Do you know what women wore in ancient Rus'? What was a man allowed to wear? What did the common people wear in Ancient Rus', and what did the boyars wear? You will find answers to these and other equally interesting questions in the article.

What is the background of the shirt

“I know what the underlying reason is,” we will say now, having learned the true reason for this or that incident. But in the days of Kievan Rus, this meant something completely different. The fact is that at that time clothes were very expensive, they took care of them, and in order for the shirt to serve the owner for as long as possible, it was strengthened with a lining, that is, an underlying reason, for strength. It can be assumed that this expression acquired an ironic connotation due to the fact that some poor people boasted of rich sewing, but they were betrayed by the wrong side, sewn from cheap fabric. After all, the clothes of Ancient Rus' served not only for warming, but also for emphasizing their social status. The shirt here was of no small importance. For the nobility, it was the underwear, for the poor it was often the only one, not counting the ports and bast shoes. In addition, the shirt of a commoner was much shorter so as not to hinder movement.

Evil eye ornament

The boyars did not work in the field, so they could afford underwear almost to the knees. But regardless of whether you are poor or rich, the shirt had to have a belt. The word "unbelted" was used in the literal sense, but had an equally negative connotation. In addition, ornamentation was very desirable on this piece of clothing. Its patterns protected from the evil eye and other troubles. Death was a frequent guest in peasant huts. Then the "unfortunate" shirts were used. White with white embroidery if the parents were dying, and embroidered with black patterns if there was mourning for the children. Each piece of clothing also had a ritual meaning. When the widows plowed the village, preventing it from such misfortunes as cholera or the loss of cattle, they were bare-haired, without shoes and in snow-white, without any decorations shirts.

For whatever occasions the shirts were intended, they did not have a collar. It was replaced by the so-called necklace, which was fastened at the back with a button, for a celebration. This collar is suitable for any other clothing. And the longest preserved such kind of shirt as a kosovorotka. She appeared in the IX, and was worn until the XX century. A cloth with a small hole for the head and a cutout on the left side of the chest - that's all. Simple and practical.

Curtain on poneva

Separate shirts were worn very rarely. In the center and in the north of Rus', a sundress was put on top, and in the south - a poneva. What is poneva? In ancient Rus', it was a kind of skirt, only consisting of not one, but three woolen or half-woolen panels, pulled together at the waist with a gashnik. This belt was a sign that the woman was married. The color of the poneva was dark, with a red or blue tint, less often black. On weekdays, they sewed braid or red lace at the bottom, and on holidays they took out ponevs from chests, the hems of which were decorated with as many-colored embroidery as possible.

Women in those days had a hard time in many ways. Clothing is no exception. A feature of the women's clothing of Ancient Rus' was that on top of all of the above they put on an apron, which was called a curtain, and the Russian costume was completed with linen, woolen or semi-woolen shushpan.

Six kilos on my head

Headdresses for women deserve special mention. In a married woman, he could reach a six-kilogram weight. The main thing is that this design completely covers the hair. The people have long believed that they have witchcraft power. The base of the canvas was compacted with hemp or birch bark to make a solid forehead part. This was called kika, which ended with a cover made of calico, velvet or calico. The back of the head was covered with a nape, a rectangular strip of fabric. In total, such a “cap” could include twelve parts. In winter, a round fur hat could be seen on the head of a Slav, but her hair was completely covered with a scarf. On holidays, a kokoshnik appeared on the heads with a bottom made of matter and a base made of solid material. Usually it was covered with gold cloth and sheathed with pearls.

The girls had it much easier. Their headdress in Ancient Rus' looked like a bandage, a hoop or a crown. If such a rim was richly decorated, then it was called a coruna. The rigid, often metal base, covered with embellished fabric, was fashionable with urban dandies. In the villages, girlish whisks were simpler. Men preferred round hats with a fur rim. Sheep, arctic foxes and foxes went for fur. Dried hats and hats made of felt were also worn. Usually their shape was cone-shaped, and the top was rounded. They were sewn from linen and wool, and also knitted. Skullcaps made of sables could only be afforded by princes and close boyars.

Legwear

The legs were wrapped in a cloth made of canvas or cloth, and on these onuchi they put on bast shoes or cats, leather shoes. But the very first leather shoes in Rus' were pistons. They were made from a single piece of leather, which was gathered along the edge with a strap. Bast shoes made of bast were very short-lived. Even in the village they were worn for no more than ten days. On urban pavements, they wore out even faster. Therefore, bast shoes made of leather straps were more common there. Metal plates were often sewn on them, so that peculiar sandals were obtained.

Now felt boots are considered the most traditional footwear in Russia. But in fact, they appeared only in the XIX century and were very expensive. Usually there was only one pair of felt boots in the family. They took turns wearing them. Boots were popular much earlier. They were sewn from leather in the same way for men and women. The nobility flaunted boots made of morocco, goat skin soaked in lime mortar and polished with stone, yuft, that is, thick leather, and calf leather. Other names for boots are ichigi and chebots. Shoes that were tied with laces were women's shoes. Heels appeared on them only in the 16th century and could reach 10 centimeters.

From ports to trousers

If we talk about pants, then this word came to Rus' from the Turks somewhere in the 17th century. Before that, leg clothes were called ports. They were made not very wide, almost close-fitting. A gusset was sewn between the two trousers for ease of walking. The length of these primitive trousers was to the shin, where they were tucked into onuchi. For noble people they were sewn from taffeta in summer, and from cloth in winter. There were no buttons, and there was no cut for them. On the hips, the ports were held with a drawstring. Something similar to trousers in the modern sense of the word appeared in Russia under Peter I.

You can't survive without pants in Rus'

The great importance of clothing among Russians was determined, of course, by the climate. In winter, without pants, as in Rome or Constantinople, you won’t go out into the street. And the outerwear of Ancient Rus' in many respects differed from that which was in use in most European countries. Going out into the street, they put on warm long suites of cloth. Their sleeves were with cuffs, and the collar was with a turn-down collar. They fastened with buttonholes. This is typical for ancient Russian clothing. Wealthier people introduced axamite and velvet caftans into fashion. Zipun is a kind of caftan without a collar. The boyars considered it to be underwear, and the common people put it on the street. The word "zhupan" is now considered Polish or Czech, but it has been used in Rus' since ancient times. This is the same suite, but shorter, slightly below the waist. And, of course, speaking of winter, one cannot fail to mention fur. I must say that clothing made of fur and its quantity did not serve as a sign of wealth. There were more than enough fur animals in the forests. Fur coats were sewn with fur inside. Worn not only in the cold, but also in the summer, even indoors. You can recall historical films and sitting boyars in fur coats and fur hats.

Old Russian sheepskin coat

One of the signs of prosperity in our time is a sheepskin coat. But the Slavs had similar clothes - a casing - in almost every house. They made it from the skin of goats or sheep with fur inside. On the peasants one could often see a sheepskin coat, a casing made of sheepskin. If ordinary people wore naked casings, then the boyars preferred to cover them on top with foreign, expensive matter. It could be, for example, Byzantine brocade. Knee-length casings were later transformed into sheepskin coats. Women also wore them.

But other varieties of men's winter clothing of Ancient Rus' are forgotten more firmly. For example, Armenian. Initially, it was adopted from the Tatars and was sewn from camel hair. But it was too exotic, besides, sheep's wool was no worse. They put on a coat over a sheepskin coat, so there was no way to fasten it. Another indispensable attribute of the old Russian wardrobe was used: a sash.

One of the oldest Slavic garments is the epancha. This is a round cape with a hood but no sleeves. Came from the Arabs and is even mentioned in the Tale of Igor's Campaign. Since the 16th century, it has become a cape worn on solemn occasions, and under the field marshalship of Suvorov, the epancha becomes part of the soldier's and officer's uniform. Okhaben was worn by people from the upper classes. After all, they sewed it from brocade or velvet. A feature of the okhabny was extremely long sleeves, which were thrown behind the back, where they were tied in a knot. On Easter, noble boyars went to serve in the feryazi. It was already the height of luxury, royal ceremonial clothing.

Let us also mention such clothes for all classes as a single-row. This is a kind of caftan, but long and with buttons to the hem. Sewn from colored cloth, without a collar.

