Uzbek national dress

Atop their skulls each had perched the traditional square black white duppie (cap). The old women, more imaginative in choice of attire, wore multicoloured silk pantaloons under calf long dresses and bright head scarves. A few, clinging to the tradition of the feudal past, wore shawls with which they made half-hearted attempts to conceal their ageing faces.

But the young women having no such inclinations might well have been, but for colors and patterns of their dress material, like girls from your own city or town. The students among them moved freely along with their male counterparts, a circumstance that did not exist a couple of generations ago. And they, were all stunningly beautiful, from the dark-eyed, olive-skinned brunettes to the azure-eyed blondes.

People of varied descriptions moved constantly through the streets. There were the ever present white-whiskered "Aksa-kals", their legs and feet encased in leather boots (makhsi) into which trousers were carefully tucked. They wore buttonless quilted robes (chopon) of faded gray, brown or blue held together by discolored silk sashes (belbog) tied about the waist. (Elton T. Fax)