Polish traditional clothing falls into two groups: peasant folk costumes, which vary by region, and a national costume based on the dress of the nobility.
The noble kontusz
The national costume grew from eighteenth-century Polish-Lithuanian noble dress. Its key garment, the kontusz, is a long robe with decorative buttons and loose sleeves, tied with a long sash. It reached Poland in the sixteenth century from Turkey via Hungary. After the Partitions it became a symbol of Polish identity. Earlier, in the eighteenth century, a dispute known as the War of the Kontusz and Frock divided the nobility between Western fashion and old Polish dress, and in 1776 deputies to the Sejm were required to wear their kontusz in colours denoting their voivodeship.
Regional folk costume
Folk costumes differ by ethnographic group, among them Cracovians, Highlanders (Gorals), Łowiczans and Kashubians. They are not usually worn day to day but appear at festivals, weddings, religious holidays and harvest festivals. Gorals are noted for wearing theirs more often than many other groups.
Sources: Wikipedia: National costumes of Poland, Wikipedia: Kontusz.
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