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Street photograph of Rifat Mehmet Ali (1915-1990), taken about 1940. He wears a white shirt, a dark-coloured jacket and black breeches (kara dizlik). The jacket has a breast pocket, in which there is a watch with its chain hanging down and attached to one of the jacket´s buttonholes. A Tripoli sash (tarabulus kuşak/guşak) appears around his waist. His hand-knitted patterned stockings are tied with a string just below the knees, and his shoes are plain and flat (kuntura). The attire is completed with a high Ottoman fez (Osmanlı fesi) with a laced headscarf (yemeni) around it.

Street photograph taken by an unknown photographer in 1940. It shows Kemal Mustafa Damdelen (born in 1912, died in 1964) and Ahmet, from Kiados (Çatoz), in Mesaoria. Kemal wears a cotton shirt woven on the loom and an English cashmere jacket, silk sash (tarabulus kuşak), blue broadcloth breeches (çuha şalvar) with the traditional applied decoration on both sides, hand-knitted stockings (Temroz çorabı), with patterns, black elastic-sided ankle boots with white leg upper parts (gonç, namely the part of the boot that comes up to the ankle). Ahmet wears black baggy trousers similar to vráka (şalvar), a red woollen loom-woven sash around the waist, and black knee boots (kuntura çizmesi) tied under the knees with strings (çizme bağı) made of goat hair.

Photograph of Mustafa Keleş (1915-1987). It was taken in 1938 by an anonymous street photographer, with an artificial background unrolled behind the person. Mustafa has a moustache and his hair is so combed as to fall on his right side, a hairstyle known as kahkül or pipi. He wears a white poplin shirt with the collar falling over the collar of his jacket, which is of western style, made of English fabric, with three buttons and three pockets. The lower part of his body is covered with baggy trousers, woven on the loom with white cotton thread; they reach down to the knees, where they meet the black leather knee boots; the boots are of ‘Frankish’ style and show decorative horizontal relief bands.

Source: Emine Keleş.

Village: Kalyvakia (Kalavaç), Mesaoria, Nicosia District.

Street photograph showing three standing men, all with short hair and moustaches. The one on the right side is a police corporal (onbaşı), dressed in British uniform with Ottoman fez (Osmanlı fes). The man in the middle combines a European-style jacket with ;alvar, a colourful sash (tarabulus kuşak) around the waist, and a fez with a head-kerchief (yemeni) around it, decorated with lace. He also wears stockings and leather elastic-sided ankle boots (gonçlu potin). On the lapel of his jacket he has attached a light coloured rose. The third man, on the left, is wearing a European-style three-piece suit, a pastel coloured shirt and a fez. A fresh flower, probably a carnation, decorates the lapel of his jacket, which has a handkerchief in the breast pocket. His boots (gonçlu potin) are also elastic-sided. This photograph must date before the mid-1930s, when policemen stopped wearing the Ottoman fez.

Photograph of Mehmet Çoban Hüseyin (1903-1985); it was taken by an anonymous street photographer, outdoors with a painted background, which shows slender columns and looped-back curtains. The man is standing with his right hand resting on a chair; he looks young, with a well-trimmed moustache and short hair almost completely covered by his high Ottoman fez.

He wears a white shirt with straight collar and over it a knitted pullover (kazak), with a corn pattern (darı), a light-coloured jacket and riding breeches with their lower part tucked into black leather knee boots. His attire is modern. It may be assumed that Mehmet must have had a horse, probably to go around and inspect his workmen.

Source: Hatice Tin, Ali Mehter.

Village: Epicho (Abohor), Nicosia District.

Studio photograph of Ali Mulla Hüseyin (1915-1995), taken in 1932. The painted background, carpet and corner table are the same as in No. 032. The young man stands on a colourful carpet with his right hand resting on a corner table, which has a vase with a variety of flowers placed on its lower shelf. He has a short moustache and a peculiar hair style with a parting on the left and the wavy hair falling on the right side (TCy kahkül, Turk. kakül = lock of hair, side lock). He wears a white shirt with a wide open, sailor-like collar which falls over the collar of the jacket; the latter is of western style with two buttons and two superimposed pockets clearly visible on the right side: it is described as divişli sakgo. The lapel of the coat is decorated with a carnation. The rest of the attire is traditional: it comprises black knee-breeches, a pilgrim’s striped scarf, presumably from the Holy Land, used as a waistband (hacı şalı kuşağı), and long hand-knitted stockings of thick thread in light rose colour; the pattern consists of concentric lozenges arranged in vertical series. The leather boots are fashionable, of two different colours, black with the upper part white. They are elastic-sided ankle boots (lastikli gonçlu potin).

