The events dedicated to national dress culture were held at the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve as part of “National Dress Day”. The examples of national dress belonging to various historical and ethnographic regions of Azerbaijan were displayed at the events, national dances were performed and information was provided on the historical, semantic and regional characteristics of the garments. Hikmat Guliyev, Director of the Institute of Folklore of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences (ANAS) and Doctor of Philological Sciences, shared his views on the role of national dress in preserving cultural memory and transmitting it to future generations.

As part of the event, scientific and practical seminars on the historical development of Azerbaijani dress culture, Safavid heritage and the history of national dress were held at the Baku Photography House located in Icherisheher. Presentations by scholars and specialists were delivered during the seminars.

Hikmat Guliyev noted that it was not sufficient to approach national dress solely as an example of material culture or as an ethnographic object. According to his thought, national dress was one of the visual-semantic forms of expression of collective cultural memory.

The scholar noted that the color, ornamentation, cut, material, context of use and functional characteristics of clothing not only convey information about a particular historical and cultural environment, but also play an important role in shaping the mechanisms of self-expression and identity within a community.

According to the scholar, the presentation of national dress in historical and cultural spaces such as Icherisheher is of particular significance. In such settings, clothing is not merely displayed as an exhibition object; rather, it becomes a means of establishing a connection between historical space, cultural memory, and living communication. Presenting national dress together with music, dance and other forms of folklore makes its functional and semantic relationships within the traditional cultural system more clearly visible.

The scholar mentioned the importance of cooperation among institutions working to preserve, study and communicate tangible and intangible cultural heritage to society. He noted that the cooperation and mutual respect that have developed between the Icherisheher State Historical-Architectural Reserve and the Institute of Folklore of ANAS were promising in terms of the study and promotion of cultural heritage.

“National dress is the visible layer of cultural memory. Preserving it does not merely mean safeguarding traces of the past; it also means creating the conditions for this memory to be understood by contemporary generations and transmitted to the future”, Hikmat Guliyev noted.