The Cypriot female costume basically of the outer garment, the chemise and the distinctive long pantaloons caught around the ankle

Outer garmetchemise

Long pantaloons

The dress

• The foustani a one-piece waisted and pleated dress, was the preferred over-garment in the rular areas of Cyprus, particularly the plain and the mountains, well into 1950s, which decade was turning point for modernization in the countryside. The festival foustani was worn with an embroidered apron, the everyday one with a plain.

• The zoma a sash improvised from diagonally folded dark kerchief, tier round the waist with the pointed end behind.

ζωνάρι

• Ο γυναικείος κεφαλόδεσμος που επικράτησε όχι μόνο στον αγροτικό κόσμο αλλά και στις πόλεις ήταν η κουρούκλα, λεπτό τετράγωνο βαμβακερό μαντήλι σε διάφορα χρώματα, βυσσινί, κρασετί, σκούρο πράσινο για τις νέες και καφέ για τις ηλικιωμένες.

• The female headdresses which prevailed not only in the rular but also in the urban world was the kouroukla, a square kerchief of fine cotton and different colours, crimson, kraseti (bordeaux) dark green for young women and brown for older ones.

Νυφική φορεσιά• Ως νυφική φορεσιά χρησιμοποιείται

συνήθως το γιορτινό φόρεμα η προσθήκη μερικών κοσμημάτων και το χαρακτηριστικό κόκκινο μαντήλι, που φοριέται σε μερικές περιοχές για ένα χρόνο μετά το γάμο, διακρίνει την νύφη από τις άλλες προσκεκλημένες. Οι νύφες έπλεκαν ακόμη μέσα στα μαλλιά τους μακριά σύρματα, τα ττέλια που κάλυπταν το πρόσωπο.

• The festival dress was usually also the bridal costume, the addition of certain accessories and the characteristic scarlet kerchief, worn in some regions throughout the first year of marriage, being the only features distinguishing the bride from the other female guests. Brides also plaited long stran of wire, ttelia, in their hair, and these hung down like a veil concealing the face.

Bridal costume

• Its basic components are the densely pleated baggy trousers, vraka, which held sway in all the Greek islands, and the waistcoat, yileko, or jacket, zibouni.

Οι αντρικές φορεσιές

• The vraka was made of coarse hand – woven dimity , wich was dyed , after sewing , by local

poyatzides, black elderly men, blue for younger ones. The vraka varied in size and shape from region to region.

To poykamison

the vraka is worn with a chemise or shirt , of dark striped cotton material everyday and of silk on Sundays.

The yilekkozibouna

The yilekkozibouna was usually made of dark velvet with brightly coloured applique desighns of birds and animals

on the back, such as confronting lions , a symbol of virility.

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