In the 16th century, the word dolama, literally “wrapping,” was an adjective that indicated the garment was intended to be worn on the outside of the outfit. It was used only rarely, probably because people generally used a garment’s specific name. For example, in Istanbul-area court records, kaftan refers to a full-length inner robe, but there are a few instances of dolama kaftan, outer kaftans, which are made of heavier fabrics suitable for an overcoat rather than an inner robe. The court appraiser, faced with a garment that was cut like a kaftan but meant to be worn on the outside, gave up on looking for the precise term and called it an “outer kaftan.” In this period there’s little evidence that there was a single garment called the dolama.
That changed in the 17th century. By 1624, the dolama was a unisex knee-length or upper-calf-length robe that was closely fitted through the waist, with narrow skirts and full-length, generously wide sleeves. Unlike all other robes, the 16th-century incarnation of the dolama had no closures down the front and had to be belted shut.
Even among the wealthy, the dolama was a utilitarian garment. In estate records, only one person, Osman Çelebi, had a dolama made of silk rather than wool.