NATIONAL IRISH COSTUME When most people think

NATIONAL IRISH COSTUME

When most people think of traditional Irish costume, they think of the clothes worn for Irish dance. The popularity of Irish Dancing is Increasing (растёт) Irish dancing teachers all over the world teach second, third and fourth generation Irish girls and boys. The history of this costume is very long.

The history of Irish Costume The Irish Dancing Costume has changed over the years, dancers in the 18 th and 19 th century simply wore their 'Sunday best'. The dancers would simply wear the outfit that they normally wore to church. In the 1970's and 1980's how ever, solo dancers began to wear heavy costumes decorated with a variety of beautiful Celtic designs.

Girl’s dancing costume The girls doing Irish step dancing wear dresses, never kilts for performances. The dresses are heavy "A"-line dresses, often in bright colors. Many are heavily embroidered (расшиты) in Celtic symbols. Some schools do allow the girls to wear kilts even for practice. Seqins (блёстки)are a popular addition to the costume and dancers also wear a cape (плащ) tied at their shoulder with a brooch (брошь).

Boy’s dancing costume The boys aren't dressed like the girls. There are two types of costume traditionally worn by boys who compete in Irish dancing competitions. Kilts or long black trousers. Kilts are the traditional Celtic male garment but nowadays the dancers prefer to wear long black trousers when competing.

Both men and women wore tunics and cloaks made of wool until the invading (захват) English banned traditional Irish clothing. Cloaks were an important feature in traditional Irish costume. The cloaks were long, cut in a large circle and often black as this was the main color of the sheep. It was fastened with a broach.

The dresses worn for dancing are usually handmade and hand-embroidered. So they can be very expensive. When representing Irish traditions, everyone pays to look one's best.

Male and female dancers today wear hard shoes, and for reels and jigs, soft shoes similar to ballet pumps (пуанты) are worn. It is an example of two pairs of shoes worn by dancer Pat Bond in the 1950’s. Here is a pair of heavy shoes and soft shoes worn in the present day.

Traditional Irish Costume Colours The early Irish liked bright colors in their clothes. The more important for society, how many colours you were allowed to wear. A slave could only wear one color, while a freeman could wear four and kings wore seven. Most costumes used for Irish dancing reflect this historical fact.

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