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The traditional attire of Byzantine royals was extremely ornate, opulent, and eye-catching. It had to be as this state was huge and powerful. But one particular piece of this outfit demands special attention. We’re talking about the Byzantine crown or diadem – gorgeous headpiece that became trendy among the rulers of the time far outside the Byzantine Empire. Let’s look at this crown a bit closer as we have surviving examples, numerous frescos and depictions on coins and seals, and even some modern replicas of these crowns.
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Unfortunately, we know about this underpinnings item only from old books, tailors' bills, and paintings that only give us a clue about this farthingale’s shape. There are no dozens of portraits and etchings, like with gowns, collars, gloves, corsets, and other vintage clothing articles, where we can see the item in all detail. But still, fashion historians, seamstresses, and museum workers have some info about this underwear piece popular in Europe in the 16th century. Let’s find out what we can about the wheel farthingale and look at its modern reproductions.
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Estonia is one of those European countries that preserve old traditions and are very serious about the national heritage. Their authentic folk clothing is kept in museums in special cold stores to prolong its life and preserve it for future generations. At the same time, many Estonians have modern replicas of traditional outfits, which they wear for special occasions, national holidays, folklore festivals, etc. This country has never been really wealthy – and we can see that by the local folk costumes (no massive gold jewelry, expensive furs, strings of pearls, or fancy silks) – but these people managed to turn their traditional garments into works of art.
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Recently, we’ve published a material about mid-17th-century clothing in Europe: Gowns of ladies in the 1640s in Europe. Lace, silks, shorter sleeves, and pantaloons. We mentioned in it that middle-class women wore coifs and hats on their heads, so, obviously, they didn’t need any fancy hairdos. But what about the court ladies? Surely, they didn’t use coifs when going to a ball. Let’s examine their hairstyles and find out why they looked like that. And also, we’ll distinguish several curious peculiarities of this period’s hairdos.
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Floral embroidery patterns are among popular Ukrainian needlework stitches. Ethnologists say that the oldest patterns were most likely geometric, but floral needlework designs, though appeared later, became extremely popular and are often seen on authentic Ukrainian clothing, particularly on women’s embroidered shirts. Here you are a few garments adorned with traditional stitching in red and black colors. It’s amazing how differently flowers can look and how many embroidery stitches can be used to create simple flower petals on the fabric.
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Sudan is a country with typically African climate, very hot and sunny. Of course, the clothes have to be special for people to cope with such severe weather conditions. And that’s where jalabiya comes in – this robe is extremely handy. It’s light, natural, modest, and perfect for Sudan. So, let’s find out more about jalabiya: design, cut, color palette, material, etc.
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Armenian traditional dress is rather modest. Women thoroughly covered their body and head with clothes, but the cut and style of garments were very feminine and elegant. Also, they used a lot of delicate silver jewelry, with which the local females embellished their headdresses as well. These headdresses we will study and analyze in this article. For example, did you know that married women in some regions of Armenia wore such a complicated headpiece that they didn’t take it off for days? And they weren’t allowed to be without this headwear even with their husbands.
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This is a modern replica of attire typical for Eastern Europe, particularly Poland, the beginning of the 1500s. Such gowns were already out of fashion in Western Europe, but Eastern European women still widely used them. Especially the wives and daughters of handicraftsmen. Let’s see what pieces such outfit included, how they were put on, what construction they had, and what accessories complemented the costume. This is a great chance to look under the main gown that we can observe in old paintings.
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We already have a pretty great collection of articles about historic movie costumes used in different popular films and series. But they are scattered around and blended with other materials. Therefore, we’ve decided to gather them all in one place for you. There are not so many movies where you can find really high-quality period-accurate clothing these days. So if you’re a historic costume lover or interested in historic reconstruction, you definitely should watch the 14 tv shows we have here. You’ll find great examples of accurate garments, accessories, hairstyles, and jewelry from the 15th-20th century.
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People didn’t have synthetic dyes 200 years ago, so they used various natural pigments to dye threads for needlework. Of course, the available color palette wasn’t very wide. In Ukraine, the most popular colors of embroidery were red, black, brown, gray, yellow, blue, and white. In the mid-19th century, synthetic dyes appeared and quickly became widely used, so natural pigments were almost forgotten by the artisans. But what kind of natural dyes did our ancestors know? How did they get the needed color?
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The craft of embroidery in Palestine underwent big changes in the mid-20th century. Why? What geopolitical events were so serious that they influenced the traditional craft that used to be established and changeless for centuries before. Let’s find out. Also, let’s see how the Palestinian needlework has changed and what it looks like today. It’s great that young women in this country and in the diaspora abroad are still interested in traditional embroidery and other crafts. Yes, they alter the patterns and color palette, but they don’t give up doing it. That is how folk art survives in the 21st century.
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Greek men’s folk costume is very unique comparatively to many other national outfits around the world. Just look at the pleated fustanella skirt (Traditional male attire in Greece often includes fustanella) and you’ll understand what we mean. Another interesting part of Greek male attire is the traditional shoes with large fluffy pom-pons. In the past, thousands of men wore this footwear, but they are used even in the 21st century. Soldiers of the Greek Presidential Guard wear tsarouchi shoes, along with the rest of the folk costume.
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This time, we’ll look at the outfits of middle-class women in Europe in the mid-17th century. How were these garments different from the clothing of previous years? What trends did appear in the 1640s? Is it true that many female pieces of clothes derived from men’s garments and fashionable tendencies? Let’s find out. The 1640s is a period when a lot of garments got their names or were re-named, and if a lady wanted to appear well-educated and up-to-date, she needed to know these terms. Like “secrete”, “frippone”, and “modeste” petticoats and the like.
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Palestinian traditional embroidery called “tatriz” can be very different in different regions of the country. Some areas prefer a certain color, others use typical symbolic patterns, or even hide embroidered clothes underneath plain cloaks. Palestine is a comparatively small country but its cultural and historic heritage is huge. And one of the main folk clothing crafts here is needlework. So, let’s try to highlight the major characteristic features of several Palestinian regions here.
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- Category: Palestine
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