Hello all,
today I will continue my overview of the costumes of Spain. There is less variety of costume in the south, as they have been more recently reconquered.
Madrid
This covers not only the capitol city but the surrounding province. The most commonly used costume is a simplification of the Flamenco costume of Andalusia, but a couple more are also used.
Goya
New Castile - Castilla la Nueva
This region is often considered to be the heart of Spain. It includes the location of the famous adventures of Don Quixote, 'Lord of la Mancha'. It consists of the provinces of Guadalajara, Toledo, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, and currently also Albacete, which was formerly part of Murcia.
Guadalajara
Cuenca
A dance from Cuenca.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYkkW_JWQms
Ciudad Real
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrC2KozBwNY
Toledo
The most famous costume of this province is that of Lagartera
Albacete
Extremadura
This region is little known outside of Spain but is very rich in costumes and folk culture. There is an indigenous language known as Extremaduran which is spoken by some hundreds of thousands of people in the western fringe of the territory. This language is endangered. Fala, a language related to Portuguese and Galego is spoken in the valley of Jalama. It is quite vigorous and commonly used within its territory. There are also a handful of municipalities along the border which speak various dialects of Portuguese. This region is divided into two provinces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremadura
Caceres
A dance from Caceres
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ut4ZiNxcJRw
The most famous costume of this province is that of Montehermoso.
A dance from Montehermoso
Cabezabellosa
Malpartida
Campuzo
Trujillo
Torrejoncillo
Badajoz
Castuera
Serena
Don Benito
A dance from Don Benito
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-X9mJRhNbk
Olivenza [disputed with Portugal]
A dance from Olivenza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmShTdtVo3g
Andalusia
Andalusia is in many ways the least typical Spanish region, as it was the last to rejoin Spain in the process of reconquering. On the other hand, much of its culture is often taken to be absolutely emblematic of Spain as a whole, being the land of flamenco and the center of bullfighting. Nowhere is this more true than of folk costume, compare flamenco dress to that of the rest of Spain. The name is often said to be Arabic, but that is somewhat misleading, as the name 'Al Andalus' in Arabic means 'land of the Vandals', hearkening back to the name of one of the original tribes.
Traje de Gitana, or Flamenco dress.
This is considered to be especially emblematic of Seville, but has come to symbolize all of Andalusia, and indeed, all of Spain. In fact, as you have likely noticed in the course of perusing this article, it is not at all typical. This costume, like flamenco music and dance itself, was borrowed from the Romany [Gypsies, or Gitani] who live in Andalusia. On the other hand, the Romany do not dress like this anywhere else.
In some modern interpretations of flamenco dress, the upper part of the skirt has been tightened to the dimensions of the sheath dress of the 1950's. Im sorry, but I think this looks cheap.
A video of Flamenco being perfomed.
The male equivalent was the 'traje de majo'.
This has developed into the contemporary dress of the Torero.
A video showing you how to put on the traje de Torero.
Andalusia is divided into 8 provinces, 4 each in upper and lower Andalusia.
Lower Andalusia
Seville
A dance from Seville.
Huelva
In Huelva, they wear the same costume as in Seville, but there is also a very distinct costume in the town of Pueblo de Guzman, which is called Gabacha, which means 'foreign'. It resembles one of the costumes of the Canary Islands.
A holiday parade in Puebla de Guzman. You can see women wearing both costumes.
A similar costume is worn in the village of Alosno.
Cadiz
Cordoba
In Cordoba, they wear the same flamenco type costume as in Seville. The broad brimmed hat worn by the men in lower Andalusia is called the Sombrero de Cordoba.
In addition, the women sometimes wear a riding costume based on the men's costume but with a skirt.
Upper Andalusia
This is the eastern half of Andalusia, and the costumes change somewhat. Notice that the Cordoban hat for men is replaced by a different one. This is especially true of the two eastern provinces, Jaen and Almerilla, which have costumes that approach those of La Mancha and Murcia.
Málaga
In Malaga they do wear the flamenco or gitana costume, but they also have three distinct local costumes. The plainest is called Marenga. This basically consists of white shirt or blouse, red sash or belt, and black pants or skirt.
