In Europe, contrary to countries in the Middle East and Asia, we rarely encounter people wearing their traditional clothing.
At Folkmona we began by asking the question: Why?
Our purpose is to modernise the original garments of Cyprus and challenge this phenomenon, bringing traditional clothing back into our everyday wardrobes and preserving techniques that are threatened to be lost with our parents generation.
'Modernizing' tradition however comes with its challenges and there are fine lines that we must not cross. In order to properly do this we must understand why we stopped wearing our traditional garments in the first place.
How Globalisation Changed What We Wear?
Globalization is defined as the increased interconnectedness of countries across the globe, and although this has done wonders for the trade, media and technology, it has also lead to the spread of fashion trends along continents therefore, what we wear no longer represents our culture background. Clothes are manufactured in countries where factory and labour costs are low only to be shipped all over the world diminishing the value of each piece that is created. This brough such convenience that hand crafting garments became unnecessary and the demand for weavers, embroiderers and tailers reduced drastically.
The results of this: our everyday clothing no longer hold history and certain handcrafting techniques are nearly extinct.
These techniques are not being passed on to future generations, because simply there's not need for it. That being said, the slow development of our traditional garments using sustainability garments using sustainably sourced materials is no longer appealing.
Clothing became faster, cheaper, and easier, but also anonymous.
When our lives changed, our clothes couldn't keep up
The industrial revolution lead to a shift in the labour demands and in addition to clothing we also began importing produce and agricultural jobs became less popular. As a result majority of people are now working indoors, so heavy duty pieces such as the 'podines' (boots made for agriculture) no longer served a purpose to us.
Modesty, Work, and the Modern Woman
The passing of time brings change and clothing must evolve to suit our daily life. Unlike before, we are now more concerned with the stylishness and comfort of our outfits therefore when the circumstances of our daily lives changed our traditional garments no longer provided that uniqueness so we started relying on westernised fashion.
Modesty is another factor in which lead to the traditional garments being unwanted. Women's traditional garments covered up the whole body including the hair, now days women no longer feel the need to do so and as more women have entered the work place. The demand for classy formal attire has increased.
The passing of time inevitably brings change, and clothing must evolve alongside our daily lives. But evolution does not require forgetting.
At Folkmona, modernising tradition means understanding its original purpose, respecting its techniques, and reimagining it for the lives we actually live today. Not as costume. Not as trend. But as continuity.
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