Constantinople, painted by Warwick Goble, described by Alexander Van MillingenVan Millingen, Alexander
Philosophy
Constantinople, painted by Warwick Goble, described by Alexander Van Millingen
Van Millingen, Alexander
Istanbul (Turkey) -- Description and travel; Istanbul (Turkey) -- History
But this feast of colour has ended, and the world of Turkish womanhood
has exchanged the brightness of summer for the sober tints of autumn.
The yashmak is now universally discarded, except by the ladies of the
imperial household who are still required to wear it, as well as a black
feredjé; the only bit of bright colour permitted being in the matter of
the headkerchief of tulle they wear under the yashmak. In the costume of
the mass of Turkish women, the feredjé has been replaced by the
charshaf, a mantle worn over the head and about the body down to the
feet, drawn in slightly at the waist. The material and the colour of the
garment differ according to the means and taste of the wearer, but the
colour is always quiet and subdued. To the portion of the charshaf above
the eyes a dark veil is attached, and this can be worn over the face, or
thrown back over the head, as the wearer pleases. When thrown back, a
Turkish lady’s face is seen as plainly as that of her European sister.
The charshaf may also be made of two pieces of cloth in order to secure
a better fit, and although the garb might seem to defy artistic
arrangement and effect, it is often very becoming and graceful. It would
appear that the charshaf was the original dress of Turkish women, with
the important difference from the present fashion that the veil could
not be thrown back, and was furnished with two holes for the eyes, as
among Moslem women to-day in Persia and India. The yashmak, it is said,
came into vogue at the time of the Conquest, being an adaptation of the
veil worn then by women of the Christian peoples of the land. Its
abandonment for the sake of a style which permits greater freedom is a
sign of progress. But the change, which was made some thirty years ago,
roused considerable opposition. Merchants in the bazaars objected to it,
because a charshaf required less material to be made up than a feredjé,
and consequently injured trade. Others found fault with it simply
because it was an innovation; while others feared that when worn with
the veil down it might facilitate disguise in carrying on social or
political intrigues. Nay, imperial iradès denounced and forbade the new
mode. But all was in vain, for even in Turkey it is possible for women
to have their own way. Nor is it only in their out-door dress that
Turkish women have introduced alterations. They have done so likewise in
their dress when at home. The baggy trousers, the embroidered vest and
jacket, which constituted the costume in which a Turkish hanum reclined
upon her divan, have been replaced, in the progressive section of
Turkish female society, by garments after European fashions. A Turkish
bride belonging to a wealthy family wears a wedding dress like that
which adorns a young lady under similar circumstances in Western lands,
the only difference being that the former allows her hair to hang down,
and decorates it with long narrow streamers of tinsel, pieces of which
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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