Karakul being quite expensive, burkas were usually sewn from felt treated to look like karakul. Burkas are sewn with high, squared off shoulders, and wearers will have a distinctive high-shouldered silhouette.[3]
Chechnya was the main producer of burkas throughout the North Caucasus.
Other items of traditional Caucasian dress[4] were the beshmet, a soft inner shirt with a close-fitting collar, and the cherkeska, a collarless outer shirt with a V-shaped opening in the front with long, wide sleeves. Across the cherkeska were the gazerei, a row of semi-ornamental cartridge-cases, sometimes with decorated tops. On the belt was the kinzhal, a long dagger worn diagonally in front. Below were narrow trousers tied below the knee and at the ankle, leggings, and leather boots. Over all this was the large wool burka, fastened at the neck and open at the front. It could be reversed to make a windbreak or used as a blanket. On the head was the bashlyk, a soft cap, or the papakha, a large wool hat.
^Jaimoukha, Amjad (2010). Circassian Culture and Folklore. London, England: Bennet and Bloom. p. 72. ISBN978-1-898948-40-7. Circassian male dress was aesthetically designed not only to accentuate the good form of the body, namely narrow waist and broad upper body, but also for convenience and comfort, being well suited for both hot summers and freezing winters
^Baddeley, John F. "The Rugged Flanks of the Caucasus", 1940, pp125-129