Konavle women's headwear

In the entire Mediterranean area, including the Balkans and beyond, there were always ways in which women styled their hair and covered it. In traditional societies, a woman's headwear carried a lot of personal information. It marked her origins as well as her social status and personal wealth. In urban areas the headdress was influenced by the fashions of the time, and in rural areas it also indicated a woman’s geographical area — where she lived.

The types and styles of women's headwear in Konavle are numerous and varied but changed slowly over time. At any given time in the past, all women in Konavle styled their hair and dressed in the same way. Freedom in decorating the head (hair included) did not exist in Konavle until after WWII.

But regardless of the style changes, headdresses always marked the different stages of life in which Konavle women found themselves. Young girls, older girls, engaged girls, married women, unmarried women, and widows all had different headwear.

The hairstyles of Konavle women were the same. Two long braids were plaited on each side of the head, joined at the bottom, and placed atop the head in a twisted circle. Almost all headwear was placed on top of that circle.

Tied cap

The oldest female headwear that we know of in Konavle was the hondelj and the tied cap (podvezana kapa). Hondelj is an archaic headwear that consists of a solid structure made of flax twigs, and a white square linen scarf with a dark brown edge wrapped around the structure. The end of the scarf is tied around the raised part of the structure into which decorative pins are inserted. This stands above the woman's forehead in the shape of a forward-facing horn. On the back of the headwear hangs a large tassel made of linen and silk threads in white or colorful colors. The color of this tassel distinguished married from single women. Pokrivača, a cover woven of silk with rows of various colorful and golden embroidered and lace parts, was worn over the hondelj. A completely white pokrivača was worn during mourning.

Before a girl was old enough to wear the hondelj, she put a tall cap on her head with a scarf tied over it. The scarf was the same as on the hondelj, only in this case it was wrapped around the cap. This headwear was worn by girls before marriage. This old headwear (hondeljs and tied caps), disappeared at the beginning of the second half of the 19th century. They can be seen only in museums now, and there are no more than ten preserved pieces in the whole of Croatia.

Hondelj

They were replaced by the headwear we know today in the Konavle women's folk costumes as seen at festivals and public folk dances — and also in old photos. Instead of a hondelj, a white ubručić was worn by married women. Ubručić is a linen or cotton woven scarf that is well starched to take on the texture of hard paper. Until the end of the 19th century and the first years of the 20th century, it was pleated with varying numbers of folds. It was placed on another scarf that wrapped around the head, and the ends were tied with a knot at the back. During the 20th century, large ubručić scarves were starched and divided into four parts that formed a recognizable shape on the head.

The scarf that was worn underneath in the 20th century became a pošica, and was also starched. Women wore it independently in the home. When they went to church or to the city, they wore a large ubručić scarf that had an embroidered cross on the back. The usual color of that cross was white (on white). But during times of mourning, the color would be blue for members of the house, and black for the widow. Also, for 40 days after the death of her husband, a widow would cover her head with a black scarf (ubručić)that was worn loosely over her face.

Before their weddings, engaged girls would wear zlatače (red caps decorated with gold thread). These caps were produced by masters of tailoring (terzija), and they came as part of the fiance’s engagement gift on the occasion of Malo obilježje (“Small sign”) (see Konavle Earings - Veželice blog). The betrothed girl wore the zlatača throughout the engagement. After she was married, it was left in her house and other girls could wear it.

Women's caps

On the wedding day, a wreath of flowers was placed around this cap. In Konavle, the wreaths were made or borrowed or purchased. The cap with wreath was completely covered with flowers, and long multicolored ribbons hung from the back.

Young girls wore ordinary red caps with a light blue ribbon wrapped around the bottom. During mourning, the ribbon would be dark blue. The cap for young girls was made of red cloth by felting an already knitted woolen cap. They were made from one piece, unlike zlatača caps which were made by sewing already decorated pieces of fine red cloth together. Around the edges of a young girl's cap was a light blue or dark blue ribbon, and around the edge of the zlatača cap there was tailored gold embroidery.

Women who did not marry by the age of around 30 wore kartača caps. These were the same as zlatača caps except that instead of gold, there was black embroidery on the bottom. In the 20th century, spinsters began to wear zlatača caps on which they would place white scarves.

Looking at old photos, we can often be confused by the appearance of white scarves on the heads of unmarried girls. At the beginning of the 20th century, a trend began of putting scarves over zlatača caps during the summer. For this reason, we cannot always be sure when looking at older photos whether a woman is married or not. For a more precise determination, we must rely on other details, such as jewelry, type of dress, and the like.