"The Cloth of Egypt: All About Assiut" is the first book of its kind to document and celebrate the supple and sparkling fabric known today as assiut. This single-stitch metal embroidery technique originated in Turkey, but transformed into a distinctive textile tradition in Upper Egypt during the 19th century. Vintage assiut is now an exotic cult collectable, prized . This book, will entertain and educate anyone interested in its history, legends, wear and care. Vintage clothing collectors, textile historians, and belly dancers will all find inspiration and information about this sometimes mysterious, yet always beautiful assiut cloth. Part one traces the history of this cloth, known variously as tulle bi telli, tally, and assiut, from the era when it first entered the historic record until the twenty-first century. This section of the book is lavishly illustrated with vintage images from around the globe. Part two dives into the technology of the fabric, exploring the history of the fiber content and weave structure of the ground cloth as well as the structure of the metal embroidery stitch. Part three is about integrating both vintage and modern textiles into your collection and using it in your wardrobe. Part four presents the myriad ways that assiut cloth is used for historic costuming, traditional and modern belly dance performance attire. Dawn Devine aka Davina, art historian and author, is an internationally renowned belly dancer, who has spent more than 18 years working on an interdisciplinary research project on the history of assiut. The result is this revolutionary book, filled with more than 700 vintage and modern b/w photos to inspire and delight.

“First Adventure” Girls Overtunic with Belt Short-sleeved linen dress for kids Get ready for fun with our brand new collection for children: “First Adventure”. As parents ourselves, we know how important it is for clothing to be durable and comfortable, which is why everything we designed is tested by our kids! Every item in our children’s range has the same attention to detail and quality construction that you’ll find in our adult clothing, so it’s now easier than ever before for your whole family to be incredibly stylish! This overtunic is quite generic when it comes to medieval inspiration. We wanted to make a garment that would look at home both in a Viking encampment or high medieval village, so we didn’t want to make anything too specific to one time period. This dress should be ankle length on the wearer and has short t-shirt like sleeves that have been split up the middle. There is lots of room under the arms for sword fighting, dancing, and other kinds of play, and the whole dress fits loosely to give you room for movement. The neckline is quite a wide rounded shape, and the dress is available in two different sizes. Sizes 98-128 of this dress also include eyelets and lacing at the left shoulder and sizes 134-152 include lacing at both shoulders to ensure that your child can fit their head through comfortably without the neckline being too wide and falling off their shoulders. This dress has been embellished with beautiful trim along the sleeves, neckline and bottom hem, which frames the rest of the fabric and really makes it look wonderful! A belt is included as well which will allow you to get the right fit around the waist - it is up to you how tight you choose to tie it. The belt is made from a contrasting color of linen with a strip of matching trim running down the middle and should be long enough to wrap around the waist twice before being tied. The bottom of the belt has a cute little fringe. We chose 100% flax linen for this garment because it’s our favorite fabric to work with for adult clothing as well! Linen is all-natural, breathable, and even though it starts out a little bit stiff, after a wash or two it becomes lovely and soft. All of the seams of this tunic are very well finished, and we have done our best to hide any overlocking and make every seam as durable as possible. The same seamstresses who work on our adult collection also craft our children’s clothes, so the quality is just as good! When purchasing medieval clothing for your child, keep in mind that modern clothing feels very different from medieval garments. Modern clothes are often stretchy and include technology such as zippers to aid going on and off. When trying on on their new medieval clothes, we recommend having a conversation first about how they’re going to feel different from their everyday wardrobe, so that they’re prepared for things to feel a little bit odd at first. Due to linen being a non-stretch fabric, we recommend that they put their arms in first and then “dive” into the head hole. If they put their head in first and attempt to stretch the fabric to fit their arms, they may get stuck due to the rigidity of fabric! To check how to measure yourself please click here. Please contact us if you have any additional questions. Pay attention to one important thing: most kids, especially when it comes to smaller ones, are used to wearing way softer clothing, which is usually made of extremely soft and stretch fabric. So there is a chance your kid won't be happy dealing with medieval clothes limitations and natural fabric early on. As we experimented on our own kids, statistically all of them get used to this after a while – normally when linen gets softer and shapes a tad on the owner's body. But please be very conscious about it in the beginning and make sure your kid is really comfortable with the medieval costume. We tried our best to make this clothing as comfortable and loose and flowing as possible, but natural fabric and ancient patterns have their disadvantages, so the final decision is on you: we can't guarantee that any kid will be comfortable wearing our medieval clothes.

