What clothes did you wear before? Clothing and jewelry of ancient Russian women. Video: Kievan Rus: clothes, traditions, culture
Slavic clothing with symbols - the style of the soul and the protection of the spirit
How wonderful that today is bringing back to life a huge layer of Native culture, once buried in exchange for an alien, destructive one. We are sincerely pleased that over time, modern youth, as well as fashion designers and designers from all over the world, are beginning to be inspired by Russian life and show genuine interest in Russian clothes in the Slavic style - with symbols and ornamental motifs.
From ancient times, Slavic clothes were sewn by the elders for the young and rising generations, and the needlewomen put the power of Mother Makosh, the patroness of family unions and the Heavenly Spinner, into each stitch. Hand embroidery of sacred symbols on Slavic clothes: chirs and cuts of ours and an ornament with the content of a runic protective record in Slavic signs and with the fixing of “said and done” with nauzes, helped to protect and protect those wearing or from a vale, all kinds of troubles, deplorable adversities, thin poverty, diseases and enemies in battle.
For the most part, Slavic clothing with symbols has a clear ritual meaning: the search for a soul mate, a successful marriage, family harmony, assistance in conceiving virtuous offspring and childbirth, strengthening children's health, following the righteous path, attracting Share. Slavic clothing was passed down by ancestors to their descendants, from generation to generation, from clan to clan, and kept the powerful energy of the power of tribal roots.
Putting on Russian clothes sewn and woven with love with the traditional Slavic symbols of our ancestors, you immediately feel the warm embrace of many generations, harmony with the world of heaven and earth, harmony, calmness and joy from realizing yourself as one with the Family, which has preserved centuries-old traditions.
Online store of Slavic clothes: from Moscow to Novosibirsk
Unfortunately, today the search for truly high-quality and solid Slavic clothing is a very difficult task, not to mention well-chosen, correctly embroidered and applied protective symbols on Slavic clothing. Even in Moscow, it is quite difficult to find traditional Russian clothes in Slavic and ethnic style, and even adapted to the modern way, which could be worn daily, both at work and at home or on vacation.
But fortunately, we took care of those who care about following the traditions of their Family and created entire collections of high-quality and properly tailored Slavic women's, men's and children's clothing with protective symbols, chirs, cuts and images.
In our catalog you can find Slavic clothes made from both linen and cotton fabrics, as well as knitwear made from natural yarn with symbols and ornaments, as well as numerous types of textiles with inscriptions glorifying Russia and our Ancestors.
Numerous products, including Slavic clothing, due to their quality and modern style, are in good demand from Moscow to Siberia, while clearly proving that living in harmony with the Native Faith of our Ancestors, dressing in the Slavic style and looking fashionable at the same time is possible and accessible to each of us today.
Clothing in the Slavic style: the meaning of symbolism and the power of the Family
But often just buying Slavic clothes is not enough - you need to take this issue more consciously, with a full understanding of what ritual meaning the symbolism depicted on it carries and what effect it can have on you. To this end, we describe in detail sacred meaning each ornament, stave or image embroidered on Slavic clothes.
For more detailed information, you can always ask us all your questions about buying the Russian clothes you like in the Slavic style with the symbols of the Native Gods and Mother Russia, as well as in the space of the Veles online store, you have a unique opportunity to order an individual tailoring of that or other product, with the required stav, chir, ornament or the required size. After all, the best Slavic clothing is the one that is tailored to all individual characteristics and proportions of the body, for a more correct harmonization of personal space.
Shop "Veles" - site of Russian national clothes
It doesn’t matter in which city or in which corner of our vast country you live, just choose the Slavic clothes you like: Russian shirts, women’s dresses, sweaters, belts, hats, or clothes with Slavic symbols, buy them and receive your order at the specified address.
You need to be brave showing others love for your native nature and roots - proudly wear clothes in the Slavic style and be an example for many!
The old clothes of the Russian nobility in their cut generally resembled the clothes of people of the lower class, although they differed greatly in the quality of the material and finish. The body was fitted with a wide shirt, which did not reach the knees, made of simple canvas or silk, depending on the wealth of the owner. At an elegant shirt, usually red, the edges and chest were embroidered with gold and silk, a richly decorated collar was fastened at the top with silver or gold buttons (it was called a “necklace”).
In simple, cheap shirts, the buttons were copper or replaced with cufflinks with loops. The shirt was worn over the underwear. Short ports or trousers were worn on the legs without a cut, but with a knot that allowed them to be pulled together or expanded in the belt at will, and with pockets (zep). Pants were sewn from taffeta, silk, cloth, and also from coarse woolen fabric or canvas.
Zipun
A narrow sleeveless zipun made of silk, taffeta or dyed, with a narrow small collar fastened (encirclement) was worn over the shirt and trousers. Zipun reached the knees and usually served as home clothes.
A common and widespread type of outerwear worn over a zipun was a caftan with sleeves that reached to the heels, which were folded so that the ends of the sleeves could replace gloves, and in winter serve as a muff. On the front of the caftan, stripes with ties for fastening were made along the slit on both sides of it. The material for the caftan was velvet, satin, damask, taffeta, mukhoyar (Bukhara paper fabric) or simple dyeing. In elegant caftans, sometimes a pearl necklace was attached behind a standing collar, and a “wrist” decorated with gold embroidery and pearls was fastened to the edges of the sleeves; the floors were sheathed with braid with lace embroidered with silver or gold. "Turkish" caftans without a collar, which had fasteners only on the left side and at the neck, differed in their cut from the "stand" caftans with an interception in the middle and with button fasteners. Among the caftans, they were distinguished according to their purpose: dining, riding, rain, "tearful" (mourning). Winter caftans made with fur were called "casings".
Sometimes a “feryaz” (ferez) was put on the zipun, which was an outer garment without a collar, reaching to the ankles, with long sleeves tapering to the wrist; it was fastened in front with buttons or ties. Winter feryazi were made on fur, and summer ones - on a simple lining. In winter, sleeveless feryazi were sometimes worn under the caftan. Elegant feryazi were sewn from velvet, satin, taffeta, damask, cloth and decorated with silver lace.
okhaben
The cape clothes that were put on when leaving the house included single-row, ohaben, opashen, yapancha, fur coat, etc.
Single row
Opashen
Single-row - wide long-sleeved clothing without a collar, with long sleeves, with stripes and buttons or ties, - usually made of cloth and other woolen fabrics; in autumn and in bad weather they wore it both in sleeves and in a nakidka. A robe looked like a single-row, but it had a turn-down collar that went down to the back, and the long sleeves folded back and there were holes under them for the hands, as in the single-row. A simple coat was sewn from cloth, mukhoyar, and elegant - from velvet, obyari, damask, brocade, decorated with stripes and fastened with buttons. The cut was slightly longer at the back than at the front, and the sleeves tapered to the wrist. The fields were sewn from velvet, satin, obyari, damask, decorated with lace, stripes, fastened with buttons and loops with tassels. The opashen was worn without a belt (“wide open”) and saddle. The sleeveless yapancha (epancha) was a cloak worn in bad weather. A traveling japancha made of coarse cloth or camel hair differed from an elegant japancha made of good fabric lined with fur.
Feryaz
The fur coat was considered the most elegant clothing. It was not only put on when going out in the cold, but the custom allowed the owners to sit in fur coats even while receiving guests. Simple fur coats were made from sheepskin or hare fur, marten and squirrel were higher in quality; noble and rich people had fur coats with sable, fox, beaver or ermine fur. Fur coats were covered with cloth, taffeta, satin, velvet, white or simple dye, decorated with pearls, stripes and fastened with buttons with loops or long laces with tassels at the end. "Russian" fur coats had a turn-down fur collar. "Polish" fur coats were sewn with a narrow collar, with fur cuffs and fastened at the neck only with a cuff (double metal button).
Terlik
Foreign imported fabrics were often used for sewing men's clothing, and bright colors were preferred, especially “wormy” (crimson). The most elegant was considered colored clothing, which was worn on special occasions. Clothes embroidered with gold could only be worn by boyars and duma people. The stripes were always made of a material of a different color than the clothes themselves, and the rich people were decorated with pearls and precious stones. Simple clothes were usually fastened with pewter or silk buttons. Walking without a belt was considered indecent; the belts of the nobility were richly decorated and sometimes reached several arshins in length.
Boots and shoe
As for shoes, the cheapest were bast shoes made of birch bark or bast and shoes woven from wicker rods; to wrap the legs, they used onuchi from a piece of canvas or other fabric. In a prosperous environment, shoes, chobots and ichetygi (ichegi) made of yuft or morocco, most often red and yellow, served as shoes.
Chobots looked like a deep shoe with a high heel and a pointed toe turned up. Elegant shoes and chobots were sewn from satin and velvet of different colors, decorated with silk embroidery and gold and silver threads, trimmed with pearls. Elegant boots were the shoes of the nobility, made of colored leather and morocco, and later - of velvet and satin; soles were nailed with silver nails, and high heels with silver horseshoes. Ichetygi were soft morocco boots.
With smart shoes, woolen or silk stockings were put on their feet.
Kaftan with trump collar
Russian hats were varied, and their shape had its own meaning in everyday life. The top of the head was covered with a tafya, a small cap made of morocco, satin, velvet or brocade, sometimes richly decorated. A common headdress was a cap with a longitudinal slit in front and behind. Less prosperous people wore cloth and felt caps; in winter they were lined with cheap fur. Elegant caps were usually made of white satin. Boyars, nobles and clerks in ordinary days put on low hats of a quadrangular shape with a “circle” around the hat made of black-brown fox, sable or beaver fur; in winter, such hats were lined with fur. Only princes and boyars had the right to wear high "throat" hats made of expensive furs (taken from the throat of a fur-bearing animal) with a cloth top; in their form, they slightly expanded upwards. On solemn occasions, the boyars put on a tafya, a cap, and a throat cap. It was customary to keep a handkerchief in a hat, which, while visiting, was held in hands.
In winter cold, hands were warmed with fur mittens, which were covered with plain leather, morocco, cloth, satin, velvet. "Cold" mittens were knitted from wool or silk. The wrists of elegant mittens were embroidered with silk, gold, and trimmed with pearls and precious stones.
As an adornment, noble and wealthy people wore an earring in their ear, and a silver or gold chain with a cross around their neck, and rings with diamonds, yachts, emeralds on their fingers; on some rings personal seals were made.
Women's coats
Only nobles and military people were allowed to carry weapons with them; townspeople and peasants were forbidden. According to custom, all men, regardless of their social status, left the house with a staff in their hands.
Some women's clothes were similar to men's. Women wore a long shirt in white or red, with long sleeves, embroidered and decorated with wrists. Over the shirt they put on a letnik - light clothing that reached to the heels with long and very wide sleeves (“caps”), which were decorated with embroideries and pearls. Letniki were sewn from damask, satin, obyari, taffeta of different colors, but worm-like ones were especially valued; a slit was made in front, which was fastened up to the very neck.
A neck necklace in the form of a braid, usually black, embroidered with gold and pearls, was fastened to the collar of the letnik.
