Female and Male

Baby Artin Melikian is wearing a white jumpsuit, accompanied by his grandmother Elize Melikian, who is dressed in black, and his cousins Anahid Melikian and Elize Melikian, who are identically dressed in white short dresses, socks, and shoes.

In this photo, Artin Melikian, the child of Zabelle and Hairabed Melikian, is shown wearing a coat, alongside his grandmother Elize Melikian, who is dressed in black.

Class photo from Melikian familly photo album: The children are all dressed in Western-style outfits. The girls are wearing long, light-colored dresses, with their hair pinned back from their faces. Most of the boys are dressed in a variety of light-colored, long-sleeved outfits, except for two boys seated in the front row's left corner, who are wearing dark-colored Western suits. Two boys are dressed in light-colored sailor outfits, one with a tie and the other wearing a long-sleeved jacket over a white shirt. The man on the left is dressed in a three-piece Western suit with a cravat and a hat, while the woman is wearing a floor-length skirt and a long blouse with puffy sleeves.

Family portrait from Melikian familly photo album: The entire family is dressed in Western-style outfits. The wife, on the left, is wearing a floor-length, long-sleeved dress with a long necklace. The young boy is dressed in a  children's sailor outfit. The young girl is wearing a knee-length white dress with white socks and brown lace-up shoes. The man is wearing a dark-colored three-piece suit with a white high-collared  shirt, a cravat, and dark shoes.

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 pieces of embroidered fabric for slippers, part of the dowry of Antaram Chichegian (Ανταρος Τατσιγιάν), Mara. Antaram Tavitian Chichegian intended to make a pair of slippers for her fiancé Canabed Chichegian. The embroidery on the black fabric, which would form the upper part of the slippers, consists of colourful -red and white- flowers with green leaves. The young girl brought the two pieces of fabric with her from the village of Germir in Kayseri to Marash, and from Mersin to Mara, where she was married. Due to the massacres, the slippers were never completed. During the massacres, both the girl and her fiancé died of typhus, but the slippers came to Cyprus with Mrs. Antaram's mother, Mrs. Maritsa. They were later inherited by Mrs. Antaram's son, Hasop Chichegian, and are now in the possession of Mrs. Sirvart.

The first scene depicts the arrest of Athanasios Diakos, the hero of the Greek War of Independence, who was put to death in spring 1821. The garments of both the hero and the Turkish soldiers are copies of the same figures depicted in imported prints. In the scene next to that of the arrest of Diakos, appears a man wearing narrow black knee-breeches, a white shirt under a blue sleeved jacket closed with buttons at the front, a broad colourful sash or belt, as well as red and blue striped stockings; in his right hand he holds a dagger, while a sabre or yatağan is hanging from the belt. Most impressive is the tall head-cover consisting of a series of superimposed scarves. The whole appearance recalls the traditional costume of the zeybek, infantrymen from Soutwest Ana­tolia. Similarly dressed are the Turkish soldiers who arrest the hero in the following scene on the same wall, except for their head-covers, which comprise a tall fez with a turban. Be­tween the two scenes is depicted the tree of paradise with the snake coiling up the trunk. A young lady holding flowers appears at the extreme right (Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1989, 195-202, plates LXV:1, 2, and LXVI: 1; Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1996, 160, fig. 144).

A donor is depicted with his family in an icon of St John Prodromos, dated 1794, in the Church of St John Prodromos, in Dromolaxia. The donor himself wears a long red coat lined with fur and closed with a button(?) at the base of the neck; also, a red skullcap covered with black fur (apparently a kalpak) and a striped turban wound around its base. The lady’s heavy overcoat, made of patterned brocade and lined with ermine fur, is open in front to expose a colourful anterín with a buckled belt at the waist. The deep décolletage is covered with the white shirt. Her headdress is a tall pointed cap (tarpuş/serpuş) with a veil draped over it. The attires of the four children, two male and two females, resemble those of their parents, respectively. The boy wears a red skullcap. Bright scarlet coloured fabrics are sharply contrasted with black and gold yellow patterned ones

A valuable source of information about the material and social life in Cyprus by the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and particularly about the lifestyle of the elite of the island during the same period, is the manuscript account of the property of Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios, Dragoman of Cyprus for thirty years (1778/9-1809). It is written in a booklet 12,8 x 19,5 cm which is covered with red leather and comprises 31 sheets. There are 35 full or partly written pages. Hadjigeorgakis himself started to write this account on January 1st 1794 and describes it as:

“Inventory of my own house wherein

I describe my main sources of income

That I have acquired with the help of mighty God,

as well as any other property which belongs to me alone.

Hadjigeorgakis Dragoman” (fig. ..)

