So much purple in my wardrobe

Purple is not one of my favourite colours, I think because it is cold and I prefer warm shades. Anyway, I do have a few things in this colour and surprisingly I do love them. Besides, since ancient times purple has been associated with royalty and nobility, so why not to wear it and to feel yourself of high rank for a while.

Traditional costume of Ukraine

Traditional costume of Ukraine in many ways resembles that one of Belarus, there are many similar details, but at the same time they are quite different.
A typical costume of an Ukrainian man consists of a front-embroidered shirt tucked in sharovary - quite famous wide baggy trousers made of blue or red matte woolen fabric, a multicoloured sash made of silk, cotton or wool, boots and a hat - straw or lamb fur one. However, there is another type of pants too - the narrow ones. They are sewn to a belt and buttoned and worn with a long not tucked-in shirt. Over the shirt a svyta is worn - a coat of brown woolen cloth colourfully dyed and decorated with embroidery or applique.

Brazilian carnival inspired dance costumes

The photos were taken in Belarus during a national festival.

Tribal jewelry of Rajasthan

photo credit  Evgeni Zotov

I love ethnic jewelry. I like its simplicity and at the same time complexity, its uniqueness and beauty. I've already posted about Tibetan and Nepalese ethnic jewelry and today's post is about tribal jewelry of Rajasthan, India.
Tribal women of Rajasthan like to adorn themselves with lots of silver jewelry. Most of those, however, serve not only as decorations but have a special meaning: protective or signalling about marital status.
Protective role is played by metal plaque amulets bearing an image of a Hindu deity usually accompanied by its animal vehicle. Instead of one deity there may be as well a group of them or even only the symbol of deity, for example, footprints of Vishnu. Such amulets are called madaliya in Rajasthan. They may be of different shape: rectangular, square, round, in the form of yoni or temple-shaped.

Stretched ears, a symbol of beauty and high status

photo credit Eko Prianto/CIFOR

The Dayak of Borneo used to be easily recognized by their very much stretched earlobes. In the baby age their ears were pierced and small brass rings were placed in the holes. Then very gradually more and more rings were added with time which caused the earlobes to stretch more and more and the holes bigger and bigger. The more stretched earlobes a woman had the higher status she had in Dayak society (because usually the most stretched ears would have the oldest women). Besides the status thing the stretched ears were considered beautiful. But it is a dying practice now, younger women don't want to do this anymore.

Summer turns autumn

I wore a turtleneck sweater underneath this summer linen dress, combined it with tights and a pashmina scarf and it made a nice outfit for sunny autumn days.

"It is better to have old secondhand diamond than none at all"  Mark Twain

Kandyan aristocrat's dress of the 19th century

Jonathan Forbes in his book "Eleven years in Ceylon" gives such description of a Kandyan Chief's costume. "The Court dress of a Kandyan Adikar- minister of state and justice - consists of a square cap resembling a huge pincushion. Sometimes made of white stiffened muslin, but in a full dress of Scarlet cloth embroidered with gold, and having an elevated peak in the middle, surmounted by a precious stone. The jacket is of tissue, with short plaited sleeves, very full upon the shoulders, and fastened with amethyst buttons; over this is worn a white tippet of plaited muslin, with gold edging. On the lower part of the body, over white trousers, which are tight at the ankle and terminated by a frill, a number of white muslin and gold figured cloths are bound in cumbrous folds around the waist by a broad gold belt; in this is stuck a knife with a richly carved handle. Gold chains are worn around the neck and hanging down upon the chest, bangles on the wrists, and immense rings, which almost conceal their small hands, complete the decoration of a Kandyan Adikar.

Wedding costumes of Sri Lanka

These photos of the happy "just married" couple I took while on holiday in Sri Lanka. They were Christians and so the bride wore a traditional white dress decorated with beads and the groom's outfit was a really simple one as you can see.

Window-shopping: Kathmandu, Thamel

It's getting colder and warm winter clothes have appeared on display instead of summer t-shirts, skirts and dresses. There are many hand-knitted things here of different designs and colours, pashmina, hand-embroidered jackets.

Creepy jewelry

Looking at some jewelry of the 19th century I'm asking myself how was that possible that someone actually wore them? Because for me they are rather creepy.

Blue creeper birds' heads earrings. Horniman Museum, London

Taxidermy birds, real beetles, monkey teeth and tiger claws jewelry was very popular in England during the second half of the 19th century. It is said that as the world became more industrialized it was a way for the wearer to maintain a connection with nature. Rather a strange way in my opinion - to adorn oneself with something that once was a living creature.

Russian beauties of the 19th century in traditional costumes

Northern Russia, Province of Arkhangelsk

These photos were taken in the end of 19th century and now are kept in the collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography. The women on the photos are wearing traditional costumes of different regions of Russia. And though you can see many regional differences in the outfits there are two similar basic elements - sarafan and kokoshnik. Sarafan is a sleeveless, high-waisted dress either cut on the bias or gored to give fullness at the hem. A chemise is needed to be worn underneath.  Sometimes there is an opening down the front, with buttons. The sarafan could be very rich looking, trimmed with lace, ribbon or gold braid, or very homemade looking.

My Diwali dress

I ordered this outfit from Delhi, it is by Kashish. There is a little bit of beads embroidery, little bit of tinsel. I like the brightness of colours.

