Manchester University Press
2 How do you dress like a Pole?
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Tomasz Grusiecki
Abstract
Tracing clothing’s dissemination across the region, Chapter 2 explores processes of transculturation, highlighting how sustained contact with other traditions changed the way recipient communities defined their own cultural milieus. While indebted to previous studies, this chapter shows how new questions continue to emerge about stylistic Ottomanization of costume in Poland Lithuania: How are we to understand the seeming paradox of adapting Islamic fashions for the needs of a predominantly Christian noble society? How could the exotic be identified as native without raising the eyebrows of this early modern nobility? The adaptation of Ottoman fashion was more than simply a projection of Ottoman sartorial style onto the material culture of Poland Lithuania. Highlighting the popularity of Ottomanesque material forms in the Commonwealth, this chapter points beyond the dichotomy of Orient and Occident, revealing the process of inventing a self-avowedly Occidental sartorial tradition that was deeply embedded in ‘Oriental’ models, however inappropriately termed.
Abstract
Tracing clothing’s dissemination across the region, Chapter 2 explores processes of transculturation, highlighting how sustained contact with other traditions changed the way recipient communities defined their own cultural milieus. While indebted to previous studies, this chapter shows how new questions continue to emerge about stylistic Ottomanization of costume in Poland Lithuania: How are we to understand the seeming paradox of adapting Islamic fashions for the needs of a predominantly Christian noble society? How could the exotic be identified as native without raising the eyebrows of this early modern nobility? The adaptation of Ottoman fashion was more than simply a projection of Ottoman sartorial style onto the material culture of Poland Lithuania. Highlighting the popularity of Ottomanesque material forms in the Commonwealth, this chapter points beyond the dichotomy of Orient and Occident, revealing the process of inventing a self-avowedly Occidental sartorial tradition that was deeply embedded in ‘Oriental’ models, however inappropriately termed.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- A note on names xv
- Map xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Where is Sarmatia? 30
- 2 How do you dress like a Pole? 57
- 3 Who speaks for Poland? 101
- 4 Where do Polish carpets come from? 147
- Epilogue 194
- Bibliography 203
- Index 237
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- List of figures viii
- Acknowledgements xiii
- A note on names xv
- Map xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Where is Sarmatia? 30
- 2 How do you dress like a Pole? 57
- 3 Who speaks for Poland? 101
- 4 Where do Polish carpets come from? 147
- Epilogue 194
- Bibliography 203
- Index 237
