Flamenco dresses, spanish Gypsy clothing or Gypsy dresses are some of the names that are indistinctly used by the ordinary citizen when referring the clothing that women in Andalusia wear on Romerias, fairs and other events like that. So called flamenco clothing.
However, even all those and much more terms are used when speaking about the same type of dress or clothing. Is it correct? In other words, do all the terms for this spanish clothing mean the same? Basically yes, but it´s also the fact that all of them has their reason to be called as they are. Practically, these are the considerations that have to take into account respectfully:
• It is common to turn to use the terms Gypsy costume or Gypsy dress to refer that type of regional clothing. Why? Because precisely the dress has its origin in the clothing that the women in Seville (sevillanas) with the ethnic gypsy background used to wear in the commercial fairs where they sold livestock in the end of the century XIX and at the beginning of the century XX. Tailed gowns, in particular, were those that shined and afterwards inspired the women from the upper classes to design the official clothing that they used to wear during the “Feria de Abril” celebrated on 1929, the year when the capital of Andalusia organized the Universal Exposition.
• On the other hand, it is also typical to call the flamenco clothing as a flamenco dress. It is common used term, and this clothing has stayed as a use of regional clothing to convert to a dress on that a woman wants to shine in diverse cultural and social happenings where she feels herself specially attractive.
For that reason, the purists say flamenco dress is the only correct name to be used when referring this clothing. However, also the other common terms are allowed to be used when speaking about this spanish clothing.