In a coat and coat

Women of fashion in winter preferred fur coats with decorative sleeves. They were long and folded, and slits above the waist were intended for the arms. Many types of Russian costume were original. An example is a shower heater. For peasant women, this was a festive outfit, and for more prosperous young ladies, it was everyday. Soul warmer - loose, narrow front clothing, rarely reaching the middle of the thigh in length. It was usually sewn from expensive fabrics with beautiful patterns. Shugai is another type of short, fitted outerwear, reminiscent of a modern jacket. Could have a fur collar. Wealthy residents of cities wore outerwear made of cotton fabric. In the annals there is a mention of dressing gowns on princely daughters. For the common people, they, apparently, were a curiosity.

From flax and sermyaga

The fabrics from which clothes were sewn did not initially differ in great variety. Linen and hemp were used for shirts. The upper, laid-on outfit was woolen, and warm suites were made of coarse sermyag and sheepskin. Gradually, representatives of noble families acquired more and more silk fabrics from Byzantium. Brocade and velvet were used.

Cloak and power

For a long time, a cloak was an obligatory item in the Russian wardrobe, especially the princely one. It was sleeveless, draped over the shoulders, and was broken off near the neck with a fibula. They wore cloaks and smerds. The difference was in the quality of the fabric and in the fact that commoners did not use brooches. The first of the known varieties of raincoat - votola, made of vegetable fabric. Both plowmen and princes could wear votola. But the bluegrass is already a sign of high origin. For damage to this cloak during a fight, even a fine was due. Centuries later, bluegrass was more likely to be seen on monks than on city dandies. But the chroniclers mention the basket only when they want to emphasize the princely dignity of its owner. Most likely, even the closest boyars had no right to wear such a cloak. There is a case when he saved a man from death. For some reason, the prince wanted to save someone who had already been raised with a sword. For this, he threw a basket on him.

Canvas

What is canvas fabric? Now not everyone knows the answer to this question. And in pre-Mongol Rus', canvas clothing was the most common among both the nobility and the common people. Flax and hemp are the first plants to be used for fabric and clothing, mainly shirts and ports. Girls in those ancient times wore a zapon. Simply put, this is a piece of fabric that was folded in half and cut out for the head. Worn over a body shirt and girdled. Daughters from more affluent families had underwear made of thin materials, all the rest - from coarser, reminiscent of burlap. A shirt made of wool was called a sackcloth, it was so rough that the monks wore it to humble the flesh.

Will shit come into fashion

Much of the wardrobe of ancient fashionistas and dandies, having slightly changed, has survived to this day, but it has become far from being so accessible. The same well-made casing costs like an inexpensive car. Fur shower warmer is also not affordable for every woman. But now hardly anyone wants to wear a shabby or single-row. Although, fashion, they say, is back.

The basic cut, decoration techniques, ways of wearing clothes in Ancient Rus' did not change for centuries and, as foreign travelers testify, were the same for different strata of society. The difference was manifested only in fabrics, decorations, decorations. Men and women wore straight-cut, long-brimmed, wide clothes that hid the natural forms of the human body, with long sleeves that sometimes reached the floor. It was customary to put on several clothes at the same time, one on top of the other, the upper one - swinging - throwing over the shoulders, without putting it into the sleeves.

Old Russian clothing is presented in the collection of the State Historical Museum in single copies. Each of them is unique. These are men's clothing of the 16th - 17th centuries: "sackcloth", quilted clothes - feryaz, three men's shirts, the top of a fur coat, several fragments of embroidery of a man's shirt. Each of these costume items, modest in appearance, is of great value. These clothes line up a kind of material series, which through the centuries, as if talking to us, helps to recreate a picture of the past. Items of clothing from the State Historical Museum are associated with the names of prominent figures in Russian history: Ivan the Terrible, the first tsars from the Romanov dynasty - Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich, father of Peter I.

The complex of men's clothing included a shirt and ports, over which a zipun, a single-row, a fur coat, and a fur coat were put on. These clothes were basic for the entire population of Muscovite Rus'. The differences were only in the fact that in the princely and boyar environment, clothes were sewn from expensive "overseas" fabrics - silk, brocade, velvet. In folk life, they used homespun linen and hemp canvases, woolen fabrics and felted cloth.

Women's clothing in the collection of the State Historical Museum is even more scarce: a body warmer discovered during the construction of the first metro line in the masonry of the Kitai-Gorod steppe, and the so-called okhaben - loose clothing made of silk fabric, once kept in the Savvipo-Storozhevsky monastery near Zvenigorod, two headdresses and a significant number of samples of gold embroidery , which may have once adorned women's palace clothes.

Researcher Maria Nikolaevna Levinson-Nechaeva worked for a long time at the State Historical Museum to study the ancient Russian costume of the 16th - 17th centuries. Her careful comparison of inventories of royal property, tailoring books and authentic monuments stored in the Armory of the Moscow Kremlin, as well as in the Historical Museum, textile analysis, study of dyes made it possible to attribute clothing items of early times in a new way. Her studies are convincing, and in the descriptions of such objects as the 16th-century feryaz, the 17th-century fur coat, and the 17th-century fur coat, we follow the conclusions of M.N. Levinson-Nechaeva.

A fur coat is an outer garment with fur, widespread in Rus' in the 15th - 17th centuries. It was worn by people of different classes. Depending on the wealth of the owner, fur coats were sewn and decorated in different ways. Their various names have been preserved in the documents: “Russian”, “Turkish”, “Polish” and others. In Ancient Rus', fur coats were most often worn with fur inside. The top is covered with tile. There were also so-called "naked" fur coats - fur up. Expensive fur coats were covered with precious imported fabrics - patterned velvets and atlases, brocade; for sheepskins, simple home-made fabrics were used.

Elegant fur coats were worn not only in winter, but they were put on in summer in unheated chambers, as well as at ceremonial exits over other clothes in a cape, without putting them in sleeves. The fur coat was fastened with buttons of a wide variety of shapes and materials, or tied with silk laces with tassels, decorated with stripes of gold or silver lace or embroidery along the hem and sleeves. The ceremonial “complained” fur coat made of golden Venetian velvet can be seen in the widely known engraved portrait of the German diplomat Sigismund von Herberstein.

The embassy is depicted in a fur coat given to him by Grand Duke Vasily III. On one of the miniatures of the Illuminated Chronicle of the 16th century, we see Tsar Ivan IV distributing gifts in the Alexander Sloboda for participation in a military campaign. the sovereign of the boyars and all the governors favored with fur coats and cups and argamaks, and horses and armor ... ". The special significance of the fur coat as a “salary” is evidenced by the fact that the chronicler put the fur coat in the first place. “The fur coat from the royal shoulder” is a precious gift, not only a kind of special honor, but also a significant material value.

Gold embroidery is one of the wonderful Russian traditional crafts. It has become widespread in Rus' since the adoption of Christianity in the 10th century and has developed over the centuries, enriching each era with unique creations.

Magnificent, gold-embroidered veils, covers, banners, embroidered icons adorned the temples in a multitude. The precious vestments of the clergy, royal, princely and boyar ceremonial clothes amazed contemporaries with the richness and abundance of brocade fabrics, trimmed with multi-colored stones, pearls, metal fragments. The brilliance and radiance of gold, the play of pearls and stones in the flickering light of candles and lamps created a special emotional atmosphere, gave individual objects a sharp expressiveness or united them, turning the surroundings into the mysterious world of “temple action” - liturgy, into a dazzling spectacle of royal ceremonies. Secular clothes, interiors, household items, ceremonial towels, shawls, and horse attire were decorated with gold embroidery.

In ancient Rus', sewing was an exclusively female occupation. In every house, in the boyars' chambers and the royal chambers, there were "rooms" - workshops, headed by the mistress of the house, she herself embroidered. They were also engaged in gold embroidery in monasteries. The Russian woman led a closed, reclusive life, and the only sphere of application of her creative abilities was the virtuoso ability to spin, weave and embroider. Skillful sewing was the measure of her talent and virtue. Foreigners who came to Russia noted the special gift of Russian women to sew well and embroider beautifully with silk and gold.

The 17th century in Russian art is the heyday of gold crafts. Goldsmiths, jewelers, gold embroiderers have created beautiful works, distinguished by their decorativeness and high technique. Sewing monuments of the 17th century demonstrate the richness of ornamental forms and compositions, the impeccable mastery of patterns.

