The women's festive costume from the second half of the 19th century was rich and heavy. The woman from Razlog wore a long white shirt. Locals call the shirt a “koshulya” that is completely decorated with colored stripes visible through the side slits of the outer garment and with rich embroidery that covers the seemingly vulnerable parts of the body so that "evil does not enter from there." The sleeves of the shirt are wide and long to the wrist, embroidered at the bottom with large and beautiful „zapeski” with tulips and framed with hand-knitted lace.
On the shirt is a “zabun” of cotton striped fabric with side slits and underneath with black braid. The garment is with cotton, crucible. In winter, the women from Razlog preferred a woolen „zabun”. Usually the outer garments - „zabun“, “anteriya” and „klashnik” are long, sleeveless and almost completely cover the shirt, which thus becomes an undergarment and reduces its decoration in some parts. In cold weather to the sleeveless garment, women wear sleeves, which are joined behind the back by two parallel neckbands. In the lower part of the sleeves, both the „zabun” and the „anteriya” were turned upwards and fastened with a button to the elbow (the so-called lids) in order to see the colorful lining and the „zapeski” of the shirt. The various outer garments were sewn from tailor's hand.
The festive aba, which is placed on the upper garment, is sleeveless, sewn from a nice navy blue shayak, that is why it is called “sinyavitsa. From the waist down, on all sides it is decorated with feathered wedges with the processes below. Its ends are long to turn back to the "opretulkya" to see the „zabun” or „anteriya”. Around the shoulders and all the way around the abbot was wrapped with two rows of braids. The armpits on two sides were decorated with green stripes - „archove”.
On it she wore a red belt, the role of which was to fasten the waist, but also to turn the trees to the skirts of the “anteriya”. On the belt there is an apron dotted with horizontal stripes with geometric color decoration in them. Above, the bride from Razlog wore a velvet beaded belt fastened with silver wrought, round buckles.
Veiled with a dark red „kavrak”, the ends of which pass under the chin and return to the back of the neck. This head covering further emphasizes her status as a married woman who cannot go out with her head uncovered.
She wore white socks with rich decoration on her ankles, heels and toes. The costume finish with nice slippers on chairs (heels) with a red tassel.
As a decoration and apotropaic to the bride's costume, she placed a silver necklace on her chest and buckles on her waist - two imaginary areas for the future mother, whose task is to protect her in order to carry successfully her future child.
Irena Pandeva put on the costume.
The costume is from the fund of the Historical Museum - Razlog.
The project "Study of the specifics and richness of national costumes from the Razlog region in the light of cultural diversity" is realized with the financial support of the National Culture Fund under the program "Cultural Heritage".
In fulfillment of the goals of the project we present some of the most beautiful traditional costumes, typical for the Razlog valley in the last 2 centuries.
We offer our sincere thanks to our hosts from the Historical Museum - Razlog, and to all local people who helped with the realization.
Special thanks to all participants and team members who took their time and with useful information, knowledge and valuable advice made possible the work on the project.
A reverence to the girls and boys from the town of Razlog, who stood in front of our camera and with their enthusiasm, youth and beauty revived for a new life the most beautiful costumes from old Mehomiya.
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