Greek Cypriot dress The period of Ottoman Rule (1571-1878) The period of British Rule (1878-1960)
Written Sources | Visual representations | Preserved items
Under the Ottomans, the Greek Cypriot subjects presented a differentiated social stratification. An active class of local merchants and artisans, organized into guilds, had developed in the two main urban centers, Nicosia (the capital) and Larnaca (the main port and seat of consulates). They formed the middle stratum of the social hierarchy, far apart from the peasantry and the poor working class, and at a far greater distance from the ruling class, the level of which only a limited number of very rich people could approach. The top of the pyramid comprised of high-ranking members of the orthodox clergy, the Dragoman of Cyprus, a few notables and wealthy merchants, who formed part of the elite of the Cypriot society. The lifestyle of the elite was expressed in all aspects of material life, first of all, houses sheltering the private lives of eminent proprietors, the interior arrangement, furnishings and decoration, and last but not least, the appearance of such persons, their dress, jewellery and personal items. Richly decorated fashionable dresses were normally the privilege of the wealthy class which could afford such luxury.
In the 18th and 19th-century Cyprus, the appearance of the people of the upper classes mainly reflects two different co-existing cultures: the European and the Oriental.
According to Otto Friedrich von Richter, who visited Cyprus in 1816, ‘The attractions that Larnaca offers to a European returning from Asia are the various traces of Europeanism in the local dress code; here the hat has pushed the turban aside’. During the centuries of Ottoman rule oriental dress became fashionable, not only in Cyprus, but throughout the Empire. Oriental dress was promptly adopted by the upper classes, by privileged persons who could afford to buy high quality imported items. The oriental looking dress was typical for the elite even at the beginning of the 19th century, as noticed by Ali Bey in 1806: ‘Persons of any position always wear long coats, like the Turks, from whom they are distinguishable only by their blue turban; but many wear other colours, and even white, without offending the Turks’.
Giovanni Mariti, who lived in Cyprus from 1760 to 1767, refers to a costume consisting of a tight vest and a skirt of red cotton cloth as the alla Cipriotta (Cypriot type) dress, distinguishing it from the alla Turca dress that was fashionable all over the Empire with Constantinople as the main centre.
The Revolution of 1821, in which Cyprus was indirectly involved, resulted in the liberation of Greece and the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in the 1830s, while Cyprus remained under the Ottoman yoke. Although politically separated, Greece and Cyprus developed closer ties from this time onwards. The notion of Greek national identity became increasingly stronger in Cyprus and was also expressed in dress. The most typical case of national costume in Cyprus is the female costume known as Amalia. It was linked with the name of Amalia, Queen of Greece (1836-1862), and was well established in the urban centers of Cyprus by the mid-nineteenth century, as a variation of the Greek national costume. The Amalia costume, known from portraits and dowry contracts dated from the mid-nineteenth century onwards, became the formal dress worn by the town ladies. This costume comprised a silk shirt, a skirt or dress, a gold-embroidered jacket and a red fez adorned with black tassels and flowers made of tiny pearls.
The characteristic male costume worn both by Greek and Turkish Cypriots, in the towns and the countryside, had the vraka (baggy trousers) as its main component. It belongs to the island type of dress that was well established during the later Ottoman period. Vraka was either introduced by the Venetians, or, more probably, it was the dress of the corsairs and the inhabitants of the coast of Algeria, from where it spread to the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Crete and Cyprus.
‘Poverty seldom consults fashion in dress’ stated William Turner, who visited Cyprus in 1815, commenting on the appearance of the peasants. The most common garment he observed among the male, was one of coarse cotton, all white. It consisted of a short vest tight round the body, with loose trousers down to the feet, fastened round the waist by a drawing tape or by a red girdle. The turban was mostly of white cotton. Light cotton garments, woven in the loom, for both sexes, were most suitable for people working in the hot sun, and continued to be in everyday use until recent times. Women’s clothes, loose enough to float in the wind, did not display their shapes but were convenient for work. Their pantaloons were exceedingly large and tied at the ankles and waist.
Undergarments and shirts were white, but, as revealed by written sources and representations, outer garments were surprisingly colourful, reassuring the fact that restrictions concerning the use of colours were not as strict in remote provinces of the Ottoman Empire as they were in Constantinople.