Photograph

The photograph depicts two women dressed in western-style outfits. The woman on the left is wearing a light-colored, floor-length skirt and a high-neck blouse. The woman on the right is wearing a long-sleeved, white blouse with collar and a floor-length skirt.

Melikian familly photo album

Zabelle Meutemediar Melikian is wearing a western-style skirt suit paired with a white frilly blouse and a bow tie.

Adam Kevorkian, Postmaster General, MBE, is wearing a dark-colored, Western-style three-piece suit with a matching vest, a white dress shirt, and a tri-colored tie. His suit is also adorned with his medals. He wears round, black-framed glasses.

Zabelle Meutemediar (1908–2007) married Hairabed Melikian (1903–1973) on July 5, 1925. She wore a calf-length, white, western-style dress with a long train, a hooded veil, and heeled shoes. He wore a western-style three-piece suit with a white vest, gloves, a bow tie, and a lapel pin.

Two Turks from Lefka a village mostly inhabited by Muslims; the two men stand side by side and wear similar traditional clothes, namely, light-coloured shirts, white many-folded trousers tied below the knees, a colourful sash at the waist, stockings and flat shoes. One of them also wears a fez set askew on the head; his striped stockings are tied under the knee. The stockings of the other man are patterned (Deschamps 1898, 182; Lazarides 2005, 166).

The photograph ‘Some of my Turkish Diggers at Cyprus’ presents eight men, four seated in a row and another four standing be­hind them. All of them wear the baggy, pleated vráka with a sash around the waist; their vráka is white except for two men, who wear a dark-coloured, probably black vráka tied at the waist with a string. Most of the upper garments, shirts and sleeved jackets, apparently of loom-woven striped cloth, are also of light hues. Only a young man seated in front wears a brilliant waistcoat crossed over the chest and made of a flower-patterned fabric. His head bears a tall fez with a tassel falling to his right side and a white headscarf wound around the lower part of the fez. The head-kerchief of the bearded old man sitting next to him is probably of printed fabric. The headdress of the other men presents a variety of the same type, namely fez or red cap wrapped with a scarf.

A fez workshop in Nicosia, depicted by Oulevay in the 1890s shows a craftsman, dressed in western-style costume and fez, blocking a fez with a mould; more moulds are placed on the same table and other examples are hanging on the wall (Deschamps 1897, III, fig. 171; Deschamps 1898, 51).

The photograph shows the young couple John and Bertha Papasian, with two children, their elder sons Eugene & Edgar. John is wearing a typical dark-coloured western-style suit, a white long-sleeved shirt and a tie. Bertha is wearing a sleeved dark-coloured dress with a high neckline and she has accessorised it with a brooch. The two children, despite their gender, are wearing dresses, as it was usual for youngsters of their age. The dresses differ in style, colour and decoration, but both are of special design, with most elaborate ornaments on the chest, the edges of the long sleeves and around the lower part of the wide skirts. The attire is complemented with dark socks and boots. The photograph is dated to 1886, and the scenery and decoration indicate that it was taken at a studio.

The photograph shows John and Bertha Papasian as an elderly couple. He is wearing a western-style long coat that covers most of his outfit, a white, high-collared shirt and a tie. Bertha is wearing a floor-length, long-sleeved elegant dress made from a dark-coloured fabric. In contrast to the simple skirt, the upper part of the dress has a high neckline and is richly decorated with an additional layer of transparent cloth (tulle?) with elaborate patterns in relief. Bertha’s coiffure is similar to that shown in other photographs, with her hair caught up. She is standing by the side of her husband who has his arm placed around her waist.

This photograph shows John Papasian, his wife Bertha and their five children: Jules, Eugene, Edgar, Elsie and Victoria. All of them are dressed in formal outfits. The men are wearing western-style suits made of a dark or black fabric, white, high-necked shirts and either ties or bow ties. The two young girls standing in front of their parents are wearing similar, long-sleeved, dark-coloured dresses with delicate narrow vertical pleats and a broad band of the same fabric encircling the waist and tied in front with a big bow. However, the dress of Victoria, the girl on the left, has a high neckline with a simple undecorated fabric extending to the shoulders and with a point down the front, whereas the dress of her little sister is adorned by a white lace collar dipping to a point down the chest and over each shoulder. Their hairstyle is also different, with the little girl’s hair decorated with a bow. Bertha is wearing a high-necked blouse with a dark ribbon tied in front, and a long-sleeved jacket made of a dark-coloured thick fabric with intricate patterns. She is wearing eye-glasses and has her hair caught up. The father is also wearing eye-glasses and has a beard and moustache. All members of the family look very serious. The photograph probably dates to c. 1905.