14 thoughts on “The Bitchy Historian Takes on Rise of Empires: Ottoman (2020)

  1. Ms Bitchy, Nice job! You managed to combine scholarship with very funny writing. Thank you!

  2. I’m trying to watch it now. And all I can say is ‘More wine, booze and comestibles ‘

  3. Some of those pieces (definitely the fur-trimmed leather hats, probably some of the armor) look pillaged from Dirilis: Ertugrul, a Turkish production on the father of the Ottoman dynasty set about 200 years earlier.

  4. Do I detect a touch of “Game of Thrones” here? Make-it-murky/bulk-the-guys-up/add-incomprehensible-trim-and-accessories. (I just FINALLY binge-watched the final season, and am still digesting the costumes.)

    1. P.S. A Turkish friend says this re. the print of the ladies in the layered coats: “…the Ottoman women seem to be going to the baths (hamam)—-the tall clogs are a give away.” Those colors really are gorgeous. Why is there so little sunshine, so to speak, in some epics? Is the past automatically dank and scary, 24/7?

      1. Everything seems dark these days! Science Fiction is no better, you can barely see your hand in front on your face on a starship bridge or the control room of the TARDIS lately!

  5. Who told these productions that warrior races were avert to use of colours?Seems like colours can see the light of the day only in the 18th century.Maybe denim and scraps don’t come in a variety of colours,that’s why.

  6. It’s very nice to read about something different. I was astonished, that it seems that no sexbomb was in the show like in “Fetih 1453”, which I saw in a Cinema in Germany.

  7. The Ottomans seem to have been an empire of funny hats but did they really go in for fur trimmed caps? They look like Cossacks or Mongols.

  8. On my God. Vindication! I started watching this show and was shouting at the screen the entire time for these exact reasons. I got so angry about the costuming that I fell into yet another rabbit hole and am currently reading 1453 by Roger Crowley to get more accurate history.

    The worst part is that there are these fleeting glimpses of almost correct pieces on various lesser characters to get your hopes up … And then there’s Mehmet II as played by Jon Snow. Ughhh.

  9. I had that same kidney belt in 2004. It was made of black pleather with metal studs, and i got it at Claire’s.

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