Tarkish Area Studies TASG Newsletter of the Tarkish Area Stady Group Number 52 Ml April 2001 ISSN 0954-2574 Turkish Migrations to Europe From Guest-Workers to Transnational Communities Eva Ostergaard-Nielsen Consequences of Emigration for Turkey “Ahmet leduyn The Embroided Jacket Nilufer Mizanoglu Reddy Book Reviews By Bengisu Rona, Belma Otus-BasketTHE EMEROWERED JACKET Meanings of our Lives originate elsewhere, not here, not in everyday world or present tine. = Jorge Luis Borges once in a while when I feel honesick 1 go thraugh some of my possessions that were handed down to me by my older relatives in Turkey. I had no choice but to accept then because they were given to me, almost forced on me, with great love as special treats. 1 have carried these possessions over here, to New York where I live and where f'n writing this, Right now the subject of my attention is = faded-blue-green, gold-enbroidered silk jacket, hanging bY a wire nanger on the door of a closet. This jacket hes becone an object of special admiration snd wonderment for mer T keep looking and looking at it to understand its meaning beyond the surface aesthetic design and patterns that are very pleasing to the eye. In a sense this tees silk taffeta Turkish jacket is a part of my history. I se it as 2 continuation of a set of meanings —- I want to hens this knowledge down, if only as information ame interpretation, to my cwn two daughters. There is no choice but to write about it. Of course, one can go to the mucomme and find articles belonging co such and such persos == history in a particular country. The Metropolitan Masoae= Costume Show of 1977, fron 19th century Turkey, nad meme jitens from Macedonia where this jacket came from. Sur is something inauthentic about such displays: the loose trousers looked fake somehow, the jackets wor ‘che naked arms of the mannequins should have na sleeved blouses under them. Despite their colorfel attractive display these costunes seemed a2 cut of place the Egyptian Dendur Temple of the Nuseun in ste enclosure standing against the beautiful f2ll foliase the Central Park and posh Fifth Avenue apartment houses I keep looking at the blue taffeta, gold: jacket; if one can describe this old jacke: === Gescribe almost anything. Tt was my maternal or jacket. she was a slim woman and the jacket ==Obviousiy this jacket .was meant to be given to a young bride ond it was a pat of my grandnother's trousseaa, Te is quite possible that it originally belonged to her mother and was given to her as a special gift. ‘This conjecture takes us roughly to the third quarter of the 19th century, 0 Ottoman Macedonia, to a city called Koprilt (now Veles) T put the jacket on; it fits me well. 1 staze at ie hard. How can one describe the designs and patterns of the lost art of gold embroidery? 1 can see that the blue color Of the jacket is faded (it looks green now), the material is frayed and torn in sone places, especially under the armpits, but the gold-enbroidery 18 undamaged almost as Good as it mist have becn the day it was made. The style of the jacket is very simple, like the old Ottoman kafcans; I© was cut from one piece of folded cloth, with a round neck, a slightly tapered waist, wider at the hem, open in front without buttons, with the folded part forming the shoulders and lengths of cloth added to make the sleeves longer. The jacket was sewn by hand; it has a dark blue someunat, faded cotton Lining sewn with regular but croder than machines made stitches. The most impressive thing about the jacket is its elaborate gold erbroidery which covers a” good Portion of its surface. There is an unmistakable gaiety and buoyancy about the design, Could this be late 19eh century Balkan-Ottonan rococo? I find this rather ironic because it is hard to imagine this period of history as particularly cheerful. The design of the embroidery is fioraly arabesques of stems and leaves end up in stylized tolipe like flowers. there are also rosette-like delicate, tiny flowers; there are little sequins here and there ty emphasize a point like the center of a flower of the ending of @ stem. There is such a rhythm underlying the whole Pattern that it makes me think of songs and dances, Everything is so symmetrical, so expertly embroidered to the lest sequin leat, stem, ‘and flower that 1 could not find one irregularity or mistake to spoil the perfect balance and absolutely professional execution of the design. One can look at an enbroidered article forever -- but beyond its pleasant eye-appeal there is also a personal and historical meaning that I felt I had to delve into and extract as much information ag I could from the written Sources and memory. First let's seo what the dictionaries are saying: