Dress and adornmentMiddle East
Yelek
An embroidered Ottoman vest without sleeves or collar, once worn by men and women
The yelek is a vest that comes from Ottoman dress, usually cut without sleeves or a collar and often embroidered on silk, velvet or leather, with small pockets at the sides. Ottoman examples reached the hip and kept women and men warm, and the word still means an everyday vest in Turkish.
A yelek is a vest that comes out of Ottoman dress. It has no sleeves and no collar, and it usually has small pockets at the sides, with embroidery on silk, velvet or leather. In the Ottoman period men and women both wore it as a warm layer that reached the hips. Turkish still uses the word for an everyday vest.
What it is
A yelek is a vest from Ottoman dress. It is made without sleeves and without a collar, and it usually carries small pockets at the sides. Older English texts call the same garment a jelick. The sources describe it mainly as women's clothing, and in the Ottoman period it was also a warm layer for men. Ottoman examples reached to the hip. The shape is plain, so most of the garment's character lies in how it is made and decorated.
In the Ottoman period
During the Ottoman era the yelek was a layer for both sexes, cut long enough to cover the hip. Sleeves came in three forms: long, short, or none at all. A small upright collar often closed the neck. The garment belongs to the wider wardrobe of Ottoman clothing, which the sources also link with the waistcoat and the bodice. Because men and women wore it, the yelek reads as ordinary dress rather than a piece reserved for one occasion. The sources do not describe a ceremony or a rank attached to it, and they name no particular wearer.
Cloth and embroidery
Silk, velvet and leather are the materials the sources give for a yelek. Embroidery is the normal finish, so a typical example is decorated rather than plain. The pockets sit at the sides, small and set into the cloth. With no sleeves and no collar, the body of the vest offers a broad surface for needlework, and that surface is where the ornament shows. The sources record no fixed motifs, no colours and no stitch names. What they tell us is simply that decorated yeleks are the usual kind, made from one of those three materials.
The shorter anteri
A shorter cut of the same garment was also popular. Sources call it the anteri, and English spellings vary: anteree and anterija appear as well. Beyond its length, the sources say little. They do not describe its cloth, its decoration, its sleeves or the people who wore it. It is best treated as a variant of the yelek rather than as a separate tradition of dress, since the name and the garment belong to the same group of Ottoman clothes. Readers who meet the word in an older text should treat the three spellings as one item.
The word today
In present-day Turkish, yelek is the common word for a vest. It covers the modern garment, usually sleeveless or short-sleeved, and it serves women and men both. The older Ottoman sense sits behind this everyday use, but the modern meaning is wider: a plain item of clothing rather than a piece of historic dress. So one word now reaches from a simple vest to the embroidered garment that older English texts describe under the spelling jelick, which dictionaries list as the historical name.
How Yelek is kept
In the Ottoman period a yelek was worn as a layer over other clothes, kept on indoors and outdoors for warmth. The length reached the hip, the sides held small pockets, and the neck was sometimes finished with a low standing collar. Women's examples carried embroidery; men wore plainer or sleeved versions, with long, short or absent sleeves depending on the garment. The shorter anteri did the same job in a lighter cut. Today the word names an ordinary vest in Turkish, and the embroidered Ottoman yelek is the garment that older descriptions record.
When and where
The sources tie the yelek to Ottoman dress and to the Turkish language, where the word is still current. They name no city, region or workshop as its home, and no place where it is made today. Older English texts that describe the garment come from the Ottoman world and use the spelling jelick. Beyond that, the wider wardrobe of Ottoman clothing is the setting in which it is placed.
What Yelek means
The sources record no symbolic meaning for the yelek. It is described as a garment of Ottoman dress, a warm layer for men and women in that period, and a decorated piece in the examples that carry embroidery. What it marks, if anything, is the everyday wardrobe of a particular place and time rather than a ritual or a belief.
Questions people ask about Yelek
What is a yelek?
A yelek is a vest that comes from Ottoman dress. It has no sleeves and no collar, and it usually has small pockets at the sides. Older English texts spell the name jelick. In Turkish today the same word means an ordinary vest for women or men.
When and where was it worn?
The sources place it in the Ottoman era, without naming a century or a country. In that period men and women both wore it, as a warm layer that reached the hips. The word is still used in present-day Turkish, where it names a modern vest.
What is it made of?
Sources give silk, velvet and leather as the cloth for a yelek. Embroidery is the usual finish. The pockets are small and sit at the sides. The sources do not record particular motifs, colours or stitches.
What is the anteri?
The anteri is a shorter version of the garment that was also popular. English sources spell it anteree or anterija as well. Beyond its shorter length, sources say nothing about it, so it is treated as a variant of the yelek rather than a separate garment tradition.
Does the word still mean the same thing?
No. In present-day Turkish, yelek is the common word for a modern vest, usually sleeveless or short-sleeved, worn by women and men. The Ottoman garment is the older sense behind it, and dictionaries list the historical English form as jelick.
See also
YashmakA traditional face and head veil worn in Turkey, Egypt and Turkmenistan
KalpakA tall cap of Turkic peoples, thick for winter and wide and light for summer
SalwarLoose trousers gathered at the ankle, worn with a kameez across South Asia
ChokhaA high-collared wool coat of the Caucasus, worn by men for battle and ceremonyGood reading and sources
The facts on this page come from the Wikipedia article "Yelek", written by its contributors and used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence, and from its Wikidata record (CC0). EveryParampara rewrote the text in its own words, with AI assistance, and compares every page with the article to make sure no passage is copied. It may be reused under the same CC BY-SA 4.0 licence with a link back.
It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-14.
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