Black and white

A shepherd holding a lamb near the church of Agios Georgios Makris in Larnaca. He is wearing a dark coloured shirt, black pleated baggy trousers (vraka), a dark coloured sash and leather boots. He is carrying a shoulder bag made of tanned goatskin (vourka). 

Mrs Scott-Stevenson found the dress of the country people she saw in Lapithos (a small town in Kyrenia district) very picturesque and suitable, writing, ‘Yellow or crimson shoes, short white socks, loose white trousers fastened at the ankle, a skirt of bright cotton, and a richly embroidered bodice (generally in velvet) cut in a low square on the bosom, which is covered with a transparent piece of worked muslin. Innumerable glass bangles on the arms complete the costume. On their heads they wear a silk handkerchief tightly fastened across the top, and holding back two long plaits of hair. Bunches of jessamine and sweet-scented geranium-leaves are fastened on one side, and on the other a half-wreath of worsted and silk flowers on wire’.

The costume struck her as very quaint and pretty, and becoming to the classic features and splendid black eyes of most of the local women. She adds, ‘A few had lines of khol painted round the rims, and all the babies had a black line on both upper and lower lids. This, it is supposed, keeps the eyes cool and preserves them from attacks of flies’. Of the village women, she makes the following comment: ‘Poor creatures! They had never left their villages except to visit some fair, and the sight of an English lady in European costume was one to be remembered for all time’ (Scott-Stevenson. 1880, 56-57).

Scott-Stevenson’ s fairly detailed description does not leave any doubt that the costume she saw is made up of a dress or skirt above a shirt, a jacket (sarka), and a headscarf. This costume was established in urban centres by the mid-nineteenth century. It was linked with the name of Amalia, Queen of Greece (1836-62) and is known as 'the Amalia type' costume. In the urban original a fez (cap) was worn in place of the headscarf. This cap was different from the one used in mainland Greece; the Cypriot fez had a wide, black tassel which covered the whole cap and was decorated with fiora (flowers), garlands of flowers made of pearls and braided with silk. We see this type of clothing in various pictures, for example in women's portraits of the mid-nineteenth century (Mariou Pieraki in Larnaca, Iouliani Vondiziano in Nicosia). A noteworthy example of costumes of town women and which were on the verge of disappearing from the towns was exhibited in Athens in 1901 as the costume of 'a Cypriot town lady'. As Scott-Stevenson’s account shows, this one-time town dress began to spread in the countryside by the first days of British rule. In the countryside, in a less ornate and luxurious form, it served not only as a festive dress for a young village girl, but also as a bridal dress.

The bridal version of this same style of dress is described by Mrs Scott-Stevenson, who had the opportunity to observe it when she accepted an invitation to attend a wedding in the village of Asomatos in the Kyrenia district. The women of the village welcomed the foreign lady with respect. They sprinkled her with rosewater and kissed her hand. When she asked to see the bride who sat speechless (kamarone) and covered with a long veil at her mother’s house, two women raised the veil and the bride stooped down and kissed her hand. Scott- Stevenson records that the bride . . . was dressed in a green silk petticoat, with a black velvet bodice, cut open in front, showing a worked chemisette and numerous rows of silver gilt chains. Her long rough hair escaped to her waist, with streamers of gold grass (like those in the fireplace of seaside lodging-houses) scattered through it, and over her head was a white muslin handkerchief, marked in coarse gold embroidery at each corner. Her costume was finished off by high yellow leather boots. The arms, which were bare to the elbows, were hideously painted over with daubs of henna, the finger-nails and the palms of the hands being dyed in the same way. Henna is much used in Cyprus. It is bought freshly pounded in the Nicosia bazaar, then mixed to a paste with a little water, and put on the place meant to be coloured. At first the henna has a greenish tinge, but if left on all night, turns to the red-brown shade they admire.

The henna was a kind of cosmetic of natural extraction, particularly popular with Moslem women, and with the women of the Maronite community inhabiting the village of Asomatos. Henna was also used in the past by Greek women, particularly in the towns. The bodice (sarka), the most basic piece of festive and bridal attire, used to be part of the bride dowry, and was worn for the first time on her wedding day, together with a deep red cotton skirt with manypleats, which because of its colour was called roudgettin and was fixed with a belt on the waist. This combination is particularly cited for the Karpas area. The women of Karpasia wore a similar white skirt with pleats as a coat when they went to church. Clearly this was the doublettin, a cotton skirt which was worn as a cape.

