Dress History

1. Turkey lies where Asia, Africa and Europe are closest to each other and it straddles the point where Europe and Asia meet. Conversion to Islam was gradual and varied from one group to another, but by the 10th century Islam dominated. The hugely powerful, influential and sprawling Ottoman Empire, c.1300 - 1922, originated in north-western Anatolia. The state of Turkey was created in 1923 from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. It has a population of about 67 million, 80% Turkish and 20% Kurdish and other minorities. 98% of the population is Muslim, mainly Sunni. Note to images: where not attributed, the early historical images have been taken from Women of Istanbul in Ottoman Times, a wonderful book “dedicated to all the women of the world”, compiled by Pars Tuğlaci, Istanbul, 1984.

2. There are thousands of historic images of Turkish women. Turkish and western artists have long been fascinated by the rich variety of Turkish dress of both sexes. In women’s dress, the contrasts of home and street dress are shown again and again as are the variations of urban and rural costume and that of women from the many ethnic backgrounds who lived in Turkey, especially in Istanbul. Dress History

3. Ibn Battuta, in the 14th century, wrote about the Sultan’s lady: “On the Khatin’s head is a bughtaq which resembles a small ‘crown’ decorated with jewels and surmounted by peacock feathers – and she wears robes of silk encrusted with jewels, like the mantles worn by the Greeks. On the head of the lady vizier and the lady chamberlain is a silk veil embroidered with gold and jewels at the edges, and on the head of each of the girls is a kula; which is like an aqruf; with a ciraht of gold encrusted with jewels round the upper end – and peacock feathers above this, and each one wears a robe of silk gilt, which is called nakh.” Travels of Ibn Battuta 1325-1354

4. The costume books show the richness of fabrics and the fashion variations on a theme of home wear worn by the better-off. But outside, all women wear the voluminous feraje or carshaf and a headcover. 18th Century Home dress Street dress Street dress

6. Second Half of the 18th Century Home dress Street dress

7. Early 19th Century Home and Street dress

8. “Misunderstanding of the concept of concealment led the Turks to consider the charshaf (long robe worn out in the streets) as the religious dress of Muslim women, and thus it has been interpreted as a product of fanaticism. …According to Dr Levinson in Histoire de la Vie Sexuelle the charshaf and the harem are very ancient concepts dating back to the earliest periods of history, and are both the result of male jealousy, having no connection with Islamic principles at all.” Women of Istanbul in Ottoman Times, Pars Tuğlaci, 1984

9. Arab Turkish Armenian Jewish Jewish Russian slave Greek Artist’s depictions of various types of dress

10. “They wear a towel (cloth or woollen underscarf) round the neck and head, so that one can only see their eyes and mouth, and these they cover with a thin silk scarf a palm’s width each way, through which they can see and not be seen by others. The scarf is fastened with three pins to a suitable part of the head above the forehead, so that when they go through the streets and meet other women, they raise the scarf that hangs over their faces and kiss one another.” I Costumi et i modiparticolari de la vita de Turchi, Bassano da Zara, 1545

11. Women and children going to the baths. 18th century.

12. “Turkish women first began covering themselves in public by wrapping themselves in a bedsheet when they went out of the house, and this practice continued for hundreds of years in the villages. Meanwhile in Istanbul and other large cities women wore the feraje and yashmak, or a yeldirme and headscarf.” Tuğlaci, 1984 Street dress. 19th century.

