Folk Costume and Embroidery of Dropoli, North Epirus

Hello all, 

Today I would like to continue my coverage of the Folk Costumes of North Epirus by talking about the region of Dropoli, Δρόπολη, Dropull. This region is located in the far south of Albania, although it is inhabited almost entirely by Greeks. Google is mistaken about the extent of this region. It actually extends south to the Greek Border. 

Both the Greek and Albanian forms of the name of the region are worn down forms of Hadrianopolis, a city which was built in that location in the early 2nd cent. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropull

This costume underwent significant development in the 20th cent. I will talk about both the 19th and 20th cent. versions. 

The base garment is the chemise, pokamiso. Unlike in most Balkan costumes, the pokamiso in this region is not visible when fully dressed. It is made of white cotton and is unadorned. It has a vertical opening at the neck, long narrow sleeves which button at the wrist, and is ankle length. I have found no image of this garment. 

Unusually, a full skirt is worn over the chemise. This is also ankle length, and is called ralino fustani. This garment is usually white, and is unadorned. It is made of 60 narrow triangular gores sewn edge to edge with the points attached to a waistband. 

This skirt is clearly influenced by the foustanella, which is strictly a male garment. To my knowledge, no other Greek costume has a female skirt inspired by the foustanella, but a couple of Tosk Albanian costumes do. 

The apron, podia, was originally hand woven in wool, about 30 cm wide and 50 cm long. Traditional motifs were repeated over its length, resulting in a striped effect. 

In the 20th cent, they started to make the apron out of white cotton. To avoid the outfit looking too simple, they added a flounce to the bottom of the apron, It was made of the same material, pleated into the body of the apron, and both acquired gold embroidery. 

The front of thetorso was covered with one or more options. First was a white cotton dickey ornamented with pleats. 

Another is the brostela, a type of hip length vest that was make of silk on the front, buttoned closed, and had galloon appliqued vertically and at angles on the front. 

In the later versions of the costume, this garment also had gold embroidery, as did the belt worn over it. 

The third option was the jeletsi, a waist length double breasted vest often made of velvet with gold braiding. This was made in simpler cloth for more ordinary occasions. It was sometimes worn over the brostela. 

Kondomanika are armlets which cover the lower arms from the elbow to the wrist. For dress they are of wool or velvet with gold braid, as shown above. 

A hand woven sash was wrapped a few times around the waist and fastened with a large buckle in the balkan style. Later it was replaced by a band of cloth which matched the brostela. 

Jewelry was worn over the chest. 

The limaria is a gathered collar highly ornamented with metal sequins and other items. 

Over all of this, a woolen garment with half sleeves, sayas, was worn. It includes added lower sleeves which were originally made of gauzy silk with metal ornament to match the limarja. It had bands of black and red around the edges.

In more recent times the lower sleeves were of plain white cloth with gold embroidery. 

Over this a second similar but sleeveless garment, sita was worn. This is more highly ornamented with cord applique. It is a type of sigouni. 

For dress, white knitted stockings with floral designs are worn with shoes of various kinds, originally tsarouchia, but shoes more approaching modern shoes are now worn. 

Colorful knitted leg warmers are also worn at need. 

The hair is separated into two braids, In lower Dropoli, they wore a red fez, skufia, covered with coins and gold, over which a silk scarf, stenadi, was worn. One end of the stenadi hung down, while the other was twisted to form a cone over the skufia, which was often almost completely covered except for the lowest row of coins.

 Hatzimichali describes the headdress of upper Dropoli as consisting of a white scarf, fatsoli, 80 x 20 cm wrapped over the hair, with the braids tied over it. This was covered by the monetra, a cotton scarf similar to the stenadi, also wrapped into a cone with the ends hanging down. 

In more recent years, the sigouni is sometimes replaced by a modern suit jacket, usually in pink or blue, and the skirt and/or apron are also sometimes made in matching colors. 

The men wear a standard foustanella outfit, as is common in many Greek and Tosk groups. This garment became popular among the men who joined the uprising against the Ottoman Empire, worn by Orthodox Christian men. It arose in the general area of Epirus / South Albania, and to this day is common among both Greeks and Tosks. The men in this region wear it shorter, in the Greek style. 

I will close with a few more images of this outfit, mostly the more modern version. 

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K. 

email: rkozakand@aol.com 

Source Material:

Angeliki Hatzimichali, 'The Greek Folk Costume vol 1', Athens, 1979

Dr. Gjergji Andromaqi et al, 'Albanian Folk Costumes vol 1', Tirane, 1999

J. C. Mazarakis Aenian et al, 'Greek Costumes', Athens, 1993

Athanasios Khouliaras, 'Paradosiakes Foresies Voreirou Ipeirou', Athens 2022