Her beauty, according to European ideas, would consists chiefly in her face; as the immoderate use of the warm bath, together with their mode of life, and manner of sitting, completely destroys all elegance of form, while the situation of the girdle, unlike the Grecian style, increases this appearance even to a disgusting excess. If it were not for this circumstance, the manner of dress would by no means be so unbecoming or inelegant.
In short, the cosmopolitan and far-ranging Wm. Alexander was addicted to the silouette produced by the upper-middle-class Western women's addiction to corsets.
However, Turkish dress was both more opulent and more comfortable than European dress, and it became very fashionable for European women to dress a la Turque after Lady Mary Wortley Montagu accompanied her husband to Turkey in the early eighteen century and began sending home letters which were published in the fashionable press. While in Turkey, she recorded an amusing incident at the women's baths during which a group of Turkish women, aghast at her restrictive ungarments, decided that her corsets were some kind of machine that her husband had locked her into.
The lady that seemed the most considerable amongst them entreated me to sit by her and would fain have undressed me for the bath. I excused my self with some difficulty, they being all so earnest in persuading me. I was at last forced to open my skirt and shew them my stays, which satisfied em very well, for I saw they believed I was so locked up in that machine that it was not in my own power to open it, which contrivance they attributed to my husband.
Many European noblewomen sat for portraits of themselves dressed in Turkish, or Turkish-like, finery. Taking into account Alexander's disdain for the uncorseted Turkish ladies, it is unlikely that the Western women used the Turkish style as an excuse to shed all their under-armor; but we may hope that a few, at least, pulled the strings less tightly!
References
Costuming:
- Sewing instructions for the pantaloons used by Tribal dancers, very similar to the classic Turkish pantaloons used by Turkish women.
- European women dressed a la Turque:
- An excellent collection of Western women dressed in the Turkish style.
- Another collection of Western women dressed in the Turkish style.
- Vanessa Giddings's description and schematics for undergarments, robes and vest (Gomlek, Shalvar, Entari, Chirka).
- Pictures of Ottoman clothing at the Turkish Culture portal.
- Well researched folkloric costume patterns from ReconstructingHistory.com
- Ottoman Influences in Turkish Dress, an academic paper located at Cornell.edu.
- Suggestions from a private collector
- SCA moderated board, many nitty-gritty details.
- Online brochure about Turkish garb from the College of Three Ravens.
Sultana of the beginning 19th century by Octavian Dalvimart
[Lady] Mary Wortley Montagu by Geo. Knapton
Turkish pants, female, by Tilke