How did Surkhandarya women dress during holidays in the past?

The female costume of Surkhandarya foothills and mountain areas and valleys has a common set of compositions (underwear, outer dress, lozim pants, outerwear – chapan, zhelak, paranja; shoes, headwear and jewelry). They differ in headwear, length and width, quality and placement of embroidery, as well as jewelry preferences.

O ut o f o uterwear, s edentary w omen w ore m inisak m ade o f e xpensive f abrics for the holidays, and women of the mountains and foothills with a semi-nomadic lifestyle wore zhelak. In addition to them, quilted dressing robes-chapan were worn in winter. The paranja-burqa in the valley was used as a day off streetwear, but more often kurta or zhelak. Kurta and zhelak are short head-dressing robes without lining and chachwan-veil worn on the head over the headdress. They, like the burqa, had long sleeves fastened at the back. Their front hems and collars were decorated with coins, colored embroidery, and numerous multicolored tassels designed to distract attention from the woman's face.

A festive adornment of the bride and young women was the head adornment of sinsila (silsila) attached to the front of the headdress and popular among the Kazakhs, Kirghiz and Turkmens. The most characteristic adornment of Kungrad women, not found in other regions, except for Kashkadarya, is the trapezium-shaped khapamat breast necklace woven of small multi-colored beads. It was worn after the wedding as protection from the evil eye. The geometric patterns in the form of triangles and rhombuses formed during weaving are associated with archaic symbols of fertility.
 

Another no less original type of breast decoration was the gulband worn by mountain dwellers and consisting of several (up to 80) threads of multi-colored beads which are red, yellow, white, blue, sometimes having in the center the bobohur amulet - a stone or silver talisman of family happiness. Khaikal, tomokles, and urpiya were also worn as breast adornments. Often, the necklaces were put one on top of the other in several rows: coral beads, coral beads with silver coins, gulband with bobohur, which
together with silver setora plates, earrings and rings make the uniqueness of the costume of Uzbek women in Surkhandarya.

Women's headdresses in Surkhandarya differ depending on age, social and tribal affiliation. Basically, girls and young women of the valley wore hats like skullcaps and various shawls of bright colors in small sizes, which were tied on their foreheads over the cap. Women wear large headscarves over a kiigich hat, while the elderly wear large white headscarves, tying them with a small headscarf on top. 

Traditional footwear consisted of kalish, kalish-makhsi, khakkari kavush (on wooden heels) and popush, and leather boots were worn in winter.