Figure 1.--By the late-19th century, folk costumes were becoming much less ecident in Europe. But we do see people dressing up for festivals and various celebrations. In this case father and son as well as the girl have dressed for an elaborate studio portrait taken in 1898. Here we see the colorizded version.

What we now call folk costumes developed out of the fashions of the common people of Europe in the 18th century. Athe time the airistocracy of Europe dressed similarly, fashijs based largely on French styles. It was the common people that dressed in destinctive styles., In the 19th century, the growing middle class and urban population began dressing in similar pan-European styles which is what Ameerica also adopted. Folk styles persisted, especially in rural areas. So we still see some of these garmebnts in 19th and even early-20th century. This was most common in rural and periferal areas of Europe. One of those areas was Sicily. And we see some of this in Bruno's photography. We see a mix ofv modern and Folk styles. The folk styles were mostly worn by adults nad not children.. There was an exceotiin to this was festivals and other special occassions when people might dress up in folk outfits. We see that even today. One of the most ionic folk garments in Sicily was a kind of elongated stocking cap. We at first thought this was a French revolutionary/voyageur cap, but it seems to have been much more wuidely worn such as in Sicily and other areas of Italy. It also seems to have been worn by sailors before uniforms became common for ordinary seamen begore uniforms became common. We see British boys wearing these caps in costumed portraits with nautical props. While most folk costumes appear to date from the 18tyh century, these elongated stocking caps seem to have medievll roots.

Created: 4:24 AM 5/6/2023
Last updated: 4:24 AM 5/6/2023