Tailoring Identity: Folk Costume in Contemporary Society

Abstract

In this paper, I offer an anthropological analysis of folk dress (narodna nošnja) in Serbia, approaching it not as a static relict of the past, but as a dynamic cultural artifact whose meanings, functions, and values are continually negotiated and transformed within contemporary society. I begin from the hypothesis that the dominant ethnological paradigm – particularly prevalent in older scholarship – is shaped by what I refer to as methodological anachronism: a framework that interprets folk dress primarily through the lens of its “original“, every day or ritual use, while overlooking its contemporary forms of presence and symbolic significance.

            By critically engaging with foundational ethnographic and ethnological literature, I show how descriptive, typological, and anthropogeographical approaches – rooted in a romantic-nationalist and folklorist tradition – have shaped a narrow understanding of folk dress as a closed cultural system that ceased to exist with the disappearance of traditional rural life. In contrast, this paper draws on contemporary theoretical perspectives from the anthropology of heritage, particularly concepts such as the “second life“ of things, the cultural biographies of objects, and resemanticization processes. These frameworks allow for a rethinking of folk dress as an active component of contemporary cultural production, shaped by aesthetic, institutional, and economic logics.

            Methodologically, this work combines critical analysis of secondary sources with autoethnographic insights derived from my long-term engagement in the world of amateur folk dance ensembles. Special attention is given to the role of cultural-artistic societies (KUD) as key agents in the preservation, reinterpretation, and repurposing of folk dress. Additionally, I explore how diaspora communities engage in the transnational production and use of folk dress, including the establishment of local embroidery workshops, the use of digitized heritage archives, and the growing commodification of authenticity in new market context.

            Ultimately, I argue that folk dress functions today as a multilayered symbol – active in processes of cultural memory, identity articulation, and economic exchange. Rather than asking what constitutes “authentic“ folk dress, I focus instead on the conditions, actors, and contexts in which dress becomes marked as authentic. In this light, the “second life“ of folk dress does not signal the end of its historical relevance but rather reveals a transformed continuity that invites new interpretations, uses, and valuations within contemporary cultural dynamics.