groups such as the klephts and armatoloi. Fustanella was a suitable garment for guerrilla mountain units, thus it was worn by the klephts of the Ottoman period for the same reason it was worn by the akritai warriors of the Byzantine era earlier. The first time the fustanella was worn as part of a standardised military uniform was by the Greek volunteers of the British army in 1813. According to another view the fustanella is thought originally to have been a Tosk Albanian costume introduced into Greek territories during the Ottoman period, subsequently becoming part of the national dress of Greece as a consequence of the migration and settlement of them in the region. During the Greek War of Independence, resistance fighters adopted the dress of the Albanian soldiers, the fustanella. In the early 19th century, the costume's popularity rose among the Greek population. During this era of post-independence Greece, parts of Greek society such as townspeople shed their Turkish-style clothing and adopted the fustanella which symbolised solidarity with new Greek democracy. Philhellene enthusiasm for the fustanella survived knowledge of its Albanian origins. It became difficult thereafter to distinguish the fustanella as clothing worn by male Arvanites from clothing worn by wider parts of Greek society. According to Helen Angelomatis-Tsougarakis, its popularity in the Morea (Peloponnese) was attributed to the influence of the Arvanite community of Hydra and other Albanian-speaking settlements in the area. The Hydriotes however could not have played a significant role in its development since they did not wear the fustanella, but similar costumes to the other Greek islanders. In other regions of Greece the popularity of the fustanella was attributed to the elevation of Albanians as an Ottoman ruling class such as Ali Pasha, the semi-independent ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina. In those areas, its lightweight design and manageability in comparison to the clothing of the Greek upper classes of the era also made it fashionable amongst them in adopting the fustanella. Greek villagers of Albanian origin continued to wear the fustanella or the poukamiso (an elongated shirt) on a daily basis until the 20th century. The fustanella worn by the Roumeliotes (Greeks of the mountainous interior) was the version chosen as the national costume of Greece in the early 19th century. Of the Roumeliotes, the nomadic Greek-speaking Sarakatsani pastoralists wore the fustanella. The Aromanians, a Latin-speaking people who lived within Greece also wore the