The melaya leff (meaning "wrapping sheet") is a mantle commonly worn in Egypt until the late 20th century, originally worn as a modesty garment throughout the major cities of Egypt. [1] Today it is frequently worn as part of dance costume and used as a prop during performances. It is an example of Egyptian cultural dress.
A type of mantle worn by women (and men) and wrapped around the body can be seen in art dating back to the Ptolemaic era in Egypt. [2] Such garments were found in many ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern cultures such as the himation, palla, and more.
Depictions of Egyptian women wearing dark wraps similar to the melaya in English date back to Richard Pocoke's drawing of such a garment, in 1743.
However, the first recorded use of the term "Melaya" (or, more accurately, "milayeh") in English sources comes from Edward William Lane's work. [3] He recounts it as being made of blue and white checked cotton fabric, with red at the ends, and distinct from the silk habarah.
The habarah was black for married women, and white for unmarried. It was held in place by a piece of ribbon sewn near the upper edge and tied around the head. Both are 3 yards of ell-width fabric sewn together down the middle, creating an overall width of 2 and a half yards. He notes there being a silk milayeh, made in different colors, but states it isn't often worn and provides no further description. [3]
In addition to this, Lane notes that during the bridal procession, brides wear a red Kashmir shawl, or a white or yellow shawl, though instead of resting on the head and falling on the back of the body, it conceals the front and back. This was worn overtop a cap or crown of thick paper, and a kussah (a type of forehead jewelry similar to the Algerian Khit errouh) was pinned to the outside of the shawl, with other ornaments being hidden under the shawl. [4]
As already noted, not all mantles of this type in Egypt were called melaya. Regional variations had different names, and certain styles recognizable as melaya, or similar to melaya, were not necessarily called as such. The convention is for the mantle in Coptic art to be called a palla, [5] and the habarah has already been mentioned.
In Assiut, one finds the shugga, said to have originated in Mamluk Egypt. It fully covers the body and is made of six or seven meters of lightweight silk or a similar material. It is made by sewing two lengths of fabric selvage to selvage, and folding the ends to the center front, then stitching to create shoulder seams and a front opening. Another style of shugga also worn in Assiut is made of a floor length gathered skirt, with a long panel extending from the waist that drapes in two bunches over the hips and is thrown over the head. [6] This two piece style was similar to a style of hubbara called the sharshaf, also worn in Sanaa. [7]
In Luxor one finds the hubbara, made of medium weight black silk, lightweight rayon with a ribbed stripe and twisted fringe, or coarse wool. It measures 1 1/2 × 3 or 4 meters, and some have deep purple stripes. It is normally worn with one edge folded back over the head, making a double thickness, and a single thickness over the shoulders and back. [7]
In Sohag, Idfu, and Kom Ombo, there is the birda, named for a striped wool fabric called bird, said to have been worn by the Prophet. It may be made of coarse wool, fine wool, or rayon. Sometimes it is made of brown wool with a red or green stripe by the finged ends, sometimes it is striped all over in brown and black, and foreign made fabric has the selvage left visible to show its place of manufacture, and looks like a stripe at a distance. It is worn in two ways: draped over the crown of the head or with one end attached to the waist and thrown over the head. [8]
In Qena and Bahriya one finds the nishra or futa, a fine plaid wool rectangle with fringed ends and a black background and red and white lines. Between Qena and Luxor, as well as Sudan, there is also the ferka, which is a yellow, white, and black plaid rectangle of cloth. If a woman in Qena does not wear these wears the birda, but this birda will be of a fine black wool. [9]
By the 20th century, the melaya came to refer to a black mantle, a reversal from the distinction Lane records. By 1987, a lower-class woman wearing a melaya would be assumed to be Muslim over being Christian. [10]
Farida Fahmy and the Reda Troupe are often credited with the invention of dance that uses the melaya as a prop. While this is debated, it is true that she and the Reda Troupe invented a theatrical dance using it. [11] The first dance, according to Mahmoud Reda, was a skit where a licorice seller angered a woman by spilling syrup on her, and she threw off her melaya to fight him. [1] The melaya in this use was part of the archetypal "bint al balad" (lit. Daughter or girl of the country). This character type has been compared to the American "girl next door". [12] In the early to mid 20th century, various actresses can be seen wearing the melaya in its black, plain version. The dancing versions worn today often feature paliettes and sequins, in silver, gold, and multicolor. According to Reda, while stretchy and chiffon fabric is common, the proper fabric for a dancer's melaya is made of tiny pleats so that it's stretchy, but still resembles a modesty garment. [1]
A common way of wearing the melaya is to have it rest on the head, with the rest of it wrapped around the body or resting on the arms. Another way of wearing is wrapping it around the waist, and having it tucked to create a hood over the woman's head.
A kilt is a garment resembling a wrap-around knee-length skirt, made of twill-woven worsted wool with heavy pleats at the sides and back and traditionally a tartan pattern. Originating in the Scottish Highland dress for men, it is first recorded in the 16th century as the great kilt, a full-length garment whose upper half could be worn as a cloak. The small kilt or modern kilt emerged in the 18th century, and is essentially the bottom half of the great kilt. Since the 19th century, it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland, and more broadly with Gaelic or Celtic heritage.
A tallit is a fringed garment worn as a prayer shawl by religious Jews. The tallit has special twined and knotted fringes known as tzitzit attached to its four corners. The cloth part is known as the beged ("garment") and is usually made from wool or cotton, although silk is sometimes used for a tallit gadol.
