Kosovo folk costume national Albanians traditional clothing

Kosovo national clothes

The national costume of the Albanians National clothing or folk clothing is the clothing that was worn by the Albanians in all traditional settlement areas inside and outside the state of Albania in everyday life and on special occasions before western clothing started to be used more and more.

The national costume of the Albanians

Traditional Albanian clothing shows the various cultural influences of the area and differed according to regional and social origin, age, marital status, urban or rural origin and religion. The folk costume was still widespread in everyday life until the 1950s. It has long been replaced by Western clothing, especially among younger people.

Today, individual pieces of traditional costumes are still worn by the elderly in everyday life, in folklore groups, on market days and on special occasions. Older rural men, for example, often still wear the qeleshe or plis, a round felt cap.

The costumes have of course changed constantly. Different regional types developed or disappeared again. External cultural influences such as Islamization and the Ottoman era have also left their mark. After the Albanian independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1912, the influence of Western fashion has grown stronger. The clothing consisted primarily of products from local agriculture and livestock: leather, wool, flax fiber, hemp fiber and silk. For individual items of clothing like the Fustanella, however, one was dependent on imports of the fabrics from abroad right from the start.