Gold and silver thread were sewn on velvet or silk with a seam “in crepe”. The metal thread was a thin narrow ribbon tightly wound around a silk thread (it was called spun gold or silver). The thread was laid in rows on the surface, and then attached in a certain order with a silk or linen thread-attachment. The rhythm of thread attachment created geometric patterns on the sewing surface. Skilful craftswomen knew many such patterns; they were poetically called "money", "berry", "feathers", "rows" and others. Gimp (thread in the form of a spiral), beaten (in the form of a flat ribbon), drawn gold and silver (in the form of a thin wire), braided cords, sparkles, as well as faceted glass in metal sockets, drilled gems, pearls or gems. Floral motifs, birds, unicorns, snow leopards, scenes of falconry were depicted in sewing patterns. The traditional images of Russian folk art contained the ideas of goodness, light, and spring.

The Russian gold embroiderers were greatly impressed by the patterns of foreign fabrics that were widely used in Russia in the 16th-17th centuries. Tulips, "fans", lattices, carnations and fruits were transferred from eastern and western fabrics and organically included in the system of Russian grass ornament. We also meet this ornament on other objects of Russian antiquity - manuscripts, in carving and painting on wood, in printed patterns of Russian fabrics - "heels".

Sometimes the craftswoman literally imitated golden fabrics - Italian looped axamites of the 17th century, altabass, oriental brocade. There was no widespread production of silk and brocade fabrics in Ancient Rus', and embroiderers, competing with weavers, reproduced not only patterns, but also the texture of fabrics. Russian trade relations introduced Russian craftswomen to the wealth of world textile art. At the earliest stages - it was the Byzantine layer, then, in the XV - XVII centuries - Turkey, Persia, Italy, Spain. In the workshops of queens and noble boyars, Russian embroiderers constantly saw foreign patterned fabrics, from which royal and priestly clothes were sewn. Church vestments were “built” from imported fabrics, sewing “shoulder”, “sleeve”, “lining” of Russian embroidery to the camp.

In the second half of the 17th century, works on precious metal, chasing, and enamel art were in great demand. In their patterns, the gold stitches also copied the surface of the jewelry. The fabric was completely sewn up with a metal thread, leaving only the contours of the patterns, or sewn with a high seam along the flooring, imitating a “chased” work. Patterns and seams in such cases received special names: “sewing for chased work”, “litoyshov”, “forged seam” and others. The colored thread of the attachment, which stood out beautifully against a gold or silver background, resembled enamel "flowers". The gold embroiderers of Rus' of the 16th - 17th centuries invested a huge share of their talent and labor in the formation of wonderful art, in the creation of national traditions that were developed in the folk art of subsequent eras.

A significant part of the collection of the department of fabrics and costumes of the State Historical Museum is made up of items of church life of the 15th-20th centuries. These are shrouds, covers, vestments of clergymen: sakkos, surplices, felons, epitrachels, mitres. The Russian Orthodox Church has carried a connection with Byzantium through the centuries. ".

"Mithra", "phelonion", "sakkos", "surplice", "handrails" have a symbolic meaning and are associated with individual moments in the life of Christ. For example, "entrustments" signify the bonds with which Christ was bound when he was led to judgment before Pontius Pilate. The different colors of the vestments - red, gold, yellow, white, blue, purple, green and, finally, black - depend on the rites of worship. Thus, the red color of the vestments corresponds to the divine liturgy of Easter week.

The Russian Orthodox Church has preserved the cult rite that came from Byzantium, but over the centuries changes have been made to it. It underwent a particularly dramatic transformation during the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and the reforms of Patriarch Nikon in the 17th century, when the Russian church split. The Old Believers selflessly adhered to the ancient canons of the "Holy Fathers" in church rituals and everyday life. The official church took a new direction in worship. Items associated with religious worship are valuable historical monuments, since many of them are equipped with supplementary annals, notes about the place of existence, about belonging to a particular person .

The overwhelming majority of them are sewn from expensive imported fabrics, with Russian-made mantles, which are excellent examples of gold embroidery art. Vestments of the 15th - 17th centuries are made of magnificent fabrics: velvet, brocade, golden axamites and altabas, demonstrating the textile art of Iran, Italy and Spain. Church clothes of the 18th-20th centuries give an idea of ​​the artistic textiles of France and Russia, when domestic silk weaving was developed at the beginning of the 18th century. canvas.

The boards were printed across the entire width of the canvas and received fabrics with finely patterned ornaments, where birds hide on the curlicues of a fantastic tree; Crushed fabrics stylized bunches of grapes, which sometimes turned into a juicy strawberry or cone on canvas. It is curious to recognize patterns of Persian and Turkish velvet and brocade, as well as patterns of Russian silk fabrics in the pattern of “heeling”.

Of great value are church vestments - nominal contributions to famous monasteries. So, in the collection of the department of fabrics and costumes of the State Historical Museum there is a phelon sewn from a beautiful rare fabric - looped axamite of the 17th century. The felon was remade from the fur coat of the boyar Lev Kirillovich Naryshkin, donated by him to the Church of the Intercession in Fili in Moscow.

In the deposit books of monasteries there are names of secular clothes and fabrics from which they are made. Rich clothes were “commended” to the monasteries, along with icons, precious utensils, and land. Most often, representatives of the wealthy princely families invested fur coats “fox”, “ermine”, “sable”, “marten”, “underwear”, covered with golden kamka, kamka-kuf-teryo, with gold, golden velvet, called “velvet on gold” , and other valuable fabrics. Simpler contributions were "a necklace and a pearl wrist."

Among the items of the Beklemishev family, a whole “wardrobe” is listed at a price of 165 rubles. In 1649, Elder Ianisifor Beklemishev “gave a contribution to the home of the life-giving Trinity: for a fee, gold for 15 rubles, a ferezia, a sable fur coat, a one-row coat, 3 coats, a ferezi, a caftan, a chugu, a zipun, a throat cap, a velvet hat, and all of Elder Ianisiforov’s contribution to 100 to 60 to 5 rubles, and he was given a contribution.

Things transferred to the monastery could be sold in the ranks at the auction, and the proceeds would go to the treasury of the monastery. Or they were altered over time by church vestments; separate pieces of chain fabrics could be used on the borders of linens, covers, sleeves and other church items.

At the end of the 16th - 17th centuries, spun gold and silver were also abundantly used in obverse (from the word "face") plot sewing. Fine sewing, a kind of “needle painting”, represents cult objects: “shrouds”, “veils”, “hanging shrouds”, “airs”, as well as vestments of clergymen, which depict Christian saints, biblical and gospel stories. They were created by professional “signners” who drew the drawing of the central plot composition - most often they were icon painters. It is known that the Russian artist Simoy Ushakov in the second half of the 17th century also belonged to the Tsaritsa's workshops and "signed" the shrouds.

The pattern was drawn by the “herbalist” artist, the “word writer” artist drew “words” - texts and prayers, plot titles and inscriptions. The embroiderer picked up fabrics, thread colors, and considered the method of embroidery. And although facial sewing was a kind of collective creativity, in the end, the work of an embroiderer, her talent and skill determined the artistic merit of the work. In facial sewing, the art of Russian embroidery reached its heights. This was recognized and appreciated by contemporaries. Many works have names left, workshops are indicated, which is an exceptional phenomenon, because, as a rule, the works of Russian folk craftsmen are nameless.

Folk clothes in Russia developed within the framework of sustainable traditions. Unaffected by the reforms of Peter the Great in the 1700s, they retained their original, original basis for a long time. Due to the various features of life in Russia - its climatic and geographical conditions, socio-economic processes - the national costume of the Russians did not take shape in uniform forms. Somewhere archaic features prevailed, somewhere the national costume inherited the forms of clothes that were worn in the 16th - 17th centuries. So, a suit with a pony and a suit with a sundress began to represent ethnic Russians in the Eurasian space of Russia.

In the aristocratic culture of the 18th century, Russian folk costume was associated with a sundress: in fine arts and literature, a Russian woman appears in a shirt, sundress and kokoshnik. Let us recall the paintings of I.P. Argunov, V.L. Borovikovsky, A.G. Venstsianov; book by A.N. Radishchev "Journey from St. Petersburg to Moscow." However, in the 18th century a sarafan was worn in the northern and central provinces of Russia, while in the black earth and southern provinces they still adhered to poneva. Gradually, the sundress "forced out" the archaic ponya from the cities, and by the end of the 19th century it was everywhere. In the 18th - early 19th centuries, sundresses made of silk and brocade fabrics, embroidered with gold and silver, galloons and lace, were festive women's clothing in the northern and central provinces of Russia.

