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Prenda de Natal do Afonso

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boo look at this dude (throws tomato)

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feliz aniversário, tugão ♡

(also sorry for my absence! i didnt die! ill try posting more often, but today i just couldnt miss this cursed, wretched old man’s birthday)

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Regional Portuguese Costumes

The denomination of “regional” clothing is based in the notion of diversity according to social and geographic conditions, and other elements such as materials and practices, in way it contributes the comprehension of these specific types of clothing.

They are officiating clothes, linked to specific days or events and intractably connected to the idea of celebration. They bear a symbolism that walks hand-in-hand with religious practices, reflecting the culture of said region in a combination of elements that become easily distinguished between regions.

These costumes present themselves as a mythos, or a profound mythology, with its relation to a praxis connected to Catholicism. But they bear roots from the immense diversity of Portuguese history, from Muslim art forms that survived, and strived, through centuries, to ancient beliefs or superstitions, rooted in ancient pre-roman cultures, still alive today in many villages. They can be divided (1) in two great zones based on its polychromatic characteristics: as we get closer to the sea, women «enhance its polychromatic characteristics and complicate their clothing», as opposed to serranas, women from the ridges of the interior, that bear a more monochromatic way of dressing. This is evidenced through the wearing of the scarf, connected to the role of women in society: in serrana societies, of the interior, or the hillside of the country, women cover their forehead, whereas the coastline and south regions, where the sea is in direct relation toin the way of living, the forehead is released, evidencing more liberties of the role of women in its society. 

Traditional costumes from Serra da Estrela, a type of serrana.

Costumes for romaria, male and female, from Póvoa de Vazim, a fishing town.

Five great elements can be pointed in Portuguese costuming overall (2):

1. The representation of affection, often a symbol crafted in some decorative element of the costume or adornment to be worn with the costume itself3. This affection doesn’t limit to representations of love, but also of grief in a much demarcated tradition of mourning, rooted in catholic liturgy (4). 

A lovers’ handkerchief, or lenço dos namorados.

2) The proliferation of the usage of gold. Two elements play a part here, the first considering the financial security gold represented for lower-class people, since it could be pawned in a more desperate situation. It also secured the gold-bearer, usually the women being the most ostentatious ones, as the matron of the household, in a competitive spirit between neighbors. The usage of gold is so popular and traditional it maintains today, despite social class. The second element is of an intricate catholic inheritance, which we can trace back to the baroque era: the need to “distort” the body, which is to eliminate the sensual curves of the female body. As in the Iberian fashion of the 17th century women (5) found heavy gold and jewel decoration to cover parts of the body usually defined as sensual, such as the chest, this tradition passed on to popular costuming. A fine example of this gold usage is the minhota costume, where a certain “iconography” reads in a certain symbolism that traces back to the rocaille, particularly to queen D. Maria I, whose promise of raising a basilica if she bore a baron to the kingdom, resulted in Basílica da Estrela, a church to Sagrado Coração de Jesus, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a symbol today popularized in minhota golden earrings with an asymmetrical heart. Many of these golden adornments can be traced back to interpretations or direct importations of jewelry wore by queens for different periods.

Example of heart-shaped arrecadas. Arrecadas are known of a few dominant shapes, mainly in gold (silver became popular only later, in a touristic fashion), of which the most beautiful in craft and better known are the Brincos à Rainha, the queen-style earrings.

3) Preference for linen and wool. Both materials are a strong symbol of a working class people, who both seek the best materials to guard them from the cold and find more accessible. Although silk was popular to a degree, it prevailed in nobility and aristocracy.

Two examples of a minhota costume: on the left, a bride and groom; on the right, a lavadeira (washerwoman). Notice the heavy gold wore by the bride on her chest.

4) The afore mentioned chromatic division between coastline and interior. While the colorful costuming of coastline societies reflected the festive spirit, the darker colors of the men and women living in the ridges translated the hardship of the work and lifestyle, as well the colder and aggravated climate.

A nazarene widdow costume, with the embuçada, the mourning veil.

5) Religiousness in costume ornamentation. Conceived mostly in accordance to the liturgical calendar, in a society where there is a saint for every day of the week and where birth, baptism, marriage and death were the most important moments of someone’s life, competition was vivid in festive costumes. During romaria (6), one dressed themselves to be seen.

