Turkish beauties of the 1930s in traditional costumes

Baggy salvar pants, front-opening fitted gown entari worn over a chemise or shift, long-sleeved short jacket mintan, outer robe kaftan, small pillbox hat and large veil, woven sash - those are the elements of traditional woman's dress of Turkey that can be seen on these vintage 1930s photographs. Compromise between emerging western and traditional Ottoman ideas however is also noticeable: the dress is traditional, but not entirely.

Interesting that many of these elements are parts of the medieval Ottoman dress too. Look how Cesare Vecellio described the Ottoman woman's dress in 1598 in his book The Clothing, Ancient and Modern, of Various Parts of the World: "On their heads they wear a gold or velvet cap with feathers. Their overgowns are luxurious, long and open in front. At their necks they wear gold chains of many strands and one, larger and longer than the others, across their breast. Their overgowns are long, open down the front and buttoned down to the belt with gold or crystal buttons. There's no set colour for their garments; they wear every hue except black. They wear trousers of ormesino (a plain, light and inexpensive silk cloth of Levantine origin) or sessa (gauze, usually light cotton or silk). Their trousers are very rich, especially around the bottom, which some of them have trimmed with jewels. They tie on very fine sashes woven in the Moorish style, full of gold and marveously lovely. They wear the sleeves of their gowns very long."

As we can see, not much has changed over centuries, the essential forms remained the same although there were some gradual changes in silhouette, materials and accessories of course.

The photos were found here