Greek Cypriot dress The period of Ottoman Rule (1571-1878) The period of British Rule (1878-1960)
Written Sources | Visual representations | Preserved items
The ceding of the administration of Cyprus to Britain, in 1878, brought about serious transformation in the society of the island. The new elite, members of which founded the first industries and occupied high administrative posts, created a different lifestyle, adopting the Frankish dress and building neoclassical houses, as Cyprus moved gradually but steadily towards its Europeanization.
At the dawn of the 20th century, in 1901, the Patriotic Association of Greek Cypriots in Athens organized a great Cypriot Exhibition in the Greek capital with a view to strengthening the bonds between Cyprus and Greece, considering this as a priority of national importance. Prefacing the presentation of the traditional Cypriot costumes exhibited in Athens in April 1901, the main organizer of the Exhibition, G.S. Frangoudes, summed up in a few concise words the entire development of Cypriot dress during the second half of the 19th century. It was during this time that Cyprus adopted the European dress. According to Frangoudes, in the towns, the men of good class, the tselepides (Turk. çelebi, the well-bred, educated, gentleman), who wore in earlier times the oriental anteri (Turk. entari, loose robe) and salvaria (Turk. şalvar, long pantaloons), which differed little from those of the Turks, had replaced them long ago by the Frankish (Western, European) dress. At the same time ordinary people proudly wore and continued to wear the vraka (baggy trousers), which by the end of the 19th century had become the national dress of the Cypriot male. The costume with the vraka (baggy trousers) as its main component belongs to the Aegean island type of dress that was well established during the later Ottoman period. The Cypriot vraka, the equivalent of the vraki worn in the Greek islands, was made of coarse dimity woven on the loom and then dyed by local dyers, usually black, or blue for younger men. The vraka varied in shape and size from region to region.
Persons of a higher status, who had previously adopted the oriental dress – while ordinary people were dressed in local traditional attire – were the first who changed their appearance, in order to adopt the European dress. Also now, at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century, the local costume was considered national Greek, as opposed to the Frankish dress.
By the end of the nineteenth century, the Amalia type of dress was replaced by the European dress which was adopted by the upper classes in the urban centres. However, it survived in rural areas as bridal and festive dress, with a headscarf instead of a fez, until the twentieth century. In the last decades of the 19th and in the early 20th century, the upper class ladies appear in long, high neck dresses in ivory-cream, black or other solemn colours, decorated with pleats, lace and frills. A waist jacket with skirt also became common. For men as well, the oriental garments belonged to the past, as they were thoroughly substituted by the Frankish outfit. Late 19th century photographs show a combination of the European-style costume, either with a straw hat or with a fez, which was still worn by elderly men or by the more conservative Turkish Cypriots. From this time onwards, European fabrics were increasingly imported; local clothing and the shoe industry followed Western designs. The factories were now producing drab shoes and boots of European styles replacing the blue, red and yellow shoes they had supplied to Turkey and Egypt before the British occupation. The European fashion expressed different ideals, ambitions and values. The members of the upper classes, who first adopted it, formed, as in the past, a small portion of the Cypriot population; yet, they represented the new dynamic element in their society, which gave further impetus to economic and social transformations.
In the first half of the 20th century European dress became prevalent in the towns and gradually penetrated the countryside in a more provincial fashion style. A consequence of the change in attire, particularly among the urban population, was the creation and development of new special occupations, such as tailors for men’s European attire and seamstresses and dressmakers for women’s clothes.