The traditional costume is certainly one of the elements that, already in ancient times, contributed best to characterize each Italian region including Liguria.
It is substantially similar in many northern Italian regions, not only for the shape and type, but also for the fabrics with which it was made but the colors and the patterns made the difference.
The documented historical evolution is also identical.
Liguria has for a long time been a reason of great interest for Italian and foreign travelers, photographers and painters present on the Ligurian Riviera di Ponente and on the Côte d'Azur, where the shepherds came down to winter with their sheep in the winter season.
There is therefore an impressive amount of literary and iconographic evidence (already from the early nineteenth century) that document the traditional costume of shepherds and country people, even in its historical evolution.
The origins of the women's workwear are in all likelihood to be found in medieval times, while the festive and masculine ones reproduce models of the Nice (let us remember that Nice used to be Italian/Ligurian) area dating back to at least the eighteenth century.
I have a friend who wears one of these costumes (not an original one but a reproduction) because she acts in regional reenactments for a local itinerary theater and she agreed to tell me a bit more about these costumes.
Traditional dances and clothes
Such costumes fell into disuse since the First World War, traditional clothes have been progressively forgotten and often reused for different purposes.
Fortunately, many ancient garments have come down to us intact because they have been preserved and handed down, within families, because of their sentimental value.
Today and for the past thirty years, traditional clothing has been the subject of collection, cataloging and study and is worn periodically on special occasions.
As for the oldest garments, their state of conservation and their high historical and documentary value suggest a more sporadic use, if not a definitive disposal. Faithful reconstructions of the different shapes and variants are therefore necessary.
To do this we are looking for the most suitable materials which, however, are often no longer available on the market (at least in serial production) and therefore must be specially packaged, at an artisanal level.
The female costume consisted of a hemp shirt (a blouse), without collar and with three-quarter sleeves, over which a sort of heavy pinafore was worn, made with a characteristic natural brown wool fabric.
The blouse was one of the garments that the bride received as a dowry and could also last a lifetime.
When the climatic needs required it, a more or less heavy cotton fabric jacket was worn on the blouse.
The jacket could be closed both with metal hooks and with small buttons, almost always hidden under a flap.
Normally, an apron was not worn over the clothes.
The socks, usually made of wool, were handmade, knitted, and were often striped in two colors.
To shelter the head from the sun or from the cold, a handkerchief was used.
The handkerchief was normally in wool or cotton, in plain color, but more often printed with a floral pattern.
This type of clothing has undergone an evolution over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries:
the blouse has gradually fallen into disuse, replaced by a more simple shirt with an ordinary skirt.
The skirt was usually in cotton or wool blend fabric, plain or striped, curled on the back and almost entirely covered on the front by an apron.
A handkerchief in wool or cotton was worn on the shoulders, crossed on the chest and held by the apron.