Sundress - a sleeveless dress or a high skirt with straps. It was worn along with a shirt, belt, apron from the end of the 17th century, although the term "sarafan" is known much earlier, it is mentioned in written documents of the 16th-17th centuries, sometimes as men's clothing. The sundress was worn not only in the villages, but also in the cities - merchants, bourgeois women and representatives of other groups of the population who did not break with the old customs and traditions, staunchly resisting the penetration of Western European fashion.

Sundresses of the 18th - the first half of the 19th century are of the "skew-wedge swing" type in terms of cut. Slanting wedges are inserted on the sides of the straight panels, in front there is a slit along which there is a fastener with buttons. On the shoulders, the sundress was held by wide straps. They are sewn from silk patterned brocade fabrics produced by domestic manufactories. Folk taste is characterized by bright large bouquets of flowers, juicy colors of the pattern.

Silk sarafans were decorated with trims made of expensive materials: gilded jagged galoons made of biti, gimps with colored foil inserts, and metallic woven lace. Carved gilded curly buttons with inserts of rock crystal, rhinestones, attached to braided gold laces with airy loops, complemented the rich decor of sundresses. The arrangement of the decor corresponded to the tradition of bordering all the edges of clothing and cut lines. The decor also emphasized the design features of clothing. Sundresses were worn with white shirts - "sleeves" made of linobatiste and muslin, generously embroidered with tambour suede white threads, or with silk shirts - "sleeves" made of sarafan fabrics.

The sundress was necessarily, strictly according to custom, girdled. This outfit was complemented by a short sleeveless chest garment - egshechka, also sewn from factory fabric and decorated with gold galloon. On cold days, they put on a shower warmer with long sleeves and tubular folds on the back. The cut of the dushegrey is borrowed from the urban suit. A festive shower warmer was sewn from velvet or silk gold fabric. Especially elegant are the red velvet soul warmers of the Nizhny Novgorod region, richly embroidered with floral patterns, spun gold and silver. The Arzamas and Gorodetsky districts of the Nizhny Novgorod province were famous for the gold embroidery art of their craftswomen, who developed the wonderful traditions of Ancient Rus' and created new patterns and sewing techniques.

Festive and wedding headdresses of the northern and central provinces in the 18th - early 19th centuries were distinguished by their diversity. Their shape reflected the age characteristics, the social affiliation of the owners. Headdresses, along with sundresses, were kept in families for a long time, were inherited and were an indispensable part of the dowry of a bride from a wealthy family. In the costume of the 19th century, there were separate items of the previous century, which we easily notice in the portraits of merchants and wealthy peasant women. Married women wore headdresses - "kokoshniks" of various shapes. Kokoshniks are unusually original and original: one-horned (Kostroma) and two-horned, in the form of a crescent (Vladimir-Izhegorodsky), pointed with "bumps" (Toropetsky), low flat hats with ears (Belozerskis), "heels" (Tver) and others.

They are closely related to the local cultural tradition. Kokoshniks were sewn from expensive fabrics, the headpieces were supplemented with woven pearl bottoms in the form of a net, oval teeth or a magnificent frill (Novgorod, Tver, Olonets). In the patterns of many headdresses there are motifs of a bird: birds on the sides of a flowering tree of life, or on the sides of an ornamental motif, or two-headed birds. These images are traditional for Russian folk art and express good wishes. The girl's headdress was in the form of a hoop or bandage with a figured jagged edge. The headdresses were covered with an elegant veil, muslin shawls, embroidered with gold and silver thread. Such a headdress was included in the wedding attire, when the bride's face was completely covered with a scarf. And suddenly, on holidays, silk scarves with gold galloons and lace sewn along the edge were thrown over the kokoshnik. In the 18th century, a bouquet tied with a bow and vases became a favorite ornamental motif of gold embroidery. It was placed both on headdresses and in the corners of the scarf.

The Moscow traditions of ancient Russian gold embroidery found a natural continuation in the art of embroidery, which was developed in the 18th - 19th centuries in the Volga region and in the Russian North. Together with a sundress, shower warmer, kokoshnik, townspeople and rich peasant women wore scarves with a luxurious floral pattern. Embroidered shawls from Nizhny Novgorod were distributed throughout Russia. Gorodets, Lyskovo, Arzamas, other cities and villages of the Nizhny Novgorod province were famous for their production.

This craft also existed in Nizhny Novgorod itself. At the end of the 18th century, a type of Nizhny Novgorod shawl developed, where the pattern densely filled only one half of the cloth, divided diagonally from corner to corner. The composition was built on vases embroidered in three corners, from which flowering trees grew, entwined with vines with clusters of berries. The ornament did not leave free space. The part of the scarf adjacent to the forehead was clearly marked - this is due to the tradition of wearing such scarves on a high headdress or on a soft warrior. From the middle of the 19th century, in Gorodets and neighboring villages, shawls with gold embroidery began to be thrown over the shoulders so that the sparkling pattern did not disappear in the folds.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th century, a center of silk shawl production developed in Moscow, Kolomna and the adjacent nimsels. One of the significant manufactories that specialized in the production of gold-woven silk scarves and brocades for sundresses since 1780 belonged to the merchant Gury Levin. Members of the Levin merchant dynasty had several silk-weaving enterprises. In the first half of the 19th century, the hallmarks of Yakov, Vasily, Martyn, Yegor Levin were known. The products of their manufactories were repeatedly exhibited at industrial exhibitions in Russia and abroad, they were awarded gold medals and diplomas for the high level of performance, the virtuoso development of ornamental motifs, the complex rich design, the use of the finest filigree, and the skillful use of chenille. Tradeswomen, bourgeois women, rich peasant women wore multi-colored patterned Kolomna shawls for the holidays. The factories belonging to the Levin dynasty existed until the middle of the 19th century. They no longer participated in the industrial exhibitions of the 1850s.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, middle-class peasant women wore shilisarafans made of home-made plain-dyed fabrics. The most common were blue sundresses made of linen or cotton fabrics - Chinese. Their cut repeated the cut of silk skew-wedge open sundresses with buttons. At a later time, all the panels of the sundress were sewn together, and a number of buttons were sewn in the front in the center (false fastener). The central seam was trimmed with silk patterned ribbons of light shades. The most common are ribbons with a pattern of a stylized burdock head.

Together with the sleeves of the shirts, embroidered with red thread, and the motley woven belt, the sundress "Chinese" looked very elegant. In non-opening sundresses, decor strips were allowed along the edge of the hem.

Along with the blue sundress, red was widely used in the 19th century. It was believed that a red sundress should certainly be a wedding dress (such an association is evoked by the words of the folk song “Do not sew me, mother, a red sundress ...”). The bride could wear a red sundress on her wedding day, but this was not the rule. Red sundresses of the late 18th - early 19th centuries were sewn with oar, with side wedges. The folds on the sides of the back, formed due to the cut, never wrinkled. From the inside, the sundress was lined with a lining made of cheaper fabric - the lining “holds” the shape of the sundress.

Sundresses made of Chinese and kumach without decorations were everyday wear for women - residents of the northern and central provinces of Russia. Gradually, the sarafan began to penetrate into the southern provinces of Russia, displacing the pope from there. A plain - usually black - woolen sundress made of homespun fabric was worn by girls in the Voronezh province.

The custom of making and wearing gold-embroidered scarves has long been preserved in the Russian North. In Kargopol and its environs, this craft existed from the end of the 18th to the end of the 19th century. The very technique of golden embroidery of handkerchiefs ensured the continuity of ancient ornaments. It consisted of the following: from a finished handkerchief of ancient work, the craftswoman transferred the pattern to yellow paper, cut out individual parts of the ornament along the contour and applied it to white cotton fabric (calico or calico) stretched over the hoop, then gold threads were attached to the finished paper parts and beaten with yellow silk.

The paper remained under embroidery, forming a relief of various heights. Scarves were embroidered to order and were the best gift for a girl before the wedding. Floral motifs predominated in the ornamentation of the Kargopol shawls, elegantly framing the center of the composition. They usually served entirely wired "sun" or "moon".

A snow-white scarf with a golden pattern was worn by peasant women on holidays, putting it on over a pearl kokoshnik, carefully straightening the corner of the scarf. To keep the corner well straightened, in some provinces a special board was placed under the scarf at the back. During the festivities - in the bright sun, or in the flickering light of candles, the pattern of the scarf burned with gold on a white elastic canvas.

