National Costumes

National costumes or folk costumes are what make each nation and ethnic group unique. The traditional national costumes of various countries tell us a lot about what that nation values. Dressing up in folk costumes is popular for festivals, holidays, saints' days and other days when the culture of a particular region is celebrated.

Make Your Own Costume

Researching National Costumes

The wonderful thing about national costumes is that they are unique—each nation has a different way of portraying itself. That means there's no one standard for how you might dress in a national costume; it all depends on which nation's people you are trying to represent.

Here are some links to pages about different countries' traditional costumes to get you started:

• Finnish national costume
• Traditional Mongolian costumes
• Lithuanian costume
• Hungarian costumes
• Dutch costumes
• English costumes
• Belo Russian costumes
• Welsh costumes
• Macedonian costumes
• Romanian costumes

• Moroccan costumes

In addition, the Costumers Manifesto has an excellent page on traditional ethnic dress around the world, and there are a number of links to national costumes on Wikipedia.

Putting National Costumes Together

Many national costumes are not something you can just walk into your local costume shop or rental house and buy or rent, especially if you're looking for something more authentic than cartoonish.

Sometimes it is possible to find national costumes sold for tourists or at stores that sell items from a particular country or that portray that nationality or heritage. Try an Internet search for the nationality you are looking for and "clothing store". You'll get some results that aren't helpful, but you might also find some that can help.

To pull together an authentic national costume, you probably need to be an expert seamstress or know one who can help you put together a design for your costume, probably without the help of a pattern.

Looking at pictures and doing research in books and on the Internet will help you figure out all the details that need to be included in an authentic national costume. If you're trying to save money, you can probably skip the traditional undergarments and simplify some of the details if you're not in need of absolute authenticity.

If you do want perfection in your national costume, it might be a good idea to try to find someone who already owns some traditional clothing from the nation you are trying to emulate. This will help you see how the pieces go together, what kind of fabric is used and more.

Buying Costumes

If you're willing to go more towards the cartoon or stereotypical route, such as for a Halloween party or other costume party, some national costumes (or what others like to think of as national costumes—think barmaids, leprechauns and Carmen Miranda) can be purchased from online and retail costume shops. Here are a few options:

• Annie's Costumes
• Zoogster Costumes
• Halloween Costumes 4U

If you buy one of these sorts of costumes, don't expect them to be authentic. Don't wear them to cultural events where people will be dressed in authentic national clothing. They are fine for costume parties and Halloween, but when people who really take pride in their culture are faced with a person in a genie costume, they're likely to be offended, and, besides, you'll look silly.

Wearing traditional costumes is a great symbol of pride and remembrance of your heritage. Like dressing up as Uncle Sam or a patriot on the Fourth of July, other countries can show their love for their country on important days by wearing traditional clothing.

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