The fez may have originated in ancient Greece,[6][7]
or the Balkans,[8] initially during the
Byzantine reign, and subsequently, during the Ottoman period,
various Slavs, mostly
Bosniaks and Serbs, started wearing the head-wear.[citation needed]
The fez is a part of the traditional clothing of Cyprus, and
is still worn by some Cypriots
today. Traditionally, women wore a red fez over their heads,
instead of a headscarf, while
men wore a black or red cap.[9] The fez was sometimes
worn by men with material (similar to
a wrapped keffiyeh or turban) around the base.
In his 1811 journey to Cyprus, John Pinkerton
describes the fez, "a red cap turned up with fur", as "the proper
Greek dress".[10] In the
Karpass Peninsula, white caps are worn, a style
considered to be based on ancient Cypriot
Hellenic-Phoenician attire, thus preserving men's
head-wear from 2,700 years earlier.[11]
