Banat

Banat

Girls and young women wore granate (beads in different colours and sizes), threaded on one or two string around their necks. Instead of this, wealthy girls wore a few strings of big or small ducats or seferini (gold coins larger than ducats) threaded on golden chain. The number of strings depended on the wealth.

Oplećak (female shirt) - a garment for special occasions was made of thin Serbian cloth (svilenac or ćenar). The sleeves were short, bordered with lace, multi-coloured threads, looped crochet or embroidery. A small camisole known as mider was worn under it. It was made of manufactured fabric or any stronger cloth and it clasped and supported the bosom. A waist coat was worn over the oplećak. It was made of black balestin. The name of this fabric was derived from the German - English word halblasting and it was a half-wool-len cloth woven in England and Germany. The waistcoat was usually laced with a cord or a piece of multi-coloured yarn.

Džega - was worn only by married women. The bride covered her head with it on the wedding day, in the evening, when she took off her wreath. Married women did not appear in public without it. They took it off only when they combed their hair. At home, they could do without a scarf, but not without the džega. The simplest form of džega was a small triangular scarf which at first covered the whole head (it was tied at the back of the head) and later only the bun was covered with it. The ones worn on Sundays and special occasions  were made of black (or dark blue) silk (or satin) and adorned with golden embroidery or lace. The embroidery decorated both parts, the one which was covering the bun and the one which hung down the neck. The common designs on the golden embroidery were: twigs, wreaths made of various flowers, roses and even geomterical shapes. 

The most common ornaments on gold embroidered female hats had their symbolic meaning: the rose symbolized a girl, oak leave - strenght, carnation - love, cross - bliss after suffering, wreath - happiness, acorn - health, star - joy, lily - courage, eye - happiness and finally, plume was a symbol of honour.

Zlatara or zlaćanka was a hat worn on holidays. Brides wore it on their wedding day and for two or three years after the wedding. The upper part was long, in the form of an ellipse, the lateral parts were crescent-shaped, with a straight border sewn on the top of the hat. The size of the hat depended on the circumference of the head. It included two long strips (60-80 cm) at one end 5 cm and, at the other, 15 cm across, and two ribbons, 10 cm long and 5 cm wide. Zlaćanka was fully embroidered with silver threads. The design called big branch covered the top of the head so that the silk surface could hardly be seen. This design included several flowers, with a stone (dijamant) in the middle of each. The stones were brightly coloured: red, blue, green, yellow. The leaves around the flowers were also embroidered with silver threads and glitter was placed between the leaves. The ribbons were decorated in a similar way but their borders were adorned with short silver thread fringes.

Banat - Kikinda district

The guberaš hat was worn in summer but also in winter if the weather was not cold. It went out of use during the First World War. It was black roughly crafted, and not very thin so that it was suitable for everyday chores. The crown of the hat was low while the brim was wide, with a black woollen braid, tied in a bow, wrapped around it, instead of a ribbon. The braid was plaited by hatmakers. The hat worn on holidays (stajaći šešir) was made of shiny black felt, it had a narrower brim, a higher crown and it was decorated with a black bow. Its brim was folded up unlike the guberaš hat, which had a straight brim and a narrower ribbon.

Čakšire - white trousers dated from an earlier time in the past. They were decorated with thin black baize ornaments below the so-called rastriši (slanted, pocket-like openings). The legs were decorated with a black braid sewn into the seam with some smaller braids or multi coloured silky threads embroidered over it. They had no pockets but two slanted openings cut on the front, called rastriš or rkmče. The openings were embroidered just like the seams. The flaps above them were covered with thin black baize which was sometimes embroidered with multi-coloured threads.

Košulja (shirt) - It was worn as an undergarment and it was made of home-made, so called Serbian cloth. It was quite long (but not as long as in neighbouring Romania). Some people wore shirts which were  2-3 cm longer than ordinary ones. The shirt consisted of: a collar padded with thick cotton cloth (pargar) which was buttoned below the neck with one or two buttons, shoulder pads fastened to the collar, sleeves with cuffs (zaponci) lined with pargar, which were usually white and had one or two buttons and, finally the front, also padded, with three buttons. Boys and young men covered their chest with the so-called formet embroidered with white cotton or šika threads. The formet was tied around the neck, chest and waist. Some also wore a tie with golden embroidery called poša. It was sometimes red, blue or green.