Studies on the Analysis of the Turkish Mevelana Dress and on its Application to Fashion Design

터키 메블라나 복식 분석과 현대 패션디자인에의 응용에 관한 연구

The Mevelana sect is a spiritual Islamic group experiencing spiritual transaction with their god through a peculiar dancing as a form of religious ritual. The Mevelana, a sect of Islamic Sufism, has their head mosque in Konya in Turkey. Although Mevelana sect is regarded as heretic of Islam, it has exerted considerable influence on the Islamic religion through its peculiar religious worshiping form constituted in dancing and reciting poems. Nowadays, Turkey recognizes the Mevelana dancing as their precious cultural legacy of a long history, exerting public information efforts to give it for wider publicity of Turkey to the world. The Mevelana dress with ornament attired for the ritual dancing performance is regarded to symbolize a spiritual medium, which leads to conciliation with the eternity. The straight lines and curved line characteristic of the Mevelana dancer's trousers, skirt, jacket and such mirrors the image of the Orientals, which is in peculiar contrast with the white and gray colors of the dress with ornament. The impression of the spiritual Mevelana dressing in harmony with the dynamic dancing motion goes beyond mere a religious dressing. It is expressive of a graceful and sophisticated modern formative art, of which the mystic design gives an inspiration to the modern fashion. After Poiret, Islamic factors have emerged in the modern fashion. For instance, a hat with Arabic fashion lapel, a Fez hat of Turkish style, harem pants and such are still popular in the modern fashion. It seems probable that the Iraq War would far more activate the influence of Arabic culture to the modern fashion. By making an analysis on the religious background and formative characteristics of the Mevelana dressing, and by giving design examples on how the Mevelanan dressing has been applied to the modern fashion, this research suggests working out new designs by making a renewed application of their characteristics to the modern fashion.