Stereotype n°7: Dress

In the minds of many, all Roma wear colourful dresses and a lot of golden jewellery. Today only very few Roma still dress in this way. Among traditional groups men quite often adapt the way of dressing to their environment. Since the head is regarded as the body's focal point, they might draw attention to it by wearing large hats and wide moustaches. On special occasions, a good suit and a brightly coloured neck scarf might be worn.

Flowers, colourful skirts, blouses, and head scarves are not specific to Roma women but can be found everywhere in the East from India and Iran up to the Balkans.

Traditional Roma women had the habit of wearing long, colourful skirts, often consisting of several layers. In some traditional communities married women still demonstrate this fact by wearing a diklo, a headscarf. Traditional Roma women usually allow their hair to grow long and braid it. Jewellery was used not for its beauty but for its intrinsic value, as in other countries of the East. In times were bank accounts were unknown, carrying your valuables on you own person was seen as safer than carrying it in a bow.

Traditionally, acquired wealth was converted into jewellery or coins called galbi. Among some groups coins were worn on clothing or adornments or even braided into the women’s hair.

The colours of clothes have different meanings. Red, for example, is the colour prevalent at marriage ceremonies. It does not symbolize only love, as in the West, but individual sacrifice for the collective weal. Instead of individual selfish love, traditional marriage blesses the long-term alliance between families, which become hanamik (in-laws).