The collection of Russian costume includes old-time Russian clothes dating to the 16th-17th centuries, traditional folk costume (18th - early 20th cc.), civil clothes as they developed in keeping with the 18th -early 20th cc. European fashions, along with accessories and other costume details of different epochs. The highly representative nature of the collection shows the general evolution of Russian garments as well as the costume of different social groups and its regional peculiarities. The collection is noted for the richness and diversity of forms reflecting as they also do the stylistic features of each age and high artistic mastery which makes it an invaluable source of studying the material and artistic culture of the Russian people in all its multifariousness. Needlework, lace, and ornamental weaving incorporated in the Russian costume as well as the costume ensemble proper are all remarkable examples of this highly traditional national art.Textiles and costumes, 390,000 of them in its respective department, hold a worthy place in the collections of the Order of Lenin State History Museum. On display are samples of uniform, articles of civil and folk clothing, military regalia, banners, objects of interior d6cor, among other objects of applied arts and everyday life from the 12th century to our days.
The collection was built up in the course of a century and includes articles from private collections of the well-known lovers of Russian antiques: N.Shabelskaya, P.Shchukin, I.Bilibin, and others.
The Museum's costume collection is an object of detailed study. Historians, students of art, and ethnographers, study its materials. The collection regularly draws the attention of costume designers from the theatre and film and TV studios and is used to verify their creations with historical reality.
Quests for new fashions
also bring fashion designers to the Museum's Department of Textiles and
Costume.
The materials of
the collection are displayed in unity with other objects that help illustrate
man's historical development and have been time and again exhibited at
national and international shows of applied arts and national costume.
Beginning of fashionable epoch
Economic, social and cultural changes in 18th-century Russia promoted by Peter I had a great impact on the country's everyday life. This was observed first of all in the strict regimentation of people's dress. In 1700 a decree was issued on the compulsory wear of the West European costume by all except the peasants and the clergymen. The rules of European fashion became obligatory for the Russian nobility. European dress was to become a norm for Russian society, a trend that made gradual progress, breaking its way through ages-old folk traditions. And indeed in the first half of the 18th century West European fashions, springing from the acknowledged fashion centre in Paris, were already adopted by Russia's privileged classes.Among peasants the
Russian folk costume retained its attributes up to the early 20th c. From
this point of view the Russian folk costume commands special interest as
a national costume. The Russian merchant class and petty bourgeoisie adhered
to the Russian style of dress throughout the 18th and 19th cc. finding
it difficult to accept European novelties.
National wear
The traditional Russian costume was noted for its straight-cut freely flowing lines. The cut was based on the width of the homespun or purchased fabric and accounted for the archaic style of traditional Russian garments: the considerable length of the dress,' and especially the long-sleeved women's shirts, worn in some districts. General features included the nature of the decor and the manner of wearing garments intended to produce a "multi-layer" costume ensemble, consisting of several garments worn one over the other. All these peculiarities of the peasant garments reflected the original nature of the Russian costume which had retained its main features from the times of Ancient Rus.Russian sarafan
The Russian women's costume was based on the "sarafan" (a kind of sleeveless dress). The "sarafan" ensemble became widespread in Russia at the turn of the 18th century and comprised a shirt, "sarafan", belt, and apron. This costume was especially typical of the northern and central regions penetrating with time into the other parts of Russia where it ousted the local traditional dress. In the 18th century it was already associated with the Russian national costume. The "sarafan" was a daily attribute of peasant womenfolk and urban women belonging to the merchant, petty-bourgeois and other sections of the population.The more archaic form of dress was based on the "poneva" skirt.
The earliest samples of national folk dress include festive costumes with "sarafans" of printed silken fabrics manufactured in Russia in the late 18th c. Their characteristic feature are oblique gores inserted between the sides of two straight widths in the front and one central width in the back. The "sarafan" had a long row of buttons in front and was suspended on wide straps. This type became known as the oblique-gore "sarafan". Another type was a simple affair of straight widths of cloth gathered in the front under a binding, having no buttons and also suspended on straps. It was known as the straight-cut or round "sarafan". The oblique-gore and straight-cut "sarafans" were genetically linked with ancient-Russian garments such as the "telogreya" (padded jacket) and "nakladnaya shubka" (outer coat). These diverse "sarafan" cuts could be observed in the 19th and early 20th cc. in different provinces of Russia.