In the Vologda and Arkhangelsk provinces, sundresses made of two-color printed fabrics were widespread. A pattern in the form of simple geometric figures, plant shoots, birds taking off with raised wings, and even crowns appeared in thin lines on the blue background. The patterns were applied to a white canvas using a reserve composition. The canvas was dipped in a solution with indigo paint, after dyeing it was dried. We received a wonderfully beautiful fabric with a white pattern across a blue field. Such fabrics were called "cube", probably from the name of the dye vat - a cube.

The dyeing trade developed everywhere, it was a family occupation - the secrets of the craft were passed down from father to son. Patterned canvases were made to order. From village to village, the dyer carried "patterns" of canvas with him, offering the hostesses to "stuff" canvases, choosing patterns for sundresses and for men's pants (a striped "perch" pattern went on men's pants). These "patterners" women carefully examined, chose a pattern, ordered the dyer they liked, and at the same time learned the "latest rural news".

Such “patterns” were brought to the Historical Museum from the northern expedition. One of them contains about sixty drawings. At the request of the customer, the finished fabric could be “revived” using a stencil with orange oil paints. An additional pattern in the form of peas, shamrocks and other small motifs was applied directly to the fabric.

Russian manual stuffing of fabrics is an original method of decorating fabrics, which can be traced on authentic textile monuments from the 16th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the production of kumach fabrics stands out. Kumach is a bright red cotton fabric. To get a similar color, it was necessary to specially prepare the fabric using oil stains. This fabric did not fade or fade. In the Vladimir province, the Baranov merchants set up the production of kumach chintz and scarves, supplying them to the central and southern regions of Russia.

An elegant kerchief shawl went well with a red embroidered shirt, with a motley checkered pony or blue box sundress. The patterns were filled with yellow, blue, green paints on a red background. In the "Ba-ranovsky" scarves, the Russian floral ornament coexisted with the oriental ornament of "cucumbers" or "beans". For color saturation, originality of the pattern and, most importantly, for the strength of the dye, the products of the Baranov factory were repeatedly awarded honorary awards not only at Russian, but also at many international exhibitions.

The clothes of the southern provinces of Russia had their own distinctive features. If a shirt and a belted sundress were the main outfit of peasant women in the northern provinces of Russia, then in the south, in the black earth regions, they wore other clothes - more archaic in their cut and materials. , passing to the back, sometimes with sleeves. The outfit was supplemented with a top - a shoulder garment without a fastener. Such a costume existed in the villages of Tula, Oryol, Kaluga, Ryazan, Tambov, Voronezh and Penza provinces.

As a rule, the fabrics were home-made. The color scheme was dominated by red.

Red-patterned weaving, kumach, and later, red-patterned calico created a bright major color of the costume. Hidden by an apron, the checkered ponyova was visible only from behind, and it was from behind that it was especially decorated with embroidery, appliqués, and “mohrs”. This contained a special meaning. By the nature of the decoration of the poneva, the peasant woman was recognized even from afar: from which village, province, is it her own, someone else's? The combination of threads in the cell also constituted a local feature. Each peasant woman had several cups in her chest, decorated in accordance with year-round and local holidays. For every day - a "simple" popeva, on Sundays - richer embroidered: garus, beads, a strip of red calf, gold tinsel galloon. Poneva was worn only by married women, girls before marriage could walk in the same elegant shirts, belted with a narrow belt, the ends of which were decorated in different ways.

Voronezh costumes with a black graphic pattern on the sleeves of snow-white shirts were distinguished by an amazing originality. The embroidery included stripes of patterned galloon, rectangular inserts of calico. In the Voronezh province, they everywhere wore a short apron, which was strengthened at the waist over the ponyova. Ponyovs were girded with wide smooth or striped factory-made belts. Ponyovs were embroidered in different ways, always with geometric patterns. It was also possible to meet a ponyova with loops formed with the help of a twig, which was wrapped around with a thread.

Russian folk costume, while maintaining traditional forms, did not remain unchanged. The development of industry and urban fashion had a strong impact on the patriarchal way of the Russian village, the peasant life. First of all, this was reflected in the manufacture of fabrics and clothing: cotton yarn began to displace linen and hemp, home canvas gave way to bright factory-made chintz. Under the influence of the urban fashion of the 1880s-1890s, a women's costume arose and became widespread in the countryside - a "couple" in the form of a skirt and a jacket, sewn from the same fabric. A new type of shirt appeared on the yoke, the top of the shirts - "sleeves" - began to be sewn from calico and calico. Traditional headdresses were gradually replaced by scarves. Cubic shawls with colorful floral patterns were especially popular.

At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, a process of erosion of the stable forms of the traditional costume, marked by local originality, took place.

Publications in the Traditions section

Meet by clothes

Russian women, even simple peasant women, were rare fashionistas. In their voluminous chests, many different outfits were stored. They especially loved headdresses - simple, for every day, and festive, embroidered with beads, decorated with gems. The national costume, its cut and ornament were influenced by such factors as geographical location, climate, and the main occupations in this region.

“The more closely you study the Russian folk costume as a work of art, the more values ​​you find in it, and it becomes a figurative chronicle of the life of our ancestors, which, in the language of color, shape, ornament, reveals to us many secret secrets and laws of the beauty of folk art.”

M.N. Mertsalova. "Poetry of folk costume"

In Russian costumes. Moore, 1906-1907. Private collection (Kazankov archive)

So, in the Russian costume, which began to take shape by the 12th century, there is detailed information about our people - a hard worker, plowman, farmer, living for centuries in conditions of short summers and long, fierce winters. What to do on endless winter evenings, when a blizzard howls outside the window, a blizzard sweeps? Peasant women weaved, sewed, embroidered. They did. “There is a beauty of movement and a beauty of stillness. Russian folk costume is the beauty of peace"- wrote the artist Ivan Bilibin.

Shirt

An ankle-length shirt is the main element of the Russian costume. Composite or one-piece, made of cotton, linen, silk, muslin or plain canvas. The hem, sleeves and collar of the shirts, and sometimes the chest part, were decorated with embroidery, braid, and patterns. Colors and ornaments varied depending on the region and province. Voronezh women preferred black embroidery, strict and refined. In the Tula and Kursk regions, shirts are usually tightly embroidered with red threads. In the northern and central provinces, red, blue and black prevailed, sometimes gold. Russian women often embroidered incantatory signs or prayer charms on their shirts.

They put on different shirts depending on what kind of work was to be done. There were "mowing", "stubble" shirts, there was also "fishing". It is interesting that the working shirt for the harvest was always richly decorated, it was equated to a festive one.

Shirt - "fishing". End of the 19th century. Arkhangelsk province, Pinezhsky district, Nikitinskaya volost, Shardonemskoe village.

Slant shirt. Vologda province. 2nd half of the 19th century

The word "shirt" comes from the old Russian word "rub" - frontier, edge. So, the shirt is a sewn cloth, with scars. Previously, they said not to “hem”, but to “cut”. However, this expression still occurs today.

Sundress

The word "sarafan" comes from the Persian "saran pa" - "over the head." It was first mentioned in the Nikon Chronicle of 1376. However, the overseas word "sarafan" rarely sounded in Russian villages. More often - kostych, damask, kumachnik, bruise or kosoklinnik. The sundress was, as a rule, of a trapezoidal silhouette; it was worn over a shirt. At first it was a purely masculine attire, ceremonial princely vestments with long folding sleeves. It was sewn from expensive fabrics - silk, velvet, brocade. From the nobles, the sundress passed to the clergy, and only after that it was entrenched in the women's wardrobe.

Sundresses were of several types: deaf, oar, straight. Swings were sewn from two panels, which were connected with beautiful buttons or fasteners. A straight sundress was attached to the straps. A deaf wedge-shaped sundress with longitudinal wedges and beveled inserts on the sides was also popular.

Sundresses with shower warmers

Recreated Holiday Sundresses

The most common colors and shades for sundresses are dark blue, green, red, blue, dark cherry. Festive and wedding attire was sewn mainly from brocade or silk, while everyday clothes were made from coarse cloth or chintz.

“The beauties of different classes dressed up almost the same - the difference was only in the price of furs, the weight of gold and the brilliance of stones. The commoner "on the way out" put on a long shirt, over it - an embroidered sundress and a warm jacket trimmed with fur or brocade. The boyar - a shirt, an outer dress, a letnik (clothes expanding downwards with precious buttons), and on top also a fur coat for greater importance.

