‘Amalia’ costume with “satakrouta” skirt

The newer costume, with a skirt or full-length dress, is of a Western type and came to Cyprus from liberated Greece as a variant of the ‘Amalia’ Greek national costume, which was also worn by urban women all over the Balkans at the end of the 19th century. This ensemble has a pleated white cotton petticoat, a short chemise of off-white silk and a long gathered skirt made of local “satakrouta” silk with horizontal bands in an unusual combination of contrasting colours. Round the waist is a belt with a filigree buckle. The costume also includes a black felt jacket, the “sarka”, with gold ornamentation. The head is covered by a crimson print kerchief, the “kouroukla me tin pipila”. On feast days the kerchief was replaced by a soft cap (“fessi”) with one short black silk tassel attached radially to the crown and a second tassel hanging down to the shoulder on one side. The fessi was decorated with “pipiles” (needlepoint lace) forming large flowers in relief. Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation Collection