Is traditional clothing still worn in your country? When?

[Schokokuchen]

In Germany traditional clothing is still worn by some people... for example at baby showers or wedddings... or Schützenfesten (a Schützenfest is a traditional fair featuring shooting and marching trough the street with torches) or Oktoberfesten.

There is several types of traditional clothing. The well known Dirndl is typically worn in Bavaria and the other regions have other types of clothing.

Traditional clothing also changes on occasion. For a Oktoberfest for example another kind of clothing is worn than for a Schützenfest. For a Schützenfest for example men one kind of uniform for the shooting competition and another kind of uniform for the Fackelzug (torchlight march).

The different professions like bricklayers, timbers, Shepard’s and so on also have their different type of traditional clothing.

However most of the time people wear modern clothing. How about your country?

[TheStrayCat]

The most prominent element of Ukrainian traditional clothing is probably vyshyvanka, the embroidered shirt. It is not part of casual or formal dressing anymore, but it can be worn for several occasions, for example, national holidays or events related to the Ukrainian/regional culture. There is also the National Vyshyvanka Day in May when people are encouraged to wear embroidered shirts wherever they go, even for work or study - it is gaining popularity together with the rise of patriotic sentiments in the country. This year I wore mine even though I was in the US.

[Schokokuchen]

Beautiful. I actually do own several pieces of vyshyvanka. I bought them at h&m a while ago and thought they were just fashion. I had no idea they were a traditional dress somewhere but I love them.

[Schokokuchen]

Do you tho it is odd I wear them as fashion? I think for me that would be a bit odd if somebody wore my traditional clothing as fashion, because it has a meaning.

For example it shows that I am married with children and so on (unmarried women or those without children wear other bows/loops than I do)... and that would be odd for me if an unmarried woman without children on a normal day wore a dress saying „I am married with children and currently accompanying my husband at a Schützenfest“ for example.

[linguoboy]

This is not really an easy question to answer for the USA. We don't have a "national costume" in the way that it was defined by 19th-century European romantic nationalism. Many immigrant groups, however, brought such costumes with them and indigenous nations had their own forms of traditional clothing which tend to be worn (in modified style) on similar occasions, chiefly ethnic festivals.

For instance, my late husband had modern small kilt in the tartan of his clan (Clan Campbell). He always wore it at Hogmanay, the Scottish New Year's celebration we hosted, and at other special events, including at least one wedding and the local Highland Games.

I personally have never worn anything that could be described as "traditional costume" for my ethnic group. I do own a couple of kurtas, one of which I've worn to a wedding and another I recently wore to a birthday party with a themed dress code. (In my neighbourhood, the kurta is still everyday dress for many people.)

[vijayjohn]

In India, people wear traditional clothing all the time, unless they're men at work or possibly at a wedding. There isn't a "national costume" for us, either, though, although I guess we're famous for (women) wearing saris, especially for formal occasions. Having a national costume wouldn't make sense for us any more than it would make sense for all of Europe.

[Osias]

If my country traditional attire can be defined as pre-colombian "people were mostly naked with some feathers covering some parts", then there's the Carnaval.

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

In the Netherlands there are a few villages where traditional clothing is worn but it becomes less and less. It's just not very practical, only suitable for woman who stay at home I guess, it takes ages to take it on. In these villages I guess more woman will wear it on special occasions like markets and stuff. Nearly no man wear traditional clothing - it's less spectacular anyway.

My favourite is the klederdracht from Spakenburg:
https://nl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klederdracht_Spakenburg

[Levike]

In Hungary not at all. They are only worn on very special occasions. Like evens celebrating Hungarian culture.
Same for Transylvanian Hungarians.

Szekler Hungarian: http://www.maszka.hu/Portals/2/Multisof ... 900377.jpg

For Romanian women on the other hand some do seldom wear clothing inspired from the traditional one.
Like these ones:
1. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/17/cd/60/17cd ... 528d54.jpg
2. https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d0/4a/2d/d04a ... rdigan.jpg
3. https://www.florideie.ro/image/cache/ca ... 0x1000.jpg

[Johanna]

To me there is a huge difference between traditional clothing and national/regional/local folk costumes.

Traditional clothing in a Western sense is for example Scotsmen wearing the kilt, it used to be an everyday garment in large parts of Scotland before the mid-18th century. It has morphed into a pretty formal thing later on for very natural and also complicated reasons, but I don't think that anyone would describe a Scotsman in a kilt as wearing a costume.

