As an American, I’ve always wondered what it was like to have unique cultural styles of dress like people in Europe, Africa, and Asia do. I guess we technically have clothes that *could* qualify as “traditional” attire, but nobody really treats them that way here. You won’t see anyone walking around dressed up like a pilgrim, “pioneer,” or cowboy (Texas excluded) in the US for any occasion be it festivals, weddings, or holidays. So that being said, what does your country’s cultural attire look like? When do you wear it, and are there times when it’s odd or inappropriate to wear?
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Here in Bavaria you wear it to stuff like village festivals, but also to fancy events like weddings, baptisms, graduations, etc.
You’re talking about whole continents here. There is no “traditional European attire” or “traditional asian attire”
Viewed greatly. Wear it for national holidays and sometimes for personal holidays too.
I’ve never wore any of the traditional clothes from my region (in Spain almost every province have like 2 or 3 different traditional clothes) and most people never wears it
I think you are overstimating how common they are in other countries
Cowboys have their historical roots in Spain, btw.
Our looks like this. But it’s more like regional than country’s attire. It is similar but it will change slightly from region to region.
https://www.google.com/search?q=chodsk%C3%A9+slavnosti&hl=cs&prmd=imvxn&sxsrf=APq-WBuNZYNTn053Rm8NbWsfVzW36xOkuA:1644378738975&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjC4fKU3PH1AhWCOuwKHSGJBTgQ_AUoAXoECAIQAQ&biw=393&bih=571&dpr=2.75
Our folk “traditional” attire is mostly used during “chodské slavnosti”. Or if there is some group that is singing some traditional songs.
Czech Republic
Switzerland is – along with the US – probably the most federalist country in the world. Back in 1848 when modern Switzerland was founded, the different Cantons (states) basically had the status of separate countries. While legally and politically they were now officially joined in a union, most people first and foremost identified with their village/town and with their Canton, rather than with their nationality. Unsurprisingly, then, we do not actually have a traditional, national attire. Rather, we have a wide variety of traditional cantonal and municipal attires. According to Wikipedia, there are over 700 traditional attires in Switzerland, using all sorts of different colors, fabrics and styles. Sometimes – especially in rural regions – two neighboring villages may each have their own, traditional attire. Some of these attires are really well-known, such as the one from the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, the one from the city of Bern, the one from the Engadin region in the Canton of Grisons or the one from the Knonauer Amt region in the Canton of Zurich. Many others are relatively obscure and only known in their own Canton/region/village.
If you walk around in modern-day Switzerland, you will not see anyone wearing a traditional attire anymore. They are however worn at important holidays and festivities, especially in rural regions. They are also worn for certain cultural events. For example if you go to a yodeling or Ländler concert, the singers and musicians always wear them (as well as some people in the audience). Also if you attend traditional sport events, such as Schwingen or Hornussen (traditional Swiss sports), or Jass-tournaments (jassen is the national Swiss card game), you will see many people wear them.
There are also special clubs (“Vereine”) for people who enjoy wearing their traditional attire and sharing the fun with others. Clubs are extremely important institution in Switzerland and a major part of our culture. Since our country was founded by liberals (European sense of the word), it has a traditionn and culture of small government. The general mentality is to leave most things up to private individuals. In the US, this usually results in very capitalist structures and large companies providing services etc. In 19th century Switzerland, people found a third solution. They didn’t want the government to have too much power but they also didn’t want private companies to have too much power, so what they did was to found private but non-profit clubs and unions for all sorts of purposes. “Trachtenvereine” – clubs for traditional attires – were among the most popular and successful, along with yodeling clubs and “Turnvereine” – clubs for physical exercise. But there are hundreds of other types. This is just a side note but the socialists actually picked up this idea in the 1880s when they started to found things likes housing co-ops and co-op banks.
Anyway, these clubs exist all over the country and in the case of traditional attires, they are communal places where people with this interest/passion can meet. They exist for both genders because men and women usually have different attires.
In urban centers, traditional attires don’t play a role anymore and many young people associate them with an old-fashioned, overtly conservative, sort of stuffy and maybe even slightly cringy atmosphere. But in rural regions, some people are still very proud of their attire. For example in the Canton of Appenzell Innerrhoden, there’s the famous “Alpaufzug”. This is a yearly ritual where the farmers hike up to the top of the mountain with their entire herd of cows, sheep and goats, where they live together with the animals during the summer months (the grass is very green and nutritious up there). During this Alpaufzug, all the farmers, their wives and children where the traditional attire. Custom has it that the other villagers/towns people hike along and cheer but they’re not allowed to wear the traditional attire on that day. So for the farmers and their families, it is considered a privilege and a badge of honor to wear this attire. Children are often very proud when they’re old enough to hike along for the first time (roughly 7-8), which means they’re allowed to wear the traditional attire for the first time, in front of many people.
It’s pretty big in Austria – Lederhosen and Dirndl (/r/dirndls ). However, I’d compare it to the US in that it’s a regional thing (like cowboy attire in Texas).