"Sarafans"
of silken fabrics printed with lavish flower bouquets and garlands were
ornamented with golden gallons and metallic lace; silver or gilt buttons
formed a decorative pattern along the seams. Such "sarafans" were worn
with white shirts ("sleeves") of lawn or muslin heavily embroidered in
chain-stitch with white thread, or with silken shirts of "sarafan" fabrics
with flower prints. These festive "sarafans" and shirts were dearly valued
and worn with care on holidays and handed down.
"Sarafans" were girdled
at the waist with narrow belts having long loose ends. In different localities
this attire was supplemented with a short "sarafan''-like garment - "epanechka",
also made of silken manufactured fabric and decorated with golden galloon.
On cold days a long-sleeved jacket -"dushegreya''-gathered on the back
into tubular folds was worn. Its cut differed from the traditional style
and was close to that of civil-type clothes. The festive "dushegre-ya"
was made of silken fabric or velvet and embroidered with golden thread.
In Russia's northern provinces the silk "sarafan" was worn with a head-dress
decorated with needlework, pearls, golden and silver threads and mother-of-pearl
plaques. These materials were also used for pectoral ornaments.
Head-dress
Wedding and festive head-dress worn in northern and central provinces in the 18th-19th cc. boasted a variety of forms and reflected local peculiarities, and age and social distinctions.According to an ancient custom common to all eastern Slav peoples a strict distinction was observed between the head-dress and hair-style of maidens and married women. Maidens wore their hair loose or made into a single plait. A married woman wore two plaits and was not allowed to uncover her hair in public. Hence the form of the headdress: one covering the entire head for married women, and one leaving the hair open for maidens.
One of the most common type of festive head-dress was the "kokoshnik", a kind of rigid cap worn with the "sarafan", 18th -early 19th century "kokoshniks" were masterfully decorated with pearls, meshwork of pearls and mother-of-pearl plaques, golden and silver needlework, coloured foil and decorative stones. The head-dress was treasured in the family and handed down, and was an integral element of a well-off bride's dowry. The "kokoshniks" boasted a variety of original forms, from those of a crescent or a peak topped with a "knob", to small flat hats covering the ears, all of them reflecting local customs and aesthetically ideas.
Holiday and wedding
head-dress was worn with a shawl. A blue silken shawl from the collection
(the Nizhny Novgorod province) is a fine example of golden-thread embroidery.
To this day the traditions of golden needlework have been carefully preserved
in those parts (present Gorky region).
Northern costume
The festive costume of the northern and central provinces was accentuated with pearl earrings and ornaments of golden and silver needlework and mother-of-pearl fixed into the plait.19th- and early 20th-century "sarafan" sets are represented at the Museum chiefly by garments of homespun fabric - flaxen and woollen, with printed, woven of embroidered patterns (Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Moscow, and Smolensk provinces). No less widespread were "sarafans" of unicoloured red or blue fabric, indigo printed cloth, and homespun chequered motley cloth. They were worn with flaxen shirts lavishly embroidered and decorated with ornamental weaving, patterned bands, bands of printed calico and other materials.
In several regions maidens wore belted shirts without a "sarafan". At village holidays: "first live-stock pasturing", or "hay-mowing" it was customary to go out dressed in a long shirt with a lavishly embroidered hem. This was a demonstration of the maidens' assiduity, taste and mastership.
The northern embroidered peasant shirts were samples of high artistic folk mastery. No less diverse in their beauty were the embroidered aprons of northern Russia.
Among the motifs
used most frequently in northern embroidery were birds, horses, trees,
figures of women - all highly traditional images of Russian folk art with
a deep content and symbolic meaning. The subjects of these patterns were
linked with the Slavs' pagan interpretation of the surrounding world, the
forces of nature, the universe, good and evil. Birds were supposed to bring
man joy, light, and goodwill; the horse embodied the image of the sun;
the tree incorporated the image of the tree of life symbolizing ever-living
nature.