The second is called Verdiales, which is worn by people performing in the spring festival of that name. These are stage costumes and vary quite a bit.
The third and dressiest is the Rondeña costume.
Folk festivals and dances from Malaga. Dancing starts at the 630 mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StLHpgm-f7Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StLHpgm-f7Y
Granada
In the eastern part of Andalusia, the costumes change somewhat.
Jaen
Almeria
Here are some of the typical costumes of Almeria, showing affinities to both the La Mancha and Murcia costumes.
Mojacar
Alcolea
Refajona
A dance from Refajona
This region is not well known, but has some fascinating culture. It currently consists of one province only.
Notable in this region, as in some other parts of the south, are the wide short linen or cotton trousers of the men. The women's skirts are wide and colorful, and made in several styles.
The city of Murcia itself has a very elegant and rich costume based on silks and brocades which recalls that of Valencia, its neighbor to the north.
A dance from Murcia.
Valencia
The costume of Valencia is especially striking, and does not vary all that much between the three provinces. The image below shows the costumes, from left to right, of Castellon, Valencia and Alicante.
Alicante
Catalonia - Catalunya
Valencia lies on the east coast of Spain. Most of this region speaks a dialect of Catalonian, But in some of the inland areas they speak Castillian. Catalonian is the fourth federally recognized language of Spain.
The costume of Valencia is especially striking, and does not vary all that much between the three provinces. The image below shows the costumes, from left to right, of Castellon, Valencia and Alicante.
Alicante
The costume of Alicante is distinguished by the dressing of the hair, which includes a ruffled lace veil. In other respects it is much like the costume of the rest of this region.
Valencia
The standard Valencian costume includes the dressing of the hair into a bun on each side, as well as another in the rear, each of which is topped by a decorative comb.
A performance of dances from Valencia. The dancers are in costumes from the country, rather than the city costumes shown above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dabmikA4jg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dabmikA4jg
Castellón
The costume of Castellon is somewhat more sober, and the dressing of the hair is somewhat different, the coils of the hair at the sides not found here.
This is the home of the Catalonian language, which is also spoken in Valencia, Andorra, the Balearic Islands and Rousillon in France. One valley in the far northwest of Catalonia speaks Occitan. Catalonia had a very long history as an independent Principality. It is divided into four provinces; Tarragona, Lleida, Barcelona and Girona.
This is the costume which is generally associated with Catalonia as whole. Notice the distinctive hat worn by the men.
Tarragona
A dance perfomance from Tarragona
Lleida
Barcelona
A dance performance in Barcelona.
Girona
The Balearic Islands
The Balearic Islands belonged to various empires through history and once formed their own kingdom and only relatively recently passed under the control of Spain. They speak their own dialect of Catalan. There are four main islands: Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, as well as many smaller ones. The islands form one province.
Majorca or Mallorca
A dance performance on Mallorca.
Ibiza and Formentera
These two islands seem to share the same costume.
Dance from Ibiza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUQ7mS5OuA
These two islands seem to share the same costume.
Dance from Ibiza
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYUQ7mS5OuA
Another video of Ibiza dance. One cannot see the dance well because of the crappy camerawork, but there are good quality closeups of costume details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StNFDH9JJU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_StNFDH9JJU
The Canary Islands
The name comes originally from Latin and means the islands of the dogs. This is also the original home of the bird called the canary. It was named after the islands. The islands are located off the coast of Morocco and the Spanish Sahara. The original inhabitants were called Guanches, and were probably of Berber stock. Little remains of the original language, and the current inhabitants speak a dialect of Castillian, which came with colonists from Spain who assimilated the indigenous people. On the island of la Gomera, there is still a whistled language which came from the original inhabitants.
There are seven main islands which are grouped into two provinces. The eastern group forms the province of Las Palmas, and consists of the islands of Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, and Gran Canaria, and the western group forms the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and consists of the islands of La Palma, El Hierro, La Gomera and Tenerife.
