Zvonolika suknja džubleta u ženskoj nošnji Malisora
The Bell Shaped Skirt Called Džubleta in Woman’s Costume from Malisora

Summary/Abstract: In today’s life changes archaic rapidly disappears. One of such elements is a skirt in the woman’s costume of Malisora on both sides of the Montnegro-Albanian frontier. At the beginning of the century, some European ethnologists (Nopcsa, Haberlandt) noticed the bell skirt and some thirty years ago so did the Albanian scientists (Zojzi, Gjergji, Jubani)8-10. But up to now this object has been examined only according to its outward appearance. We’ll try to comment on this interesting phenomenon according to its material and structure. Unlike all the other ways of dressing with a vertical construction this bell shaped skirt, of the Malisora’s woman has a peculiar horizontal structure covering the body below the waist and leaving the upper part of the body uncovered. If the back part is added to the skirt, the brests are, however, left uncovered, naked. Only then, when the nakedness of woman’s brests became offensive, the Malisora’s skirt is worn with the shirt having Roman name kaniš < camisisa or some kind of starched front with the Slavic word griikca < gr’oce. The name džubleta/xhupeletë is recent, and the older one must have been oblaja, i. e. round in opposition to the flat shirt. Under the Slavic name oblaja M. Vlahović found out in Vasojevići a traditional woolen shirt to which the upper part was continued onto the lower part in the shape of some stripes of diubleta. For bell shaped diubleta the name igunjshgun is sometimes used but it denotes both woolen felted cloth and the clothes of this material. For making diubletas home made wool is used made in two ways: one is felted woolen cloth called tirkjtirq, and the other is woolen braid interwoven out of eight woolen threads, called spik. To make the diubleta, there is no special cut. A woman sews diubleta sitting and holding her work in lap. She tears a narrow stripe from the width of tirk which she shaped in the segments of the curve. At the same time, on that stripe of cloth — tirk, she sews on another stripe made out of some braids of spik and she shapes everything with the fingers of her both hands. On the front side of diubleta the texture of spik is dominating while the opened length of tirk remains at the back of the skirt. This kind of sewing is a different from any conventional joining of cloth by running seams. Shaping her work with fingers, the woman is getting the bell shape of diubleta in which dominates horizontal structure. In such a way are reached characteristic phenomena which are permanent in all the variants of this kind od the skirt. At first, this is its bell shape horizontally built, fit tightly at the waist and considerably widened in the lower part so that the hem is twisted inwards in elastic bulges. Negative twisting constantly appears in the front in the middle and at the back as a negative fold which helps when walking or sitting. According to the social function a white diubleta ts worn by a young girl, the red one by a young bride and a black one wears a married woman. The red wedding-dress of the bride is always composed of horizontal stripes of tirk and spik which make a regular circle and are joined in a massive seam at the front middle, so that the red diubleta has the form of a cone. The other diubletas have only at the back curved segments of the cirgular curves which reach both hips. Then, there are sewn onto the front part of diubleta which consists of flat parts of tirk and is always covered with a big apron. Only the lower hem has circle shape and characteristic motion. But in both shapes diubleta leaves brests uncovered and thus is represents original clothes of naked brests. Another article of a woman’s clothing is a tight waist-coat which also leaves the brests uncovered. A large leather belt is studded with tin beads and has an emblem of a two-headed eagle. The historical comparison to the Malisora’s diubleta is known in a woman’s costume from Crete and Mycenae of Minoan epoch15. There is an unquestionable relationship between two groups : horizontal structure and consequent bell shape, front negative fold, bulges on the lower hem and naked brests with a small waist-coat or without it. However, the difference exists because the Minoan costume is a kind of clothes of highly urbanised society with all the wealth in colour and variants with rich frills and bulges in lavish skirts. On the other hand, the Malisora’s diubleta remained as a simplified survival very close to the original construction of the horizontal clothes. Other archaeological comparisons date from considerably earlier epochs for example: Ceramic figure from Mesopotamia, then a small idol from Jerihona, the statues from Malta, a seated idol from Trakia, all of them from the Neolithic. The closest comparison for us is the one with the well known idol from Kličevac. Here, the bell shaped skirt of the conus from with ornaments in sharp triangles (so called motive of the tooth of the wolf which appears on the recent džubletas) and the other elements in possession of the Balkan highlanders : a round flat cap without brim, a large belt with metal pendulums, a small apron which is similar to the so called lizdekaća from Herzegovina, and particularly plaited hair with added ornaments in many variants called sokaj in the Balkan woman’s gear. In conclusion, we may say that the Malisora’s bell shaped skirt, džubleta is of an old standing and it belongs to the Paleobalkan eqipment with all the other Balkan elements from remote periods of time.

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