Here in Sweden, folk costumes were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the height of romantic nationalism. It didn't happen completely out of the blue, but these costumes are more like the urban middle and upper classes' stylized idea of what an 18th century farm family would wear rather than anything that had ever been worn in real life before then.

In a way, modern Western clothing is more traditional to us than our folk costumes, since at least we've arrived at the current fashion pretty much organically.

In any case, only a minority of people here own a folk costume, they cost quite a lot to get made and unless you're into folk music and/or folk dancing and are good enough to perform in public, you don't have any need for one. Sure, according to Etiquette™, it's perfectly acceptable wear for pretty much any formal occasion, up to and including the Nobel Prize festivities, but you will stand out a lot and most likely receive a lot of questions about it.

I should also add that our folk costumes are quite local, so a lot of the questions will be about where it's from and things related to that. There is a national costume, but to most Swedes it looks fake despite not being that much younger than the others, and the only reason one would don one is as part of something choreographed on a stage (or in front of one if you're part of the royal family), or if you identify with a certain political movement.

[vijayjohn]

Huh? What is the Scottish national costume if not a kilt? A tartan? Some other kind of highland dress?

[Johanna]

Huh? What is the Scottish national costume if not a kilt? A tartan? Some other kind of highland dress?

That's the thing, they don't have a national costume, not in my mind anyway.

Let's put it this way: does India have a national costume?

[vijayjohn]

Okay, but then that's kind of going back to the problems with the concept of a "nation" itself, right?

[Johanna]

Okay, but then that's kind of going back to the problems with the concept of a "nation" itself, right?

In a way.

But look at Sweden, we have lots and lots of local costumes, but like I said in my previous post, they were all invented on purpose. Then you add the actual national costume and it just leaves a bad taste in your mouth...

The kilt was never designed to be a symbol, it was simply clothing that men from certain parts of Scotland wore, like the Highlands and the Hebrides. The kilt and any tartan (the fabric patterns typical for kilts) got banned after the failed Jacobite uprising in the mid-18th century, but it didn't take long until the ruling bodies of Britain let Scots wear it again, if they joined the military.

I'm not sure how long it took until civilians could use tartans and the kilt, but it was long enough that they had become associated with Scotland as a whole, and seen as mostly formal wear due to only being present in military uniforms for so long.

In other words: Scotland has traditional clothing, it may have changed and expanded, but it's not a costume per se. Sweden, despite being more diverse on the surface, only has costumes.

[Prowler]

I don't even know what is considered "traditional clothing" here... I assume it's what folclore musicians wear for their performances or something. And I think that varies a bit by region.

I mean, I doubt anywhere in Europe people use such "traditional clothing" on a daily basis. They don't hold the same importance as the kimono does in Japan, and it's not like people in Japan wear kimonos constantly either.

[Hoogstwaarschijnlijk]

I mean, I doubt anywhere in Europe people use such "traditional clothing" on a daily basis. They don't hold the same importance as the kimono does in Japan, and it's not like people in Japan wear kimonos constantly either.

Like I said: in the Netherlands are a few villages where some (mostly elderly) women always wear traditional clothes. They are exceptions, but they exist. One of the reasons it became less was because of tourism, people taking photographs and stuff, I think that's quite sad actually.
We don't have a national traditional costume though, except maybe the clog...

[linguoboy]

Traditional clothing in a Western sense is for example Scotsmen wearing the kilt, it used to be an everyday garment in large parts of Scotland before the mid-18th century. It has morphed into a pretty formal thing later on for very natural and also complicated reasons, but I don't think that anyone would describe a Scotsman in a kilt as wearing a costume.

Actually, my late husband was told that more than once. (Though I suppose there is the question of whether you'd consider him a "Scotsman" or not.)

The kilt as 99% of people today where it is--wait for it--an invention of the same Romantic period in which other European folk costumes were formalised based on--as you say--bourgeois notions of what the peasantry wore. It was certainly never associated with "Scotland" in the past, only with the Highlands, whereas roughly 90% of Scots and their descendants have their origins in the Lowlands.

I think if you take a closer look at any so-called "traditional clothing", you'll find it's as complicated a case as your Swedish example.

[vijayjohn]

Idk, I think this has a pretty straightforward history.