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| Kids and an adult dressed in Fustanella in Berat, 1987 |
There are many objects that show that the dress is of Illyrian origin. Objects located in Durrës, Vlora, Korçë, Shkodër, Koplik, and beyond show the use of Fustanella in Illyrian times.
"In many different reliefs, we have discovered some objects or compositions that are related to activities, where the presented figures carry figures that resemble today's Fustanella. We can say that Fustanella has been used since Illyrian times as a traditional dress", says Luan Përzhita, for the show of the journalist Marin Mema Gjurmë Shqiptare. Përzhita is the director of the Institute of Archeology of Albania.
"In Albania, this type of clothing began to have a different structure and made it be specified and turned into an ethnic symbol", says the ethnographer Aferdita Onuzi.
"Even the chroniclers began to call it the Albanian Clothing, and the Turks mentioned it as the kind of dress referring to Albanians."
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| Albanian family in the Middle Ages, the Sword Dance |
According to a 1935 document, a Fustanella was confiscated from a Sailor on his ship. In the medieval period, Fustanella appeared much more in different provinces. According to Përzhita, Fustanella was found as clothing even in the north, in Kukës.
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| Painting of an Albanian guard in Fustanella holding a falcon |
"From what I have seen in museums all over the Balkans, I can say that with the shape and details that are presented in Albania, you can not find this kind of dress anywhere else," says Onuzi.
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| Albanian family in the Middle Ages, a kid being taught how to handle the sword |
In the eighteenth century, this dress amazed all scholars who passed through Albania and did not hesitate to mention it in their literary works.
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| Lord Byron dressed in Fustanella |
The Historian Dorian Koçi says that the first to be amazed by this dress was Lord Byron, who took a dress and used it at a masked ball in London.
Francois Poqueville, the French consul also wrote about this dress.
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| Painting of an Albanian guard in the Ottoman Empire dressed in Fustanella |
"We can say that if other nations in Southeast Europe talk about contributions and expansions in the field of trade, art and knowledge, we can say that the cultural expansion of Albanians was martial arts and Fustanella which goes to the deepest environments of Africa. It becomes an indisputable part of the courtyards of the two principalities, the Vlachs and the Moldavians, it becomes part of the aristocratic dress worn by the Ottoman and Greek populations. King Otto's court in Greece has many paintings where Fustanella dominate.K ing Otto's personal bodyguards wore Fustanella," says historian Koçi.