
How to Dress Like an Ottoman - pepys
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/illustrated-guide-to-ottoman-clothes
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0db532a0
The article is wrong on ‘usta’. In modern Turkish, ‘usta’ isn’t used only for
cooks, but for all master tradesmen. It literally means ‘master’, and is
commonly appended to a person’s name as a form of address. A carpenter or
joiner might be also simply referred to or addressed as an ‘usta’, without
reference to his trade.

It is not used in the way that the English have used ‘master’ in modern times:
as a form of address for male children too young to be called ‘mister’.

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egeozcan
Funny fact: In Age of Empires 2, a Turkish villager shouts "usta" if you task
him/her as a carpenter[1].

It means being a craftsman, not necessarily a master. I mean, its literal
meaning is rarely what is meant.

[1]: [https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Turks#In-
game_dialogue_...](https://ageofempires.fandom.com/wiki/Turks#In-
game_dialogue_language)

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krm01
For anyone interested in history and museums: visiting the Topkapi museum in
Istanbul is a must. It’s the best way to experience the ottoman era, while
literally walking through the rooms of long-gone sultans. I highly recommend
getting a guide (or, as a hack, follow a group that paid for one) to consume
all of the juicy stories along the way. I’ve been there twice and I’m looking
fwd to the next visit.

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RestlessMind
It is interesting to see that these days, everyone across the globe dresses
essentially the same way. Why would that be, especially since other parts of
cultures (like food) are still distinct in distinct places?

~~~
blacksqr
Until the 20th century, producing color fast fabrics was either impossible or
expensive. Brightly-colored clothing was difficult to maintain, and if you had
a lot of it, you basically needed to be rich enough to afford a staff to take
care of it.

As the middle class expanded, people wanted practical dress clothes, and that
generally meant black or white for fastness and launderability.

Puritans/dissenting protestants played a large role in manufacturing and
finance in the US and Britain, and they preferred dark colors to reflect their
seriousness and sobriety. As these countries came to dominate world trade,
their dress preferences spread.

In the 19th century morning coats and frock coats predominated in the
middle/upper class. After WWI these came to be despised emblems of the older
generation that started the war. The future Edward VIII of the UK, when he was
Prince of Wales, popularized men's sporting wear -- his tastes were
influential because they represented youth, modernity and vitality in contrast
to the pre-WWI generation. He introduced the style of sport coat, tie and
collar that still predominate today. His style, plus the darker colors already
preferred by professionals, remain more or less the global uniform for men
because of the influence of British/American professionals.

"Producing fast black in the Middle Ages was a complicated process involving
multiple dyeings with woad or indigo followed by mordanting, but at the dawn
of Early Modern period, a new and superior method of dyeing black dye reached
Europe via Spanish conquests in the New World. The new method used logwood
(Haematoxylum campechianum), a dyewood native to Mexico and Central America.
Although logwood was poorly received at first, producing a blue inferior to
that of woad and indigo, it was discovered to produce a fast black in
combination with a ferrous sulfate (copperas) mordant. Despite changing
fashions in color, logwood was the most widely used dye by the 19th century,
providing the sober blacks of formal and mourning clothes."[0]

[0][https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_dye#The_rise_of_formal...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_dye#The_rise_of_formal_black)

~~~
chihuahua
I find it fascinating that it's called a "sport coat" because people used to
wear it with a tie for sporting activities (definitely golf, maybe hunting,
etc). These days it looks really formal, but back then it was (apparently) the
equivalent of today's running shorts and yoga pants.

~~~
hiharryhere
And now people go out and about in their yoga pants and activewear, even if
they aren't doing anything remotely sporting.

Funny how history repeats.

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zadkey
More ammo for Manning press book covers.

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fizwhiz
Thanks for the honest chortle.

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moab9
Onion head hat. I need one for work.

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dkersten
"We value your privacy. Atlas Obscura and our trusted partners use technology
such as cookies on our website to personalise ads, support social media
features, and analyse our traffic.", sorry, what? Does not compute. So they
don't value my privacy then?

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asimpletune
> No doubt they’ll long serve as a source of sartorial inspiration.

Is this use of “sartorial” considered a pun? Did I read that correctly?

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StavrosK
What's the pun? I only see the one meaning.

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asimpletune
“Sartorial” can be related to humor or tailoring.

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StavrosK
Can you point me to a reference for that? I can't find it anywhere, and didn't
know the word relating to anything other than tailors.

~~~
asimpletune
When I first read that line, I confused "sartorial" with "sardonic", so I was
surprised to find out what sartorial meant. However, I also have a Spanish
dictionary enabled on my phone, so one of the Spanish-english entries
mentioned "pertaining to humor". This was a mistake on my part though, because
later I looked more closely and I think the entry was more referring to the
usage like "sartorial wit", which would still be about clothes.

So, basically I was confused.

