Celebrating International Identity Through Fashion

National Dress: Creole

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:10:00 -0400

From http://www.avirtualdominica.com/trad_dress.htm:

They had a sort of chart in their system of dressing, for matching foulards and madras headkerchiefs
with the dress to be worn, so that if, for instance a woman wished to wear a dress in which yellow was the predominant colour, she would wear a blue foulard with a mouchoir of yellow mixed with red. There were also mixed ruled regarding the colours the colours used by people of different shades of complexion so that negresse, capresse, chabin, or mulatress would each look their very best. Many will agree in saying that our native dress can hold its own anywhere in the world when worn with pride and distinction.

National Dress: Ireland

Sun, 22 May 2011 19:16:19 -0400

In present times, Irish dancers are the best example to witness the traditional clothing of Ireland. In the early 1800’s female dancers wore ordinary peasant dresses often embellished with ribbons formed into flowers or crosses. The crimson homespun skirt reached till the ankles worn with a simple black bodice. From the late 1800’s onwards, pipers wore the kilt and from about 1910 male dancers began to wear this form of costume. During this period the typical female dance costume consisted of a hooded cloak over a white dress with a sash.

Source

Image sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

thepalestineyoudontknow: فعاليات احياء الدكرى الثالثة والستون...

Sun, 15 May 2011 14:14:48 -0400

thepalestineyoudontknow:

فعاليات احياء الدكرى الثالثة والستون للنكبة اليوم

Girls wearing skirts in the colour of the Palestinian flag perform during a rally marking the day of “nakba” or the catastrophe on May 15, 2011 in the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

(more Palestine)

mildtarantula: one of the books i use most for hemlock is...

Fri, 06 May 2011 17:06:38 -0400

mildtarantula:

one of the books i use most for hemlock is “Rahwaan puku (Folk Costume)” by Ildiko Lehtinen and Pirkko Sihvo. it’s a big, fat book i bought when i went to helsinki, with traditional/folk costumes from finland, estonia, latvia, and a few other countries. this picture from the book has a selection of silk caps from the national museum of finland. the ISBN for anyone interested is 951-616-086-7.

National Dress Spotlight: Cinco de Mayo (Mexico)

Wed, 04 May 2011 20:13:00 -0400

Cinco de Mayo (Spanish for “fifth of May”) is a Mexican civic holiday held on May 5 that commemorates the Mexican army’s unlikely victory over French forces at theBattle of Puebla on May 5, 1862, under the leadership of General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín. It is celebrated primarily in the state of Puebla and in the United States. While Cinco de Mayo sees limited significance in Mexico itself, the date is observed nationwide mostly in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. Mexicans and Latinos living in California during the American Civil War are credited with being the first to celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the United States. Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico’s Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico.

Feliz Cinco de Mayo! =)

source
source
source
source
source source

Icarus also flew.: Some of my favourite African-oriented websites.

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 13:32:41 -0400

Icarus also flew.: Some of my favourite African-oriented websites.:

fyeahafrica:

Hey guys,

As I won’t be posting as much for the time being, I’ve compiled a list of some of my go-to blogs and websites that have a heavy focus and concentration on Africa, African people and issues.

Almost all of these blogs have blogrolls that you can discover at your own…

Not specifically about fashion, but I thought it might be relevant to your interests. Click through to see the long list! =)

National Dress: India

Sat, 23 Apr 2011 19:52:00 -0400

(More beautiful photos of embroidered pattu-langa here!)

The culture, religion, languages spoken and attire of the people of India are as diverse as the landscape of this vast country. Due to its diversity this cultural hub does not have just one dress, which can be called as the National Dress or Indian Dress. If in northern part we find more of the Muslim influence, in the southern part of India Dravidian style of costumes dominate.