13. “From the earliest days of the Ottoman Empire, the state had taken upon itself to issue decrees and edicts on even the minutiae of women’s dress. … The detailed nature of these regulations, affecting the thickness of the material used in the yashmak (face veil worn in Turkey), the length of skirts, and the degree to which women should be covered in public by charchaf (cloak) and yashmak, indicate the importance the authorities attached to the physical appearance of women in public.” “… during the Ottoman period this concern had been expressed in a conservative view of how women should be seen, in subsequent decades it became a device through which the state could signal its desire for change.” Images of Women, Sarah Graham-Brown, 1988 Turkish Imperial Edict. 1725

14. Edmundo de Amicis, an Italian visitor in the 1880s, remarked: “After hearing so much about the life of captivity led by Turkish women, it is most astonishing for any visitor to Istanbul to see women about in every place at every hour, just as in any European city.” Turkish women gathered in front of a mosque in Istanbul, late 19th century. Abdullah Biraderler

15. Turkish women doing shopping for the bairam, mid- 19th century.

16. Turkish women at a picnic.

17. Gradually in the nineteenth century European fashions influenced Istanbul and slowly spread to other cities amongst the middle and upper classes. Rural women, poor women and those of the many ethnic groups continued to wear their traditional dress. Dress History – Early last century Upper-middle class family, early 20th century. coll. Alev Lytle Croutier, Harem – The World behind the Veil, 1989

18. Upper-middle class women friends dancing in a private house courtyard, early 20th century. Lytle Croutier

19. Harem lady visited by a bundle woman and a gypsy fortune teller, early 20th century. Lytle Croutier

20. A Turkish lady in outdoor costume. Living Races of Mankind, 1900

21. A woman wearing a ferage and dark veil. Lytle Croutier

22. A Turkish woman wearing a ferage and a yashmak 1890s.

23. Some modes adopted were not appreciated by the authorities.

24. Then, as now, some women adopted styles of dress for political reasons: “Another interesting phenomenon is the use of Islamic dress code (carsaf) by women activists during the Independence War between 1918-1923, although this was not at all the fashion for the socio-economic classes to which these women belonged. Ilyasglu concludes that this reflected an effort by women activists to bridge the gap with the “women on the street”. Moreover, by wearing the carsaf, women activists felt that they were able to establish equality with women of other classes and anonymity for the goal of fighting for independence.” The Women’s Movement in Turkey – The influence of political discourses, Pinar Ilkkaracan, Iran Bulletin, I995

25. Esteemed ladies; this mistaken impression gained by our enemies is based on this outward appearance, in particular on the garb of our women and the fact that they are veiled… These forms of dress are not a requirement of our religion but in opposition to it. The concealment which our faith recommends is in keeping with both the exigencies of daily life and modesty. If women dressed in accordance with canonical law and the requirements of religion, they would neither conceal themselves nor reveal themselves to such an extent…. Religious dress should not constitute a hindrance to women, but should be simple enough to allow them to participate alongside men in social, working and academic life. This plain style is not contrary to the ethics of our social system. However, by the early 1920s the official tide had turned and Kemal Atatürk was exhorting women to abandon the veil. From Atatürk’s address to women in Konya, March 21, 1925

26. “Where women had taken it upon themselves to change their style of dress, it might be taken as an assertion of freedom, a defiance of convention, or a flouting of family authority. But where the wearing of a western-style dress and hat had been sanctioned by community or state, it could just as well imply conformity and was certainly not a reliable guide to a women’s freedom of choice or action.” Graham-Brown, 1988

27. Istanbul, 1919. M Tuğrul Acar

28. “All through the 19th century Ottoman society had been under the spell of modernizing reforms,” [Özdalga] but it was not until after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and after the 1914-18 World War that change accelerated. The Republic of 1923 and the Constitution of 1924 enshrined Kemal Atatürk’s vision of modernised, secular Turkey. The legal reforms of 1925/6 made “sweeping alterations in women’s legal status, freedom of movement and prospects for education and employment” [Graham-Brown] …all reflected in the following three photographs. Women in Political Struggle

29. Three of the first women parliamen-tarians in Turkey, 1937. Graham-Brown, 1988

30. Süreyya Ağaoğlu, first woman lawyer, Ankara, 1930s. Graham-Brown, 1988

31. Mixed class of biology students in the Ghazi Institute. M. O. Henchez, Women of All Lands, ed. Rosita Forbes, 1939

32. The “Sapka Kanunu” of 1925 banned the fez and imposed the use of a Western (modern) type of felt hat, with dire punishments for non-compliance. The law initiated by Atatürk was levelled at men’s, not women’s, dress. “The veil was not forbidden, though, because it was felt that it would lead to an uprising by the vast majority of Muslims who were of a patriarchal persuasion.” Geschiedenis Van Turkije ­ed Bakker, Vervloet, Gailly, 1997

