Textiles – Fashion – Tailoring: Haute Couture in Syros in the 19th and 20th Centuries – An exhibition on the history of elegance in Syros

* An exhibition by the Friends of the Industrial Museum Association, curated by Mrs. Dina Sykoutri.

The exhibition is a journey of elegance through the creations of the island’s seamstresses and tailors who worked primarily in Hermoupolis during the 20th century, including specialized —yet now forgotten— professions such as the milliner, the embroiderer, and the maker of waistcoats.

Independent from the textile industry that had already flourished in Syros since the 19th century, these creators were important—and at times invisible—“cogs” in the economy and society of the city and the island. For decades, the annual or occasional visit to tailor shops, dressmaking ateliers, or clothing workshops was essential and often took the form of a family ritual—a habit that now belongs to the past. The rise of prêt-à-porter led to the decline of tailor shops, the reduction of seamstresses, and the disappearance of commercial tailors.

From the collections of Association members, as well as from gifts and loans by Friends of the Museum, the following items were selected and are presented here: the seamstress’s workbench, materials and raw supplies, and sewing machines—hand-operated, treadle, and electric. Also on display are examples of garments from the period, forgotten in closets and preserved to tell their stories: everyday clothing, formal wear, garments of the “lower class” or domestic staff, and outfits of the “aristocracy,” who adopted and introduced European fashion trends with their glamour and elegance. Men’s, women’s, and children’s clothing, accompanying accessories—some delicate and romantic, others simpler—as well as undergarments… Threads, scissors, fashion magazines once eagerly leafed through…

These are works of art with emotional value from another era, all sewn by the hands of both renowned and anonymous dressmakers and tailors—objects carrying the weight of memory.

“Clothing and dress, inseparably connected with daily life, reveal aspects of human relationships and the socio-economic conditions of each period, even in historically critical moments. At the same time, fashion is a sartorial system and a contested concept that has been interpreted in many ways. Some scholars consider fashion a system born in 14th-century France linked to the changing forms of garments, while others associate it with industrialized clothing from the late 19th century in major European cities.

Triestina could be described as a fashion designer of her time, in the sense that her clientele appears to have belonged to the upper social strata of Hermoupolis, such as the daughters of Kountouriotis. Although stylistic models and trends were set in important centers such as Paris and Constantinople, Triestina seems to share certain characteristics with palace tailors. Yet, within the society of Hermoupolis, she stood out when it came to the fashion of the more affluent. Triestina created and crafted handmade—therefore unique—garments, leaving her own imprint on the city’s fashion, even if she was influenced by or based on European trends.”

Olga Evangelidou, “The Seamstress Triestina and European Garments in Hermoupolis (1827),”
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