The outerwear for women was a long cloth fur coat, which had a long row of buttons from top to bottom - pewter, silver or gold. Under the long sleeves, slits were made under the armpits for the arms, a wide round fur collar was fastened around the neck, covering the chest and shoulders. The hem and armholes were decorated with embroidered braid. A long sundress with sleeves or without sleeves, with armholes, was widespread; the front slit was fastened from top to bottom with buttons. A body warmer was worn on a sundress, in which the sleeves tapered to the wrist; These clothes were sewn from satin, taffeta, obyari, altabas (gold or silver fabric), bayberek (twisted silk). Warm padded jackets were lined with marten or sable fur.
Fur coat
Various furs were used for women's fur coats: marten, sable, fox, ermine and cheaper ones - squirrel, hare. Fur coats were covered with cloth or silk fabrics of different colors. In the 16th century, it was customary to sew women's fur coats white color, but in the 17th century they began to be covered with colored fabrics. The cut made in front, with stripes on the sides, was fastened with buttons and bordered with an embroidered pattern. The collar (necklace) lying around the neck was made of different fur than the fur coat; for example, with a marten coat - from a black-brown fox. The decorations on the sleeves could be removed and kept in the family as a hereditary value.
Noble women in solemn occasions put on their clothes a drag, that is, a sleeveless cloak of worm-colored, made of gold, silver-woven or silk fabric, richly decorated with pearls and precious stones.
On their heads, married women wore "hairs" in the form of a small hat, which for rich women was made of gold or silk fabric with decorations on it. To take off the hair and “to goof off” a woman, according to the concepts of the 16th-17th centuries, meant to inflict great dishonor on a woman. Over the hair, the head was covered with a white scarf (ubrus), the ends of which, decorated with pearls, were tied under the chin. When leaving the house, married women put on a “kiku”, which surrounded the head in the form of a wide ribbon, the ends of which were connected at the back of the head; the top was covered with colored cloth; the front part - the ochelie - was richly decorated with pearls and precious stones; the headdress could be separated or attached to another headdress, depending on the need. In front of the kick, pearl strands (lower) that fell to the shoulders were hung, four or six on each side. When leaving the house, women put on a hat with a brim and with falling red cords or a black velvet hat with a fur trim over the ubrus.
The kokoshnik served as a headdress for both women and girls. It looked like a fan or a fan attached to a volosnik. The headpiece of the kokoshnik was embroidered with gold, pearls or multi-colored silk and beads.
Hats
The girls wore crowns on their heads, to which pearl or beaded pendants (cassocks) with precious stones were attached. The girlish crown always left her hair open, which was a symbol of girlhood. By winter, girls from wealthy families were sewn high sable or beaver hats (“columns”) with a silk top, from under which loose hair or a braid with red ribbons woven into it descended onto their backs. Girls from poor families wore bandages that tapered at the back and fell down the back with long ends.
Women and girls of all strata of the population adorned themselves with earrings, which were varied: copper, silver, gold, with yachts, emeralds, "sparks" (small pebbles). Solid gemstone earrings were rare. Bracelets with pearls and stones served as decoration for the hands, and on the fingers - rings and rings, gold and silver, with small pearls.
A rich neck decoration for women and girls was a monisto, consisting of precious stones, gold and silver plaques, pearls, garnets; in “the old days, a row of small crosses was hung from the monist.
Moscow women loved jewelry and were famous for their pleasant appearance, but in order to be considered beautiful, according to the Moscow people of the 16th-17th centuries, one had to be a portly, magnificent woman, rouged and made up. The harmony of a thin camp, the grace of a young girl in the eyes of the then beauty lovers had little value.
According to the description of Olearius, Russian women were of medium height, slender build, and had a gentle face; city dwellers all blushed, eyebrows and eyelashes were tinted with black or brown paint. This custom was so rooted that when the wife of the Moscow nobleman prince, Ivan Borisovich Cherkasov, a beautiful woman, did not want to blush, the wives of other boyars persuaded her not to neglect the custom of her native land, not to disgrace other women and ensured that this naturally beautiful woman I had to give in and apply rouge.
Although, in comparison with rich noble people, the clothes of the "black" townspeople and peasants were simpler and less elegant, nevertheless, in this environment there were rich outfits that accumulated from generation to generation. Clothes were usually made at home. And the very cut of ancient clothes - without a waist, in the form of a dressing gown - made it suitable for many.
Men's peasant clothing
The most common peasant costume was the Russian KAFTAN. The difference between the Western European caftan and the Russian caftan was already mentioned at the beginning of this chapter. It remains to add that the peasant caftan was different great variety. Common to him was a double-breasted cut, long floors and sleeves, a chest closed to the top. A short caftan was called a half-caftan or half-caftan. The Ukrainian semi-caftan was called a SWITTLE, this word can often be found in Gogol. Caftans were most often gray or blue in color and were sewn from cheap NANKI material - coarse cotton fabric or CANVAS - handicraft linen fabric. They girdled the caftan, as a rule, with a CUSHAK - a long piece of fabric, usually of a different color, the caftan was fastened with hooks on the left side.
A whole wardrobe of Russian caftans passes before us in classical literature. We see them on peasants, clerks, philistines, merchants, coachmen, janitors, occasionally even on provincial landowners (“Notes of a Hunter” by Turgenev).
What was the first caftan that we met shortly after we learned to read - the famous "Trishkin caftan" at Krylov's? Trishka was clearly a poor, needy person, otherwise he would hardly have needed to reshape his torn caftan himself. So, we are talking about a simple Russian caftan? Far from it - Trishkin's caftan had tails, which the peasant caftan never had. Consequently, Trishka reshapes the "German caftan" given to him by the master. And it is no coincidence that in this regard, Krylov compares the length of the caftan altered by Trishka with the length of the camisole - also typically noble clothes.
It is curious that for poorly educated women, any clothing worn in the sleeves by men was seen as a caftan. They didn't know any other words. The Gogol matchmaker calls Podkolesin's tailcoat (“Marriage”) a caftan, Korobochka calls Chichikov's tailcoat (“Dead Souls”).
A variety of caftan was UNDERNESS. The best description of her was given by a brilliant connoisseur of Russian life, playwright A.N. Ostrovsky in a letter to the artist Burdin: “If you call a caftan with ruffles at the back, which fastens on one side with hooks, then this is how Vosmibratov and Peter should be dressed.” We are talking about the costumes of the characters of the comedy "Forest" - a merchant and his son.
The undershirt was considered a more fine attire than a simple caftan. Dapper sleeveless undercoats, over short fur coats, were worn by wealthy coachmen. Wealthy merchants also wore a coat, and, for the sake of "simplification", some nobles, for example, Konstantin Levin in his village ("Anna Karenina"). It is curious that, obeying fashion, like a kind of Russian national costume, little Seryozha in the same novel was sewn a "gathered undershirt".
SIBIRKA was a short caftan, usually blue, sewn at the waist, without a slit at the back and with a low standing collar. Siberians were worn by shopkeepers and merchants, and, as Dostoevsky testifies in Notes from the House of the Dead, some prisoners also made them for themselves.
AZYAM - a kind of caftan. It was sewn from thin fabric and was worn only in summer.
outerwear peasants (not only men, but also women) were served by ARMYAK - also a kind of caftan, sewn from factory fabric - thick cloth or coarse wool. Wealthy Armenians were made from camel wool. It was a wide, long, free-cut robe, reminiscent of a dressing gown. A dark coat was worn by Turgenev's "Kasyan with a Beautiful Sword". We often see Armenians on Nekrasov's men. Nekrasov's poem "Vlas" begins like this: "In an Armenian coat with an open collar, / With a bare head, / Slowly passes through the city / Uncle Vlas is a gray-haired old man." And here is what Nekrasov’s peasants look like, waiting “at the front door”: “Tanned faces and hands, / A thin Armenian on his shoulders, / On a knapsack on his backs bent, / A cross on his neck and blood on his legs ....” Turgenev Gerasim, fulfilling the will of the mistress, "covered Mumu with his heavy coat."
Armenians often wore coachmen, putting them on in winter over sheepskin coats. The hero of L. Tolstoy's story "Polikushka" goes to the city for money "in an army coat and a fur coat".
Much more primitive than the coat was Zipun, which was sewn from coarse, usually homespun cloth, without a collar, with sloping floors. Seeing a zipun today, we would say: "Some kind of hoodie." “No stake, no yard, / Zipun is all a living”, - we read in Koltsov’s poem about a poor peasant.
Zipun was a kind of peasant coat, protecting from cold and bad weather. Women also wore it. Zipun was perceived as a symbol of poverty. No wonder the drunken tailor Merkulov in Chekhov's story "The Captain's Uniform", boasting of former high-ranking customers, exclaims: "Let me die rather than sew zipunas! "
In the last issue of his "Diary of a Writer" Dostoevsky called: "Let's listen to the gray zipuns, what they will say," referring to the poor, working people.
A variety of caftan was also CHUYKA - a long cloth caftan of a careless cut. Most often, the chuyka could be seen on merchants and philistines - innkeepers, artisans, merchants. Gorky has a phrase: “Some kind of red-haired man came, dressed as a tradesman, in a coat and high boots.”
In Russian everyday life and in literature, the word "chuyka" was sometimes used as a synecdoche, that is, the designation of its carrier by an external sign - a close-minded, ignorant person. In Mayakovsky's poem "Good!" there are lines: "Salop says chuyka, chuyka salop". Here, chuyka and salop are synonymous with hardened inhabitants.
A homespun caftan made of coarse, undyed cloth was called SERYAGOY. In Chekhov's story "The Pipe" an old shepherd is depicted in a sackcloth. Hence the epithet homely, referring to the backward and poor old Russia - homespun Russia.
Historians of Russian costume note that there were no strictly defined, permanent names for peasant clothing. Much depended on local dialects. Some identical items of clothing were called differently in different dialects, in other cases different items were called by the same word in different places. This is also confirmed by Russian classical literature, where the concepts of “kaftan”, “armyak”, “azyam”, “zipun” and others are often mixed up, sometimes even by the same author. However, we considered it our duty to give the most general, common characteristics of these types of clothing.
KARTUZ has only recently disappeared from peasant headdresses, which certainly had a band and a visor, most often of a dark color, in other words, an unshaped cap. The cap, which appeared in Russia at the beginning of the 19th century, was worn by men of all classes, first landowners, then philistines and peasants. Sometimes caps were warm, with earmuffs. Manilov ("Dead Souls") appears "in a warm cap with ears". On Insarov ("On the Eve" by Turgenev) "a strange, eared cap". Nikolai Kirsanov and Yevgeny Bazarov (Fathers and Sons by Turgenev) walk around in caps. " Worn Cap" - on Eugene, the hero of Pushkin's "The Bronze Horseman". Chichikov travels in a warm cap. Sometimes a uniform cap, even an officer's cap, was also called a cap: Bunin, for example, instead of the word "cap" used "cap".
The nobles had a special, uniform cap with a red band.
Here it is necessary to warn the reader: the word "cap" in the old days had another meaning. When Khlestakov orders Osip to look in the cap for tobacco, it is, of course, not about a headdress, but about a bag for tobacco, a pouch.
Ordinary working people, in particular coachmen, wore high, rounded hats, nicknamed BUCKWHEATS - by the similarity of the shape with the popular at that time flat cake baked from buckwheat flour. Shlyk was a disparaging term for any peasant hat. In Nekrasov's poem "To whom it is good to live in Russia" there are lines: "Look where the peasant hats go." At the fair, the peasants left their hats to the innkeepers as a pledge, in order to redeem them later.