Mrs Scott-Stevenson also described the costume with the sayia as it was worn in Akanthou (given as 'Accatou' in the text, Akanthou is a village in the Kyrenia district), where natives in a body came out to inspect the foreigners. She wrote, ‘I saw some remarkably pretty girls, who, fortunately, were in their native dress, unspoilt by vulgar modern finery. Loose coarse canvas trousers made the stockingless feet, which they almost touched, look small by comparison; a loose skirt of cream-coloured Cyprus cloth; and over all a kind of long coat, cut very low on the bosom - in fact, merely secured at the waist with a couple of buttons, and encircled by a gay-coloured sash. As it is rare (I have hardly ever seen one) to see a stout woman of the peasant class, the dress is admirably adapted to their figures, and in very young girls and the more graceful of the women the effect is charming. They set great store on the little necklaces of coral and seed pearl, often extremely pretty, which are bought at the larger fairs, and mostly worn very becomingly’ (Scott-Stevenson, 1880, 262).

Mrs Scott-Stevenson reached the conclusion that, ‘The women have no modesty. In England their dress would be considered indecent. Among the Greeks it is the custom to leave the gown open over the chest, often as far down as the waist’ (Scott-Stevenson, 1880, 130).

Le Tour du Monde, a travel journal, is a French weekly published in January 1860. It was also called Le Tour du monde, journal des voyages et des voyageurs (1895-1914).

It  was created in January 1860 by Édouard Charton, designer of the picturesque store, and under the auspices of the Hachette Bookshop: every six months, the weekly booklets, sold through the network of railway stations, were collected in one volume, which was offered to him in bookstores.

A second series was inaugurated in 1895 under the title Tour du monde, journal des voyages et des voyageurs: much more modern, it reproduces photographic images.

It is a weekly that targets a popular readership and devotes its content to travel and exploration. He described in detail most of the great expeditions that marked the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, the last great period of exploration of the globe by Western travelers. About fifty years that cover a period from the discovery of the sources of the Nile, early 1860s, to the conquest of the South Pole, late 1911.

It combines texts and illustrations, at the beginning of wood engravings, which were gradually replaced by reproductions of photographs at the end of the nineteenth century.

Émile Deschamps, who spent 15 months in Cyprus and visited many places all over the island, had the opportunity to see many Turkish Cypriots of both sexes. He noticed that Turkish women used to cover their face with the tip of their dress… Returning to Larnaca, he saw in the road a small coach drawn by a horse; it was guided by two Turkish women, one of them covered with a ferace.

In Nicosia he saw a group Turkish women walking slowly through the bazaars; a small, absolutely special world. They wore the ferace, holding with their left hand, and trying to cover their face; they looked like a cloud, white, yellow, violet, from which one could see only the tip of their small, convenient slippers…    (Lazarides 2005, 26, 33, 58, 92-93).

During the fair of Kataklysmos, Deschamps watched the crowd and noticed that the attire of Greek and Turks was more or less similar, but the Turks appeared more convenient in their clean dresses. H focused his attention on the Turkish festive costume; the local dandyism was recognized from the fez and the baggy trousers (vraka) tied with garters under the knee. In many cases the fez was very tall, placed obliquely on the head and covered with a white scarf with golden fringes, the corner of which hang down on the face. In the eyes of the Europeans, in comparison with their fashion, the fez appeared as the most ungraceful part of the Turkish attire. On top of the ear, under the fez, they used to attach a flower or rather a small bunch of flowers, to decorate their face. On top of the chemise, with its long full sleeves, they wore a waistcoat, the front part of which was very often made of cloth of a different colour from that of the back, e.g. bright red on the part which covered the chest and light green (similar to the green apples) with floral motives on the back. A broad polychrome sash with flower patterns was wrapped around the waist, and extended down to the middle of the leg. This costume was completed with pink, blue or yellow stockings and flat shoes, typical for the urban population, while the villagers used to wear heavy top boots. Lazarides 2005, 92-93).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Émile Deschamps was born in Marseilles in 1857. He arrived at Larnaca on November 14, 1892, and, after touring around the island for about fifteen months, he left on March 4, 1894. His impressions are vividly described in the illustrated book Au pays d’ Aphrodite. Chypre. Carnet d’un voyageur (258 pages). His references to the appearance of the people of Cyprus are sporadic and occasional:

