Waist girdle no. 100

Waist girdle, a broad band which passed through the hem of drawers for holding them up (uçkur/uşgur); it is made of raw silk. Both narrow ends are decorated with similar embroidered patterns. They consist of two rows of six floral motifs (leafy stems), green, red and orange in the upper row (repeated twice). In the lower row, the motifs start, from left to right, with red, orange, green, and continue with red, green, red. The stems are embroidered with silver thread. Below the two rows of patterns, at the edge of the girdle, runs a wavy line, made of silver thread, with a flower motif in each curve, up and down; the flowers are embroidered with silk threads in the following order of colours: orange, red, red, red, green, red and green, orange, red, green. The same pattern is repeated on the other side with a different combination of the same colours; the arrangement is again in two rows, with similar small floral motifs in each curve of a wavy line. The embroidered patterns are stylized, simple and naïf. One long side of the girdle has a loom-woven selvedge, while the other long side and the short sides are turned over to form a hem. Width: 23.5cm, which is half of the width of the weft. Length: 2.43m. It should be noted that all embroidered broad bands (uçkurlar/uşgurlar) were intended for the don or dizlik of men. The gold embroidery was for underwear (don). Women had plain girdles for their don.