Vraka
Friday 7th December, 2018
Sarouel / harem pants, Traditional Greek costume, Vraka

Here are some more pictures of vraka, the baggy Greek trousers that I mentioned in passing on Friday. I obtained them by an image search for images of "vraka" labelled for reuse. They all turn out to be from Wikimedia, which isn't surprising because that must be one of the main public-domain sources. Below, I've captioned each with its title or region, linking this back to the original, and with attribution to its author and the user who uploaded it to Wikimedia.

The first two don't have a region given. One of them is of a soldier, Ιωαυ. Πολυξιγκης. Presumably, his first name is Ioannis. I like to think that, whatever he may have achieved militarily, he's now just famous for his trousers. The other is labelled merely as Greek costume.

The Greek soldier I. Polixingis in vraka.
The Greek soldier I. Polixingis in vraka
N. Alikiottis , Ketsocruz
Greek costume, showing vraka.
Greek costume
Unknown , Ketsocruz

Then there are a lot of pictures from Crete:

Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
Perakis, Fortzakis & Cie, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
Unknown, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
E. A. Cavaliero, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
E. A. Cavaliero. La Canée, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
E. A. Cavaliero, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
E. A. Cavaliero, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
Behaeddin, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
E.Athanasiades, Pycckhcoz
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Crete, showing vraka.
Crete
Sperling, Nepuzedin

And then there are costumes from other parts of Greece. These are all, like the final two above, attributed to Nicholas Sperling. According to The American College of Greece, Sperling was a miniaturist who was commissioned to paint Greek costumes for the Benaki Museum. Some of his watercolours are visible on the American College of Greece's Sperling page. By the way, this page shows the picture of the Cypriot as being of a woman from the Dodecanese. I'm not convinced: "he" doesn't look female, and his costume is very different from that of the women shown.

Greek costume from Corfu, showing vraka.
Corfu
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Cyprus, showing vraka.
Cyprus
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Epirus, showing vraka.
Epirus
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Northern Epirus, showing vraka.
Northern Epirus
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Lefkas, showing vraka.
Lefkas
Sperling, Nepuzedin
Greek costume from Skyros, showing vraka.
Skyros
Sperling, Nepuzedin

In everyday use, "βράκα" in Greece appears to refer to harem pants: an image search turns up mainly pictures of trousers for sale that may be baggy, but certainly don't look as well tailored as the traditional variety above. When I'm next in Greece, I'll have to visit some vintage shops.