Many people might think that because of the custom of women who lived in the Ottoman Empire completely hide his body and face veiled, this is not true and there is no detailed information about the clothing of women from Istanbul and other Turkish cities. But Ottoman fashion has always been a keen interest of foreign guests, and as a result came to our times a lot of images that describe in detail the clothes of Turkish women.

Palace tradition clothing store Sultan after his death, also played a positive role, and thanks to them we now have examples of what were at that time. After so many centuries to have survived a huge collection of Topkapi Palace. The earliest examples date back to the reign of Mehmet the Conqueror (1451-1481). The collection contains articles of clothing sultans, sultanas and their children.

Costumes of women in the Ottoman Empire of the 16th century

If you look at a variety of illustrations, paintings, examine written sources, you can easily re-create the image of a woman who lived in the Ottoman Empire of the 16th century. So indispensable component of a suit was a woman shirt with long sleeves extended, covering the legs. On the street, she wore a long veil (chador), yashmak (headscarf that covers the face), in some cases worn the veil.

The veil covers completely the body and hands, leaving the floor. The upper skirt is worn in front and opened when the woman went out into the street. With the veil worn or veil or yashmak. The veil was attached on top and down the face, tied with yashmak and closed below the lower face to the eyes.

All the women staying at home, had to hide the face, so it was impossible to distinguish one from the other. Even her husband could not find his wife in a dress. Yashmak and veil hiding his face, were of very good material, just like the rest of the rich Turkish women wear. They wore dresses made of gold or silver satin, silk, brocade and damask.

In his notes of travel Zintsendorf Joachim, who was a chaplain in the Imperial Embassy in Istanbul in the period from 1577 by 1581, noted that women on the street wearing baggy pants, sewn from transparent silk, taffeta or other material very good quality. On top of the other was wearing loose clothing of the same density of red, yellow or blue What colors are combined with blue: the fashion new solutions . Also on top of them wore a silk shirt, reaching to the knees, and on it was wearing a coat made of silk damask. Wide trousers are needed precisely in order to completely hide the legs, which, like a person who was not supposed to see no one but family members.

On the head they wore a small silk hat decorated with gold coins and entwined braid of black silk. This braid was attached translucent veil that hid his face. Noble women wore the veil of the Ottoman Empire, leaving the street - they liked wearing luxurious clothes and even what they are paying attention. Poor women appear in public covered from head to toe silk cape.

Caftans or other capes poor Turkish women were made of silk Silk - a legacy of the Yellow Emperor   or velvet. At the end of the sixteenth century rich women wore coats of stiff brocade enhanced with long sleeves, which can be worn on top of another coat, short. The collar of his coat changed over time, but in the seventeenth century, he settled on a V-shape.

Women's and men's shoes in style were similar, but the slippers were much more comfortable. Houses worn shoes of morocco, sharp-nosed, sometimes backless, with embroidery. On the street wear shoes (shoes or boots higher) on a wooden platform soles or heels. Exterior decoration of shoes, of course, could tell you about the status of the wearer, as, indeed, and hats.

Turkish women wore long hair Hair: structure, characteristics of growth and development They plaited into braids. They could be woven braid of various noble materials, and on his head was a cap, richly embroidered, decorated with jewels that certainly shows belonging to the upper class.

Error century

In 2011, on the screens around the world came the colorful Turkish series "Magnificent Century", which tells about the life of the Topkapi Palace during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. The series immediately gained millions of fans around the world, which with interest watched the ardent passion and hard court intrigues. Fashion designers imbued with Ottoman fashion and even began to produce a collection for which she has inspired them. A fashion historian and expert turkovedy grabbed his head, and for good reason. Age, of course, shows a great, but not quite the one that remained in historical references.

Complaints about the series began arriving on Turkish television almost from the first episode. According to experts of inaccuracies in it a huge amount, and this applies to both the storyline and visual component, in particular, costumes characters.

The greatest response was caused by the statement of the Turkish fashion designer Zuhal Yorgansioglu. She worked for many years with Ottoman motifs that inspire her to create new collections. According to the designer, costumes shown in "The Magnificent Century", is certainly very beautiful, luxurious, but ... they are not from Turkey to the sixteenth century. Yorgansioglu said that women of the Ottoman Empire could not wear so tight dress with a deep neckline, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent.

In Ottoman palaces were red, green, black, dark blue and light pink caftans. They were not at all fitting and tight in the waist. Under the coat, always wear trousers. It was a common fabric Hereke rich embroidery in silk and gold. Therefore, there is no question of the Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth, because what we see on the screen is closer to the French nineteenth-century costumes. It was taken out dress with sexy neckline and corset, which appear on the show ladies and concubines of the Sultan. They also wear luxurious curls that lie loosely on the shoulders or jets on the back, while in the Ottoman Empire of the sixteenth century the hair neatly braided.

The fact that the clothes on the show has too many features of the later Western fashion, emphasized by many. Indeed, in Turkey later wore dresses and suits, design borrowed from the West, but it was much later - in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

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