In Austria it’s most common in the alpine regions of the West and South while it’s very rare in the capital Vienna in the East.
For the majority of Finns it maybe feels a bit like a dead tradition. There are standardized costumes for different regions and they are based on clothing that was worn at one time but to me it feels more like something that belongs in a museum. I wouldn’t mind having a traditional costume myself but they’re very expensive even if you make it yourself and I don’t have many places where I could wear one. And their use has been heavily regulated though people are trying to break that (like you could wear one piece in your daily life as part of an otherwise modern outfit which used to be against etiquette). Some people do wear them more, I was once at a birthday party where several guests wore them but they were all members of formerly agrarian party. They’re also used in folk dancing.
However, there are several traditions of traditional clothing that are very much alive. The Sami are an indigenous people living in the most Northern Europe in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. Their traditional clothes are beautiful (and the subject of cultural appropriation). I can’t claim to be an expert but the clothing can tell where the wearer is from, if they’re married and sometimes even their family. I just read an interesting [article](https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-11191637) that interviews Sami people from different areas about their clothing. Google translate might help but even the photos are interesting. For some people the tradition had broken in their parents’ generation as had their link to their language (mostly due to efforts to make them Finnish), for others it’s been maybe a more natural part of their lives since childhood. Some of the interviewed people wear the clothes all the time (as it’s the best clothing for working with reindeer), some reserve it for special occasions. There’s one young woman who has several different versions, like one made out of glitter fabric that she wears at festivals.
Another group with a living tradition for a traditional dress are the Finnish Roma. Their dress evolved during the 20th century and it’s unique to them. [This article](https://www.vice.com/amp/sv/article/ppzy7y/pictures-se-v14n2) has pictures.
I genuinely don’t know what English national dress is. I googled it and the main results I seem to get are either generic Victorian fashion (only worn in period dramas), soldiers in bearskin hats (only worn by the Queen’s guards and maybe some other soldiers on special occasions) and beefeater costumes (only worn by guards in the Tower of London).
The Celtic Nations have much more distinctive national dress, particularly the Scots who will wear kilts to special occasions like weddings etc.
The Romanian embroidered blouse/dress called “Ie” (read yi-e) is object of pride. Even the Queens of Romania (Elisabeta and Maria of Romania) have images in the traditional costume. Some people wear the traditional costume when they go to Sunday Liturgy in Church, at weddings and other celebrations. [https://www.artefactmagazine.com/2016/02/29/how-romanian-blouses-became-an-international-style/](https://www.artefactmagazine.com/2016/02/29/how-romanian-blouses-became-an-international-style/)
We don’t really have a national traditional attire. [Some regions](https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/gjucaj/main_n%C3%AD_thuathail_from_claddagh_co_galway_in/) had traditional dress though in the past like that example from Claddagh in Galway.
[Aran jumpers](https://www.magee1866.com/en/White-B%C3%A1in%C3%ADn-Aran-Handknit-Jumper/m-12864.aspx), a traditional style sweater from the Aran Islands are probably the closest you get that are commonly worn as they’re not really something that goes out of style.
I also like [Críos belts](https://www.stableofireland.com/products/green-blue-traditional-irish-crios-belt) and have a couple of them I wear regularly with dresses etc. They’re also from the Aran islands and would’ve been [worn by men](http://irisharchaeology.ie/2014/09/crios-cords-traditional-irish-woven-belts/) originally. My mother said that they were really trendy when she was in school as well when she saw me wearing one.
Not commonly worn. Only really on St David’s Day (1st March) by [school children](https://images.app.goo.gl/MD7w1K7bAJ1dHjLP6)/ people in parades
In Sweden they look like [this](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Svenska_folkdr%C3%A4kter%2C_del1%2C_Nordisk_familjebok.jpg). There are lots of different ones depending on what part of the country you are from.
They are most commonly worn on midsummer, which is a very important Swedish holiday in June. But they are seen as formal wear and are just as appropriate in formal settings as a modern suit is. So sometimes you will see it worn at weddings or even by politicians in the parliament. [Here’s](https://preview.redd.it/tf6v2fsdki181.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=26a4a1082d4acb879221663ee61bec55dd55fc66) our current prime minister wearing one.
Unfortunately it is way less common for men to wear them than it is for women.
Outside of tourist attractions and some fundamentalist villages in our Bible Belt, no one wears Dutch cultural attire anymore.
My Dad used to wear his wooden shoes when gardening though…
Kilts are great. They’re more of a special occasion rather than day-to-day wear sort of thing for most people – weddings, ceilidhs, uni graduations, that sort of thing (or the classic football/rugby top, kilt and boots combination).
There actually isn’t an Italian “traditional attire” but each region can have one or more.
Currently, as far as I know, only Sardinia and Trentino Alto-Adige/South Tyrol have those and use them during holidays and festivals, the rest of the regions either never had those or forgot about those.
