellishments as well as silver or pewter ornaments is very common. The basic elements of dress for women, however, remain the same with a costume made up of a white blouse, a laced bodice worn with a full or pleated skirt, and an apron. A jacket usually completes the ensemble. With this, an embellished sash may be worn for special occasions and the embellishments are frequently of religious or cultural signiicance. Jackets and sashes were heavily embellished with metalwrapped lace thread lacework. The Klut or headrail/coverchief is another distinctive feature of Skåne, found in the southern areas of the region. It is reserved for highly formal occasions and is constructed of a starched linen kerchief draped over a light framework to create a high-proile headpiece with the ends of the kerchief draping down the back of the wearer. Black and blue stockings are also a distinctive feature of women’s dress in Skåne (most traditional costumes for women in this country are worn with white or red knit stockings) and seems to be a relection of the region’s close connection with Denmark, of which it was once a part.

Södermanland Södermanland or Sörmland shows more urban inluences than any other region of Sweden. Paradoxically, the drive to preserve traditional dress in some parishes of this region has a longer history than in most areas. The Vingåker woman’s costume is perhaps the most famous costume from this region, and community records indicate that as early as the 17th century, efforts were being made to preserve the custom of wearing it in this parish. It became the model for the early nationalist movement at the turn of the 20th century and was frequently worn as the Swedish national costume for women. This form of dress is highly embellished with embroidery on both the main garments and accessories. And unlike most Swedish traditional costumes, the bodice and skirt are often made as one garment. This is worn over a white blouse and belted with a wide embellished leather belt at the waist. Over this, an apron is worn and a cloak is the preferred form of outerwear. Distinctive also is the headdress of married women in Vingåker. Known as the huckel, it is a headdress with a high proile, made of inely pleated cloth.

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Hälsingland Having maintained the tradition of wearing folk costume until well into the 19th century, Hälsingland can also be seen as representative of the most historic examples of Swedish regional costume. The most distinctive features are among the headwear for both men and women from this region as well as the construction of the main garments, particularly in Järvsö. In Delsbo, the women’s costume is marked by the stiff, framed cotton cap executed in printed material and sometimes worn over a white lacetrimmed cap. Another style, a black cap made of waxed lace and velvet, is also worn. For men, breeches and An elderly man from the Delsbo village, short jackets of dark material (typirests on a bench, 1928. (Gustav Heurlin/ cally blue) are frequently seen worn National Geographic Society/Corbis) with colorful skullcaps while a more historic style is also worn. In the older style, the main garments are typically constructed of animal skin such as mooseskin or leather or homespun fabrics. Brimmed knit caps in bright red are worn with this style of dress. In Järvsö, waistcoats for men and bodices for women are cut in a distinctive style, with deep arm openings that extend almost to the center back. Women’s bodices are cut long and worn over a black skirt and striped apron. This area is known for its distinctive women’s headdress—a framed cap that is dome-shaped over the crown of the head, made of black material and trimmed with blue.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress Swedish national costume may be the best preserved in all of Europe. Because of early scholarly efforts to capture and record regional customs in dress, this country has a rich history from which to draw costumes for folk dancing, festival days, and special occasions. The wearing of Swedish national costume in Sweden and across the United States is a common trend, particularly for Swedish cultural events in cities and towns in the United States with a large Swedish heritage.

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Further Reading and Resources American-Swedish Historical Museum. www.americanswedish.org. 2012. Arnö-Berg, Inga, and Gunnel Hazelius-Berg. Folk Costumes of Sweden: A Living Tradition. Västerås: ICA Bokförlag, 1985. Mann, Kathleen. Peasant Costume in Europe. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1937. The National Historical Museum (Historiska Museet). www.historiska.se. 2012. The Nordic Museum (Nordiska Museet). http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/category .asp?cat=187&CatName=English, 2012. Primmer, Kathleen. Scandinavian Peasant Costume. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1939. Sichel, Marion. Scandinavia—National Costume Reference. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990.

Switzerland Lynne Potter Lord

Historical Background Switzerland is a small, centrally located European country known for its neutrality, banking, chocolate, cheese, clocks and watches, Swiss Army knives, and mountain vistas. The picture-postcard impression of Switzerland with the Matterhorn in the background, a Swiss cow in the foreground, and men in lederhosen playing the alphorn is a stereotype of the people and costume. This type of national depiction of dress can be seen in tourist destinations and at national festivals where the dress traditions are kept alive. Switzerland is unique in Europe in that the Swiss never had a monarchy. Today, Switzerland is a democratic country, land-locked and bordered by Germany to the north, Austria and Lichtenstein to the east, Italy to the south, and France to the west. The Swiss have not joined the European Union, despite pressure from surrounding countries and world economic pressures. Switzerland’s neutral stance has also kept it from joining the United Nations. Democracy is expressed in Switzerland with a greater inluence from the average citizen. Frequent referendums give individual citizens input into the day-to-day running of government and country. There are friendly relationships with all countries in Europe and strong ties with those sharing borders, languages, and customs. Switzerland has four oficial languages including Italian, French, (dialect Swiss) German, and Romansch (similar to Latin). All four oficial languages are taught in schools as is English. Modern Swiss culture is a unique blend of German, Italian, and French cultures; however, due to the mountainous terrain, many people historically have lived and died in their own isolated village, canton, or province. The Swiss are known to be quite homogenous with little in the way of immigration from other regions of the world. The population is estimated at more than 7,600,000. The Swiss have managed to remain out of World Wars I and II in the 20th century and have a strong reputation for neutrality throughout the world. There is, however, an active and sophisticated Swiss Army with elaborate systems of tunnels in the mountains. These house barracks, equipment hangars, hospitals, food, 700

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and ammunition stores in case of invasion. All men must serve in the army for two years after graduating from high school and must participate in the military reserves for three weeks out of every year, for their entire lives, while living in the country. Men who are unable to serve in traditional army posts might train civilians for preparing and living in bomb shelters. Every home and business in Switzerland is required by law to have a stocked bomb shelter large enough to house those occupying the building. Each Swiss reserve soldier has a uniform and rile at the ready in his home, should he need to bear arms. The idea is that the Swiss Army can activate at a moment’s notice. Switzerland consists of 26 cantons or provinces. It is the smallest federal state in the world, but considering its size and the number of cantons, it is a very complex country. Very democratic, voters are well versed in the issues and vote frequently on large and small issues affecting their daily lives. The head of government is a president, and this post is shared or rotated among the cabinet to encourage cooperation and to avoid too much of a concentration of power. The Swiss enjoy one of the highest standards of living and lowest unemployment rates in the world. Switzerland is a relatively young country, its confederation born out of a long history of independent states and isolated communities. Over several hundred years the states joined and formed conglomerates to eventually reach a federation in 1848. It is a strongly patriarchal country; women received the right to vote relatively late, in 1971. Historically, women have played a very conservative and traditional role in Swiss society. There is a strong sense of home and homemaking and an emphasis on cleanliness in Swiss culture. In school, girls were taught to do things in the home in very traditional ways. Cleaning and hanging and folding laundry were taught as well as cooking, sewing, and other needleworking skills. Until very recently it was quite unusual for women to work outside the home. As such, traditionally Swiss women have been expected to defer to their husband’s wishes, stay home, and take care of the family, home, and home life.

Geographical Background Switzerland is a small nation of only 41,288 square kilometers (15,940 square miles). From north to south it is 220 kilometers (137 miles) long and from west to east it is 350 kilometers (217 miles). The country can be crossed from north to south or east to west by car or train within four hours. Its geography and climate, however, are quite diverse, ranging from arctic at high altitudes of the Alps to semitropical valley loors within 18 or 25 linear miles (30 or 40 linear kilometers). This variety of geography has had quite an effect on the diversity of climate, natural vegetation, and agricultural crops grown as well as the culture of the people who populate these regions.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Approximately 70 percent of Switzerland is covered by the Alps. The mountainous areas typically reach a high temperature of approximately 41ºF (5ºC) in winter. This is in contrast to the adjoining valleys, which can reach 30ºC in the summer months. The high temperatures mean diverse crops can be grown including cherries, apricots, grapes (for wine), tomatoes, peaches, and kiwifruit. In the southern cantons, palm trees grow at the lakesides, and stark contrast is offered when snow dusts them in midwinter. The Alps are a major boundary that has kept the adjoining countries partitioned. The passes through the mountains have always been dificult to traverse but also quite valuable for trading purposes. Much of Europe’s water supply begins in the Alps, and the mountains, glaciers, rivers, and meadows have been valuable in terms of supplying food and water for millennia. Rivers begin in the Alps and low down the mountains toward the North Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and to various lakes and river tributaries throughout Europe. With the downhill low of rivers came the spread of trade, language, culture, and technology. Over centuries, the spread of German culture and language, for example, evolved from the Schweitzer-Deutsch of the Alps into Dutch along the length of the Rhine River at the North Sea through trade along the river’s length. Mountains provide natural barriers between cantons and villages, making geographically proximate, yet distinctly different communities within short distances. Because of these insular and protective communities, many unique community traditions developed with respect to food, clothing, and shelter depending on the types of resources and materials available in the region. For example, stone houses in the south are common, whereas wooden houses are much more common in wooded areas where trees suitable for building were more abundant. Historically, village life was rural and life was closely tied to the seasons and agricultural tasks. Small villages were almost self-suficient and traded among themselves as much as possible. Venturing out to the next village could be a major undertaking, especially before automobiles and trains were commonly used. Raising dairy cows is common across the country. They can graze up and down the mountainsides with the seasons and cheese production is done in huts in the ield as well as on a larger scale in villages. The Swiss diet traditionally revolved around staples such as milk, yogurt, and cheese, and of course milk chocolate.

People and Dress Western dress was similar throughout Europe especially as fashion and general communication improved. People in the Swiss aristocracy wore similar clothing to their contemporaries in high society in France, Austria, Germany, and Italy. For

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Women and men in traditional costumes dance at the Unspunnen festival in Interlaken, 2006. (Stefan Wermuth/Reuters/Corbis)

what is now commonly thought of as speciically Swiss traditional dress, it is not the high-fashion aristocracy that we look to, but it is the peasantry who developed distinct styles that relected Swiss culture of the common people. Clothing worn every day by peasants was more functional and suited to the life of hard work in rural landscapes. Typically, people had far fewer clothes, as laundering by hand was so labor-intensive. Each family member had work clothes and also possessed a formal suit of clothes worn on Sundays or for special occasions. The more functional garments were worn for daily working life. The styles varied slightly depending on the person’s occupation and location, but typically were very similar within each region. Clothing was most often made of homespun cloth— cotton for warmer weather and wool for winter. Heavier weight fabrics were worn for jackets, coats, pants, and skirts, while lighter weight fabrics were used for shirting, underclothes, and aprons. Clothing choices for men and women depended on such things as marital status, social class, or age. It was easy for people to identify whether someone was single or married and to which class they belonged. Not all regions had the same clothing styles and colors did not mean the same things, so regional differences existed in styles and accessories. In order to maintain some semblance of a Swiss national dress, a concerted effort was made in the early 19th century at the Alpine Cowherds’ Festivals of 1805 and 1808. These festivals were followed in modern times by festivals known as the Unspunnen festivals in the 20th century. These are usually scheduled for every three years and include traditional folk costume, folk music, and folk art. The purpose of these festivals was to support a national consciousness of Swiss popular culture. In 1946, right after WWII, both the Cowherd’s Association and the

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Swiss Traditional Costume Association joined the Unspunnen festival for the irst time. With currently 20,000 members, the Swiss Folkloric Costume Association allows traditions to be passed down through generations of Swiss people, preserving traditional Swiss culture. The Federal Traditional Costume Festival takes place every three years, the highlight of which is a magniicent procession with costumes from every part of Switzerland.

Materials and Techniques Textiles in Switzerland have a long history. The rural Swiss were very selfsuficient out of necessity and produced most of what they needed themselves, including food, clothing and shelter, resources and materials. Wool was harvested from local sheep and lax was grown and retted to produce linen. Once spun and woven, these ibers produced a plain homespun cloth used for making clothing for working. Handmade woolen cloth and intricate embroidery became an industry for the monks of St. Gallen as early as the 15th century. By the early 20th century, St. Gallen produced more than half of the world’s lace and one-ifth of the population worked in the textile industry. Hand- and needlework was traditionally done by women until the invention of machinery for embroidery and lacemaking, when men became more engaged in the industry. Simple embroidery could be found on everyday costumes with elaborate and intricate details on formal, festive, and bridal dress. Cotton has also been manufactured in Switzerland since the 12th century. By the 17th century, Geneva was a center of European cotton manufacturing. Swiss cotton remains a high-quality fabric to this day. Cotton cannot be grown in Switzerland. To create Swiss cotton, inest quality (long-staple iber) Egyptian cotton is used on the inest machinery in Switzerland to create tightly woven, soft, and durable cotton yarns. These are used to weave and knit textiles known as some of the best cotton products in the world.

Women’s Clothing Women’s clothing revolved primarily around what is popularly known today as the dirndl. This basic outit is deined by a very full skirt gathered at the waist, worn with a vest or sleeveless dress, itted very tightly on the bodice. The bodice and skirt are often contrasting colors, typically red, green, or black. The dress is worn typically with a white blouse underneath it, with stockings, black slip-on shoes with a decorative metal buckle and lap on top, a shawl, and a hat or headpiece.

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The bodice of the dress or vest is typically closed with hooks and eyes and is sometimes reinforced with boning inserted vertically to create shape and support. The crisp white cotton blouse usually has short puffy sleeves that often are gathered from the shoulder and tighten around the upper arm and directly under the bustline. The blouse is typically trimmed with fancy lace at the edge of the sleeves and often around the gathered or scooped neckline. It can be decorated in the traditions of the region with embroidery, appliqué, tatting, crochet, and so on. Most often, a contrasting half apron is Illustration of the dirndl and its components. worn around the waist and tied in the (Lynne Potter Lord) back. The apron covers the front of the skirt of the dirndl, protecting the skirt or dress front in the course of everyday wear or for decoration. One might own several aprons but would rarely own several dirndls. Variations of this basic outit are relected in the different dress of the 26 cantons and regions. Differences may be in color choices of the skirts, aprons, or the cut of the blouse. Accessories including shoes, stockings or socks, shawls, scarves, hats, and headdresses may also vary in design details from region to region. Variations may be in the style, color, or materials of the headdress, length or decorations on sleeves, stockings, shoes, and/or accompanying bags. The variations depend on the region, materials used for the clothing, or the age or marital status of the wearer. The silhouette, however, remains basically the same no matter what region. Changing aprons often kept the clothing clean underneath, so it made sense to have several aprons for chores such as washing clothes, cleaning house, or carrying produce or wood from the garden. Color and Embroidery Certain cantons and regions claim particular colors as their own, such as Zurich using distinct blue and Watchwil using white. Color also indicated whether a woman was married or single. In Appenzeller, for example, married women add touches of gold in their aprons and décolleté inserts and wear gold jewelry while single women are allowed only silver accoutrements. Single women in Obwalden weave a white ribbon into their braided hair and ix it into place with a traditional silver hair clip. When married, a woman wears a distinctive white

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress bonnet. In the canton of Schwyz, the only women allowed to wear red stockings with their traditional dress are the women of Muotothal, and only while wearing their Sunday best. As women were traditionally trained in needlework from a young age, embroidery and other types of embellishment was common on clothing and accessories of all sorts. Classic motifs are embroidered and certain styles permeate the cultures, including the rendering of edelweiss lowers, cows with cowbells around their necks, snowcapped mountains, all very common themes across all regions. Speciic motifs indicate a particular region. For example, cherries are from Zug, honeybees are from La Chaux-de-Fonds, grapes, grape leaves, and vines are from the wine-growing regions. If a certain motif is used on a cap design, it will often be repeated on an apron to be worn with it. Colorful embroidery on black shawls and aprons stands out in stark contrast in Grisons canton costumes, and cross-stitch embroidery is also common on plain aprons.

Men’s Clothing

Advertisement for a play about “picturesque Switzerland” depicts a man in traditional dress featuring cummerbund and lederhosen, c. 1906. (Library of Congress)

Men’s clothing for everyday relected the occupation of the wearer. Often the components were made of homespun cloth, heavier weight for winter and lighter for summer. Basic outits included trousers, smock shirts, and protective headwear. Walking, climbing, or hiking is a popular activity in Switzerland and is relected in the popularized lederhosen so often seen on postcards and in stereotyped costumes in the movies. The short, knee-length pants worn with suspenders were often made of leather for durability and safety when hiking or climbing. Shirtsleeves were often short and cable-knit knee-high socks were worn in heavy boots. Men wore short-brimmed wool felt hats with a bristled trim on the hatband to complete the outit. In summer, wide, lat-brimmed straw hats are worn to protect from the sun. The lederhosen

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were sometimes decorated with embroidery styles varying from region to region, which also often appeared on belts, hatbands, and rucksacks. Finer and more formal Sunday or special-occasion dress is often the dress of choice when depicting the region’s typical traditional dress. Everyday wear would often be covered in smocks for men while more elaborate suits of matching clothes were worn for more formal wear. These would include accessories not found in daily dress such as jewelry, trimmed belts and hats, and buckled shoes. Speciics vary greatly from region to region or climate, and these variations can be seen in the style or color of shirt, type of embroidery if any, the length of pant, the style of jacket, cummerbund, hat, socks/stockings, and other accessories. Knitted clothing such as socks and sweaters often have intricate details, such as cables and other patterns. Color in men’s dress is signiicant and distinguishes people from region to region as it does for women. Red, for example, igures prominently in the lining of frock coats, waistcoats, or on the neckerchiefs of men from Schwyz.

Children’s Clothing Very often children’s clothing is miniature versions of the clothing the adults wear in the region. Differences appear in color choices used for the speciic region’s costume. For example, in Zug, women wear mostly ecru- or creamcolored costumes, while the girls wear light blue and white–striped dirndls with yellow pinafores.

Further Reading and Resources Eicher, Joanna, ed. Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 8. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. The Swiss Center of North America. http://theswisscenter.org/. Accessed January 2012. The Swiss National Costume Association. http://www.trachtenvereinigung.ch/ws/ tr/front_content.php?changelang=10. Accessed September 16, 2010. Swiss National Museum, Zurich (Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum Landesmuseum). http://www.nationalmuseum.ch/d/sammlung/wissenschaft_und_samm lungen/textilien_kostueme.php. January 2012.

Thailand Laura P. Appell-Warren

Historical Background While there is much debate as to the origins of the Thai people, it is agreed that the Thai people are descended from a larger group of Tai-speaking peoples, and archeological evidence indicates that there were permanent settlements in what is now known as Thailand at least 10,000 years ago. Some scholars argue that the Tai came to Thailand from China, while others argue that they originated in northern Vietnam around the Dien Bien Phu area. Regardless of their origins, it is clear that the early inhabitants of Thailand settled in the river valleys and were subsistence rice farmers who also had domesticated animals, such as chickens, pigs, and water buffalo. By the 13th century the Tai had moved southward and come into contact with the Mon and Khmer peoples. In order to establish a presence in what is the peninsula of modern-day Thailand, the Kingdom of Sukhothai was established in the upper Chao Phraya basin. This early kingdom remained small through the reign of two rulers. However, the third ruler, Ramkhamhaeng, who ruled from 1279 to 1298, extended control farther south, to the west as far as present-day Myanmar, and to the northeast as far as present-day Laos. The Sukhothai period, which lasted from the mid-13th century to the mid-15th century, was renowned for its graceful bronze sculptures and celadon pottery. The Ayutthayan period in Thai history lasted from 1351 until 1767. During this period the Tai people became a leading power in the area that is known as present-day Thailand as well as throughout the peninsula region. It was during this period that Thailand became known as Siam and the Tai people as Siamese, based on what the neighboring countries called the area and people. In 1431 the Tai kings conquered the Khmer capital of Angkor and brought Khmer captives back to Ayutthaya. The Tai soon adopted many of the Hindu ideas and practices followed by their Khmer captives. It was also during this period that Theravada Buddhism took root throughout Siam. The Buddhist monasteries played an important role in society, as they were often the focal point of village life, providing education 708

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for the young men. Early European visitors characterized the city of Ayutthaya as a cosmopolitan city of great wealth. Early traders from the Netherlands, Spain, England, and France as well as China, Persia, and India came to the city and established settlements. While Thailand has the distinction of being the only Southeast Asian country never to have been colonized, it was periodically under threat from the Burmese kingdoms. In both 1569 and 1767 Ayutthaya was subjected to attacks by Burmese forces. Following the sacking of the city in 1767 the king and his family, as well as many captives, were captured and taken to Burma. The city, its records, and its works of art were all destroyed. In 1767 a great military leader named Taksin came into power and within a decade he recovered the territories that had been captured by the Burmese and established a new capital in Thon Buri, across the river from Bangkok. Subsequently, the Chakri dynasty was founded by Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke. Chulaloke was considered a great military leader and was originally from the Kingdom of Ayutthya. The term “Chakri” comes from King Chualaloke’s title, Chao Phraya Chakri, an honoriic title that was given to Ayutthyan generals for illustrious acts in battle. The referential name Rama derives from Hindu and Indian traditions and is the name of a deity. From this time forward all Chakri kings would be referred to as Rama X, with X signifying their position in the Chakri dynasty. The irst king of the new dynasty, Rama I, moved the capital across the river to Bangkok, where it remains today. Conlict between Burma and Siam continued until 1820, when British encroachment on Burma forced the Burmese to focus on their own borders. The focus of the early Chakra kings was the rebuilding and resurgence of the Ayutthaya culture. Temples and palaces were built in Bangkok that were reminiscent of those that were destroyed. Court rituals were reestablished and a great literary tradition was begun. Western inluence on Siam continued. Perhaps most well known worldwide was the introduction of Western advisers to the court by King Rama IV. One of those Western advisers, the Englishwoman Anna Harriette Leonowens, who was tutor to the king’s children, published a romanticized account of her time with the king. This memoir became the basis for the novel Anna and the King of Siam, written by Margaret Landon, and later the Broadway show and movie The King and I. In 1932, there was a bloodless coup organized by foreign-educated Thai students and a new constitutional order was established. By 1938, with a very strong military, the military budget tripled and the country became allies with the Japanese before World War II. December 1938 saw the military dictator Phibun Songkhram take power, and it was in 1939 that he changed the name of the country from Siam to Thailand. The focus of the postwar years was on restoring Thailand’s international reputation.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The postwar years were also characterized by dissent and unrest, and Thailand’s foreign policy was based on anticommunism and a strong relationship with the United States. By 1980, however, Thailand’s system of government was one in which the military coexisted with a parliamentary system and a monarchy. On September 19, 2006, the Thai army staged a coup d’état against the interim government of Thaksin Shinawatra. The result of the coup was the suspension of the constitution and the dissolution of the Parliament and the Constitutional Court. Martial law was declared and one of the king’s privy counselors, General Surayud Chulanont, was appointed prime minister. On August 19, 2007, a new constitution was approved and on December 23, 2007, a democratic general election was held. In April 2009 Thailand was again the scene of political unrest. The so-called “red shirts,” protesters loyal to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, interrupted a meeting of Asian leaders. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva declared a state of emergency, and demonstrations, both pro- and anti-Thaksin, continued throughout that year. In March 2010, a protest of 100,000 red shirts demanded that Prime Minister Abhisit dissolve Parliament and call new elections. Abhisit refused to dissolve Parliament, but agreed to call new elections. In May 2010, Abhisit decided to hold early elections in exchange for the protesters calling off the demonstrations. The red shirts rejected the offer, but in a counteroffer agreed to negotiate with the government. The red shirts were rebuffed by the government and large-scale rioting, looting, and the irebombing took place. The government cracked down on the movement, and on May 19, the rioters dispersed and protest leaders surrendered. Abhisit then introduced a ive-point plan in June aimed at reconciliation. The Thai government is currently a constitutional monarchy.

Geographic and Environmental Background Thailand is situated in Southeast Asia. On the north it is bordered by Laos, to the east it is bordered by Cambodia, to the west it is bordered by Burma, and to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia. Thailand is the world’s 50th largest country in landmass, and the 20th largest country in terms of population, with its population estimated at 67,100,000. The country of Thailand is divided into several geographical regions. The north of the country is mountainous with the highest peak, Doi Inthanon, being 8,415 feet above sea level. The northeast part of the country is a plateau bordered on the east by the Mekong River. The lat Cho Phraya river valley that runs into the Gulf of Thailand dominates the central portion of the country. The southern part of Thailand consists of the narrow Kra Isthmus that widens into the Malay Peninsula. The small portion of Thailand that is on the Malay Peninsula is bordered by the Andaman Sea.

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The economy of Thailand is newly industrialized; however, Thailand is known as the largest exporter of rice in the world. Despite this recent industrialization many of the inland hill tribes continue to rely on a subsistence economy. The climate of Thailand is tropical, typiied by high temperatures, high humidity, and monsoons. The southwest monsoon season is from mid-May to September and the weather is rainy, warm, and cloudy. The northeast monsoon season lasts from November to mid-March and the weather is dry and cooler. The southern isthmus is generally hot and humid year round.

People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity Thailand is home to more than 30 ethnic groups. However, the Thai majority makes up about 75 percent of the total population of Thailand. These ethnic Thai people are divided into four major groups and three minor groups. The major groups are the central Thai, or Siamese, of the central valley; the eastern Thai, or Lao, of the northeast; the northern Thai, or Lao, of north Thailand; and the southern Thai, or Chao Pak Thai, of the Thai Peninsula. The minor groups are the Phuthai of the northeast; the Shan of the northwestern corner of Thailand; and the Lue of the northeast. Also living in Thailand are populations of Chinese, Malay, and Khmer peoples. Thailand is also home to 20 small ethnic minority groups collectively known as the hill tribes of Thailand. These tribes are diverse groups of people who have migrated over the last 500 years from Tibet, China, Vietnam, Burma, and Laos. The seven major tribes that are recognized as members of the hill tribes are the Karen, the Hmong, the Yao, the Lahu, the Lisu, the Akha, and the Lawa. Each of the tribes speaks its own distinct language and has its own unique cultures and religious beliefs. The oficial religion of Thailand is Theravada Buddhism; however, followers of Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, and Sikhism can also be found in Thailand.

