Skirt of satakrouta, a pure silk fabric made from coarse unboiled silk. The name derives from the Italian term seta cruda. The colour of the fabric is somon (from the French saumon, salmon). The light-coloured field is interrupted at intervals by three parallel horizontal bands formed in the weft. Each band consists of six stripes – three fine and three broader. The colours (from top to bottom) are light green, deep red and purple. There is a wide band in dark/cypress green at the lower edge of the skirt, below the bottom group of stripes. The fine stripes are 0.5 cm. wide, the wide stripes are 1 cm. wide, and the green band at the bottom has a width of 4 cm. The skirt is ankle-length and wide. It gathers at the waist, where a thin belt of the same fabric has been sewn on. At the side, there is a vertical opening of 15 cm, with two cotton ribbons which tie at the waist. The skirt is lined with off-white cotton fabric (hases) and has a simple hem at the bottom. The fabric has some stains and shows signs of wear.
This is a characteristic Cypriot urban skirt, particularly of Nicosia. This type of skirt was worn in Cyprus as part of a more recent variation of the national dress inspired by the costume of Queen Amalia, dating back to the late 19th/early 20th century. For examples of the same skirt as part of a complete Amalia-type costume, see: Papantoniou 1996, p. 100; similar examples can be found in Papadimitriou 1991, p. 15; Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 1996, p. 76, fig. 38; Rizopoulou-Egoumenidou 2010, p. 136-137, no. 91b, and pp. 138-139, no. 92b.
Dimensions: height 90 cm., width 40 cm.
Acquisition: 03/12/1956. Price: 275 drachmas.
