Cultural Influences of the East and West: Costume among Population of Boka Kotorska in the 18th Century

Abstract

During the 18th century a variety of elements of the cultures of the East and West blended harmonically into a unique dress mode in the Boka Kotorska bay. This paper confirms the general well known opinion that clothes has an important role in system of communication and stands as an obvious exponent of cultural affairs. I put an accent on women’s clothes, dividing it into urban costume and traditional costume, the latter serving as the best example in pointing out many layers and different cultural influences on clothes, ranging from the ancient Balkans, Slavic to Mediterranean and Oriental. The examples used allowed me to show how the different cultural interests of the East and West were incorporated together in a synthesis, adjusting to every single individual.

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V 18. stoletju se je v zalivu Boka Kotorska množica raznovrstnih kulturnih elementov Vzhoda in Zahoda harmonično spletla v enkraten oblačilni slog. Prispevek potrjuje splošno poznano mnenje, da imajo oblačila pomembno vlogo v komunikaciji in so viden kazalnik kulturnih razmer. V prispevku so v ospredju ženska oblačila, razločena na mestna in tradicionalna, pri čemer so druga izjemen zgled, ki kaže na večplastne in raznovrstne kulturne vplive – stare balkanske, slovanske, sredozemske in vzhodnjaške. Zgledi omogočajo, da pokažemo na različne kulturne interese Vzhoda in Zahoda, ki so se zlili v celoto in si jih je vsak/a posameznik/posameznica prilagodil/a po svoji meri.