History of Dress The indigenous ethnic groups of Thailand have traditionally produced a wide variety of handwoven textiles, with each group being identiied by the distinctive textile patterns used in their clothing. While the combinations of iber, color, and technique distinguish the groups, there is a similarity in the structure of textiles in Thailand regardless of where they are made. Although there is no oficial Thai national dress, there are unoficial national costumes that have been designated and given royal endorsement. These national costumes are based on the traditional dress of the Thai elite. For women the national dress is called the phasin (also

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Women wear the traditional phasin, or tube skirt at a beauty pageant during the Songkran festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 2003. (Anders Ryman/Corbis)

rendered as pha sin), or tube skirt. The phasin is the traditional lower garment for many of the ethnic groups in Thailand; however, it was King Rama VI who introduced the phasin dress as the national dress for women in an effort to improve women’s appearance and status. In the 1960s, Queen Sirikit, wife of King Rama IX, traveled with the king to America and Europe. For that trip the queen wanted to wear a modernized national costume that was suitable for both everyday and formal wear. The queen thus commissioned research into the historical record of royal dresses and had eight oficial designs developed for her wardrobe. It is notable that most of the designs incorporated the phasin. The irst dress of Queen Sirikit is called the Thai Ruean Ton. The Thai Ruean Ton is the most casual dress and is made out of a striped or plain-colored silk phasin. The phasin has a patterned band at the hem and is sometimes folded to one side. A collarless blouse with elbow-length sleeves and a front opening is worn with this outit. The second style of dress designed for the queen is called the Thai Chakkri. The Thai Chakkri is for formal wear and is usually produced using Yok weaving techniques. Yok techniques produce a fabric that has additional thickness within the fabric without adding threads. Often gold- or silver-colored threads are also woven into the fabric. The skirt is a phasin, with two pleated folds in the front called na nang. The third form of dress in the queen’s wardrobe is the Thai

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Boromphiman. This one-piece dress is intended for formal evening attire. The top of the dress looks like a longsleeved blouse with either a rounded neckline or a mandarin-style collar, and it is buttoned either in the front or the back. The ankle-length phasin has front pleats and is made of a rich brocade. The fourth dress is the Thai Chakkraphat. The Thai Chakkraphat is a Thai silk dress that features a shawl. The upper part of the dress has a pleated shawl over a thicker shawl with full embroidery on the upper shawl. Number ive in the queen’s wardrobe is the Thai Siwalai. The Thai Siwalai is also for formal evening occasions and is quite similar to the Thai Boromphiman, but it has an over-the-shoulder shawl. Dress number six is the Thai Pwo Karen man wearing traditional northern Thai clothing, 2011. (Kevin Dusit. The Thai Dusit is a wide-necked Landwer-Johan/iStockphoto.com) and sleeveless brocaded dress. The skirt and blouse can be sewn together. It can be worn for evening ceremonies and is made of Yok silk. The seventh form of dress is the Thai Amarin. The Thai Amarin is also evening attire and is made of a rich brocaded fabric. The blouse is wide and round-necked. The sleeve length sits just below the elbow. The eighth form of dress worn by the queen is the Thai Chitlada. The Thai Chitlada is for daytime formal wear. There is a brocaded band at the hem of the phasin, which is a casual wraparound. It can be worn with a longsleeved silk blouse, with the front opening closed with ive ornamental silver or gold buttons. For men the national dress is called suea phra ratchathan. The suea phra ratchathan resembles a jacket and has a mandarin collar that is slightly tapered at the side. The sides of the jacket may have vents or not. The jacket is fastened with ive round cloth-covered buttons. The jacket has two outer pockets at the front. The top of the pocket sits at a level slightly higher than the bottom button. The jacket also sometimes has a left-sided breast pocket. The suea phra ratchathan comes in three varieties (from least to most formal): short-sleeved, long-sleeved, and long-sleeved with a sash or cummerbund. The long-sleeved versions of the jacket all have cuffs. When a sash is used it is knotted at the left side.

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Materials and Techniques Thailand is renowned for its luxurious silks, which are soft with an uneven texture and slightly knotty threads. The women’s formal phasin is usually made from Thai silk. The phasin can be of any color, but generally has a contrasting ornamental border. The suea phra ratchathan is made from Thai silk or cotton.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress In rural areas everyday dress for men is a pair of shorts and a plain shirt. A piece of checkered cloth, called the pha khao ma, is worn around the waist. The pha khao ma is utilitarian and can be used as a towel, headcloth (for protection against the sun), or even a hammock. Traditionally everyday wear for women in rural areas is a variation of the phasin. Another traditional form of dress that was worn by both men and woman is the chong kraben. The chong kraben was made out of a variety of textiles, including imported Indian chintz. The chong kraben is a length of cloth that is wrapped around the body and tied in a knot at the waist with the ends of the cloth brought together, rolled from the top edge to the bottom edge, and the resulting roll brought out between the legs to the small of the back where it is stuck behind the belt. Traditionally men and women would not wear an upper garment; however, with increased modernization in the 1930s and 1940s women were forbidden to go topless. As a result a blouse was added to the dress for women. In the cities everyday wear is Western-style clothing that is readily available and is manufactured in Thailand. For formal occasions women wear the phasin with a colored silk sash that runs from the left shoulder to the right side of the waist. For formal wear men wear the suea phra ratchathan. While the suea phra ratchathan can be any color, it is traditionally white so it contrasts with the black trousers that are usually worn. A colored silk sash or cummerbund is worn for formal occasions.

Component Parts The traditional phasin is a tubular piece of cloth about 3 yards long and more than a yard wide. It is wrapped once around the body and then tied in a knot in the vicinity of the navel. In nomenclature the phasin is divided into three sections: the hua sin; the head or the top; the tua sin, the body or midsection; and the tin sin, the foot or border. This division or sectioning of the phasin is important because the three sections of the phasin are either woven into one piece of cloth (with patterns differentiating the three sections) or are made from different pieces of cloth that are then sewn together. The top section of the phasin is made from a plain-woven cloth of any color, although some groups prefer natural, white, or

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indigo cotton. The midsection of the phasin is the largest section, and the different ethnic groups use a variety of techniques to decorate this section, including ikat (tie-dye) weaving. The border of the phasin is either plain for everyday or very elaborate for special occasions.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiication Thai women wear a variety of gold and silver jewelry; however, Thailand is perhaps best known for a particular form of body modiication practiced by one of the hill tribes known by outsiders as the Paduang, or “long-necked” people. The Paduang are in fact one of the most recognized ethnic groups in the world, but they should more properly be called the Kayan Lahwi. The Kayan Lahwi women embrace a form of body modiication and beautiication that is perceived by outsiders to be extreme. Starting at about age ive, and as the girls grow, heavy brass coils are added to their necks, pushing down their collarbones and shoulders to create the illusion of a long neck. Traditionally this practice was followed for two reasons. The irst is that among the Kayan Lahwi the long neck in a woman is a sign of great beauty. The second is that the brass used in the neck rings was a sign of wealth. In recent years much controversy has arisen over the exploitation of the Kayan Lahwi because many of their villages have been turned into tourist destinations for people who have heard about and want to see the body modiication practices of these people.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress The hill tribe peoples continue to wear their traditional clothing on a daily basis. The phasin and the suea phra ratchathan are also worn regularly in Thailand. In addition, the Thai dancers continue to wear traditional dance costumes.

Further Reading and Resources Baker, Chris, and Pasuk Phongpaichit. A History of Thailand. London: Cambridge University Press, 2009. “Clothing, Traditional—Thailand.” Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. David Levinson and Karen Christensen, eds. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002. Conway, Susan. Thai Textiles. London: British Museum, 1992. Delang, Claudio O. Living at the Edge of Thai Society: The Karen in the Highlands of Northern Thailand. New York: Routledge, 2010. Fraser, Thomas M. Fishermen of South Thailand: The Malay Villagers. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press, 1984.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress Jones, Roger. Culture Smart! Thailand: The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture. London: Kuperard Publishers, 2006. Jonsson, Hjorleifur. Mein Relations: Mountain People and State Control in Thailand. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. Landon, Margaret. Anna and the King of Siam. New York: Harper Trophy, 2001. Leonowens, Anna. The English Governess and the Siamese Court. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1999. Kislenko, Arne. Culture and Customs of Thailand. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Paly, Amit K. “Paduang: Traditional or Exploitation?” The Washington Post. April 11, 2010. Roces, Mina, and Louise Edwards. The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Suchitta, Pronchai. “Mental Template: The Case of the Tai Lao Pha Sin.” Asian Folklore Studies 48, 1989: 95–105. Thosarat, Rachanie, Charles Higham, and Jeffrey Quilter. Khok Phanom Di: Prehistoric Adaptation to the World’s Richest Habitat. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1998. Tomforde, Maren. The Hmong Mountains: Cultural Spatiality of the Hmong in Northern Thailand (Southeast Asian Modernities). London: Lit Verlag, 2008.

Tibet Anne Hill

Historical Background Tibet was a theocratic Buddhist state with His Holiness the Dalai Lama as its spiritual and temporal ruler; it is generally agreed by scholars that a feudal system of governance permeated every facet of Tibetan life until the time of the occupation, in 1950, by the People’s Republic of China. A remote and inaccessible culture with relatively few outside inluences, Tibet was sparsely populated with fewer than 2 million people, yet it was home to thousands of monasteries in every precinct of the land; it was not uncommon for the larger enclaves, such as Drepung, to house as many as 10,000 monks. The unique nature of Tibetan society changed irrevocably when the People’s Republic of China completed its takeover in 1959, and soon after the Dalai Lama was forced into exile. In the push to reframe Tibet as a communist state, Chinese authorities authorized the indiscriminate destruction of thousands of monasteries, large and small, decimating the Tibetan way of life and culture. Prior to 1950, the majority of Tibetans accepted the traditional order associated with the theocracy and a hierarchy that comprised four distinct classes: nobles, traders, peasants, and nomads. The nobility were landowners, an aristocracy that descended from the early monarchs and rulers of Tibet. In the seventh century CE, during the height of trade along the Silk Road, Tibetans were prominent dealers in goods, cultural wares, and ideas, and had great success in the commercial trafic between India and China. Trade also facilitated the spread of Buddhism outward from India to Tibet. As a class, traders ranked between the landed gentry and peasant laborers. Peasants worked the land that belonged to the nobility. Nomads, the fourth class of Tibetans, included herdsmen and laborers who worked the higher elevations and grasslands, tending to their sheep, yak, and goat herds, which were relocated seasonally. Nomads traded with local settlements for goods, but were otherwise independent, renowned for their hardiness and ability to sustain themselves on the land.

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Geographic and Environmental Background Tibet covers a vast plateau in Central Asia. Often described as “the rooftop of the world,” its terrain ranges from approximately 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) above sea level, with large areas in the north over 5,000 meters (16,000 feet) in elevation. Tibet’s climate is unique and complex. With rare exceptions it is generally cool during the short summers (although the capital city, Lhasa, can be quite balmy with recorded highs near 86°F). The winter months are formidable (average temperature a bone-chilling minus 7°F), with some areas reputed to be exceptionally harsh. At higher elevations along the Tibetan plateau and mountains the air is thinner with lower oxygen and lower barometric pressure. Winds race along endless lat stretches of the plateau; the ever-present gusts make an already chilly climate even more so. The sun’s ultraviolet rays are also much stronger at these altitudes, which prompts the light to appear aesthetically brighter—especially during the extended hours of daylight during the summer months. Lhasa is aptly referred to as the “sunlight city.” The Tibetan calendar is divided in two: the dry season (October to April) and the rainy season (May through September). Humid air currents from the Indian Ocean inluence weather patterns in southern Tibet, making it more hospitable to human settlement and agriculture; a majority of Tibetans live in the region, particularly in the valleys, which are warmer and enjoy plentiful rainfall. Elsewhere, the climate of Tibet is dificult. Agriculture is usually limited to herding livestock, which forms the basis of a trade economy in yaks, sheep wool, and goat iber.

People and Dress Traditional dress in Tibet varies according to region, season, rank, and position. Tibetan society has four Buddhist lineage traditions, each having a different dress grouping to identify a monk’s level of practice and status; to this day, robes are used to identify their lineage, training, and level of Buddhist practice. Tibetan dress is also used to discriminate regional differences in both clothing and headdress style. Married women of central Tibet, for example, wore aprons to signal their marital status; the barcode-like pattern of different colors also indicated their social position within the community. Government oficials and military personnel, prior to 1950, also wore speciic dress to identify their position and rank within society. Government oficials in service to the Dalai Lama wore an earring in their left ear denoting their position, while an oficial’s servant, such as a tax collector, wore wide and fringed headwear, commonly called a sogsha or Mongolian hat.

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Ngolok chief and his wife wearing chupas, Tibet, about 1930. (Library of Congress)

Both genders wore chupas, kimono-like garments tied with a sash at the waist. Nomadic men stowed objects and supplies inside their chupa for a day’s journey or lengthy expeditions. Traditionally, a nomadic man’s chupa hung to the knees, unlike loor-length chupas worn by nomadic women, the nobility, or Lhasa government oficials. Chupas, made of cotton, silk, or sheepskin, were complemented with cotton or silk shirts. Traditional dress worn by noblewomen in Lhasa included elaborate headdresses, jewelry adorned with precious stones, a gold or silver charm box around the neck, and a wide band of pearls over the left shoulder. The amount of ornamentation was dependent upon social class; for example, well-to-do Lhasa women wore elegant Chinese silk chupas and multicolored striped wool aprons with gold brocade on the upper corners. Headdresses worn by nomadic women in eastern Tibet were less elaborate, but nonetheless distinctive with colorful ribbons braided into their hair. In the Amdo region of northeastern Tibet, for example, 108 braids (a religiously auspicious number) were afixed to a massive headdress made of lambskin. The lower section of the headdress, comprised of silver coins, amber, and coral beads, is in accordance with the style of the region. While an Amdo women’s chupa was cut in the same way as the men’s chupa, it was loor-length and constructed with more lavish

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress fabric. The inner robe was sheepskin lined with imported Chinese sateen silk, and the outer robe was made from imported Chinese silk brocade. Tibetan jewelry tends to be made of material acquired through trade such as pearl, amber, turquoise, and coral. The double- or triple-size amulet box was worn with necklaces of coral, turquoise, and amber. There is a rich lore of myth and ritual associated with turquoise, and the Tibetan people accorded it great symbolic signiicance. It was said that wearing a turquoise ring could assure a safe journey and inding a turquoise stone would bring the best of luck. Other adornments typical of Tibetan jewelry include pearl and coral beads, which are highly prized by Tibetans. According to tradition, one who wears red coral attracts success and gains status. Moreover, the color red is considered auspicious and worn by Buddhist monks. Tibetan traditional dress traveled throughout nearby regions, altering into substyles designed to communicate speciic information. The Nyinba people, a relatively prosperous group of Tibetans who migrated to Nepal in the 14th century CE, wear more extravagant headwear, which contradicts the region’s reputation as one of the poorest districts in the land. Flamboyant ritual garments are made with expensive materials such as tiedyed wools with colorful appliqués and Chinese silks. The taikor headdress, as it is known, is found in a handful of villages in the Simikot area of Nepal. The Nyinba assert that the taikor came from Tibet and regard it as a supreme status symbol, a visual statement by wealthy women proclaiming pride in their Tibetan ancestry. The taikor with precious stones acts as a form of ritual protection for the head. Ceremonial jewelry, festive garments, and the taikor are only worn during religious festivals and weddings.

Materials and Techniques Historically, as a trading nation, Tibet depended upon Silk Road commerce for imported silk and fruit and vegetable dyes to manufacture clothing and textiles. Tibet’s ubiquitous herds of sheep, goats, and yaks also supplied ample yarn for hand-spinning and cloth weaving. Yak hair and planted-pile textiles, woolen latweaves, and twill fabric for garments of every sort were made on portable horizontal frame and backstrap looms. Upright vertical looms, by virtue of their heftiness, were less common in the hinterland. They tended to be used by the more settled people in Tibet to make a knotted-pile carpet called Drumtse. Traditional garments such as aprons for married women were handwoven (single women did not wear the garment). Aprons were usually fashioned with three or four panels, set off by stripes (not unlike a barcode) in vibrant Tibetan colors. The

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aprons were woven on a backstrap loom; the discriminating feature of a vintage apron was a tigma, a cross-shaped pattern created with a hand dye. The indigo plant is commonly used for dyes in Tibet and is sometimes mixed with ir cones from young trees or chang beer made from barley. Madder red was derived from rubia munjista and r. tictoria roots gathered in southern Tibet, as well as mulberry trees. The color pink was produced from the roots of dog-rose shrubs. Orange was made from saffron imported from India, while yellow was harvested from wild rhubarb roots, buckwheat, bark from barberry, and turmeric powder. Tibetan wool is obtained from animals that live at a very high altitude, and consequently it is oilier. When dyed with local herbs, earth pigments, or imported dyes sent from India, Tibetan wool conjures a pleasing patina of color, with indigo, madder red, and saffron among the most popular. Wool products tended to be naturally dark and brown, made even darker with walnut dyes. Shifts toward a yellowbrown color were accomplished with imported myrobolum, a fruit that also was utilized by practitioners of traditional Tibetan medicine. Green was created from indigo, rhubarb, or henna.

Special-Occasion Dress Important events such as weddings and the Tibetan New Year known as Losar determined styles of dress to relect the prominence of the occasion. Richly embroidered chupa robes and other elaborate garments were a vital component of New Year’s celebrations. The robe of the annually appointed Yaso General, a prominent Losar oficial, is constructed with rich metallic Russian brocade, illustrating the costumed pomp and pageantry of a Losar celebration. Brocade robes worn by lay oficials are believed to be Mongol in origin. A historic photograph taken during Losar depicts an entire complement of government oficials dressed in rich brocade chupas. These special-occasion costumes have richly woven silk and metallic brocade chupas, which could have been worn by these lay oficials. Lavish state ceremonies performed Ceremonial cape. Chinese brocade, painted in Lhasa typically coincided with a in Tibet, c. 18th century. (Newark Museum/ religious calendar of events. During Art Resource, NY)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress the celebrations, it was customary to perform ritual dances in speciic costumed dress. Losar, the most important festival of the year, was held within the Drepung and Sera monasteries near Lhasa. The ills of the old year were solemnly expelled in lengthy religious dances, which were part of the cham, a prescribed repertoire of formal dance that could only be performed by Buddhist monks and lamas. Masks and their depiction of the macabre and grotesque were key components of the year-end ritual to eliminate malevolent spirits. A cham costume in the Newark Museum illustrates a ierce guardian deity’s mask and a rigs lnga, a tiara comprised of multiple images of the Buddha. Monks can also wear headdresses without masks; for instance, the Black Hat Dance is performed with painted faces and a black hat. However, a majority of monk performers wore and continue to wear masks to enact the ritual cycle of dances.

Tibetan Opera (Ache Lhamo) Tibetans have a great fondness for Ache Lhamo, the traditional opera of Tibet, which “evolved from a Buddhist storytelling genre,” whereby a traveling bard “presented tales by unrolling scrolls that depicted popular narratives.” Tibetan opera, Ache Lhamo, is secular theater rich with costumed performance; it has been performed virtually uninterrupted since the eighth century CE, giving it “the unique distinction of being the oldest living theatre in the world.” Today, there are two major companies of Tibetan opera, one in Lhasa under the auspices of the People’s Republic of China, and the other in Dharamsala in northern India. Lhamo means “goddess,” which understandably might presume female actors; however, all-male troupes were the norm. The Ache Lhamo canon tells stories of female entrapment and magical release, the principal character presided over by a clowning hunter or trickster-like isherman. Ache Lhamo human characters generally are unmasked, with the exception of the hunter and isherman. They wear two-dimensional masks in the drama, alongside characters depicting highly stylized animals and god-like demons with a three-dimensional visage. In Ache Lhamo, actors wear opulent brocade costumes. Female characters don Tibetan headdresses and jewelry, such as an amulet charm box and coral and turquoise beads. Tibetan women’s dress includes a wonchu blouse with long sleeves, the chupa overdress, and the apron with gold corners. Nomadic dress is also a feature of Ache Lhamo. In the Doasammo, an oft-told narrative in the Tibetan opera repertoire, there are comical scenes, which feature a herdsman and his wife costumed in nomad-style clothing. Traditionally the role of the nomad’s wife was played by a man, but after 1949 and the People’s Republic of China’s “liberation” of Tibet, women could take to the stage and play female characters.

Costume for Black Hat Dance, Tibet, 19th–20th century. Chinese satin, damask, brocade; leather and brocade boots. (Newark Museum/Art Resource, NY)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress There are 10 major stories in the Ache Lhamo repertoire. All are rooted in Buddhist tales from India, as well as Tibetan historical and religious events. The continuity of Tibet’s cultural history is a major concern. “Today, we are going through a critical period of time,” the 14th Dalai Lama declared on his website. “We are a nation with an ancient culture, which is now facing extinction.” His Holiness’s statement relects the Tibetans-in-exile preoccupation with cultural survival and the preservation of Tibetan culture through the arts and traditional dress.

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress As one of the irst oficial acts of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, the Dalai Lama established the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts (TIPA) shortly after his arrival in India in 1959. Within months, steps were taken to maintain the Tibetan culture by preserving Tibetan performing arts so that they would not be lost nor forgotten. The primary intent of TIPA has been and remains the accurate and faithful presentation of the Ache Lhamo. As cultural ambassadors, TIPA has been the symbol of the oficial voice of Tibetan art and performance. As a living tradition, however, Tibetan traditional dress is not immune to change. Tibetans-in-exile modiied women’s dress after 1959 by eliminating the sash around the waist. They now use less fabric to construct the chupa dress. The apron had narrower stripes before 1959 and was worn below the knee. After 1959, the apron was shortened to above the knee, with some having wider stripes. The old maxim to watch the length of women’s skirts to gauge the temperament of the times, in this instance, has more to do with the extremes of hot and humid weather in India. Tibetans abroad are concerned about cultural preservation and conservation. The Tibetan government-in-exile states its prime objective is both to protect and to accurately present Tibetan culture to the world. The People’s Republic of China, meantime, in its cultural exchange programs abroad, claims the authority to represent Tibetan culture as part of its Chinese ethnic minorities. The debate is ongoing and is beyond a mere difference of opinion. Tibetans living in exile are suspicious of the intentions of the Chinese government, just as People’s Republic of China oficials are wary of their counterparts in Dharamsala.

Further Reading and Resources Antique Tibetan Rugs, Art & Textiles. http://www.antiquetibet.com/RUGTEXT .html. Avedon, John. In Exile from the Land of the Snows. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984.

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David-Neel, Alexandra. Magic and Mystery in Tibet. New York: Claude Kendall, 1932. De Riencourt, Amaury. Lost World: Tibet. Avon, England: Honeyglen Publishing, 1987. Duncan, Marion. Customs and Superstitions of Tibetans. London: Mite, 1964. Goldstein, Melvin. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913–1951: The Demise of the Lamaist State. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989. Harrer, Heinrich. Return to Tibet. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books, 1987. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Phil Borges, Jeffrey Hopkins, and Elie Wiesel. Tibetan Portrait, the Power of Compassion. New York: Rizzoli International Publications, 1996. Myers, Diana K. Temple, Household, Horseback: Rugs of the Tibetan Plateau. Washington, DC: The Textile Museum, 1984. Norbu, Dawa. Tibet: The Road Ahead. New Delhi, India: HarperCollins, 1997. Reynolds, Valrae. Tibet, a Lost World: The Newark Museum Collection of Tibetan Art and Ethnography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1978. Stein, R. A. Tibetan Civilization. London: Faber and Faber, 1972. Tenzin Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and L. P. Lhalungpa. Tibet, the Sacred Realm: Photographs 1880–1950 (3rd ed.). New York: Aperture Foundation, 1997. Thurman, Robert. Essential Tibetan Buddhism (paperback ed.). New York: HarperCollins, 1996. Tsering, Dhondup. “Of Wool and Loom: The Tradition of Tibetan Rugs.” Book review by Dhondup Tsering, The Centre of Tibetan Studies. http://www.orchid books.com/book_reviews/wool_loom_centre_tibetan.html. Tucci, Guiseppe. To Lhasa and Beyond: A Diary of the Expedition to Tibet in the Year MCMXLVIII. Rome: Instituto Poligraico Dello Stato, 1956. Tucci, Guiseppe. The Religions of Tibet. Berkeley: University of California, 1980. Windisch-Graetz, Stephanie, and Ghislaine Windisch-Graetz. Himalayan Kingdoms: Gods, People & the Arts. New Delhi: Roli Books International, 1981.

Turkey Charlotte Jirousek

Historical Background Turkic tribes irst emerged in history in the sixth century in the region north and west of Mongolia, a region where Indo-European and Altaic nomads alternately shared and competed for the grazing lands of the steppes and mountain valleys. The irst irm mention of Turks in the written record appeared in the sixth century CE in reference to the emergence of a tribal confederation that had established an empire north of the Great Wall. The essential features of this Central Asian horseriding nomadic culture were shared by the Uralic and Altaic Mongols, Turks, Khazars, and Kirghiz, and also by Indo-Europeans such as the Iranians, Pashtun, Kurds, and Tajiks, among others. Turkic tribes gradually migrated west, where they served as mercenaries and slave armies of the Byzantines and Arabs, and not infrequently ended up claiming their conquests in their own name. By the 11th century the Seljuk Turks had established empires that encompassed most of what is now Persia, Syria, Iraq, and modern Turkey. Although the great Seljuk Empire would be broken up by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, lesser Turkic emirates and kingdoms emerged thereafter throughout this region. One of these Turkish emirates, the Osmanli or Ottomans, emerged in the 14th and 15th centuries to conquer the remains of the Byzantine Empire, culminating in the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, which established Ottoman rule in the Balkans, and the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, which ended the Byzantine Empire. By the 16th century the Ottoman Turks ruled an empire that extended from North Africa to the Indian Ocean and surrounded the Black Sea, reaching the gates of Vienna twice in that century. In 1923 the Ottoman Empire was dissolved and its constituent parts became the nations that now ill the map of the eastern Mediterranean, including the Republic of Turkey. To this day Turkic populations inhabit large parts of the Middle East and Central Asia from the Uighur regions of northwestern China to the Balkans. While all of these regions share common elements of language, dress, and culture, it is the dress of

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the Ottomans and particularly the region of the subsequent Republic of Turkey (once known as Asia Minor) that will be the focus of this discussion. However, it is also important to note that throughout this history the empires and nations ruled by Turks have always been multiethnic in population. Turkey is at the westernmost end of the legendary Silk Road, which is in fact a complex web of land and sea routes that connected eastern Asia with the shores of the Mediterranean. During most of the Ottoman era virtually all access to the luxuries of the East passed through Ottoman ports. This proitable international trade also led to the growth of a rich and varied domestic textile industry, building on older Turkish textile traditions. Traditional Turkish nomadic life, which continued alongside settled urban and rural communities, had always depended on home-produced textile arts for shelter and all the essential equipment of daily life. Cotton was grown in Turkey by the later Middle Ages. A silk industry was inherited from the Byzantines, and also brought by migrating nomads and traders arriving from Central Asia. Products made of leather, wool, mohair, and other animal hair were the classic production of the Turkish herdsmen. Settled village communities raised and wove cotton, hemp, and silk for local use, but were also part of large-scale putting-out systems of production for domestic and international commerce. Turkey was historically a major source of the mordant alum and also of madder (rubia tinctorum), used for red dyes. Turkey was so strongly associated with madder dyeing that a complex method for dyeing cotton with madder in 19thcentury Europe was referred to as “Turkey red.” Indigo dye was created from the indigo plant (indigofera tinctoria) and traded. In addition to rich regional dyeing traditions, major dye commodities from further east such as kermes and lac were the objects of trade. This diversity of materials is relected in the rich variations of dress that occur depending on climate and region. In the 20th century, following the founding of the Republic of Turkey, policies of modernization and secularization helped to spread Westernization in dress, initially in cities, but gradually throughout the country. Men’s dress rapidly shifted to Western forms in most areas, even though in rural areas the Western suit was a substitute for traditional modes of dress and did not acquire the Western meanings intended by reform policies. Particularly following World War II rural traditional dress forms began to alter and eventually disappear for women as well as men. In more isolated areas it is still possible to ind distinctive regional dress, although materials used have generally changed as industrialization of textile production has replaced traditional handmade goods. Therefore this discussion is mainly historical, and for the most part describes traditional dress as it was generally worn before the Westernization of dress occurred in any given area.