Hello all, Today I will be entering another new country, Portugal. This is the most famous costume of Portugal, and the most colorful. You will often see it representing Portugal as a whole. It is native to a number of villages around the city of Viana do Castelo in the the northern Province of Minho [pronounced meenyo]. This city lies on the Atlantic just north of the mouth of the river Limia. This area has several costumes which differ according to purpose and to social class. The costume I will be speaking of is called 'Traje de Lavradeira' by the local people. In the rest of Portugal it is often called the costume of Viana do Castelo, and outside Portugal it is usually referred to as the Minho costume. There are minor differences between the various villages, and also, as you can see by the first photo, the costume comes in two color variations: vermelho [red], and azul or verde [blue or green]. The second is also known as traje de do' which can be loosely translated as the sad costume. The red version is considered to be the 'happy' version, and is worn by younger women. The blue or green versions are worn in times of semi-mourning or other sadness, such as the absence of a loved one, and by older women. The base layer is a linen chemise, camisa, with blue floral satin-stitch embroidery on the front, the shoulders, upper sleeves and cuffs. There is a band of smocking at the top of the sleeve as well. Here is an old chemise showing the cut. Today, the chemise is usually made in two pieces, forming a blouse and a narrow underskirt. A full petticoat is worn on top of the first. There is a separate bodice, colete, which is always sewn in two parts. The upper part is of the major color of the outfit, red, blue, or green, and the lower part is black. The seam between the two is said to follow the line of the diaphram, and therefore promotes healthy breathing. The front is cut rather low, and there is usually an ornament in the shape of a heart. There is usually a line of embroidery, trim or braid along the seam, and varying amounts of embroidery on the bodice. An amazing variety exists, from quite simple to very colorful and busy. You will also see examples with debased embroidery, which can be churned out quickly and are intended for the tourist market. It is easy to see two different styles of embroidery in the above examples. I wonder if they are from two different villages. Here is a third. This bodice is from the village of Areosa. The skirt, saia, is made of heavy wool or linen. If of wool, it has a background color of either red or blue/green, with narrow stripes of other colors widely spaced. You can see in this photo above that there is a narrow band gathered into the waistband, and then the body of the skirt is gathered into this band. This is how the skirt can be made so full. There is a wide band sewn onto the hem. This is usually black, but in some villages on the seashore it may be red. It may be left plain or it may have embroidery which matches the black part of the bodice. Here we see several women wearing the Lavradeira costume, and two wearing the Mordoma costume which is also from the same region. The hem is usually around ankle length, but like in so many places, some dance groups have decided to shorten it. There is a simpler version of this costume called domingar which is for Sundays and going-to-market. The full costume is for festivals. This has a skirt of plain or striped linen. The top part of the bodice may be made of linen as well. The apron, avental, is hand-woven of thick wool, designs are formed by pulling small loops of yarn out, so that the design stands out from the background. It is double gathered in the same way as the skirt. Traditionally the motifs were relatively simple geometric designs. In 1918 the painter José de Brito Sobrinho, who was born in this region began to design more elaborate motifs for the aprons which his wife wove. These designs, especially the floral ones became part of the local tradition, especially in his village of Santa Marta de Portuzelo. The older geometric designs are now mostly worn with the domingar version of the costume. Personally I find them much more attractive than the garish pink roses. A separate pocket, algibeira, is worn with this costume. It is embroidered and is in the form of a stylized heart. While this is decorative it has a practical purpose in carrying keys, wallets, handkerchiefs, etc. This is a common souvenir which people often bring back from Portugal. A kerchief is worn on the head. If there was any older headdress it has been forgotten. A similar scarf is worn on the shoulders for the Lavradeira costume, but not the Domingar. They come in various colors, but mostly have the same design. Backless slippers with a low heel, chinelas, are worn, or like many peasants all over Europe they often go barefoot. These may be plain or embroidered. Knit stockings are worn with the chinelas. There also exist stockings without feet, which may be worn when barefoot or with the slippers, to keep the legs warm, i assume. Of course, the full lavradeira costume is not complete without an abundance of gold jewelry. The men's costume is straightforward. Black pants, red sash, black jacket. The only unique detail is the linen shirt which is embroidered, usually in blue or red cross-stitch. Sometimes a shirt for special occasions will be embroidered in white on white. The Domingar costume for the Atlantic coast villages is white, and includes the fisherman's cap which is widespread in the mediterranean. One interesting fact is that the wedding costume in this area, as in some other places around Europe, is black. Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this interesting and informative. I will close with some more images of this costume. This seems to be a website where you can buy pieces of this costume. At least there are some good closeups. http://www.casaregional.com/#/Galeria-de-Produtos-04-00/ Here is a slideshow of the costumes of this region. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Osf9s0ppzyQ Here is a dance group from the town of Viano do Castelo. The dancers are all wearing the domingar costume, but the lavradeira and mordoma costumes are worn by those who are singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgIK3bvAAe8 Here is a village folkloric group from this region doing a performance at a festival. It opens with some backstage chatter, but it does show a lot of dancing, including the famous Vira; and shows off both the domingar and lavradeira costumes. This is a longer clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=ZjKh6zuH9bo Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals. I also choreograph and teach folk dance. Roman K. email: [email protected] Source material: I would like to thank Marcos León Fernández for providing me with information and some of these photographs. I obtained some good information from this website: http://trajesdeportugal.blogspot.com.es/2006/08/trajes-do-minho.html Claudio Basto, 'Traje a Vianesa', Gaia - Portugal, 1930 Tomaz Ribas, 'O Trajo Regional em Portugal', Braga, Portugal, 2004 R. Turner Wilcox, 'Folk and Festival Costumes of the World', New York, 1965 Robert Lee Humphrey, Jr., 'Spain and Portugal', Broomal, PA, 2003

Tribal fusion belt, tribal fusion costume, tribal fusion outfit, tribal fusion bellydance, ethnic belt, mandala belt, bellydance belt, boho, golden belt, handmade belt, bellydance outfit, kuchi belt, boho belt This beautiful belt is handmade with lots of love. Sewing by hand. It is made with mandalas, 3 on the front, and 5 on the back. Each mandala is made in fabric and decorated by hand sewing different accessories, such as strass, rivets, kuchi buttons, crystals ..... They are together with an elastic band, so it is perfectly adapted to each type of body. It is decorated with little chains and coins that hang and make this belt have a magical sound when moving. Front: 29 cm/ 11,5 inch (without the robe) 79 cm/ 31 inch (with the black robe) Back: 43 cm/ 17 inch (without the robe) 89 cm/ 35 inch (with the black robe) This belt is perfect for dancing, for a festival or for a special occasion, since it is very comfortable to wear and fits the hip. For custom orders, you can contact me by email: elbazardekali [!at] gmail.com

Explore #7, Saturday February 7, 2009 Explore Front Page Another outdoor festival for the New Year took place today between the Hmong villages of Cat Cat and Sinh Chai, 3 km. from Sapa. It seems that the constant fog has just cleared up for the event when several hundreds of Hmong gathered for yet another celebration. There were many competitions in ‘tag-of-war’ between villages teams, climbing and balancing on Bamboo polls, catching the goat blind folded and the traditional race to the top of the mountain and many more. Lots of fun for everyone. The New Year celebration continues See everyday life of the Hmong Pls. note that I’m not much on line and Internet connection is slow and under the weather here. Wanted to post this earlier but Internet was out for most of the day. As I promised last time, I will catch up when I’m back. Thanks. See it large

Hello all, Today I will talk about the traditional attire of the Lachy. This is a Polish ethnic group which lives north of the Gorale, and south of the Krakow region.To the east of the Lachy live the Pogorzanie, and to the southeast was the land of the Lemkos. Here are two different maps showing the region of the Lachy and surrounding regions. Notice that the borders are not shown exactly the same in both maps. The Lachy are divided into three groups; Lachy Szczyrzyckie in the northwest, Lachy Limanowski rather in the center, and Lachy Sądeckie in the east. The costume varies from region to region, and also within the Sącz region. The image at the head of the article shows one version of the costume from the Sącz region. This is actually from the area around Podegrodzie, which lies in the southwest of the Sącz region, and looks as if someone decided to combine the most flamboyant parts of the Krakow and Goral costumes. This is the most elaborate and the best known version of the Lachy costume. The word 'Lach' is an old word for the Polish people, but is not generally used as a self designation except in this area, and no one seems to know why. It is rather as if in a region of England some people continued to call themselves Angles. It may well have started as a nickname which the Gorale had for them, making fun of their boots. Lachy Szczyrzyckie Here is a children's group performing songs and dances of the Lachy Szczyryckie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGMgwY09KNo Lachy Limanowskie This is the Polish National Folk Ensemble Mazowsze performing songs and dances from Limanowa, but they are wearing costumes from Szcyrzycie, for some reason. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVticxjJS98 I will focus more closely on the Sącz costume, and most especially on the Podegrodzie variant. Lachy Sądeckie In the north, and especially in the northeast of the Sącz region, the costume is simpler and more influenced by city fashion. This is sometimes referred to as the area of transition with the Pogórzanie. Podegrodzie This is the region closest to the Gorale, and most influenced by them. This is the costume which one most commonly sees on stage. There is, however, more variation than one usually sees in the stage costumes, which often look like uniforms. For comparison, here is a photograph taken of men from this region in 1905. The boy at right is wearing the basic everyday outfit, long linen shirt worn outside linen pants, high boots, plain black vest buttoned down the front, round hat, narrow belt, and in this case, a city style jacket. You can see the resemblance with the images above. The rest of the men are wearing various versions of the costume. The shirt is traditionally of the shoulder inset cut. Everyday shirts were plain linen, but shirts for dress occasions had varying amounts of embroidery on the collar, cuffs, shoulder insets and fronts. Here is a man wearing the everyday shirt, linen pants polotnianky, and vest, while poling a boat along the Poprad. Here is an old style men's shirt with exceptional embroidery. Today you do not find the foldback cuffs, and the embroidery is usually done on one field that covers the front opening of the shirt. There are old examples of shirts embroidered in red and blue. But today the embroidery is generally either red, or white. The following shirts are commercially available at the website Etnoszafa http://etnoszafa.pl/regiony/lachy-sadeckie/ Men, especially young men would often wear a semicircular ornament called ciosek tied with ribbons around the neck. This was of stiffened cloth, and had trim, ribbon, and other ornaments. At other times the shirt collar would just be tied with a red ribbon. In some places along the Goral region, they wear the same pants as the Lacky Gorals. For the most part, if they are wearing dress pants, they are made from commercially blue wool. These are called błękicie. They have a straight cut and two openings in front like Goral pants. The openings are edged with red cloth, and in the north that is all the embellishment which they have. Around Podegrogzie, they are embroidered in a similar manner to the local Goral pants. Besides the edgings on the front openings, there are two red wool strips appliqued to the sides of the legs and a heart shaped patch under each opening. Embroidery is also done over the applique. The bottoms are not finished because they are tucked into boots. When this type of pants is worn, the shirt is worn tucked in. Over the shirt, at times, is worn a vest, kamizelka. Similar vests are worn by the Lemki, the Pogorzanie, and the Gorals which live to the south of the Lachy. In the north of this region, these vests are unadorned, or only have red binding and metal buttons. In the Podegrodzie area, vests for festive dress are embroidered in the same way as the pants. The cut is simple. T There is a stand up collar, and usually a notch in the center back at the bottom. They are made of dark blue or black wool. Embroidery is done around the edges, on the pocket flaps [which do not include an actual pocket] and also the center back. In these lasts couple of images you can see an example of a common mistake which I do not understand. For some reason, people who make costumes for stage, as opposed to those who partake of a living tradition, want to round off the corners of vests. This is surprisingly common in many countries, and I do not understand the reasoning. The traditional vests never have this feature, only those which are made for stage performances. Compare the cut and the first few images with the last two. Avoid this. The vest should also have buttons and be able to be closed. The most famous and distinctive garment of this region is the kaftan, or Waffenroki. This garment is not of Polish origin, and it shows in the cut, which is not one traditionally used in Poland. The top is cut separate from the bottom, the sleeves are set in, and the skirt of the coat is separated into tails. None of these are characteristics of Polish costume. The men of Podegrodzie and the surrounding district claim that they are the only ones who should wear this garment. They maintain that King Jan Kazimierz, in recognition of their valorous battle against the Swedish invaders, granted them the right to wear uniforms captured from the Swedish soldiers. This explains the cut of the garment, the blue color, and also why the pants are blue. Through the centuries since, the garment has had more ornamentation added to it. Waffenrock is a German / Swedish word for military jacket. The kaftan of the Krakow region has a similar cut, only lacking sleeves; but