Walking along the sea-front in Larnaca, he noticed that the entrance of the Messageries Maritimes Company office was crowded with people wearing either a fez or a hat, thus distinguishing the Europeans from the local men. Walking towards the centre of the town, Deschamps had the opportunity to watch more details of the attire of both sexes. The inhabitants wore the red fez around the base of which they used to wrap a dark blue, red or black headscarf. Their dress consisted of a colourful waistcoat, under which a white chemise was visible, and baggy trousers (vraka), usually blue, with a longer middle part, and shorter side parts reaching to the knees. Their shoes were either leather slippers (skarpes) or heavy boots. He got the impression that the attire of Greeks and Turks presented small differences… Deschamps had created in his mind an ideal, goddess-like picture of the females of the island, and was disappointed to see that most of the women he met in the streets were wearing dark clothes, a simple fitted waistcoat over a skirt. Their head was covered with a scarf, from the edges of which were hanging gold or silver coins. The scarf was tied at the back over loose hair or plaits…

Finally, Deschamps had the opportunity to meet also people of the upper class, merchants wearing European costumes, and ladies or young girls wearing European but old-fashioned dresses…  He paid special attention to the women from Agia Napa and the area around the Paralimni lake. In contrast to the usual type of Cypriot women, those were handsome, strong and full of energy. Their attire consisted of a chemise and a kind of skirt that accentuated their silhouette; this was considered indecent by the archbishop in Nicosia, who tried to modify it, in vain. Even in this respect the women in this area differed from those of other regions… In Nicosia, one could see through the open doors of the houses women and young girls weaving in big looms. In the bazaars of the capital he noticed a craftsman who ironed fezes, then a dyer of textiles in a shop painted from top to bottom in blue colour… In another part of the bazaar, women were selling cotton and silk scarves, all handmade… On the Easter Sunday, Deschamps was impressed by the crowd of people in the courtyard of the metropolitan church in Larnaca. He noticed the most prominent dress item, the red fez and the colourful scarves which covered heads with brown hair.

 Deschamps described in detail the fair of Kataklysmos in Larnaca. His comment on the appearance of the people in general, was that blue, the colour of the clear sky of the East, was the prevalent colour in the costumes of the crowd. Village women were wearing their national costume: their head was covered with one or more kerchiefs, blue or white, with a green decorative band, gold or silver gilt, tied under the chin and covering the head on the back. The jacket was made of velvet or cotton and in many cases it was richly adorned with golden ornaments; its square opening on the chest, exposed the fine chemise, made of thin cloth like tulle. The dress, usually red, black or grey, monochrome or with floral patterns, was a skirt extending from a thick waist, downwards. Their neck was decorated with necklaces of golden coins, and their arms with glass bracelets imported from Syria.      

In Keryneia, Deschamps had the opportunity to observe a street shoe-seller, who walked with his merchandise, different types of shoes, hanging from a long stich, which he held in horizontal position. Other shoes were hanging from his shoulder. He was poorly dressed: white chemise, baggy trousers, waistband and fez.

In the monastery of the Virgin ton Katharon, near the village of Larnaca tis Lapithou, Deschamps had the opportunity to attend a baptism and watch the appearance of the two old priests. Both wore the typical black robes over blue baggy trousers, similar to those of the Turks, and big top boots.

In the monastery of Kykkos he noticed the dress of the young men who were prepared to become monks: wide trousers and a black coat; they had long hair and a black cap on top of their head. In the village of Koma tou Yialou, in Karpasia, Deschamps met women who were wearing the douplettin, a festive cape, white, wide and densely pleated. He noted that it was worn only in the Karpasia region (Λαζαρίδης 2005, 24, 25-26, 53, 57, 60, 77, 91-92, 109, 115, 141, 176).    

