September 1, 2025
Each element of traditional costume, each ornament and pattern carries deep symbolic meaning, reflecting the worldview of the people, their connection with nature and historical experience. The loss of these cultural treasures means not only the disappearance of material objects, but also the severing of spiritual bonds between generations, the impoverishment of humanity’s cultural diversity.
This is precisely why the study, documentation and popularization of traditional heritage becomes a paramount task of modernity. By preserving the memory of the past, we ensure cultural continuity and provide future generations with the opportunity to draw inspiration from the inexhaustible source of folk wisdom and creativity.
As is well known, national clothing is a manifestation of a people’s centuries-old experience, their cultural level and way of life, worldview and aesthetic concepts. The main materials from which Crimean Tatar clothing was made were wool, leather, homespun and imported fabrics.
Women’s Clothing
Headdresses and Head Decorations
Crimean Tatar women paid special attention to head decorations. A girl’s hair was usually braided into two braids, which were thrown back. To protect against the evil eye (nazar) a beautifully decorated rectangular talisman was attached to the ends of the braids, inside which was a sacred prayer (saç duası).
The headdress was considered to be a velvet cap (fes), usually burgundy in color, embroidered with gold or silver, sometimes decorated with small coins and covered with a round ornamental trim of golden color (fes qalpağı). Over the fes was worn a thin long white scarf (baş marama) made of homespun muslin, embroidered along the edges.
There are a huge number of women’s headdresses, their diversity is striking. Besides the fes and marama, common ones were:
Basic Clothing
Women’s clothing, despite local differences, had much in common. The wardrobe of a Crimean Tatar woman consisted of wide and long, below-knee cotton or canvas shirts (keten-kölmek), long dresses (anter) with wide sleeves, colored loose trousers (şalvar or duman, don) reaching to the feet and tied around the ankle with a string.
Outer Clothing
The outer clothing consisted of a caftan (qaftan or zıbın) tightly fitting the entire figure, usually bright, most often in pink or crimson color, with gold or silver braid on the collar and chest. This caftan has a slit the full length in front, as well as narrow sleeves and fastens at the wrists with several buttons, necessarily sewn on cotton padding to give fullness to the figure.
On the chest, starting from the neck to the belt, and sometimes lower, a chest piece (köküslik) was sewn on, onto which small gold coins (altın) were densely strung on top, and then increasingly larger ones.
Then goes around the waist a wide plush sash (yipşi quşaq) embroidered with silver or gold with large silver plaques with relief patterns (köpan). Sometimes the belt was tied with a woolen knitted scarf (bel yavluq) in such a way that a triangle formed behind, which almost reached the feet.
Over the caftan they wore a short fur coat (cübbe), mainly of red or green material, trimmed at the edges with fur and wide braids along all seams. When leaving the house, besides the described costume, they also wore a cloak of pink or green color (fereçe).
In everyday life, an obligatory accessory of women’s attire is also an apron made of calico material (öglük or peştimal).
Women’s Footwear
Considering weather conditions and specialization of purpose, several different styles of Crimean Tatar women’s footwear are distinguished:
mest – morocco leather boots worn in winter indoors
papuç – home slippers without heels with pointed toes, embroidered with gold and silver – in summer
qatırı – something like galoshes, when leaving the house in bad weather
terlik – shoes closed on top by half
ayaqqap – beautiful shoes embroidered with gold for ceremonial events
.
All this footwear was made from morocco leather of black, yellow or red colors.
In rainy weather they wore stilts (nalın or tabaldrıq), very beautifully decorated and protecting the feet from dirt. Indoors they also wore wool-knitted slippers (qalçin), or woolen stockings with beautiful colored patterns (sırlı çorap).
Men’s Clothing
Headdresses
Crimean Tatars usually covered their heads with a low black lambskin cap (qalpaq), on the bottom of which sometimes a crescent was embroidered. In summer, skullcaps (taqiye) or red fes were common.
Basic Clothing
A shirt with an oblique collar (kölmek) was tucked into wide cloth loose trousers (soqma ştan or şalvar) and tightened with a woolen sash (quşaq) long and wide, usually red or green in color.
Over the shirt they wore a short sleeveless vest-type garment (yelik) sewn from velvet, sometimes decorated with gold. Over the vest they wore another jacket with short or long sleeves (qamzol), and then put on a long caftan (çekmen).
Materials and Winter Clothing
Crimean Tatar shirts were made from homemade linen (keten). All other clothing was made, for the most part, from coarse homemade cloth, among steppe Tatars often from camel cloth.
In winter, instead of caftans they wore sheepskin coats (ton) or sheepskin jackets (kürk). Also widely used were such varieties of clothing as a cloak (yapınça), bashlik (başlıq), and moccasins usually made from ox hide (çarıq).
Men’s Footwear
For footwear, men preferred to wear boots (çizma), necessarily with horseshoes on the heels, leather shoes without tops on heels (potük).
Special Clothing
Shepherds (çoban) wore jackets made from sheepskin (kürk, qısqa ton) with a sash to which a knife (pıçaq) and bag (çanta) were attached.
Pilgrims who had been to Mecca (hacı) wear a turban (sarıq) wrapped around a fes or cap.
Underwear
Extraordinarily interesting in cut were the men’s and women’s lower homespun shirts of Crimean Tatars. According to travelers’ opinions, the quality of the fabric from which they were sewn reached perfection. To the greatest regret, on household items of the 19th century, signs of this perfection are already rarely found.
Jewelry
Crimean Tatar women were great admirers of rings (yüzük) and bracelets (bilezlik). Rings were usually worn in such quantity that almost all fingers were strung with them. Most often rings were made of gold, and bracelets of silver.
Among jewelry were also common:
Women usually dyed their hair brown or bright red color with dye obtained from a plant (hına). The same coloring is sometimes applied to fingernails and parts of the palm – this is especially often practiced at weddings.
On a thin strap over the shoulder, Crimean Tatar women carried a small bag in which they kept a prayer from the Quran (duva) made of silver or morocco leather.
Items of jewelry art, having similarities in production technique and external appearance with Turkish samples, were produced in craft centers: Bakhchisaray, Kezlev, Karasubazar. The principle of execution and character of decoration of each detail were so exquisite and rich that silver and gilded filigree elements no longer needed the addition of precious and semi-precious stones.
Embroidery
Crimean Tatar embroidery preserves within itself many traditional elements. The insanely beautiful nature of Crimea had a huge influence on all folk art of Crimean Tatars and, in particular, on embroidery, which reached high artistic forms.
Even in the 20s-30s of our century in Bakhchisaray there were known skilled embroiderers who mastered the technique of this production to perfection. Samples of their products were presented at international and union exhibitions and were marked with the highest awards.
Modern State
Nowadays, elements of Crimean Tatar costume can often be encountered. These are weddings, birthdays, concerts, cultural, political, social, and scientific events. At events, men usually wear qalpaq and women wear fes, jewelry, quşaq, clothing with ornaments and other items.
Although the complete traditional costume is practically not used in everyday life, individual elements of national clothing are actively employed to emphasize cultural identity at important events and celebrations.
