“Ad-Dressing the Margins”: Historically Underrepresented Fashion & Style, 27-28 October 2023, Online conference organised by the Drexel University and the Association of Dress Historians.
In 1923, Greece and Turkey signed the Treaty of Lausanne, which made official a forced population exchange between the two countries. However, Ottoman Greeks, Jews and Armenians fled Turkey from 1914 onwards to escape massacre and conflict.
As minorities abandoned their homes, they had to pack for a new life in an unknown motherland. The textiles and clothing items they chose to bring when they relocated to mainland Greece and the islands, as these are exhibited today in several regional museums across Greece, offer an interesting case study that allows for a non-stereotypical engagement with refugee clothing. Moreover, such collections highlight the significance of clothing in the lives of refugees, focusing on how garments shaped and helped express the notion of ‘self’ during forced displacement.
This paper seeks to raise awareness of the power of clothing as a means of self-expression and resilience in the face of adversity and cultural displacement.