Today, Latvian folk costumes in the diaspora can be seen in all their wonderful variety. Although the custom of one group wearing identical folk costumes is gradually being adopted from Latvia, especially among choirs and dance groups, the folk costumes of Latvians living abroad are special and very diverse. Inherited and passed down from generation to generation – often faded, yellowed, and mended several times over – they are nevertheless important to each wearer, for they have acquired the status of family heirlooms.There are also folk costumes that are passed down within the Latvian community among dancers and singers, and whose stories are usually known by no more than a single generation. And then there are the costumes purchased in Latvia and brought across the seas and oceans – colourful, ethnographically correct and well-fitting, but often without a story or a link to a particular place in Latvia. 

Wearing your folk costume is a way of “wearing Latvia” for the world to see – fully embodying the experience of being Latvian, and at the same time allowing others to discover that this little northern European country of ours truly exists.