Veronica Bathan. "Russian beauties"

Portrait of Catherine II in Russian dress. Painting by Stefano Torelli

Portrait of Catherine II in shugay and kokoshnik. Painting by Vigilius Eriksen

Portrait of Grand Duchess Alexandra Pavlovna in Russian costume. Unknown artist. 1790javascript:void(0)

For some time, the sundress was forgotten among the nobility - after the reforms of Peter I, who forbade those close to walking in traditional clothes and cultivated the European style. The wardrobe item was returned by Catherine the Great, a well-known trendsetter. The Empress tried to instill in her Russian subjects a sense of national dignity and pride, a sense of historical self-sufficiency. When Catherine began to rule, she began to dress in Russian dress, setting an example for the court ladies. Once, at a reception with Emperor Joseph II, Ekaterina Alekseevna appeared in a scarlet velvet Russian dress studded with large pearls, with a star on her chest and a diamond diadem on her head. And here is another documentary evidence from the diary of an Englishman who visited the Russian court: "The Empress was in a Russian outfit - a light green silk dress with a short train and a corsage of gold brocade, with long sleeves".

Poneva

Poneva - a baggy skirt - was an indispensable element of a married woman's wardrobe. Poneva consisted of three panels, could be deaf or oar. As a rule, its length depended on the length of the women's shirt. The hem was decorated with patterns and embroidery. Most often, poneva was sewn from semi-woolen fabric in a cage.

The skirt was worn over a shirt and wrapped around the hips, and a woolen cord (gashnik) held it at the waist. An apron was usually worn on top. In Rus', for girls who had reached the age of majority, there was a rite of putting on a poneva, which said that the girl could already be betrothed.

Belt

Women's wool belts

Belts with Slavic patterns

Belt weaving loom

In Rus', it was customary for the lower women's shirt to always be belted, there was even a ritual of girdling a newborn girl. It was believed that this magic circle protects from evil spirits, the belt was not removed even in the bath. Walking without it was considered a great sin. Hence the meaning of the word "unbelted" - to become impudent, to forget about decency. Woolen, linen or cotton belts were crocheted or woven. Sometimes the sash could reach a length of three meters, such were worn by unmarried girls; a hem with a three-dimensional geometric pattern was worn by those who were already married. A yellow-red belt made of woolen fabric with braid and ribbons was wrapped around on holidays.

Apron

Women's urban costume in folk style: jacket, apron. Russia, late 19th century

Women's costume of the Moscow province. Restoration, contemporary photography

The apron not only protected clothes from contamination, but also adorned the festive attire, giving it a finished and monumental look. The wardrobe apron was worn over a shirt, sundress and poneva. It was decorated with patterns, silk ribbons and trim inserts, the edge was decorated with lace and frills. There was a tradition to embroider an apron with certain symbols. According to which it was possible, as if from a book, to read the history of a woman's life: the creation of a family, the number and gender of children, deceased relatives.

Headdress

Headwear depended on age and marital status. He predetermined the entire composition of the costume. Girls' headdresses left part of their hair open and were quite simple: ribbons, bandages, hoops, openwork crowns, scarves folded in a bundle.

Married women were required to cover their hair completely with a headdress. After the wedding and the ceremony of “untwisting the braid”, the girl wore a “kitka of a young woman”. According to the ancient Russian custom, a scarf was worn over the kichka - ubrus. After the birth of the firstborn, they put on a horned kichka or a high spade-shaped headdress, a symbol of fertility and the ability to bear children.

The kokoshnik was the ceremonial headdress of a married woman. Married women put on kichka and kokoshnik when they left the house, and at home, as a rule, they wore a povoinik (cap) and a scarf.

It was possible to determine the age of its owner by the clothes. Young girls dressed most brightly before the birth of a child. The costumes of children and older people were distinguished by a modest palette.

Women's costume abounded in patterns. Images of people, animals, birds, plants and geometric figures were woven into the ornament. Solar signs, circles, crosses, rhombic figures, deer, birds prevailed.

Cabbage style

A distinctive feature of the Russian national costume is its layering. Everyday costume was as simple as possible, it consisted of the most necessary elements. For comparison: a festive women's costume of a married woman could include about 20 items, and everyday - only seven. According to popular beliefs, multi-layered spacious clothes protected the hostess from the evil eye. Wearing less than three layers of dresses was considered indecent. Among the nobility, complex dresses emphasized wealth.

Peasants sewed clothes mainly from homespun canvas and wool, and from the middle of the 19th century - from factory-made chintz, satin, and even silk and brocade. Traditional outfits were popular until the second half of the 19th century, when they began to be gradually replaced by urban fashion.

We thank the artists Tatyana, Margarita and Tais Karelin, winners of international and city national costume competitions and teachers, for the photos provided.

Traditional men's and women's clothing had similarities, men's and women's costumes differed only in details, some elements of cut, and size. Clothing was casual and festive - richly decorated with embroidery, patterned weaving, ornamental compositions of braid, galloon, sparkles and other materials. However, in the Russian village, not all clothes were richly decorated, but only festive and ritual ones. The most beautiful, annual, was worn only three or four times a year, on solemn days. They took care of it, tried not to erase it and passed it on by inheritance.

In the warm period of the year, women and men wore a tunic-shaped shirt as the main clothing. The men's shirt was knee-length or slightly longer, and was worn over trousers, the women's shirt was almost to the toe, and it was sewn in two parts: the lower part was made of a coarser fabric, it was called a bed, and the top was thinner. A shirt without a collar was usually worn on weekdays, and with a collar on holidays, the collar was low, in the form of a stand, and they called it an ostebka, a cut on the shirt for fastening was made on the side, rarely at the very shoulder, it went vertically down, less often obliquely, from shoulder to mid chest. The shirt was fastened with buttons or tied at the gate with a ribbon, such a shirt was called a kosovorotka.

Women's shirts were usually cut to the floor (according to some authors, this is where the "hem" comes from). They were also necessarily girded, while the lower edge most often turned out to be in the middle of the calf. Sometimes, during work, shirts were pulled up to the knee. The shirt, which is directly adjacent to the body, was sewn with endless magical precautions, because it had to not only warm, but also drive away the forces of evil, and keep the soul in the body. According to the ancients, it was necessary to "secure" all the necessary holes that were in ready-made clothes: the collar, hem, sleeves. The embroidery, which contained all kinds of sacred images and magical symbols, served as a talisman here. The pagan meaning of folk embroideries can be traced very well from the most ancient samples to quite modern works; it is not for nothing that scientists consider embroidery an important source in the study of ancient religion.

Only men wore trousers among Russians; in the old days, boys did not wear trousers until the age of 15, and often until the wedding itself.

Slavic trousers were made not too wide: on the surviving images they outline the leg. They were cut from straight panels, and a gusset was inserted between the legs ("in step") - for the convenience of walking: if we neglect this detail, we would have to mince, not walk. Pants were made about ankle-length and were tucked into onuchi on the shins.

The pants did not have a cut, but were held on the hips with the help of a lace - a “gashnik”, which was inserted under the folded and sewn upper edge. The ancient Slavs first called the legs themselves "gachas" or "gaschis", then the skin from the hind legs of the beast, and then the pants. "Gacha" in the sense of "leg" in some places has survived to this day. Now it is done, the meaning of the modern expression "keep in the stash", that is, in the most secluded hiding place, is clear. Indeed, what was hidden behind the lace for pants was covered not only by outerwear, but also by a shirt that was not tucked into pants. Another name for legwear is "trousers". They were sewn from canvas or cloth, elegant Russian trousers were sewn from black plush. In the Kama region, ports were sewn from striped motley.

The national costume of Russian women was a sundress. Until the beginning of the XVIII century. representatives of the upper classes also wore it, and in later times they were preserved mainly only in the rural environment. "Sarafan is a collective term that refers to long swinging or deaf maid's clothes on hangers or sewn-on straps. Presumably, the word" sundress "comes from the Iranian "sarapa" - dressed from head to toe. The first mention of this type of clothing in Russian sources refers approximately to 1376, where a sarafan, a sarafan is spoken of as a male shoulder-opening narrow-cut clothing with long sleeves.

As a women's (girl's) clothing, a sundress has become universally known in Russia since the 17th century. Then it was a one-piece deaf dress with or without sleeves, worn over the head. A sundress with straps became known only after the 17th century. Since the 19th century and until the 20s of the twentieth century. the sundress served as festive, everyday, working clothes of the peasantry. Festive sundresses were sewn from more expensive fabrics, everyday ones were mostly made from homespun cloth.

