Why did Ataturk abandon his traditional clothing and chose to wear western-style clothing?
Of course, western-style clothing isn’t the only Westernism that Ataturk imposed on his people. In general, the adoption of Western-style clothing was one of many adaptions to contemporary European civilization that made it possible for Turks to treat with the dominant first-world culture on terms of apparent, as well as actual, equality. It was a step taken by every society and country in the world in his day and age; and especially by those Asian countries which had escaped “colonization” by the Great European and American Powers, and who wished to assert and maintain their sovereign status: e.g., Japan and Thailand. In all cases, but particularly in the case of Turkey, the adoption of Western-style clothing meant the loss of an indigenous style of clothing far superior to the Western style in comfort, elegance, climatic suitability, and even hygiene.
