When I’m scrolling through social media, I always slow down and look at the posts about street fashion. I find it super interesting, to see the various levels of fashion and style expressed in different countries. Here is a small sampling of what people are wearing in Plovdiv Bulgaria.
Shops
When I arrived in Plovdiv, I was expecting the people’s fashion to be somewhat similar to what I saw in Split Croatia. There, I witnessed a lot of dark colours, very conservative style and not a lot of pattern or flair. I was so surprised to see that many people here in Plovdiv were dressed in colours! And not only colour, but bright lively patterned colours.
As I walked down the main pedestrian strip through the centre of town, the store windows were full of colour. It was such a lovely change from Split. While most of the styles of clothing for both men and women are on the conservative side, the unabashed use of colour was in full bloom.
On the Streets
There aren’t nearly as many tourists here in Plvodiv as there were in Split. So, when I see so many more people dressed brightly, I have to assume that it is indeed the locals who are happy to express themselves in colour. This is not to say that I am not seeing black and white, these are staples. Its just that colour seems much more prevalent here.
There are lovely lace skirts, bold patterned dresses, bright shoes and hand bags. The people are not shy about wearing colour.
The interesting thing, is the people here have been remarkably less overtly friendly than in Croatia. Two opposing things quite possibly not connected at all, but none the less interesting to me. Croatia, plain dark clothing, conservative style, friendly. Bulgaria, bright vivid coloured clothing, conservative style, not so friendly.
And The Men?
Sorry to the men, I tried hard to get photographs, but most males were dressed in simple T-shirts and shorts or pants. Really no interesting styles to be photographed live. The storefront clothing looks nice though, I’m just not seeing it translate onto the streets in any way.
Like markets and food, what people are wearing says a lot about a culture and a society. I love to people watch and don’t spend near enough time doing it. Looking at what is being worn and by what ages, is very enlightening. The human being is such an interesting creature. How we choose to present ourselves to the rest of the world through the use of fashion is beautiful.