A cloak is a type of loose garment worn over clothing, mostly but not always as outerwear for outdoor wear, serving the same purpose as an overcoat, protecting the wearer from the weather. It may form part of a uniform. People in many different societies may wear cloaks. Over time cloak designs have changed to match fashion and available textiles.
1830s fashion in Western and Western-influenced fashion is characterized by an emphasis on breadth, initially at the shoulder and later in the hips, in contrast to the narrower silhouettes that had predominated between 1800 and 1820.
Fustian is a variety of heavy cloth woven from cotton, chiefly prepared for menswear.
The belted plaid is a large blanket-like piece of fabric which is wrapped around the body with the material pleated or, more accurately, loosely gathered and secured at the waist by means of a belt. Typically, a portion of the belted plaid hangs down to about the knees or ankles with the rest of the material being wrapped up around the upper body in a variety of ways and pinned or otherwise secured to keep it in place.
A dolman is either a military shirt, or a jacket decorated with braiding, first worn by Hungarian hussars. The word is of Turkish origin, and after being adopted into Hungarian, has propagated to other languages. The garment was worn by peasants from the 16th century onward and eventually spread throughout the country, mainly within wealthy peasant circles. It reached people living in the poorest conditions only at the end of the 19th century.
A himation was a type of clothing, a mantle or wrap worn by ancient Greek men and women from the Archaic period through the Hellenistic period. It was usually worn over a chiton and/or peplos, but was made of heavier drape and played the role of a cloak or shawl. When the himation was used alone, without a chiton, it served both as a chiton and as a cloak. The himation was markedly less voluminous than the Roman toga. Many vase paintings depict women wearing a himation as a veil covering their faces.
A pelisse was originally a short fur-trimmed jacket which hussar light-cavalry soldiers from the 17th century onwards usually wore hanging loose over the left shoulder, ostensibly to prevent sword cuts. The name also came to refer to a fashionable style of woman's coat-like garment worn in the early-19th century.
A kaunakes or persis was a woollen mantle associated with ancient Mesopotamia and Persia. It was woven in a tufted pattern suggesting overlapping petals or feathers, either by sewing tufts onto the garment or by weaving loops into the fabric.
The preservation of fabric fibers and leathers allows for insights into the attire of ancient societies. The clothing used in the ancient world reflects the technologies that these peoples mastered. In many cultures, clothing indicated the social status of various members of society.
The Welsh traditional costume was worn by rural women in Wales. It was identified as being different from that worn by the rural women of England by many of the English visitors who toured Wales during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It is very likely that what they wore was a survival of a pan-European costume worn by working rural women. This included a version of the gown, originally worn by the gentry in the 17th and 18th centuries, an item of clothing that survived in Wales for longer than elsewhere in Britain. The unique Welsh hat, which first made its appearance in the 1830s, was used as an icon of Wales from the 1840s.
Croatian national costume, also called as Croatian traditional clothing or Croatian dress, refers to the traditional clothing worn by Croats living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, with smaller communities in Hungary, Austria, Montenegro, and Romania. Since today Croats wear Western-style clothing on a daily basis, the national costumes are most often worn with connection to special events and celebrations, mostly at ethnic festivals, religious holidays, weddings, and by dancing groups who dance the traditional Croatian kolo, or circle dance.
Ancient Egyptian clothes refers to clothing worn in ancient Egypt from the end of the Neolithic period to the collapse of the Ptolemaic Kingdom with the death of Cleopatra in 30 BC. Egyptian clothing was filled with a variety of colors. Adorned with precious gems and jewels, the fashions of the ancient Egyptians were made for not only beauty but also comfort. Egyptian fashion was created to keep cool while in the hot desert.
Mahmoud Reda was an Egyptian dancer and choreographer, known for co-founding the Reda Troupe, and as an Olympic gymnast.
Traditional Irish clothing is the traditional attire which would have been worn historically by Irish people in Ireland. During the 16th-century Tudor conquest of Ireland, the Dublin Castle administration prohibited many of Ireland’s clothing traditions. A series of photos captured by French photographers Marguerite Mespoulet and Madeleine Mignon-Alba in 1913 included images of Irish people in traditional clothing. Some of these photos were taken in Claddagh, a town thought to have retained much of its traditional attire.
The clothing of the people in biblical times was made from wool, linen, animal skins, and perhaps silk. Most events in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament take place in ancient Israel, and thus most biblical clothing is ancient Hebrew clothing. They wore underwear and cloth skirts.
A pelerine is a small cape-like garment that covers the shoulders. Historically, the pelerine possibly originated in a type of 15th century armor padding that protected the neck and shoulders by itself, if the padded fabric was reinforced internally with metal, and/or acted as padding between armor and the skin in the neck-to-shoulder region. The pelerine often had fasteners so that pauldrons could be attached.
The jellabiya, also jalabiya, galabeya or jalamia is a loose-fitting, traditional garment from the Nile Valley. Today, it is associated with farmers living in Egypt and comes in rich color varieties. The garment is also worn in Sudan, but has other textures and is usually white, as well as some communities from Eritrea and Ethiopia. The colorful Egyptian style is used by both men and women.
Egyptian cultural dress is the clothes, shoes, jewelry, and other items of fashion common to the Egyptian people and recognizable as particularly representative of Egyptian culture.