Man’s chemise no. 95

Man’s chemise (poukamiso, turk. gömlek) made of striped cotton cloth (alatzia, turk. alaca), with blue and red stripes on off-white background. The front part consists of two pieces of about 18cm width each. The length in front is 60cm. The piece of cloth forming the front continues as a single piece at the back for 39cm, then it is stitched to another piece 15cm wide. At the neck there is a two-piece collar. The front has a vertical opening fastened by five buttons of white and blue colour. Along the opening on either side there is an extra piece of cloth, each 7cm wide, the stripes of which are set obliquely. These extra pieces make the total width of the front 50cm (18x2+7x2cm). Additional square pieces, made of two triangular pieces of the same cloth stitched together diagonally (19cm), are inset at each underarm to give ease of movement. At the lower edge there is a slit on each side, 5cm long. The chemise is lined with white cotton fabric. On the right side it has a pocket (26cm high, 17cm wide) made of an extra piece of alaca with the stripes set horizontally. The opening of the pocket is 13.5cm wide. The long sleeves, which are sewn vertically to the body, end in cuffs, 7cm deep, fastened by one button.The cuffs are of the same alaca but with the stripes set obliquely. At the joint with the cuffs, the width of the sleeves is 12.5cm. At the opening of the sleeves, an oblique stripe is attached, 2cm wide. The seams of the chemise are made with the sewing machine. There is a hole at the lower part of the pocket and the lining near the edge of the back has been repaired with an additional piece of fabric. A rather similar striped silk and cotton chemise was brought to Athens for the Cy­priot Exhibition in 1901, as part of a traditional Turkish Cypriot costume, which also in­cluded the same richly adorned waistcoat (yeleko, turk. yelek) and pleated breeches (vraka, turk. dizlik) both made of blue broad ­cloth (turk. cuha salvar).