Source: Türkisches Kostümbuch (Turkish Costume Book) by Lambert de Vos, sometimes referred to as the Bremen Album.
Date: 1574
This image isn’t labeled, but it probably depicts a mother, her mother-in-law, and her little daughter in the street. They don’t have the usual bath paraphernalia with them, so they may be shopping or visiting a neighbor.
This picture shows some intriguing details that more formally posed “beauty shots” omit. For example, you can see how the leftmost woman’s veils are tied, and she’s wearing a narrow scarf hanging down her back from her hat–an evidently short-lived fashion. The woman on the right has veiled more loosely, probably because she’s older and therefore less sexually appealing. (Elderly women didn’t need to veil at all.) The right-hand woman has tucked her kaftan up so high that you can see that she wears soft boots tucked into babouches.
Despite laws specifying that non-Muslims had to wear yellow or blue shoes, Muslim women evidently wore those colors as well.
Girls started veiling young, well before puberty, but the toddler on the older woman’s shoulder is below that age. Much care has been taken with her hat: extra-fancy hatband and aigrette.
Reference: msor 009 : Türkisches Kostümbuch / Lambert de Vos. Bremen : Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 1574. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Bremen, msor 009 Some rights reserved
Used without permission.