My Sardinia

Traditional costumes are at the heart of the culture of the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. Although it is unrealistic to think that locals still go around in costume, it would be accurate to say that they find it easy to look for excuses to go and put them on during special days. These days would include dances and musical events, and at processions celebrating feast days. These festivals are mostly held in the summer, most of them inevitably linked to agricultural beliefs. The most important of the festivals is said to be the Sagra di Sant’Efisio, in honor of Saint Efisio, the patron saint of Sardinia.

Every village in Sardinia has its own distinctive costume, and at their heart they convey the identity and provenance of the wearer. It is not uncommon to find a village with its own costume, and with several versions of it, too. Painstaking detail in embroidery and jeweled accessories make Sardinian costumes a colorful, visual feast. Consider that there are over 400 different types of costumes in Sardinia, and it will indeed become a quest in itself to see all these.

Sardinian costumes can be classified into medieval- and pagan-inspired dresses. The former may see the men wearing black-belted tunics, white pantaloons, and black knee-high boots, and the women in head covering, wraps, aprons, lace accents on the dresses, and gold or silver jewelry. The latter will sport goat-hair jackets, grotesque masks, and even horns; this costume is more common in the mountainous provinces of the island.

Although not anymore the everyday wear among young Sardinians, elderly folk in the remote provinces of the island can still be seen donning their village’s traditional costumes in towns such as Busachi, Desulo, Tonara, and Orsogolo. Visitors, however, do not have to scour the island in search of locals wearing their native costumes. A visit to the Nuoro ethnographic museum in Sant’Onofrio hill can give tourists a comprehensive viewing of the island’s various costumes.