A huge variety of types of sundresses is known, and in each province several varieties could simultaneously exist. All types can be conditionally divided into four large groups according to the design (cut), starting with the most ancient.

Deaf skew-wedge sundress, known in different provinces under the names of Sayan, feryaz, capercaillie, sukman, dubas. Initially, this type of sundress had a tunic-like cut, in which the front and back of the sundress were formed from one piece of fabric folded in half. A rounded or rectangular neckline was cut along the fold, sometimes complemented by a small chest slit in the front in the center. Numerous longitudinal wedges were substituted from the sides. Such sundresses were mainly sewn from homespun - red cloth, home-made black and blue wool - as well as from white and blue canvas. Such sundresses were decorated with linings of calico or dyed canvas on the neckline, armholes and hem.

Gradually, the tunic-like cut practically ceased to be used, and the oar wedge-shaped sundress, which consisted of three straight panels of fabric - two in front and one in the back, gained great popularity. Goal sarafan, kitaeshnik, chinese, cage from 4-6 straight panels of checkered homespun, klinnik, krasik, circular, kumashnik. Sundresses of this type were sewn from a variety of fabrics: home-made canvas and wool of different colors, kumach heel, taffeta, damask silk, brocade, nanka, Chinese, and other cotton fabrics. The decorations of such sundresses were also very diverse: lace, red cord, beads, lace, lace, satin stripes located along the lower edge of the hem or along the fasteners on the straps.

The most common type, widely used in almost the entire territory of Russian residence, was a round (straight) sundress - satin, Asian, dolnik, inflate, rytnik. It was made up of 4-8 straight panels of fabric (mostly factory-made) and was a high wide skirt, gathered at the chest, with a small fastener in the center in front or under the left shoulder strap on the side. Such a sundress had narrow sewn-on straps. It was very easy to sew, the fabric was light compared to canvas, so it quickly became popular and replaced the skew-wedge sundress. Everyday sundresses of this type were sewn from checkered homespun motley or factory-made fabric of dark colors, while festive ones were made of heeled print, bright chintz or satin, calico, silk, brocade, and other materials. Round sundresses were decorated along the hem and on the chest with lace stripes, fringe, silk ribbons, braid, even appliqués.

Less common, which was a peculiar version of a round sundress - a sundress with a bodice, which consisted of two parts. The first is a puffy gathered skirt of several straight panels, the second is a bodice with narrow straps, tightly fitting the chest, it was sewn (partially or completely) to the puffy skirt.

In addition, in some regions a high skirt (under the chest) without straps was also called a sundress.

Having briefly described the main types of sarafans that existed on the territory of our country by the end of the 19th century, we will consider which ones existed in the Kama region.

Several varieties of sarafan are noted in the Kama region. The earliest type of sarafan should be considered a "deaf" sarafan, in the early versions - a tunic-shaped cut. In the XVIII - XIX centuries. the most common type of sundress was the skew-wedge sundress.

In addition to the sarafan, in the Kama region, the word dubas was used almost everywhere to designate this type of clothing. This term was mainly used to refer to older types of sundresses, most often skew-wedge or made from homespun canvas. "Written documents report that until the 17th century, sundresses and dubasses differed only in material, dubashes were sewn from dyed canvas, and sundresses from purchased fabrics. A festive sundress was trimmed with ribbons and lace and worn with a shirt made of very thin canvas, and those who had the opportunity , - from purchased fabrics. The earliest among the peoples of the Kama region was a deaf sundress - dubas. Old dubass were sewn oblique, with a full-length front seam and wide armholes. To this day, dubas has been preserved only among the Old Believers as part of a prayer costume, and they are now sewn from dark satin.

Outerwear

In winter and summer, men and women wore single-breasted caftans, for women with a clasp on the right side, and for men on the left, they were called ponitkas, shaburs, Siberians, Armenians or Azs, with their typological similarity, they differed in cut details. Ponitki were sewn from homemade cloth - ponitochin, with a straight front and back to the waist, sometimes with gathers or wedges on the sides. A ponytail covered with canvas or factory fabric was called gunya, sometimes for greater warmth they were stitched with a tow, there were guni as festive and everyday clothes. Weekend gunis were covered with painted canvas, and the workers, made of coarse canvas, were called sermyaks or shaburs, they were sewn from blue canvas for everyday wear and from factory fabrics for holidays. They had a detachable waist, at first wide folds - plastics, later lush assemblies. The front of the shabura was straight, the floors were fastened with hooks, it was sewn on a canvas lining, which was sewn only on the chest.

Sheepskin clothing has long been common in the Urals, covered and uncovered fur coats were worn. Fur coats were covered with canvas, cloth, and rich people with imported expensive cloth. They were sewn in the old fashion - at the waist and with assemblies. Women's fur coats, covered with silk fabric and with squirrel or sable fur collars, looked especially elegant.

The road clothes were sheepskin coats, zipuns. Zipuns were sewn from canvas or gray cloth, they were worn over a ponytail, a fur coat.

Russian peasants also had clothes specially designed for work and household affairs. Men hunters and fishermen wore luzan, the Russians borrowed this type of clothing from the Komi-Permyaks and Mansi. A specially woven cross-striped fabric was folded in half and a hole for the head was cut along the fold, the lower ends were fixed with ropes at the waist. Canvas was hemmed under the panels in front and behind, the resulting bags - pockets were used to store and carry accessories and booty. For household work in the field and at home, men and women put on deaf tunic-shaped cuffs with long sleeves over their clothes, in front the canvas went down to the knees, in the back to the waist.

Belts were an obligatory part of the men's and women's costumes; in the northern regions they were also called skirts, belts. "Religious performances were forbidden to wear clothes without a belt, hence the expression "without a cross and a belt", "unbelted", meaning that a person's behavior does not correspond to generally accepted norms of behavior. Be sure to girded underwear, a sundress and outerwear. Women, as a rule, wore a woven or cloth belt, and men a leather one. The woven belts for girdling the shirt were narrow - gussets, and the outer clothing was tied up with wide sashes. There were two ways to tie the belt: high under the chest or low under the stomach ("under the belly"). Women tied the belt on the left side, and the man on the right. The belts were decorated with geometric ornaments - in addition to decoration, this carried the function of a talisman.

Hats

Russian headdresses were varied in shape. The main material was fur (usually sheepskin), wool in the form of felt and cloth, less often other fabrics, they were in the form of a cone, cylinder or hemisphere. Felted hats were called hats, or horsemen. Treukh - a fur hat with headphones also belongs to semicircular headdresses. Later, caps with visors on the band became widespread.

Women's headdresses were more diverse, but all their diversity comes down to several types: a scarf, a hat, a cap and a girl's crown. Religious beliefs required a married woman to carefully hide her hair from prying eyes. It was considered a great sin and shame to "light up" at least a strand of hair. "They punished with general contempt those who" fooled "a woman or tried to do it, the northern Russian residents used to even have lawsuits against those who" haired "a woman by tearing off her cap" .

Married women styled their hair around their heads, and their headdress was a kokoshnik, which was decorated with gold embroidery, pearls or beads. At the same time as kokoshniks, there were warriors, shamshurs, collections - all these are varieties of a cap. Warriors were sewn from thin fabric in the form of caps on a calico lining, and shamshurs - with a quilted top on a canvas basis. The back of the warrior was decorated with lush floral ornaments. Married women wore a scarf or shawl over small headdresses that hid their hair.

The headscarf worn by Russian women is the result of the development of the oriental veil. The manner of tying a scarf under the chin came to Rus' in the 16th-17th centuries, and they learned this from the Germans.

Animal skins, tanned leather, less often fur, tree bark, and hemp rope were used as the material for making shoes. The most ancient among Russians should be considered leather shoes, which were not sewn, but wrinkled - they pulled a piece of leather with ropes so that folds formed on the sides and tied to the leg with a long rope. Such shoes are considered a direct continuation of ancient shoes, when the skin of a small animal was tied to the foot. These shoes were called pistons.

Leather shoes similar to pistons, but not wrinkled, but sewn, with a hemmed sole, are called cats, they were worn by both women and men both on weekdays and on holidays. Their name comes from the word "roll", as they were originally rolled from wool.

Leather shoes with high tops - boots (chebots) - the Russians first sewed without heels, it was replaced by a small iron shoe on the heel, they also wore shoe covers - the sole was sewn to them from the inside, they were wide and awkward.

All of the above types of shoes were worn by both men and women. Special women's shoes include shoes - cherevichki - with a low shaft.

