Serbian traditional clothing, also called as Serbian traditional folk costume or Serbian traditional dress (, plural: / ), refers to the traditional clothing worn by Serbs living in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and the extended Serbian diaspora communities in Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, United States, etc. Like any traditional dress of a nation or culture, it has been lost to the advent of urbanization, industrialization, and the growing market of international clothing trends. The wide range of regional folk costumes show influence from historical Austrian, Hungarian, German, Italian, and Ottoman Turkish presence. Nonetheless, the costumes are still a pinnacle part of Serbian folk culture. From the 19th century and onwards, Serbs have adopted western-styled clothing. This change has started in larger settlements such as cities and towns, although it was not uncommon to see rural women in traditional working costumes all the way until the end of 1970s. Today, these national costumes are only worn by some elderly in rural areas but are most often worn with connection to special events and celebrations, mostly at ethnic festivals, religious and national holidays, weddings, tourist attractions, and by dancing groups who dance the traditional Serbian kolo, or circle dance. History
Serbian costume is also known for the variety of textures and embroidery. The jelek is a waistcoat made from wool or velvet while women's jackets are lined with fur. Characteristic features of Serbian dress include opanci, footwear dating back to antiquity.
Traditional Serbian female dress consists of opanci, embroidered woolen socks that reached to the knees and nazuvice. Skirts were very varied, of plaited or gathered and embroidered linen, with tkanice serving as a belt. An important part of the costume were aprons (pregače) decorated with floral motifs. Shirts were in the shape of tunics, richly decorated with silver thread and cords was worn over the shirt. In some areas it was replaced by an upper sleeveless dress of red or blue cloth, knee-long, richly decorated and buttoned in front (zubun). Scarves and caps bordered with cords were worn as headdress. Girls also wore collars, or a string of gold coins around their throats, earrings, bracelets, and their caps were decorated with metal coins or flowers.
In medieval times, rulers, the nobility and senior churchmen brought many of their fabrics from the Republic of Ragusa. The most common fabric for ordinary Serbs was sclavina or schiavina, a coarse woolen fabric. Linen was also made within Serbia while silk was grown at the Dečani Monastery as well as near Prizren. Few secular garments have survived from the medieval period, the most notable being the costume worn by Lazar Hrebeljanović at the Battle of Kosovo. More decorated vestments have survived from the period.
The typical Serbian costume consists of shirts, trousers, skirts, sleeveless coats called jeleks, ordinary coats, jubun, socks, belts and headgear, often called oglavja. The trousers are believed to hail from the pre-Slavic Balkan era, while the woolen cord ornaments have a Thracian, Illyrian origin.
The designs of civil clothes were developed from ancient times, to Roman then Byzantine, and later under Turkish (Oriental) influence, and in towns of the Pannonian area and the Adriatic coast, primarily under European influence. Under the influence of the mentioned factors certain common wearing elements within the wider cultural and geographic zones were created, such as Adriatic, Alpine, Dinaric, Morava, Pannonian, and Vardar zones (or styles) with their own particularities. In the wake of Serbia's newfound autonomy following the Second Serbian Uprising, there was a push among Serbian intellectuals from the Austrian Empire to Europeanize the Serbian city costume. The transition (which is most evident in Serbian portrait painting from the mid-19th century) to western attire took several decades and wealthy Serbian men continued to wear full Ottoman costume with turbans on formal occasions well into the 1860s.
By the late 1870s, the male Serbian urban costume favored by officials and the mercantile class (when not wearing increasingly popular Western fashion) still consisted principally of braided Turkish-cut breeches, an embroidered vest, and a striped cashmere or silk shawl, several yards in length, wrapped around the torso in which ornamental pistols and swords were placed. In winter time, this costume was complemented by a long, fur-bordered pelisse. In the southern regions of Serbia, men at the time frequently wrapped a white cloth around their fezzes, similarly to their Albanian neighbors.
