Bulletin du Musée National de Varsovie (35.1994)

Little published materiał of an academic character exists on the subject of 1 8th and
19th century Turkish garments, which in most cases fails to include description of all
types and fashions of clothing worn in Ottoman Turkey.4 It is for this reason that every
description appearing on the subject of a new and previously unknown collection of
traditional Turkish garments provides new and valuable information for comparative
studies. The amassing of such materiał may lead in the futurę to a synthetic study of
the history of Turkish costume.

For centuries Turkish dress exerted a strong influence on the styles of garment
worn by ethnic groups Iiving within the expansive borders of the Ottoman Empire,
stretching until the 1 9th century from Algeria in the West to the Middle East and the
Balkans, while also affecting over certain periods the national styles of countries
bordering the Empire, such as Hungary, Poland, the Ukrainę, Russia and the
Caucasus, as well as yet further abroad.

The earliest influences of European fashions began to make themselves noticeable
in Turkish styles, particularly in women's dress from the second half of the 18th
century. Later, during the mid-1800s, Turkish dress in generał began to take on an
increasingly European appearance. Rapid changes were initially madę to the military
uniform. European-style clothes, or Europeanised garments, spread rapidly among the
upper classes. The middle class, religious circles and the peasants maintained the
traditions of national Turkish dress for considerably longer. A very strong contrast
arose between the regional costumes which had taken shape in Anatolia and Th race in
relation to dominant trends in the towns and cities.

The Turkish costumes preserved in the National Museum in Warsaw include five
items which form a comprehensive group in terms of cut, age and place of origin,
while the remaining costume — a woman's dress — belongs to what have become in
our times rare examples of original Turkish garments from the late 1 8th century.

Descriptions of the garments

Woman's dress, 1 8th century Fig. 1a,b

Turkey, probably altered in Poland
lnv. No. MNW Szt 2767
Purchased in 1 963

The dress design, as well as the brocade, from which it is madę are typical of the
kind of garment worn by women in the second half of the 1 8th century. Dresses in
a similar style are depicted in Turkish miniatures.5 A young bride's dress from the
beginning of the 1 9th century preserved in IstanbuFs Museum of Turkish and Islamie
Art is very similar in fashion to the exh i bit described here.

The dress is madę of brocaded fabric following a pattern of repeated, narrow lines
in pastel colours of brick, beige, pea-green, pale plum and amaranthine, filled in with
a fine floral-flower pattern with ribbons and smali stars. The lining consists of a white,
thin linen, the sleeves are lined with satin while the lower part of the dress is finished
with salmon-coloured silk. The upper part is cut off at the waist, the opening in the
bodice reaches down to the waistline from the front. Twelve little buttons have been
sown onto the left hand side of the opening, while loops covered by a band are
attached on the other side. The dress is bell-shaped with the folds of materiał pleated
at the waist. Two pockets were placed in the seams to the left and right hand sides. The
sleeves are elongated, cut from the elbow to form loosely-falling euffs. The neck.

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