Folk Costume of Garitsa, North Epirus

Hello all, 

Today I will start a series on the Folk Costumes of 'North Epirus'. This is the region in South Albania which is inhabited by a Greek ethnic minority. The term 'North Epirus' is not used by Albanians, but the Albanian government does recognize a 'Greek Ethnic Minority Zone' in the south of the country. 

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

The percentage of Greek inhabitants varies with the region, from almost 100% in Dropoli to individual villages in some other regions. It must be noted that there is also an Albanian ethnic minority in Greece. 

The folk costume which I will be speaking of today is originally from the town of Lykoursi [Lëkurësi], east of the city of Agia Saranta [Sarandë], on the southern shore of what is today politically Albania. After the unsuccessful Epirote uprising against the Ottomans in 1878, a number of people escaped to Corfu [Kerkyra], settling especially in the region of Garitsa, in the south of the City of Corfu. This costume was maintained by this community for some time. 

The image at the head of this article shows this attire. This is also the only image which I have found that shows a man dressed in this traditional attire. 

The foundation garment is the chemise, pokamiso. This has embroidery on the cuffs, bottom hem and front opening. 

This second image is from Hatzimichali. You can clearly see the embroidery on the front of the chemise. Over the chemise is a long sleeveless woolen garment called sigouni. It is fitted in the torso and has gores in the lower part, imparting fullness. It is hooked closed at the waist, but remains open along its lower part. It is ankle length. This image shows the sigouni in white wool with ornamental stripes. This is seen in some southern Albanian costumes, like this example from Myzeqe.

However, Hatzimichali describes the sigouni as being dark blue or black, and indeed every other image which I have found of the Garitsa sigouni is dark. Perhaps this image was taken with an Albanian sigouni, because it was available.

Over the sigouni was worn an apron. The apron was red with cord applique, very similar to that used by Vlach women in various parts of Southern Albania. Hatzimichali says that the migrants were 'cow herders', so perhaps they were, at least in part, Vlach. A belt with a large buckle was used to hold the apron in place. 

Over the sigouni was worn a type of jacket with slit sleeves. These could be worn on the arms, but were often left hanging in the back. Over the jacket a vest was worn. Both were heavily ornamented with the same kind of cording as used on the apron. 

On the feet they wore heavy patterned woolen socks and tsarouchi. 

The headdress consisted of a red fez, tsoupari, to the front of which was sewn an ornamented silver plate, korona. A red kerchief, tsitserona was attached to the back, and a black kerchief was rolled up and tied over the headpiece and under the chin. See the various images. 

And that is about all the information that I have. Here are just a few more images. 

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

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:

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

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

'Costumes from Corfu, Paxos and the Offshore Islands', Theotoky, Elisabeth Lulu J, Corfu, 1994