The study of these costuming have only recently been more focused on from a scientific and anthropologic perspective. Through the eye romanticism, from Almeida Garret’s Viagens na Minha Terra (7) to the first naturalist and realist painter’s perspective, these costumes appear as a nationalistic embodiment of a people that withdraws its original intentions and usages from their context and gives them new ones. With the New Estate and the dictatorship, they were held as the prime example of the true Portuguese soul. But despite their interpretations, with new eyes on their study, they are cherished in their uniqueness and beauty, within the context of their creation, which translates the diversity of a festive spirit that is very different from region to region.

(1) According to Luís Chaves. (2) As proposed by Madalena Brás Teixeira. (3) As an example, in Minho exists a great tradition of adding hearts to one’s costume, particularly of bride and groom, of which the better known are the heart-shaped arrecadas, or heavy golden earrings made of filigrana, as well as the lenços de namorados, or “lovers’ handkerchiefs”, a white handkerchief with love declarations written in colorful embroidery (notable for being written with spelling mistakes, since they were made by illiterate people).  Some of these elements even represent a sexualized tone, such algibeira de minhota, the “minhota pocket”. (4) As the costumes typical from Nazaré are an example of. These mourning practices, taken with extreme seriousness, were common in fishing communities, where often the man of the household would travel for months for fishing and their house depended on such. As a demonstration of perpetual grief, the embuçadas appear in this region, a covering of the face up until the eyes, of evident Islamic influence. (5) An example of such is the portrait of Queen Catherine of Braganza’s mother, queen Luíza de Gusmán. It was predominant in both Spain and Portugal. (6) Romaria is a devotional procession to a church or parish. Time, however, gave the word a connotation of “religious festivity”. (7) Published in 1846, the book travels along the deep Portuguese regions such as Santarém, exploring with a romanticized eye the peoples and their costumes in a realist tone, as, similarly, Eça de Queiroz will later do.

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port in an outfit i found on pinterest!!

if anyone knows who the model is let me know and i'll give credit!!

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have any of you ever noticed the portuguese flag looks like a strawberry? you know, green, red, less green, smaller yellow part... because thats what went behind this

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port dancing with a traditional portuguese xaile/lenço because i had a vision ! and i had to do it !

also i like traditional stuff :3c

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OOH that’s a very cool theory!! and i definitely agree that he must have scars. in sketches and drawings for myself, i usually give him two on the face, a vertical one across the right eye (like the one he had in earlier designs) and another horizontal scar across his nose/cheek area that overlaps the eye one.

it was mainly a stylistic choice that i thought gave him personality and looked cool at first, but then i justified one as being a consequence of the great lisbon earthquake of 1755 that destroyed the entire capital and caused havoc in all of portugal (+ was followed right after by both a fire and a tsunami); the other one i associate with the iberian union and the portuguese restoration war, since it dragged on for 28 (painful) years and portuguese independence was on the line all along. i usually give him a lot of scars across his body as well, for various reasons. after all, a country as old as him must have his own stories to tell and im willing to bet most of them aren’t pretty :p

Is just me or most of the fanartists like to put scars on Portugal?

You have my vote, people. I do it too.

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Dude has a death wish

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i love consuming media and making little things about it

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not selfish at all, thank you!!!! happy belated birthday!! i hope you had an amazing day n feel free to take my port as a gift haha

shhhh hes reflecting

silly little doodle i made after going thru it :p

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i quite literally cannot survive without putting scars on that man. i think it has to do with how one of his early designs had an eye scar and i never let it go because it SHOULD have stayed

Is just me or most of the fanartists like to put scars on Portugal?

You have my vote, people. I do it too.

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stop making shows about americans in europe… try europeans in america instead. the outrage of not knowing exactly what something costs at a store,, no public transport,, everyone smiling in your face and waiters scaring you by constantly popping up at your table… ice in your water for some reason,, the kind of culture clash i want to see!!

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shhhh hes reflecting

silly little doodle i made after going thru it :p

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I’m so sad

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gay people see the word vampire and just hit reblog

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today i bring you all roman-ish looking half-naked port (totally not based off of the recent chapters w him and spain). tomorrow? who knows