...The Crnojević dynasty represented a strong political factor in Zeta for over a century, while they ruled the country for about fifty years, so it is quite logical to conclude that they also had their own costume as one of the symbols of independence and self-identity. Another indicator is also the fact that in the very small area of Old Montenegro and the seaside today we have a great number of luxurious costumes (Montenegrin, Dobrota, Paštrovići, Risan costumes, etc.), which, most likely, represent certain variants of the costumes worn by the Zeta aristocrats from the time of the Balšić dynasty and later. However, it is still not possible to say that the Crnojević costume is identical by both the design and the number of garments with what we know from Njegoš’s time and afterwards. 

 

 

Since a national costume is of composite nature, consisting of design, material it is made of, ornamentation, etc., we can compare elements of design with some cultural fragments from an even remoter past. Writing about caps, Mitar Vlahović discovered the round, shallow cap (the Montenegrin cap belongs to this type) on a female statue dating back to the middle-bronze age (1500-1000 B.C), known as the Idol of Kličevo.  Johann Kohl (1808-1878), a travel writer who visited Montenegro in Njegoš’s time, noted »much more pre-Christian elements than we can prove« in the design of the Montenegrin costume.

 

 

In his book »A Journey to Istria, Dalmatia and Montenegro«, published in Dresden in 1851, he compares the festive dolama jacket with the relief figures on sarcophaguses from Ephesus, which are kept in the Ambrosian Collection in Vienna, and which can be taken as one of the oldest artistic sources for the study of national costumes in general....

 

 

Author: Ms. Zorica Mrvačljević

Photos: Lazar Pejović

Translation: Full professor Dr. Janko Andrijašević