#Fez hat origin update

It now survives in the parade uniform of the Presidential Guard in Athens.įrom the late 19th century on the fez was widely adopted as the headdress of locally recruited 'native' soldiers amongst the various colonial troops of the world. The Evzones (light infantry) regiments of the Greek Army wore their own distinctive version of the fez from 1837 until World War II. During World War I the fez was still worn by some naval reserve units and occasionally by soldiers when off duty. Albanian levies wore a white version of the fez. The only significant exceptions were cavalry and some artillery units who wore a lambskin hat with coloured cloth tops. The red fez with blue tassel was the standard headdress of the Turkish Army from the 1840s until the introduction of a khaki service dress and peakless sun helmet in 1910. The name is originated from the city of Fez in Morocco, where the style first emerged. Praying while wearing a fez -instead of a hat with brim- was easier because Muslims put their foreheads on the ground many times during the prayer sessions. Later the turban was eliminated, the bonnet shortened, and the color fixed to red. The fez was initially a brimless bonnet of red, white, or black with a turban woven around. In his speech attacking Ottoman dress as decadent, he condemned the fez as ' the headcovering of Greeks', tarring it by association with the recent Greco-Turkish War. The fez had become traditional to the point that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk banned it in Turkey in 1925 as part of his modernizing reforms.

in the decades surrounding the turn of the 20th century. Seen as exotic & romantic in the west, it enjoyed a vogue as part of men's luxury smoking outfit in the U.S. Initially a symbol of Ottoman modernity, the fez over time came to be seen as part of an 'Oriental' cultural identity. Although the hat survived, the year-long boycott brought the end of its universality in the Ottoman Empire as other styles became socially acceptable. The 1908 Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, resulted in a boycott of Austrian goods which became known as the “Fez Boycott” due to the near monopoly the Austrians then held on production of the hat. However, the invention of low-cost synthetic dyes soon shifted production of the hat to the factories of Austria. The striking scarlet and merlot colors of the Fez were initially achieved through an extract of cornel. Styles soon multiplied, with nuances of shape, height, material, and hue competing in the market.

To meet escalating demand, skilled fez makers were induced to immigrate from North Africa to Istanbul, where factories were established in the neighborhood of Eyup. Although tradesmen and artisans generally rejected the fez, it became a symbol of modernity throughout the Near East, inspiring similar decrees in other nations (such as Iran in 1873.) This was a radically egalitarian measure which replaced the elaborate sumptuary laws which signaled rank, religion, and occupation, allowing prosperous non-Muslims to express their wealth in competitions with Muslims, foreshadowing the Tanzimat reforms.

#Fez hat origin update

The intention was to coerce the populace at large to update to the Fez, and the plan was successful. In 1829, the Sultan ordered his civil officials to wear the plain fez, and also banned the wearing of turbans. His modernized military adopted Western style uniforms and, as hats, the fez with a cloth wrapped around it. In 1826 Sultan Mahmud II of the Ottoman Empire suppressed the Janissaries and began sweeping reforms of the military. The artisans involved in their making were the most selective members of the city's Souqs. The fez was developed to fashionable heights by Andalusian Arabs in the city of Fes, Morocco by the 17th century. Portrait of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II after his clothing reforms