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

The architect and draughtsman Edmond Duthoit arrived to Cyprus from Beirut on 28th of February 1862, in the company of Melchior de Vogué and Henry William Waddington. They were the three members of the Phoenician mission organized by the French Government in order to collect information and antiquities. Duthoit returned to Cyprus for a second time in 1865. Here he grasped the opportunity to become the most prolific French ethnographic artist of the island. Among many other aspects of traditional life, he drew Cypriots of both sexes and nations, and in some cases described their costumes. In his pencil drawing of a standing Turk, the man wears a long overcoat with wide sleeves and a turban, a long piece of narrow cloth wrapped around his head. Duthoit was amazed by the Turkish ceremony of receiving guests and described such a scene in detail, commenting also on the appearance of the participants: “On arrival at the Pasha we were made to sit or lie on the divan and they brought the tsibouk, long pipes 1.5 to 2.00 meters long. Here the pipe, its dimension, body of amber varying in thickness, have their significance and one kind of pipe is given to one type of person and not to another. One started with compliments and banalities… then a tray arrived covered with purple muslin embroidered with gilded stars and brought in by four officers. The coffee was followed at an interval by another tray and another cover and by another four officers. This tray contained quite large bowls full of lemonade or orangeade, it was the sorbet. Imagine four men dressed in various colours half in European manner, half in the Turkish, wearing pantaloons and without socks, bringing in all seriousness a tray holding what? Four cups of coffee as big as egg cups.” (Severis 1999, 87-89, 93, 97, ill. 62).]

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Edmond Duthoit, a French architect and draughtsman, was one of the three members of the Phoenician mission organized by the French Government in 1862, with a view to collect information and antiquities, in particular inscriptions. Duthoit visited Cyprus twice, first in 1862, when he was 24 years old, and returned for the second time in 1865. During his visit to Cyprus he made a number of sketches, from which, in combination with his letters, a most complete picture of the island in the decade of 1860-70 may be developed. The wealth of information encompasses also social aspects of Cyprus, descriptions of customs, food habits, dress etc. A number of his linear quick and sketchy drawings are dedicated to the people of the island, and present a selection of Greek and Turkish attires. In addition to the visual representations, Duthoit also described or made comments on dress:

“The women resemble in their dress the pretty girls of Arles wearing with a lot of coquetry a small corsage very low cut that crosses under the breast, a muslin or dantelles cover the chest, the neck remaining bare. A veil covers the head and those who do not have magnificent plaits hanging down their backs, use artificial or natural flowers to cover them.” It was just before Easter when Duthoit reached Kykko monastery and gives a vivid description of scenes of feast: “The courtyard was full of animals: horses donkeys and mules that had brought a great number of pilgrims; the crowd was so big that one part was obliged to sleep in the open air… I saw Kykko as it should be seen with a crowd of people, women and children with the most brilliantly coloured costumes. All the pilgrims were celebrating: the women all wore jackets of velvet with gold embroideries and on their neck hung, made up in a necklace, all the coins of their fortune. I saw the Caramaniote women who wear their hair in numerous plaits almost like strings and attach a piece of gold in every one of the plaits. The effect of this hairstyle is striking and it has nothing unpleasant…” (Severis 1999, 87-91, 95).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