Bast shoes, known throughout the region, can be considered the most common footwear. These are shoes woven from wood bast, such as sandals, which were tied to the foot with long cords (supports), for warmth, an edge was sewn or tied to the bast shoes - a strip of canvas fabric. In rainy weather, a small plank was tied to the bast shoes - the sole. With bast shoes and other low shoes they wore onuchi - long narrow strips of fabric made of wool or hemp. This fabric was wrapped around the foot and shin to the knee, and on top of it they wrapped the leg crosswise with long laces - extinguishers. Onuchi were made from medium-quality white canvas. Lyko was harvested in the summer and stored in reels, and on long winter evenings the head of the family wove bast shoes for the whole family, an instrument called kochedyk. On average, one pair of bast shoes wore out in three to four days.

Felted shoes appeared among Russians in the late 17th - early 18th centuries. Cats, felt boots, chuni were rolled from wool, leather soles were often sewn to these shoes for strength.

Baby suit

The very first diaper for a newborn was most often the shirt of the father (boy) or mother (girl). In the future, they tried to cut children's clothes not from a newly woven fabric, but from the old clothes of their parents. They did this not out of stinginess, not out of poverty, and not even because the soft, washed material does not irritate the baby's delicate skin. The whole secret, according to the beliefs of our ancestors, is in the sacred power, or, in the present, in the biofield of the parents, which can protect their child from damage and the evil eye.

Children's clothing of the ancient Slavs was the same for girls and boys and consisted of one long, to the heel, linen shirt. Children received the right to "adult" clothes only after initiation rites.

Such a tradition was kept for an exceptionally long time in the Slavic environment, especially in the countryside, which was little subject to fashion trends. Over the centuries, the ancient ritual of transition from the category of "children" to the category of "youth" was lost, many of its elements became part of the wedding ceremony. So, back in the 19th century, in some regions of Russia, quite adult boys and girls sometimes wore children's clothes before their own wedding - a shirt grabbed by a belt. In a number of other places, the child's clothing was an ordinary peasant costume, only in miniature. Loving mothers have always tried to decorate children's clothes - the collar, sleeves and hem of the shirt were covered with rich embroidery. This is understandable, since in ancient times it had a protective meaning. "A girl up to 15 years old, and more often before the wedding, wore a belted shirt, and on holidays they put on an apron with sleeves - shushpan" over it.

Girls put on a sundress only after getting married, there was a whole ceremony of unweaving braids and dressing in a sundress.

The girl's headdress differed from the women's in that the girls did not need to cover their hair, they did not hide the braid, uncovered hair was considered an indicator of the "purity" of the girl. The girls wore a bandage, a crown or a bang, the poor girls wore a motley bandage, and the richer ones wore a silk bandage decorated with embroidery or beads. Bandages and ribbons only framed the head, and only wedding headdresses - korunas - completely covered the head.

Prince I. Repnin. Single row (light) and feryaz (with clasps, and lined with ermine), and inside, apparently, the background.

Kaftan, okhaben-opashen, zipun, casing, retinue, sermyaga, terlik ... What is all this in general? I try to figure it out first approximation)
In general, upper and middle clothes, in the modern view, were sewn almost the same way. These types of dresses differed in the way they were worn (inside, tying up, in a cape), the area of ​​​​application, the material-fabric, the fastening-finishing, and partially the cut. Judging by conflicting information in different sources, this is a vague matter. I tried to collect information and illustrations that do not contain these contradictions.
The main character of the investigation is Kaftan.

A man in a yellow caftan has a tafya on his head.
caftan(خفتان ‎) - men's, mostly peasant, dress. Also called kavtan, koftan (leads to some thoughts, yes ...).
Common to all caftans was: double-breasted cut, long skirts and sleeves, chest closed to the top. His chest was decorated with buttons - from eight to twelve pieces. On the sides of the caftan had cuts, or "holes", which also got off with buttons. The sleeve could reach the wrist. The lower part of the caftan was cut from oblique wedges.
Trumpets and wrist collars, decorated with multi-colored silks, stones, pearls, were fastened or sewn to elegant caftans. Instead of buttons, gags were often used - more often silver with gilding, and sometimes crutches made of corals turned in the form of sticks. Gaps and crutches were fastened with long loops of braid or colored cords, they were called "talks", and they could be decorated with tassels of multi-colored threads. The back of the caftan was often made somewhat shorter than the front, especially for long clothes, so that the backs of ornamented boots were visible, which was a matter of special concern for young people.
An important detail in the caftans of the pre-Petrine era was the trump card - a high standing collar covering the entire back of the head. This name extended to the collar in general, which in ancient Russian clothes was often removable and was fastened or sewn to various robes. Trumps were an object of panache, and they were made of velvet, silk, damask, decorated with gold and silver thread embroidery, pearls and precious stones.
http://licey102.k26.ru/costume/kaftan.htm
Caftans in Rus' were mostly gray or blue in color, sewn from coarse cotton fabric or handicraft linen fabric (canvas). The caftan was belted, as a rule, with a sash (usually of a different color).
http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CA%E0%F4%F2%E0%ED
Feryaz- a kind of caftan. F. was sewn not wide, without a collar and interception at the waist, up to the ankles, with narrow sleeves or without them. Fastened with buttons with patch loops or tied with strings.The feryaz reached to the calves, and sometimes to the ground, and was usually trimmed with fur or had a fur collar. Such clothes were wide enough and fastened with one top button. Feryaz was sewn from dark blue, dark green and brown cloth, sometimes gold brocade and satin were used.http://ria.ru/Tsarist_Russia/20130314/926340592.html
Winter coats with fur were worn over a caftan or summer coat. F. was the clothing of various segments of the population. In the 14-16 centuries. in Moscow, royal, boyar and princely vestments were sewn from velvet, satin, cloth, etc., decorated with gold and silver lace, and buttons made of precious metals.http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/bse/144460/%D0%A4%D0%B5%D1%80%D1%8F%D0%B7%D1%8C
The feryaz of Ivan the Terrible is known: They say he walked in it at home. But the standing caftans, that is, according to the figure (I will become). http://blog.t-stile.info/stanovoj-kaftan
Obyar, axamite, cloth. 1680

Meanwhile in France...

Karl 8, multi-layered clothing - thin inside, the farther, the richer and smarter, the top is lined with fur. Gold embroidery and all. He has a bare neck, which in our climate will not work), the same goes for the beard.
A. I. Olenin: “We see that in the 15th century, the French king Charles VIII used the same fur coat with folding sleeves that Grand Duke Ivan Vasilyevich III wore at the same time»
http://folk-costume.com/oxaben/
And approximately the same time (The costume in the movie is historical, don't worry . According to Natalia Selezneva, the costume designer, who worked with Sergei Eisenstein on his painting Ivan the Terrible, helped create royal vestments for the film "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession".) Who does not believe, here is another
Of course, in Rus' the tsar was the most elegant. But the boyars, ambassadors, etc., are also not born with a bast.

Opashen- a long-brimmed caftan made of cloth, silk, etc., with long wide sleeves, frequent buttons down to the bottom and a fastened fur collar.

Ambassadors

As well as okhaben, the opashen had folding long wide sleeves. The sleeves tapered to the wrist. The arms were threaded through special cuts, and the sleeves hung along the figure. There was no collar. The guard was never girdled. http://folk-costume.com/oxaben/

female opashen- with frequent buttons, decorated along the edges with silk or gold embroidery. Buttons gold or silver; could be the size of a walnut. A hood lined with fur was sewn on at the back, hanging down to the middle of the back. Women with a fur coat wore a round false necklace made of sable or beaver fur.

Both the cut and the names of elegant clothes were often borrowed, Persian, Arabic, Tatar words, Polish, etc. were found in the names, there was a direct influence of Byzantium, and elegant rich fabrics were imported (including from China). The fabrics were very diverse, the picture beautifully shows velvet and satin, even patterned fabrics were decorated with various details, and many types of clothes were lined with fur, since it was so easy to do...
"We are not accustomed to, -
Let your frost crackle:
Our Russian blood
Burning in the cold!

It's like that
Orthodox people:
In the summer, you look, the heat -
In a short fur coat goes;

The burning cold smelled, -
All the same for him:
Knee-deep in the snow
Says: "Nothing!"

I.S. Nikitin

Apparently, this is part of the confusion, when the "soul warmer" was summer clothes, and summer clothes were sometimes supposed to be on fur ...

Important addition!