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Geographic and Environmental Background Turkey enjoys a varied climate that ranges from semitropical to temperate. The country is surrounded on three sides by water, with the Black Sea to the north, the Aegean to the west, and the Mediterranean to the south. In the east Turkey borders Georgia, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. The center of the country is separated from the coastal regions by a ring of mountains, within which rises the Anatolian Plateau. The coastal regions have seasonal rainfall and a milder climate, whereas Anatolia is more arid and has extremes of seasonal heat and cold, with quite severe winters in the east, where the plateau rises to higher altitudes. Anatolian farmers raise wheat and other temperate crops and graze cattle, sheep, and goats. Historically the mohair goat was unique to Turkey and thrived in the arid, cooler climate and austere pasturage of Anatolia. The mohair cloth (known as sof in Turkish and camlet in the west) was a highly prized commodity in the 14th to 17th centuries. Until the 20th century the mohair goat, also known as the Angora (Ankara) goat, was not successfully raised outside of Turkey. The mountains of the Black Sea region experience heavy snows as well as summer rain and are a land of lush forests and meadows, with tea and rice grown along the coast. Hemp was once raised in abundance in this region and also along the south coast. Since the 1970s hemp production has been strictly regulated, but some is still produced in the Black Sea region for industrial production and some handweaving. The south and Aegean coasts are drier but warmer, growing oranges and bananas as well as an abundance of produce of all kinds. Cotton has been an important cash crop for centuries, particularly in the well-watered river valleys south of Izmir and on the Adana plain on the south coast, and in the great valley of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the southeast. Sericulture was widely practiced in the coastal regions and mountains until the early 1990s, when withdrawal of subsidies and competition from Chinese silk brought an end to large-scale silk production in Turkey. Cottage industry sericulture continues in more isolated villages, mainly producing silk for use in the weaving of silk carpets. The only region where substantial local sericulture and silk cloth weaving can still be found is in the region known as Hatay in the southeast of Turkey, near the Syrian border. Dramatic regional variations in climate have a signiicant effect on traditional dress.

People and Dress Modern Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, but has signiicant minority groups, both Muslim and non-Muslim. The population of Turkey as of 2012 was nearly 80,000,000. The estimation of ethnic minority size is not easy to ascertain since Turkish census data only document religion. Some estimates suggest that as many

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as 20 percent of Muslim Turkish citizens are of Kurdish descent. This population is mainly found in southeastern Turkey, where they are mixed with the Turkish and a smaller Arab population. However, many have migrated to western cities in search of opportunity in the last 20 years. In addition, there are small groups of Laz and Hemşin in the mountainous northeast, both groups that speak isolate languages. Among non-Muslims, most are city dwellers and include Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, and in total comprise less than 1 percent of the population. During the era of the Ottoman Empire the population was quite diverse ethnically and religiously. The region most dominated by ethnic Turks and Turkish culture was Anatolia, where Turkish tribes had begun to settle as early as the 10th century. However, this region also included substantial Armenian, Greek, Jewish, Syriac Christian, Muslim Kurdish, and Arab populations that were mingled within any given region, but particularly in eastern Anatolia. The Ottoman provinces to the south of Anatolia were primarily Arab with a similar mixture of other ethnicities, and in these regions Arab modes of dress continued to dominate, although with the addition of some Ottoman Turkish elements of dress in cities and in regions closest to Anatolia such as Syria, Lebanon, and northern Iraq. The dress of all of these minorities varied from region to region and for the most part tended to resemble the dress of the dominant ethnic group in the region where they found themselves. For example, there were also Greek villages as well as Greek urban dwellers along the Aegean coast. Western Greece was not part of the Ottoman Empire after the early 19th century. On the other hand, most of the Aegean Islands and Thrace were ceded to Greece following the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. In addition, there was a mandatory exchange of populations at that time that sent Greeks from western Turkey to eastern Greece and the islands in exchange for Muslim Turks who left eastern Greece for Turkey. As a result, the traditional dress of eastern Greece shares many elements with Turkish dress, since these people lived longest and in closest contact with Turks, whereas western Greek costume retains more purely Greek elements as well as exhibiting a stronger association with European dress. Following the exchange of populations under the Treaty of Lausanne, the only Greek and Armenian populations allowed to remain in the new Republic of Turkey were those living in Istanbul, where dress rapidly Westernized. For this reason, traditional Armenian and Greek dress essentially disappeared from Turkey at that time. The Turkish population is itself of quite varied descent. Although most are Sunni Muslims, there is a substantial Alevi Muslim minority, and also followers of the various mystic orders, the best known of which are the Sui Mevlevi and Bektasi. Some of the distinctions relate to tribal ancestry. Most Turks claim descent from the Oguz Turks, but there are also many tribal subgroups and clans

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress that carry other names; in many villages and among the remaining nomads, these clan afiliations are still known. Since these nomadic groups often divided and eventually settled in different parts of Turkey, the mapping of Turkish ethnicities is extremely dificult. Finally, absorbed into the population of modern Turkey are the myriad cultures and beliefs that have existed in this land since the dawn of human history. Turkish schoolchildren are taught that 40 civilizations have existed in Turkey over the millennia; this is probably a conservative igure. Many ancient sacred sites and customs have been absorbed into Muslim Turkish practice, and no doubt contribute to some aspects of dress and embellishment.

Characteristics of Traditional Turkish Dress The forms and aesthetic of Turkish dress can be traced back to the dress of early Central Asian horse nomads. Life on horseback led to the development of loosely itted trousers (şalvar) to protect from chaing. Even after the end of the Ottoman era more than 90 different styles of şalvar could be identiied in Turkey (Özel, 1992). Also, since temperatures could be quite variable within a short time, rather than wearing garments that pulled over the head, these people wore openfronted coats (most commonly termed caftan or dolman) and jackets (cebken) or vests (yelek) (Koçu, 1969) that could be easily donned or doffed while on the move, and also could be layered as needed for additional warmth. Boots protected the lower legs and feet, and hats of varying styles covered the head. Under the coats would be a shirt or chemise. The garments were typically arranged to display the layers of clothing, particular for formal dress. The long coats may have the front corners tucked up into the sash when engaged in any physical activity, including ridStudio portrait of models wearing ing, but may also be tucked up simply traditional clothing from the province of to display the various fabrics of the Hodavindiguar (Hüdavendigar), Ottoman Empire, c. 1873. (Library of Congress) underlayers. The wearing of multiple

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layers also became part of Muslim modesty in dress for both men and women. The ensemble disguised the form of the body by adding mass to it that projected an image of substance, strength, and splendor. The use of such layered dress persisted even in the extreme heat of summer. It is a widely held belief among Turks that thick layers of clothing serve the purpose of absorbing perspiration, and that when perspiration evaporates directly from the skin there is danger of catching a chill, even on hot days, and so becoming ill. The sleeves of outer layers might be arranged so that long, more itted sleeves of undercoats could be seen. A narrow long sleeve might have buttons from wrist to elbow, and so could be allowed to fall from the elbow to reveal the chemise or shirt sleeve; also the sleeve might be attached with ties or buttons and loops at the armscye and could be partially released and allowed to hang down in back; or the sleeves could be removed altogether. Combinations of short and long vests and coats could be worn in various conigurations. Usually a vest was worn over the shirt and under a jacket and/or long coat. A short, looser jacket might be worn over the coat, or a coat could be thrown over the shoulders, allowing its sleeves to hang. The more layers worn, the more formal the attire; and the richer the fabrics, the more elevated the status of the wearer. Although coats often have buttons, the arrangement of layers is held in place with large sashes and belts. These add bulk to the silhouette, which is considered a desirable effect, but they also serve as receptacles for weapons, tools, purses, and other small personal items. Indeed, these accessory additions are considered an essential part of the complete dress ensemble. Headgear was of particular importance as a marker of status, afiliation, and gender. The Turks converted to Islam in the eighth and ninth centuries, but before that an array of hats were worn, with persons of high status often wearing quite tall headdresses. Such headdresses continued in use into the Ottoman era, but in many cases with the addition of a Muslim turban wrapped around the base of the hat. Ottoman turbans of high rank were quite carefully structured in their wrapping, while the turban of a peasant could be a casual knotting of a scarf around the base of the hat (taç or kavuk; later fez). These headdresses were so important in Ottoman times that when a man died, his headstone would include a sculpture of his headdress. The types of garments worn were essentially the same for women and men, but there were differences in arrangement, embellishment, accessories, and materials. Men’s attire usually involved a short jacket and a vest only for poorer men, with longer coats for more formal wear and persons of higher status. Additional layers of long coats or coats thrown over the shoulders would be worn by highranking oficials and imperial household members. The headgear would either be the mandated headgear of public ofice in the Ottoman period, or the local or tribal

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress headdress, usually a combination of a distinctively shaped hat and wrapped headcloth that forms a turban. No man went bareheaded. The ensemble was completed by the tools, swords, daggers, and pistols traditionally carried by Turkish men in their sashes, along with purses, watches, and other personal articles. Weapons were an essential part of a man’s dress. For women the shorter coats might be the same in cut as the men’s but the longer coats were more likely to be different. By the early 19th century many women’s outer coats had evolved away from the caftans worn also by men to the üç etek (three skirt), which had a deep open neckline, buttoned snugly to the waist, and had slits at the side seams from the hem almost to the waist (Scarce, 1987). Alternatively, a slightly lared sleeveless outer coat, often with a quilted lining, might have been the outermost layer. The sleeves were often slit at the wrist and had very long ends that were allowed to trail and reveal the embellished ends of the chemise sleeve worn beneath. The front panels of the skirt were tucked into the sash in back, revealing the underlayers of the ensemble. Married women added to this ensemble an apron panel that both covered and called attention to the bifurcation of the şalvar. In traditional dress the head coverings of women were the most distinctively female aspect of women’s traditional dress. They often included a hat (taç or takke), which might be small and lat or quite tall. A scarf was wrapped over the top of the head and hat and under the chin, to be tied on top of the head or at the back of the neck. A second scarf was wrapped horizontally around the forehead over the irst scarf, in turban fashion; this is usually a particular mark of a married woman, although all Kurdish women wear this turban. Note that neither of these scarves covered the face, but only the hair, forehead, and neck. Turkish women did not veil in the pre-Islamic period, and traditionally veiled less closely in general than most other Muslim women. A larger scarf (çarşaf), reaching either to the elbows or the loor, was thrown over all when the woman went out in public; the wearing of this outer veil was usually seen in married women, and among the more conservative, it may have been adopted by girls postpubescence or postbetrothal. The degree to which the face was covered varied depending on the conservatism of the wearer. This type of covering can still be seen today in modern Turkey. Hair is a particular feature that in traditional dress it was considered necessary to hide from public sight. A married woman’s hair was covered entirely, although in the past young girls in many regions wore their hair in dozens of long plaits that could be seen at the back below the scarf. In the Ottoman era men shaved their heads, which was necessary when wearing the turban. All men old enough to grow one wore mustaches, and mature men generally wore beards, particularly those who had made the pilgrimage to Mecca. For both sexes, body hair was removed.

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Materials and Techniques In earlier periods most of the textiles used in traditional dress were locally produced, often within the household in the case of rural villages or nomadic communities. However, as early as the mid-19th century industrially woven textiles, particularly printed cottons, began to replace the handwoven cotton, silk, and hemp fabrics, although these textiles were still in use in the early 20th century. For specialoccasion clothing, certain textiles might be purchased. The vests and coats of women were usually made of purchased silk cloth, typically in striped patterns; men also used these textiles for inner garments. Wool fabrics used for outer garments and occasionally şalvar might be handwoven locally, or might be purchased cloth. Most men’s clothing was made of wool, cotton, or linen, with embellishment in silk embroidery not uncommon. The exceptions were the warp-faced striped textiles known as alaca or medeniye (warp stripe rep weaves of differing quality) and kutnu (warp stripe satin weaves with pattern and ikat). Both of these textiles have cotton weft; therefore both were considered to be more acceptable for male use (however, such garments were usually lined in cotton). In addition the kutnu is weft (cotton) faced on the back, making it particularly proper. Kutnu, alaca, and medeniye were also essential ingredients of women’s dress that were as pervasive in traditional Turkish dress as plaid is in Scottish traditional dress. These fabrics are made in a wide variety of color combinations and patterns, most once associated with particular regions or localities. However, color combinations that include red, golden yellow, and black are most common. The locally woven cotton and silk textiles varied from quite heavy to very ine, transparent crepes made of overspun yarns, usually in plain weave. The lighter textiles were used for men and women’s shirts or chemises, and for women’s headscarves. These textiles were also used for aprons, napkins, and sashes. In some cases discontinuous weft inlay was used to develop pattern; also weft-face kilim weave techniques were used to create border designs. These crepe techniques, with the inlay work, were also done in handwoven wools used for the long outer wrap worn by many women in Eastern Turkey. Another variant on the inlay technique was done in wool in 2/2 twill to make a large square shawl with a deep fringe, folded into a triangle and worn over the hips by women in the Black Sea region. Wool techniques associated with pile and lat woven rugs might also be incorporated into sashes, aprons, and other accessories. Embroidery is an important element of embellishment for all aspects of dress. Many of the headscarves once worn by women in all parts of Turkey are made of a ine cotton printed (basma) or painted (yazma) in several colors. These scarves were typically edged with needle lace (iğne oyası) or crochet lace (tığ oyası). The needle lace is usually executed in the form of three-dimensional lowers, leaves,

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress or perhaps fruit, a style that appears to be widely distributed in Turkey and found beyond the borders of modern Turkey only in regions formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, notably in eastern Greece and the southern Balkans. In Turkish tradition, the wearing of these scarves and the type of lowers or other embellishment found on them were part of a code that identiied the wearer’s age, marital status, and afiliations. Certain types of oya were worn by men in some regions. Silk or yazma scarves with ığne oya edging were an important part of the exchanges of gifts associated with engagement and marriage.

Traditional Celebration Dress: Weddings From the dowry to the wedding night textiles played a central role in traditional Turkish courtship and marriage. When one family approached another to arrange a marriage for their son, gifts were brought. These would include personal articles for the bride and for her family, which included food, jewelry, and textile articles. When the engagement was agreed upon, there would be a further exchange of gifts, which would include personal gifts made by the bride for the groom; these might include a scarf with oya embellishment, or an embroidered or oya watch case, and a watch. The betrothed girl was expected to make additional articles as gifts for her iancée, to be presented on holidays at intervals during the engagement. The marriage agreement includes arrangements for the contribution of each family to the new household. The groom essentially provides shelter and means of economic support (livestock, farmland, and/or training in a marketable skill); the bride provides all the furnishings for the home, much of which would have been textiles, including clothing for herself, her husband, and gifts for her new in-laws. A particularly important prewedding gift for the groom is a special towel to be worn by the groom during the ceremonial shave that takes place before the bride is brought to her new home. This piece is on display as an example of the bride’s embroidery skills. The groom, on the other hand, provides the wedding clothes and dowry gold in the form of jewelry that becomes the personal wealth of the bride. In the past, wedding apparel was similar to everyday dress except that better materials were used. The bride was always completely veiled in red, with the headdress of the veil usually quite elaborate, but varying from one locality to another. When the bride took leave of her home and parents, her father tied a red cord around her waist as a sign of his guarantee of her virginity. Traditionally in many places there was also a special wedding sheet, perhaps handwoven by the bride or her family and embroidered by the bride, which would be hung out on display the morning after the consummation of the marriage. Following the consummation of the marriage, a inal day of celebration occurs, during which the bride and groom dance together to signify the acceptance of the

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bride. Also, the female relatives of the groom wrap a scarf around the forehead of the bride, the mark of the married woman. She will wear her gold daily during the irst 40 days of her marriage, during which time she also pays calls on all her new kin. In the modern era, while the ceremony remains similar, most brides, even in villages, wear Western-style white wedding dresses, although in some regions the bride may also wear traditional dress for some parts of the celebration. However, the tying of the red cord around the waist by the father is still widely done, and a red veil may be worn over the white dress. Modern grooms wear a Western-style business suit.

Ottoman Court Dress The essential structure of Ottoman court dress is the same as that described for Turkish ethnic/traditional dress in general. The primary difference is, of course, to be found in the choice of materials used, as well as the elaboration of layers and accessories seen in this more formal dress. Male dress in the court was strictly deined. Members of the imperial bureaucracy were, until the later 18th century, selected from non-Muslim slave boys who were raised and educated in court schools, to be placed in positions that suited their talents. While some might become gardeners, others would become soldiers, military oficers, household or government administrators, or even the prime minister (vezir) to the sultan. Since the sultan was entirely responsible for their maintenance, clothing was issued in accordance with status and responsibilities. Color and materials used in dress was therefore standardized for all court functionaries, including the army. The spectacle of the Ottoman army in the ield made a great impression on the Europeans who faced them in the 16th and 17th centuries and inspired the introduction of similarly uniformed national armies in the West by the end of the 17th century. Headgear was a particularly important marker of position and status. Very speciic and sometimes quite fantastic forms marked each ofice and branch of service, whether civil or military. For persons of highest rank, particularly those who personally served the sultan, the wearing of plumes was a distinct mark of honor. Court oficials would wear several layers of jackets and coats topped with long outer caftans. These outer coats were silk, and for the highest ranks could be made of quite elaborate fabrics. Caftans were presented at court receptions as a sign of honor to court oficials and persons singled out for special recognition. They were also part of the ceremonial reception of foreign ambassadors. The robe was presented prior to the audience with the sultan, worn into the sultan’s presence, and varied in richness depending on the regard in which the recipient or his government were held. The most sumptuous were made of cloth of gold and lined with

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The Sultan granting an audience to Jacopo Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador to Constantinople, miniature from an Arabic manuscript, seventh century. (DeAgostini/ Getty Images)

fur. Clothing was also a common part of the diplomatic exchange of gifts between heads of state (Gervers, 1982). The sultan himself wore the most elaborately layered ensemble for state occasions, made of the inest of fabrics. Workshops in Istanbul and Bursa made the most sumptuous of the brocades, velvets, and cloth of gold worn by members of the imperial household; however, by the 17th century these luxury silks were also being imported from Europe and elsewhere in Asia. Sultans often changed the style of the imperial turban as a mark of their personal reign, so that the shape of the sultan’s turban changed over time. A crest composed of spectacular jewels and plumes (sorguç) was worn at the front of the turban as a mark of royal status. Apart from the turban, the forms of the sultan’s dress changed relatively slowly over the centuries until 1826, when dress reform was introduced in conjunction with reforms in the army. The women of the court also wore clothing that followed traditional forms and was also made of the most luxurious materials available. Women’s garment forms, more than men’s, did undergo some cautious changes in detail by the 17th century, and more notable changes in the 18th and 19th centuries. The neckline of

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the caftan opened up somewhat in the 17th century, but became wider and deeper in the 18th century. The upper part of the caftan became snug to the body, not unlike European corseted bodices. The fullness and layering of the lower part of the caftan displayed an increasingly patterned array of fabrics and an ampliication of surface decoration, accessory sashes and veils, and delicate jewelry. This tendency continued to accelerate into the 19th century when, following the oficial dress reform for the army and bureaucracy, the women of the court also began to adopt elements of Western dress. By the last quarter of the 19th century court dress shifted to European forms.

Contemporary Use of Traditional Dress Traditional dress in Turkey has been largely abandoned in most parts of the country. However, there are signiicant exceptions, particularly in more isolated areas in the northern mountains and in the east. Even so, in most places most of the traditional materials used are no longer available, and so industrially made cloth is usually substituted for the handwoven textiles once used. Thus most surviving traditional dress differs signiicantly from that of a century ago, and at best it includes a mixture of traditional and modern materials used in a coniguration that more or less follows a traditional arrangement of the ensemble. However, the ubiquitous international outit of T-shirt, jeans, sweat pants, and elastic-waist skirts is fast replacing the şalvar, coat, and jacket of the past for everyday wear, even though women may continue to wear a headscarf. In some places traditional dress does appear for special occasions. Thus Turkey is well along the path of transition from traditional to mass fashion dress. Meanwhile, traditional dress has been preserved to a certain extent by the folklore movement. Following the founding of the Turkish Republic, the establishment of a strong national Turkish identity was seen to be very important in a society that had always been organized around tribal and clan identities. Folk dance competitions Turkish folk dance group performs at an interwere organized within each region, national festival. (Cherydi/Dreamstime.com)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress with a culminating national festival in which the best teams from each province competed. During much of the 20th century these events were attended by enthusiastic crowds that cheered for their home teams. The costumes for these dance groups became a very important marker of regional identity. Originally, traditional dress would vary widely throughout a given province, with every village and town identiiable by variations in the arrangement and materials of their dress. Therefore, there were hundreds of variations of traditional dress in each province. There were initially 67 provinces (now reorganized into 81 provinces or iller)—thus a very large variety of Turkish regional dress. Since Westernization of dress was encouraged in the name of secularization and modernization, the daily wearing of traditional regional dress was disappearing. Therefore traditional dress of the folklore dance teams became a stylized version of regional elements deemed to be most colorful and interesting within the region. Often elements were combined from different regions. This process of the homogenization of regional dress has continued to simplify and standardize regional dress for ever larger sections of the country. Folk dance festivals are now primarily organized for the entertainment of tourists, although folk dance is a regular part of school events and national holiday celebrations. Since the 1980s religious conservatives in Turkey have been challenging the secular constitutional structure of the Turkish Republic. Some Turks have always worn the outward signs of Muslim faith (headscarves and varying degrees of veils for women, combined with unitted outer coats or jackets for street wear; and brimless caps, mustaches, and beards for religious men). However, oficial institutions place restrictions on the devout in terms of their dress under certain conditions. Under federal law, a woman wearing a headscarf or a man wearing a brimless hat or beard may not enter a university, work in a government ofice, or sit in parliament. Some secularists ind this emergence of Muslim activism a threat to Turkey’s democracy. Secularist women in particular ind the return to headscarves by many women to be a challenge to the freedoms they have achieved. Others see the challenges to modern dress as evidence that Turkey may in fact be moving toward a more open society that truly permits diversity of faith and speech. However, in Turkey there has been a long tradition of the use of sumptuary laws to maintain order and deine status and identity. This practice dates back to the sumptuary edicts of Sultan Suleyman in the 16th century, and it was widely accepted by the general populace during the early centuries of the Ottoman Empire. To this day there seems to be a general assumption that controlling dress will control behavior and belief, and so the symbols of dress are taken very seriously by everyone. In this period the social conlicts within a rapidly industrializing society are clearly represented by the great differences in dress to be seen in any Turkish community.

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Further Reading and Resources Çagman, F. “Women’s Clothing.” In Woman in Anatolia: 9,000 Years of the Anatolian Woman, pp. 256–295. Istanbul: Ministry of Culture of the Turkish Republic, Topkapi Sarayi Museum, 1993. Garnett, Lucy M. J. The Women of Turkey and Their Folk-Lore: Jewish and Moslem Women. Vol. 2. New York: Ams Press, 1983 (reprint). Gervers, Veronika. The Inluence of Ottoman Turkish Textiles and Costume in Eastern Europe. History, Technology and Art Monograph. Vol. 4. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1982. Goffman, Daniel. The Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Jirousek, Charlotte. “From ‘Traditional’ to ‘Mass Fashion System’ Dress Among Men in a Rural Turkish Village.” Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, 15 (1997): 203–215. Jirousek, Charlotte. “More Than Oriental Splendor: European and Ottoman Headgear, 1380–1580.” Dress 22 (1995). Marchese, Ronald T., ed. The Fabric of Life: Cultural Transformations in Turkish Society. Binghamton, NY: Global Publications, State University of New York, 2005. Ozdalga, Elisabeth. The Veiling Issue, Oficial Secularism and Popular Islam in Modern Turkey. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies NIAS Report Series. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. Özel, M. Folklorik Türk Kiyafetleri [Turkish Folkloric Costumes]. Istanbul: Fine Arts Development Foundation of Turkey, 1992. Quataert, Donald. “Clothing Laws, State and Society in the Ottoman Empire, 1720– 1829.” International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 29 (1997): 403–425. Roxburgh, Donald J., ed. Turks: Journey of a Thousand Years. London: Royal Academy of Arts, 2005. Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s Costume of the Near and Middle East. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Welters, Linda, ed. Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs About Protection and Fertility. Dress, Body and Culture. New York: Berg, 1999. Woman in Anatolia: 9,000 Years of the Anatolian Woman. Istanbul: Ministry of Culture of the Turkish Republic, Topkapi Sarayi Museum, 1993.

United States: Hawaii Jennifer Ball

People and Dress Native Hawaiian dress came to be associated with three main garments: the aloha shirt for men; the mu’u mu’u, a short woman’s dress; and the holoku, a more formal, loor-length dress. However, these garments did not develop as dress for ethnic Hawaiians until the 19th century. Furthermore, the evolution of these garments was heavily dependent on styles brought by missionary and immigrant populations to Hawaii, a relection of the modern history of the islands themselves.

Kapa Cloth and Garments Prior to the creation of the holoku and other garments, Hawaiians dressed similarly to the peoples of Polynesia, as Hawaii was irst settled by Polynesians, probably from the Marquesas Islands, sometime in the third century BCE. Polynesians wore clothing made of kapa, pounded bark of the mulberry tree, often decorated with bold geometric patterns. The inner bark was stripped from the rougher outside and was then repeatedly soaked, bleached in the sun, and pounded out before being decorated, sometimes with bamboo stamps and sometimes painted freehand. Several yards of cloth would then be used to construct the garments. Men wore loincloths called malo, often accompanied by a cape, depending on their wealth. Women wore kapa pa’u, which was a wrapped skirt that went to the knee. The kapa garments were worn in layers, with a greater number of layers signifying a higher status. So a queen, according to some descriptions, might have worn as many as 10 layers of kapa, each four or ive yards in length. Status for women was also denoted by the placement of the garment. Royalty wore the pa’u just beneath the breasts while nonelite women wore the garment at the waist. Royalty in Hawaii were also known for their fantastic feather capes. The kings wore capes of small red and yellow feathers secured to a web of netting, typically in a trapezoidal shape. Later examples were cut in semicircles. Lesser chiefs also 740

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wore capes, but with larger feathers of more common birds, often in neutral colors, all of which made them less expensive. Feather capes were among the irst things traded with Europeans who came to the islands beginning in the 18th century. Some royal women also wore feathered pa’u in addition to the cape.

