Czech traditional clothes were an expression of their land, ancient times relative to their culture and dwellers’ behaviour. The Czech national clothes could be divided into two groups: both Western and Eastern parts of the Czech Republic. It's dependency focused solely on the location of cities: the Western parts of Bohemia and Middle Moravia, whilst Eastern is constituted by the remainder of Moravia and Silesea respectively. The people on both sides of this West-East divide wore clothes made from wool and home spun linen materials, idealistic for the local winters. However during the warm seasons, they wore lightweight fabrics such as silk. Women’s traditional clothing consisted of two aprons, which were tied at the front and at the back, and a white blouse. For Men, a typical outfit would include long breeches and a loose jacket. The Czech nation’s favourite cloth was wool and sheep skin coats, and have been a staple worn for ages across the Czech lands.
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History of Czech clothing
Specific information is available starting in the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. Particularly, there was information about style of costume, its accessories, and materials. During the time of serfdom there was some prohibitions in use of the precious substances like silk and velvet. Thus, all farmers wore simple clothes without any supplements. However there were features of Gothic style. The sixteenth century and the epoch of Czech Renaissance was a time of development in textile and sewing technologies. During this time, the Czech people thought about changes in clothes’ style, better ways of forming, and organization of effective methods for creating clothes. Even in folk costume, combining of new forms and shapes of clothing, complicated cuts were more important than the decorative element. For example, female costumes were fitted so the cloth focused on the waist.;
Regional variations
Chodov
Chod region is one place in particular people are so faithful to their traditions that they still wear traditional clothes. These brave ‘Chods’, have inscribed themselves in golden letters on many pages of Czech history as faithful, “free” guardians and defenders of the frontier. “Dignified clothing” best describes women’s attire among the Chodov inhabitants. It has almost the same appearance as the generic traditional outfit of the region: aprons and blouse. Nevertheless, to make the costume more celebratory and cheerful, women put on a red skirt with flowered ribbons and beads. The dominant colours for women’s costumes are green, red, and orange. Similarly, men’s traditional garment boasts bright colors. The men wear breeches over their knees and a camisole, or jacket, which is usually short and featured an upstanding collar.
Plzen
A second city, like Chodov, where people retained their traditional value is Plzen. Traditional clothing was worn until the last part of the nineteenth century. It is quite respectful as the place is considered an urbanized city, where a mixture of different nationalities is not unusual. In contrast, urban Prague dwellers changed their style of clothing and lost their traditional dress. It is very interesting that in Plzen people prefer more discrete tints. Therefore, the garment is not as durable because the material used is very thin. However, in order to make the costumes more distinguished, women enlarged it visually. For example, usually the typical Czech traditional costume includes 5-6 skirts, while Plzen women wore between 15-20 skirts. It is one of the distinguishing marks of Plzen national clothing. Moreover, women’s garment were made from very pleasant material like cotton. Also ribbons and silk scarf were as trappings for costume, the scarf tied across the chest. In addition, marital status played a role in dress. Young, unmarried girls needed to wear a cap with 2 wings, the length of which reached across the width of shoulders. However, married women tied large white scarves on the head. Men’s garments were the same as those in the Chodov city. They wore yellow leather trousers with long coat.
Prachen
The people of Prachen were very creative as older and younger generations had totally different clothes. A typical outfit for a young teenager would consist of a shortly-cut jacket, narrow trousers and high boots. Older men preferred long coats instead of jackets. This is the only distinction in traditional clothes for men. Female clothing, however, had many differences between the dresses of the young and old. Married woman would wear only long skirts that touch the floor. This indicated that the woman was not free and must remain faithful to their husband. The next part of garment costume is the white scarf, which was tied on the head. Moreover, there is another type of woman’s dress called "caftan" — a skirt combined with a blouse (bodice). Short, colorful skirt, white blouse with straight sleeves, a flowered scarf on the head would describe the style of young, unmarried girls.
Blata
Blata deserves special mention, for it has an interesting twist on traditional styles of dress. It can be called "city of hats" because the dwellers think a cap is the dignity of the traditional costume. They embroidered it very richly, with ribbons, pieces of a mirror, and beads. Everything symbolized the status of the wearer. If the hat was richly adorned and there were many different ornaments on the cap, and it meant that the individual was quite wealthy. Therefore, many people wanted to show their position in a good way. In addition, women used to wear a particular style of headdress, especially during the marriage ceremony. They needed to put on hat with attached big bow at the back side. However after taking the status of a wife, the woman was required to wear dense heavy scarf was tied on the top of the head.
