TRADITIONAL WEDDING DRESSES
In Ottoman
tradition young girls generally dressed plainly, it being considered
improper for them to wear showy clothing made of fabric with silver or
gold thread, sequins or embroidery until they were married. The wedding
dress was therefore the first richly ornamented attire they wore. It was
distinguished from the costume of other women at the ceremony by a
bridal headdress, veil and other accessories. Ottoman wedding dresses
made of rich fabrics in the fashionable style of the time were in bright
colors like red, purple, blue or pink, while red was the traditional
color for the daughters and sisters of the sultans.
They were worn with a red bridal veil. From the 1870s onwards, under
western influence, wedding dresses of pastel colors became fashionable,
but the first white wedding dress was not worn until 1898, when Naime
Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdülhamid II, married Kemalettin Pasa.
This fashion, which began at the palace, gradually spread throughout
Turkish society, until eventually it became hard to find any bride not
dressed in white.
Wedding dresses and woman’s clothing in general diverged widely
between regions with colors, fabrics, embroidery and style varying
according to the customs of each sector of society. The number of days a
wedding celebration lasted depended on the social status of the family.
Among the upper classes brides wore a different dress for each day of
the celebrations, which consisted principally of the henna night, the
nuptial day, and the day following the wedding. The dress worn on the
latter occasion was known as paçalik.
The main items of a woman’s attire were the baggy trousers or salvar,
jacket, blouse, a robe called entari and kaftan. An entari worn over
shalvar is the most ancient form of Turkish woman’s dress. Entaris of
many different styles were worn up until the mid-19th century, with
skirts of different lengths, sometimes divided by slits to the waist
into two or more sections, and having necklines of various shapes. From
the early 19th century onwards the styles called üç etek and dört etek,
with the skirts divided into three and four sections respectively were
the height of fashion. The üç etek had slits at the sides forming three
skirt panels reaching to the ground, was open down the front, and
fastened by several buttons at the waist. It was worn in the cities
until around 1875 and in rural areas until the 20th century.
Following Sultan Abdülaziz's visit to Europe in 1867, young women
gradually stopped wearing salvar and the üç etek. Instead, under western
influence dresses with two-panelled skirts became popular. These were
cut in various styles, plainer for daily wear and heavily embroidered
when used as wedding dresses or intended for special occasions. The
latter were almost always made of velvet, with long skirts, shaped
bodices and round necks. They were open as far as the waist at the
front, and worn over a blouse of helâlis, a cloth with a silk warp and
linen or wool weft. The head was covered with a scarf of muslin or
crepe, and a silver belt was worn around the waist.
At the beginning of the 19th century, dresses known as bindalli made
usually of purple or dark red velvet, and embroidered with floral motifs
in couched and padded gold work known as dival, were favored as wedding
dresses and for other ceremonial occasions. In rural areas women wore
salvars and boleros made of similar fabric and similarly embroidered.
From the reign of Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), the bindalli began to be
superseded in cities by long skirts and matching jackets influenced by
western fashions, and made of silk fabrics like satin, taffeta and
brocade. The earliest examples of wedding outfits in this style were
made of satin with bindalli embroidery, and had long trains and shaped
jacket.
These were succeeded by wedding dresses made of taffeta of silk woven
with silver thread, with long skirts cut on the cross, tight boned and
corseted bodices, and capes. These were worn with scarves of crepe edged
with needle lace. In winter knee-length fur-lined velvet coats tailored
to fit the waist, and matching the color and embroidery of the dress
beneath were worn. Shoes and bags were made of fabric or leather, again
in matching colors and designs. Western fashions also influenced
footwear during this period.
No comments:
Post a Comment