Azerbaijan national costume

Azerbaijan national costume is the result of the long and complicated processes involved in the development of the nation’s material and intellectual culture. The history of a nation has a most direct bearing on the national costume. It reflects, more than any other element of material culture, the specific features of a nation and belongs to the more stable ethnic characteristics. National costume absorbs the ethnic, aesthetic and artistic features of a nation’s creativeity which finds expression in the forms of garments, in the embroidery decoration in the art of weaving and the manner of knitting. In the 17th century Azerbaijan was a major silk producer in the Near East. Its main sericultural region was Shirvan and the largest silk manufacturing centres were Shemakha, Baskal, Gyandzha, Sheki and Shusha. They produced wonderfully fine silk fabrics with an exquisitely attractive design, ladies’ head kerchiefs and other commodities. The costume style was appropriate to the family status and age of the wearer. The costume of a maiden differed noticeably from that of a married woman. Young women wore particularly gay and attractive garments. The man’s as well as woman’s costume was basically the same in all the historical ethnographic zones of Azerbaijan . At the same time the man’s costume bore the imprint of the wearer 5 social status. Children’s costume was similar to that of adults’ in its silhouette while differing from the latter in size and certain age-related peculiarities.