Turquoise, the Lucky Stone

My cousin, who has visited me here in Nepal recently, gifted me this very elegant silver bracelet decorated with turquoise and zircon stones.
Turquoise is my favourite semi-precious stone. It is beautiful and it is not expensive. I like its colour range - from light to medium blue or greenish-blue. Jewelry with turquoise stones makes a good accessory to white-coloured summer outfits.
Turquoise got its name from the Turkish merchants who first carried this beautiful stone to Europe for trade. In Turkey turquoise was known as the Horseman's Talisman. It was believed there that any rider who carried one would never suffer any injury if he fell from his horse.
Besides its beauty turquoise has been credited with a wide variety of protective qualities. Not that I believe in this too much but anyway. It is said to be effective against poison and ill-health, it has ability to guard its owner against failure, poverty and lack of success in the hunt, to preserve friendship and make friends of enemies. Turquoise also can bring luck but for this it should be given not bought (lucky me!).

Cat theme, in clothes and jewelry

Being a big lover of cats (actually I have five cats living in my house at the moment) I couldn't resist to buy this cat print camisole. That there are cats all over it you can see just from a close distance, otherwise it just looks mottled.

Traditional costume of Nepal

Talking about traditional costume of Nepal it would be right to say not "costume" but "costumes" because though Nepal is a small country there are many ethnic groups living here and each group has their unique traditional dress. I will tell about a few that I find most interesting.

The Newars. This ethnic group has many different styles of dress among themselves but there is one common thing - they prefer combinations of black and red colours. The most common seen Newar woman's dress is the hakku potashi, a black sari with red borders. Young girls wear it knee level,  but older women prefer to completely cover their legs. The sari is complimented by a white patuka wrapped aroud the waist and a cotton shawl wrapped diagonally over the blouse.

Pashmina shawls, a versatile accessory for colder days

It's getting colder and it's the right time for pashmina shawls. They are always in fashion, they are warm and soft and there is such a big variety of different colours, ornamentation, blends and sizes to satisfy any taste.
So, what exactly is pashmina? Pashmina is a word derived from Persian "Pashm" which means "finest wool fiber". Pashmina is made from the wool of the Himalayan Mountain goat, locally known as Chyangra ( Capra Hircus). This goat is generally found between altitudes of twelve thousand to fourteen thousand feet above sea level, in the mountains of Nepal, India and Pakistan. These goats develop a thin inner coat in winter which they shed during spring. Each hair is twelve to fourteen microns thick which is about one-sixth of the human hair. This unique inner coat of hair serves as material for pashmina.

Festively dressed kids

I like the way kids are dressed for parties and festivals, especially girls. They look like real princesses in those silk and chiffon dresses, embroidered lehengas and even saris.

Traditional headdresses of the Miao women of China

The Miao, also known as the Hmong, are one of the most numerous ethnic minorities in China. However, the largest communities are found in Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Their traditional dress varies from community to community. Clothes vary in their style, patterns, colour, ornamentation and accessories so than, according to some experts, between 23 and 80 local styles might exist.
Women in some groups have really striking headdresses, as for example, the Long-Horned Miao women. They wrap lots of artificial "hair" (long black threads of yarn) around the horn-shaped piece of wood making extremely huge wig and finish with decorating it with long strips of fabric. Their unusual name comes from this custom of adding a horn to their hair.

photo cortesy Spenser

Marwari brides and grooms in traditional dress

There are many Marwari people living in Nepal and I was lucky to be invited to a few Marwari weddings. The Marwari are an Indian ethnic group that originate from the Rajasthan region of India. Their weddings are colourful and joyous and the bride's and groom's outfits are just awesome. The groom usually wears achkan, jodhpuri or sherwani - traditional man's suits, turban and Rajasthani jootis on the feet. The bride wears heavily embroidered ghagra-choli (long skirt and blouse) mostly of red colour but it can also be orange, yellow, pink, maroon. There is also a lot of jewelry adorning her: rakhi for forehead, ear danglers, necklace, bangles, anklets, toe-ring and stone-studded nore-ring.

19th-20th centuries jewelry from the British museum

My next post dedicated to the British museum's jewelry collection is about 19th - 20th century jewelry. There are some really stunning and unique pieces and I will strart with my favourite one

Set of coral jewelry. Italian, 1860. This luxurious five-piece set with tiara, bracelet,necklace, brooch and earrings, is a remarkable survival. It is carved entirely from pale pink coral, known as "angel's skin", whick was highly prized in the mid-19th century and much more expensive than dark red coral. Coral has amuletic properties and has been worn for centuries to ward off evil. It the early 19th century strings of large coral beads were widespread. This, however, is an exquisitely decorative piece: the motifs echo the marine origins of coral - mermaids, tritons, dolphins, shells, hippocamps.

Ancient jewelry from the British museum's collection

It is still not known when exactly people started to adorn themselves with jewelry, at first to beautify themselves, then to proclaim their wealth and social status as well as to protect from the multitude of frightening ills that could befall them. At some very early stage in man's history different materials began to be selected and fashioned for those purposes. The British Museum has a huge collection of jewelry ranging in date from about 5000BC to the middles of the twentieth century. When I was visiting the museum I took pictures of most impressive from my point of view pieces and here they are. First post is dedicated to the jewelry of the Ancient World.

One of the pair of gold armlets from the Oxes Treasure (5th - 4th century BC). This object is one of the most important surviving items of ancient Persian craftsmanship. It is likely they were intended for display rather than being worn.The hoop is almost solid metal at the back, but becomes tubular towards the ends, which are fashioned in the shape of winged griffins. The hollows chased into the horns, face and body of the monsters were originally inlaid, as were the applied gold cloisons on the wings and upper parts.