When pillbox hats were in fashion, women wound a folded band of fabric around the brim, either to add a touch of decoration or to hold their hat veil on. This band of fabric was called a çember or çenber. Sometimes the band was embroidered instead of folded. There are…
The shirt or shift that all Ottoman Turks wore next to their skin was called a gömlek.
The short-sleeved full-length overcoat is worn by a wide variety of people, from court officials to women going to the bath. It’s worn by women as a replacement for the ferace, and may have simply been called a ferace. Based on this, men’s short-sleeved overcoats may have been called feraces…
Is the robe worn under or over the belt? If it’s worn under the belt, it’s a kaftan. If it’s worn over the belt, are the sleeves short, full-length and loose, or as long as the garment and hanging behind? If the sleeves are short, the robe is an overcoat…
Both men and women wear hip-length overcoats, usually short-sleeved or sleeveless. In modern scholarship these are usually called yeleks, following the terminology of later centuries. It’s unclear whether the 16th-century Ottoman Turks also called them yeleks, or whether they had other terms that haven’t been identified yet.
Is the jacket worn over the belt, or under the belt? If the jacket is worn over the belt, it’s one of those lovely garments that we don’t have a name for, the Hip-Length Overjacket. If the jacket is worn under the belt, is it worn by a man, or…
It’s easy to miss the hanging sleeves of the classic Ottoman overcoat. There were no sleeveless long coats in period. Alternatively, if the robe is worn by a woman, it’s the 18th-century incarnation of the kürdiye. The kürdiye was introduced at the end of the 16th century, and for the next…
This style of overcoat, with its conspicuous consumption expressed through fabric-intensive vestigial sleeves, was the most fashionable, most formal, and most high-status of the overcoats. Made in the finest brocades and velvets with a broad, decorative collar, it was the hil’at, the grand court overrobe. Made in less showy materials,…