33. A new generation questioning the legacy of the country’s founding father, Atatürk. Özdalga, 1998 “Turkey is the only country in the Middle East – perhaps in the whole Muslim world – where secularism became the official ideology of the state. … The most controversial issue on which official secularism has been challenged in recent times is the headscarf. All through the 1980s, that problem was the issue around which secularism clashed with Islamism.” The Veiling Issue in Modern Turkey, Elizabeth Özdalga, 1998 Modern Turkey

34. “Contrary to a widely held belief, there have never been any laws prohibiting the use of the veil in universities or elsewhere in modern Turkey. …[however]… even if there have not been any laws, there have certainly been various kinds of regulations relating to clothing.” Özdalga, 1998 Newspaper headlines 1999-2002.

35. “In Turkey, the secular regime considers the head scarf a symbol of extremist elements that want to overthrow the government. Accordingly, women who wear any type of head-covering are banned from public office, government jobs and academia, including graduate school. Turkish women who believe the head-covering is a religious obligation are unfairly forced to give up public life or opportunities for higher education and career advancement.” An Identity Reduced to a Burka, Laila al-Marayati and Semeen Issa, 2002

36. Friends going shopping in Istanbul www.angelfire.com Visiting Topkapi Palace, Istanbul Luc Olivier, 1999 Islamist women “proclaim their need to cover their heads with reference to their civil right to practice religion without the hindrance of the state. Paradoxically, in doing so they propagate a belief system where civil rights as such have no relevance.” On Gender and Citizenship in Turkey – MER 1996 No.198, Yesim Arat Again we see Saudi influences in dress. Atatürk would be as critical as he was over Western fashion.

37. Those women who dress in extreme styles, and those who imitate the garb of European women, should remember that every nation has its own traditions, ethics and characteristics. No nation should be an imitation of any other, because such a nation cannot be the same as that which it imitates, nor retain its own national character. Such an attempt is bound to result in disappointment. Kamal Atatürk, 1925

38. Newspaper headlines 1999-2002.

39. “Historically, periods have varied in the extent to which people have signalled or obscured their religious identities. Usually it is not necessary to mark explicitly the religion of the majority unless a frenzy of piety imbues religious symbols for a time with special meaning.” Reveal and Conceal, Andrea B Rugh, 1986 Everyday clothes

40. The Village of Nar – Central TurkeyThe Women of Nar, Joyce Roper, 1974 Village Wedding 1971 – the women celebrating in a private house

41. Grand-daughter Kazim and Gulazar Grand-mother

42. Photograph taken by a British male tourist. Photograph taken for the World Bank by a male Turk. Yosef Hadar, 1984 “Traditionally, in most villages, women did not wear veils; the entire village was considered an extended family. Even nowadays, while women work unveiled with men in the fields, as soon as they see a stranger from another village, they pull down their scarves to hide their faces.” Harem – The World Behind the Veil, Alev Lytle Croutier, 1989 Farming women of South Eastern Turkey, near the Syrian border

43. Elderly woman and her friend. South-central Turkey, 1985 Shopkeeper in Istanbul. Sean Sprague, 1996

44. Market at Edirne. Caroline Simpson, 1992

45. As in many countries “traditional” regional dress is now most commonly seen by the general public at Cultural Festivals and used as inspiration for modern fashion shows: ‘Traditional’ dress to ethnic chic

46. Turkish Fashion Show at Turkish Cultural Festival, Cairo, 2002. • Hisham Habib and Atef Naguib, Cleo Magazine, 2002 Young women in traditional costume. UNESCO, 1980s