pantaloons

ΜΓ 22 Women’s pantaloons of thick loom-woven cotton.   They consist of eight fabric sections. At the centre front and back, two pieces (one on each side)  extend from the waist downward across both legs, tapering from 20 cm at their top to 2.5-3 cm at the hem. Attached to these sections are two more, one across the inner side of each leg, tapering from 12 cm at the top to 4 cm at the hem. The left leg has two successive outer pieces whereas the right leg features a single outer piece. On the right side of the pantaloons, a small added fabric piece extends horizontally under the waist, front and back, across a total length of 23 cm.   Embroidered decoration in red and blue covers the lower part of both legs, externally. The dense (pefkoto) embroidery, in a design known as the karpasitikon (of the Karpasia area), features consecutive lozenges arranged in successive rows. The lozenges enclose smaller ones, while in their side corners’ cut-offs they contain single triangles. The pefkoto embroidery is crowned by a row of korou(d)es [girls] on the left leg and finikou(d)es [palm trees] on the right. Both motifs consist of a lozenge above a vertical line with two opposite-facing oblique projections that may depict leaves or hands. The korou(d)es are rendered with more elongated lozenges of two triangles joined along their base. The white-coloured woven fabric peeks through an uncovered vertical line in the middle.  The korou(d)es crafted with blue yarn feature red-coloured triangle fillings, while for those crafted with red yarn the fillings are blue. The pantaloon legs gather at the bottom.   All fabric sections at the upper part of the garment are folded outwards, forming a hollow hem casing (height: 3-3.5 cm) with a threaded drawstring.   Height: 80 cm. Maximum width: 72 cm. Width of leg opening: 21 cm. Date of entry to the Collection: 26.10.1948 Provenance: Fyti, Pafos – Donation.