Just as it seemed likely the country would be carved up by its former enemies, the Turkish nationalist movement was born, leading to the Turkish War of Independence in which Atatürk played a major role. On the 13 th of November 1918, French troops entered the city, followed by British troops the next day. Harsh as this may seem today, Atatürk was trying to unite a country shattered by the losses suffered in World War One and the subsequent Occupation of Constantinople. Anyone daring to be seen in a fez would be punished, and could even have faced the death penalty. Individuals could choose to go hatless but on no account could they wear a traditional turban or fez. The ‘Hat Law’ meant that only Western-style hats could be worn in public places and it was mandatory for all civil servants to wear one. Renowned military strategist and founder of the Turkish Republic, he introduced numerous policies to bring Turkey into line with Western standards and expectations. The early decades of the 20 th century saw major changes in Turkey, all led by one man, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Long associated with the dangerous wilds of the Orient, a fez remains a popular souvenir to bring home, although the only people you’re likely to see wearing them are ice cream sellers in tourist centres Indeed, the factory that made them, now converted into an exhibition centre, can still be seen on the shores of the Golden Horn. Prior to 1925, the Turkish fez, a conical hat made of red felt, was synonymous with Turkey and the Ottoman Empire. However the story behind their disappearance and eventual re-emergence is telling.
These days they’ve become quite fashionable and are more widely available. When I first moved to Turkey hats on heads, like umbrellas in the rain, were scarce.
#TURKISH FEZ SKIN#
A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Capital and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.I’m Australian, so coming from a country with one of the highest rates of skin cancer in the world, wearing a hat in summer, or in my case any time the sun shines, is imperative. If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". You can also see more stories from BBC Culture on Facebook and Twitter. To comment on and see more stories from BBC Designed, you can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. But can Lebanese fashion brand Boshies turn this former imperial ornament into a fashion statement for Lebanese men and women – and the wider Arab world? Originally a male accessory, Arab men continued to wear it for generations and the tarboosh is still a part of traditional dress in some parts of the world. Among his modernising reforms in Turkey, this quirky, red, Eastern hat had no place in a secular, post-imperial country. Turbans had been considered to be too Islamic and old-fashioned for a modern, country-conquering imperial force, but this ironically was the same fate that the tarboosh would meet with 100 years later when Kemal Atatürk banned it. The tarboosh was introduced originally to replace the turban in the Ottoman military. Though this hat is known in some countries as the fez because the Moroccan city of Fez was famous for its tanning industry and lustrous red dyes, it’s known as the tarboosh in most of the Arab countries that were former Ottoman territories. Unfortunately, this a reductive image that lingers long after the age of Orientalism in the Middle East and wider Arab world the fez carries far more cultural resonance. In the West, many might associate a cylindrical scarlet hat with comedy sketches or cymbal-smashing mechanical monkeys.
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