Zemgale Man's Costume

The men’s clothing from Zemgale is characterized by a linen shirt made of separate, rectangular fabric segments stitched together at the shoulders or a tunic-type shirt where the front and back are made of one contiguous piece of fabric folded over at the shoulders. Shoulder straps are stitched over the seams and fold lines, and there is a one to two centimetre wide banded collar. The shirt is made of fine linen fabric without any embellishment.

Married Women’s Clothing from Zemgale

Women’s Clothing from Zemgale

Zemgale is located in Southern Latvia.  It was once populated by the ancient Zemgalians who settled around the Lielupe River and its tributaries. In the nineteenth century, Zemgale consisted of the districts of Bauska and Jelgava, part of Eastern Tukums and the Rīga parishes on the left bank of the Daugava, which are now part of Vidzeme, even though economically and culturally they had closer ties with Zemgale. Because there are relatively few surviving articles of clothing from here, this area is not subdivided further. Even so, differences can be observed between the eastern and western areas. Traditional clothing here was shaped by the area’s affluence, well-developed agricultural, manufacturing, and trade sectors.