dress
- Museum number
- Eu2006,0904.8
- Description
-
A sleeveless overdress ('foustani' or 'tsoukna') with a square neckline. Made from indigo (?) (unevenly dyed) tabby cotton fabric. Two vertical nursing holes, embroidered in red blanket stitch. Yellow synthetic ribbon stitched below neckline and upper back. Narrow band of cross-stitch embroidery at hem: white, yellow, red and green cotton threads. Stained.
- Production date
- 20thC
- Dimensions
-
Length: 107 centimetres
-
Width: 82 centimetres (across arms)
- Curator's comments
- Information from donor: 'When I purchased this dress I was clearly told it was from Souli, which does not exist any more, and that this kind of dress had been worn by nursing mothers, so they could nurse without having to disrobe.' For information on nursing dresses, see Welters, Linda 1999, 'Gilding the Lily: Dress and Women's Reproductive Role in the Greek Village, 1850 - 1950', in Welter, Linda (ed), Folk Dress in Europe and Anatolia: Beliefs about Protection and Fertility: 71 - 95.
This dress is more typical of Thrace than Souli in Epirus. It may be a simpler version of the much more elaborate type from Thrace, see P. Zora, 'Embroideries and jewellery of Greek national costumes', Athens 1981, pp. 13-14 and fig. 18. Zora notes that the 'tsoukna' or 'tsoukmani' of Thrace were made of heavy loom-woven wool, the collar and hem embroidered with white cotton thread and cord.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 2006
- Acquisition notes
- Acquired by the donor in the 1970s.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- Eu2006,0904.8