Holoku The introduction of Europeans and Americans to the Hawaiian Islands, beginning with the landing of Captain James Cook in 1778, brought European fashions to the people of Hawaii. When the irst missionaries arrived in the early 19th century, they reported seeing Hawaiian royal women donning European dresses. Because the kapa cloth was very stiff and uncomfortable to wear, in addition to being unwashable, Hawaiians traded for cloth, especially cotton calicos and linen, which were used to make the malo and pa’u. Missionaries were appalled by the immodest garments of the Hawaiians, as both men and women were bare-chested, so the holoku evolved as a garment to be worn in front of the missionaries. The irst holoku were made after the ship Thaddeus arrived in 1820 carrying missionary women wearing high-waisted dresses with narrow, loor-length skirts and long itted sleeves. These European styles were immediately coveted by the Hawaiian royalty who requested that the same gowns be made for them. Royal Hawaiians, however, were obese as a sign of high status, making the slenderwaisted European dress dificult to adapt. Thus a yoke was introduced above the bust and the waistline was removed from the dress, resulting in a full skirt descending from the yoke, with a high neck and itted sleeves. This dress came to be called the holoku. The introduction of the sewing machine to the Hawaiians coincided with the creation of the holoku. As the Hawaiians were converting to Christianity, the women adopted A woman wearing holoku, c. 1910. (Lake the garment in keeping with Christian County Museum/Corbis)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress notions of modesty. Notably, most missionary women did not wear the garment but kept their European and American gowns, thus the holoku became strongly associated with ethnic Hawaiians. The pa’u remained a status garment and was sometimes worn by Hawaiian royalty over the holoku. By 1840, the holoku had become the standard dress of Hawaiian women, while by mid-century the use of kapa cloth had all but disappeared. The making of kapa has been revived in Hawaii since the 1970s as part of a larger movement to preserve Hawaiian cultural heritage; some craftsmen reported having to travel Fiji to learn how to make the bark cloth as the knowledge had been lost in the Hawaiian Islands. Like any garment, the holoku, which has remained a part of Hawaiian formal dress, has succumbed to changing styles, though its basic form remains the same. The silhouette of the dress became slimmer over time, as the Hawaiians themselves placed less emphasis on girth. In the late 19th century trim, buttons, and eventually zippers were added. The dress was made with a train, which remains even in most modern examples of the garment. Today holoku can still be found for formal occasions such as weddings and at Hawaiian holiday festivities. They celebrate Hawaiian heritage, despite their roots in European dress.

The Aloha Shirt In the 19th century, Hawaiian men had many opportunities to see various types of shirts worn by the many visitors and immigrants to the islands. Beginning with the irst sailors who came for trade, Hawaiians saw “frocks,” in the parlance of the sailors, billowy shirts usually worn outside the pants. Hawaiians called these palaka and they were quickly adapted as a work shirt, especially on plantations and in mills. Palaka were generally solid-colored, sheer, and lightweight. They quickly developed front buttons, inluenced by the shirts seen on American traders. The button-down business shirt was more tailored, and so too the palaka developed a sleeker silhouette in the early 20th century. By the 1920s plantations harvesting sugar and pineapples among other products became the primary economy in Hawaii. It was at this time that the palaka took on a more oficial role as a uniform for plantation workers. The fabrics, largely imported from Japan, typically had Asian prints, but were sheer, lightweight, and worn hanging loosely over pants. As the native Hawaiians were for the most part poor and working class, clothes, especially for men, were work clothes. In the 1930s the manufacturing of palaka shirts expanded, with the companies Kamehameha and Branleet building large factories in Hawaii. While at irst these garment manufacturers supplied the plantations with their uniforms, these companies also began to produce shirts. The resulting palaka were primarily manufactured for tourists and for export to the U.S. mainland as they were too expensive

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Montgomery Clift and Frank Sinatra wear aloha shirts in a scene with Donna Reed in From Here to Eternity (1953). (Columbia Pictures/Photofest)

for locals. By the late 1930s, another company, Shaheen, and in 1937 the Royal Hawaiian Company also began producing the shirts. The sporty version of the palaka had Asian-inspired designs most often, because the fabrics were largely imported from Japan, and used just two or three colors. It was at this time that the term aloha shirt irst appeared. Ellery Chun began seeking local artists to create Hawaiian prints. Artists were inspired by local lora and fauna, in addition to local advertisemesnts and posters. Designs sometimes included Hawaiian words. Chun trademarked the term “aloha shirt” in 1936. Following that aloha came to be associated with many tourist goods, not just shirts. The real heyday of the aloha shirt came in the postwar period. During the war servicemen wore the shirts when not on duty and also bought them in great quantity for relatives at home. As one might expect, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Asian-inspired designs became less desirable and the demand for Hawaiian prints soared. After World War II, the shirts used many colors and prints that were bolder and more varied. Air travel opened from the U.S. mainland to Hawaii, which boosted the tourist trade. The popularity of suring, the ancient sport of Hawaiian

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress kings, which was associated with aloha shirts, was also on the rise. In addition, Hollywood became fascinated with Hawaii, shooting dozens of movies there with actors clad in aloha shirts, most famously From Here to Eternity (1953). The 1950s shirt was often made out of silk or a silk-feeling rayon, hence the nickname “silkies,” which the shirts were often called. In the 1960s, aloha shirts became toned down a bit in color, trending toward more minimalist designs. In the 1970s, many new designs developed that celebrated Hawaiian culture, for example, patterns inspired by Hawaiian quilts, in keeping with general reexamination of Hawaiian cultural history that emerged in that decade. The 1980s saw a brief rise in popularity of aloha shirts again as high-fashion European design houses took inspiration from the bright fabrics of Hawaii. Aloha shirts are still produced today for consumption by tourists as well as by locals. Locals will tell you that they can spot locals by the type of aloha shirt that they wear, with some patterns unoficially targeted at tourists while others are reserved for locals. Interestingly, since the 1960s, the aloha shirt has been in use as business wear. At irst it was worn just on Fridays, and the “casual Fridays” of American ofices everywhere picked up on this custom, but now it is common business attire for men on the islands. From a work shirt to a leisure shirt, it is once again used in the workplace.

Mu’u Mu’u The mu’u mu’u is a chemise that developed concurrently with the holoku in the 19th century. Contrary to the more formal uses for the holoku, however, the mu’u mu’u was originally used as sleepwear and swimwear. Despite its history, in the popular imagination the mu’u mu’u is in many respects a women’s wear version of an aloha shirt. One reason for this is that the fabrics used for mu’u mu’u parallel those used for aloha shirts; that is, early mu’u mu’u used Asian fabrics and in the mid-20th century, Hawaiian prints became standard for the dresses. Also like the aloha, mu’u mu’u can be worn by tourists or locals. The holoku, by contrast, is virtually unknown outside of Hawaii. While a short, loose, sleeveless dress best describes the mu’u mu’u, today the term is used by retailers rather lexibly to mean any summer dress that is made in a Hawaiian print. The conception of Hawaiian dress centers largely on what was developed for tourists: the modern mu’u mu’u and aloha shirt. Ethnic Hawaiians, however, place greater importance on the speciic patterns used for these garments, rather than the garments themselves. The holoku stands alone as a dress reserved only for ethnic Hawaiians. Hawaiian dress, after the kapa cloth garments disappeared, relects the many visitors to Hawaii throughout its rich history.

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Further Reading and Resources Arthur, Linda B. “The Aloha Shirt and Ethnicity in Hawaii.” Textile 4:1 (Spring 2006), 8–34. Arthur, Linda B. “The Holoku as an Expression of Ethnicity.” Fashion Theory 2:3 (September 1998), 269–286. Fullard-Leo, Betty, and Veronica S. Schweitzer. Various articles on Hawaiian culture and dress for Coffee Times Magazine. http://www.coffeetimes.com/past .htm#hac (accessed March 2012). Schweitzer, Veronica S. “Paintings of Paradise: The Hawaiian Aloha Shirt.” Fiberarts 24 (March/April 1998), 15. Steele, Valerie T. The Hawaiian Shirt, Its Art and History. New York: Abbeville Press, 1984. University of Hawaii Virtual Museum. http://www.museum.hawaii.edu (accessed March 2012).

United States: Hispanic West David Rickman

Historical and Geographical Background The term “Hispanic West” may be used to indicate the lands lying west of the Mississippi River, once claimed by Spain and later Mexico but now part of the United States. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California were the main areas of Hispanic settlement, though Spain originally claimed most of the West. The founding population included Spaniards and other Europeans, blacks, Native Americans, and every possible combination of these ethnic groups. For more than 300 years, beginning in 1528 with the shipwrecked survivors of the Narváez expedition at Galveston Bay, the clothing worn in the Hispanic West was that of Spain and New Spain (Mexico). Though the popular image of these earliest conquistadores (conquerors) shows them wearing high-combed morion helmets and short, round breeches, this is a myth that relects the arms and fashions of the second half of the 1500s, a time when Spain, having failed to discover rich empires or precious metals, largely abandoned these distant borderlands. The irst Spanish colonists arrived in New Mexico in 1598, led by Juan de Oñate and wearing clothing that already included the basic elements of a future national dress: men’s sombreros (hats with round brims), short doublets, and kneelength breeches; women’s petticoats with separate bodices and the ever-present rebozo (shawl). Settlers of every class but Indios (Native Americans) wore much the same styles, but were distinguished by the quality of their materials and decorations. This, too, became a hallmark of society in both New Spain and in what was its northern frontier—a desire to distinguish oneself by wearing not only every garment proper to a Spaniard, but of the best quality possible. The settlements of the Hispanic West were never self-suficient, remaining dependent on outside supply throughout their history both for basic goods and the iner things, especially clothing. New Mexico was the only province that manufactured its own cloth. Nevertheless, records show that such goods as linen from France and Germany, silks from Italy and China, velvet, damask, lace, and even shoes and stockings were imported over great distances and dificult conditions. 746

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People and Dress Western Hispaniola Dress Symbolized today by men’s lat-brimmed hats, decorated jackets and trousers, sashes and serapes, and women’s rufled skirts, high combs, and lace or fringed shawls, the clothing of the Hispanic West has both a long history and continuing inluence. Since every settler on the frontier relied on clothing goods imported from New Spain, it is not surprising that people all across the region dressed much like those in Mexico and, of course, one another. Descriptions of clothing worn in Texas and Arizona, and pictures from Baja California, all made circa 1765, show that nearly identical clothing was worn across a distance of more than 2,000 miles. This costume, for women, consisted of a chemise with round neckline and elbowlength sleeves, both gathered into a narrow rufle, over which was worn one or more petticoats of white linen or cotton. The overskirt was most often of wool. For most women, these were all the clothes they owned, but those who could added an embroidered jacket; those for feast days were of silk worn with a matching skirt. Imported shoes were worn with buckles. Men’s dress started with a white linen shirt and drawers, over which were worn knee-length breeches and a sleeved waistcoat. Over the waistcoat could be worn another coat with skirts reaching the hips and nearly always left unbuttoned. Before century’s end they were shortened to waist-length jackets. Coats often preserved the ancient fashion of sleeves left open down the front seams and hanging from the shoulders. Men always wore sombreros and two styles of shoe were popular. The irst was a low slipper whose uppers were decoratively slashed in a style dating back at least 200 years. The other was an ankle boot that laced up the side. These were worn with knitted stockings or with cloth hose gartered beneath the knees. The hose covered Spanish-American couple, 1800s. Handthe foot no farther than the heel and colored engraving of Frederic Remington could be worn with knitted socks or illustration. (North Wind Picture Archives)

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress cloth wrappings to cover the rest of the foot. Buckskin leggings made exactly like the cloth hose and confusingly called botas (boots) were worn by horsemen. The cape was worn by every class, but by mid-century so was a poncho-like garment called a manga, made of broadcloth and decorated with tinsel braid and a circular facing of ine cloth or velvet around the head hole. Sarapes were cut the same but ranged in quality from coarse blankets to inely patterned tapestries. By the second half of the century, both men and women wore their hair in the same styles. Usually, this was in a long braid down the back, but some also wore their loose hair gathered into hair nets. There is no evidence for men wearing scarves over their heads and tied at the back of the neck in the 18th century. Women only wore hats when traveling on horseback, when it would be dificult to manage the rebozo. From their irst arrival in the New World, the Spanish recognized cloth and clothing’s value in relations with Native Americans. For example, both were important in trade with the Pueblo Indians in 17th-century New Mexico. To gain the support of the Yuma chief, Palma, Captain Juan Bautista de Anza gave him in 1775 linen shirts, jacket and breeches of yellow-dyed buckskin, and a cap like that worn by Spanish dragoons. In California, where native peoples traditionally wore little or nothing, Franciscan missionaries used clothing to gain converts. By the early 1800s, they were able to report that their Indians received from them blankets, breechclouts, and petticoats of cloth. Both men and women wore a simple woolen shirt whose name, coton, may be partly responsible for the mistaken belief today that Mission Indian men wore pajama-like clothes of white cotton. The padres also noted that they gave complete suits of Spanish clothing as a sign of rank to Indians who helped them as oficials or skilled workers, such as vaqueros. Finally, Spanish garments were copied and worn by many independent tribes in the West, such as the Apaches and Caddos. Native American weavers in the Southwest imitated Spanish sarape patterns in some of their own woolen blankets. During the Mexican War of Independence (1810–1821), the national dress of Mexico for men saw several changes. The braided queue was cut off, and for the irst time there is evidence of men covering their heads with scarves tied behind or over the forehead. Breeches were replaced by side-buttoning trousers (calzoneras) evidently inspired by the overalls worn by Spanish cavalrymen. These were left unbuttoned to display loose white drawers underneath. With them was worn a new form of bota that was a lat, semitriangular piece of leather forming a bell shape from knee to ankle. Women’s fashions also saw changes in the early 19th century. Gowns were worn more frequently, though the use of petticoats and chemises continued, with jackets appearing especially for iestas. Braided hair was increasingly worn up,

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either wrapped around the head or gathered in a bun at the back, often held by a comb. For a short time in the 1820s through 1830s, high combs were fashionable. These new fashions spread to Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona at almost the same time as trade restrictions were lifting, allowing new people, products, and fashions from the United States and elsewhere to low into the provinces. In Texas, this started with Stephen F. Austin’s small colony on the Brazos River in 1821. At almost exactly the same time in New Mexico, trade goods from the United States began to low along the Santa Fe Trail. California was the most distant province from New Spain and this isolation affected the clothing worn there. For more than 10 years, revolution in Mexico left California isolated and without the vital annual supply ships that had supported the province since its founding. There was no tradition of home spinning and weaving among the Hispanic families so they turned to the Missions, where Indian labor provided the basic clothing necessities, and to illegal trade with foreign vessels for iner goods. Yet clothing remained scarce and quite conservative until after 1834, when the newest forms of national dress described above arrived from Mexico and trade in cattle hides and tallow led to unexpected wealth. In just 12 years, from 1836 to 1848, the Texas Revolution, Mexican-American War, and California Gold Rush managed to sever the Hispanic West from its more than 300 years of connection to Mexico and overwhelmed local clothing traditions with waves of new immigrants, fashions, and manufactured goods. Nevertheless, these traditions managed to linger for much of the rest of the century in areas most isolated from foreign inluences, that is, closest to the border with Mexico. The Hispanic populations of these new states and territories continued to wear traditional clothing, or a mix of traditional and American styles, for work and especially for celebrations. Increasingly, though, as the 19th century drew to a close, these clothes were abandoned as changing fashions and mass-production and supply created a uniied American wardrobe. Yet the dress of the Hispanic West did not die but evolved from daily wear to iesta costume and inally to symbols of a romanticized past. In Santa Fe, New Mexico, for example, a yearly iesta and parade to celebrate the resettling of the Spanish colonists in the city in 1712 includes men dressing in conquistador styles and women dressed in gowns accessorized with high combs, mantillas, and fans, along with one young woman crowned as queen and one young man crowned as Don Diego De Vargas, the Spaniard who is credited with leading the resettlement. A continued interest in the Southwest in folkloric Mexican dancing featuring beautiful, vibrantly colored costumes holds its appeal. Professional groups such as the Ballet Folklorico de México and others hold well-attended performances. Some Latino parents enroll their children in folklorico dancing classes.

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Street scene in Santa Fe, New Mexico, mid-19th century. (North Wind Picture Archives)

Through literature, festivals, theater, movies, television, and musical performers, popular culture has revived and redesigned these clothes to suit changing tastes and times. The so-called China Poblana style of highly decorated chemises and petticoats was never an important inluence in the Hispanic West; it was adopted for iestas and eventually worked its way into ilms, although the embroidered cotton blouses of the China Poblano style have endured periodically for women in the Southwest since the 1950s. High combs, lace mantillas, heavy embroidery, fringes, spangles, and rufles were all exaggerated to the point of caricature. Fringed and embroidered crepe silk mantons (shawls) were even converted into sarong-like dresses by the 1920s. And from the many versions of Zorro to Clint Eastwood’s poncho and the Hispanic-inluenced performance clothing of Elvis Presley and Stevie Ray Vaughan to the spangled and embroidered suits worn by country and western performers, something about the dress of the Hispanic West still ires popular imagination and keeps it alive.

Further Reading and Resources Anderson, Ruth Matilda. Hispanic Costume 1480–1530. New York: Hispanic Society of America, 1979.

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Bancroft, Hubert Howe. California Pastoral, 1769–1848. San Francisco: The History Company, 1888. Bernis, Carmen. Indumentaria Española en Tiempos de Carlos V. Madrid: Instituto Diego Velazquez, 1962. Boyd, E. Popular Arts of Spanish New Mexico. Santa Fe: The Museum of New Mexico Press, 1974. Colligan, John B. The Juan Paez Hurtado Expedition of 1695; Fraud in Recruiting Colonists for New Mexico. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. Hammond, George P., and Agapito Rey. Don Juan de Onate; Colonizer of New Mexico, 1595–1698. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1953. Hoyt, Catherine A. “Material Culture of the Spanish Explorers.” Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society 77 (2006): 7–26. Katzew, Ilona. Casta Painting; Images of Race in Eighteenth-Century Mexico. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2004. Los Angeles County Museum. A Guide and Catalogue of the California Hall at the Los Angeles County Museum. Russell E. Belous and Burton A. Reiner, eds. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum, 1964. Perissinotto, Giorgio, et al. Documenting Everyday Life in Early Spanish California; the Santa Barbara Presidio Memorias y Facturas, 1779–1810. Santa Barbara: The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, 1998. Peterson, Harold L. Arms and Armor in Colonial America: 1526–1783. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole Press, 1956. Trigg, Heather B. From Household to Empire; Society and Economy in Early Colonial New Mexico. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2005.

United States: New England Jennifer Swope

Historical Background In New England, ordinary working people such as farmers, craftsmen, storekeepers, and ishermen wore folk dress. Many folk were descended from the original Puritan settlers of the 1600s, who, in transplanting their middling culture, fostered an attitude toward dress that lasted long after their political dominance waned. While many of New England’s wealthy merchants, landowners, and political and military leaders shared this Puritan ancestry, these elites generally had larger wardrobes of higher quality and more stylish garments, but many used the symbolic power of folk dress to suit their own purposes. Because so little folk dress survives compared to high-style clothing, historians have to use contemporary paintings, portraits, and historical documents, such as account books, diaries, and probate inventories, to understand what ordinary people wore. Like their occupations, their dress changed in response to their circumstances. A farmer may have been a isherman or a potter in the winter, and his wife might have been a midwife or tailor when needed. She would have worn a functional short gown and petticoat during the day for heavy work and changed into a printed cotton gown with a lacetrimmed cap for afternoon visiting or Sunday best.

People and Dress Starting in 1629, the groups of Puritan families that immigrated to New England were mostly middle-class farmers and craftsmen from southeastern England. Black, the stereotypical color of Pilgrim dress, was usually reserved for elders and ministers—the spiritual and political leaders of these early New England settlements. Most of these original Puritan settlers and their descendants continued to wear “duds” (an English slang term for clothing, which persisted in New England) in what they called “sad” (or deep) colors: muted reds, oranges, browns, and greens. In Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century, men typically wore linen shirts, leather vests called jerkins or bodkins, wide-legged wool or leather trousers 752

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that came to the knee called breeches, stockings or hose that were tied with garters above the knee, and simple tied shoes or brogans.

Materials and Techniques In the 18th century, although American colonists often imported yards of cloth from Britain, many New England households made homespun linen and wool for their everyday clothing. Several factors encouraged regional household textile production. New England’s climate was good for growing lax, and 17th-century emigrants from southeastern England and 18th-century emigrants from Ireland came from areas with strong weaving traditions. While high-fashion clothing was usually made from imported printed cotton or igured wool or silk, common work clothing was made from homespun or plainer, coarser imported linen or wool. While it was costly to purchase or trade locally made goods for imported textiles, the alternative of turning lax and leece into linen and wool cloth at home remained a time- and labor-intensive undertaking. Until the second quarter of the 19th century when industrially produced cotton cloth began replacing homespun, many New Englanders participated in some aspect of textile production, with some people weaving and most women and children carding and spinning. Because all textiles were valuable, women used them sparingly in making clothing for their families and devoted hours to patching, darning, and altering clothing to pass on to other family members. A farmer might pay an itinerant or local tailor to cut out and partially sew a man’s coat or woman’s gown, but his wife or daughters would often inish it. Most clothing, high-style and folk, was simply constructed with abutting or narrow seams and easily removed tucks and pleats, which kept the material intact and eased a garment’s repair and reuse. Tape ties, lacings, drawstrings, and metal hooks and eyes were used for closures and were easily transferred between garments. Removable buttons, like modern cuff links, were common. Molded wooden buttons with catgut loops were a modest alternative to those made of metal.

Men’s and Women’s Dress Long New England winters have always made wool outer clothing indispensable. Both men and women wore wool cloaks and felt hats with broad brims in the 17th and 18th centuries. Working-class men and boys wore knitted wool caps, and women and children wrapped themselves in simple wool shawls for warmth. In the 19th century, homemade shag wool mittens kept hands warm. Women’s red riding hoods were the quintessential articles of New England folk dress. Most surviving examples are made of English broadcloth, the highest quality plain-woven wool

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress available in America. These durable cloaks were prized and carefully passed down from mother to daughter. Rich or poor, men wore long shirts and women wore shifts under their clothes during the day and slept in them at night. In New England, a middle-class man might have owned half a dozen shirts while a wealthy landowner or “gentleman” might have owned 20. The most expensive shirts and shifts were made of inely woven imported linen trimmed with even iner linen rufles at the neck opening, while less costly versions were made of homespun linen, osnaburg (coarse unbleached linen cloth), or tow cloth made from the distaff of combing lax before spinning. Homespun woven Riding hood, last quarter of the 18th cenand knitted linen stockings were worn tury, wool plain weave. (Gift of Miss Ellen A. Stone 99.664.16/Photograph © 2013 in summer and wool stockings were Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) worn in winter, while wealthier people could afford iner imported stockings made of cotton or silk. Women and girls, rarely bareheaded, wore simple caps made of linen (and later cotton) that it under bonnets and hoods. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, a man or older boy would have worn a vest, called a waistcoat, and a pair of breeches over his shirt. John Singleton Copley’s portrait of Boston silversmith Paul Revere shows him informally dressed in a simple waistcoat probably of plain weave wool with unbuttoned shirtsleeves, preparing to engrave a teapot. A woman or young child would have worn a pair of stays (later called a corset) that laced up over her shift. Less expensive stays were made of leather, and more expensive ones were made of wool, lined with linen, and stiffened or “boned” with thin strips of baleen from whales. By the end of the 18th century, lighter boned stays were made from cotton. One or two pockets, which were lat bags with vertical slits at the top, could be tied around the waist. A petticoat, or skirt, was worn over the shift and pockets. In cold weather, women layered several petticoats and often wore quilted ones. Over a shift, stays, pockets, and petticoat, women wore either a full-length dress, called a gown, or a loose jacket, called a short gown, which was more common for daily work. For men, a coat was the formal equivalent of a woman’s gown. Ordinary people wore outer

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pieces made of different fabrics in unmatched colors and rarely changed all of their clothes at once. The average woman in New England owned four or ive gowns and petticoats, and her male counterpart had a few coats, waistcoats, and pairs of breeches.

Children’s Clothing Until the mid-18th century when childhood was recognized as a distinct phase of life, children were dressed like miniature versions of their parents. By the 1780s, loose trousers and dresses became the norm for boys and girls. Girls and very young boys were dressed in gowns and petticoats until age ive, when boys were “breeched”—dressed in simple suits often made of tow cloth or homespun fustian (a cotton and Child’s frock dress, early 19th century, linen twill). These outits, called skel- printed cotton. (Gift of Miss Ellen A. Stone eton suits, included pants that buttoned 99.664.65/Photograph © 2013 Museum of into the jacket around the waist. Girls Fine Arts, Boston) often wore frock dresses that tied at the back, instead of gowns like their mothers. Mothers cut their children’s clothing generously and used tape ties, drawstrings, tucks, and pleats to adjust the size of a garment for growth or to pass down to a younger family member.