Poneva
The "poneva" set of Russian garments is represented in the collection by samples of dress dating to the late 19th - early 20th centuries. Serving to underline the multi-layer nature of the Russian costume, the "poneva" was worn over a shirt and topped by a special "zapan" apron, often with sleeves. Over this came the "navershnik" - a tunic-like garment, followed by accessories and ornaments. The head-dress was also a complicated affair having a rigid foundation - "kichka", and a soft crown - "soroka", supplemented by numerous details. This archaic form of Russian garments with a flowing tunic-like cut of its many components was widespread in Russia's southern regions (Ryazan, Tambov, Voronezh and other provinces). The original nature of such costumes is best observed in the festive Ryazan costume from Mikhailovsky district presented at the Museum. Its main feature is the clear-cut delineation of sizable vertical and horizontal sections, ornamentation based on the well-defined rhythm of horizontal strips, and contrast of colour. Its geometrical structure is continued in the ornaments on the breast and back -"krylya". This costume was worn with a "soroka" ("kokoshnik" with horns), and white stocking-like "onuchi" (strips of homespun cloth wound around the leg) finished off with blunt-pointed woven bast shoes - "lapti". In this garb a peasant woman's figure became solemn and monumental.
Another
Ryazan costume shows the original decor and cut employed in women's shirts,
with scarlet inserts and unusually long sleeves in observance of the ancient
Russian tradition. The shirts are ornamented with weaving and embroidery
depicting geometrical patterns executed in red thread. On one of the shirts
home-spun and hand-made elements of decor are supplemented with manufactured
ornamentation: patterned bands, sparkling galloons, metallic spangles,
buttons and decorative tapes, evidence of the wide-spread nature of manufactured
articles in the late 19th - early 20th-century Russian village and
their wide use in traditional clothes.
Costume of southern areas
The
southern Russia costume shows a special fondness for the red colour which
like in the northern and central provinces prevailed in the festive garments.
The word "krasnoye" meaning "red" became identified in the people's minds
with "prekrasno-ye" meaning "beautiful". Moscow's most beautiful central
square is called "Krasnaya Ploshchad" (Red Square). The combination of
red and white is discovered in ornaments extracted from ancient Slav burial
mounds - beads of rock crystal coral, and cornelian. This fondness for
the red colour is observed in the choice of red printed fabrics for garments
and shawls. And exception is found in the black-thread embroidery of Voronezh
shirts, where a delicate geometrical design is worked into the shoulder
sections of the festive shirt and the apron hem.
During the cold season warm garments were worn over the regular dress. The booklet presents women's warm outer clothes from Voronezh province of black sateen with a delicate needlework ornament supplemented with vividly coloured strips of manufactured fabric as a model of seasonal garments. It was worn with a warm brightly patterned woollen shawl.
In distinction to northern ornamental motifs folk needlework from the southern provinces abounded in geometrical patterns which were in tune with the general archaic style of the main forms of the southern Russian costume.
While retaining its traditional forms the Russian costume was subject to gradual changes. The developing textile industry and urban fashions could not help influencing the patriarchal mode of life in the Russian village and the peasants' everyday style of living. This was reflected above all in the development of fabrics and garments: cotton fabrics began to vie with flaxen and hemp textiles; brightly patterned manufactured calico stepped in for homespun linen. Under the influence of urban fashions of the 1880-1890 period there emerged in the late 19th-century village a woman's "parochka" costume - a twin-set consisting of a skirt and a blouse made of the same fabric. A new type of shirt, with a yoke, appeared. The upper part of this shirt, "sleeves", were made of calico and especially red calico. The traditional head-dress gradually gave way to cotton and patterned chaws. Red and indigo shawls and kerchiefs with vivid floral patterns became popular.
In the late 19th - early 20th centuries the Russian costume began to lose its traditional locally coloured forms.
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