There were no significant changes in the names of the shoes. Low shoes, both men's and women's, were called SHOE in the old days, shoes appeared later, not significantly different from shoes, but debuted in the feminine: the heroes of Turgenev, Goncharov, L. Tolstoy had a BOOT on their feet, not a shoe, as we say today. By the way, boots, starting from the 1850s, actively replaced the almost indispensable boots for men. Particularly thin, expensive leather for boots and other footwear was called GROWTH (from the skin of a calf less than a year old) and calf - from the skin of a calf that had not yet switched to plant food.
Especially smart were considered boots with a SET (or assemblies) - small folds on the tops.
Forty years ago, many men wore STIBLETs on their feet - boots with hooks for winding laces. In this sense, we meet this word in Gorky and Bunin. But already at the beginning of Dostoevsky's novel "The Idiot" we learn about Prince Myshkin: "On his feet were thick-soled shoes with boots - everything is not Russian." The modern reader will conclude: not only not in Russian, but not in human way at all: two pairs of shoes on one person? However, in the time of Dostoevsky, boots meant the same thing as leggings - warm covers worn over shoes. This Western novelty evokes venomous remarks from Rogozhin and even a slanderous epigram against Myshkin in the press: “Returning in narrow boots, / He took a million inheritance.”
Women's peasant clothes
A SARAFAN, a long sleeveless dress with shoulder straps and a belt, served as rural women's clothing from time immemorial. Before the attack of the Pugachevites on the Belogorsk fortress (“The Captain’s Daughter” by Pushkin), its commandant says to his wife: “If you have time, put on a sundress for Masha.” A detail that is not noticed by a modern reader, but significant: the commandant expects that in rural clothes, in the event of the capture of the fortress, the daughter will be lost in a crowd of peasant girls and will not be identified as a noblewoman - the captain's daughter.
Married women wore PANEVA or PONYOVA - a homespun, usually striped or plaid woolen skirt, in winter - with a padded jacket. About the merchant's wife Bolshovoy clerk Podkhalyuzin in Ostrovsky's comedy "Own people - let's settle!" says with contempt that she is "almost a nerd", alluding to her common origin. In the "Resurrection" by L. Tolstoy, it is noted that the women in the village church were in panevs. On weekdays, a POVOYNIK was worn on the head - a scarf wrapped around the head, on holidays KOKOSHNIK - a rather complex structure in the form of a semicircular shield over the forehead and with a crown at the back, or KIKU (KICHKU) - a headdress with projections protruding forward - "horns".
It was considered a great shame for a married peasant woman to appear in public with her head uncovered. Hence, “goof off”, that is, disgrace, disgrace.
The word "SHUSHUN" is a kind of village quilted jacket, short jacket or fur coat, we remember from the popular "Letter from Mother" by S. A. Yesenin. But it is found in literature much earlier, even in Pushkin's Moor of Peter the Great.
fabrics
Their diversity was great, and fashion and industry introduced new ones, forcing them to forget the old ones. Let us explain in dictionary order only those names that are most often found in literary works, remaining incomprehensible to us.
ALEXANDREYKA, or XANDREYKA, is a red or pink cotton fabric with white, pink or blue stripes. It was willingly used for peasant shirts, being considered very elegant.
BAREGE - light woolen or silk fabric with patterns. Dresses and blouses were most often sewn from it in the last century.
BARAKAN, or BARKAN, is a dense woolen fabric. Used for furniture upholstery.
PAPER. Be careful with this word! Reading from the classics that someone put on a paper cap or that Gerasim gave Tanya a paper handkerchief in Mumu, one should not understand this in the modern sense; "paper" in the old days meant "cotton".
GARNITUR - spoiled "grodetur", dense silk fabric.
GARUS - rough woolen fabric or similar cotton.
DEMIKOTON - dense cotton fabric.
DRADEDAM - thin cloth, literally "women's".
ZAMASHKA - the same as posconina (see below). On Biryuk in the story of the same name by Turgenev - a zamashka shirt.
ZAPREPEZA - a cheap cotton fabric made of multi-colored threads. It was made at the factory of the merchant Zatrapeznov in Yaroslavl. The fabric disappeared, but the word "shabby" - everyday, second-rate - remained in the language.
CASINET - smooth wool blend fabric.
KAMLOT - a dense woolen or half-woolen fabric with a strip of rough workmanship.
KANAUS - cheap silk fabric.
CANIFAS - striped cotton fabric.
CASTOR - a kind of thin dense cloth. Used for hats and gloves.
CASHMERE - expensive soft and fine wool or wool mixture.
CHINA - a smooth cotton fabric, usually blue.
Calico - cheap cotton fabric, one-color or white.
KOLOMYANKA - homemade motley woolen or linen fabric.
Creton is a dense colored fabric used for furniture upholstery and damask wallpaper.
LUSTRIN - woolen fabric with gloss.
MUKHOYAR - motley cotton fabric with an admixture of silk or wool.
NANKA is a dense cotton fabric popular among peasants. Named after the Chinese city of Nanjing.
PESTRYAD - coarse linen or cotton fabric made of multi-colored threads.
PLIS - dense cotton fabric with a pile, reminiscent of velvet. The word is of the same origin as plush. From plush they sewed cheap outerwear and shoes.
Poskonina - homespun hemp fiber canvas, often used for peasant clothing.
PRUNEL - dense woolen or silk fabric, from which women's shoes were sewn.
SARPINKA - thin cotton fabric in a cage or strip.
SERPYANKA - coarse cotton fabric of rare weaving.
Tarlatan is a transparent, light fabric similar to muslin.
TARMALAMA - dense silk or semi-silk fabric, from which dressing gowns were sewn.
TRIP is a fleecy woolen fabric like velvet.
FULAR - light silk, from which head, neck and handkerchiefs were most often made, sometimes the latter were therefore called foulards.
CANVAS - light linen or cotton fabric.
CHALON - dense wool, from which outerwear was sewn.
And in conclusion about some COLORS.
ADELAIDA - dark blue color.
BLANGE - flesh-colored.
DOUBLE-FACE - with overflow, as if two colors on the front side.
WILD, WILD - light grey.
MASAKA - dark red.
PUKETOVY (from spoiled "bouquet") - painted with flowers.
PUSE (from the French "puce" - flea) - dark brown.
One has to judge about ancient clothing in general and about ancient Russian clothing in particular by archeological materials, frescoes, miniatures, icons, objects of applied art. There are references to clothing in written sources - chronicles, the so-called Lives, i.e. small genre scenes depicting individual moments from the life of saints, as well as various kinds of acts. In this regard, the study of “face books”, i.e., illustrated ancient manuscripts, various “selections”, etc., is of great interest.
In all sources, information is mainly given about the clothes of the nobility, little is said about peasant clothes. Images of peasants are found only by chance. They come across among small drawings of manuscripts, in capital letters, among some figures on icons or in Lives.
In this work, attention is also paid to the ancient costume of the rich estates, while there is a principle of comparison. When studying the ancient Russian costume, ancient finds are compared with later elements of the costume and samples of folk art (embroidery, wood carving, etc.).
The description of the appearance of the ancient Rus was left by an Arab traveler of the 10th century. Ibn-Fadlan, who saw them coming on their trading business to the king of the Khazars. He wrote that he did not know people with a more perfect physique: “They are like palm trees, ruddy, red. They do not wear jackets or caftans, but only cloaks (kisas) covering one side and leaving the other free. Each of them is armed with an ax, a sword and a knife. Their swords are flat, with grooves, Frankish ”(i.e., European).
An attempt to systematize illustrative material on the ancient Russian costume of the X-XIII centuries. (according to original images and descriptions) made in the second half of the 19th century. S. S. Strekalov (“Russian historical clothes from the 10th century to the 13th century,” Issue I. St. Petersburg, 1877).
A description of the names of materials used for the manufacture of various elements of the costume, as well as decorations of the ancient Russian costume, is given in the work of P. I. Savvaitov “Description of ancient Russian utensils, clothes, weapons, military armor and horse equipment, arranged in alphabetical order” (St. Petersburg, 1896).
In the work “An experiment on clothing, weapons, customs, customs and the degree of enlightenment of the Slavs from the time of Trajan and the Russians to the invasion of the Tatars. The first period ”(St. Petersburg, 1832) A.N. Olenin notes that from the IV century. BC e. until the 13th century cut clothes, patterns and fabrics, various decorations - in a word, everything was like the Byzantines, who then dominated all of Europe. A. N. Olenin calls this period Byzantine.
Rice. 1. Peasant shirt in ancient images (XII-XIV centuries): a - a peasant at work ("Adam"); b - a resting peasant ("Pskov charter")
Underwear was a white or colored linen shirt (Fig. 1). Over it they put on the same long clothes that the priests wore. The sleeves of the shirts of the priests were wide in the upper part (at the armhole), tapered to the wrist and ended in handrails. This deaf clothing was put on over the head and girded with a wide belt (gold or rich fabric). Over all the clothes, when leaving the house or during ceremonies, they put on a cloak, or epancha, called in the old days korzno.
A unique monument of ancient Russian art, cited by A. N. Olenin in the work, depicts a costume of the 11th century. (Fig. 2).
Rice. 2. Princely clothes of the XI century. ("Izbornik Svyatoslav", 1073)
Prince Svyatoslav, son of Yaroslav I, is depicted in a round (different from the hats of his children) low hat of the three-piece type with raised headphones, the color of which resembles blue. The band at the cap is brown, and the crown is gold. Epancha, or korzno, of Svyatoslav Yaroslavovich is blue, trimmed with gold gossamer, lined with red fabric and fastened on the right shoulder.
Among the works on the ancient Russian costume, the works of the archaeologist V. A. Prokhorov stand out (“Materials on the history of Russian clothes and the situation of folk life, published by the greatest permission of V. A. Prokhorov.” In 4 books of St. Petersburg, 1881-1885). Books 2-4 were published by his son - A.V. Prokhorov, who did a significant job compiling the history of Russian clothing in illustrations. V. A. Prokhorov, in the preface to his work, noted that, first of all, it was necessary to collect material, bring it into a system, and thus prepare and facilitate the path for those who wish to do this (suit. - F.P.). V. A. Prokhorov drew parallels between the elements of the costume of the Scythians and pagan Slavs. He adhered to the idea of their similarity. In the mounds of the Chernigov, Kyiv, Poltava, Kharkov provinces, during excavations, the remains of helmets, chain mail, earrings, buttons, pins, beads, buckles, threads of gold fabrics, pieces of charred braid, remains of linen, woolen and silk fabrics, etc. were found. Numerous excavations tell us about the life of the Slavs, their clothes, weapons, etc.
The complete clothing of people (costume) of prehistoric times has not been preserved. On ancient stone idols (i.e., stone statues) of different periods, preserved in different places in southern Russia, clothes and jewelry are depicted; some of them are similar to the clothes and decorations that existed in a later period (for example, a hat, earrings, belts with pendants, swords, knives, monists, hryvnias, bracelets and other things).
Ivory carving is a common type of Byzantine art. One such carving, preserved and dating back to the 4th century, depicts the victory of Emperor Constantius, where the vanquished bring gifts to the emperor. Attention is drawn to the images of the vanquished, the close resemblance of their hats or caps and embroideries on clothes, as well as shoes (postols) with similar forms that were common among Russians.