Accessories Ubiquitous neck cloths came in a array of shapes, sizes, and fabrics that varied as much as their names—kerchief, neckerchief, tucker, ichu, cravat, bandanna, and handkerchief. Men tied them around their shirt collars; Paul Revere is shown wearing a plain one in his portrait. Women often wore large kerchiefs with the ends tucked into the top of their gown or tied around the waist. Utilitarian checked and plaid homespun kerchiefs of wool or linen were common, but printed cotton or silk handkerchiefs from India, and later Britain or China, were a relatively affordable luxury textile that allowed middle- and working-class people to incorporate exotic colors, patterns, and materials into their dress.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress As work was never done, work clothes were essential to the New England folk who wore them regularly and a powerful symbol for those who did not. Sailors and other workmen wore loose trousers over their breeches, and craftsmen wore leather aprons that came to symbolize their status in colonial America. In 1727, Boston native Benjamin Franklin founded the Leather Apron Club in Philadelphia. This civilimprovement society, later called the Junto, welcomed self-taught craftsmen like Franklin, prominent merchants, and only a single “gentleman,” who contributed his library. To keep petticoats clean, New England women donned Paul Revere, 1768, by John Singleton Copley checked or striped blue-and-white (1738–1815), oil on canvas. (Gift of Joseph W. aprons of linen or wool. Although ine Revere, William B. Revere and Edward H. R. white aprons with loral embroidery Revere 30.781/Photograph © 2013 Museum might have been worn for Sunday best of Fine Arts, Boston) and short embroidered silk aprons were fashionable earlier in the 18th century, plain utilitarian aprons and tyers (or coveralls) were the norm for everyday dress. In rural areas, farmers’ frocks (or overshirts or smocks) were as common for men as aprons were for their wives. Frocks of cotton or linen were worn with or without a shirt underneath in summer, and wool frocks were worn over a waistcoat or coat in cold wet weather. Although white frocks were traditionally worn at agricultural fairs, blue-and-white striped ones were most common. The perceived virtue of plain folk dress persisted in New England, where it thrived during the pre-Revolutionary period of political unrest through the early years of the republic when consumer boycotts and much touted, but largely unsuccessful, attempts to replace British imports with American-made textiles were common. Protesting the Stamp Act and Townshend duties, the Harvard and Yale classes of 1768 and 1769, respectively, elected to wear homespun suits to commencement. Although token gestures of self-suficiency occurred throughout America, New England was especially known for its spinning bees and household textile production, which created the basic fabric for folk clothing. While most Americans wore folk dress of some type, it had greater signiicance in New England, because whether worn for practical or symbolic reasons it appealed to a culture that saw virtue in necessity.

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Further Reading and Resources Baumgarten, Linda. What Clothes Reveal, The Language of Clothing in Colonial and Federal America. Virginia: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation in association with Yale University Press, 2002. Earle, Alice Morse. Costume of Colonial Times. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1894. Fennelly, Catherine. The Garb of Country New Englanders, 1790–1840: Costumes at Old Sturbridge Village. Sturbridge, MA: Old Sturbridge Village, 1966. Fischer, David Hackett. Albion’s Seed, Four British Folkways in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. Nylander, Jane C. Our Own Snug Fireside, Images of the New England Home, 1760–1860. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993. Trautman, Patricia. “Dress in Seventeenth-Century Cambridge, Massachusetts: An Inventory-Based Reconstruction.” Early American Probate Inventories, in Annual Proceedings of the Dublin Seminar for New England Folklife, 11 (1987), ed. Peter Benes. Boston: Boston University, 1987. Wright, Meredith. Everyday Dress of Rural America, 1783–1800 with Instructions and Patterns. New York: Dover Publications, 1992.

Vietnam Laura P. Appell-Warren

Historical Background There is archeological evidence from Chau Can, in the Red River Valley (Sông Hồng), of prehistoric human habitation of Vietnam. Bronze implements, wooden cofins, and tools found at the site have been dated to 400 BCE. This evidence suggests that the people of the Red River were among the irst East Asians to practice agriculture. Much of the history of Vietnam is inextricably linked with periods of colonial rule. As early as 221 BCE the Ch’in Dynasty in China took over the region now known as Vietnam. Chinese rule was to continue for a thousand years. The irst Vietnamese dynasty, the Ly, was founded in 1010 and lasted until 1225. In 1407 China once again conquered Vietnam and the Ming dynasty attempted to reintegrate Vietnam into the Chinese empire. In 1428 resistance forces under the rule of Le Loi defeated the Chinese and restored Vietnam’s independence, but by the late 16th century the Le dynasty was in decline, further weakened by the arrival of Christian missionaries and European powers. In the 1880s France established itself as Vietnam’s colonial ruler. The imposition of French colonial rule met with little opposition until the 1920s when the nationalist party began demanding reform after years of poor conditions for workers. In 1930 Ho Chi Min formed an Indochinese Communist Party but met with little success. During World War II Japan received the right to place Vietnam under military occupation, restricting French administration to igurehead authority. When the Japanese surrendered to the Allies in August 1945, the Communist Vietminh forces arose and declared the establishment of an independent republic in Hanoi. The French were unwilling to concede independence and drove the Vietminh out of the south. For more than a year the French and the Vietminh sought a negotiated solution, but war broke out in December 1946. After a conlict lasting eight years the French agreed, in 1954, to end the war.

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After the withdrawal of the French the Vietminh in Hanoi began to build a communist society. In the southern capital of Saigon, Bao Dai’s French-supported rule was soon replaced by a new administration under the staunch anti-Communist president Ngo Dinh Diem, who had support from the United States. He refused to hold elections and and tried to destroy the inluence of the Communists in South Vietnam, but by 1959, the failure of Diem’s social and economic programs led to unrest. The Communists then resumed their revolutionary war. In 1963, following the death of Diem, the Communists were on the verge of victory and the United States, fearing a collapse of the Saigon regime, sent combat troops into South Vietnam. After a decade of war, peace was in sight and the United States was beginning the process of the removal of troops. However, on April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the Communists, and in 1976 the South was reunited with the North in the new Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Despite the withdrawal of U.S. troops and the creation of the uniied Socialist Republic of Vietnam, the country did not enter a peaceful era. Continued conlict with Cambodia and China led to two decades of slow recovery from years of violence. Now, in 2011, improved relations with the United States and increased foreign investments, along with recent treaties and trade agreements, have positioned Vietnam for economic success.

Geographic and Environmental Background Vietnam is located in Southeast Asia on the eastern side of the Indochinese Peninsula. Vietnam is bordered by China, Laos, and Cambodia, but for the most part is separated from the neighboring countries by mountains. Vietnam has a long coastline that includes the waters of the South China Sea, the Gulf of Tonkin, and the Gulf of Thailand. Vietnam is divided into several geographic regions from north to south: the Red River Delta, the Highlands, the Central Highlands, the Coastal Lowlands, and the Mekong River Delta. The climate of northern Vietnam is humid subtropical with humidity averaging 84 percent throughout the year; however, given the variation in elevation and terrain, the climate differs considerably from place to place, with the mountains in the north sometimes having frost. In southern Vietnam the climate is tropical savanna with high humidity and distinct wet and dry seasons. Annual rainfall ranges from 1,200 to 3,000 millimeters (47.2 to 118.1 inches). The subsistence economy of Vietnam is traditionally based on slash and burn agriculture, wet rice agriculture, and ishing. Since Vietnam’s entry into the world market the export of ish and shrimp as well as a variety of manufactured goods has contributed to economic growth in Vietnam.

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People and Dress Ethnic and Religious Diversity The population of Vietnam was estimated at 91.5 million people in 2012. While the Kihn (also referred to as the Viet) majority accounts for 87 percent of the population, Vietnam is home to 54 recognized ethnic groups each with its own language, religious beliefs, and dress. For example, the Thai tribe are known for their skillful textile weavings, and the Dao wear brightly colored clothing decorated with silver beads and coins. The hill tribes experienced terrible hardship during the many years of conlict in Vietnam, but today they strive to maintain their communities and traditions and wear their traditional clothing with pride.

History of Dress The áo dài, pronounced ow-zai in the south and ow-yai in the north, has become the national dress of Vietnam for both men and women, although it is the women’s version that is most well known. The áo dài’s familiar style is the result of both Chinese and French inluence. In the centuries between early Chinese colonial rule and the Ming dynasty’s rule of Vietnam the women wore an outit consisting of a skirt (vay) and a halter top (yem), an outit similar to that worn by many Southeast Asian peoples. During the Ming dynasty the Chinese condemned the vay as immodest and immoral, forced women to wear Chinese-style pants, and prohibited them from showing their feet (Leshkowich, 2003). During the Nguyen dynasty the vay was again banned and pants became more popular among women from the ruling Mandarin classes. During this period a garment called the áo tứ thân became popular. The áo tứ thân consisted of a loose-itting shirt with a stand-up collar and a diagYoung women wear áo dài, Hoi An, Vietnam. onal closure that ran along the side from neck to armpit and down the ribs (Bartosz Hadyniak/iStockphoto.com)

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(Leshkowich, 2003, 90). While resembling the áo tứ than, the áo dài has some prominent differences. These include the closure and collar that are inspired by Chinese garments. Because of the inconvenience of wearing it for manual labor the áo dài was worn primarily by the upper classes. Originally, women wore the áo dài over a brightly colored yem, but for festivals and for warmth they would layer three or more áo dài of different colors, leaving the upper closure open so that the layers could be seen. During the 19th century French-educated designers remodeled the áo dài into what is worn today: a close-itting, tailored garment with raglan sleeves, a mandarin collar and frog closures, and side slits that run from the hem to the waist. While a variety of versions of the áo dài have come and gone over the years, such as the áo dài mini, what started as dress worn only by the upper classes became the fashion for modern Vietnamese women in the early 20th century. However, because the garment is dificult to work in, upper- and middle-class women and adolescent schoolgirls are still the only ones to wear the áo dài on a daily basis. Others, including men, wear the áo dài for holidays and other special occasions. It is important to note that upper-class women continue to wear designer áo dài as an indicator of status and prestige.

Materials and Techniques The áo dài is made of printed cotton for everyday and summer use, of wool for winter use, and of plain or embroidered silk for special occasions. The fabrics are mixed with polyester to reduce wrinkling. The color of the áo dài is an indicator of age and status. Thus, schoolgirls tend to wear white, symbolizing youthful innocence and coming of age. Unmarried women wear pastel colors with white pants, while older married women wear darker, vibrant colors with black pants. The closure of the mandarin collar is done with frogs, and contrast edging may appear on the collar, cuffs, and hem. The áo dài is generally custom made, which accounts for the lattering it that highlights the igure of the wearer. However, because of the popularity of the áo dài, it is now possible to purchase a mass produced, untailored áo dài.

Everyday and Special-Occasion Dress Currently everyday dress in Vietnam is Western garb, although many do choose to wear the áo dài. However, as already noted, schoolgirls still commonly wear the áo dài. For special occasions the áo dài is preferred dress, and both men and women are known to wear the áo dài at engagement parties and as wedding garb.

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Component Parts The áo dài is made up of three elements. First, a long, close-itting tunic with mandarin collar and high slits up the side seams, the áo dài, for which the garment is named. Second, loose pants called quần, generally made of white, but sometimes of black material. Third, a donut-shaped conical hat called the khăn đóng.

Jewelry, Body Paint, and Body Modiication There is no history of body paint or body modiication in traditional Viet culture. The jewelry worn is minimal, especially when wearing the áo dài. However, there is a traditional neckpiece, called a kiềng cổ, that is worn with the áo dài. The neckpiece is a stiff circle of gold or silver, either plain or engraved, modeled on indigenous jewelry originally worn by some of the hill tribes. Upper-class women wear these neckpieces as a sign of status and wealth. The traditional kiềng cổ is worn at weddings, and it is customary for the groom’s family to give the neckpiece to the bride as a wedding gift.

Traditional Vietnamese áo dài silk tunic, made for U.S. president George W. Bush to wear at the Asia-Paciic Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, is seen in Hanoi, 2006. (Adreees Latif/X90022/Reuters/Corbis)

Contemporary Use of Ethnic Dress The áo dài has a high proile today as civil servants, tour guides, hotel and restaurant workers, and light attendants wear it. The 1995 Miss International Beauty Pageant was a turning point for the áo dài. During that pageant Miss Vietnam won the prize for “Best National Costume,” and for the people of Vietnam the prize was for much more than a beautiful garment. The áo dài was described in the press as symbolizing Vietnam’s national soul. The áo dài continues to be featured in many beauty pageants, both in Vietnam and abroad. In the United States, Vietnamese American beauty pageants all feature the áo dài as a fundamental part of the pageant. For many of the Vietnamese diaspora “the áo dài conjures up romantic images of a Vietnamese past that is pure and

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untainted by war” (Lieu, 2000, 140). The beauty pageants thus provide a venue for cultural preservation for the Vietnamese living in the United States.

Further Reading and Resources “Ao Dai Relects Beauty of Vietnamese Culture.” The Vietnam News Agency, October 19, 2011. General OneFile. Web. October 2011. Fraser-Lu, Sylvia. “South East Asia.” In Sylvia Fraser-Lu, ed. 5000 Years of Textiles. London: British Museum Press, 1993, pp. 153–165. Hemmet, Christine. Montagnards des Pays d’Indochine; Dans les Collections du Musee de l’Homme. Ville de Boulogne-Billancourt, France: Editions Sepia, 1995. Jonsson, Hjorleifur R., and Nora A. Taylor. “National Colors: Ethnic Minorities in Vietnamese Public Imagery.” In Sandra Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich, and Carla Jones, eds. The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2003, pp. 159–184. Kalman, Bobbie. Vietnam: The People. New York: Crabtree Publishing, 2002. Levinson, David, and Karen Christensen, eds. Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2002.  Leshkowich, Ann Marie. “The Ao Dai Goes Global: How International Inluences and Female Entrepreneurs Have Shaped Vietnam’s ‘National Costume.’” In Sandra Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich, and Carla Jones, eds. The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2003, pp. 79–115. BooLieu, N. T. “Remembering ‘the Nation’ through Pageantry: Femininity and the Politics of Vietnamese Womanhood in the ‘Ha Hau Ao Dai’ Contest.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies 21 (2000): 127–151. Nguyen, Van Huy. Vietnam Museum of Ethnology. Hanoi, Vietnam: Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, 1998. Nhuong, Dao Manh, and John R Schermerhorn Jr. “Vietnam Airlines’ CEO Dao Manh Nhuong on Strategic Leadership.” The Academy of Management Executive 14:4 (2000): 16–19. Shaw, Ian, and Robert Jameson. A Dictionary of Archaeology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell, 2002. “Style-Designer Minh Hanh Brings the Ao Dai, Vietnam’s Traditional Costume, Back into Fashion.” People Weekly, May 1, 2001: 66–72. Tran, Ha P. Personal interview. October 11, 2011.

Yemen and Oman Christina Lindholm

Historical and Geographical Background Yemen and Oman are independent countries located on the southern and eastern edges of the Arabian Peninsula. Because of their location, both countries played historically important roles in international trade within the Middle Eastern region. The southwestern Yemen strait, Bab El-Mandeb, links the Red Sea with the Indian Ocean and allowed Yemen to become the intermediary for trade with Africa and India, as well as a link to China. Luxury items such as incense, pearls, and silks passed through their trading centers. Oman’s location on the eastern side of the Arabian peninsula and its control of the Arabian Gulf via the Straits of Hormuz made that country powerful in the international trade of Persian Gulf pearls and the African slave trade. Yemen and Oman share many similarities as well as signiicant differences. Both countries are populated by coastal settlements, which have long histories of maritime activity, and thus have experienced international exposure and interaction with European countries for many hundreds of years. Both countries also have mountainous interiors, far less populated and largely isolated. Yemen and Oman are both primarily Muslim, but differ in that Omanis practice Ibadhism, a sect known for its moderate conservatism. Yemen’s Muslim population is nearly equally divided between the two most well-known sects with Sunnis slightly outnumbering Shi‘as. Politically, Oman is a hereditary sultanate, although Sultan Qaboos bin Sa’id, ruler since 1970, has established a modern governmental structure with an elected body that reviews all proposed legislation. He has successfully balanced representation on his Council of Ministers in terms of ethnicity, tribal afiliation, and region and rules the country far more like a democracy than a sultanate. Yemen, however, has had a more divided history. The northern area gained independence in 1918 with the demise of the Ottoman Empire and was then governed by religious leaders until the army seized power in 1962 and established the Yemen Arab Republic. Southern Yemen remained a British protectorate until 1967 when the British withdrew from the region and it became the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen. The two Yemens united in 1990 as the Republic of Yemen, 764

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although tensions between the north and south persist today based on both religious struggles and differences in political ideologies. The population of Yemen is estimated at 24,771,800. Economically, the countries are also quite different. Yemen is the poorest of the Persian Gulf nations with an annual per capita income of only $2,600 per year. It is still heavily dependent on declining oil reserves and has as yet been unsuccessful in diversifying its economy. Oman previously experienced many of the same dificulties as Yemen, particularly after the slave trade was outlawed. Forty years of Sultan Qaboos’s reign, however, have seen major improvements in developing income independent from oil, with a particular concentration on tourism. In 2010, the per capita income was estimated at $25,800, nearly 10 times that of Yemen. The population of Oman was estimated at 3,090,150 in 2012. Despite these differences, other than regional specialties, the basic forms of dress in Yemen and Oman bear great similarities. It is likely that the early origins of these dress styles are based on silhouettes originating within the Ottoman Empire.

People and Dress Women in both countries follow the Islamic directive to dress modestly. This has been interpreted in many different ways and is often a relection of the customs of a particular region, but most commonly includes outer garments, which are worn when out of the home or when around nonfamilial males. These garments are worn over a woman’s indoor dress, typically cover her hair, and do not reveal the shape of her body. Any type of head or face cover is generally not adopted until a girl reaches puberty, but more conservative families may require girls to wear some variety of head cover as young as age ive or six.

Oman In Oman, traditional women’s dress consisted of three separate pieces, often brightly colored and heavily embroidered. The names vary from region to region, as do details of embroidery and fabrication, which help to identify a woman’s speciic home. In general, the thawb or dishdasha is a loose dress or tunic which either extends to just below the knee or may be as long as to the ankles. This garment usually has a round neckline, no collar, and a front opening. It has long sleeves and a gentle A-line shape. Loose trousers gathered into a buttoned ankle cuff called sirwaal are worn under the dress, and the ensemble is inished with a head covering made of a light cotton cloth variously called waqaya, lihaf, al-laisu, al-ghadfa, or kanga. These items may be wrapped in such a way as to merely cover the hair, or fashioned to completely conceal a woman’s entire face.

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress The kanga is a particularly interesting addition to Omani dress as it is a printed cotton cloth with wide borders and a central picture or motif, often with a sassy saying in Swahili along one edge. It originated in Tanzania and is reminiscent of Oman’s historic connections with Zanzibar. The thawb and sirwaal are usually made from printed or plain cotton cloth with embroidery around the neck, the cuffs, and the hem of the thawb, although they may also be made from velvet, satin, or silk. Embroidery is prevalent on the sirwaal ankle cuff and these cuffs are often reused when the upper part of the trouser is worn out. The embroidery is often of the silOmani women in traditional dress clap dur- ver or gold metallic Indian style. Silk embroidery may also be used as well ing a cultural performance in Al Qurayyat, Oman, c. 1990. (Arthur Thévenart/Corbis) as lace or woven ribbon. A popular outer garment in Oman is a black cotton mesh over dress called a ghabah. In the early 21st century, though, the abaya is replacing the ghabah as the most common woman’s outer dress in the northern part of Oman and in the capital, Muscat. The abaya is a loor-length, collarless, dress-like robe of a black, silky cloth with long sleeves. It is worn with a shayla, a two-foot-long rectangular scarf that wraps around the head roughly one and a half times, covering hair and neck. Jewelry is an important addition to an Omani woman’s wardrobe. Pieces are large and intricate and are traditionally of silver, although modern pieces may be gold. The work is intricate and features elaborate patterns and symbols, and may even have engraved Qur’anic verses in calligraphy.

Yemen Yemeni women also dress conservatively and they, too, have a history of a three-piece suit of clothes. They also wear a long-sleeved, calf-length, loose dress called a zinnah. Like Omani dress, the zinnah is colorful and the various components are often of several different fabrics including silk, satin, velvet, and cotton prints. Embroidery is popular, both by hand, but more commonly today by

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machine. The zinnah usually has a round neckline, is knee to mid-calf length, and is worn over sirwaals. The width of a zinnah differs throughout Yemen and is based on the width of the available fabrics. The Yemeni sirwaal differs from the Omani in that it may be loose and full and gathered at the ankle into a buttoned cuff, or slim itting up to the waist. Embroidery around the ankle cuff is important. The sirwaal is considered an essential garment, indicative of a woman’s modesty. Like their Omani sisters, Yemeni women cover their heads when in public, and previously also covered their faces. Veiling is not required by law, and the women who choose to veil do so to respect tradition. Traditional dress began to be replaced in the 1960s by the sharshaf, a threepiece black outit consisting of an ankle-length pleated skirt, a triangular hood worn over the head and shoulders, and a face veil. This garment is reputed to have come from Turkey and began to be adopted by rural women to indicate their modernity and sophistication. In the 1970s, a loose overcoat, the balto, appeared and has become the most common form of women’s outer dress in cities. It is thought that the balto originated in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, or Lebanon and was brought back by Yemen citizens who either vacationed or worked in those countries. The balto, like the sharshaf, is worn over another set of clothing and while the sharshaf is black, the balto is available in many colors. However, in the early 21st century, the black abaya and shayla are also increasingly seen in the capital city. Given the income level of the country, it is safe to assume that it will be a while before the abaya completely replaces traditional regional dress. Two distinctive Yemen women’s garments are the sitarah and the maghmug. The sitarah is a large polished cotton rectangle with a small red and blue print. These were imported from India in the late 19th century and commonly worn by women in the capital city, Sana’a. The sitarah was worn over the head and cascaded down the body to the ankles. It was held closed by hand, under the chin, completely covering a woman’s body when she was in public. Although no longer as popular as it once was, sitarahs may still be seen in Sana’a in the marketplace. The maghmug is a unique face veil seen only in Yemen. It is translucent, allowing a woman to see out, but conceals her identity. The maghmug has a red background and is decorated with large white-ringed black circles. It is usually worn only by older, married women. Other face veils include the burqa, which covers all but the eyes and is worn by nomadic women. The lithmah is a rectangle wrapped around the face to expose only the eyes, and the khunna is an unpatterned cloth similar to the maghmug. Whether a woman veils and covers her hair varies according to community practices and personal preferences. Yemeni women also wear large jewelry pieces made from elaborate silverwork. Some of these pieces have small compartments where a verse from the Qur’an is carried. In the past, silver jewelry was deconstructed and melted down to be recast

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress upon a woman’s death. Beads of amber, coral, and lapis lazuli were reused in new designs. Most Yemeni silver jewelry is attributed to Jewish silversmiths, the vast majority of whom emigrated to Israel after that country was established in 1948. Their particular process of granulation—tiny beads of three-dimensional silver— make Yemeni jewelry unique. Many older pieces are signed by the artisan, whose Hebrew name is written in Arabic, an unusual practice at the time. Although modern cosmetics are widely available, many Arab women wear black kohl around their eyes and still use henna to create elaborate patterns on their hands and feet. Traditional henna is plant based. The leaves are dried and then pounded into a powder and mixed with water to create a thick paste. Modern henna comes in small squeezable tubes and is easily applied. Once dry, the henna is washed off, leaving a reddish brown design, which will last about a month.

Men’s Dress Men’s dress is remarkably similar throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Like women’s dress, most men’s dress consists of three basic components: a dishdasha, an undergarment, and a head cover. In moderate city climates, men in both Oman and Yemen wear the dishdasha, a garment of the same name as the Omani women’s dress, but cut differently. The men’s garment resembles a long Western-style dress shirt. It has long, straight sleeves and side panels, which widen slightly toward the hem. It may or may not have side pockets, and the lengths vary from below the knees to the ankles. Various styles have either narrow band collars, such as are common on Western “grandfather” shirts, or Western dress shirt collars, similar to what men would wear with a tie. The dishdasha pulls on over the head and has a center front button placket, which extends to about the waist. It is usually made of cotton or a cotton/silk or cotton/polyester blend for summer and wool for winter, although synthetic dishdashas are popular in Oman for their ease of care. The dishdasha is usually of a light, solid color and is often pure white. A distinguishing feature of Omani dishdasha is a tassel, called a furakha, sewn into the neckline. This may be used as a vehicle for perfume. Under the dishdasha, men wear a wizar, a wide cotton hip wrap measuring about ive feet by three feet. A wool wizar is often used in cooler climates, but men in both Oman and Yemen most commonly use a plain white cotton wizar imported from India. The wizar is wrapped around the hips, covering from waist to calf and tucked in at the waist. Male headwear in Oman and Yemen are similar and quite different from those worn in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula. Men wear a small, stiff, all-over embroidered skullcap called a kuma in Oman and an imamah in Yemen. A hand-embroidered

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Two men wear the traditional jambiya in Hababah, Yemen, 2011. (Robert Paul Van Beets/ Dreamstime.com)

kuma or imamah is extremely expensive, costing into the hundreds of dollars, while imported machine-embroidered caps cost relatively little. It is not uncommon to see a man wear only the skullcap in public, but more often he will wear a masser (Oman) or a sumatah (Yemen) over the kuma or imamah. This is a square woolen scarf folded into a triangle, which is wrapped around the cap turban-style, with the ends tucked in so that the ears and the neck are fully exposed. Some men wrap the masser in such a way as to create a short tail that hangs down the back of the neck. Hand-embroidered massers/sumatahs from Kashmir made from wool or cashmere are the most expensive and desirable, although less expensive cotton massers are plentiful and affordable. The familiar black, red, or green checked scarf seen throughout the Middle East is also common in Yemen. Omani and Yemeni men traditionally carry elaborate curved daggers called khanjars in Oman and jambiya in Yemen. The dagger is seen as a symbol of fertility as well as a willingness to defend one’s honor. The daggers have decorative sheaths and are worn at the waist, tucked into an elaborately embroidered

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| Encyclopedia of National Dress belt. Although Omani men generally only wear the khanjar at feasts and holidays, Yemeni men wear them as part of their daily dress. The speciic location of the dagger—to the right, in the center, or worn to the left—is an indication of a man’s social status. Historically, upper-class men wore the jambiya to the right, middleclass men in the middle, and the lower class to the left. Currently, most men wear their jambiyas in the center. A practice solely limited to Yemen is the addition of a Western-style suit or sports jacket worn over the dishdasha. These jackets are imports from Europe and the United States, many clearly donations to charitable groups. Large piles of them can be seen for sale at the central souq in Sana’a. Signiicant differences exist between the dress worn in coastal areas and that worn in mountain regions of Yemen. Practicality and climate are partially responsible for this, but the international inluences also are a factor impacting coastal areas. Men in the colder mountainous regions wear the gossera, a short, sleeveless, fur-lined jacket that features colorful appliqué and is closed with leather buttons and loops. Men in the warm, humid coastal areas often wear a futa or fotah, a long rectangular cloth wrapped around the hips, sarong style. They are often striped and may be fairly colorful. The futa is practical for the climate and may easily be hitched up for convenience when working near water. A Western-style front button cotton shirt is usually worn with the futa, presenting an interesting cultural mixture of dress. Like the sports jackets, the shirt indicates a long relationship with Western inluences. Nearly all men in both countries wear sandals, which generally consist of leather or leather-like tops, but which expose the toes. Outer formal wear includes the bisht or mishlah, a square-cut cloak worn over the dishdasha or thobe. It is made from either wool or cotton in neutral colors such as beige, black, or brown and often features embroidery around the neck and down the front. While men in Oman mostly retain their dress traditions, Westernization is creeping in. Young men in particular are seen in typical blue jeans and a variety of T-shirts and jackets. Baseball caps are a great favorite, as are athletic shoes. These typically Western items are seen as marks of sophistication.

