comment it's confusing enough that i am not sure what disagree means in this conversation a quick run through my sources indicates that folk costume folk dress national dress ethnic costume traditonal dress etc are all used pretty much interchangeably i would support a move to folk costume or folk dress for the reasons cited above but folk costume should not be a subset of national dress since modern political boundaries do not necessarily match either ethnic boundaries or political boundaries as they were at the time that folk dress was ossified at least in europe as mentioned some folk dress is still evolving for what it's worth i wouldn't characterize square dance clothes or bolo ties as folk dress western wear is a modern retro concept based on romanticized notions of th century clothing and bolo ties are a modern invention but bolo ties and cowboy shirts are certainly regional dress by the way the use of narrow use costume to mean theatrical costume is about as common as the use of dress to mean a woman's garment with a skirt both costume and dress have these narrow non specialist everyday definitions which make it really difficult to decide what terms will be understood by users of wikipedia clothing is probably the most neutral and inclusive term but we struggle in choosing medieval clothing vs medieval costume vs medieval dress and folk clothing is not used in the specialist literature and sounds really dumb in the museum and art historical worlds costume and dress are both preferred terms oed definitions are pertinent here costume the mode or fashion of personal attire and dress including the way of wearing the hair style of clothing and personal adornment belonging to a particular nation class or period dress personal attire or apparel orig that proper to some special rank or order of person or to some ceremony or function but in later use often merely clothing costume garb esp that part which is external and serves for adornment as well as for covering is right in that there isn't a simple solution we're going to have a ton of redirects and alterate terms whichever way we go gievn the oed definitions i'd say folk costume is more accurate but i personally prefer folk dress and i'd choose that over national dress