Fustanella is a traditional pleated skirt-like garment that is also referred to as a kilt worn by men in the Balkans.
The Albanian traditional costume with fustanella had identified the special troops that Albanians constituted within the Ottoman Empire, whose military prowess became renowned, especially in the era of the Ottoman Albanian pashas Ali of Yanina and Muhammad Ali of Egypt.; ; . During the late 18th and early 19th centuries Albanian warriors wore it in the Kingdom of Naples and the Ionian Islands.; In the 1810s, the Albanian warrior dress was officially adopted by a British regiment in the Ionian Islands. In the 1820s, it became a principal visual symbol of Philhellenism, and during the Greek War of Independence it was worn by the revolutionary fighters.; ; ; . At that time its notoriety as a symbol of male bravery and heroism grew considerably across the Ottoman Empire and spread throughout Europe.; . Following the Greek independence, fustanella and accompanying embroidered waistcoats and jackets were adopted by the nascent Greek army. In 1835, it was proclaimed the official court costume and eventually it became the Greek national dress.; . The Albanian-Greek attire thereafter acquired popularity among peoples who wanted to dress in a courageous heroic manner.
In modern times, the fustanella is part of Balkan folk dresses. In Greece, a short version of the fustanella is worn by ceremonial military units such as the Evzones since 1868. In Albania it was worn by the Royal Guard in the interbellum era. Both Greece and Albania claim the fustanella as a national costume.
Name The word fustanella derives from Italian and (diminutive), the fabric from which the earliest fustanella were made. This in turn derives from Medieval Latin fūstāneum, perhaps a diminutive form of fustis, . Other authors consider this a calque of Greek xylino , literally i.e. ;. others speculate that it is derived from Fostat, a suburb of Cairo where cloth was manufactured.Oxford English Dictionary; .
The garment is also known by other names; including tsamika/çamika, associated with the ethnonym of the Albanian sub-group Chams, and kleftiki, associated with brigands known as klephts.
Origins A terracotta figurine with a fustanella garment (i.e. a pleated skirt wore by a man) was found in Durrës, in present-day central Albania, dating back to the 4th century CE, clearly providing an early archaeological evidence of a fustanella.
According to a hypothesis the fustanella was originally worn by the Illyrians. It has been claimed that in the 13th century the fustanella was a common dress for Dalmatian men, regarded as one of the Illyrian ancestors of the Albanians. Sir Arthur Evans said that the Albanian fustanella of the female peasants (worn over and above the Slavonic apron) living near the modern Bosnian-Montenegrin borders was a preserved Illyrian element among the local Slavic-speaking populations..
Some scholars have hypothesised that the Illyrian kilt became the original pattern of Roman military dress. Baron Franz Nopcsa further theorized that the Celtic kilt emerged after the Albanian kilt was introduced to the Celts in Britain by the Roman legions.
Some scholars have suggested a Roman origin, relating the fustanella to the statues of Roman emperors wearing knee-length pleated tunics. According to a variant of this view, with the expansion of the Romans to colder climates in central and northwestern Europe, more folds would be added to provide greater warmth; according to another variant of this view by folklorist Ioanna Papantoniou, the fustanella ultimately originated from the Celtic kilt, as viewed by the Roman legions, serving as the original prototype.
Concerning the kilts, they are generally regarded as not being worn by Celtic warriors of Roman times and as being introduced in the Scottish Highlands c. 16th Century AD.
Other scholars have hypothesised that the fustanella was derived from a series of ancient Greek garments such as the chiton (or tunic) and the (or short military tunic).: "From the ancient chiton and the common (short military tunic), fastened by a belt round the waist and falling into narrow regular folds, is derived the fustanella which by extension gives its name to the whole of the costume.": "The young shepherd wears a fustanella, descendant of the military tunic of ancient Greece, now rarely worn except by certain regiments." This hypothesis involves a link to an ancient statue (3rd century BC) located in the area around the Acropolis in Athens.Lynch, Strauss, 2014, p. 126. However, no ancient Greek clothing has survived to confirm that the origins of the fustanella are in the pleated garments or chitons worn by men in Classical Athens.
In the Byzantine Empire, a pleated skirt known as the podea (Greek: ποδέα) was worn..: "While 35 plates have the warrior wearing the podea or pleated skirt (sometimes called a fustanella) attributed to Manuel I, the "new Akrites," in a Ptochoprodromic poem, and 26 have him slaying a dragon, neither iconographic element is sufficient to identify the hero specifically as Digenes because both the skirt and the deed characterize other akritai named in the Akritic Songs." The wearer of the podea was either associated with a typical hero or an Akritic warrior and can be found in 12th-century finds attributed to Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180).