The Kiev Sophia Cathedral is the only surviving architectural monument of Russia of the 11th century, in which the preserved frescoes give an idea of the clothes of our ancient ancestors.
Relief decorations on the outer walls of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral in Vladimir (1194) show that the Russian costume at that time differed little from the costume of the 11th century. - the same outerwear, the same shirts, baskets, lanyards, epanchi, hats, women's hats. The clothes were both long and short.
It is assumed that among Russians, as among all Slavic peoples, the oldest footwear was a sole, the edges of which were bent up and pulled together at the instep of the foot with a bast, lace or belt (Fig. 3). The Slavic name "kurpy" or the Old Slavic "opanki" has also been preserved, but such shoes were more widely known as "pistons". In the same period, shoes woven from bast (Fig. 4) - bast shoes (common Slav. lapty) were also common. Bast shoes are mentioned in the Laurentian Chronicle (985). Information about shoes is found in Russian written monuments of the 12th century, in the Tale of Bygone Years, etc. Later, the Slavs borrowed the Turkish term “postol” (Russian “postoly”, Bulgarian “postol”, Serb. "postola", Czech. postola, Polish. postol). In everyday life there were also semi-boots reaching to the middle of the lower leg with a slit in front, which were laced up or fastened. All these types of home-made shoes have come into use since the 10th century. By the end of the pagan period, the Slavs had high leather boots covering the lower leg. The word "boot" originated from the Slavic sapogos, which in turn comes from sopa (leather pipe). In the Tale of Igor's Campaign, a boot means high footwear.
The study of leather products found during excavations in Moscow, Novgorod, Pskov, Staraya Ladoga, etc., was carried out by a number of researchers - MTILP scientists led by Yu. P. Zybin, as well as historians M. G. Rabinovich, E. I. Oyateva, S. A. Izyumova and others. As a result of archaeological excavations, in addition to samples of shoes and other leather products, tools and tools for leather and shoe crafts were also found: plows, knives for cutting leather, straight and curved awls, needles, wooden shoe lasts, nails, etc. It is interesting to note that, for example, the tools of Novgorod shoemakers of the 11th-16th centuries. differed little from the tools of handicraft shoemakers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the wooden blocks found in Novgorod (about 200) of various shapes and sizes, made of birch and linden and dating from the 10th-15th centuries. (Fig. 5), were simple (from one piece of wood) and composite (from two parts) with a removable top (rise). The details of such blocks were connected using wooden pegs inserted into special holes. Compound lasts served as a model in the manufacture of shoes. Simple lasts were used for straightening and beating shoes after connecting the top to the bottom with an eversion seam.
The most ancient leather items were discovered during the excavations of Staraya Ladoga (the finds date back to the 7th-9th centuries).
The development of methods for cutting out the uppers of shoes went along the line of increasing the number of parts, which made it possible to save material and at the same time improve the performance of shoes. Along with the main details of the blanks that determine the design of the shoe, there were additional ones that give the product a rigid fixed shape.
Shoe molding was achieved in the process of stitching the blank; shoe tightening came later. On the basis of archaeological finds, it was established that the blanks were both whole cut (Fig. 6) and cut in detail (Fig. 7). Basically, the details of the top were fastened to each other with an eversion or weaving seam, connecting the skin end-to-end and not giving a hard scar on the surface. Seams over the edge and lowercase were also widespread, sometimes a strap was inserted between the details. The variety of seams testifies to the high level of development of shoe production in Russia.
Old Russian shoes were divided into two types by design - soft construction and hard. Shoes of soft construction had only the main details - the upper blank (from one or two parts) and the sole. Shoes of a rigid design, in addition to the main ones, also had additional details - the blanks consisted of many parts.
Depending on the contours of the toe and heel, there were three types of soles of detailed cut shoes: a normal toe length and a structurally elongated heel (see Fig. 7, a); normal length and toe, and heel (Fig. 7, b); structurally elongated toe and normal length heel (Fig. 7, c).
A unique find found in Staraya Ladoga is soft leather boots (7th-9th centuries). Researcher E.I. Oyateva identified eight of their varieties (Fig. 8). All shoes are characterized by a large-detailed cut (one or two details). Soft shoes were cut separately for the left and right foot, which is proved by the asymmetry of the workpiece development. The originality of the old Ladoga shoes is that all blanks are one-piece, narrow-nosed shoes, with a low rise, tightly fitting the foot. A variety of this shoe is a blank with a seam on the side or in front, a rounded or shortened toe, a heel with a straight cut along the bottom edge or with a triangular neckline. The design of the contours of the soles is different: with a rounded heel and an elongated toe, with a rounded toe and an elongated heel, with a rounded toe and heel. The seams of the workpiece simultaneously performed a decorative function (for example, the seam along the buttock accentuated the shape of the sock).
The boots of most varieties (I-VI) consisted of two parts - the top and the sole. Top blanks (I, II) included a seam on the side. To form the toe of the shoe (I-III), two parallel rows of small stitches were placed along the central axis, creating a relief flagellum with their tension. In boots of variety I, the lower edge of the heel had a small triangular cutout, at the top of which a piece of leather was left to strengthen the seam under tension. The top and the sole were connected with an eversion seam, the details of the top - with a stitch. A tight fitting of the leg in the ankle area was achieved with the help of a support strap passed through the slots.
The boots of variety II had a heel with three parallel cuts (the length of the cuts was 10.5-14 cm, the interval between the cuts was 2.3-2.5 cm). The strap, stretched in the upper part of the berets, provided a tight fitting of the leg at the ankle.
The original blank of boots of variety III, which made up the toe and berets, had a cutout in the form of two symmetrical curls in the narrowest place. This main part was attached to a separately cut and embossed detail (in the form of a rectangular trapezoid), covering the instep of the leg in front. On the inside of the leg, both parts were laced up with narrow leather straps through special cutouts (seven on each side). From the inside, the lacing sections were reinforced with strips of leather. The back of the workpiece had a deep triangular cutout, into which an elongated heel part of the sole was sewn. A boot of this design tightly fitted the foot.
The blank of the shoe upper of variety IV had a shortened toe. A thong was attached to the inside of the upper kral of the boot, with the help of which the shoe tightly clasped the ankle. The edge of the sole is with an elongated toe and a rounded heel. The edges of the notch in the butt joint of the workpiece were joined with a 0.5 cm wide overlay seam. This seam also had a decorative function: double punctures forming quadrangular holes gave the seam a certain rhythmic clarity.
The blank of the top of the shoe of variety V with a seam along the midline of the vamp had a cutout on the instep for attaching a strap, and the sole had a rounded toe.
Remains of belt lacing have been preserved on the instep of variety VI. It is assumed that the sole had an elongated heel part, since the upper blank had a triangular cutout in the back. Shoes were fastened to the leg in the same way as shoes of varieties I, II and IV.
From all previous designs, shoes of variety VII are different. The contour of the toe and heel parts of the one-piece blank had a complex configuration, which made it possible to give the shoe the necessary shape. Shoes of variety VIII - children's.
Based on the materials of archaeological excavations, researchers distinguish three types leather shoes(fig. 9): pistons, soft shoes (or shoes) and boots. The boots, unlike the first two types of shoes, had a stiffer sole and a hard back.
In ancient Russian written sources, the simplest shoes were called “greater shoes”, or “worms”, that is, pistons made from soft parts of the skin located on the belly of the animal, which really corresponds to the properties of these skin areas. The dictionary of V. I. Dal says that the pistons are not sewn, but are bent from one piece of raw leather or skin on a back, a belt. Archaeological samples of pistons fully confirm the reliability of this information.
By design, three types of pistons are distinguished (see Fig. 3): simple, openwork and composite. The pistons of the first two types were made from a rectangular piece of leather 2-2.5 cm thick. The length and width of the piece of leather corresponded to the size of the leg with an allowance for the height of the toe and heel of the shoe. To strengthen the foot, the piston was pulled together in front by transverse straps threaded through holes in the upper edge of the shoe. Openwork pistons were distinguished by grace and more complex decorative design heads. It was made openwork, applying rows of parallel slits, through which a strap was threaded in the center, intertwining, tightening the edges of the head. Such pistons resembled sandals, but were made of thinner and soft material. Composite (two-piece) pistons were made of dense thick leather. The corners of the workpiece were cut off, and instead of them, an additional detail was sewn in with a weaving seam - a triangular piece of leather. The hem was also sewn with a weaving seam. This type of pistons resembled moccasins.
The second type of old Russian leather shoes are soft boots, or shoes. (Shoes in the form of soft boots were common in the 10th-11th centuries not only in Russia, but also in Byzantium and in the West.) They were distinguished by a soft free design and a sewn-on sole 1-3.5 cm (Fig. 9, a- in). In most of the found examples of such shoes, a tightening strap passed around the ankle, threaded through rows of vertical slots and tied in front at the instep. For the manufacture of openwork shoes, soft, thinner leather was used. The top of the blanks of most of the samples found consisted of several (3-4) parts. Shoes were made of smooth leather, which was often decorated with embossing, embroidery, carving (already cut details were decorated). The ornament was located mainly in the center of the blank head. A favorite method of finishing footwear among Novgorodians was embroidery with woolen and silk threads.
Half boots were a variety of shoes with tops (Fig. 9, d). They differed from ordinary boots in short tops (14-15 cm) and soft heel construction.
The most difficult to manufacture was the third type of footwear - boots (Fig. 9, g). In the XI century. boots were also worn in the south of Ancient Russia, as we can judge from the miniature from Svyatoslav's Izbornik (see Fig. 2).
Most Novgorod boots in the XI-XIII centuries. It was of rigid construction, without heels. Soles with a narrow calf and the remains of stacked heels (made of leather and iron braces) indicate the appearance by the 14th century. shoes with medium and high heels. Hard shoes differed from soft shoes not only in the density of the material used, but also in a more complex design - the presence of pads, linings, the appearance of a heel and a corresponding change in the contours of the sole.
The height of the tops of Novgorod boots is small (17-22 cm, sometimes 25-27 cm). Most of the tops consisted of two halves, connected on the sides with a welt or turn-out seam, at the top of the top they expanded (the width at the top was 16, 18, 20 cm, at the bottom - 10,12,14 cm). There were boots with single-seam tops, in this case the seam was located on the side, on the inside. Some boots in the upper part of the tops (sometimes at the ankles) had rows of vertical slots through which a strap was threaded to tighten the tops along the leg. The heads of the boots were made in two types - blunt and pointed with a raised toe. Blunt-nosed heads were made from simple, coarse varieties of leather, and pointed-nosed heads were made from softer and thinner ones. The surface of pointed heads in the 15th-16th centuries. decorated with embossed parallel stripes. The back was made double, forming a pocket into which a back made of leather, birch bark or bast was inserted. The back was also decorated with embossing - rows of horizontal stripes. Composite soles were made from several layers of thin leather and sewn to the top blank with an outer seam. In order for the sole to wear out less, it was tamped in front and behind with nails (iron or copper) with wide round hats. Already from the XIV century. heel heels in the form of iron brackets were known.