it also has a military origin. The top has many metal buttons and tassels along the edge, while the tails have red applique and abundant embroidery around the edges. While the vest or kamizelka is worn with some outer garments, it is never worn with the waffenroki. An outer garment which is used in relatively warm weather is the Płótnianka. This is common in southeast Poland and western Ukraine, where it is called polotnianka. This is a long jacket made of linen which is worn in spring and summer. Often it is completely unadorned, but of course, this is not the case in Podegrodzie. Notice that in the museum piece above, the sleeves are set in at right angles to the body, but the garments which the boys below are wearing have set in sleeves. This is a modern influence. Personally I think that it should be avoided because it restrains freedom of movement. The Gurmana is a native Polish overcoat made of heavy home woven wool. The Lachy share this garment with the Gorals and other groups. Variants of this garment are widespread in eastern Europe. Both the Goral and the Podegrodzie versions may be heavily embroidered. The Sącz version is made of natural colored wool, sometimes white, but more commonly brown. Here is a tailor from this region posing with a waffenrok on his knees and a gurmana hanging on the wall. As you can see here, the vest, or kamizelka can be worn with the gurmana. Take another look at the old photo above at the beginning of the Podegrodzie text, and also this one. Vests are being worn with the gurmana but not the waffenrok. Another more sober overgarment is called Żupan. This term is often used to refer to the fancy overcoats of the aristocracy, and also of the cossaks, but here it refers to a rather plain garment of city cut which is typically worn by middle aged men or older. Here is a family portrait in which we see the son wearing a waffenrok, and the father wearing a Żupan. This garment is seldom seen on stage today, as it is plain and similar to contemporary clothing. In cold weather, there is one more overgarment which is worn in this area, as it is over all of eastern Europe. It is a coat made of sheepskin called kożuch. This garment can be rather utilitarian, or can be heavily ornamented. Three kinds of belts are worn in this region. The first is the pas wąski, or narrow belt. This looks much like a modern belt but is very long, wrapping around the waist two or three times, and sometimes being threaded through the front placket of the pants. It may be plain leather, or ornamented with metal studs and grommets. The second is called sros. This is a belt of medium width, and is similar to belts which are worn in the Krakow region, being made of a doubled width of leather with reverse applique and other ornament on one end. It is relatively short, not quite reaching all the way around the waist and is secured with a strap and buckle. The third kind is called pas szeroki or pas Goralski. This kind of belt varies from medium to very wide, and is also made of a doubled length of leather with a pocket in front . It overlaps in front and is secured by three or more straps and buckles. This kind of belt is also worn by Gorals and other mountain peoples in the Carpathians. In the image above, the man in the center is wearing a Goral belt, while the two men on either side are wearing sros. Old photographs show this belt being worn very high, as we can see in this image above, but today it is usually seen being worn much lower. High boots with embossed ornament and accordian pleated ankles are typical for this costume. They are called karbiaki. Various sorts of hats are worn, mostly round felt hats with bands, ornaments, and often tassels. The four cornered hat so typical of Poland, the rogatywka, is also worn here, often embellished with the typical local embroidery. This article has gone on long enough. I will cover the womens' costume in my next article. Just a few more images of this incredible costume for today. This is the Nationa Polish Ensemble doing dances from Podegrodzie. The boys come out and do a good job of the athletic horsing around so typical of Polish mountaineers. They all start wearing waffenroki, but bend the rules for staging purposes, so when they shed the jackets they finish in the kamizelki. They are wearing the narrow belts. All are dressed exactly alike. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO3YWIkkYtc A group from the region of varying ages and wearing many different outfits. They are the first act in some festival, so the video goes on to show Silesians and others. A bit amateurish, but worth watching. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owpbXTshaDg A group from Poligrodzie, costumes similar, but well done. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ozKorcwbI Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. Roman K. email; [email protected] Source Material: Z Szewczyk and M Brylak-Zaluska, 'Stroj Lachow Sadeckich', Nowy Sacz, 2004 Elzbieta Piskorz-Branekowa, 'Polskie Stroje Ludowe', Warsaw, 2013 Aleksander Blachowski, 'Haft Polskie Szycie', Lublin, 2004 Stanislaw Gadomski, 'Stroj Ludowe w Polsce', Warsaw, Elzbieta Krokikowska, 'The Polish Folk Dress', Warsaw, 2000 Jan Wielek, 'Stroj Lachow Limanowskich', Warsaw, 1988