Women’s aristocratic dresses for parties and family ceremonies. The beginning of XX century. Imported velvet material, embroidered by embroiders from Berat with thread and purl of gold.
The city of Berat, in the Middle Ages, and especially in the late Middle Ages, had a great bloom, and especially the artistic crafts had a great development, which was reflected in the costume in the civic outfits, and in particular in the aristocratic women’s dresses where the influence of Byzantine luxury was clearly noticed. The work of Berat embroiderer along with those of Ioannina was distinguished, known and appreciated in all of South Albania for the form, elegance, physiognomy and unique and diverse techniques that was clearly distinguished from other cities. One of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages is the Epitaph of Gllavenica (1375). This tendency became present in the XIX-XIX century where the cities such as Prizren, Elbasan and Shkodra are distinguished, especially Berat and Janina, reaching artistic excellence. A foreign consul (1881) described the embroidery of Berat and Ioannina as the most prestigious embroidery known as the first in the world.
Embroidered costumes, especially Berat’s elegant outfits, such as a jacket (jacket with or without long sleeves to the pulp and then cut to the waist), waistcoats, belts, gilet, dresses, shirts, gold-embroidered shirts, silver, various cordons prepared by boys aged 15-16 who, according to Evlia Celebi (a Turkish traveler, sent by Sultan’s mission to describe the Ottoman Empire) “looked like bone joints and slimy fingers” sequins and precious stones were ordered not only from the aristocratic Berati people, but also from all over the country.
Today every traditional family in Berat fanatically keeps folk costumes or a part of it inherited from generation to generation. Already at Bankfield Museum in Halifax, there is exposed a woman embroidered with gold, a gift from the embroideries of Berat in 1918 that was made for the anthropologist and ethnographer Mrs. Edit Durham even at the Metropolitan Museum in New York are such artifacts.
Women’s aristocratic dresses for parties and family ceremonies. The beginning of XX century. Imported velvet material, embroidered by embroiders from Berat with thread and purl of gold.
By Gladiola Caka
