The traditional Armenian clothes are very colorful and various. The traditional man's suit consisted of silk or cotton color shirt with low collar and side fastener and wide trousers from dark wool or cotton. Over the shirt Armenians put on cotton or silk arkhaluk – outerwear with low collar fastened waist down with hooks or small buttons. A heavier item was called chukha; it was made of wool and worn with a narrow big buckled belt.
Western Armenians wore a waistcoat over shirt and waist length jacket with full sleeves without fasteners in front. The belt was replaced with long wide woven scarf wrapped around the waist several times.
Women's traditional clothes of both eastern and western Armenians were homogeneous. The outerwear included a long dress of arkhaluk type with a cut on chest and cuts below hips. The waist was wrapped in long folded silk or woolen scarf. The embroidered apron and decorations were indispensable elements for western Armenian women. On their heads men wore caps of different styles: the fur ones were worn in the east; knitted and woven – in the west. Women's headdresses, especially in the east, looked like a "turret" made from cotton fabric with ornaments tied with several scarves covering a part of face. Western Armenian women used to wear ornate head bands with capes.
