Origin of the Alans

[Alanus]

Evidently, I chose the wrong "button" and couldn't add illustrations.
Perhaps the most distinguishing example of "fashion" would be the tall hats of the Saka. The women, in particular, wore the tallest hats or headdresses. Variants of this style have been found at Issyk, Tuva, Ukok, and Pazyryk, in other words from eastern Saka areas from below the Seven Rivers all the way up to the Altai. Here are some examples:

   
Above is the famous "Golden Woman" of Issyk Kul, 3rd cent. BC. She wears the tallest hat or coiffure yet found in the East, and also notice the long sword hanging from the left, plus a typical "Altaic"-styled akinakes worn on the right outer thigh.

   
Here is a similar hat or headdress worn by an Altai priestess. This belt buckle has an Ordos origin, considered to be from Chinese extraction. Ordos art is so distinctive, it can be differentiated from works carved by the Saka.

   
A reconstructive painting of the Ukok Queen, again a similar tall hat. Not pictured but interesting, she also wore thigh-high boots. (whether she carried a whip is inconsequential).

These variants, from three different Saka locations illustrate a cultural connection we do not see linked the West. The culture extended from the Altai, down along western China, to the western Takla Makan, and into the BMC (Bactria Margiana Complex), and it proclaimed, "This is who we are."  All of the tribes, within a geographical and lineal cultural extension, included the so-called Altai "Scythians," the Yuezhi-Wusun, and the Seven Rivers/Ili Valley/Ferghana Saka.

   
These exceedingly-Eastern tall hats were cultural symbols, possibly matrilineal, and extended into the later Mongol and Tuvan cultures and remain with us today. The above photo was taken in the Altai c. 1907. For more views of these amazing Saka-origin hats, check out YouTube videos on traditional costume "Tuva Throat Singing."