Children’s Dress Children’s dress is widely varied in Yemen and Oman. For special occasions, they are dressed in miniature replications of traditional adult festive dress, such as their same-sex parent would wear. For everyday attire, what they wear depends on the wealth and sophistication of the family. Families that can afford Western clothing will often permit especially the boys to wear T-shirts, sport shirts, and casual Western-style jeans or trousers. Those with more limited means will dress

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their children in more typical Yemeni or Omani styles as this will be far less costly. Girls will wear zinnah or dishdasha and boys will wear the dishdasha and a small skullcap. Many European and American retail stores are being established in the Middle East so that current children’s fashion is available; however, the comparatively high cost makes it unaffordable for most Yemeni.

Further Reading and Resources Al-Hinai, Abdulrahman bin Ali. Ceremonies and Celebrations of Oman. Reading, UK: Garnet, 1999. Al-Zadjali, Julia. “Omani Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Chatty, Dawn. “The Burqa Face Cover: An Aspect of Dress in Southeastern Arabia.” Languages of Dress in the Middle East, ed. Nancy Lindisfarne-Tapper and Bruce Ingham. Richmond, UK: Curzon, 1997. Central Intelligence Agency World Factbook. Oman. https://www.cia.gov/library/ publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mu.html. 2012. Garner, Ann. “Comments on the Jewelry of the Middle East.” http://www.mschon .com/articles.html. Hestler, Anna, and Jo-Ann Spilling. Yemen. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish Benchmark, 1999. Lindholm, Christina. “Yemeni Dress.” Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, Vol. 5. Oxford: Berg, 2010. Moors, Annelies. “Fashionable Muslims: Notions of Self, Religion, and Society in San’a.” Fashion Theory 11 2/3 (1997): 319–46. Morris, Miranda, and Pauline Shelton. Oman Adorned. Muscat: Apex, 1997. Stillman, Yedida Kalfon, and Norman A. Stillman. Arab Dress: A Short History. Leiden: Brill, 2000. Wikan, Unni. Behind the Veil in Arabia. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Wilcox, R. Turner. Folk and Festival Costumes of the World. New York: Scribner’s, 1965.

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Museums with National Dress and Textile Collections

United States and Canada de Young Museum, Textile Arts, San Francisco, CA. http://deyoung.famsf.org/ deyoung/collections/textile-arts. FIDM Museum & Galleries Online Collections, Los Angeles, CA. http://idm museum.org/collections/introduction/. Has an excellent international collection of clothing and textiles. Fowler Museum at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA. http://www.fowler.ucla.edu/ collections. Has collections from Asia, the Americas, and Africa. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA. http://www .lacma.org/. Has an excellent collection of historical fashion costumes, as well as rich international dress collections. The Bata Shoe Museum, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.batashoe museum.ca/index.html. Has a large collection of shoes from around the world, as well as costumes and textiles. Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec. http://www.civilization.ca/ home/. Collections and information on Canadian dress and history. Kent State University Museum, Kent, OH. http://www.kent.edu/museum. Houses excellent collections of American dress throughout history. American Folk Art Museum, New York, NY. http://www.folkartmuseum.org. The Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-museum/museum-departments/ curatorial-departments/the-costume-institute. The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY. http:// www.itnyc.edu/museum. Museum of the City of New York, New York, NY. http://www.mcny.org/. National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. http://www.si.edu/Collections. Atlanta History Center, Atlanta, GA. http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com.

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| Museums with National Dress and Textile Collections Colonial Williamsburg Foundation DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, Colonial Williamsburg, VA. http://www.history.org. American Textile History Museum, Lowell, MA. http://www.athm.org. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. http://www.wadsworth atheneum.org, [email protected]. The Textile Museum, Washington, DC. http://www.textilemuseum.org.

Armenia Armenian Library and Museum of America, Watertown, MA. http://www .almainc.org/. Though this is in the United States, it provides good sources for information on Armenian textiles and Armenian history.

China Paciic Asia Museum, Pasadena, CA. http://www.paciicasiamuseum.org/rankand style/index.stm. Site dedicated to dress in imperial China. Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Shatin, Hong Kong. http://www.heritagemuseum .gov.hk/eng/attractions/attractions.aspx.

Denmark Nationalmuseet (Danish National Museum), Lyngby, Denmark. http://natmus.dk/. Contains a costume collection (since 18th century) at the submuseum Brede Værk.

Finland Kansallispukukeskus, Jyväskylä, Finland. http://www.craftmuseum.i/english/ nationalcostumecenter/index.htm. The National Costume Centre of Finland. International Finnish folk costume.

France Le musée des Tissus et des Arts Décoratifs, Lyon, France. http://www.musee -des-tissus.com/. French historic costume.

Germany Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, Germany. http://www.gnm.de/index .php?id=384.

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Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, Germany. http://www.bayerisches -nationalmuseum.de/. Modemuseum im Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany. http://www.stadtmuseum -online.de/sammlungen/mode.html. This site is mainly in German, but there are good images. Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, Germany. http://www.dhm.de/ ENGLISH/sammlungen/alltag2/textilien/. Schloßmuseum Jever, Jever, Germany. http://www.schlossmuseum.de/gross britannien.html. Mid-18th to mid-19th century clothing from a rural town. Deutsches Textilmuseum Krefeld, Krefeld, Germany. http://www.krefeld.de/ textilmuseum. Emphasis is on textiles and less on costume. Museum Weißenfels Schloß Neu-Augustusburg, Weißenfels, Germany. http:// www.museum-weissenfels.de/. Has collections of shoes from Roman times to the 1970s.

Netherlands Nederlands Textielmuseum, Tilburg, Netherlands. http://www.textielmuseum .nl/. Collection of textiles. Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands. http://www.groningermuseum.nl/ en/visit.

Great Britain Fashion and Textile Museum, London, UK. http://www.ftmlondon.org/. The Fashion Museum, Bath, UK. http://www.museumofcostume.co.uk/. The Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK. http://www.vam.ac.uk/.

Italy Centro Studi di Storia del Tessuto e del Costume, Venice, Italy. http://www .museiciviciveneziani.it/frame.asp?pid=1094&z=2&tit=Servizi%20scientiici. Costume collection located in the historic patrician Palazzo Mocenigo. Museo del Tessuto, Prato, Italy. http://www.cultura.prato.it/musei/it/?act=i&id= 1952&id=20080407130843150. Textiles since the 5th century, textile processing machines, documentation of dyeing since the 18th century. Changing exhibitions.

New Zealand Museum of New Zealand, Wellington, New Zealand. http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/ pages/default.aspx

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Norway Norsk Folkemuseum, Oslo, Norway. http://www.norskfolke.museum.no/. Huge open-air museum, exhibition of Norwegian costume.

Russia The Ukrainian Museum, New York, NY. http://www.ukrainianmuseum.org/. Museum contains collections relecting dress worn by Ukrainians worldwide. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. http://www.hermitagemuseum .org/html_En/index.html. Textiles from 14th century onward, a large collection of lace, and of course the ine collection of European and Russian art containing a number of works depicting clothing.

Spain Museo del Traje, Madrid, Spain. http://museodeltraje.mcu.es/. Features traditional Spanish costume.

Selected Bibliography

Adler, Peter, and Nicholas Barnard. African Majesty: The Textile Art of the Ashanti and Ewe. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1992. Afolayan, Funso. Culture and Customs of South Africa. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. Allman, Jean, ed. Fashioning Africa: Power and the Politics of Dress. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2004. Allsen, Thomas T. Commodity and Exchange in the Mongol Empire: A Cultural History of Islamic Textiles. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Andromaqi, Gjergji. Albanian Costumes Through the Centuries. Origin, Types, Evolution. Tirana: Mësonjëtorja, 2004. Arcilla, José S. An Introduction to Philippine History. 4th ed. Manila: Ateneo De Manila University Press, 1999. Bâtcă, M. The Romanian Folk Costume. Bucharest, Romania: National Centre for the Preservation and Promotion of Traditional Culture, 2006. Broman, Barry.  “Myanmar Naga Adorned.” Arts of Asia (September–October 2002): 96–107. Bukenya, Jude. “‘Kansu,’ a Traditional Costume.” Ultimate Media 3 (April 2007). Çagman, F. “Women’s Clothing.” In Woman in Anatolia: 9,000 Years of the Anatolian Woman. Ministry of Culture of the Turkish Republic, Topkapi Sarayi Museum. Istanbul: 1993, pp. 256–295. Castillo-Feliu, Guillermo. Culture and Customs of Chile. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2000. Cohen, Erik. The Commercialized Crafts of Thailand: Hill Tribes and Lowland Villages. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2000. Colchester, Chloë, ed. Clothing the Paciic. Oxford: Berg, 2003. Condra, Jill. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Conway, Susan. Thai Textiles. London: British Museum, 1992. Corrigan, Gina. Miao Textiles from China. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2001. 777

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| Selected Bibliography Cruz, Eric V. The Barong Tagalog: Its Development and Identity as the Filipino Men’s National Costume. Quezon City: Ofice of Research and Publications, College of Home Economics, University of the Philippines, 1992. Cruz, Eric V. The Terno: Its Development and Identity as the Filipino Women’s National Costume. Quezon City: U.P. College of Home Economics, 1982. Denbrow, James, and Phenyo C. Thebe. Culture and Customs of Botswana. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2006. Eicher, Joanne B., ed. Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion. New York: Oxford University Press, 2010. Eicher, Joanne B., ed. Dress and Ethnicity: Change Across Space and Time (Berg Ethnic Identities Series). Oxford, UK: Berg, 1995, 1999. Ejikeme, Anene. Culture and Customs of Namibia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABCCLIO, 2011. Falola, Toyin. Customs and Cultures of Nigeria. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001. Fossnes, Heidi. Folk Costumes of Norway, trans. Elizabeth S. Seeberg. Oslo: J. W. Cappelen Forlag, 1995. Gáborján, Alice. Hungarian Peasant Costume. Budapest: Kossuth, 1969. Gervers, Veronika. The Inluence of Ottoman Turkish Textiles and Costume in Eastern Europe. History, Technology and Art Monograph. Vol. 4. Toronto: Royal Ontario, 1982. Gillow, John. African Textiles: Color Creativity Across a Continent. London: Thames & Hudson, 2003. Hajana, Milena, and Laura R. Bass. Spanish Fashion in Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Paul Holberton Publishing, 2012. Harrold, Robert. Folk Costumes of the World. New York: Sterling Publishing, 1999. Harrold, Robert, and Phyllida Legg. Folk Costumes of the World. London: Blandford Press, 1999. Harvey, Janet. Traditional Textiles of Central Asia. London: Thames and Hudson, 1996. Imperatore, Cheryl, and Paul Maclardy. Kimono Vanishing Tradition. Atglen, PA: Paul Schiffer Publishing, 2001. Jabbur, Jabrail. The Bedouins of the Desert, trans. Lawrence I. Conrad. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995. Jirousek, Charlotte. “More Than Oriental Splendor: European and Ottoman Headgear, 1380–1580.” Dress 22 (1995). Kennett, Francis. Ethnic Dress: A Comprehensive Guide to the Folk Costume of the World. New York: Facts On File, 1995. Kislenko, Arne. Culture and Customs of Thailand. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004.

Selected Bibliography

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Kraamer, Malika. “Origin Disputed. The Making, Use, and Evaluation of Ghanaian Textiles.” Afrique: Arts & Archeologie 4 (2006), 53–76. Kuchler, Susanne, and Graeme Were, ed. The Art of Clothing: A Paciic Experience. London: UCL Press, 2005. Lehtaosalo-Hilander, Pirkko-Liisa. Ancient Finnish Costumes. Helsinki, Finland: Suomen arkeologinen seura—The Finnish Archaeological Society and Vammalan Kirjapaino Oy, 1984. Leshkowich, Ann Marie. “The Ao Dai Goes Global: How International Inluences and Female Entrepreneurs Have Shaped Vietnam’s ‘National Costume.’” In Sandra Niessen, Ann Marie Leshkowich, and Carla Jones, eds. The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2003, pp. 79–115. Liddell, Jill. The Story of the Kimono. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989. Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Fabric of Enchantment: Batik from the North Coast of Java. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1996. Lu, Sylvia Fraser. Handwoven Textiles of Southeast Asia. Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1989. Mallinson, Jane, Nancy Donnelly, and Ly Hang. Hmong Batik: A Textile Technique from Laos. Chiang Mai: Silkworm Books, 1996. Morris, Miranda, and Pauline Shelton. Oman Adorned. Muscat: Apex, 1997. Munsterberg, Hugo. The Japanese Kimono. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 1996. Noss, Aagot. “Rural Norwegian Dress and Its Symbolic Functions.” In Marion Nelson, ed. Norwegian Folk Art: The Migration of a Tradition. New York: Abbeville Press, 1995. Ong Liang Bin, Edric. “Sarawak Costume.” In Lucas Chin and Valerie Mashman, eds. Sarawak Cultural Legacy. Sarawak: Society Atelier Sarawak, 1991. Otiso, Kefa M. Culture and Customs of Uganda. Greenwood Press: Westport, CT, 2006. Oyebade, Adebayo O. Culture and Customs of Angola. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2007. Ozdalga, Elisabeth. The Veiling Issue, Oficial Secularism and Popular Islam in Modern Turkey. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies NIAS Report Series. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2002. Papantoniou, Ioanna. Greek Dress. Athens: Commercial Bank of Greece, 2000. Paterek, Josephine. Encyclopedia of American Indian Costume. New York: W. W. Norton, 1996. Picton, John, ed. The Art of African Textiles. Technology, Tradition and Lurex. London: Barbican Art Gallery. Lund Humphries Publishers, 1995. Piskorz-Branekova, Elżbieta. Polskie Stroje Ludowe. Polish Folk Dress (3 volumes). Warsaw: Sport I Turystka—MUZA SA, 2003, 2005, 2006.

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| Selected Bibliography Primmer, Kathleen. Scandinavian Peasant Costume. London: Adam and Charles Black, 1939. Roberts, Clair, and Huh Dong-hwa. Rapt in Color: Korean Textiles and Costumes of the Choson Dynasty. Sydney, Australia: Powerhouse Museum, 1998. Roces, Mina, and Louise Edwards. The Politics of Dress in Asia and the Americas. Sussex, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2010. Root, R. A., ed. The Latin American Fashion Reader, pp. 213–231. Oxford: Berg, 2005. Sagás, Ernesto, and Orlando Inoa, eds. The Dominican People: A Documentary History. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2003. Sayer, C. Mexican Costume. London: British Museum Press, 1985. Scarce, Jennifer. Women’s Costume of the Near and Middle East. London: St. Edmundsbury Press, 2003. Shoup, John A. Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. Sichel, Marion. Scandinavia—National Costume Reference. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1990. Sichel, Marion. Scandinavia. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1937. Sobania, Neal. Culture and Customs of Kenya. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2003. Steele, Valerie. Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2004. Sual, Zubaidah. “The Malay Costumes.” In Khunying Maenmas Chavalit and Maneepin Phromsuthirak, eds. Costumes in ASEAN. Bangkok: ASEAN Committee on Culture and Information, 2000. Takahashi, M. Mexican Textiles. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2003. Tapper, Richard, and Jon Thompson, eds. The Nomadic Peoples of Iran. London: Thames and Hudson, 2002. Te Kanawa, Diggeress. Weaving a Kakahu. Wellington, New Zealand: Bridget Williams Books in association with Aotearoa Moananui a Kiwa Weavers, 1992. Turnau, Irena. History of Dress in Central and Eastern Europe from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Warsaw: Institute of the History of Material Culture, Polish Academy of Sciences, 1991. Tyrchneiwicz, Peggy, and Bill Hicks. Ethnic Folk Costumes in Canada. Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1979. Tyson-Ward, Sue. Portuguese Language, Life, and Culture. Lincolnwood, IL: Contemporary Books, 2002. Vega, Bernardo, ed. Dominican Cultures: The Making of a Caribbean Society. Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 2007. Vincente, Marta. Clothing the Spanish Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Selected Bibliography

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Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian, and Vogelsang, Willem. Covering the Moon: An Introduction to Middle Eastern Face Veils. Leuven: Peeters, 2008. Waller, Diane. Textiles from the Balkans. London: The British Museum Press, 2010. Weis, Walter, and Kurt-Michael Westerman. The Bazaar: Markets and Merchants of the Islamic World. London: Thames and Hudson, 1998. Welters, Linda. Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility. Oxford: Berg, 1999. Welters, Linda. Women’s Traditional Costume in Attica, Greece. Nafplion: Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation, 1988. Wikan, Unni. Behind the Veil in Arabia. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982. Wilcox, R. Turner. Folk and Festival Costume of the World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965. Žagar, Janja. Pokrivala. Headwear. Ljubljana: Slovenski Ethnografski Muzej, 2004. Zora, Popi. Embroideries and Jewellery of Greek National Costume. Athens: Museum of Greek Folk Art, 1981.

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About the Editor and Contributors

Editor Jill Condra has taught in the area of clothing and textiles history at the University of British Columbia, the University of Prince Edward Island, and the University of Manitoba. Her costume research has been largely based on using material-history models to study clothing in historical context, which has allowed her to conduct research at exciting costume collections around the world. She has also cowritten a book on textiles, Guide to Textiles for Interiors, third edition. She is the editor of the three-volume Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History (ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2007) and was coauthor with Anita Stamper of Clothing through American History: The Civil War Through the Gilded Age, 1861–1899 (ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2009). She works at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada.

Contributors Lindy Allen is a senior curator in anthropology at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. She has more than 30 years’ experience in the museum sector; undertaken extensive ieldwork and fostered relationships with Indigenous communities, particularly across Arnhem Land and on Cape York Peninsula; and initiated a focused cross-cultural research program on Indigenous collections. Her main research focus has been on Aboriginal material culture and art, museum collections and collecting, museology, museum anthropology, visual anthropology, memory and memorialization, and use of new technologies in Indigenous communities to access heritage collections. She was Partner Investigator on Australian Research Council projects focused on The Donald Thomson Collection and has coedited a book on collections (The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, 2008) and coauthored a chapter in the recent volume Unpacking the Collections: Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum (2011). She has also curated over 30 major exhibitions. 783

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| About the Editor and Contributors Laura P. Appell-Warren is a researcher and teacher of anthropology at St. Mark’s School, Southborough, MA. She is author of the forthcoming volume Personhood: An Examination of the History and Use of an Anthropological Concept. She is also editor of the volume The Iban Diaries of Monica Freeman 1949–1951: Including Ethnographic Drawings, Sketches, Paintings, Photographs and Letters. Jennifer Ball is an associate professor of art history at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has numerous publications dealing with textiles and dress and is a frequent lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Leyla Belkaïd is professor and director of the Master in Luxury Management Program at the Geneva School of Business Administration, University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland, and is completing research on the relationships between traditional dress and contemporary fashion for her PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of Lyon, France. She also conducts workshops and lectures in Fashion Anthropology at the Basel Academy of Art and Design in Switzerland. She was previously Professor of Fashion Theory and Head of the Fashion Design Department at the Geneva University of Art and Design from 2004 to 2008. Her work is featured in Gucci: The Making Of (2011). José Blanco F. is an associate professor in the Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors Department at the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and manager of the college’s Historic Clothing and Textile Collection. He is originally from Costa Rica and has a PhD in Theater from Florida State University. His current research focuses on dress and popular culture in the second half of the 20th century with an emphasis on male fashion. He is also interested in the fashion and visual culture in Latin America and the application of Jungian archetypal analysis to fashion. José is the vice president of education for the Costume Society of America. Marie Botkin is an assistant professor of Fashion Design and Merchandising at California State University, Long Beach and has contributed to other books including The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Clothing Through World History. Brenda Brandt has a PhD degree in history studies from Florida State University. She has held faculty positions at the University of Arizona and Colorado State University in design programs as a researcher and educator. Past museum experience includes curatorial and educator responsibilities in history and cultural museums in the Phoenix area. Her research has centered on the relationships that people have

About the Editor and Contributors

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with material culture, speciically textiles, as well as the meanings and signiicance of adornment worldwide. Tracy Buck received an MA in South Asian Cultures and Languages from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MA in Museology from the University of Washington, Seattle. After completion of her MA program, she worked as Costumes and Textiles Specialist at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle, Washington. She is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of California, Los Angeles in the Department of Art History with a focus on art and art institutions of India. Keri Cavanaugh received her Master of Arts from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, in Museum Studies: Costumes and Textiles. Following graduate school, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Niger. She currently manages traveling exhibitions at a natural history museum. With a background in fashion and textile design as well as the media, Christina Cie writes on both historical dress and contemporary fashion, alongside related issues in this area. Christina is currently writing a book on ink jet printing for textiles. Chanel Clarke is of Māori descent and is currently the Curator Māori at Auckland Museum, New Zealand. She is a graduate of the University of Waikato and Massey University. She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including a Fulbright New Zealand and the American Association of Museums International Partnerships Programme. Her speciic interests are social and cultural aspects of dress in both traditional and contemporary contexts.  Carol Colburn is professor emeritus of Costume History and Design in the Department of Theatre at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls. Norwegian American dress, dress in portraiture, and historical hand-weaving are current research topics. Dr. Lucy Collins teaches courses in fashion theory, ethics, and aesthetics at Parsons the New School for Design and LIM College in New York City. She holds a PhD in philosophy from Temple University with specializations in phenomenology, existentialism, and fashion. Dr. Collins’s research interests pertain to consumerism and personal identity. Vishna Collins is a Sydney-based curator, arts writer, and designer specializing in Wearable Art and Fashion Curation and Sartorial Display. She holds a Bachelor of

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| About the Editor and Contributors Education in Visual Arts from College of Fine Arts (COFA) The University of New South Wales, and a Master of Museum Studies from Macquarie University. Her research interests include ethnographic textiles and clothing, body adornment and the art of dress, the convergence of art and fashion, the body as an exhibition site, aesthetic dress, the tea gown, object-based research, women’s textile history, and material culture. She is currently researching Body Adorned and the Art of Dress. Artist and writer Geraldine Craig is associate professor/department head in the Department of Art, Kansas State University. She has published more than 90 articles and reviews in periodicals such as Art in America, The Journal of Modern Craft, Sculpture, Surface Design Journal, New Art Examiner, American Craft, and Fiberarts, among others, and a monograph on the sculptor Joan Livingstone (Telos, London). She was awarded the James Renwick Senior Fellowship in American Crafts at the Smithsonian Institution for 1994–1995. Marilyn Cvitanic is currently an adjunct professor of Fine Arts at Manhattan College and the College of Mount Saint Vincent, both located in Riverdale, New York. She has taught courses in studio art, art history, and costume history. Before entering a career in the arts she received her Doctorate in Policy Analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School in Santa Monica, CA. Upon completing her education, Marilyn began painting extensively and exhibiting her work in New York, Los Angeles, and Croatia. Her most recent publication is Culture and Customs of Croatia (Culture and Customs of Europe), published by Greenwood (2010). Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi is an independent researcher on culture and immigrant experience and lives in Hargeisa, Somaliland. Damayanthie Eluwawalage is an assistant professor at the State University of New York, Oneonta. She is a professional historian who specializes in costume history. Her research interests include design, design theory, costume history, and fashion theory, especially philosophy of clothing and fashion, focusing on the broader application and interpretation of fashion theory. She is currently researching on projects titled “History of Costume: Fashion and Clothing in the State of New York,” “The Human Cost of Space Missions,” and “History of Space Suits.” She is passionate about preserving our social history and cultural heritage including every aspect of clothing and textiles. Michelle Webb Fandrich is a freelance fashion historian, writer, and editor. Her published works include Clothing Through American History: The Federal Era through Antebellum, 1786–1860 (ABC-CLIO/Greenwood, 2010, with Ann Bauermann Wass) and What People Wore When (2008, edited by Melissa Leventon).

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Her professional work includes stints in the curatorial departments of the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as teaching as an adjunct professor in colleges and universities throughout Southern California. Laurann Gilbertson is Chief Curator at Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum in Decorah, Iowa, after serving as Textile Curator for 19 years. She holds degrees in Anthropology and Textiles and Clothing from Iowa State University. John G. Hall is a freelance writer who has written several articles about African American history and culture. He lives in Hendersonville, NC. Dr. Louise Hamby is an adjunct fellow in the Digital Humanities Hub at The Australian National University in Canberra, Australia. She has been researching Aboriginal material culture, particularly objects made from iber, since moving to Australia 30 years ago. Her PhD research and main research has focused on iber container forms and bodywear from the women of Gapuwiyak in eastern Arnhem Land. She was a postdoctoral Fellow on the Australian Research Council (ARC) grant focused on The Donald Thomson Collection and Chief Investigator on the ARC grant Contexts of Collections. She has coedited a book on collections (The Makers and Making of Indigenous Australian Museum Collections, 2008) and coauthored a chapter in the recent volume Unpacking the Collections: Networks of Material and Social Agency in the Museum (2011). Her most recent book, Containers of Power: Women with Clever Hands (2010), accompanies the touring exhibition “Women with Clever Hands: Gapuwiyak Miyalkurruwurr Gong Djambatjmala.” Michele A. Hardy is Curator of Decorative Arts at the Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She has conducted research in India on the folk embroideries of Kachchh, Gujarat, and is currently conducting a comparative study of Muslim craftswomen in India and Turkey. Her publications include “Crafts and Knowledge,” in Owen and Fariello, Objects and Meaning in Late 20th Century Art: Readings That Challenge the Norm (2004). Sara M. Harvey holds a master’s degree in Visual Culture: Costume Studies from New York University and currently teaches fashion design and history at the International Academy of Design and Technology in Nashville, TN. She is also a freelance costume designer and a novelist. Anne Hill is an independent scholar from Edmonton, Canada, with a special interest in traditional Tibetan dance and costume.