Donated by Veli Avcı.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of Mehmet Zorba, born in 1913 in Kanli near Gönyeli. The photograph was taken in the year 1932 in the same studio of Fevzi Akarsu as No. 033. On the lower left corner of the photograph there is the potographer’s archive number A 951, while on that of No. 033, the number A 925 appears; this means that the latter was taken slightly earlier than No. 032. The painted background is the same in both photographs, but here it is much clearer: the large window with glass panes, a painting hanging on the wall and below it a slender table with a vase full of white blossoms on it. The man stands on the carpet in the same posture as Ali (No. 033), with his right hand on the white corner table, which has the same pot with various flowers on its lower shelf. The hair style of Mehmet, who is only 19 years old in this picture, is kakül (TCy kahkül, Turk. kakül = lock of hair, side lock) with his thick short wavy hair brushed to the right side; the coiffure is completed with a short moustache. He is also dressed similarly to Ali in No. 033: his white shirt is loom-woven, the jacket made of English fabric wrinkled, not ironed, yet decorated with a red carnation on the lapel and a white handkerchief in the breast pocket. The wide out-turned collar of the shirt covers the jacket’s collar. This was the fashionable style for young people in the 1930s. By contrast, the lower part of the attire follows traditional patterns: a Tripoli silk sash (ipek tarabulus kuşak) around the waist on top of light blue çuha şalvar, made of broadcloth, with fine applied decoration of black silk braids, forming the typical curvilinear stylized vegetal patterns known from other examples; this is the only piece which differentiates the appearance of the young men on the two photographs. As for the stockings and the footwear, it is as they have put on the same items: light rose knitted stockings with lozenge patterns, and bichrome (black and white) elastic-sided ankle boots (lastikli konçlu potin, konç = leg of a boot or stocking).

Source: Emine Damdelen.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.

Photograph of a lady and two young girls, one of them sitting on a village chair in the middle; on the upper part of the photograph is written the date 1928. The photograph was taken in a garden and the background is a mudbrick wall with a plant full of leaves climbing on it. A carpet was placed on the ground for the women to stand on.

The lady on the left (Melahat Hacıbulgur) wears a black two-piece dress resembling a çarşaf with the ends of the black veil, which covers the hair, drawn to the back. Over the dress she wears a jacket (ceket) with out-turned collar; the lower part of the jacket, which is made from a separate piece of cloth, is pleated. Pleats also appear on either side of the chest. The skirt of the dress reaches to a little below the knees. Her legs are covered with long white stockings, matched with black, heeled shoes decorated with buckles and held with a double buttoned strap in front. She wears a bracelet on the right wrist.

The girl sitting in the middle wears a white silken shirt, a black skirt, white stockings and black slip-on tab front shoes. Her short hair has a parting on the left and falls on her right side where it is held with a clip.

The other girl standing next to her with her right hand on the back of the chair, is wearing a dark-coloured shirt with a navy collar and a tie, also a black skirt, white stockings and black button bar shoes. Her hairstyle is similar to that of the sitting girl.

The appearance of all three women reflects the effects of the clothing reform introduced by Kemal Atatürk.

Source: Ekrem Yeşilada, Nicosia.

Photograph of Mehmet Ağa, servant of the lady Hacı Pembe Hanım. It was taken in the garden of the Foto Fevzi Akarsu studio, a home studio, in 1926/27 (information from Kadir Kaba). The bearded old man is sitting on a village chair in front of a painted background showing a field with trees at the back and some flowers in front. The edge of the rolling background can be seen on the ground. Mehmet wears a dark-coloured skullcap (takke) under a thin white cotton turban (dülbend). His shirt is also white, woven in the loom with thin cotton yarn, and has a short upright collar. From its pocket on the right side hangs the chain of his watch. The black, worn breeches (dizlik) stop below the knees. His dark, sun-tanned skinny legs are bare, as he wears no stockings under his shoddy, rawhide sandals (çarık).

Source: Nezaket Erbaş, Nicosia.

Photograph of Adem Mıstık (nickname of Mustafa) Hasan (1907-1934). It was taken in the Foto Fevzi Akarsu studio around 1926. The young man, with short hair and a thin moustache, is posing standing in front of a painted rolled background, the same as that of No. 025. His right hand is resting on the top of a low corner table decorated with a bunch of flowers. He is wearing a headdress referred to as an Arab fez (arap fesi), a white silk-cotton shirt with a double buttoned collar, and over the shirt a three-buttoned jack­et of black fabric, decorated with a carnation on the collar. This western-style jacket is matched with white baggy knee-breeches. Around his waist is a red sash and above it is tied a piece of spotted cotton textile. His colourful stockings, which reach up to the knee-breeches, are knitted with the traditional five-needle technique; the pattern consists of horizontal series of checkers/squares (box-design, kutulu; kutu = small box). He also wears black leather elastic-sided ankle boots (lastikli gonçlu potin).

The photograph was donated by Hüseyin Mıstıkoğlu.

Village: Kioneli (Gönyeli), Nicosia District.