Woman’s headscarf made of kouroukla, a thin cotton cloth, dyed in a green colour. They are decorated with printed floral motifs in red and yellow, with black outlining. The edges, known as the kkenarin, are decorated with a repeated composition of leaves and flowers in diagonal arrangement, while the inner four corners are decorated with neoclassical-style wreaths (milia pattern). The lace edging (pipilla) forms tiny flowers, a pattern called foulin, inspired by the synonymous white flower. The headscarves are printed by specialist technicians called mantilarides, while the pipilla was made by women. The green headscarf was worn by young women, and for this reason, headscarves of this colour fell out of use in the course of the 20th century.
Selected printed green headscarves are preserved in museum collections, for example in the Cypriot Collection of the National Historical Museum in Athens (Gangadi et al. 1999, 178-179, fig. 178), in the Cypriot ethnographic collection of the Benaki Museum (Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 2010, 111, no. 78; see also Hadjimichali 1983, 394, fig. 422), in the Cyprus Folk Art Museum of the Society of Cypriot Studies, in the Leventis Municipal Museum of Nicosia, and in private collections.
Dimensions: length 100 cm., width 100 cm.
Workshop of printed headscarves Evris Michael and Kakoullis Brothers, Nicosia.
