Clothing of Khutu

The people of Khutu enjoy large amounts of ornamentation and like to decorate their clothing with bright colors and many decorative elements such as stripes or bold patterns. The women often wear headdresses with sparkling metallic chains and pendants wound around them, while the men tend to affix such ornaments to their belts or drape them across their chests. Even the poor will find ways of decorating themselves with shells, coral, or colourful glass beads. The men typically wear pants, although ones that are quite wide-legged.

Some of the more common Khutuan garments (some of which are worn in neighbouring countries as well) include:

• Mebel: A usually light-coloured headscarf worn by women, covering most of the hair, the back of the hair, and neck. Khutuan women decorate the mebel with important fefrir, tokens of their social relationships
• Altala: A long-sleeved women's dress, usually ankle-length and highly colourful. An ordinary woman may have two or three of these, with one reserved for special occasions.
• Tisli: A braided fringe on clothing. These fringes are found on both men's and women's garb but are very rare outside Khutu. Specific patterns are often shared among lineages and passed down through the generations.
• Khobesku: Women's leather pants. These are worn only by women and only in contexts where the physical demands of an activity might make wearing the altala difficult. The legs of the khobesku are quite narrow at the ankle.
• Nazam: Wide-legged, highly colourful men's pants, one of the distinctive features of Khutuan men's wear compared to neighbouring countries.
• Pacha: A headscarf or turban worn by men, cloth wrapped several times around the head. Unlike the mebel, the pacha is often highly colourful.
• Kailosper: A heavy vest worn mainly by men, and often featuring decorative fringes or braiding (tisli).
• Ezasta: A winter cape, often fur-lined or (among the poor) made of quilted heavy cloth, falling to the hips and held by two buttons or clasps around the chest
• Sotogos: A long, usually plain-coloured sash, worn mainly by men and serving as a repository for the fefrir to which the man is entitled.
• Buru: A plain tunic worn by children, bubun, prisoners or individuals atoning for some offense. A buru is not meant to have any fringe (tisli) or ornament (fefri) - and is meant to signal that the individual is not a full person (yet/anymore).
• Ibon (ibonne): Boots of goatskin that extend to mid-calf, often embossed with lineage markings or other decoration.
• Ilizh (ilizze): House-shoes or slippers, worn anywhere indoors where boots or other shoes would not be appropriate.
• Fefri (fefrir): These are tokens of copper, polished stone, brass, engraved hardwood, ceramic, or even silver and gold, that Khutuan adults often wear to signal their social relationships to lineage, partner's lineage, profession, club/society, etc., or to mark particular achievements.
• Juskai: A layered tunic made from the wool of local mountain goats/ibexes, worn by Ravre in cold weather and evenings.

• 

  Mebel

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  Altala

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  Khobesku

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  Nazam

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  Pacha

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  Kailosper

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  Ezasta

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  Sotogos

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  Buru

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  Tisli

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  Ibonne

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  Ilizze

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  Fefrir

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  Juskai