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| About the Editor and Contributors Dr. Stephanie Ho is a public historian with extensive experience in education and the heritage industry. A former history teacher and museum educator, she received her PhD in public history from the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). She is co-founder of The History Workroom LLP, a research and editorial consultancy with a focus on Singapore history and heritage. She has created and written children’s books, educational materials, and adult noniction with a history focus. She coauthored, with Jaime Koh, Culture and Customs of Singapore and Malaysia, a college reference book published by ABC-CLIO in 2008. Charlotte Jirousek is an associate professor in the department of Fiber Science and Apparel Design at Cornell University, where she is also the Curator of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection. She has worked and traveled in all parts of Turkey for more than 40 years. Her research is conducted primarily on traditional Turkish textiles and dress. She is particularly interested in the relationship of Ottoman dress to the history of Western dress. She has also been documenting surviving traditional textile technologies in Turkey and their relationship to dress, social customs, and daily life. Jaime Koh has worked in the media and cultural heritage industry in Singapore as a newspaper journalist, a magazine editor, and an assistant curator in a museum. As co-founder of The History Workroom LLP, Jaime continues to focus on research and editorial work. Jaime continues to write and publish in other capacities. She is the coauthor of Culture and Customs of Singapore and Malaysia, a college reference book published by ABC-CLIO (2008). Jaime has also authored several academic publications on issues of human security and North Korea. Currently Jaime is completing her PhD in Cultural Studies at the National University of Singapore. Malika Kraamer is an independent researcher, curator, and exhibition developer in Leicester, UK. She is currently the lead curator of an exhibit for the Cultural Olympiad Exhibition in Leicester. Malika is also an honorary research associate at the School of Media and Communication (Humanities) and curator of World Cultures at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery. Susan Lind-Sinanian is the textile curator at the Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) in Watertown, MA. In 1986, Lind-Sinanian established the textile center at ALMA, which houses the largest collection of Armenian textiles outside of the Republic of Armenia. The collection continues to grow and is accessible to visitors and researchers. She promotes the cultural heritage of the Armenians through programs, workshops, and exhibitions for children and adults, and is the recipient of numerous grants from local and national organizations.

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Christina Lindholm is associate dean in the School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University. She was Dean of the VCU School of the Arts in Doha, Qatar from 2002 to 2007 and has researched and written on the dress of Arab and Muslim women. Lynne Potter Lord (BHE, MSc, BEd) has taught in the area of textiles, clothing, and culture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She has lived and worked in Switzerland and developed an appreciation for all things Swiss. She currently teaches in the Vancouver area. Aleasha McCallion is a graduate student in the Fashion and Textiles Program at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia and specializes in cultural clothing, speciically Korean textiles and paper art. Timothy May is associate professor of Central Eurasian and Middle Eastern History at North Georgia College & State University. He is the author of The Mongol Art of War (2007), Culture and Customs of Mongolia (2009), and The Mongol Conquest in World History (2011). Jennifer Moore is a fashion historian who lives and works in New York City. Monica Murgia has an MA in Fashion & Textile Studies: History, Theory, Museum Practice from FIT in New York. Monica has taught several courses in design with a focus on historic dress as an adjunct professor at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), Centenary College, and Berkley College and is a contributor to Wornthrough.com and MonicaDMurgia.com. David Rickman is a freelance illustrator, author, and historian. Past research projects include the irst English-language study of the clothing worn in the Russian colonies of North America in the 18th and 19th centuries, a book detailing the clothing worn by the many cultures present at Sutter’s Fort in California circa 1845, and an article about the history of California Indian costume for the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion (2010). He is currently working on a two-volume history of costume during the Spanish, Mexican, and early American periods for California State Parks. Rickman graduated in History from the University of California, Berkeley and has spent much of his life researching the clothing and other aspects of the Hispanic West’s material culture, working as much as possible with original artifacts and Spanish-language documents. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware. Carolyn Scholz holds a Bachelor of Human Ecology (Clothing and Textiles) and MSc from the University of Manitoba, where she received a University of Manitoba

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| About the Editor and Contributors Graduate Fellowship. Her areas of research include the clothing behavior of religious groups and the clothing-related consumer behavior of older women. She has published in The Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management. She has been employed as a researcher and data analyst for both the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, and the Children’s Aid Society of Brantford, Ontario. John A. Shoup is a professor of anthropology at Al Akhawayn University in Ifrane, Morocco. He has conducted ieldwork in Lesotho, Jordan, Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, and most recently in Mauritania on topics related to pastoralism, impact of tourism on local communities, traditional land use systems, trans-Saharan trade, and popular culture. He has authored and coauthored several articles and book chapters and published Culture and Customs of Jordan (2007), Culture and Customs of Syria (2008), and coauthored Saudi Arabia and Gulf Arab States Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Arab States (2009), all three with ABC-CLIO/ Greenwood Press. Pamela Smith has a master’s degree in the History of Decorative Art & Design from the University of Brighton, UK. She now works as a freelance speaker, writer, and consultant on the arts of Russia and Eastern Europe. She was assistant editor and one of the authors for the “East Europe, Russia and the Caucasus” volume of the Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion, published in 2010. Neal Sobania is professor of history at Paciic Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where he is also Executive Director of the Wang Center for Global Education. He has written extensively on ethnic identity and the formation of pastoralist societies in precolonial northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia. His present research is on visual culture in Ethiopia, especially the place of silversmiths and goldsmiths and church painters in contemporary Ethiopian society, and the use of historical photographs as a source for writing history. Jennifer Swope has worked for the past 20 years in curatorial departments of museums with American collections. She was introduced to 18th-century New England dress while Associate Curator at Historic New England (formerly SPNEA) after graduating from the Winterthur Program in American Culture. In her current position at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as Curatorial Researcher in the David and Roberta Logie Department of Textiles and Fashion Arts, she specializes in its renowned collection of American costumes and textiles. She presented her research of this collection at the 2010 Dubin Seminar on New England Folk Life. Her article, “We Need Your Work: Trade, Textiles, and Clothing of the Robbins

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Family of East Lexington, 1780–1820” is published in The Journal of Massachusetts History (June 2013). She is also an instructor of the History of Textiles at Boston Architectural College, where she applies her knowledge of historical American costume and textiles to the design, manufacture, and consumption of 21st-century furnishing textiles. Claire Townsend is a freelance costume designer and assistant. She graduated from Central St Martins School in London in 2008 and worked in London, before moving to the United States to design at PCPA Theatrefest, Shakespeare by the Sea, Marin Shakespeare Festival, West Bay Opera as well as assisting for LA Opera, Opera Paciic, Long Beach Opera, South Coast Repertory Theatre, and Musical Theatre West. She was part of the Emmy-award–winning costume team for the stop-animation television series Titan Maximum. She currently teaches at Cypress College. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood is a dress historian and director of the Textile Research Centre in Leiden, Netherlands. She has written on clothing in Iran and Afghanistan and is co-editor of Khil‘a, Journal of Dress and Textiles in the Islamic World. Tanya Williams Wetenhall is an independent consultant, curator, and researcher of costume and textiles. She is a graduate of New York University and the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY, and teaches in the graduate costume and textile programs at both universities. She has worked in collection management and research in ethnographic, design, and fashion museums in the United States and Belgium. She served for 10 years at the American Embassies in Moscow and Rome and as a cultural liaison to Russia, the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, China, and Cuba for an international exchange program. Previously, she worked for designer Fernando Sanchez and as a fashion and textile writer. Her current research focuses on Russian and Soviet dress and textile history and related cultural materials.

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Index

Bold page numbers indicate main entries. Italic page numbers indicate photos. aba, 65 Abayaneh dress, 345 Abdel Aziz, Mohamed Ould, 472–473 accessories See also jewelry Denmark, 182 Ethiopia, 207–208 Greece, 271 Greenland, 286–287 Korea, 414 Mauritania, 475–476 Native Americans, 516–517 New England, 755–756 Ache Lhamo, 722–724 adornment, x, 328–330 Angola, 680 Māori, 533 Rwanda, 645 South Africa, 676 South Paciic Islands, 669–670 Uganda, 647 Afghan burqa, 2 Afghanistan, 1–10, 570 Baluchi dress, 2–3 Hazara dress, 3–4 historical and geographical background, 1–2 Kuchi dress, 5–6 Nuristani dress, 4 Pashtun dress, 4–5, 5 Tajik dress, 6–7, 8 Turkmen dress, 7–8 Uzbek dress, 8–9 Africa See also speciic countries southern, 672–681

Afro-Brazilian dress, 96–97 Aguinaldo, Emilio, 585–586 ajrakh cloths, 318–319 Albania, 11–18 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 17 ethnic and religious diversity, 11 historical and geographical background, 11 history of dress in, 11–13 materials and techniques, 13–14 men’s dress, 14–15, 15 traditional dress, 13, 15 women’s dress, 15–17, 16 Albert (prince), 55 Algeria, 19–28 geographical background, 21 historical background, 19–21 Kabyli region, dress in, 25–26 men’s dress, 24, 24–25 people and dress, 21–28 Tuareg region, dress in, 26–28 women’s dress, 22, 22–24 Algerian War of Independence, 21 allendi fabric, 658 aloha shirt, 742–744, 743 Alpine dress, 650–651 Alsace region, 227, 228 Amenhotep I, 184 Andalusian dress, 501–502 Andean culture, 133 Angola, 672, 674, 679–680 animal parts/skins, 48–49, 233, 285–286, 511–512, 614 Anoghiani dress, 164 anoraks, 281–282, 283–284, 287 áo dài, 760–762

793

794

| Index appliqué, 143 aprons, 17, 36–37, 39–40, 78, 104, 174–175, 218, 235, 376, 615–616, 675–676, 720–721, 756 Aquino, Benigno, III, 587 Aquino, Benigno, Jr., 586 Arab Bedouins men’s dress, 359–361, 436–437 women’s dress, 361–362, 433–435, 444–445, 580–582 Arabian Peninsula children’s dress, 68 geographical and historical background, 62–63 men’s dress, 64–66, 65 modern uses of ethnic dress, 68–69 people and dress, 63–69 women’s dress, 66–68, 67 Arab-style dress, 345–346 Aran sweater, 267 Armenia, 29–43 belts and sashes, 40 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 42–43 East and West, dress of the, 36–43 ethnic and religious diversity, 31–32 everyday dress, 37 geographic and environmental background, 30–31 hats, veils, and mouth coverings, 38–40 historical background, 29–30 history of dress in, 32–34 ancient period: Urartu kingdom, 32–33 classical period, 33–34 medieval period, 34 modern period, 34 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 41–42 materials and techniques, 34–36 men’s dress, 40–41 people and dress, 31–36 shoes and stockings, 41 special-occasion dress, 37–38 women’s dress, 41 Armenian red dye, 31 art, clothing as, xi Arvanites, 273 Asia. See speciic countries

Aukštaitija, 200 Australia, x colonization of, 53 contemporary clothing in, 58–60 Australia, aboriginal, 44–52, 46 component parts of dress, 47–50 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 50–51 geographic and environmental background, 44 history of dress in, 44–45 materials and techniques, 45–46 Australia, settlers, 53–61 ethnic and religious diversity, 54–56 geographic and environmental background, 53–54 historical background, 53 men’s and women’s dress, 56–58 Austria, 231–236 component parts of dress, 235–236 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 236 ethnic and religious diversity, 232 geographic and environmental background, 231–232 historical background, 231 history of dress in, 232–233 materials and techniques, 233 men’s dress, 234–235 women’s dress, 233–234 Austro-Hungarian Empire, 87 Awlad Hassan, 506–509 Aztecs, 479–480, 480, 481 backstrap loom, 481 Bahrain, 62–70 baju kurung, 464, 464, 465 baju melayu, 465, 465 Bakhtiari dress, 346–347, 364 Baltic states, 191–203 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 202–203 Estonia, 192–196 historical and geographical background, 191–192 Latvia, 196–199 Lithuania, 199–202 people and dress, 192 Baluchi dress, 2–3, 347 banana fabric, 591

Index banana-stem iber, 457 Bandar dress, 348 bark, 243, 456 bark cloth, 668 Barong Tagalog, 588–592, 589 baro’t saya, 589–590, 592 Bashkirs, 634 bashlik, 39 Basque culture, 228–229 bast, 554 bata cubana, 123 batik, 338–342, 340, 421, 423, 467–468, 538–539 batula, 67 Bayeux Tapestry, 223 beads, 4, 42, 45, 89–90, 109, 246, 280, 286, 402, 475, 512 Bedouins, 359–362, 360, 433–435, 436–437, 441, 444–445, 580–582 Belgium, 519–526 component parts of dress, 525 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 525–526 ethnic and religious diversity, 520 geographic and environmental background, 519–520 historical background, 519 history of dress in, 520–521 materials and techniques, 521 men’s dress, 523–525 women’s dress, 521–523 Belize, 71–74 belts and sashes Algeria, 23–24 Armenia, 32, 36, 40 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 86 Bulgaria, 104, 109 Crete, 161 Croatia, 174 Mongolia, 497–498 Morocco, 502 Slovenia, 654 Somalia, 659 Syria, 431 Berbers, 19, 503–505 beret, 226 Berlin Conference, 441

| 795

bernos, 206 Bethlehem, 577–579 bisht, 65 black dress, 107 blanket coats, 117–118, 118 block printing, 468 body modiications Armenia, 41–42 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 90 Ethiopia, 208–209 Ghana, 247 Kenya, 403 Native Americans, 517–518 Philippines, 592 Thailand, 715 body paint Armenia, 41–42 Australia, aboriginal, 50 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 90 Ethiopia, 209 Ghana, 248 Korea, 414 South Paciic Islands, 669–670 Bolívar, Simón, 131 Bolivia, 131–139 component parts of dress, 136–138 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 138–139 ethnic and religious diversity, 133–136 geographical background, 132–133 historical background, 131–132 textiles, 138 “Bonny Prince Charlie” jacket, 261–262 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 81–92 component parts of dress, 89 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 90–91, 91 ethnic and religious diversity, 82, 84 everyday dress, 88 geographic and environmental background, 82 historical background, 81–82 history of ethnic dress in, 84–88 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 89–90 materials and techniques, 84 men’s dress, 96–97 rural dress, 88 special-occasion dress, 88–89

796

| Index Bosnia and Herzegovina (continued) urban dress, 87–88 women’s dress, 83, 85–87 Botswana, 672, 673, 674, 677–678 boubou, 476, 476, 555 Brazil, 93–99 Afro-Brazilian dress, 96–97 gaucho dress, 98–99 historical and geographical background, 93–94 indigenous dress, 94–95 Portuguese-Brazilian dress, 95–96 breechcloths, 515, 748 Breton shirt, 226–227 bridal dress Armenia, 37–38, 38, 42 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 89 Croatia, 175–176 Estonia, 193–194 Greece, 271, 276, 277 Malaysia, 468 Norway, 563 Pakistan, 572 Portugal, 606 Somalia, 662 South Africa, 676–677 Turkey, 734–735 Britain. See Great Britain Buddhism, 408 Bulgaria, 100–110 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 109 decorative techniques, 103–104 folk costumes, 102–103, 103 historical and geographical background, 100–102 jewelry, 108–109 materials and techniques, 103 men’s dress, 106–108, 107 National Renaissance, 101–102 outerwear, 108 shoes, stockings, and legwear, 108 women’s dress, 104–106, 105 bullighting, 685–686 bunader, 564–565 buqnuq, 68 burial rituals, 459

burka/burqa, 2, 34, 67, 348, 572 Burkino Faso, 541–544 historical and geographical background, 536, 541–542 people and dress, 543 bushman’s clothing, 57 Bushmen, 673–674 Bussell, John, 56 Byzantine costume, 271–273 Byzantine Empire, 19, 100–101, 162, 426, 621 Cabral, Pedro Alvares, 93 caftans, 272, 502 Canada, x, 111–120 component parts of dress, 117–120 coureurs de bois, 115–117, 116 geographical background, 113 historical background, 111–112 history of dress in, 114–120 Native Americans, 510–518 people and dress, 113–114 religious and ethnic diversity, 114 Capoeira, 97 card weaving, 36 Caribbean Islands, 121–130 Cuban dress, 122–123, 124 historical and geographical background, 121–122 Jamaica, 126–128 Lesser Antilles, 128–129 Puerto Rico, 124–126, 125 carnival costumes, 127–129, 128, 152–153, 156, 296–297, 301 cashmere, 495, 497 caste system, India, 314 Castro, Fidel, 122 Catholicism, 72, 222, 300, 481–482, 688 Caucasus region, 635–637 Celtic jewelry, 266 Central America Belize, 73–74 El Salvador, 76–78 European inluences in, 71–73 historical and geographical background, 71 history of dress in, 71–73 Honduras, 74–76

Index Nicaragua, 78–80 Spanish conquest, 71–72 chadari, 2 chador, 2 Charles Stuart (prince), 261 charros, 485, 487 chemise, 104, 175 Chile, 131–139 component parts of dress, 136–138 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 138–139 cueca dance, 138 ethnic and religious diversity, 133–136 geographical background, 132–133 historical background, 131–132 huasos and huasas, 136–138, 139 national dress, 138 China, 140–149, 416, 717 component parts of dress, 144–147 historical and geographical background, 140 jewelry and accessories, 147–149, 148 materials and techniques, 142–144 people and dress, 140–142, 142 chintz, 319 Chitrali cap, 4 chlaine, 271 chlamys, 270–271 Chorotega, 78 Choson dynasty, 411 Christianity, 19, 29, 121, 209, 451, 463, 531, 549, 621, 665, 669, 674 chrong kraben, 714 chupas, 719–720 church dress, 563 Cleopatra, 183 climate, xii cloaks, 50–51, 66, 108, 178, 223, 265–266, 307, 396, 502, 503–504, 506, 529–530, 531, 753 clothing, x as art, xi and identity, x–xi colonialism, xi Australia, 53–56 Brazil, 93–94 Canada, 111–112 Caribbean Islands, 121–122

Central America, 71–72 Cuba, 122 Ghana, 237 Malaysia, 461 Mauritania, 471–472 Mexico, 481–483 New Zealand, 527–528 colpos, 270 communism, 102, 310 Confucianism, 409 continuous warp loom, 553 Cook, James, 53 Cook Islands, 667 Coptic Christianity, 209 Corfu, 277–278 cosmetics. See makeup Costa Rica, 150–159 dress in, 152–154 historical and geographical background, 150–152 costume, x cotton, 243, 318, 339, 421, 456, 480–481, 483–484, 521, 554, 704, 733 coureurs de bois, 115–117, 116 cowboys gaucho dress, 98–99 huasos and huasas, 136–138 Crete, 160–166 historical background, 160 history of dress in ancient Minoan costume, 160–162 national dress, 162–166 Croatia, 167–176 festive clothing, 171–172 headwear, footwear, and accessories, 172–175 historical and geographical background, 167–168 materials and techniques, 169–170 men’s dress, 170, 171 people and dress, 168–176 ritual of dress, 171–172 women’s dress, 170–171 cuaran shoes, 263 Cuba, 121–123, 124 cueca dance, 138 cultural identity, x–xi

| 797

798

| Index Dalarna, 694–696 Dampier, William, 53 dance. See folk dance dancehall, 127–128 Day of the Dead, 485 Dayton Peace Agreement, 82 Debret, Jean-Baptiste, 95, 96, 97, 98 deel, 491–492, 492, 493, 495–497 Denmark, 177–182, 233 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 182 ethnic and religious diversity, 178 everyday dress, 182 geographic and environmental background, 177–178 historical background, 177 jewelry and accessories, 182 materials and techniques, 181–182 men’s dress, 181 special-occasion dress, 182 women’s dress, 178–180, 179 department stores, 60 dhoti, 315, 322 dir‘ah, 506 dishdashah, 359, 364–365, 436, 583, 583–584, 768 Dominican Republic dress in, 295–299 historical background, 294–295 dress and identity, x–xi study of, xi–xii Druze, 433, 436, 439 Duga, 90–91 dyes, 243, 265, 271, 285–286, 318–319, 332–333, 338–339, 388, 457–458, 474, 506–507, 540, 721 Dzeron, Manoog, 34 Dzukija, 200–201 ear coverings, 109 Egypt, 183–190 contemporary dress, 187–190 historical background, 183 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 185–187 materials and techniques, 183–185

men’s dress, 187, 189 people and dress in ancient, 183–187 women’s dress, 185, 188–189 elite dress, xi El Salvador, 71–73, 76–78 embroidery Armenian, 35 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 89 Bulgaria, 103–104 China, 143 Denmark, 181 France, 225–226 Germany and Austria, 233 Hungary, 309 India, 319–320 Korea, 410 Pakistan, 569 Palestine region, 577–578, 580, 580–581 Philippines, 591 Romania, 617 Russian Federation Republics, 635 Sweden, 697 Switzerland, 704, 705–706 Syria, 432–433 England, 252–254, 255–260 See also Great Britain Estonia, 191–196, 195 Estrada, Joseph, 586 Ethiopia, 204–211 accessories/ritualistic adornment, 207–208 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 210 hairstyles, 210 historical and geographical background, 204–205 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 208–209 people and dress, 205–207 textile production, 207 ethnic dress abandoned to Western dress, xii study of, xi–xii face coverings See also veils Arab women, 67–68, 348–349 Faisal II, 358

Index Farmer, Caroline, 60 fashion, x, 223–224 feathers in Aboriginal dress, 47–48, 48 in ancient Egypt, 186 feis, 265 felt, 494 felting, 135 female genital mutilation, 209 Ferdinand, Franz, 81 Fiji, 663, 666 ila cap, 555, 555 Finland, 212–219 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 218 ethnic and religious diversity, 214 geographic and environmental background, 213 historical background, 212–213 history of dress in, 214 materials and techniques, 215 men’s dress, 215–218 women’s dress, 215–218 First Balkan War, 102 First Nations people, 111–112, 114–115, 510–518 isherman’s sweater, 267 lamenco, 684 lax, 529, 562, 704 ly plaid, 262 folk dance Dominican Republic, 297–298 England, 257 Germany, 236 Greece, 279 Irish dancing, 265 Italy, 382 Morris dancing, 257 Scottish, 262 Turkey, 737–738 folk dress, xii Bulgaria, 102–103, 103 Crete, 165–166 Croatia, 167, 168–176 Egypt, 188 Finland, 215–218 Germany and Austria, 233–235 Greece, 274–278

Hungary, 305–309, 310 Italy, 375–385 Netherlands and Belgium, 521–525 Norway, 562–563, 564–565 Portugal, 604–611 Romania, 614–618 Sweden, 691–698 footwear Arabian, 65 Armenia, 41 Bedouins, 362 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 87 Bulgaria, 108 Canada, 119 China, 149 Croatia, 173, 173–174 Germany and Austria, 236 Greece, 278 Greenland, 283 Iraq, 366–367 Irish, 264, 265 Italy, 377 Japan, 392 Latvia, 197 Libya, 443, 444 Mongolia, 496 Morocco, 504, 505, 506, 507 Native Americans, 515–516 Netherlands, 522 Romania, 616 Russia, 631 Russian Federation Republics, 638 Scotland, 262, 263 Somalia, 659, 660 France, 220–230 colonization of Canada by, 112 colonization of Hispaniola by, 295 colonization of Mauritania by, 471–472 component parts of dress, 226–227 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 227–229 control of Algeria by, 20–21 ethnic and religious diversity, 222 everyday dress, 226 geographic and environmental background, 221–222 historical background, 220–221

| 799

800

| Index France (continued) history of dress in, 222–224 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 227 materials and techniques, 224–226 special-occasion dress, 226 French Revolution, 224 fugu, 242–243, 246 funeral dress Australia, aboriginal, 49–50 Laos (Hmong), 418 Madagascar, 459 fur, 494–495, 616 fur trade, 115–117 fustanella, 274, 275 fustanellë, 14, 15 futa, 17 galabiya, 189, 189 Galway shawl, 267 Garcia, Carlos P., 586 gareys, 659, 659 Garifuna dress, 73–75, 75 gaucho dress, 98–99 Germany, 231–236 component parts of dress, 235–236 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 236 ethnic and religious diversity, 232 geographic and environmental background, 231–232 historical background, 231 history of dress in, 232–233 materials and techniques, 233 men’s dress, 234–235, 235 women’s dress, 233–234, 234 Ghana, 237–251 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 248–250 ethnic and religious diversity, 238–239 everyday dress, 245–246 fugu, 242–243, 246 geographic and environmental background, 238 historical background early history, 237 independence, 238 slave trade and colonization, 237 history of dress in, 240–243

jewelry and body modiications, 246–248 kaba, 241–242, 245, 249 kente, 240–241, 245–246, 248, 250 materials and techniques, 243 production centers, 244–245 special-occasion dress, 245–246 ghutra, 65 Gilani dress, 349 girdles, 174 glazed fabric, 144 global trade, xii gognots, 39–40 Gold Coast. See Ghana gold thread, 12, 13, 14, 17, 23, 36, 169, 171, 223, 272, 360, 467, 506, 606, 635 gomesi, 646, 646 grass skirts, 665–666, 669 Great Britain, 252–268 aristocracy, 57 British Mandate in Iraq, 357–358 colonization of Australia by, 53 colonization of Canada by, 112 colonization of India by, 317 England, 255–260 geographic and environmental background, 254–255 historical background, 252–254 Industrial Revolution, 60 in Malaysia, 461 in New Zealand, 527–528 people and dress, 255–267 Scotland, 260–263 Victorian, 55 Wales, 263–264 Greece, 269–279 ancient Greek clothing, 270–271 Byzantine costume, 271–273 contemporary national dress, 274 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 278–279 folk dress, 274–278, 275, 278 historical and geographical background, 269–270 Greenland, 280–288 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 287–288 ethnic and religious diversity, 281 geographic and environmental background, 280–281

Index historical background, 280 history of dress in, 281 jewelry and accessories, 286–287 materials and techniques, 285–286 men’s dress, 283–284, 284 women’s dress, 281–283 Guaimí, 155 Guatemala, 289–293 children’s dress, 292 component parts of dress, 290–292 historical and geographical background, 289–290 men’s dress, 291–292, 292 people and dress, 290 women’s dress, 290–291, 291 guayabera, 122–123, 298–299 guaze, 580 guntiino, 659–660 Gupta Dynasty, 316 hafayid, 507 haik, 22, 23, 502, 505 hairstyles ancient Egypt, 186–187 Croatia, 174 Ethiopia, 210 Ghana, 248 Greenland, 283 India, 323 Kenya, 402–403 Mauritania, 475–476 Morocco, 507 Nigeria, 556 Rwanda, 645 Turkey, 732 Haiti carnival, 301 Catholicism and Voodooism, 300 dress in, 299–302 historical background, 294–295 Hälsingland, 698 handirah, 505 Hassani dress, 506–509 hats See also head coverings/headgear/headdresses Armenia, 38–40 Ghana, 247

