National Costume of the Debar Plain

Debar used to be a prosperous town in the past known as a famous craftsmen center where many crafts blossomed, especially those connected to the making of the national costume. The national costume of this town was different to its neighboring districts, distinguishing in its forms and esthetic values. The men and women of nearby villages wore the same national costume as those in the town Debar. This area is known as the Debar Plain.

In the 19^th century the production of specific national costumes, made of homemade materials began to turn into specific craft from the craftsmen such as the tailor for peasants clothes (abajii), tailors, makers of glitter décor, bikmadzii.

The overhead item of clothing called zoban made of a white cotton fabric is worn as part of the female costume. It is knee length, has short sleeves, and slits along the sides, it is richly decorated with braids, bikme, and special colored buttons. This very specific way of decorating is present on the other elements of the female costume. In an older version of this same costume, worn up to the First World War, the female shirt is embroidered using a distinguishing technique called azhurna. The application of multicolored geometrical motifs on the sleeves and only white azhurni chikminya on the poli is characteristic. A component of the costume in this period is the woolen hand-woven sash decorated with petite geometrical ornaments with many fringes on each side. Another component is the woolen hand-woven apron so-called bovcha distinguishable by its clearly defined ornaments and vivid color spectrum.

The bride also wore a sleeveless item of clothing called jube made of a black cotton fabric klashna or choya, knee length, heavily decorated with braids and bikme. The applied colors conformed to the other components of the costume. The head is covered with a petite shallow hat decorated with braids and bikme for the bride and an old coin on the forehead that not only serves as décor but as a charm as well. A large, white, richly embroidered darkma is worn over the hat. The color of its embroidered orbicular motifs conformed to the other decorative details of this opulent costume. The footwear consisted of woolen socks and black shoes – konduri roganlii. The male costume is equal to the costume of the other men in the neighboring regions with the white bechvi made of a cotton fabric klashna with distinguishing black braids, and woolen and silk sash. It differs in the mintani (sleeves – rakavcinja) made in klashna, choya or velvet and the vest with remarkably opulent embroidery. In older times, the male wore a fes with long silk fringes on their head, called a tunus fes in respect of a religious observance. In addition, he wore a black shallow hat so-called keche for every day.

Luxuriously composed, with opulent embroidery and applied ornamental motifs, of such a remarkable composition of braids, glitter décor, bikme and filigree décors, the male and female costume of Debar presents a kind of its own. With it, it carries reminiscences to distant traces of the old Balkan and Slavonic cultural tradition with elements of the Byzantine and Oriental method of decoration.