Bohemian-Moravian Highlands
Locals preferred to dress more ordinary. The garment for a young boy included short "camisole", which is a shirt without sleeves worn under outerwear. The most beautiful and finest part of the male’s traditional clothing was a lush fur coat. People still today like to put on it. The coat is sewn from materials, like fur and silk; decorated with leather. People are proud of this part of national costume. Also the fur coat indicates the status of richness of person. That is why it is worn only for formal parties in the whole of the Czech Republic.
Hanakia
The most conservative people live in Hanakia. The folk costume of the locals’ still has an element of ancient time. The clothing became the expression of the character of the nation and indicated what a person was doing. If there was more dark and simple colors on the costume, it meant that the person was working. For example, women wore extremely long dress or high belt skirt called "oplicko" with short bolero. This was typical clothing for females for usual days. Furthermore, the most issued part of the garment was the stand collar, which was quite densely gathered. It is very interesting that Hanakian women wanted to replace the cap with a colored scarf “uvodnice”, used only in special ceremonies. As in many areas in the Czech Republic, people were attired in white wool coats, but sometimes the white color was changed to black and yellow. The men’s costume was characterized by narrow leather breeches, so-called “cervenice”, which, in the rural districts near Brno were made of yellow leather. For the cold weather first long, white coat were worn and later on dark, cloth coats. On holidays and festivals coats with several wide, gathered collars were worn. Embroidery executed in yellow, whitish or black is noted for its beauty and fineness.;
Silesia
This part of the country north of Moravia deserved the name "the most posh", because the folk clothing of this city reminds the Baroque time, where everything was luxurious. As well as the buildings, the traditional costume was made with enthusiasm. It is extraordinary clothing, in which everyone can find the jewel stones, like gold, silver, beads made from silver. Dark velvet used for the pointed bodice part. As was mentioned, the decoration is quite rich; for example, embroidered ornamentation with metal threads, silver belt, and a lot of jewelries. The costume for females looked very luxurious, although men’s garment resembled country style. High boots, kerchief and a top hat, and navy blue color are parts of the folk costume.
Kyjov
Kyjov is a wonderous city. Many people will agree with this claim, because the traditional garment of this place recalls the rainbow. The clothing of women consists of a red, short and bunchy skirt, bright blouse with embroidered flowers on it, also high boots, which is the most stressed the enchantment of the beauties. The men’s costume does not much differ from other cities men’s clothing. However there are some distinctions in color of trousers. It is not white, more like beige. The color leaves the feeling of slenderness.
The Highland
Comparing the Highland with other parts of Czech Republic, this is the most modest and poor place. Here local people do not like to put on very bright colors. They would like to look more elegant and classical. It can be clearly seen that classical style stressed the slenderness of individual, especially for women; they want to look more humble. The design of the cloth is the geometric patterns. All of the decoration, like embroidering and sewing the flowers on the folk costume are handmade. The valuable thing of the costume is the skills of hands, even it more appreciate than the materials. In this case the clothes is the accurate description of the people’s character, because when person sews the garment, he encloses the spirit of himself. That is why it is quite essential for the dwellers of The Highland.
Clothing for holidays
The most significant celebration in the life of any person is wedding. Everybody wants to look ideally, especially heroes of the occasion, the bride and the groom. By tradition of any part of Czech Republic, the bride used to wear the ancient dress, which was usually melancholy in color because it indicates the seriousness of her relation toward her future husband. However, the design was quite rich: jewelers, beads, glasses, flowers, ribbons, and also a crown was included in bride’s costume. In the Czech Republic, the white or light navy blue coat symbolized the status of the man. Therefore, it is considered as festive clothing and was worn only in particular occasions like in a wedding. The coat was quite long and decorated with embroidery in the back. These patterns reveal the strong character of the male, that his family would be protected behind his back from any misery.
Future life of the folk costume
Nowadays clothing of Czech Republic does not differ from other countries’ dressing style. The changes came about in the second part of the nineteenth century. The next factor which has a significant impact in this shift is location. For example, Prague is a metropolis, where many different nationalities live, and thus this place left traditional clothing earlier than other parts. Nevertheless, in little villages of Bohemia and Moravia dwellers still wear folk costumes. Thinking more deeply, traditional clothing is characteristic of the nation. Because any ornamentation, any parts of costume are taken from history of the country. That is why many painters, sculptors, writers, and composers would like to emphasize their views for the folk costumes in their creative works. There is a painter Mikolas Ales, who showed the superiority of the Czech traditional garment in his pictures. The most favorite theme is peasants of his native country, the Mirotic country. Moreover Czech nation has one of the frequently performed opera of the world, whose composer was able to show all of the beauty of national clothing. The most interesting scene is the wedding occasion, where spectators can evaluate valuable thing of Czechs.