Luis Nogueira, the craftsman responsible for designing the shepherd’s costume at Vale da Estrela Dairy, in Mangualde, describes the history and materials that make up the Serra da Estrela shepherd’s costume:

Since the ancestral origins, the great families of shepherds existing in Serra da Estrela used the wool from their flocks and had them washed, carded, spun and weaved large cloths that were trodden and scalded to make a very resistant and strong fabric to protect from the cold weather, rain and snow.

This fabric called burel comes from the wool of Bordaleira sheep, an autochthonous breed of Serra da Estrela.

The shepherd’s costume, as we now see it, only reached these characteristics in the 19th century, consisting of a striped fabric shirt with a bib and a loop to secure a button on the trousers.

The pants are in brown burel with a buckle. On top of the shirt, the so-called Shepherd’s shirt,  is made of a plaid fabric with a white and brown plaid, not trodden but carded.

A black urel was applied to this fabric in which, with the knowledge and skill of the tailor, he made designs on the sewing machine, which were then cut piece by piece.

The motifs applied are very geometric inspired by nature and also by the drawings that the shepherd made with the knife on his walking  stick, used to to guard the sheep. The motifs and designs of the sweater depended heavily on the pastor’s wealth, and some even had the monogram embroidered on the front.

The costume ends with the genuinely traditional cape of the mountain, a cape of medieval origin in brown burel lined halfway with rag fabric and a peaked hood which allowed the rain to drain more easily as this fabric is waterproof.

Luís Nogueira