A woman’s short waistcoat, part of a wedding costume, acquired in Shkodër County, north Albania, though according to collection records, this comes from #Mirdita.
Made from deep red cotton velvet fabric, it has a low, round neckline and wide lapels at the front and an additional flap at the back. Save for the fabric under the flap, the waistcoat is covered in couched embroidery in flower and leaf motifs, some of which has been padded, giving a raised effect. It is worked in pale pink pearls or plastic beads, sequins and gold-coloured braiding.
Albanian Folks Costume
📷 Painting by Dhimiter Mborja, 1954 NYPL
— Give a gift
“Clothing is one of people’s most personal forms of self-expression. Our cultural heritage, as a testimony of the past but also as a guidance for the future, we, all of us, as a community have a duty to protect and preserve for future generations.” — Dino Korca
📷 Drawings from Wilcox, Turner in Folk and festival costume of the world. New York, 1965.
— Give a gift
“Clothing is one of society’s most personal forms of self-expression. Our cultural heritage, as a testimony of the past but also as a guidance for the future, we, all of us, as a community have a duty to protect and preserve for future generations.” — Dino Korca
Mirditë, 2018.
📷 Elderly woman in traditional Albanian clothing in Mirditë, just outside Shkodra, North Albania. / Albanian Institute/July, 2018.
— Give a gift
Folk costumes and people’s clothing with their diversity and variants are one of the nation’s most personal forms of self-expression. It tells a narrative and creates representation. – Dino Korça
Albanian Folks Costume
Painting: Dhimiter Mborja, 1954 NYPL
📷 Pair of red wool pompoms, mens leather shoes with pointed toes from Skraper, South Albania.
Join our list for more – link in the story and website
Albanian made (1870-1900), in Shkodra or Scutari as it was known 🌟
Woman’s robe and jacket, woven silk decorated with applied metal braid and cord.
Woven silk, decorated with applied metal braid and cord F, woven silk, 1870-1900, Albanian. Dress in Detail from Around the World. London: V&A Publications. ©Victoria and Albert Museum, London. London: V&A Publications, 2002.
The 24 large buttons which edge the low scooped neck of this jacket are purely #decorative. Three small and insignificant buttons are what fastens the #jacket closed around the wearer’s midriff. The method of attaching both the buttons and loops into which they are secured is unusual: a length of yellow #silk cord has been stitched to the left-hand side of the opening so that it forms three large loops with three smaller ones in between. This has been repeated on the right-hand side where a button has been threaded onto each of the three larger loops and stitched in place.