Las Palmas
The Nestor costume
This costume was designed in 1934 by the artist Néstor Martín Fernandez de La Torre. This is an artistic version of the costume of Gran Canaria, with much embroidery and needlework. It has been embraced by the inhabitants of the Canary Islands as an expression of their identity.
Dance from the Canaries in the Nestor costume.
Photos of the Nestor costume
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krTzOiPFCsc
Gran Canaria
A dance from Gran Canaria.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAZ-k5itmuI
Fuertaventura
This is a more recent interpretation of the costume of Fuertaventura, and is now widely worn on that island. Some say that it was designed by Nestor as well.
Music and dance from Fuertaventura.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6DuVRHYKcI
Lanzarote
A dance from Lanzarote
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6FlpglOUAE
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
El Hierro
A distinctive feature of the costume of el Hierro are the oversleeves which the women wear on their forearms.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMRSAZTzFTI
Another dance from el Hierro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plzqHzl3bwQ
La Gomera
The best known costume of this island features the blue skirt. More recently these are adorned with white floral embroidery.
La Palma
The best known costume of La Palma features black cross stitch embroidery on the petticoats for the women and on the shirts for the men.
A dance from La Palma, La Caringa. The women have their petticoats tucked up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASLcAgaXdpQ
Tenerife
Video; how to put on the costume of Tenerife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMqd6tn5GZA
A dance of Tenerife
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQpJc5ox4fQ
Here is a video of singing and dancing on Tenerife.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2tXMOqS8_I
Thank you for reading,
I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.
The costumes of Spain are amazingly rich and diverse.
This ended up being much longer than i had anticipated.
Roman K.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi. First things first. Your blog is fantastic. I would only like to comment a couple things. Flamenco, or gitana dress, is not really wear traditionally by gypsies, it is only inspired by the frills in Seville gypsies' coats, but it has changed quite a lot and barelly resembles the actual traditional dress wore by gypsies or common people in Seville. About the torero suit, I'm not that sure it comes from gypsy men suit, it resembles a lot all other suits all over Spain (and a good chunk of Europe, tbh), it is just more... sparky, flaboyant and luxurious. Other than that, seriously, you did such a good job in this blog. I appreciate it a lot.
ReplyDeleteYou have a few things wrong on the "history" side. First, Catalonia is not even south, it is the very North of Spain. Second, the fact that the further south was "reconquered" later has 0 to do with the number of regional dresses (in fact, dressses in the southern half of Spain differ way more than they do in the North). Be careful when you talk about "independent principality" because it was NEVER independent. And, as someone already commented, your took on the flamenco dress is just wrong. All these dresses were disigned during the 19th century. Most people dressed pretty much the same, it is only in the 19th cnetury that they officialise certain dresses as being from each region, it was a form of cheap regionalism, to the point that some of those dresses (ejemflamencoejem) are almost completely artificial, only appearing at the begining of the 20th century. Your blog is great, really good to appreciate the different dresses, but careful with your historical points, because they seem very flawed and you make weird assumptions sometimes.
ReplyDeleteAs the other two people pointed out, your take on the flamenco thing is totally wrong. First of all, the historical dress of Seville has nothig to do with the flamenco dress that was designed during the dictatorship taking the most flamboyant dresses from the 20s and 30s as inspiration. The same way that happened with the flamenco music, gypsies only took what was already in Spain and gave their own flair to it, that's why the other gypsies of europe (Spanish gypsis are Calé, while most the others call themselves romaní, as you mentioned) didn't know any flamenco until the Spanish Socialnacional Dictatorship started to export their take on flamenco to promote Spain as a touristic place over europe. We have many 'palos' of flamenco here in spain, each of them endemic to a certain region, with certain characteristics directly inherited from the traditional rural music of that same region. But there are not 'palos' of flamenco outside of spain until very recently.
ReplyDeleteI recommend you to look for pictures of 'tipos de' which are usually from before 1920, when the regional and traditional dresses were actually in use, and you will notice how different most traditional dresses are from what you collected. Because they were very very similar between all of them, with the main difference happening between East and West, and not between south and north as you tried to classify. Best wishes, and keep with the hard work.
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