Sari, an unstitched piece of cloth which looks common but lends the uncommon grace and elegance to the women wearing it. In ancient times unstitched fabric was supposed to be pure this belief gave rise to this Indian dress in which is there is no problem of size and shape. It is a six to nine yard piece of cloth. Depending upon the needs and cultural and religious norms of the region, each region has its own style of draping a sari. The style of wearing a sari reflects the age, region, religion, status and occupation of the women to some extent. The different styles of draping a sari are:

North Indian: It is the widely used style in which Sari is draped around a waist once and then pleats are tucked in the waistband. The remaining portion of Sari, known as Pallu is put across the left shoulder and is allowed to fall behind.
Gujarati: This style of Sari is known as Seedha Pallu Sari. In this style Pallu is taken to back side and is then put across the front side of the right shoulder.
Bengali: A pleatless style of draping a sari.
Maharashtrian: for this style of sari you need a sari which is longer than the usual one i.e. 8-9 m long. In this style sari is passed through legs and one portion of it is tucked at the back providing room for greater freedom of movement.
Other styles of draping a sari worth mention are: Kodagu, Nivi and Kachha Nivi style.

National Dress: Tibet

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 10:02:24 -0400

National Dress: Kenya

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:24:00 -0400

Apart from the national flag, Kenya is yet to have a national dress that cuts across its diverse ethnic divide. With each of the more than 42 ethnic communities in Kenya having its own traditional practices and symbols that make it unique, this is a task that has proved elusive in the past. However, several attempts have been made to design an outfit that can be worn to identify Kenyans, much like the Kente’ cloth of Ghana.

The most recent effort was the Unilever-sponsored “Sunlight quest for Kenya’s National Dress”. A design was chosen and though it was unveiled with much pomp at a ceremony in which public figures modelled the dress, the dress design never took hold with the ordinary people.

Kitenge, a cotton fabric made into various colours and design through tie-and-dye and heavy embroidery, is generally accepted as the African dress. Though used in many African countries, Kitenge is yet to be accepted as an official dress as it is only worn during ceremonies and non-official functions. The Maasai wear dark red garments to symbolise their love for the earth and also their dependence on it. It also stands for courage and blood that is given to them by nature. The Kanga(Khanga, Lesso) is another cloth that is in common use in practically every Kenyan home. The Kanga is a piece of clothing about 1.5 m by 1 m, screen printed with beautiful sayings in Swahili (or English) and is largely worn by women around the waist and torso. Kangas are a flexible item, used in many ways such as aprons, child-carrying slings, picnic blankets, swimwear etc. However, except among the coastal people, it is usually not worn as a full outfit.

National Dress: Ukraine

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:45:00 -0400

Sources: One, Two

National Dress: Vietnam

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:14:42 -0400

Image sources:
One, Two, Three, Four, Five

Vietnamese national women’s dress includes a long, high-necked silk tunic that is slit at the sides to the waist. Here the solid-color, pastel tunics are worn over matching full-length skirts, common to northern Vietnam, but they also are worn over white or black silk pants in the central and southern regions. The costume is called áo dài (pronounced “ow zai”).

This costume actually was created in the 1920s, during the period of French rule, when Vietnamese nationalists envisioned a pan-Vietnam costume that would contrast with both European clothes and the varied ethnic and status-differentiated clothing that existed throughout the regions of precolonial Vietnam.

National Dress: Turkmen

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:05:00 -0400

Where they live: Turkmenistan (3,632,000), Iran (932,000), Afghanistan (932,000), Pakistan (60,000), Russia (33,000), Turkey (2,034)

Languages spoken: Altaic, Turkic, Oghuz, Eastern, Turkmen

Religion: Islam (Sunni)

Related to: Turks of Turkey, Iraqi Turkmen, and other Oghuz Turkic peoples

Armenian young women dressed with their national costumes...

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 07:02:36 -0400

Armenian young women dressed with their national costumes perform during the annual three-day international folklore festival in the town of Varna east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia, Sunday, June, 21, 2009.

Welcome to the National Dress blog! This blog is dedicated to celebrating and learning about cultural identity through fashion.

Feel free to submit your own photos! If you do so, please also include these details:

- Country of Origin
- Original source (in the content source bar)
- As well as any other interesting information you wish to include.

Have fun!