Day 28: Sunny in Istanbul

While studying abroad in Germany I spent 4 days in beautiful Istanbul, Turkey over Easter break. Such a beautiful place. I loved experiencing the Eastern and Islamic cultures and not knowing 1 word of the language! Defineitly one of the top places I have visited in the world. Already on the flight my classmates and I were planning a return trip in 10 or so years :)

 

Roundneck sea blue cotton tee, light cotton pants with soft mustard yellow field and light blue and salmon octagon pattern, white and soft brown leather sandals, white winged earrings. 

 

There were many things I thoroughly enjoyed discovering and seeing on my trip. Hands down one of the things I fell in love with was the Turkish ceramics, tiles and Iznik pottery. If I was not a college student on a budget, I would have bought enough to fill a room. The eye pooping colors are stunning and the patterns are plainly intricate yet simple. I have decided someday I want my kitchen or bathroom to feature these beautiful creations.

 

 

Pictures taken at the Topkapi Palace (above) A definite must see on any visit. It is the largest palace in Istanbul and was the main residence for the Ottoman Sultans for around 400 years (circa 1465-1856). This a link to their website. Just google search of the whole city of worth the pictures! http://topkapisarayi.gov.tr/en 

 

 

 The Grand Bazaar of Istanbul, one of the oldest and largest in the world. 61 covered streets and over 3,000 shops. I sampled and bought some genuine Turkish Delight to take home. Excellently yummy. Pictured below.
 

 

Fashion of the Future!...according to fashion designers in 1939

Wedding dresses made of glass, dresses that can have pieces easily zippered on and off for morning, afternoon or evening wear and "another designer goes so far as to say skirts will disappear entirely" -

 this last particular statement is partially true; women today in western societies do often wear pants more often than skirts. The fact that this prediction seems "far out there" speaks for the ideals of the time period and shows it seems a common firm belief that women belong in skirts. Another segment I found interesting was the "morning, afternoon, or evening wear." While today we may change into something a little nicer before going out to dinner, the notion of needing to have three separate outfits for one day if foreign and a little too demanding. This segment shows there were expected and most likely practiced rules for what type of clothing one could wear and at what time of day. For many college students such as myself, jeans, a T-shirt and Converse do just fine.

When we say vintage fashion, we mean 3,000 old years vintage

The pants below were found in west China and date back to 1122-926 BC. In Archaeology, dating objects, especially when this old, can be tricky. A ballpark figure with in a couple hundred years is good. This short blog relates fashion reasons of why we adopted the trousers: to protect our legs and nether regions as we rode horses. Once we as humans invented the bridle we could harness horses and their usefulness in many new ways. Thus, of course, a fashion development was in order to celebrate. The blog below explains more. Reading it made me excited for my Near-east Archaeology class I have scheduled for the Fall when I get back to the States from Germany!

http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/30759