Main attire Overall traditional wear include: Opanci shoes: Shoes most commonly worn by peasants (pl. опанци, lit. "climbing footwear"); a construction of leather, lack of laces, durable, and have horn-like ending on toes. The design of the horn-like ending indicates the region of Serbia the shoes are from. Until 50 years ago, they were usually worn in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia. Šajkača cap: Easily recognisable by its design; the top looks like the letter V or like the bottom of a boat (viewed from above). It was derived from the 18th-century military cap part of the uniform worn by the Šajkaši, river troops guarding Belgrade, Danube and Sava against the Ottoman Empire, during the 16th- to 19th centuries. It subsequently spread throughout the civilian population of central Serbia, and in the 19th century it became an official part of the Serbian military uniform, first worn only by soldiers, then after 1903 it replaced the officer's French-style Kepis and Peaked caps. It would continue to be used by the Royal Yugoslav Army. It continued its use by the Chetniks in World War II, but also Serbs of the Yugoslav Partisans until it was replaced by "Titovka" cap (named after Josip Broz Tito) for soldiers and Peaked cap for officers' parade uniform. During the Bosnian war, the hat was worn by Bosnian Serb military commanders and many volunteer units in the 1990s. It is seen as a Serbian symbol. Today it is commonly seen in rural villages across Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro, often worn by elderly men. Šubara hat: A shepherd hat (Шубара, fur hat), during harsher and colder times (winter). It is in a conical or cylindrical shape predominantly of Black colour, because of the black lamb/sheep fur (woolen). It was used in the World War I by the Serbian soldiers and by the Chetniks in World War II and again during the Yugoslav Wars, usually with a cockade (kokarda) of the Serbian eagle or cross. Today, it is part of the folk attires of east and southeast Serbia. Fez: Until the late 19th century, the fez was the most commonly worn hat among Serbs and was used by both men and women. Though associated strongly with Turkey and North Africa, the fez was the preferred choice of headwear for Balkan Christians of all classes during this time. Early uniform regulations of the Serbian civil service specified the wear of fezzes embroidered with the Serbian coat of arms. In 1850, the Russian Consul to Serbia, Dmitrii Sergeevich Levshin insisted that Serbian officials cease wearing the fez and adopt Western hats. The request was refused and Serbian uniform regulations continued to require the fez. Over time, the fez was replaced in Montenegro by the Montenegrin cap, and in most of Serbia by other forms of headwear. In regions of Southern Serbia, however, the fez remains part of the traditional folk costume.
Serbia In Serbia, Serb folk dress are divided into several groups: Dinaric, Morava, Pannonian, and Vardar styles, all of which can also be placed under regional groups such as: Northern Serbia (which mostly includes Vojvodina), Central Serbia, Southern and Eastern Serbia, Western Serbia and Southern Serbia (which mostly includes Kosovo and Metohija). Northern Serbia The Serb folk dress of Northern Serbia, or Vojvodina, are part of the Pannonian style. As part of a cultural zone with Croatia, Hungary and Romania, the attire has likeness to those in adjacent Croatian, Hungarian, Romanian provinces (there are also some small Bunjevac, German, Slovak, and Rusyn cultural influences in areas where those minorities live). They also take some small influences from the Morava, and Dinaric styles.
Vojvodina
The fertile Plain of Vojvodina provided not only grain, but also abundantly provided raw materials for making human clothing. The Pannonian climate, with long and hot summers and very harsh and windy winters, also conditioned the way of its inhabitants. The main raw materials for the production of the old Serbian costume were vegetable fibers of mullet, flax and cotton. In addition to vegetable fibers, wool, lamb and sheep fur were used for winter clothing, which was favored by basic industries.
19th century clothing made in domestic handicrafts was of simple design. Basic linen was characterized by straight-cut pieces of clothing, the width of which was molded to the body by folding fabrics. By adopting more sophisticated tailoring in upper garments, which came to Serbian costume through the influence of urban and central and western European fashion, especially Viennese, sewing of such costume was left to the tailors. Village dressmakers introduced new fashion elements into folk costume, which influenced and contributed to the rapid loss of Serbian folk costume in Vojvodina.
The old Serbian costume in Vojvodina was formed over a long period of time, and in its features contain traces of past epochs as well as traces of received influences from other peoples with whom Serbs lived in ethnically mixed settlements. Srem has elements of central Balkan and Dinaric attire, Bačka and Banat have central European influences and styles, especially from the Baroque.
During the 19th century, men's clothing in summer and winter was made up of linen-colored white clothing, which is so characteristic with wide linen pants and shirts. Some pleated skirts were worn with them in some villages of northern Bačka and northern and central Banat. Over white clothing, men wore a black štofani vest or a velvet vest. In the spring and autumn, wool coats called doroc and raincoats were worn. Already in the second half of the 19th century, the men's folk costumes were accompanied by short or below the waist coats called bena, bekeš, and jankel.
In the winter,štofane čakšire were worn with a coat. On festive occasions in the summer, younger people wore pleated white skirts. Serbs in Bačka did not wear pants embroidered at the lower edge or pants with lace and fronclama, as how Šokci men wore. Men's skirts are embellished with details. The skirts were worn until World War I.
Shirts are decorated with white embroidery or embroidery made of gold wire. On festive occasions, special sewn embroidered vest were worn, especially embellished with gold embroidery called formeti, nedra, and plastroni. These embroidered vest could be fitted to any shirt and could always be seen under the waistcoat and coat. The shirt was worn over the pants, and where men wore regular pants, the shirt was tucked inside the pants.
The vest is most often sewn from black felt, velvet, plush but there were also vests with colorful silk brocade. Older men wore only black vests, while boys wore vests in the front richly decorated with silver or gold. The most commonly used ornament are plant motifs, horseshoes, initials and years. The richly decorated vests were meant to show the wealth of the guy who wore them.
In Banat and in the villages of northwestern Bačka, the boys used to wear ornaments across their shoulders as decoration.