Serbian clothing pattern in Prizren,
late 19th and first half of the 20th century
The pattern of dressing in Prizren in the second half of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century was based on an abundance of data provided directly or indirectly by clothing items in museum collections, manuscript material by Hristifor Crnilović, published literature, and visual sources. In the search for a more contemporary and complete depiction of the Serbian dressing pattern in Prizren, it was necessary to identify characteristic clothing items distinct in their form, and then assemble them into a complete outfit. Thus, differences between Serbian and other ethnic and confessional groups were noted and highlighted, as well as the adoption of certain clothing elements.
Mirjana Menković,
[Serbian Civil Costume in Prizren in the 19th and First Half of the 20th Century],
Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, 2013. Pages 198-209.
Women's dress pattern
The clothing of Serbian women in Prizren in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century was predominantly traditional Oriental style. This style was novel for the Serbian population of Prizren, as Serbian women in Prizren until the 1820s did not wear shalwars, but long shirts with many side wedges, resembling dresses, and underneath them linen bolje pants. The adoption of shalwars led to the shortening of shirts, which, however, retained the side wedge inserts as an ethnic-confessional characteristic. This cut contributed to the shalwars falling in richer folds. Continuous contact of the Ottoman Empire with the West meant that the Oriental style did not imply specific clothing items, except for shalwars, nor a style of decoration, as weaving and embroidery techniques were constantly transferred in both directions.
The Oriental style is actually reflected in the tendency to use a series of clothing items simultaneously, but so that each is partially visible under the one worn over it. Until the mid-19th century, the shirt, worn close to the body, was only visible around the neck and the décolleté under the dolama or jube (Jube is a clothing item made of felt or velvet reaching mid-calf, sleeveless, open at the front throughout its length) with sleeves, which were girdled with a wide belt called trabulus. These belts were acquired from Tripoli, hence their name, and then became so domesticated that women wove them themselves.
Under the lower edges of the upper clothing, shalwars made of thin silk or cotton plain cloth were visible, which were necessarily finished with patchalucas or leg pieces. For going out on the street, until liberation in 1912, women wore an aval, which covered all clothing. Women in the West at that time also wore various capes and hooded cloaks, but unlike in the East, their purpose was not to hide the status and identity of the person. In Oriental cities, complete anonymity achieved by covering allowed women to move freely in bustling bazaars such as that in Prizren.
From the mid-19th century, in cities like Vranje, Peć, Pristina, and others, Serbian women began to wear anterias made of floral or striped silk, embroidered with gajtans only around the neckline and on the sleeves. Crnilović and Hadži Vasiljević believe that the prohibition of wearing clothes embroidered with gold and silver threads for the Christian population influenced women to replace dolamas with anterias, and then replace long clothing items with vests and mintans (Mintan is an upper clothing jacket, with long straight sleeves, length below the breasts, made of felt and velvet. Richly decorated with serm gajtans, luxurious stylized geometric and plant ornamentation).
Judging by the wide use of anteria with salta, it is believed that in Serbia and Greece it was the basis for shaping the bourgeois costume after liberation from the Turks. This costume in Prizren was not accepted. The significant difference in the number of preserved libades in Prizren (3) and Vranje (35) indicates that Prizren Serbian women with dolamas switched to costumes with short upper clothing items. The only thing they retained from that dressing model was jubeta, as a mark of a bride and a younger married woman. Until liberation in 1912, vests and mintans were somewhat longer, up to the waist.
In formal occasions during cold weather, jube with chepken sleeves, or dolamas made of plush, velvet, or velour, ankle-length and with long sleeves, in purple or lilac color, were worn. The dolama was girded with a wide trabolos belt, which covered the belt without buckles, while over the jube with sleeves, trabulus was not girdled.
In parallel with this model, over the mandatory shirt, vest, and mintan, along with lower and upper dimije, from the beginning of the 20th century, a shorter or longer salta, or coat, lined or edged with fur, was also worn. For her wedding, a bride would receive a jubeta which she wore over all her clothes on all festive occasions, and in her middle years, she could gift it to a future daughter-in-law.
In Prizren, the jube was worn over a dolama, anteria, or vest and mintan. On other more formal occasions, when long garments were not worn, but rather vests and mintans, a rectangular apron called bošča was tied over the dimije. This rectangular apron, composed of two fields joined by width, was made of silk-cotton fabric, and decorated with lace chikma across the middle. It was adorned with geometric motifs in weaving and floral motifs embroidered with silk thread on đerđef.
The everyday apron, skutača, which was evenly girdled over the dimije along with the vest, was made of wool and more modestly decorated. On their feet, they wore socks of white wool or cotton, with red tips on the toes, partially decorated with embroidered floral motifs, and leather shoes made of black box kondura or parmaklije, decorated with a metal plate or buckle. Headwear and jewelry were mandatory decorative elements in every woman's dressing.
For brides and young women, one of the most important decorative and clothing items was the tepeluk with chelenk, while married women wore a kolo on their head.
Other jewelry was very varied: earrings, multiple rings on the hands, bracelets of the grivna type or multiple strands with clasps in pairs, for the left and right hand. Brides, or young married women, did not go out on the street alone, but only in the company of older people, and if no one could accompany them, at least some child from the family went with them. Girls and young women, up to a year from marriage, carried a chevre (Chevre is a small handkerchief decorated with embroidery, which is held in the hand or worn tucked into the belt. It has the function of communicating social status, as it is worn in a specific way on specific occasions) at waist level, so that it was visible, and with their right hand, they held the aval. Later, instead of chevre, they carried a silk shamiya in the same way, which they received from their husbands.
