Traditional clothing of Kosovo

Traditional clothing (folk costume) is one of the factors that has differentiated Kosovo from neighboring countries, dating back as far as the Illyrian era.

These characteristic Kosovar clothes, are made with a type of loom called a vegjë or vek, which resembles the English spinning jenny and flying shuttle.

[2] Among 140 types of traditional Albanian costumes, the Podgur's attire Veshja e Podgurit is Kosovar, differentiated by its variety and is an influence in all other regions.

[3] However, transformations of this costume happened due to different social and cultural situations, technical inventions and also element exchange between the ethnic groups.

Shtjellakët (pështjellakët, mbështjellakët) which were pieces of material that resemble an apron, were big in size and tight in width, and it had geometrical motives, such as an axe or a circle.

In this age boys start to wear plis, where as in cold days they wore scarfs and tirqe, traditional white woolen pants.

It consists of a knee length shirt which is made of white fabric combined with vertical shokë which was of chestnut color.

The wearing of shokë by children was very rare ; it was only worn during the years they were celibate and wanted to impress women their social circle.

[5] In youngster clothing, the white and black color were worn more often, whereas blazers were also enriched with red, yellow, green, and brown.

It was made of woolen threads which were skull-shaped and they covered every part of the head and face except the eyes and nose.

It was made of white soutane along with black stripes, and it was also sleeveless and foot-length whereas its width depended on the length, taking form into a cone-shaped model.

Men used to wear a lot of accessories at the time, such as rings, qystek të sahatit or otherwise known as pocket watches, etc.

They also used to wear a type of tight skirt called pështjellci which was knee-length and made of woolen threads using a loom.

The semi-spherical shaped hats with gold coin embroidery were replaced with laces, called lidhsa.

The socks were traditionally black, and they were worn with shoes called ‘'opinga'’, made of different animals’ skin.

A xhubleta is a bell wavy skirt which is held by two straps on the shoulders, worn on top of a long sleeved white linen shirt.

From the waist up, women wore a sleeveless vest decorated by golden threads, which was open to the front and it would button by beautiful clasps.

This garment was by default different for brides, who had sleeves embroidered by asymmetrical patterns of non distinctive colors.

Long white briefs served as underwear, the traditional pështjellak was slightly wider than in other regions.

From the waist up, men wore either jelek (vest) or xhamadan, a traditional woolen west which was usually white but was also found in dark colors.

Men's accessories were the '‘gajtan'’ – a long black cord, decorated push buttons in their jelek and xhamadanë, and metallic clasps.

These vests were designed in such a way that enabled the bearer to move their hands freely, and the sleeves hung loosely back.

Other accessories were qystek, a large golden chain which they put across their shoulders, sahati- a pocketwatch, a cigarette box along with a carved lighter and different silver rings.

The items of clothing composing this apparel were somewhat similar to other regions’ clothing – tirqi, jelek, shoka, plisi, marhama and common accessories such as qystek- pocket watch, carved metallic cigarette box for men and pështjellak, white shirts, '‘tëlina’', ‘'shoka’', ‘'opinga'’ - moccasins and head scarves for women.

Women generally wore more accessories compared to other regions of Kosovo and their shirts had more embroidering with vivid colors.

Both men’s and women’s clothing implied the bearer’s socioeconomic standing, based on what quality of material, quantity of embroidery, choice of colors, and ultimately the number of golden threads one had etched on the back of their shirts or ‘'mitan'’.

[20] Men's clothing of Karadak consists of the shirt, tëlinat, vest, mitani, xhurdia, fur, socks, moccasins, plis and different accessories such as pocket watches, cigarette boxes and weapons.

Shokë of young boys was whiter and it contained a lot of embroidery, whereas shoka of older men was maroon.

Tirqi of youngsters and the so-called agzona men ( epithet of courage and pride), were of the color black.

[21] Nowadays, in this region Muslims and Christians all wear the so-called Veshje me dimi ( traditional embroidered pants similar to pantaloons ).