The fustanella originates from ancient Greekclothing like the chiton (or tunic) and the chitonium (or short military tunic).[2] An ancient Greek statue in Attica shows a stonecutter named Archedemus wearing a folded skirt like the fustanella.[3] The ancient Romantoga may have also impacted the development of the fustanella.[4]
In the Byzantine Empire, the fustanella was worn and called the podea (Greek: ποδέα).[5][6] It was commonly used in Greek lands as early as the 12th century AD.[1] In Byzantine art and music, the wearer of the podea was either a hero or a Greek warrior defending the empire's borders.[6][7] The fustanella was part of a military outfit consisting of bows, swords, battle-axes and armor (corselet or chain mail).[1][4] In the Ottoman Empire, the fustanella was worn by Greek guerillas like the klephts and the armatoloi.[8] In Albania, the fustanella is first mentioned in 1335 in a list of items taken from a sailor at the port of the Drin River.[9]
The Albanian fustanella is based on the Greek fustanella.[10] But the difference is in the number of pleats. The "Bridegroom's coat" is a Greek fustanella with two-hundred pleats that a bride would buy as a wedding gift for her groom.[11] The Albanian fustanella has around sixty pleats or usually a moderate amount of folds.[12]
Statue of a young man wearing a chiton; Roman copy of a Greek original (4th century BC).
Gravestone depiction of an Aromanian wearing a fustanella (15th century AD).
Lord Byron in Albanian Dress painted by Thomas Phillips (1813).
Souliote Warrior painted by Louis Dupré (1820).
A Souliot in Corfu Nikolos Pervolis painted by Louis Dupré (1827).
Greek general of the Royal Phalanx in full dress uniform (1835).
At the Carnival in Venice painted by Mikhail Scotti (1839).
A group of upper-class Albanians in typical dress (circa 1850–1900).
Albanian leader Hamza Kazazi (circa 1858).
Greek Warrior painted by Carl Haag (1861).
Russian picture of a Greek and an Albanian (1862).
Arnaut Smoking in Cairo, Egypt painted by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1865).
Ilyo Voyvoda, a Bulgarian Macedonian revolutionary (1867).
Albanian costumes with the fustanella from Yanina (1873).[13]
Ethniko Historiko Mouseio (Greece), Maria Lada-Minōtou, I. K. Mazarakēs Ainian, Diana Gangadē, and Historikē kai Ethnologikē Hetaireia tēs Hellados (1993). Greek Costumes: Collection of the National Historical Museum. Athens: Historical and Ethnological Society of Greece.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)