The shamiya indicated the status of the person: younger women wore lighter, and older women darker. Unmarried young girls were allowed to go alone and did not always have to wear chevre, by which it was known that they were unmarried, but they wore avales much more closed, so that only their eyes were visible.
Women in Prizren dedicated a lot of time, especially in the morning, to arranging their hair, applying makeup, and dressing. Orthodox Christian girls combed their hair with a parting and braided it into two braids. Before the wedding, the hair was braided into a kočanj, a single braid dropped straight down the back, which was a symbol of the end of maidenhood. The hair was dyed with a mixture of henna, roasted and crushed sea nut, and bismuth, locally called tizap. The freshness and radiance of the face were maintained with masks used for hair removal, whitening the face, and removing wrinkles, which were made from a mixture of paraffin and sakasa, or mastic, which provides elasticity.
Prizren, like all cities, had its own ideal of female beauty, which was common to all ethnic and confessional groups. Among the most beautiful and attractive women of Prizren were those of medium height, whose faces were adorned with rosy cheeks "like flatbread", olive-green eyes, eyebrows "as if penciled" and healthy teeth, and whose hair was black and long. A specific way of walking was highly valued, that a woman in motion "crushes". A dignified and majestic way of walking, or rather, a woman's proud posture, is vividly illustrated by the comment of the people of Prizren: "Even if her nose falls off, she won't bend down to pick it up."
Such urban clothing remained almost until the Second World War. In its entire stylistic design, it had the same features throughout the entire territory of Kosovo and Metohija.
Women's clothing consisted of a felt fez with a silver tepeluk, which was attached to the braids with a silk scarf, then decorations of old coins and pearls, a shirt with long, straight sleeves made of Prizren fabric, dimije made of floral-patterned silk-cotton fabric, a belt made of fabric or metal with filigree work and buckles, vests made of felt or velvet with rich gajtan embroidery, mintans, jubes, anterias, ćurčets, slippers.
On formal occasions, married women wore over their vests an anteria with chepken, false sleeves completely open and hanging down the back, made of velvet, knee-length, adorned with thick rows of golden gajtans, ribbons, and bućme.
Different ethnic and confessional groups of Prizren were clearly distinguished from each other by the material and color of clothing more than by the general appearance. Religious affiliation was unequivocally revealed by jewelry, ornately oriental, with clear religious motifs.
Men's dress code
The process of Europeanization of men's clothing occurred throughout the 19th century, so the spontaneous change of clothing from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was easily performed. The previous model of dressing in a characteristic Oriental style, which in Prizren probably never reached the luxury and richness as was the case in Serbia in the 19th century, spontaneously transformed into a European pattern through a standardized form best illustrated by the clothing of merchants.
The male way of dressing in the best sense confirms the words of Irbijeve and Mackenzie "that the Serbs in Prizren were always for European institutions". Until the mid-19th century, Prizren Turks wore clothing consisting of a shirt, long pants tucked into socks, fustan, or fustanella, a densely pleated skirt of white cloth, and fermen or koporan, short upper garments of luxurious tailor-made decoration.
Prizren Serbs adopted the model by which Skadar Catholics dressed, which consisted of: knee-length cotton shirts of homemade manufacture, with stitched pleats and folds on the chest, which were worn close to the body, pants of cotton fabric with učkur over which woolen pants đavre and čakšira type shalwars, made of satin or felt, were worn in winter.
From the upper clothing, short jackets were worn: čohani đemadan, actually mintan with overlapping on the chest, which could have sleeves and made of silk fabric, but was always of a darker color and decorated with puceta from gajtans, and along with that a male vest fermen with the same decorative puceta. On their feet, they invariably wore white cotton knitted socks without decoration and shallow black shoes kundure in summer, and in winter boots with a low shank, more like deep shoes. An older form of footwear, abandoned until the last decades of the 19th century, were shallow yemeniye made of tanned red leather that had a strap for tying over the ankle.
Čakšire of the Serbs were red, brown, or black, as only the Turks used blue. Such čakšire, poturlije or sake, were procured from Skadar where the craftsmen had the best felt available. Deep pockets on the sides of čakšire were outlined with gajtans, and the legs had an overlap over the ankles and were cut in the front to show the white socks. The belt was wide, made of purchased patterned silk. Socks reaching up to the knees were primarily white cotton, but could also be knitted from cotton and wool of various colors.
All male population of Prizren wore a tunis fes, shallower, made of red felt, with a tassel of black yarn, and underneath it terlik, a white cotton cap for collecting sweat. Men let their hair grow and folded it into a forelock which they tucked under the terlik and fez. Serbs, like all Christians, grew mustaches, while they shaved the beard, a mark of the Turks and other Muslims. Mandatory jewelry included a watch with a ćustek, a silk gajtan which was masterfully Kazaski work, and more luxurious examples were decorated with amber beads.
Original photographs of members of the KUD "Kopaonik" were taken with the blessing of the Eparchy of Raška-Prizren, Bishop Teodosije and local priests, as well as with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Serbia and the Museum in Pristina at locations in Prizren itself, in the courtyard of the Theological School and the gates of the churches of St. George, the Holy Virgin of Ljeviš, St. Nicholas, and St. Archangel.
Around these sanctuaries lived exclusively Albanian inhabitants who were surprised by the arrival of the society, and some of them later watched our performances, which showed the Serbian tradition of performing songs and dances in the luxurious Prizren bourgeois costume, our message about return was more than clear.