Boots - the most common footwear of the XV-XVI centuries. Most of them had pointed, raised toes. An interesting example of Russian morocco green boots is kept in the funds of the Novgorod Historical and Architectural Museum-Reserve (Fig. 10). The top of these boots is double-seam, with a sub-outfit. The seams connecting the front and back of the boot with the top of the boot are also trimmed with leather piping (light and dark) and copper wire. The back is embroidered with copper wire and stripes of colored leather (red and yellow). The sole is sewn to the top of the boot with colored threads (yellow and crimson). Its bottom is completely sheathed with iron studs with convex caps, forming a pattern in the form of a herringbone. The metal base of the heel was hammered into a wooden henpecked, covered with heel leather and wrapped around at the bottom with parallel rows of copper spirals. Between the high heel slightly pulled back and the sole (in the pantyhose) there was a space where a sparrow could actually “fly”. In ancient Russian folklore, a figurative description of high-heeled boots has been preserved:
The orata's boots have green morocco:
Here is the awl of the heel, the noses are sharp,
Here a sparrow will fly under the heel,
Near the nose, at least roll an egg.
Summarizing the material of archaeological finds, it should be noted that the similarity in the design and decoration of shoes in the ancient Russian cities - Novgorod, Staraya Ryazan, Pskov, Smolensk, Moscow, Staraya Ladoga - indicates the commonality of shoe craft technology in Russia, which is also a sign of mass production of shoes.
Various leather products were widespread among the Slavic peoples. For example, in the Pskov collection of archaeological materials, details of the costume of ordinary people have been preserved: stripes on clothes and shoes, mittens, belts, all kinds of cases, wallets, scabbards, as well as balls and other items (Fig. 11).
Most of the purses found in Novgorod were made from two pieces of leather, rounded at the bottom and having holes (slits) at the top for a leather strap.
The details of the purse were connected with a welt or eversion seam. The wallets were lined with fabric. Round purses were made from a single piece of leather with a holding strap at the top. These products date back to the XII-XV centuries.
Rectangular wallets X-XIII centuries. consisted of two parts.
One of the parts was made longer and at the same time served as a valve, which was sometimes cut out separately and sewn or attached to the walls of the bag with a leather strap.
The original is a wallet trimmed with openwork embossing in the form of curls. A continuous embossed pattern is applied to a 15th-century pyramid-shaped purse, sewn from one piece with an applied double-sided flap.
Based on the analysis of the found purses, it can be concluded that the methods of manufacturing and finishing leather products in the 11th-14th centuries. the same as for shoes (large detail in cutting, seams, embroidery with a “rope” seam, etc.).
Bags (sums) differed from wallets in shape and large size. Fragments of bags of the 14th-15th centuries embroidered with threads were found in Novgorod. Epics mention leather "bags" .
Leather mittens of the 11th-15th centuries. cut out from one or two pieces of leather sewn with an eversion seam. Similar items were found in Novgorod and Moscow. In written sources there is information about mittens and "mittens-fingered", i.e. gloves. A gauntlet of an earlier period (7th-10th centuries) was found in Staraya Ladoga. The mitten is cut out of a large piece of sheepskin folded in half and sewn inside with a turn-out seam.
The material for jewelry (additions to the costume) was silver, bronze, less often gold. A variety of crowns (silver or bronze) were worn on the head in the form of a bandage, tapering towards the ends. The crowns consisted of several thin silver or bronze rings strung on a birch bark roller, from a silver or bronze plate of the same width, decorated with circles and scars, or were in the form of a metal hoop, decorated with various kinds of pendants. The crowns were attached to a rigid base, such as birch bark. The rings of the crowns did not converge on the head, they were tied with laces that regulate the volume.
Women's jewelry (Fig. 12) also included temporal or hair rings of various shapes - twisted from wire in the form of a bundle, woven in the form of a braid, etc .; earrings, most of which are due to large sizes and gravity could not be worn in the ears, and therefore they were woven into the hair or put on a thin strap, and in this form the strap was put on the ear. Bone combs were also worn as decorations.
The neck was decorated with hryvnias, pendants, monists. Hryvnias had the shape of a non-soldered hoop, were made of thick smooth wire or were forged into several faces, and also had the form of a bundle, a screw, or were braided in the form of a braid. The usual neck decoration was a necklace, which consisted of a wide variety of beads, which had a rounded shape in the form of a rosette, balls, and cylinders. Monisto often consisted of dark blue, red or transparent glass beads of various shapes. Often, necklaces were made of beads made of clay or rocky paste, distinguished by their large size, variety of colors and shapes. The chest was also decorated with chains, consisting of bronze, silver or, less commonly, gold rings. A box (made of silver, bronze, copper or iron) with a ring was hung to the chains, with which a small knife was attached.
More rare female adornments were brooches, or buckles, which were worn on the chest or on the shoulders. Hands were decorated with bracelets, fingers - with rings, rings.
When studying the monuments of Ancient Russia, the idea arises of the penetration of elements of clothing of other peoples into ancient Russian clothing. In the formation of the Russian state, along with the East Slavic tribes, the Finno-Ugric peoples also participated on an equal footing: Merya, the whole and the Chud. In Kyiv there was "Chudin Dvor", in Novgorod there was a whole district - "Chudin End". As part of the Russian army, which marched on Constantinople, the Varangians and Chud fought shoulder to shoulder with the Slavs. It seems that already in its fundamental principle, Russia was a kind of union of nationalities. Russia was not fenced off by a wall either from the southern, or from the western, or from the eastern, or from the northern neighbors. It was a peaceful power, not afraid of being swallowed up by neighboring cultures.
In the X-XI centuries. Byzantine influence was also manifested in Ancient Russia. The forms of life developed by the Slavs are changing. Russian princes, entering into trade or military relations with Byzantium, borrow a lot, including religion, ranks, insignia, clothes.
Russia adopted Christianity from Byzantium, and the Eastern Christian Church allowed Christian preaching and worship in its national language. Therefore, in the history of Russian literature there were neither Latin nor Greek periods. From the very beginning, unlike many Western countries, Russia had literature in its own language, understandable to the people. In addition to all this, even before the adoption of Christianity in Russia, the art of oral speech was developed. In the vast expanses, people with particular acuteness felt and appreciated their unity and, above all, the unity of the language in which they spoke, sang, recounted epics. In the conditions of that time, according to the figurative expression of D.S. Likhachev, even the word “language” itself acquires the meaning of “people”.
Early feudalism came to Russia to replace the tribal society. This was a huge leap, because Russia passed the historical stage of the slave system. Christianity came to replace ancient Russian paganism - paganism, typical of a tribal society. The fear of the power of nature, the consciousness of man's powerlessness before the elemental forces nested in ancient Russian paganism. Christianity, in its theological concept of the world, placed man at the center of nature and perceived nature “as a servant of man, discovered in nature the “wisdom” of the world order and divine expediency.” This, although it did not completely free a person from fear of the forces of nature, nevertheless radically changed his attitude to nature, made him think about the meaning of the structure of the universe, the meaning of human history. As D.S. Likhachev notes, the first Russian literary works full of admiration for the wisdom of the universe, but the wisdom not closed in itself, but serving man.
The clothes of the Grand Duke's time were distinguished by richness and solemnity; gold, gold and silver items covered with niello and enamel began to appear in large quantities in costume decorations. At the same time, the common people retain their own traditional costume. Almost all Russian traditional clothing (shoulder) was laid on, that is, worn over the head. Swinging and draped clothes were less common. The latter was almost non-existent among the people.
According to the images that have come down to us on frescoes, engravings, paintings, etc., one can judge the great variety and unusual forms of Russian headdresses.
During the period of the Tatar yoke and the growth of Moscow, Russia was alienated from the influence of foreign states and foreign culture. All the forces of the people were directed to the fight against the enslavers, first hidden, and then open. This period is characterized by the development of the art of ancient Russian icon painting. Ancient Russian icon painting, as a unique and unsurpassed example of ancient painting in the world, also contains information about the costume. True, it is impossible to state with certainty that this or that form of clothing is found on the canvases of church painters in connection with its real existence in the life of this period, and not with the traditions of icon painting that had developed by that time. However, it is impossible to completely tear off images of icon-painting canvases from life. In this regard, it is impossible not to name the “Trinity” by A. Rublev (Fig. 13). Scholars support the idea of unity invested by Rublev in the Trinity: it was so necessary for the Russian people in those troubled times.
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Rice. 13. Andrey Rublev "Trinity". 1411 or 1425-27
The whole atmosphere of Russian life was formed in an original way, with some influence of the Tatars. Gradually, a costume was developed that was significantly different from that worn in Kievan Rus. The stagnation of social life and harsh climatic conditions determined the forms of costume, characterized by immobility and solidity. There is a different idea of the beauty of the costume. The beauty of the forms of the Russian costume is the beauty of static, rest, and not movement. Heavy, long fur coats, long caftans, long hanging sleeves were determined by the time of Ivan III and existed until Peter I.
From time immemorial, the main wealth of Ancient Russia was furs: sable, marten, ermine, etc. Therefore, winter clothes - fur coats and hats - were distinguished by special luxury. Fur as one of the main decorations was used even for summer clothes. There were so many furs that the kings paid them a salary and sent it as a gift to foreign rulers.
Rich clothes, brocade and velvet coats made of expensive furs, caftans strewn with stones - all this oriental luxury, which blinded foreign ambassadors at the court of Russian princes, has been in everyday life in Russia since the reign of Ivan III, when the Tatar yoke was overthrown and Russia breathed more freely.
From the middle of the XVI century. so-called "tales of foreigners about Muscovy" appear in the press. This is a whole series of descriptions of the Muscovite state, containing almost always well-executed illustrative material. Their authors are foreign travelers who visited our country for various purposes, mainly with a diplomatic mission as ambassadors, such as Herberstein, Olearius, Meyerberg.
Album of Meyerberg's drawings "Drawings for the journey through Russia of the Roman imperial envoy Baron Meyerberg in 1661-1662." (St. Petersburg, 1827) contains interesting illustrative material that tells about clothes, housing, and life of Russians. Perhaps, here we meet the earliest images of a female peasant costume, including such an element as the poneva (Fig. 14).
Of interest are the illustrations in the works of Herberstein (Herberstein S. Notes on Muscovite Affairs. Introduced, translated and commented by A. I. Malein. St. Petersburg, 1908) and Olearius (Olearius A. Description of the journey to Muscovy and through Muscovy to Persia and back. Introduction, translation, notes and instructions by A. M. Lovyagin. St. Petersburg, 1906) (Fig. 15).
Olearius says that the most common Russian clothing of that time was a caftan, or zipun, reaching to the knees and fastened with buttons.
On solemn occasions, the nobility put on luxurious fur coats over the zipun, which they did not even take off in rooms at a party or at royal receptions. A high standing collar was fastened to the back of the caftan, known as the “trump card” (Fig. 16, a), which was often decorated with silver and gold embroidery on velvet and satin, as well as pearls and expensive stones. (Hence the popular expression “to play a trump card”, that is, to put on airs, flaunt.) Caftans, depending on their purpose, were different - upper and lower, standing and riding, meek or mourning, as well as rain, Turkish, Circassian, Russian and others
Regarding Russian men, A. Olearius wrote that ... Russians are generally tall, strong and fat, their complexion is similar to other Europeans. They have for the most part broad beards and thick bellies. Russian mustaches are also long and cover the lips. Over the shirt and pants, the men wore caftans, narrow, some with long "sleeves that were worn on the arms in assemblies." Over the caftan they wore another outer garment up to the shins, it was called a feryaz (Fig. 16, b, c).
