Hello, I Love Your Blog! I Was Wondering If You Had Any Information On Clothing In Harems? Such As If

Hello, I love your blog! I was wondering if you had any information on clothing in harems? Such as if the colors they wear symbolize something, any restrictions/rules they must follow, how to tell who is who from what they wear, etc.? It could be for any harem in general, I’m really interested in hearing what you have to say 😊

I'm sorry to say I have very little knowledge of this subject. However, my impression is that women in harems wore very similar clothing to women NOT in harems! Higher-status women in harems (sultans' wives, sultans' female relatives, etc) wore higher-status clothes, and lower-status women (female servants and slaves) wore lower-status clothes. Harems also included men: eunuchs and male children under 12. So your best bet would be to research Ottoman clothing from whatever era you're talking about, since the harem was an institution that lasted for centuries and clothing styles change over time.

One big warning about this topic: there is a LOT of misinformation out there. Westerners have been romanticizing the idea of "the harem" for CENTURIES, so there are a lot of bad takes out there from "all the women sat around naked much the time! all the women in the harem were there to have sex with the sultan!" to "the harem was an institution specifically designed to oppress women! it is a symbol of the decadent and wicked east!"

Does anybody have any good sources on harem life/clothing?