Dress Code and Attire in Slovenia
When you live in a foreign country, it’s only natural to pay attention to how people look (the way they carry themselves, how they dress, etc.), so in this article I will discuss the dress code(s) and attire in Slovenia. Slovenians are similar to other Europeans in how they dress. A lot of people read press which spreads the western beauty and fashion standards - women like Vogue, Glamour, People, Life & Style, Cosmopolitan and men usually opt for FHM, GQ, Men’s Fitness. The Western influence is present in markets, stores as well as in other places where clothes are sold. Besides the influence from the West, also the climate, history and the activities people do have impacted the way Slovenians dress.
Slovenia is located in the Central Europe, where the climate is quite warm. The Alps and the Adriatic Sea play a big role in setting the climate, which differs from region to region. At the seaside, there is the sub-Mediterranean climate, and there is the Alpine climate in the mountain region, but elsewhere the continental climate is more common. Continental climate allows for hot summers (even over +35oC) and bitter winters with a lot of snow (the record being over 1m in lower areas). Clothes with thermal insulation are highly popular in Slovenia not only because of the latter but also due to the fact that Slovenians love doing various activities outside, regardless of the weather. Generally, the winters are rather mild compared to Northern countries as the temperature rarely drops below -20o C. The clothes including coats are less thick than the ones used in the northern countries and they tend to be above the knee. Warmer and thicker clothes are mainly used for skiing trips and other activities. In the summer, lighter clothes can be noticed including flip-flops, shorts, skirts, dresses, t-shirts with or without sleeves and others. People briefly show their body, which seems natural for athletic people who have higher self-confidence as they care about the health which reflects also in their looks.
Folklore costumes generally come in different colors, clothing pieces, material and accessories. One of the examples of the Slovenian folklore costume is the Alpine costume Gorenjska noša. Gorenjska is a region rich in and popular for mountains. The costume has some specific characteristics of the region, for example flower motives. A more detailed description of the folklore costume from this region is below:
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Source: Folkcostume.blogspot.com |
For men
- a
pure white shirt
- a
scarf over
- a
vest (lajbič) often with flower ornaments, the most common color - black or red
- leather
pants
- long
white pants (long underwear) up to a knee
- leather boots with or without ornaments
- leather boots with or without ornaments
- black
hat with feathers (kuražfedre)
Women:
- dress
- underwear
- a
special belt called sklepanec
- an
avba, which is a type of a hat
A different costume can be found in Krakovo, once a suburban village of wealthy merchants, which is located in a plain region. Back in time other people from the village wanted to dress like townspeople. Men wore white shirts with silver buttons, voluminous sleeves, vest also with silver buttons, a silk cloth around the neck, wooden jackets with fur at the sleeves and occasionally a silk belt around the waist. The most noticeable piece in woman’s costume was headpiece avba or krchief (peče) with the velvet band on the avba was embroidered with a gold thread and trimmed with white lace and a long ribbon on the back. Additional accessories were long white gloves with lace, cross pendants, brooches attached to the collars and earrings. Clothes were a cardigan (spencer) with puffy sleeves over the blouse, wide skirt, and black silk apron with black lace over the skirt, green silk ribbon, shoes with a silk bow. Usually a metal belt (sklepanec) was worn around the waist.
Nowadays this
appearance is only used by folk dance groups, folk musicians, some local
societies and in tourism.
Slovenians love doing various sports and regularly take part in recreational activities, which has had a strong impact on their clothing trends. There are tennis courts in many resorts and health centers, and recreational courts can be found in front of dormitories and elsewhere in the cities and towns. The gyms are full of people of various generations exercising on their own or attending group trainings. Furthermore, running has gained quite a popular following and you can see a runner in Ljubljana almost any time of the day. In Latvia, tennis courts are rare - you can find them only in some parks, hotels, and other quest places, but the overall amount is not big due to the fact that Latvia’s climate can rapidly change and the summer can sometimes be very rainy and cold.
Slovenians love doing various sports and regularly take part in recreational activities, which has had a strong impact on their clothing trends. There are tennis courts in many resorts and health centers, and recreational courts can be found in front of dormitories and elsewhere in the cities and towns. The gyms are full of people of various generations exercising on their own or attending group trainings. Furthermore, running has gained quite a popular following and you can see a runner in Ljubljana almost any time of the day. In Latvia, tennis courts are rare - you can find them only in some parks, hotels, and other quest places, but the overall amount is not big due to the fact that Latvia’s climate can rapidly change and the summer can sometimes be very rainy and cold.