The handwriting of the Dragoman is recognizable in the first pages, while most other pages have been filled by his son Christodoulos, after Hadjigeorgakis’ execution in 1809. During the uprising of the year 1804, staged as a result of excessive taxation and shortage of foodstuff, Hadjigeorgakis escaped with his family to Constantinople. They took the valuable account with them abroad as it becomes apparent from later dates occasionally noted. The latest date is 1822.

In the manuscript the detailed record of the immovable property is followed by an inventory of precious jewels and other valuables, also dress items belonging to the Dragoman, his wife and children, as well as luxurious fabrics to be used for making garments.

The garments belonging to Maroudia, Hadjigeorgakis’ wife, comprise:

one salin kefalis lahourenon (Lahore woolen head shawl),

one tzouppen (Turk. cüppe = long overcoat) made of velvet, with its havlin (pin),

one pinisin (Turk. biniş = long cloak) made of purple broadcloth, felt, one foustanin lahourenon,  dress made of Lahore type fabric in white colour,

another pinisin salin kiortoum payiltim, which is a biniş (long cloak) made of excellent cashmere,

one cashmere cüppe in orange colour (tourountzin, Turk. turuncu), and three mandilia (scarves),

one dress made of Lahore woolen cloth in orange colour, another wide cüppe made of Lahore type woolen fabric, and one pinisin lahourenon kolymbaton (woolen wide biniş).           

Female dress items are also recorded in another page:

one cüppe and one anterin (Turk. entari = loose robe,) belonging to Argyri,

one foutas (Turk. futa = bath wrapper) in red colour, and one gold-embroidered mandilin (headscarf) kourouklenon (made of thin cloth, kouroukla).

The clothes of the eldest daughter, Mariora, were wrapped in a pogos (Turk. boğ = bundle).

As for the clothes of the Dragoman’s sons, only three kalpakia (Turk. kalpak), headdresses made of sable fur, are mentioned. One of them belonged to Michael and the other two to the eldest son, Christodoulos.

More numerous and precious were the dress items, mostly overcoats, which belonged to Hadjigeorgakis. They comprised:

three zostres, waist shawls made of woolen Lahore type cloth,

two kalpaks consisting of a red cap made of telâtin (Russian leather made of calfskin) surrounded by sable fur,

one tsaktzirin (Persian çakşır), broad pantaloons made of red woolen cloth,

one makrogounna, a long fur coat made from sintzapin (Turk. sincap = European squirrel) and lined on the outside with sofin (Turk. sof = cloth made with the hair of goats, mohair),

another makrogounna (long fur coat) nafe (Turk. nafe = fur from the belly of an animal, e.g. fox) with red kapin (cape),

a kontogounin (short fur coat) from samourin (sable),

one makrogounna samourin (long fur coat from sable) with kapin (cape) made of felt.

Apart from the above mentioned fur coats, which belonged to the Dragoman, another seven overcoats are recorded as follows:

one gounna kakkoumin (Turk. kakum = ermine, kakum kürk = ermine fur) with red kapin,

one kakoumogounna (ermine fur) with white kermesoutin (Turk. kermesüd, keremsud, germsüd), a cotton or silk  fabric made in Aleppo,

one makrogounna kakoumin (long ermine fur coat) with sofin, mohair fabric covering the fur on the outside,

another gounnan nafen (fur coat from the belly of an animal, probably fox),   

one kontogounnin milon, a short fur coat made, most probably, from the fur of fox’s shoulders,

one kontogounnin sintzapin, a short fur coat made from squirrel, and

one koritzan samourolemin, a short overcoat, made of fur from the neck of sable.

Apart from protection from the cold, fur coats, especially the expensive examples, had symbolic meanings; they reflected the status of dignitaries and the wealth of the upper classes.

Fabrics, mostly expensive textiles, are mentioned not only in connection with specific garments, but also separately, intended to be used for making garments:

Tzoha (Turk. çuha = broadcloth) is the most often recorded fabric, in various colours, white, morikon (Turk. mor = violet, purple), alikon, alkioulin (al = crimson colour, vermilion, flame scarlet, gül = rose). Broadcloth is also recorded as iglezikon (English), which, in those times, was three times more expensive than the common felt. In some cases broadcloth is mentioned as the material intended to be used for specific overcoats, e.g. tzouppellikin (Turk. cüppelık), cloth for making tzouppe, or pinislikin (Turk. binişlık) cloth for making pinisin (Turk. biniş).  Ahmeties (Turk. ahmediye) the richly ornamented old Turkish velvet, is mentioned once. A piece of the woolen fabric salin (Turk. şali = camlet) completes the list of fabrics. The above mentioned references indicate that the red colour, in different hues, had the greatest frequency in the garments of the Dragoman’s family.      

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.