Usage
Albania
In Albanian territories the fustanella was used centuries before Ottoman rule. A fustanella is depicted on a 13th-century proto-maiolica pottery fragment from Durrës. A 14th-century document (1335) listing a series of items including a fustanum (a cloth made of cotton), which were confiscated from a sailor at the port of the Drin River in the Skadar Lake region of Albania. In the late Byzantine period and the early Ottoman period southern Albanians migrated in Greece and in southern Italy, bringing with them their own custom, language and clothing, which included the fustanella garment. In the 19th century the usage of the fustanella stretched through all Albanian inhabited lands, and it had become the ethnic costume characteristic of the Albanian men.
The Albanian traditional costume with fustanella had identified the special troops that Albanians constituted within the Ottoman Empire, whose military prowess became renowned, especially in the era of the Ottoman Albanian pashas Ali of Yanina and Muhammad Ali of Egypt. In the Napoleonic era (1799–1815) the Albanian mercenary troops (Muslim Arnaut), whose traditional costume included the fustanella, were counted among the paid Turkish government troops, along with the Janissary troops. After the disbandment of Janissary corps in 1826, the Albanian troops were employed in various armies as frontier battalions when the new Mansure Army was established within the Ottoman army by Mahmud II. In the 1820s the authorities of the Ottoman Provincial Governments overall preferred Arnaut mercenary troops over any of the standing army troops.
During the late 18th and early 19th centuries Albanian warriors wore their traditional costume with fustanella in the Kingdom of Naples and the Ionian Islands. Between 1807 and 1814 it was worn by the men of the Albanian Regiment of the French army, which consisted mainly of Albanian warriors. In the 1810s, the Albanian warrior dress was officially adopted as the standardised military uniform of the 1st Regiment Greek Light Infantry of the British army, which consisted mainly of Albanians and Greeks.
The fustanella was regarded by foreign scholars and travellers as a typical Albanian costume, characterizing the Albanians from the standpoint of dress for many centuries, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1805 William Martin Leake reported that it was worn by the men at arms of Albanian beys in the Morea, and that "The Albanian dress is daily becoming more customary, both in the Morea and in the rest of Greece". In 1807 Leake reported that the officials of the Albanian ruler Ali Pasha of Yanina, including his sons, were dressed according to the Albanian tradition. In 1809–1810, within the area of contemporary southern Albania and northwestern Greece, British traveller John Cam Hobhouse noticed that when traveling from the Greek-speaking area (region south of Delvinaki) into the Albanian-speaking area (to the direction of Gjirokastër and its surrounding environs), apart from different languages a change of clothing occurred. Those Albanian speakers wore the Kamisa shirt and kilt, while Greek speakers wore woolen brogues.
In the early 19th century, other British travellers within the region noticed the Albanian costume, in particular in 1809 Lord Byron celebrated and described it as "the most magnificent in the world, consisting of long, white kilt, gold-worked cloak, crimson velvet gold laced jacket and waist-coat, silver mounted pistols and daggers". The renowned Albanian clothes were not official uniforms adorned with insignia, but traditional costumes with small differences depending on the regional location or personal preferences of the wearer. After its celebration and description by Byron, who was the most influential Philhellene of the time, the Albanian traditional warrior costume became a principal visual symbol of Philhellenism in the 1820s, appearing in the widespread romantic iconography of klepht and armatole warriors of the Greek revolution. The Albanian traditional costume with fustanella was greatly favoured among the Balkan peoples, and it was imitated by many other peoples. Its spread among other neighbouring peoples such as the Greeks, and even the Turks, is documented by the historians of the time.
In 1848–1849, British painter Edward Lear traveling within the area of contemporary Albania observed that the fustanella was for Albanians a characteristic national costume. Other artists visiting southern Albania in mid-19th century depicted landscapes with Albanians in traditional costume with fustanella, such as Henry Cook and George de la Poer Beresford.
During the 19th century the use of the fustanella was worn over tight fitting pants amongst male Albanian Ghegs by village groups of the Malësorë or highlanders of the Kelmend, Berisha, Shala and Hoti tribes. They reserved use of the fustanella for elites during important and formal occasions such as dispute resolutions, election of local tribal representatives and allegiance declarations. During the 1920s, the fustanella began to go out of fashion among Tosks being replaced with Western style clothing made by local tailors..
The Albanian fustanella has around sixty pleats, or usually a moderate number.. It is made of heavy home-woven linen cloth. Historically, the skirt was long enough to cover the whole thigh (knee included), leaving only the lower leg exposed. It was usually worn by wealthy Albanians who would also expose an ornamented yataghan on the side and a pair of pistols with long-chiseled silver handles in the belt. The general custom in Albania was to dip the white skirts in melted sheep-fat for the double purpose of making them waterproof and less visible at a distance.. Usually, this was done by the men-at-arms (called in Albanian trima). After being removed from the cauldron, the skirts were hung up to dry and then pressed with cold irons so as to create the pleats. They then had a dull gray appearance but were not dirty by any means.