This piece of wedding dress comes from the family of Mr. Şaban Yaylali and his daughter Mrs. Özden İneler who originated from Kayılar – Kozan (in Greek: Πτολεμαΐδα/Κοζάνη). This wedding dress was worn by Mr. Şaban’s mother, Dudu Yaylalı, when she was 17. It’s more than 100 years old. Instead of today’s white, mauve was the color for the traditional wedding dress at the time. Özden İneler literally saved this piece of the wedding dress, when her family was about to throw it to the garbage.
Wedding Dresses and the remains of a great day
When a wedding gown is no longer worn in public as “best dress”-this was often the case in the last century- it serves as a memento. It is a lifeless and therefore timeless witness to a rite of passage that marked the lives of not just the couple but of the people that sprung from their pairing. It tells the tale of the union between Mother and Father, Grandfather and Grandmother and so on. If it survives long enough, it even serves as an explanation of how these people’s grandchildren came to be, a partial answer to the riddle of their own existence.
Bridal dresses, groom’s costumes, items from the wedding ritual and wedding certificates are some of the objects people leaving their homes choose to pack. They feel compelled to carry them along with their money, their valuables, their most prized possessions. Understandably, the market value of these items may vary, but for family members, their symbolic worth is immense.
In the old days, the Turkish word for the groom was “bey” (ruler) and for the bride “hatun” (wife of the ruler) signifying the community’s endorsement of the institution of the family. During the Exchange, a married couple and their offspring would leave their home, their livelihood and estate behind in order to face unknown dangers and certain poverty. Under these conditions, an object reminding them of the one day they were “bey” and “hatun” was essential.
During the spring of 2023, in Heraklion, Crete a family relic of similar nature was exhibited. It belonged to a Greek woman that emigrated to Hearaklion from Cappadocia. As history’s twists and turns would have it, one woman was leaving Greece with a wedding dress carefully packed in her bags while another was reaching it with an unfinished bridal nightgown, from Turkey.