Another popular activity
in Slovenia is hiking. There are a lot of mountains and forests, which make
perfect nature scenery and Slovenians love to go hiking on the sunny weekends
that allow for outdoor activities. Consequently, hiking clothes are also quite
popular to wear in leisure time. The key clothing item for the mountain hiking is
hiking boots, as some mountains in Slovenia can be very steep. One of the
Slovene shoe brands Alpina is known
for all kinds of sport shoes, including hiking boots, ski boots, etc. For all
these sports activities, special sportswear - clothes and trainers - is needed.
Interestingly, Slovenians tend to wear sportswear in their leisure also when
they do not do sports - just because it is comfy.
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On this note, I would like to point out some specially designed clothes made for the Slovenian athletes taking part in the Olympics, which I consider worth noting. For the last Winter Olympics in Sochi, the Slovenian teams had clothes with green, blue and white color. The graphics included the outline of the Slovene’s highest mountain Triglav, the shape of which is also found in the Slovene national flag. These specially designed clothes are sold as fan clothing and include caps, hats, headbands, gloves, scarves, etc. Green is the most used color for underlining the country’s green status (being the third most forested country in Europe). This color is widely used in different Slovene sport teams (basketball, handball, volleyball, etc.) and even appears in the national tourism promotion campaign I feel sLOVEnia, which uses green color in specially designed clothes like t-shirts, scarves and others. However, it’s not that common to see bright green clothes in the streets. Blue and white clothing is way more popular, but these colors are also worn in other countries, since they are quite frequent in brands like Nike, Adidas or other sportswear brands.
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Slovenian clothing is present also outside its boarders.
One of Slovenian designers that succeeded abroad is Sanja Grcic with her
fashion label Firma. Her clothing is
urban and sporty and one of her inspirations is the Kekec hat, which is
inspired by the fictional child hero in a highly popular Slovenian film. He is
a brave, bold and curious boy from the Julian Alps and fights against an evil
man named Bedanec. He keeps two victims Mojca and Kosobrin in his house and
Kekec sets out to find them to set them free. In my opinion it’s of great value
that an important part of a culture is transformed into a popular trend. In Latvia
it is highly trendy to use different national ornaments in belts, bracelets,
scarves and other pieces of cloth, but they haven’t got recognition in some world
fashion exhibitions.
Clothing shops in Ljubljana include brands like H&M, Zara, Benetton, etc. and are highly popular among Slovenes. On the other hand, second-hand shops are not that popular. There are some as for instance Gvant (Jacket) in BTC city, Divas Vintage Preloved, 2nd Chance and Moje Tvoje (Mine Yours), but they are not part of the mainstream culture and not widely known among Slovenes. In Riga, the capital of Latvia, there have been some significant trend changes in this respect. In the recent years for many people trendy clothing shops have become less popular than the second-hand clothing shops like Humana, Degas. They can be found in almost every corner of the main streets. Namely, the prices of brand clothing have drastically increased and more and more people try to look for alternative ways of dressing and have changed their point of view. Perhaps, there is still a common perception in Slovenia that second-hand clothes mean poor quality. At least that was the common point of view for many people in Latvia. With time second-hand shops might become trendy also in Slovenia. For now part of Slovenes are donating their old clothes to some non-profit humanitarian organizations like Rdeči križ Slovenije (Slovenian Red Cross).
Overall,
the clothing in Slovenia isn’t much different from that in Latvia and other
European countries under the Western influence. In Slovenia the vast majority
not only of younger but also older generations often wear sports clothes in
their spare time, even when not doing any sports activities, but you can find
similar traits also in Latvia. One of the reasons why these clothes are popular
is that they are especially designed for lowering the heat and perspiration, whereas
other clothes are designed to keep the warmth, which is useful, for example,
when doing some winter sports activities. Due to hot summers people tend to
wear some loose clothes that rarely cover all skin. There are Slovenes who
don’t care about fashion or sport, special clothes are not first on the list as well as those living in the country side prefer simpler
clothes. And thus further traits in clothing are difficult to find, since each
person has an individual style.
References:
Best of Slovenian fashion: Sanja Grcic in NYC (Accessed: http://bturn.com/9992)
Folk Costume in Slovenia (Access: http://www.etnofolk.eu/en/article/folk-costume-slovenia)
Lara Bohinc (Access: http://www.larabohinc.com/)
Slovenia (Accessed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovenia)
Slovenian National Costumes (Accessed: http://comeniusdragons.blogspot.com/2012/05/slovenian-national-costumes.html)
Sport Activities (Accessed: http://www.slovenia.info/?drugi_sporti=0)
Uroš Belantič (Access: http://www.visitljubljana.com/en/journalists/press-resources/slovenian-designers/)
Outfits of Slovenian Olympic athletes marked by Triglav (Accessed: http://www.slovenia.info/?news_items=3331&lng=2)
Kavec (Accessed: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kekec)
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