Traditional dress was worn well into the 20th century, and some vestiges even survived the Hoxha years. The use of such costume does not seem to have caught on as an urban, middle-class mode of identity assertion, partly also perhaps because no “national” dress type emerged, styles remaining sharply different for different regions and different religions. Nor was there a crossover from male traditional dress to military uniform (as in Scotland or in various South-East European countries, often reflecting the Romantic-cum-military proclivities of newly-enthroned German princes); although the Albanian fustanella kilt was a prominent element at public ceremonies during the reign of King Zog, it was, ironically, adopted as a Greek national uniform for elite army units known as Evzones.

For western observers and travellers, Albanian dress was a marker of Orientalist exoticism, Albania counting as a firmly Ottoman territory (“Turkey-in-Europe”). From the famous portrait of Byron in Albanian costume to the paintings of Ottoman “Arnauts” by Gérôme, the representation of Albanian costume is a gesture of exoticism rather than nationalism. Accordingly, early photography in Albania had a steady production line in portraits of anonymous subjects displaying traditional costume. Such postcards continued the older tradition of ethnographic prints; to what extent these played into a tourist market (or into domestic regionalism) is uncertain. The two registers, exoticism and regionalism, had begun to overlap as a result of multi-ethnic showcase collections such as the Russian Millennial ethnological survey (1862), the Ottoman Costumes populaires de la Turquie (1873), the Austro-Hungarian Kronprinzenwerk of 1886-1902, and imperial displays at the burgeoning universal expositions held regularly in Europe’s capitals.

An early photographic studio specializing in this line of work was that of the exiled Italian Garibaldist Pietro Marubbi, who settled in Shkodër as Pjetër Marubi (1834–1905); his studio continued to function under his name after his death, generating a large body of material now housed in a special collection in Tirana named after Marubi.

Traditional costume is now used largely for folkloristic display. Still in general use is the brimless rounded felt cap (qeleshe), which continues to function as an ethnic identifier, especially among Albanian populations outside Albania.