Costumes

The Greek traditional dress, made to impress rather than to show off the body, has deep roots in history, mainly in the Byzantine tradition. It is generally divided into three categories: the type of clothes worn on the mountains, those worn on the plains and the clothes prevalent on the islands.

The traditional dress for men in Greece is of dark colour and simple detail so that the costume’s basic shape remains clear. This is quite the opposite to what happens in the case of women’s costumes, where bold colours and absurd details blur the outline (ref. Greek Costumes by I.Papantoniou, 1974).

The Lyra group has a wide variety of costumes that compliment the performance of dances from different regions. These costumes are either old original pieces or made by the members the traditional way copying originals from Greek Museum Collections. The group owns 190 costumes in all.

Women’s Costumes	Men’s Costumes
Sarakatsana – two types: Epirus and Attica	Foustanella – Central Greece and Peloponnese
Krios – Thrace	Foustanella for the Boulles folk ritual – Naoussa / Makedonia
Metaxades – Western Thrace	Vovoussa – Epirus
Karoti – Thrace	Episkopi – Makedonia
Drymos – Makedonia	Everyday Poutouria [Black] – Makedonia
Meghara – Attica	Poutouria [Brown] – Thrace
Kato Panaghia – Asia Minor and Euboia	Sarakatsani – Thrace
Cappadocian – Asia Minor	Vraka – 3 types: Cyclades, Dodecanese, Cyprus
Metaxades – Thrace	Pontic – Black Sea
Karoti – Thrace	Cappadocian – Asia Minor
Drymos – Makedonia	Epirus – Epirus
Meghara – Attica	Corfu – Ionian Island
Kato Panaghia – Asia Minor and Euboia
Cappadocian – Asia Minor
Cyprus
Cretan
Corfu – Ionian Island
Thassos – Aegean Island
One gold embroidered Trikeri – Thessaly
One rare Pirpiri (200 years old) – Ioannina / Epirus
Ghidas – Makedonia