Figure 1.-- This portrait of the Ioakimeidis family was taken in January 1935. The older boy appears to be wearing a one-piece shortall-like garment, although the image is not clear enough to tell precisely what he is wearing. The family's clothes suggest a prosperous if not wealthy family at the time. |
Here we will follow family fashions over time. HBC has decided to also gather information on entire families. One of the limitations of HBC is that too often we just view boys' clothing without the context of what the rest of the family was wearng. This will help to compare trends in boys' clothing with that worn by mothers, fathers, and sisters. These images will also help highlight differences in both age and gender appropriate clothing. Here we will collect information about specific families over time as well as individual images of unidentified families to show glimses of Greek families in various historical periods.
We have some information on Greek families from different regions of the country.
The Ioakimeidis family came from Turkey to Northern Greece in 1922. Conditions in Turkey were very unsettled after Turkey's defeat in World War I and many ethnic Greeks living in Turkey immigrated Grrece to at this time. In many cases these families had lived in what is now Turkey for centuries. They founded a company that makes oriental rugs
and carpets. The portrait here was taken in January 1935 (figure 1). There clothes suggest a prosperous if not wealthy family at the time. Another portrait of the Ioakeimidis family was taken in September of 1943. It's hard to believe that this is the same wealthy family of 1935. Their clother are obviously chaeply made. But when you look at the date you realize that this was during the German occupation in World War II. The War had begun to go bad for the Germans and the conditions in the occupied countries were deteriorating badly. A family at this time had to have had money to have been able to afford a family portrait. At this time in Greece many families were hungry and some proplke were dying from starvation. A Greek reader reports, "I dont want to sound dramatic but at that time people tried to find food for their families and didn't mind about their clothes."
A photograph shows a peasant family on Crete in 1929 standing outside their white-washed home. We do not know their name. The bous wear short pants outfits. One boy wears a short pants suit and another appears to be wearing a sailor suit. It is hard to male out what the third older brother is wearing, Both boys wear closed-toe sandals without socks. The boys wear dark sandals, but I am not sure about the color. The girls also wear sandals, but their sandals are white. The boys have short haor cuts, bit not as short as we have seen in some other photographs.
Panagiotis Chamodrakas was born in Athens in 1915. His wife Xenia came from Smyrna (in present-day Turkey) to Athens in 1922 when she was 5 years old. She maried Panagiotis there and gave birth to three children (Stavros b1942, Kaiti b1944 and Stelios b1950?)
Panagiotis Chamodrakas was a merchant but his misfortunes forced him to leave Athens and immigrate to Alexandria, Egypt where he became a priest. In the (late 60s?) he was joined by his family and two years later they moved to Kinsasha, Congo. He again wrked as a merchant and later moved with his family to Cape Town, South Africa.
A HBC reader tells us, "I have pictures and information about (at least) two other families. One is Chamodrakas family from Athens. I can also work
a bit on Venizelos family (a famous Greek politician)."
HBC has also developed information on Greek families during different historical periods
Many people lost loved ones during World War II. Many fathers were killed during the War, either as soldiers, gurerillas, hostages, and civilian casulties resulting from bombing or other military operations. For the Greek family this was a disaster because the father was the major wage earner. Few women had good paying jobs in the 1940s. Thus the loss of the father was not only a horendous emotional event, but in many cases doomed the family to poverty. In many cases the family could rely on other relatives, but relatives themselbes after the War often had few resources with which to help. Of course family income had a major impact on how the children were dressed.
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Web Site:
[Introduction]
[Activities]
[Biographies]
[Chronology]
[Clothing styles]
[Countries]
[Bibliographies]
[Contributions]
[FAQs]
[Glossaries]
[Satellite sites]
[Tools]
[Boys' Clothing Home]
Navigate the Boys' Historical Clothing Greek pages:
[Return to the Main Greek country page]
[Greek choirs]
[Greek folk costumes]
[Greek movies]
[Greek royals]
[Greek schools]
[Greek youth groups]