An exhibition in Nicosia chronicles 200 years of weddings with dresses on show loaned by the public
A wedding today is a finely tuned affair, involving a supporting cast that increasingly involves an event organiser and costs families a fortune. While the format has changed over the years at the centre of the celebration has always been the elegantly dressed woman in white. Or has it?
As recently as the 1930s brides in Cyprus were married off as young as 10 to 16 in a practice commonplace among both communities historically. And, although bridal fashion didn’t become much of a consideration until a decade later, for rich or poor it was always about the dress, “from the poorest village girl who would give her Sunday best a good wash and iron to wear as her precious wedding gown to the wealthier bride who wore Egyptian or later on European inspired silk gowns,” says Rita Severis, executive director of CVAR which is currently host to Here Come the Brides!, an exhibition on the history of brides on the island.
The exhibition has a wedding dress from the 1930s which was worn by a 14-year-old girl. “Nineteenth century brides were very young,” says Severis, as evidenced by the small sizes of wedding dresses presented at the exhibition, characterised by slim waistlines that would have fitted young girls of slight build.
Initially women would use their traditional, mutlicoloured costumes as wedding dresses with vrakas (pantaloons) underneath, a practice that continued to around the 1890s. Over time and with influences from the west, designs moved to lighter colours, changing to beige, pink and blue, while Turkish Cypriots would wear red and lilac velvet costumes called Bindalli. These were adorned with intricate hand embroidered silver or gold threading. On their hands they would have henna tattoos and gold dust for good luck.
The white wedding dress became popular in both communities after Queen Victoria’s 1840 wedding to Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and not as is commonly thought to show whether a woman was a virgin or not. White wedding garments appeared widley in Cyprus however, at a much later date during the 1900s. The first white wedding dress worn by a Turkish Cypriot bride was recorded in 1898 when Naime Sultan, the daughter of Sultan Abdulhamid II, married Kemalettin Pasha.
It was also very common throughout the ages for wealthy Greek Cypriot brides to be decorated with lots of gold coins strung around their foreheads and busts, even poor women wore a little as part of their dowry. For Turkish Cypriots, tradition dictated that the bride hung a Bendo – a single large gold coin – around her neck, a custom dating from the Ottomans. They also decorated their heads with crowns of precious and semi-precious stones, pearls and diamonds depending on their wealth.
“I’ve read various travellers’ reports which described the Cypriot bride as ‘colourful’. This intrigued me. Unlike today, brides initially dressed in yellows, reds, purples, blacks, with some adorning henna tattoos and others gold coins on their foreheads,” says Severis happy to share “something positive” about the country’s combined history. “It was a bicommunal event, a happy occasion that both communities shared together, I think that’s important for people to see.”
From the 1930 to 50s British colonials began to copy patterns from abroad and even imported dresses from Egypt although mimicking the styles of Victorian wedding dresses actually occurred among the very wealthy Cypriots from as early as the late 19th century. A trend eventually emerged where dresses were made locally by imported tailors, such as the famed Karem from Egypt. Then there were the urban families who could even afford to import dresses from England or America. So up until the 1940s there seemed to be a real mismatch of styles, then after the 40s, a more “Europeanised” shared trend filtered through to both communities.
However, a girl’s bridal dress always mirrored her status. “The material, quality and quantity of the wedding attire was a reflection of the bride’s social position and a demonstration of her family’s wealth to the guests,” says Severis. Poorer women would spend much of their young lives sewing their own dresses or saving money to purchase pretty accessories. “Today most wedding ceremonies last only an evening but years ago, they could last for a week. As part of the ceremony both brides would wear pink the day before the wedding, white on the day and Turkish Cypriot women wore black the day after the wedding indicating that the bride was no longer a virgin”.
The day after the wedding, both communities would invite guests over to show off their gifts. The day before the marriage there’d be a display of the bride’s dowry, including sheets and tablecloths that the she herself had embroidered. Severis recalls going as a young child to a wedding with her parents where “all the gifts were exhibited on a table including plates, candlesticks and jewellery. I still remember it quite vividly and people would go round exclaiming ‘ooh, this is very nice, who gave you that?’ There’d be a card showing the names of the present givers next to each gift.”
The evolution of bridal dresses in Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities over the past 200 years is shown in the exhibition, a collaboration between CVAR, the Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation and Greek and Turkish Cypriot people’s wardrobes.
As part of the preparation for the exhibition, an appeal for wedding dresses was made via Facebook with surprising results. “I was amazed. Dresses came in in the hundreds from both communities eager to share their costumes, but we don’t have time to showcase them all unfortunately,” says Severis. With over 75 bridal outfits chosen for display and countless accessories collected from between the 19th and 21st centuries, the oldest bridal dress is a traditional purple Turkish Cypriot Bindalli from the early 1800s. There are Greek Cypriot gowns from the 1850s, straight dresses from 1920s, inflated Victorian inspired gowns from the 1960s “and costumes evolving up until today; now in 2016 we have crazy expensive wedding dresses; anything goes!” laughs Severis.
Severis is evidently excited about this exhibition, especially because it brings together both cultures in a different historical light. “The event is under the auspices of Andri Anastasiades and Meral Akinci, both of whom kindly lent us a bridal dress, Anastasiades gave us her daughter Ino’s wedding dress and Akinci an old 19th century Bindalli that she had in her family.” The exhibition really does provide a rare insight into the history and culture of Cyprus.
Here Come the Brides!
Until October 30. CVAR, Ermou 285, old Nicosia. Tel: 22 300994. Opening hours: Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm, Friday 10am-8pm. www.cvar.severis.org, www.boccf.org