William Turner, Esquire, left Constantinople on February 20, 1815, in a small Turkish vessel, and sighted Cyprus on March 22, travelled in Palestine, visited M. Sinai, and returned to Larnaca on October 8, sailing again on November 16 for Rhodes. In his Journal of a Tour in the Levant, which was published by John Murray in 3 volumes (London, 1820), this intelligent traveller offers valuable information about Cyprus and its people, including appearance, lifestyle and social behavior. As principal commerce items he presents cotton, wool, white and yellow silk, the local raw materials which were used for clothing. Most revealing are his remarks about dress, especially that of women, offering an ideal description of a variety of dress items, including jewellery:  “Having somewhere read (I believe in the Quarterly Review of Mr Clarke’s Greece) that the dress of the Greek women in Cyprus differs from all the others, and approaches more to the ancient model, I observed this point with particular attention, and am able to state with confidence that in all my rambles about the island, I have seen only two kinds of dresses that differed from the usual fashion of the Greeks, and of these but very few. One of these was a short yellow vest tight round the upper part of the body, with a red petticoat that came over it at the waist, round which it was tightened by a drawing tape; a handkerchief was carelessly tied round the head. This was worn by a villager whom I saw at Santa Croce, and by another near Paphos. The other, worn by a pretty young girl of Nicosia, was all of white cotton, a loose vest, with pantaloons fastened by a drawing tape round the waist, and descending to the feet below the knot with which it was tied at the ancle à la Turque. The general dress, like that of all Greek women, consisted of a white cap, sometimes with a red border or embroidered, according to the circumstances of the wearer, round which the hair flowed loose before on each temple, and terminated behind in one, two, six or even eight tails, generally lengthened by skeins of silk: strings of sequins, rubiehs or paras hung round the head and neck: a gown tightened at the waist, and bound by a simple handkerchief, or by a leathern girdle fastened by silver clasps which generally bore the shape of a circle or of a sloped heart, and an outer robe more or less richly embroidered, flowing to the feet: for this latter a red cloth is mostly preferred, they being here freely permitted to wear that colour as well as yellow shoes, contrary to the custom in Constantinople. They frequently throw a handkerchief loosely about the head to shade them from the sun, and none of them, even Turkish women, hide their face with scrupulous jealousy.” Turner also commented on the male peasants’ everyday dress: “Poverty seldom consults fashion in dress, but if I observed one habit more common among the Greek male peasants than the other, it was one of coarse cotton, all white, consisting of a short vest tight round the body, with loose trousers down to the feet, fastened round the waist by a drawing tape, or, if the wearer could afford it, by a girdle which was generally red. The turban was mostly of coarse white cotton, they being freely allowed to wear this colour on the head.” On his way from “Thali” [Dali/Idalion] to Larnaca, Turner met “several peasants on the road driving large flocks of sheep and goats: their prevailing dress was a white turban, white jacket and white shalwar (trousers): that of the women was the common Greek dress, with a large white vest to shade them from the sun.”  Most exciting, however, is Turner’s description of his “visit to a lying-in Cypriote lady”, in Larnaca: “We found her sitting up in bed, and in good health and spirits, though it is only the second day since her delivery. She was gaily and splendidly dressed, and wore a garland of flowers round her cap (at Constantinople the costume in these cases is a small embroidered white handkerchief on the head): the only sign of her indisposition was the room being darkened.” (Cobham 1908, 424-426, 430, 435, 448-449).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

The Rev. Edward Daniel Clarke, who visited Cyprus between June 6 and June 16, 1801, in the wide range of information about several aspects of life in the island, included some notes about the Turks of Cyprus:

With reference to the goldsmiths of Nicosia, he noticed that their main occupation consisted in making coarse silver rings for the women, and “in setting signets for Turks of all denominations. There is hardly a Mahometan who does not bear upon one of his fingers this kind of ornament. The Turkish signet is generally a carnelian stone, inscribed with a few words from the Qoran, a proverb in Arabic, or a couplet in Persian.” (Cobham 1908, 388-389).

Travelogues concerning Cyprus include valuable information about many aspects of life in the island, among other about the appearance of its inhabitants. Clothing is the first item one observes when coming into contact with the people in a foreign country, and is pivotal in creating a first impression of the local population. Travellers refer also to the raw materials and the textiles used for making clothes.

Henry Light, Captain of the Royal Artillery, was in garrison at Malta in the year 1814, and obtained leave to travel in Egypt, Holy Land, parts of the Lebanon and Cyprus. His stay in Cyprus was short. Regarding the appearance of the people he met on the island, he comments: “The costume of the Franks is, for the men, generally that of Europe. The consuls have an uniform, which they make as rich as possible with embroidery. I saw them all in grand gala on the birthday of the Emperor of Austria, whose consul received a visit of ceremony from all the others. The costume of the women is Greek, and almost similar to that which the late travels in Greece have rendered so familiar to all readers.” Light also noticed the dress of the peasants: “The peasantry is ill looking. The men were dressed in a white canvass vest over a waist-coat of the same material, and a white linen turban on their heads. They wore the Albanian petticoat, similar to the Highland kilt, or the usual shalwar or breeches of the Turks, and high boots, used, as I understood, to avoid the fatal venom of the serpents of the island.” (Cobham 1908, 421, 422).