CLOTHES IN OLD RUSSIA

Clothes can tell us about the people who wear them: about their class, their rank, their job, their country. Now one can see traditional Russian costumes in museums or during Russian village holidays. RussianLegacy.com is giving everyone an opportunity of seeing Russian costumes on our nesting dolls.

Costumes were worn during important holidays: during Easter, during the Trinity day festivities and during weddings. Sewn over hundred years ago, the costumes have been kept as family heirlooms by a number of generations of villagers. The costume showed the differentiation between people of different social positions. Their costumes reveal their conception of the world and their way of life. The Russian costume is richly decorated and specific cloth and colors were used. Each region had its own kind of costume.

The men's costumes include: a shirt with a slanted cut to the collar, narrow pants, belts, hats and boots. The women's costume include: a long-sleeved shirt, a sarafan, a short jacket (called "dushegreya"), a kokoshnik (head-dress) and short boots. These costumes reveal their conception of the world and the beauty of morals. The costumes reflect the villagers' own taste in ornamentation, favorite colors, and particular way of wearing specific articles. There is a typical old Russian conception of beauty. The ideal of a beautiful woman was considered to be a tall, strong and stately woman with red cheeks, blue eyes and blonde hair.

Wearing the village's costume, a woman reveals the social status and her age. Young married women wore mainly clothes with bright colors, and their costumes were adorned with a great number of beads, buttons and necklaces. Old women wore black, white and brown colors.

Married women wore the scarf in such a way that completely covered the hair. People believed that a woman with uncovered hair can bring misfortune to her family. The young, unmarried women wore their scarves in such a way as to reveal the hair and braid. But every social class wore specific clothes. Rich people tried to show their wealth and prosperity through their clothes.

Russian Clothes Vocabulary

Kokoshnik - woman's head-dress in old Russia
Shuba - a fur coat
Sarafan - a long woman's dress covering feet and having the form of a high skirt with straps or sleeveless chemise worn over one with sleeves
Sermyaga - a kind of rough woolen cloth used for peasant clothing
Kosovorotka - a shirt with a narrow stand up collar and an off-center slit or button closure shifted to the left or the right
Onuchi - long narrow strips of cloth (up to two meters in length) over which lapti (bastshows) were worn
Ponyova - a kind of skirt made of three lengths of cloth and ornamented with embroidery, lace, spangles and beads
Perednik - an apron that served to keep the clothes clean; on holidays it was used as a decoration
Valenki - felt boots
Kaftan - garment
Tulup - sheepskin