Princes and boyars on solemn occasions put on arshin hats trimmed with black sable or fox fur and decorated with gold or pearl stripes. Ordinary people wore hats made of white felted cloth (felt) in summer, and cloth hats, sometimes trimmed with fur, in winter.
Olearius also noted that women's clothing was similar to men's, only the upper one, called fur coats, was made somewhat wider, and a hood trimmed with fur was sewn on at the back. The women did not wear caftans. The sleeves of women's shirts were narrow, very long, and if they were made of muslin, then they were drawn on. Women also wore long and wide hats, bordered with satin or brocade, and sometimes also with beaver trim; some also wore fox hats.
Boyars in the 16th century. worn in the summer under outerwear, letniks made of satin or other light fabric. Bodysuits were also made, on which warm and cold shower jackets were worn, similar to sundresses, only shorter than them, without buttons, with a cutout on the chest. Feryazi or sundresses were worn under this clothing. Feryazi, reminiscent of sundresses, was a wide dress, buttoned in front to the bottom, without sleeves. Sundresses were worn by people of all classes: the rich - from expensive fabrics, the poor - from dyed linen, Chinese, etc. (Fig. 16, d, e). In winter, rich women wore kortels - fur coats made of expensive ermine and sable furs.
The earliest images of Russian women (peasant women, townspeople) in sundresses, kokoshniks and soul-greaves can be found in the work of I. G. Georgi “Description of all the peoples living in the Russian state and their everyday rituals, customs, clothes, dwellings, religions and other monuments” (Ch SPb., 1799).
Scenes of Russian folk life captured in engravings late XVIII- early 19th century The State Hermitage has a large collection of engravings and lithographs depicting scenes from folk life. The best graphic sheets are presented in the album of G. N. Komelova “Scenes of Russian folk life in the late 18th - early 19th centuries. based on engravings from the collection of the State Hermitage” (L., 1961).
The aggravation of class contradictions, which began in the second half of the XVIII century. in Russia, along with the process of disintegration of the feudal-serf system, put the issue of serfdom, which hindered the development of the country, at the center of attention of the advanced social thought of that time. In this regard, Russian culture is characterized by the growth of realistic and democratic elements. The images of Russian peasants are beginning to enter into painting, graphics, and literature.
An interesting foreign master who worked in Russia at the end of the 18th century. and who paid special attention to depicting the life of the common people was the English painter and engraver D. Atkinson (in 1784-1801 he lived in Russia); in his works he displayed the customs and costumes of the Russian people. A collection of watercolors in three volumes (1803-1805) by the English artist D. Atkinson "Picturesque images of customs, costumes and entertainment of Russians" - a valuable material on Russian folk clothes of the late 18th - early 19th centuries. Among the sheets of the master, illustrating Russian games and entertainments, "Dance", "Swing" and others are interesting (Fig. 17). The fact is that one of the curious entertainments of the village and city residents of that time was the swing, which was an obligatory accessory for all folk holidays, fairs, and festivities.
For many Russian artists who worked in the first half of the 19th century, the main theme was the life of the Russian people and mainly the peasantry. Sympathy for ordinary people, the desire to show their spiritual beauty is expressed in the paintings of the artists A. G. Venetsianov (Fig. 18) and V. A. Tropinin, graphic sheets of A. O. Orlovsky and O. A. Kiprensky. Images of the peasant population and scenes from folk life are shown in the works of such artists as A. P. Ryabushkin, F. A. Malyavin (see Fig. 18), S. V. Ivanov and others. In this regard, illustration is also of interest. in the book by N. V. Gilyarovskaya “Russian historical costume for the stage” (M.-L., 1945), depicting Baron Sigismund Herberstein in a fur coat in a sleigh and a driver on horseback in shoes like bast shoes and in short clothes, a cap on his head with a band (Fig. 19).
Rice. 17. Russian folk costume in watercolors by D. Atkinson: above - "Dance"; below - "Swing"
Informative illustrative material on Russian clothing, jewelry, utensils is presented in the albums "Antiquities of the Russian State" in six sections (volumes), published in 1849-1853. with drawings by academician F. G. Solntsev. Of particular value in this case are drawings reflecting the summer and winter costumes of women in the city of Torzhok, the clothes of Tver and Ryazan women. The illustrations by F. G. Solntsev are distinguished by the magnificent color reproduction of the costumes (Fig. 20).
On the occasion of the millennium of the Russian state, Pauli, a full member of the Geographical Society of Russia, published an Ethnographic Description of the Peoples of Russia (St. Petersburg, 1862) - color lithographs of a costume based on genuine ethnographic data. For that time it was the first such valuable publication.
In 1878, in St. Petersburg, an album of folk types “Peoples of Russia. Picturesque Album, vol. 1. The clothes of the Great Russian peasant were presented in the album. Winter men's peasant clothing of that time consisted of a coarse gray cloth coat, a long sheepskin coat, a warm hat and leather mittens. Rarely, only in severe frost, the peasant tied a scarf around his neck. Summer clothes consisted of a ponytail coat, a half-caftan and a hat; in the summer, they usually went in shirts and ports. Peasant women did not have particularly warm clothes. Their clothes consisted of a blue ponytail skirt (poneva) and outer, rather wide, but not long clothes with wide short sleeves, which were called differently in different places: sundress, shushpan, sermyaga, armyak, etc. Headwear was very beautiful and rich decorated.
Rice. 18, a. Russian folk costume in the works of artists: F. A. Malyavin "Peasant woman in a patterned scarf"
The Russian costume of the pre-Petrine time in its main traditional elements was the same in cut for the rich and the poor, differing only in the quality of the material. In the common people, clothes were made from linen, votola, ropes, cloth, and sheepskin was used instead of fur.
Rice. 18, b. Russian folk costume in the works of artists: F. A. Malyavin "Peasant Women"
Body warmer was used in everyday life, especially in a rich life. It was a swinging garment up to the heels, with long sleeves to the floor, which had open armholes under the arm, through which the quilted jacket was put on a shirt.
The sleeves of the quilted jacket hung down behind the arms to the hem or were thrown back one on one - this way of wearing was considered an adornment of a women's evening dress. Telogreys were made from cloth, damask, that is, from massive, heavy fabric. Such clothes were bordered on the edges with gold and silver laces, silk lace or ribbons with tassels, the floors were fastened with silver and tin buttons, of which there were 15-17, and they were sewn from top to bottom. The lining of warm quilted jackets was fur (fox, sable, ermine), while cold or summer ones had taffeta.
Outerwear included a laid-on fur coat of a shirt-like cut. The length of such clothes reached the heels, had a high straight collar and a small slit on the chest for putting on. In the way of putting on and wearing it, it resembled a body warmer.
Among the overhead garments was a letnik (see Fig. 16, e), which had a small incision on the chest for threading over the head. The letnik had special sleeves called nakalki, which were longer than clothes and narrower at the wrist than at the shoulder. The incandescences were sewn only to half, the rest was not sewn and was decorated with lice.
The top summer open-ended clothing was opashen, or ohaben, - spacious clothing with wedges on the sides. The beveled neckline of the opash was, as it were, a continuation of the line of the side of the floor (apparently, hence the name of the collar in modern clothes, the front ends turning into the floors, - "opash" - F.P.). The sleeves of the opashny descended to the hem of the clothes.
Opashen on fur (sable or ermine) was called a fur coat. The fur coat had a beaver collar. Women's fur coats did not differ from men's.
Rice. 18, in (1). Russian folk costume in the works of artists: A. G. Venetsianov "Barn" (beginning)
Women's winter clothing included kortel - clothes made of sable, marten, ermine fur; naked or covered with taffeta, damask. Structurally, it resembled a pilot.
Rice. 18, in (2). Russian folk costume in the works of artists: A. G. Venetsianov "Barn" (end)
In the royal life, women hid their hands in a sleeve or muff in winter: gloves and mittens were almost never used here. Such a sleeve was made of velvet or satin, trimmed with sable ponytails, sometimes decorated with gold tassels, pearls, and stones. In the common people, as needed, mittens or sleeves were used.
Both in royal and common folk life, girls wore their hair open or loose over their shoulders and curled into curls or woven into one or two braids, falling back on their backs. Strands of hair were intertwined with gold or pearl threads. At the bottom of the braids, the girls wove ribbons, colored or golden brushes, called braids or braids.
A married woman wore a fur or velvet bodice that covered the back of her head and hair instead of a braid. She covered her head with an ubrus, which was a thin linen or taffeta towel.
Among the women's headdresses that hid hair is a bonnet, or volosnik.
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Rice. 18, Russian folk costume in the works of artists: A.P. Ryabushkin "A guy got into a round dance"
A girl, getting married, replaced her maiden crown with a kika, which was the headdress of the married. Kika consisted of a crown in the form of a hoop that fitted the head in a circle, and a circle that was placed on the crown of the head. Kika widened upwards. The crown was made of simple fabric, glued and covered on top with worm-like satin, and sometimes with a thin sheet of gold or silver; the crown was also decorated with precious stones. Cassocks, long strands of pearls combined with expensive stones, gold figurines, with piercings were hung on the temples at the temples. The front part of the kiki valance was decorated more richly and intricately, sometimes it was made separately and was called a kichny brow, and in the 17th century. - front. Kika had a cuff.
Rapprochement of Russia in the 17th century. with the West was reflected in the whole situation of life only in the more prosperous strata of society. The revival of Russian life did not correspond to heavy fur coats and long-brimmed caftans. Therefore, Peter I had to change the Russian people into more comfortable short clothes. The traditional Russian folk clothing confirmed its vitality and functionality even more.
Dealing with the study and development of Russian traditional art in the second half of the 19th century, the Russian critic and publicist V.V. Stasov assessed publications on Russian costume. In his article “Notes on Old Russian Clothing and Armaments” (Stasov V.V. Sobr. soch., vol. II, St. Petersburg, 1847-1886. P. 571-596), he made an assessment of the publication of V. A. Prokhorov “ Materials on the history of Russian clothes and the situation of folk life ”(St. Petersburg, 1881), emphasizing the dignity and superiority of this work over the works of other authors. At the same time, V.V. Stasov noted that V.A. Prokhorov, like other authors, mistakenly called the Scythians the progenitors of Russians and assigned Scythian clothing a place in his work, with which he began the presentation of the history of ancient Russian clothing. It can only be assumed that the elements of Scythian clothing were borrowed by the ancient Slavs-Russians, who lived next to the Scythians in the southern regions. Scythian clothing was considered to be the clothing of the Iranian tribes and was extremely adapted in shape, design, ways of wearing to the living conditions of the “dashing rider”, i.e. nomad. Indeed, a short and figure-hugging caftan, short boots tied at the ankle and pulled up with a belt, a hood from bad weather and cold during long journeys and wanderings in the open air, often all night long - all this is the most convenient and suitable for the rider and nomad (Fig. 21), but it does not matter for the plowman, for a settled resident who works only during daylight hours. As V.V. Stasov figuratively remarks, “... our farmer has always worked and is working in the field in bast shoes or any light shoes, he won’t wear fur and a hood because he already has a hail of sweat rolling down his face and chest "(Stasov V.V. Decree. Op. P. 183). Residents of the southern regions of Russia could at one time borrow a short caftan and long tight trousers from numerous equestrian neighbors.
