Just married… Uzbek style

Whilst wandering around the market in Samarkand (Uzbekistan) I spotted a young woman shopping with her friend. This was not unusual in itself, but her costume was stunning…

The dress looked traditional and was highly decorated with yellows, golds, red and orange colours. She also had gold, jewelled earings, a gold necklace, gold rings on her fingers, and a silver bracelet. On her head was a gold hat with golden tassles hanging from it. The young woman also had gold teeth… common in this part of the world.

What was this all about?

The girl had a pretty glamorous hand bag too, and her friend was smartly dressed and had alot of shopping… were they rich?

My instinct was to take a picture and I snapped a couple of shots, without asking, which was a bit naughty. This got their attention which allowed me to have chat with them… I seem to remember the smartly dressed girl said that her friend had just got married and that was why she was dressed in such beautiful clothes.

I also seem to recall that the girl, or someone else later, told me that Uzbek women where this costume for the first month of marriage… however, my memory is a little vague.

I’ve searched online about this and can’t find anything about this, nor can I find any similar photographs of this type of clothing and head wear for Uzbek women.

Anyone out there know if this true? Anyone now the details of this tradition??