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National costumes
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One of the distinctive features of various peoples are also folk
costumes. They are a symbol of tradition, culture, climate, the views of visual art, a reflection of a number of histor ical influences, revealing in this way which nation they belong to. Croatian folk costumes are extremely colorful, well made and diverse. Until the half of the 19th century, they were worn by villagers, but also by the part of the city population that lived of agriculture.
Significant social and political events (abolition of serfdom, demilitarization of the Croatian Military Border) led to the abandonment of folk costumes. Namely, these events brought about the division of large communal families into individual families. Within these communal families (some of which consisted of dozens of members), labor was traditionally divided among the household members, and so it was up to women to make clothes. They were also in charge of the production and processing of textile raw materials, of spinning, coloring, weaving, sewing and decorating clothes .
After the communion families fell apart, women were no longer able to perform all these tasks. Another reason for abandoning folk costumes was the same for all peoples: rapid development in lang technology which led to the development of textile industry, trade and traffic connections. Today folk costumes are almost completely forgotten; only in some areas do people still wear them, but in an altered form.
Croatian folk costumes are divided into those from the Adriatic,
Pannonian and Dinaric area. The most prominent feature of the costumes from the Adriatic area (the coast and islands from Istra to Peljesac) is female headgear (a long, specifically folded headdress), along with a female skirt with shoulder straps and a dark cloak with a hood. Italian and Mediterranean influences in general are noticeable on this costume.
The richly decorated Pannonian costumes in the area 0between the Rivers Sava and Drava are similar to other costumes of the Pannonian basin (cloaks made of stout peasant cloth, delicate fleece-lined coats with leather attachments). Pannonian costumes have rich folds. Some of the prominent parts of the costume are a specific type of the Balkan peasant footwear (the so-called "opanak") and the female cap ("poculica"). As the food in the area depended on the fruits of the earth, so the materials for making clothes were mostly made of plant fiber - flax and hemp.
The costumes of the Dinara Mountain, placed between the costumes of Panonia and the Adriatic, have been influenced by these neighboring areas. Some of the prominent features: one-piece female shirt (lined with cloth), woolen pinafore, often with tassels, Balkan moccasins with a strap above the foot (the so-called "prepletasi"-interwoven shoes, "oputasi"), various male and female jackets, both with and without sleeves ( short peasant coat-"zobun" and "koporan"), wide leather belts and metal ornaments. The clothes are refined and include many decorations. The main aim of the costumes is to illustrate prosperity. In making the clothes, the population, mainly shepherds, used all the available material - namely, wool.
The costumes differ from one area to another; different garments are worn in different seasons. There are also the garments worn to work and those worn on festivals and Sundays, garments for little girls, girls, younger women and older women, for the wealthy and the poor. The costumes differ in decorations, details, colors and embroideries, in the type of material and other elements. They include numerous attachments such as beads, lace, colorful buttons, various motifs such as grapes, leaves, roses, hearts, clovers, tulips etc.
It takes a lot of skill and patience for hard-working hands to create a folk costume. A folk costume thus reveals a lot about the one who wears it: where he comes from, his income and marital status, but to an alert eye, it can reveal even more .
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