So, the Scythian costume is considered here only as a costume of foreign tribes and peoples who lived and acted in certain ancient times in the very places where Russians now live.
In 1909, in the monthly “Old Years” for lovers of art and antiquity, I. Ya. Bilibin wrote about Russian clothing of the 16th-17th centuries: “... the Russian costume was magnificent. There is a beauty of movement and a beauty of stillness. Women's Russian costume - a costume of peace. Take at least the Russian dance. The man dances like a demon, snatching off his knees, dizzying in speed, just to break the majestic calmness of the center of the dance - the woman, and she almost stands still, in her beautiful attire of peace, only slightly moving her shoulders.
In 1911, the publishing house of the I. D. Sytin Partnership published a six-volume anniversary edition of The Great Reform. Russian Society and the Peasant Question in the Past and Present”, dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the abolition of serfdom in Russia. The selection of illustrations of peasant types is informative here - both from previously published sources that reflected peasant life at various times in the past, and from the most characteristic and typical ones created by artists recently, that is, in the 19th - early 20th centuries.
Nowadays, materials on Russian historical costume are published in the book “Russian historical costume for the stage. Kievan and Muscovite Rus” (compiled by N.V. Gilyarovskaya. M.-L., 1945). The book is illustrated with original portraits and drawings, works of Russian historical painting, which give examples of various interpretations of ancient Russian clothing. The second part of the book is practically a guide to creating a Russian historical costume through cut.
To help stage the works of Russian classical dramaturgy from D. I. Fonvizin to A. M. Gorky, art albums of materials on Russian costume were released (Russian costume. / Edited by V. F. Ryndin. In 5 issues. M., 1960-1972 ). However, in this voluminous edition, insufficient attention is paid to the peasant costume.
The ancient Russian costume as the most important historical source (for studying the origin of the people, its ethnic and social development, its historical fate and cultural ties) is substantively reflected in the publication of the USSR Academy of Sciences "Ancient clothing of the peoples of Eastern Europe (materials for the historical and ethnographic atlas)". M., 1986.
So, the basis of the ancient Russian (folk) costume (male and female) was the following elements. A knee-length canvas shirt (tunic) with long, spacious sleeves is the main element of clothing. For men, it was knee-length (or shorter) and long, fairly spacious sleeves. A women's shirt most often reached the middle of the lower leg, and could be up to the heels. Any shirt must be belted. The shirts of women and rich people were decorated mainly. The decor was located around the neckline, the cut on the chest, at the line connecting the sleeve with the armhole (shoulder), along the bottom of the shirt and the bottom of the sleeves. The incision on the chest was fastened with a pin, a buckle-agraph.
Ports were used as belt clothes for men, and for women - a piece of fabric that was located around the hips and was called "poneva". Ports reached the length of their knees or ankles. Sometimes they put on (like a shirt) two pants. Shoes were bast shoes, less often - leather leg wraps (pistons) or boots. Before putting on shoes, legs up to the knees were wrapped (for men - over ports) with linen onuchs, which were fastened with belts or ropes (ruffles), crossed and tied on the leg.
According to an old custom, Russian men had short-cut hair and a long, bushy beard. A bronze hoop was worn on the head, as well as a felt hat. The winter headdress was a hat with a fur trim (band), the clothes were a sheepskin coat or a sheepskin coat, on the hands were valets, or mittens.
The costume (male and female) was complemented by various hanging ornaments - metal, glass, as well as bracelets, rings, etc.
Over time, changes were observed, mainly outerwear - a caftan, which received various names in the future. The men's caftan was made of coarse wool, knee-length, with long sleeves. The caftan was open in front, fastened on the chest with an agraf buckle halfway or along the entire length and girded with a sash.
Ties with Byzantium, as already noted, had an impact primarily on the grand ducal costume. In place of a short caftan, open in front along the entire length, came a Byzantine-style caftan - long, closed all around, with colored trim along the edges. Overhead outerwear was a cloak, which was attached with a buckle on one shoulder or in front of the neck, often fastened on the chest.
The invasion of the Tatar-Mongol also affected the features of the costume of the upper classes. The people, as before, remained true to their ancient clothes.
From the 13th century instead of a closed caftan, they began to wear an open caftan with a clasp along the entire length. Instead of a cloak, they also wore an upper open caftan, which had short and wide or long and rather narrow sleeves. In the upper part of the sleeve, an incision was made for threading the arms so that the sleeve freely fell (hanging down) down. Such a caftan was not belted. There was another version of the caftan; at the top of the neck of his back there was a large and wide allowance of fabric, which turned (bent) outward, forming a collar, called "opash".
The women's costume of this time consisted of a white canvas shirt with long and wide sleeves, tapering downwards, and of a long, shoulder-length pleated sleeveless clothing descending to the floor, open and fastened in front along the entire length with a row of buttons, called a sundress. The outer garment was a short shoulder garment with a high articulation (girdling) - a shower warmer. Women wore a tall, hard, protruding headdress - a kitsch. A particularly elegant headdress for young women was a kokoshnik.
In general, ordinary Russian people preserved the ancient costume without any changes until the beginning of the 18th century, and in remote areas and even later - until the 19th century. This is confirmed by the sketches and descriptions that have come down to us, for example, Herberstein, Olearius. Men wore a wide and rather short shirt without a collar; on the back, from the inside down from the shoulders, a lining was hemmed in the shape of a triangle (underlying). At shirts, in the lower part of the sleeves (under the armpits), inserts (gussets) made of red fabric (for example, taffeta) were sewn in. The shirts of rich people were collared; the slit on the chest and the bottom of the sleeves were embroidered with multi-colored silks, sometimes with gold and pearls; in this design, the sleeves peeked out from under the sleeves of the caftan.
The long ports at the top were wide, assembled according to the shape of the ribbon (gashnik). Over the shirt they wore a narrow caftan knee-length and with long sleeves. At the back, at the top of the neck, the caftan had a standing stiff collar. The collar was hemmed with velvet, and for noble people with brocade and exposed out from under the upper caftans, touching the back of the head. On top of such a caftan, some put on another one - a long one, reaching to the lower leg and called a feryaz. The caftan, if desired, was pulled together with a belt or a colorful shawl. Over the feryazi they put on an even longer - to the toe - caftan. It was intended for going out into the street and was made of colored cloth, colorful satin, damask or brocade. Such a caftan was worn by dignitaries and honorary boyars, who put it on to be present at solemn performances. The upper caftans had a large and wide fur collar, which fell back to the shoulders. In front and along the cuts on the sides, the caftan was trimmed with buttons, trimmed with gold, pearl cord, on which long tassels hung. The sleeves of the caftan were long, almost the same as the caftan itself, and gradually narrowed down. When putting on a caftan, the sleeves gathered in many folds, sometimes when walking, the sleeves fell from the hands to their full length. Wealthy peasants also wore a long caftan.
Princes, boyars and state advisers, when entering solemn meetings, put on hats made of black fox and sable cubit high, at other times - velvet on the fur of a black fox or sable, with a small band of the same fur and trimmed with gold and pearl lace on the sides. Ordinary people wore white hats made of felted cloth in summer, and woolen hats with mutton fur in winter. There was also a round quilted hat with a nape and earmuffs in use.
Married women wore their hair tied up under their hats, girls braided their hair into braids that ran down their backs.
Women's clothing resembled men's, only the upper was somewhat more spacious. From the front, clothes (from top to bottom) were sheathed with braids, gold braid, and also bordered with laces and tassels, decorated with large silver and tin buttons. At the top, at the shoulders, the sleeves had holes through which the arms were threaded, and in the clothes worn, the sleeves remained freely falling. The sleeves of women's shirts were 6, 8 or 10 cubits long, and in chintz shirts they were even longer, on the hands they gathered in many folds (assemblies). The headdresses of women were wide hats - brocade or satin, sheathed with a gold border, decorated with gold and pearls, with a beaver fur edging that covered half of the forehead. The girls wore large fox fur hats.
Women's shoes were made of yuft or morocco boots with long and pointed toes. Women, and especially girls, wore shoes with high (a quarter of an elbow) heels, lined with carnations at the bottom.
In the XVI-XVII centuries. Russian clothes of the grand ducal period are subject to some change in accordance with the tastes and needs of the Russian people of that time. The features of the life of the pre-Petrine era could not but affect the costume of ancient Russian women - their reclusive life required appropriate clothing: sleeves cover their arms to the very hands, a high collar hides their neck, spacious wide clothes hide the whole figure, the hair of a married woman is hidden by headdresses.
Under Peter I, the long caftan went out of use. Those who did not want to shorten their caftan were cut off by the soldiers according to the royal decree. More and more German and Polish clothes came into use. In use were wide trousers tucked into high boots made of colored leather.
Journey of Ibn Fadlan to the Volga. M.-L., 1939.
Niederle L. Life and culture of the ancient Slavs. Prague, 1924.
Oyateva E. L. Footwear and other leather products of ancient Pskov // Archaeological collection. L., 1962. Issue. 4. S. 80-94.
Based on the Novgorod finds, S. A. Izyumova distinguishes four types of shoes: pistons, shoes, half boots and boots.
Pistons were known in the 10th century. also in the West (German V. External life of peoples from ancient times to our times. M., 1875. T. 2. Part 2. S. 161, fig. 227).
In V. I. Dahl we find interesting information about the origin of the word "piston" from the adjective "fluffy" (powdery, loose). (Dal V.I. Explanatory dictionary of the living Great Russian language. St. Petersburg - M., 1907. T. 3. S. 847).
Half boots with short tops (bell) resemble the Scythian half boots depicted on the Kul-Ob vase (Stepanov P.K. History of Russian clothes. Pg., 1916).
The boots depicted here, of the prince and his son, are colored (probably made of morocco) and have pointed, raised toes.
Andreev N. L. Russian folklore. L., 1938. S. 163.
Aristov N. Ya. Industry of Ancient Russia. SPb., 1866. S. 151.
Oyateva E.I. Footwear and other leather products of the earthen settlement of Staraya Ladoga // Archaeological collection. Issue. 7. L., 1965. S. 42-59.
Monuments of literature of Ancient Russia XI - early XII century. / Comp. and ed. L. A. Dmitrieva, D. S. Likhacheva. Book. 1. M., 1978. S. 8.
Zabelin I.E. Home life of the Russian people. T. 1. Home life of Russian tsars. M., 1862. S. 642.
By the way, a similar point of view that there is nothing Slavic in the Scythian costume and that the Scythian costume is completely identical to the New Persian costume was adhered to by G. Weiss in his work Kostumkunde (see Weiss H. Kostumkunde I. Stuttgart, 1862. S. 177)
Bilibin I. Ya. A few words about Russian clothing in the 16th-17th centuries. // Old years. 1909. No. 7-9.
