For a whole month, the Manege exhibition hall at the Kazan Kremlin museum-reserve will be immersed in the rich flavor of centuries-old Turkish culture. Perhaps everyone, who has watched popular Turkish series, or at least those who are remotely familiar with this culture, will not be able to pass by a new exhibition – “Kaftan. Costumes of the Ottoman Empire through the Eyes of Modern Turkish Designers”. It marks the centenary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Turkey and makes it possible to get acquainted with the richness of costumes of the Ottoman Empire.
The project is organized by the Turkish Consulate General in Kazan with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Tatarstan.
The richness of the Turkish costume is represented by 21 exhibits, including the garment of the Russian public’s favourite Mehmed the Conqueror and ruler Suleiman’s beloved wife Hurrem. It is noteworthy that the Ottoman Empire was characterized by a great variety of vestments due to the fact that the state borders were constantly expanding and the state included fairly large number of various peoples and cultures. The roots of Ottoman costumes can be traced back to the culture of ancestors of the Ottomans who had lived in Central Asia. Clothes, as an element of culture, play an important role in the Ottoman culture. The splendor of the vestments worn in a palace reflected the strength, power and wealth of the Ottoman Empire.
“Most of the costumes presented today were created on the warm land of Antalya. One cannot say exactly how much time it took to create each of them, but I can assure you that a lot of sweat and tears were put in this work”, Ismet Erikan, the Turkish Consul General in Kazan noted. “We show you modern replicas of costumes that were worn by the nobility of the Ottoman Empire. We have prepared a surprise for Kazan residents – an interpretation of Queen Suyumbike’s dress. Certainly, this is not her real dress, but we have studied a lot of literature and records about historical costumes of the Kazan Khanate. We relied on the ruler’s portraits created by artists of different years. This is how we saw Queen Suyumbike. All the details of the costume were created exclusively by hand”.
It should be noted that the Queen’s costume is made of silk, velvet, taffeta, satin, chiffon, fur, brocade and homespun fabrics. The dress is decorated with applications and striped of gold and silver threads, Turkish traditional embroidery, gold embroidery and Turkish lace.
The reconstructions of the original Ottoman palace costumes have been recreated to the smallest detail by the designers of the Turkish Scientific and Educational Institute for the Study of Traditional Turkish Clothing and Art - the Olgunlashma Institute from Antalya and the Olgunlashma Sabanci Institute.
As one can notice, most of the costumes are women’s. And this is no coincidence: women paid special attention to their appearance and preferred clothes made of expensive fabrics that reflected their status: brocade, velvet, chatma, seersucker, embroidered silk fabrics, satin, janfes, chiffon, chukha, mohair and scarlet fabrics were used, as well as embroidery with gold threads and precious and semiprecious stones. It is interesting that the costume of Turkish women was very similar to that of men. Just like men, they wore trousers that were made of muslin, silk, yellow or striped linen. The linen shirt resembled men’s one but was a bit shorter. On top they wore a silk patterned half-kaftan with wide sleeves. The sleeves of the shirt and another silk kaftan looked out of it. Both kaftans had deep necklines. The upper one was long, with cuts on both sides down to the very knees, was tied with a girdle or a belt decorated with silver and gold.
When Turkish women went outside, they wore a black silk coat with a large four-sided turn-down green-colored collar. Middle-class women wore striped woolen coats and very long blankets.
As far as men’s vestments are concerned, only one men’s costume is presented at the exhibition. This is the costume of Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror who lived in the XV century. As it was noted during the first excursion around the exhibition, the Sultan most likely wore a sleeveless kaftan of striped brocade with a faux fur collar and a red silk undershirt trimmed with gold braid and metal buttons.
In general, it was typical for all men to wear trousers, a shirt, a camisole, a jacket or a kaftan, an upper kaftan and a girdle. Their trousers were sewn from thin silk or fabric. Men put them on their naked bodies and tied them around their waist with an embroidered lace. At first, trousers were wide and long; they were folded down on their feet. Then there was another style of them - they were shortened to the knees. Such wide short trousers were worn by janissary warriors. They put on stockings under trousers. At the top of the trousers, the Turks wore a long wide sleeved shirt that reached the middle of the caviar or ankles. Those shirts were sewn from thin striped semi silk fabric, made of muslin, silk and cloth.
Long kaftans with wide and very long sleeves were made from single-colored or striped fabric - semi-paper or semi silk, they were buttoned or wrap worn. The kaftan hem could be wrapped and fastened to the waist. Janissary put them behind into wide folds. The military had kaftans with short sleeves to the elbow or without any sleeves at all.
“The fereje” was the Turks’ outerwear, which was worn over the rest of the dress. It was long wide clothing with long wide, sometimes slit sleeves. The fereje for every day was sewn from a thick woolen fabric in blue or green. The fereje for special occasions was sewn from silk, an expensive cloth; it was stitched with expensive fur. It could also have a turn-down collar, with cords and buttons in front. The color and decoration of the fereje depended on the title and position of the person who wore it.