National clothes: Del, Gutuls and Loovuuz

National clothes: Del, Gutuls and Loovuuz

The Del is the Mongols’ traditional garment worn on both workdays and red-letter days. It is a long, loose gown cut in one piece with the sleeves. It has a high collar and widely overlaps at the front. The Del is girdled with a sash. Each ethnic group living in Mongolia has its own del distinguished by its cut, color and trimming. The distinctions go unnoticed by foreigners, yet for the Mongols they are obvious. Before the revolution, all social strata in Mongolia had their own manner of dressing. Livestock-breeders, for instance, wore plan dels which served them both summer and winter. The priests wore yellow dels with a cape, orjimj, thrown over it. Secular feudal lords put on smart hats and silk waistcoats. Today Mongolian townspeople tend to wear European -style clothes. In the countryside, however, the modern garb proves so inconvenient and unpractical that one can hardly imagine an arat wearing anything other than the del even in the distant future. In the cities, people as they grow older, especially women, begin to appreciate the advantages of the del and wear it, trying to excel each other in the choice of the fabric, as well as in the elegance of the cut and originally of the trimming. The revived interest in national traditions now prompts even younger people to wear dels. Commonly there are three varieties of del, each for a particular season. The first, so-called dan del, is very much like a dress, a frock cut in one piece from plain cloth without padding. Rural women wear dan dels all year around. In cold weather they put on warm clothes over them. Terleg is a slightly padded del. And finally, the winter del is padded with sheepskin or cotton wool. Dels for men and women are of the same cut. The difference is that male dels are wider and of more demure colors. The pattern is simple enough. The sleeves are cut together with the gown and there are only a few minor details. Moreover, the tailor dogs not have to worry about the precise length and width. In cutting the del a tailor uses Mongolian measures of length, such as the “too” – the distance between the stuck out thumb and the middle finger, the “soom” –the distance between the thumb and the forefinger and the “khuruu” –the length of the forefinger, etc. The del for everyday wear is grey, brown or some other dark color, while the holiday del is a bright blue, green or claret silk with a silk sash of a contrasting color several meters long. The sash is not simply an adornment. It also serves as a soft corset facilitating long rides on horseback. In olden days men attached a sheathed knife, a tobacco pouch, a flint and a pipe cleaning hook to the belt. Characteristically, the Mongol always hid his pipe in his boot. The del collar, breasts and sleeves are trimmed with emjeer, colored brocade tape which can be wide or narrow depending on the wearer’s taste. The del buttons are narrow strips of cloth tied into intricate knots. In olden days married women wore Intricately –cut dels which had stitched –in sleeves with camel wool padding on the shoulders and wide horseshoe-shaped cuffs. Women of high birth preferred dels of silver-woven brocade with a rich trimming of colored silk. Such a del required a special-style hat trimmed with sable fur, an intricate hairdo and silver ornaments. You can now probably only see such dels in a museum and at concerts given by the Folk Song and Dance Company. Men have always been content with a more modest costume. After all, the arats’ clothes are supposed to serve purely utilitarian purposes. They should keep them warm, allow unhampered movements when working or riding on horseback and at times serve as a blanket at night. In the past, the Mongols also wore a waistcoat, khantaaz, on festive occasions and a jacket , khevneg or khurem, in cold weather, which they put on over the del. The Khantaaz is made from brown or black broadcloth and trimmed with a wide patterned tape contrasting the color of the waistcoat. The design ulziy that ran along the edge symbolized happiness.

The gutuls, high boots, were made from thick unbending leather, buligar, and the tops were decorated with leather applique. The boots were worn with thick socks, oims, made from quilted cloth. The gutuls had no heels while their pointed tips were upturned. There are several explanations for this. One of them is the religious motif. The lamaist church forbade disturbing “the earth’s blessed sleep”, i.e. opening the soil layer, and this form of boot was invented to prevent inadvertently kicking the earth. According to another version, the upturned tip prevents the stirrup slipping off the foot.

The loovuuz, is a hat for all seasons trimmed with fur, fox fur most of the time. If you tie the loovuuz strings under your chin, only your face remains exposed. In warm wether the strings are tied on the top, so that the hat only covers the back of the head. Livestock-breeders continue to wear the loovuuz today and they are worn by both men and women. Before the revolution men wore headgear to show their social status. Girls wore a toortsog, a round , hat with six gussets and a ball-like knot on top from which long threads the same color as the hat, mostly red, hung down. Rich women attached pearl strings to the toortsog. Married women wore high-crowned black velvet hats with silver decorations. Certainly, the hat fashions did not only serve utilitarian purposes but also expressed the Mongols’ aesthetic tastes. Moreover, each type of headgear had symbolic purport. Thus, khilen malgai symbolism is interpreted roughly like this: the pointed top of the hat symbolizes Mount Sumber, the legendary land of the Mongols’ forefathers. The knot on top symbolizes the unity of the nation; the two red ribbons are the sun’s rays and the broad brim symbolizes the country’s inaccessibility.

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National clothes: Del, Gutuls and Loovuuz