Greenland, 283, 285 Italy, 383 Lebanon, 438–439 Libya, 443 Mongolia, 494, 496 Netherlands, 525 Nigeria, 555–556 Pakistan, 571, 572–573 Poland, 600 Portugal, 608–609, 610 Romania, 615 Switzerland, 706–707 Hausu, 539–540 Hawaii, 740–745 aloha shirt, 742–744 holoku, 741, 741–742 kapa cloth and garments, 740–741 mu’u mu’u, 744 Hazara dress, 3–4 head coverings/headgear/headdresses Afro-Brazilian, 97 Arabian Peninsula, 65, 67–68 Armenia, 38–40 Bedouins, 361 Belize, 73–74 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 87 bridal, 175–176 Bulgaria, 106, 107–108 Canada, 118–119 Chile and Bolivia, 135 China, 147, 149 Croatia, 172–173 Denmark, 180 Egypt, 189 Estonia, 193 Ethiopia, 210 Finland, 218 Germany and Austria, 235 Ghana, 247 Greece, 276–277 Hungary, 308 Iran, 352, 355, 356 Italy, 376, 378, 379 Lebanon, 437–438 Lesser Antilles, 129 Libya, 443 Malaysia, 468–469

| 801

802

| Index head coverings/headgear/headdresses (continued) Mongolia, 493, 496 Morocco, 504, 505, 506 Native Americans, 517 Netherlands, 525 Nigeria, 555–556 Norway, 564 Oman and Yemen, 768–769 Palestine region, 578–579, 581 Poland, 597, 598, 600 Romania, 616 Russia, 629–630 Russian Federation Republics, 636 Scotland, 262 Slovenia, 652–653 Somalia, 659, 660 Spain, 683–684 Syria, 431, 434 Tibet, 719 Turkey, 731, 732, 733–734 for women, 2 hemp, 143, 305, 309, 421, 422, 457 henna painting, 42, 209, 475 Herero dress, 679 Herzegovina. See Bosnia and Herzegovina himation, 270 Himba dress, 678–679 Hinduism, 314, 664 Hispanic West, 746–751 Hispaniola, 294–302 Hmong dress, 416–425 Ho Chi Min, 758 holoku, 741, 741–742 Honduras, 71–73, 74–76 Hordern, Ann, 60 huasas, 136–138, 139 huasos, 136–138, 137, 139 Hudson’s Bay Company, 115 huipil, 484 Hungary, 303–311 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 310 ethnic and religious diversity, 304–305 geographic and environmental background, 304 historical background, 303–304 history of dress in, 305–309 materials and techniques, 309

men’s dress, 305–307, 306 women’s dress, 307–309 Hussein, Saddam, 358 Iban culture, 467 identity, and dress, x–xi, 420–421 ikat, 319 Illyrians, 11–12 Imazighin peoples, 19 Inca Empire, 133, 135 India, 312–325, 570 component parts of dress, 321–323 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 324–325 ethnic and religious diversity, 313–315 everyday dress, 320 geographic and environmental background, 313 historical background, 312–313 history of dress in, 315–317 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 323–324 materials and techniques, 318–320 Nagaland tribes textiles, 330–331 special-occasion dress, 320–321 indigenous peoples Bolivia, 131, 133–136 Brazil, 94–95 Canada, 111–112, 114–115 Central America, 76–77, 78 Chile, 131, 133–135 Costa Rica, 152 Hispaniola, 294 India, 326–335 Malaysia, 462–463 New Zealand, 527, 529–533 North America, 510–518 Norway, 559 Panama, 154–155 Philippines, 592 southern Africa, 673–674 South Paciic Islands, 664–665 indigo dye, 243, 332–333, 474, 506, 540, 721 Indo-Aryans, 313–314 Indonesia, 336–342 batik, 338–342 design motifs, 340–341

Index historical and geographical background, 336–337 materials and techniques, 338–340 men’s dress, 338 people and dress, 337–338 women’s dress, 338, 338 industrialization, xii Industrial Revolution, 60, 220–221, 252 ionar, 266 Ionian Islands, 277–278 Iran, 343–356 Abayaneh dress, 345 Arab-style dress, 345–346 Bakhtiari dress, 346–347 Baluch dress, 347 Bandar dress, 348 Gilani dress, 349 historical and geographical background, 343–344 Kurdish dress, 350–352 people and dress, 344–356 Qashqa‘i dress, 352–353 Shahsavan dress, 353–354 Shi‘ite face veils, 348 Sunni face veils, 348–349 Turkmen dress, 354–355 Zoroastrian dress, 355–356 Iraq, 357–366 Arab Bedouin dress, 359–362 Bakhtiari dress, 364 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 364–365 geography, 358–359 historical and geographical background, 357–358 Kurds, 362–363 Lurs, 364 Ma’din, 362 people and dress, 359–366 special-occasion dress, 366–367 Turkmen dress, 363–364 Ireland geographic and environmental background, 254–255 historical background, 252–254 jewelry, 266 people and dress, 264–267 Irish dancing, 265

Islam, 64, 440–442, 463 Israel, x, 367–371, 575 component parts of dress, 369–370 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 370–371 historical background, 367–368 Jewish traditional dress, 368 Italy, 372–384, 441 geographic and environmental background, 374–375 historical background, 372–374 people and dress, 375–384 in central Italy, 379–381 in northern Italy, 375–378 Sicily and Sardinia, 383–384 in southern Italy, 381–383 izar, 505 jallabahs, 444, 503 Jamaica, 121–122, 126–128 Japan, 385–394 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 392–393 footwear, 392 geographical background, 387–388 historical background, 385–387 history of dress in, 390 kimono, 390–392, 391 materials and techniques, 388–390 jeans, xii jewelry Armenia, 41–42 Bedouins, 445–446 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 89–90 Bulgaria, 108–109 China, 147–149, 148 Crete, 165–166 Denmark, 182 Egypt, 185–187 Ethiopia, 208–209 France, 227 Ghana, 246–247 Greece, 271 Greenland, 286–287 Hassani, 507–508 India, 323–324 Irish, 266 Kenya, 401–402, 402 Korea, 414

| 803

804

| Index jewelry (continued) Libya, 445–446 Malaysia, 469 Mauritania, 475 Morocco, 507–508 Netherlands, 525 Nigeria, 556 Norway, 564 Oman, 766 Poland, 598 Romania, 617–618 Russia, 631 Russian Federation Republics, 638 Rwanda, 645 Sicily, 383–384 Slovenia, 653–654 Somalia, 660 South Paciic Islands, 670 Syria, 431, 434 Thailand, 715 Tibet, 720 Uganda, 647 Vietnam, 762 Yemen, 767–768 Jewish traditional dress, 368 Jinnah cap, 571 Jones, David, 60 Jordan, 434, 574–584 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 584 historical and geographical background, 574–575 men’s dress, 583, 583–584 women’s dress, 582–583 kaba, 241–242, 245, 249 The Kalevala, 212–213 kamiks, 283, 284, 287 kanzu, 646 kapa cloth and garments, 740–741 karabela, 302 Karelia, 216, 637 kebaya, 338, 338, 464 kemben, 338 kente, 240–241, 245–246, 248, 250 Kenya, 395–405 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 403–404

ethnic and religious diversity, 397–398 geographic and environmental background, 396 historical background, 395–396 history of dress in, 399 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 401–403 men’s dress, 400, 400–401 people and dress, 396–397 women’s dress, 400–401 Khoijhoi, 673 Khoisan San, 673 khurem jacket, 497 kibber, 581–582 kiffa, 475 kilts, 260–261, 262, 265 kimono, 388, 390–392, 391 Kiribati, 663, 667 kitenge, 647 knitting, 138, 175, 192, 223, 562, 608 knotted needle lace, 36 kohl, 475 kokoshnik, 630 kolonato, 276 Korea, 406–415, 497 children’s dress, 412, 414 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 414–415 ethnic and religious diversity, 408–409 everyday dress, 411 geographic and environmental background, 407–408 historical background, 406–407 history of dress in, 409 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 414 materials and techniques, 410–411 men’s dress, 412–414, 413 special-occasion dress, 411 women’s dress, 412 kosode, 388, 389, 390–391 koulouris, 276 kroplaps, 521–522 ksa, 443, 443, 502–503 Kuchi dress, 5–6 Kuna, 154–155 Kurdish dress, 350–352, 362–363

Index kurta, 568–572, 571 Kurzeme, 198 lace making, 225, 309, 704 lambas, 452–455, 453, 458 Laos (Hmong), 416–425 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 424 cosmology and rituals in dress, 417–420 historical and geographical background, 416–417 importance of dress, 420–421 materials and techniques, 421–424 Lascaux cave paintings, 223 Latgale, 198 Latvia historical and geographical background, 191–192 Kurzeme, 198 Latgale, 198 people and dress, 196–199, 197 Selija, 199 Vidzeme, 199 Zemgale, 197–198 leather, 374, 521, 617 Lebanon, 426–439 dress in, 429–430 geography, 429 historical background, 426–429 men’s dress, 438, 438–439 women’s dress, 437–438 lederhosen, 706–707 legwear See also socks and stockings Bulgaria, 108 Finland, 218 Switzerland, 706–707 léine, 262–263 Lesser Antilles, 121–122, 128–129 Libya, 440–447 geography, 442 historical background, 440–442 Islam in, 440–442 men’s dress, 442–444, 443 Tubu/Teda, 446 women’s dress, 444–446, 445 linen, 196–197, 375, 521

lithma, 67 Lithuania historical and geographical background, 191–192 people and dress, 199–202 loincloth, 658, 675 Lönnrot, Elias, 212 looms, 553, 554–555, 562, 720 lungi, 315 Lurex, 243 Lurs, 364 ma’awis, 658–659 Macapagal, Diosdado, 586 Macapagal-Arroyo, Gloria, 586–587 MacArthur, Douglas, 586 Madagascar, 448–460 ethnic and religious diversity, 450–451 everyday dress, 459 geographic and environmental background, 449–450 historical background, 448–449 materials and techniques, 455–459 men’s and women’s dress, 451–455 special-occasion dress, 459 Ma’din, 362 Magallanes, Fernando de, 131 Magellan, Ferdinand, 585 Magsaysay, Ramon, 586 Magyaros dress movement, 310 maja, 686, 687 makeup See also body paint ancient Egypt, 186 India, 324 Mauritania, 475 South Africa, 676 malafas, 473–475, 474 Malaysia, 461–470 children’s dress, 464 component parts of dress, 468–469 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 469–470 ethnic and religious diversity, 462–463 everyday dress, 468 geography and climate, 462 historical background, 461–462

| 805

806

| Index Malaysia (continued) history of dress in, 463–466 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 469 materials and techniques, 466–468 special-occasion dress, 468 mantillas, 683, 683–684 Māori, 527, 529–533, 532, 533–534, 670 Mao Zedong, 140 Mapuche, 135–136 Marcos, Ferdinand, 586 marriage dowry, 175–176, 419–420, 734 Marsh Arabs, 362 Martín, José de, 131 masks, 286, 296–297, 722 masquerades, 155–156 matadors, 685–686 material culture, ix Mauritania, 471–477 historical and geographical background, 471–473 national dress, 473–476 Mayas, 71, 74, 76–77, 78, 479 Mazoji Lietuva, 201–202 Melanesia, 666, 669–670 melaya liff, 189 melting-pot populations, x merengue, 297–298 Mexico, 478–487 colonialism in, 481–483 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 483–487 historical and geographical background, 478–479 history of dress in, 479–483 materials and techniques, 481 special-occasion dress, 485–486 Micronesia, 663–664, 667, 669–670 military dress, 305, 307 Minoan costume, 160–162 Miskitos, 75, 78 mittens, 119, 192, 197, 494 moccasins, 119, 515–516, 517 modesty garment, 188, 365, 444, 502, 507 mohair, 728 mola textiles, 154–155, 155 Mongol Empire, 492–493

Mongolia, 488–498 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 496–498 ethnic and religious diversity, 490–491 everyday dress, 495–496 geographic and environmental background, 490 historical background, 488–489 history of dress in, 491–494 materials and techniques, 494–495 special-occasion dress, 495–496 Montrose jacket, 262 moral values, xii Morocco, 472, 499–509 Andalusian dress, 501–502 Awlad Hassan, 506–509 Berbers, 503–505 geographical background, 500–501 historical and geographical background, 499–500 people and dress, 501–509 Salé men, 502–503 Morris dancing, 257, 258 mourning dress Australia, aboriginal, 49–50 Australia, settlers, 55 Denmark, 182 mouth coverings, Armenia, 38–40 Mughal Dynasty, 315, 316–317 mukanda, 679–680 mulberry silk, 457 museums, 773–776 Muslims Arabian Peninsula, 62–70 Ethiopia, 206 sumptuary laws, 31 Mussolini, Benito, 373, 441 mu’u mu’u, 744 Nagaland tribes, 326–335 adornment, 328–330 customs and beliefs, 327 historical background, 326–327 textiles, 330–334 today, 334 Namibia, 672, 673, 674, 678–679 nasij, 492, 495 national costumes, xii

Index Native North American dress, 510–518 body modiications, 517–518 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 518 history of dress, 513 materials and techniques, 511–513 men’s and women’s dress, 513–517 special-occasion dress, 517 Nauru, 663 neck cloths, 755 needlework, 89, 309, 704 Nefertiti, 186 Netherlands, 519–526 children’s dress, 523 component parts of dress, 525 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 525–526 ethnic and religious diversity, 520 geographic and environmental background, 519–520 historical background, 519 history of dress in, 520–521 jewelry, 525 materials and techniques, 521 men’s dress, 523, 523–525 women’s dress, 521–523, 522 New Caledonia, 663, 666 New England, 752–757 accessories, 755–756 children’s dress, 755 historical background, 752 materials and techniques, 753 men’s and women’s dress, 753–755 people and dress, 752–753 New South Wales, 55 New Zealand, 527–535 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 533–534 geographic and environmental background, 528 historical background, 527–528 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 533 Māori dress, 530–533, 532 materials and techniques, 528–530 Ngo Ding Diem, 759 Nicaragua, 71–73, 78–80 Niger, 536–541 component parts of dress, 538–541

historical and geographical background, 536 people and dress, 538 Nigeria, 545–556 ethnic and religious diversity, 547–549 everyday dress, 555–556 geographic and environmental background, 546 historical background, 545–546 history of dress in, 549–553 materials and techniques, 553–555 special-occasion dress, 555–556 niqab, 67 Northern Ireland, 252 Norway, 557–566 component parts of dress, 563–564 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 564–565 ethnic and religious diversity, 558–559 everyday dress, 562–563 geographic and environmental background, 558 historical background, 557–558 history of dress in, 559–562 jewelry, 564 materials and techniques, 562 special-occasion dress, 562–563 Numidia, 19 Nuristani dress, 4 obi, 391–392 occupational clothing, in England, 255–257 O’Higgins, Bernardo, 131 Oman, 764–771 children’s dress, 770–771 historical and geographical background, 764–765 men’s dress, 768–770 women’s dress, 765–766 oni, 551 opera, Tibetan, 722–724 Ottoman Empire, 12, 30, 63, 81, 101, 102, 162– 163, 272–273, 441, 574, 729, 735–737 Ottoman Turks, 20 Pakistan, 567–573 historical and geographical background, 567–568

| 807

808

| Index Pakistan (continued) people and dress, 568–572 regional styles, 572–573 shalwar kameez and kurta, 568–572 Palace Guards, 257–259 Palestine region, 574–584 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 584 historical and geographical background, 574–575 men’s dress, 582 women’s dress, 575–582 Panama, 150–159 dress in, 154–158 historical and geographical background, 150–152 Pannonian dress, 652 parka, 119–120 Pashtun dress, 1, 4–5 Patola fabric, 319 Paya, 75–76 Pearlies, 259, 259–260 peasant dress. See folk dress Pech, 75–76 peplos, 270 Persian Gulf. See Arabian Peninsula Peter IV (czar), 101 pha khao ma, 714 phasin, 711–712, 712, 714–715 Philippines, 585–593 component parts of dress, 592 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 592 ethnic and religious diversity, 587–588 everyday dress, 591–592 geographic and environmental background, 587 historical background, 585–587 history of dress in, 588–591 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 592 materials and techniques, 591 special-occasion dress, 591–592 Phillip, Arthur, 53 Pinochet Ugarte, Augusto, 132 Pizarro, Francisco, 131 Poland, 594–601 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 600–601

geographic and environmental background, 595–596 Highland dress, 599–600 historical background, 594–595 men’s dress, 596–597 people and dress, 596, 596–600 women’s dress, 597, 597–598 politics, of dress and identity, xi pollera, 156–158, 157 Polynesia, 664, 667, 669–670 See also South Paciic Islands Portugal, 602–611 in Angola, 674 colonization of Brazil by, 93–94 geographic and environmental background, 603–604 historical background, 602–603 in Malaysia, 461 people and dress, 604–611 “Priest King”, 316, 316 Primorska (Mediterranean) dress, 651 “Prince Charlie” jacket, 261–262 Puerto Rico, 121–122, 124–126, 125 Puritans, 752–757 al-Qaddai, Mu‘ammar, 441 Qashqa‘i dress, 352–353, 353 Qatar, 62–70 quadrille dress, 126–127 Quezon, Manuel, 586, 588 quinceañera, 485 raddia, 455–456 rafia, 554 Ramos, Fidel V., 586 Rastafarian movement, 127 rebozos, 482, 482 reeds (sedges), 456 regalia, 247 Renaissance, 223–224, 372–373, 441 resist dyeing, 144, 388 ritualistic adornment, Ethiopia, 207–208 Romania, 612–620 children’s dress, 616 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 618 ethnic and religious diversity, 613

Index everyday dress, 617 geographic and environmental background, 613 historical background, 612 history of dress in, 613–616 jewelry, 617–618 materials and techniques, 616–617 men’s dress, 614–615 modern dress, 618–619 special-occasion dress, 617 women’s dress, 615–616 Romans, 12, 19, 162, 271 Russia, 621–632 footwear, 631 headwear, 629–630 historical and geographical background, 621 history of dress in, 622 jewelry, 631 men’s dress, 631 outerwear, 631 regional dress, 623–630 Russian Federation Republics, 633–639 Caucasus region, 635–637 historical and geographical background, 633–634 Karelia, 637 Siberia, 637–638 Volga region, 634 Rwanda, 640–648 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 645 ethnic and religious diversity, 642 everyday and special-occasion dress, 643–644 geographic and environmental background, 641–642 historical background, 640 jewelry and adornment, 645 materials and techniques, 645 saffron dye, 265 Salé men, 502–503 Salonica, 272–273 Salvado, Rosendo, 56 Sami, 214, 216, 217, 559, 560 Samoa, 667 San (Bushmen), 673–674

| 809

Sandinistas, 80 sans culottes, 224, 224 sarafan, 626–627, 628 sarape, 482 Sardinia, 383–384 sari, 314–315, 315 saris, 319 sarong, 337–338 satin stitch, 36 Saudi Arabia, 62–70 saya, 106 scariication, 209, 247, 403, 680 Scotland, 252, 253, 260–263 Scottish dancing, 262 Second Balkan War, 102 Selija, 199 Serbia, 82, 102 Setu, 191–192, 194 Shahsavan dress, 353–354 shalwar kameez, 568–572, 569 shambar, 361 shamma, 205–206 shandura, 506–507 shatwah, 578–579 shawls, 330–332, 572, 579–580 shells, 49 shibori dyeing, 388 Shi‘ite face veils, 348 shoes. See footwear Siberia, 637–638 Sicily, 383–384 silham, 503–504 silk, 35, 243, 318, 339, 457, 492, 553–554, 714, 733 Silk Road, 1, 374–375, 636 silk weaving, 224–225 Skåne, 696–697 skin mosaic, 285–286 slavery Brazil, 96–97 Ghana, 237 Mauritania, 471–472 Slovenia, 649–655 Alpine dress, 650–651 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 654–655 headwear, 652–653

810

| Index Slovenia (continued) historical and geographical background, 649 jewelry, 653–654 Pannonian dress, 652 people and dress, 650–654 Primorska (Mediterranean) dress, 651 smocking, 255–256 socks and stockings Armenia, 41 Bulgaria, 108 Finland, 218 Germany, 233, 236 Greece, 278 Netherlands, 522 Switzerland, 706–707 Södermanland, 697 Solomon Islands, 663 Somalia, 656–662 bridal dress, 662 children’s dress, 660, 661 elder dress, 662 historical and geographical background, 656–657 materials and techniques, 657–658 men’s dress, 658–659, 660–661 modern dress, 660–661 people and dress, 658–662 religious dress, 662 special-occasion dress, 662 women’s dress, 659, 659–660, 661 soukman, 105 South Africa, 672–677 southern Africa, 672–681 Angola, 679–680 Botswana, 677–678 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 680–681 ethnic and religious diversity, 674–675 geographic and environmental background, 672–673 historical background, 672 history of dress in, 675 Namibia, 678–679 people and dress, 673–674 South Africa, 675–677 South Paciic Islands, 663–671 component parts of dress, 669

contemporary use of ethnic dress, 670 ethnic and religious diversity, 664–665 everyday and special-occasion dress, 668–669 geographic and environmental backgroun, 664 historical background, 663–664 history of dress in, 665–667 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 669–670 materials and techniques, 668 Soviet Union, 30, 489, 493–494 Spain, 499–500, 682–689 bullighting, 685–686 children’s dress, 688 colonization of Cuba by, 122 lamenco, 684 Hispanic West, 746–751 historical and geographical background, 682–683 maja, 686, 687 men’s dress, 688 modern dress, 688 people and dress, 683–684 rule of Philippines by, 585–586 Spanish conquest of Central America, 71–72 of Hispaniola, 294–295 of Mexico, 481–483 spinning, 481, 553 spun bark cloth, 456 srtanots, 39 stockings. See socks and stockings Sucre, José de, 131 suea phra ratchathan, 713 sumptuary laws, 31, 32, 135, 151, 273, 295, 385, 386, 388, 409, 411, 480–481, 691, 738 Sunni face veils, 348–349 Suvalkija, 201 Sweden, 690–699 children’s dress, 694 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 698 Dalarna, 694–696 ethnic and religious diversity, 691 everyday and special-occasion dress, 693–694 geographic and environmental background, 690 Hälsingland, 698

Index historical background, 690 history of dress in, 691–692 materials and techniques, 693 men’s dress, 693 Skåne, 696–697 Södermanland, 697 women’s dress, 693–694 Switzerland, 700–707 children’s dress, 707 color and embroidery, 705–706 geographical background, 701–702 historical background, 700–701 materials and techniques, 704 men’s dress, 706, 706–707 people and dress, 702–704 women’s dress, 704–706 Syria, 426–439 dress in, 429–437 geography, 429 historical background, 426–429 men’s dress, 435, 435–437 women’s dress, 430–435 Tahiti, 667 tail dresses, 514 Tajik dress, 6–7, 7 tallit, 369 tantur, 437–438 tartan plaids, 260–261 Tatars, 634 tattoos Bosnia and Herzegovina, 90 Ethiopia, 209 Greenland, 286–287 India, 324 Malaysia, 469 Nagaland tribes, 330 Native Americans, 517–518 South Paciic Islands, 670 terno, 590, 590–591, 592 textiles Albanian, 13–14 Bolivia, 138 Croatia, 169–170 Ethiopia, 207 Ghana, 240–241, 244–245, 248

Guatemalan, 290 Hungary, 309 India, 318–319 Indonesia, 338–342 Irish, 266 Italy, 374–375 Japan, 388–390 Madagascar, 451–459 Malaysia, 466–468 Mexico, 480–481 mola, 154–155 Morocco, 506–507 Nagaland tribes, 330–334 Native American, 512 New England, 753 Niger, 538–539 Nigeria, 549–550, 552, 554–555 Norway, 562 Philippines, 591 Somalia, 657–658 Switzerland, 704 Thailand, 711, 714–715 Turkey, 733–734 Thai Chakkri, 712–713 Thailand, 708–716 component parts of dress, 714–715 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 715 ethnic and religious diversity, 711 everyday and special-occasion dress, 714 geographic and environmental background, 710–711 historical background, 708–710 history of dress in, 711–713 jewelry, body paint, and body modiications, 715 materials and techniques, 714 Thessaloniki, 272–273 thob, 64, 65 Tibet, 717–725 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 724 geographic and environmental background, 718 historical background, 717 materials and techniques, 720–721 people and dress, 718–720 special-occasion dress, 721–722

| 811

812

| Index Tibetan opera (Ache Lhamo), 722–724 tie-dye, 319, 433, 507 tirqi, 14–15 Tito, Josip Broz, 81 tovaglia, 379 trade, xii treadle loom, 554–555 Trews, 261 trousers, 272, 282–283, 378, 491, 599–600, 608, 614 T-shirts, xii Tuareg region, dress in, 540 Tubu/Teda, 446 tudung, 468–469, 469 tuque, 118 turbans, 2, 321, 504, 506, 555, 659 Turkey, 726–739 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 737–738 geographic and environmental background, 728 historical background, 726–727 history of dress in, 730–732 materials and techniques, 733–734 Ottoman court dress, 735–737 people and dress, 728–730 wedding attire, 734–735 Turkmen dress, 7–8, 354–355, 363–364 Uganda, 640–648 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 647 ethnic and religious diversity, 642–643 everyday and special-occasion dress, 645–647 geographic and environmental background, 642 historical background, 640–641 jewelry and adornment, 647 materials and techniques, 647 umbrellas, 207–208 United Arab Emirates, 62–70 United Kingdom. See Great Britain United States, x, 472 Hawaii, 740–745 Hispanic West, 746–751 Native Americans, 510–518 New England, 752–757 and the Philippines, 586

Urartu kingdom, 32–33 Uzbek dress, 8–9 Vanuatu, 663 veils See also face coverings Armenia, 38–40 Egypt, 189 Greece, 271 Iran, 348–349 Palestine region, 579–580, 581 vertical loom, 553, 720 Victoria (queen), 55, 261 Vidzeme, 199 Vietnam, 758–763 component parts of dress, 762 contemporary use of ethnic dress, 762–763 ethnic and religious diversity, 760 everyday and special-occasion dress, 761 geographic and environmental background, 759 historical background, 758–759 history of dress in, 760–761 jewelry, 762 materials and techniques, 761 Vikings, 557, 559 Village of Parchanj (Dzeron), 34 Volendam costiume, 521–525 Volga region, 634 Voodooism, 300 Wales, 252, 263–264 warp-ikat, 467 wealth, xii wearing blankets, 513–514 weaving, 244–245, 333–334, 410, 451–455, 550, 553, 580, 658, 668 wedding attire Armenia, 37–38, 38, 42 Bosnia and Herzegovina, 89 Croatia, 175–176 Estonia, 193–194 Malaysia, 468 Netherlands, 522–523 Norway, 563 Pakistan, 572

Index Philippines, 591–592 Portugal, 606 Scotland, 261–262 Somalia, 662 South Africa, 676–677 Tibet, 721 Turkey, 734–735 weft-ikat, 467 Western dress adoption of, xii in Arab world, 68 white dress, 106 wigs, 186 Wodaabes, 540–541, 541 wool, 264, 271, 318, 375, 494, 521, 562, 616–617, 704, 721, 733 wool felt, 233, 494 wool frieze, 181 work clothes, 756 World War I, 81

xhubletë, 15–17, 16 xhybe, 17 Yanomami, 95 Yemen, 764–771, 768–770 children’s dress, 770–771 historical and geographical background, 764–765 women’s dress, 766–768 Yoruba kingdoms, 550, 552 Yugoslavia, 81 Zambia, 673 Žemaitija, 201 Zemgale, 197–198 Zene za Zene, 91 Zimbabwe, 673 Zoroastrian dress, 355–356 zubin, 41 Zulu, 675–677

| 813