The first volume of a major publication devoted to Greek traditional costumes, featuring original sketches by the painter Gisis Papageorgiou.
A voyage in Greek tradition and culture through 130 costumes and headdresses from Macedonia.
The Hellenic American Union, in collaboration with artist Gisis Papageorgiou, has been engaged for more than two decades in extensive research to present the most extensive and detailed record of the diversity and evolution of Greek traditional costumes from the 19th to the early 20th century. The fruits of this research are the more than 1500 complete and documented costume sketches, in a journey that covers all the geographical regions of Greece, the Pontus and Cyprus. The designs provide insight into the history, traditions, and customs of the Hellenic nation, as well as raw material to inspire new fashion creations and to further academic research into folk culture. They also serve as excellent material for storytelling. The project in its entirety will be included in sixteen bilingual volumes.
Gisis Papageorgiou is a former captain of the Hellenic Navy, from which he retired in 1981. For 12 years, he worked as a cartoonist for several Athenian newspapers and magazines. In 1996, he published a monograph on Stone Lighthouses of Greece, which is based on documents and other material he collected on the history of the Hellenic lighthouse network and drawings he made of 130 lighthouses. In like fashion, his drawings and research on the history of the uniforms of the Hellenic Navy, from the time of Kapodistrias to the present resulted in the publication of the album Hellenic Naval Uniforms in 1998. He first became interested in Hellenic traditional costumes 40 years ago, and for ten years it remained a purely amateur pursuit. It was then that he met Andreas Papageorgiou, a folklorist and collector. His engagement with the subject soon acquired a more focused approach, leading to the systematic research and recording of Hellenic traditional costumes and the production of an extensive number of documented drawings. This project has absorbed his professional efforts since 2000.