As in its dwellings and buildings, Ancient Russia showed a lot of peculiar taste and correspondence with the surrounding nature, so it was also in its clothes, although it borrowed a lot from other peoples, especially from the Byzantines in terms of expensive fabrics and jewelry. The main clothing was a linen shirt or shirt and a narrow underdress, running into boots. A "retinue" or "casing" was put on over the shirt. It was a dress with sleeves, more or less long, usually descending below the knees and belted. Vigilantes and merchants over the retinue put on a cloak called "korzno" or "myatl" (i.e. mantle), which was usually fastened on the right shoulder to leave the right hand free. Among ordinary people, shirts and suites, of course, were made of coarse linen and woolen fabrics; and the rich wore thinner cloth and often silk. Among noble people, among boyars and princes, such expensive imported fabrics as Greek carpets of various colors, blue, green and especially red (crimson, or scarlet) were used for retinue. The hem was sheathed with a gold or patterned border; the lower part of the sleeves was covered with golden "handrails"; the satin collar was also golden. Buttonholes made of gold braid were sometimes sewn on the chest; the leather belt or sash of rich people was decorated with gold or silver plaques, expensive stones and beads. They wore boots of colored morocco and often embroidered with gold thread. Corset rich people used the most expensive fabrics, especially oxamite. It was a gold or silver fabric brought from Greece, embroidered with multi-colored silk patterns and patterns, and very dense. A rather high hat or, as it was then called, "hood", for noble people had a top of colored velvet and a sable edge. It is known that the princes did not take off their hoods even during worship. In winter, of course, fur clothes were in use, the rich - from expensive furs, and the common people had mutton. The very word "casing" in all likelihood "originally meant the same as our" short fur coat ", i.e. a retinue of mutton fur. A warm woolen retinue, or fofudya (sweatshirt) was also in use.
The luxury of the outfit was expressed most of all in all sorts of expensive jewelry and pendants. The most common and most ancient decoration of Russia were hryvnias, or metal hoops. Initially, the word "hoop", apparently, meant a bracelet or rod, bent in a spiral and worn on the hand. "Hryvnia" was called a hoop worn around the neck, or on the mane; for the poor, it is just a twisted wire - copper or bronze, and for the rich - silver or gold. Often found among other antiquities, Russian hryvnias of very elegant work come across. In addition to the hryvnia, they also wore necklaces, or monist, which also consisted of twisted wire, or a chain with various pendants. Of the latter, the most common were: metal and enamel plaques (“tsatsy”), a similarity of a horse lowered to the chest, made up of plates and rings (probably what is called “sustug” in the annals), and in Christian times, a cross. Metal rings on the hands ("wrists"), spherical metal buttons, buckles for fastening, rings, etc. were also worn. The Russian princes, moreover, had barms in full dress, i.e. a wide mantle, embroidered with gold or overlaid with pearls, expensive stones and gold plaques with different images on them.
Women's attire was distinguished by an even greater abundance of jewelry; among them, the first place was occupied by various necklaces, beaded or made of colored glass beads, while for the poor, they were simply made of turned pebbles. Women's necklaces, or monists, adorned with coins were especially common; for which coins received from different countries were used, but most of all silver oriental money. The addiction to metal hoops reached the point that in some places women once wore bracelets on their legs or a ring on their big toes. Earrings were in common use; even men had them (usually in one ear). The most common form of earrings was a ring of twisted wire with three balls put on it, copper, silver or gold. Women's headdresses were also trimmed with beads or pearls, hung with coins and other pendants. It was customary for married women to cover their heads with a "povoy" (warrior). Above, we saw evidence of how luxury increased especially between women with their passion for expensive outfits. In the XIII century, the chronicler, recalling the simplicity of life of the ancient princes and combatants, says that the latter did not put golden hoops on their wives; but their wives walked in silver. Luxury was also expressed in expensive furs. The famous ambassador of Louis IX to the Tatars, Rubrukvis, noticed that Russian women wore dresses lined with ermines at the bottom.
As for the hair and beard, after the adoption of Christianity, Russia, obviously, submitted to Greek influence in this respect; she abandoned the habit of shaving most of her head and beard, leaving her forelock and moustache. In the images we see her already with rather long hair and a beard; only young men are depicted as beardless. However, the custom of shaving gave way gradually. So, the images of princes in manuscripts and on coins of the 11th century have a short-cropped beard; and at the end of the 12th century we see they already have a long beard, at least in the north (the image of Yaroslav Vladimirovich in the Church of the Savior Nereditskaya).
The armament of Ancient Russia was almost the same as that of other European nations in the Middle Ages. The main part of the weapons were swords, spears, or sulits, and bows with arrows. In addition to straight double-edged swords, sabers were also used, that is, with curved oriental blades. Axes, or battle axes, were also used. Among the common people, it was customary to have a knife with them, which was worn either behind a belt or hidden in a boot. Defensive weapons, or armor, were: iron armor, mostly chain mail, and sometimes plank armor ("paporzi"); further, a funnel-shaped iron helmet with a chain mail mesh around the neck and a large wooden shield, sheathed in leather and bound with iron, wide at the top and tapering to the bottom, moreover, painted in the red color (scarlet) loved by Russia. The spiral hoop mentioned above probably served not only as a decoration, but also as a protection for the hand. Noble people had gold or silver gilded hoops. (As indicated by the well-known oath of the senior Russian squad at the conclusion of Igor's treaty with the Greeks.) The best, most expensive weapons were obtained through trade from other countries, from Greece, Western Europe and from the East. So, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" sings of Latin and Avar helmets, Lyatsky sulits, and calls the swords "haraluzhny", that is, from eastern blued steel. Among princes and boyars, weapons were decorated with silver and gold, especially helmets, on which the faces of saints and other images were often minted. Sometimes a fur cover, or "prilbitsa", was put on the helmet. Tula (quivers) containing arrows were also sometimes covered with fur. Saddles and harnesses were decorated with metal plaques and various pendants.
The stirrups of the princes, apparently, were gilded (“Step Igor prince into golden stirrups,” says “The Word”). Horseback riding was already in general use because it served as the main means of overland transportation; weights were transported on "kols" (that is, on a cart) and on sledges, as well as women, weak people and spiritual persons. It is curious that the sources do not mention the arc in the composition of the horse harness; the driver sat astride a harnessed horse; as evidenced by some drawings in the manuscripts of that time.
Sources for the study of Russian clothes are ancient frescoes and manuscripts, which are especially: frescoes of Kiev-Sofia, Spas-Nereditsky, Staraya Ladoga; manuscripts: Svyatoslav collection, the life of Boris and Gleb, etc. Benefits: Sreznevsky "Ancient images of the holy princes Boris and Gleb" (Christian. Antiquity, published by Prokhorov. St. Petersburg. 1863). "Ancient images of Vladimir and Olga" (Archaeological Bulletin. M. 1867 - 68). "Ancient Images of Prince Vsevolod-Gabriel" (Information and notes on little-known monuments. St. Petersburg, 1867). Prokhorov "Wall iconography of the XII century in the church of St. George in Staraya Ladoga" (Christian. Antiquities. St. Petersburg. 1871) and "Materials for the history of Russian clothes" (Russian Antiquities. St. Petersburg. 1871). Further, for a visual acquaintance with the decorations of Russian clothing, a rich material is presented by a variety of metal objects, obtained by excavations of mounds or accidentally found in the ground. In some places, by the way, the remains of the fabrics themselves have been preserved. Of the many notes on these finds, I will point out: "About the grand ducal decorations found in 1822 near the village of Staraya Ryazan." SPb. 1831. For the same finds, with drawings, see Kalaidovich's letters to Malinovsky. M. 1822. Gr. Uvarov about metal ornaments and pendants found in the Meryansk land ("The Meryans and their way of life" in the Proceedings of the First Archaeological Congress. What the author refers here to the Varangians, we consider a misunderstanding and refer to Russia). Filimonov "Ancient adornments of grand ducal clothes, found in Vladimir in 1865" (Collection of Moscow. About. Ancient Russian art. 1866). For the same Vladimir treasure, see Stasov (in Izvestia of St. Petersburg. Archaeological. Ob. T. VI). By the way, Mr. Stasov notes that the remains of silk clothes found at the same time are distinguished by patterns of the Byzantine style, and gold and braided ones have figures of fantastic animals woven with silk of the same style and correspond to the same sculptural images on the Dmitrovsky Cathedral in Vladimir (130 pages). This article is supplemented by a note by the Vladimir archaeologist Tikhonravov (ibid. p. 243). He says that shreds of princely clothes, taken off at the opening of their tombs, are kept in the sacristies of the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral. By the way, in the tomb of Andrei Bogolyubsky, a silk cloth was found with patterns woven on it, herbs and lions facing each other, which are completely similar to the sculptured images of lions on the outer walls of the Dmitrievsky Cathedral. N. P. Kondakova "Russian Treasures". SPb. 1906. Here about barm and other decorations of princely clothes. His own "Image of the Russian princely family in miniatures of the XI century." SPb. 1906. This describes 5 Byzantine miniatures found in the Gertrude Codex, or handwritten Latin psalter found in Lombardy. The author believes that these miniatures were made in Vladimir-Volynsky shortly before the untimely death of Prince Yaropolk Izyaslavich, whose mother, a former Polish princess, bore the Catholic name of Gertrude. For comparison, images on the walls of Kiev-Sof are given. Cathedral and Spas-Neredits. c., miniatures of the collection of Svyatoslav, etc. Maksimovich explained the word "fofudya" with Greek fabric, from which caftans with belts, or "fofudats" were sewn (his Works III. 424.). And he explained the word "prilbitsa" with a fur hat (ibid). See about this word in my Historical Writings. Issue. 2nd. There is also my note about the custom of princes to hang their clothes in churches, regarding the question of the "Golden Gates" of the Vladimir Assumption Cathedral, Type of Kyiv Earring, see Archaeological News and Notes. 1897. No. 3, p. 74. Prozorovsky "On the utensils attributed to Vladimir Monomakh" (Zap. Department of Russian and Slavic Archeology. III. 1882). For the Russian princely life, the study of prof. Anuchin "Sled, boat and horses as accessories of the funeral rite" (Antiquities of Moscow. Archeology. Ob. XIV. 1890). His own "On the forms of ancient Russian swords". (Proceedings of the VI Archaeological Congress. T. I. Odessa. 1886).
The basic cut, decoration techniques, ways of wearing clothes in Ancient Russia 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 Russia. 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 examples 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 garments of early times in a new way. Her research is convincing, and in the descriptions of such items as the 16th-century feryaz, the 17th-century fur coat, and the spores of 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 Russia 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 Russia, 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 Russia 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, and 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 Russia, 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 Russia, 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 business”, “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 Russia 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”, “handguards” 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 sharp 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, while 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 rich princely families put in 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 chyugu, a zipun, a throat cap, a velvet hat, and all of Elder Ianisiforov’s contribution to 100 to 60 to 5 rubles, and a contribution was given to him.
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 - by merchants, bourgeois women and representatives of other groups of the population who did not break with the old customs and traditions, who staunchly resisted 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.
A 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 Russia 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, passed down by inheritance and were an indispensable part of the bride's dowry 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 (Vladi-Miro-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, 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 a hoop, then gold threads were attached to the finished paper details 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 compound. 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 with him "patterns" made of canvas, offering the hostesses to "stuff" canvases, choosing patterns for sundresses and for men's trousers (a striped "perch" pattern went on men's trousers). 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 - original reception decoration of fabrics, which can be traced on genuine textile monuments from the 16th century. In the second half of the 19th century, the production of kumach fabrics stands out. Kumach is a cotton fabric of a bright red hue. 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 have been 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 cupons 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.