They were all invented during national romanticism in the 1800s and most have no basis in reality it was just something that was needed for every region. Most of the ideas from that period viewed Dalarna as the basis for swedishness (see dala horse as a national symbol) so if they did exist it was probably something worn there.
Well, you have Amish people. Your country is 200 years old, not much history, in Europe there are buildings that are 3 or 4 times that age (and more).😅
Traditional attire is usually spotted at festivals or by people belonging to folkloric groups. A nearby village has a festival every year and the people helping out at the stalls all wear traditional garb. It’s also worn by those who perform traditional dances and singing.
It’s rare to spot someone who dresses like that outside of those circumstances. I suppose some older generations still wear some traditional clothing, but they don’t really tend to look like what you see in old postcards and posters.
In the Netherlands we don’t really have traditional clothing on a national or even provincial level. “Klederdracht” has been dissapearing for wel over a century and it was already confined to smaller (fishing) villages around 1900 ([an example from Volendam](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/Cheesy_grins_and_smoked_eels_in_Volendam.jpg)) Nowadays it’s only worn in those villages for festivals and tourists, but some older women still wear it daily. Only wooden clogs are still worn semi-regularly because it handy for gardening and farming.
We don’t really really have one, the closest thing would be something like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfCa53w2gm4), but outside of some folk dance groups like that one and maybe period reenactors (1800s), it’s not something people actually have or use, ever…
I actually know more people that own a set of German Lederhosen (my self included) than people that own a traditional Danish attire!
Traditional attire is not that well documented in my region. the Palatinate. All we know is one attire for men with red vests, which was mostly used by musicians. This one is extremely common at folk festivals but usually worn by the people on the organizing side, less so from the guests. We also have a dress for women that looks similar to a Dirndl, though it is unknown if the similarities are due to connection or coincidence. We did howerver a few years ago hold the Guiness World record for most Dirndls worn in a single party tent, for the simple reason so that the record is not in Bavaria and we clown on them. Then a Bavarian town broke the record, so we again dabbed on them, by stealing it away from them for the sake of trolling. I actually don’t know if they ever got it back after that.
> You won’t see anyone walking around dressed up like a pilgrim, “pioneer,” or cowboy (Texas excluded) in the US for any occasion be it festivals, weddings, or holidays.
Last time I was visiting the Texas panhandle people were looking weird at me because I was not wearing boots. Like actual cowboy boots. And everyone was wearing cowboy hats, I thought I was in a goddamn spaghetti western for a seconds lol
Traditional costumes are an essential part of sardinian folklore and they are preserved, every villlage and town has got its folk costume.
They are dressed during folk festivals, some particular holy and historic events and obviously not on daily basis.
You can see some of these costumes here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/FolkCostumes/
>You won’t see anyone walking around dressed up like a pilgrim, “pioneer,” or cowboy (Texas excluded) in the US for any occasion be it festivals, weddings, or holidays.
Same for any traditional clothing here. They are almost only worn for festivals. And usually not by everyone. It’s also a regional thing, we don’t have anything national. If I saw anyone dressed in a traditional attire in the street, I’d just assume that there is an event around here.
I don’t think it’s very different from how you use your own traditional costumes, really. Especially since in a lot of cases, ours are not really older than yours, most costumes from Britanny are from the 19th century for example. Same for Alsace.
One thing to be careful with documentaries about other countries, you should remember that people making these movies *want to show things that look different and “exotic*, because it sells better. So they will go film the local cultural group doing its show on the village festival, even if it’s the only day of the year you see them, and actively avoid the group of teenagers dressed in jeans and t-shirts playing on their phone. (And then occasionally present it as daily life if they are really dishonest)
It’s a kind of “holy thing” here. Especially during the national day which is like none other in europe. Then everybody that has one, wears it. It’s called “bunad” here. For a girl it’s typically a thing she would get for her confirmation. This attire is also used by weddings and baptize as well. Norways maybe most famous picture (besides Munchs scream) depicts a bridal procession a fjord in western norway where both bride and groom uses the [tradional](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/Adolph_Tidemand_%26_Hans_Gude_-_Bridal_Procession_on_the_Hardangerfjord_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg) attire. [This](https://media.crystallize.com/bunad_magasinet/19/8/6/1/bryllup-hardanger-2.jpg) i more like what that attire looks like today. Given the amount of textile in this attires, it can be a pain in the ass to wear them on days with warm weather.. like the national day sometimes can (17th may).
You might wear it if you join a folk dance troupe or if you work as a waiter in a theme restaurant. Some people are trying to bring back the skew collar shirt as everyday attire, but wearing one with otherwise modern clothing might make you look like a nationalist.
Here in Sweden, not many at all wear traditional attire, an exception is the Sami people that populate the north of the country that do it to get more people with Sami heritage interested in the traditions since their culture and traditions are on the verge of extinction.
There is no manlier item of clothing that the kilt.