Émile Deschamps: Au pays d’ Aphrodite. Chypre. Carnet d’un voyageur

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).