Traditional costume of Belarus by region

Summer male and female costumes, Pinsk district of Brest region, Western Palesse

The territory of Belarus is subdivided into six historical and ethnographic regions with specific features of traditional costume. Besides, costumes from different districts of the same region have their unique and characteristic features and vary in their decoration and ornament or in the way of styling. But the basic pieces are similar on the whole territory and let's have a look at them first.
Historically traditional clothes of Belarus people were almost completely made of home-made fabrics and decorated with woven and embroidery ornament. Flax and hemp were cultivated on the farms and widely used for making clothing along with wool and leather.
The basic component of both male and female costumes is a long linen shirt. Women wear a skirt over the shirt which is made from woolen, half-woolen or linen fabric and has different names - andarak, spadnitsa, yupka. It is constructed of several pieces of cloth sewn together. The ordinary type is sewn from three, four or six pieces that are gathered or pleated into the waistband. The paniova, the earliest type of skirt, consists of pieces of cloth, often four, which are attached to the waistband but unsewn at the sides.

British menswear heritage

photo  source

My blog is about women's clothes and accessories. But now and then I do like to write about men's clothing too, usually it is something unusual - like unique headdresses of the men of India or intricately embroidered costumes of the Guatemala men - that attracts my attention and inspires me to write an article. And after quite some time today is a post dedicated to men again. The post was inspired by a heritage graphic of a 300-year history of British menswear that was sent to me recently by T.M.Lewin. The graphic features main man clothing inventions that originated in Britain and have influenced the world. As it turns out there are plenty of them. Look, there are so many familiar things on the graphic: the bowler hat and the fedora, the brogue and the trench coat, lounge suits and the button-up shirts .

Sluck (Slutsk) sashes

Double-sided sash, Sluck, 1778-1807, silk weaving. Photo source

Being a bit nostalgic about the days I spent in Belarus recently I decided to write about something Belurusian. And there can not be a better choice than Sluck sashes , real treasure of Belarusian culture. This type of handwork was produced in Belarus (then Rzeczpospolita) in the second half of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Sluck sashes were named after the city of Slutsk (Minsk region), where they were first produced in 18th century to replace expensive imported sashes from the Orient. Such sashes from Ottoman Empire, Persia, Iran and China were very popular among the nobles of the time and served not only as a decorative element of the costume but as a symbol of high social status and wealth as well.

Traditional wedding costume and headdress of Europe

I have told you about traditional wedding costumes of India and Sri Lanka, about unique bridal jewelry of Indonesia, Nepal and Morocco. They are so beautiful, exotic and unique that honestly, the European white wedding dress seems a bit plain and boring. But...it has not always been like this. For most European countries a national costume in its most decorated form was worn as a bridal dress and some garment was added to indicate the girl as the bride, usually it was an elaborate headpiece. And what headpieces they were! A variety of colours, fabrics, textures and even precious jewels was used for bridal headdress.

Bride and groom from Bulgaria

In Bulgaria complicated arrangements of woolen braids and bunches of flowers were fastened between the bride's own hair which was plaited in a dozen or more braids. In parts of the Sofia region a bride would wear a huge halo of flowers and bunches of feather grass and her face were hidden by a curtain of numerous thin plaits hung with coins. And in Pleven region brides wore impressive halos of coins. A bridegroom would be distinguished by the white towel placed over one shoulder or around his neck and the posy of flowers or the wreath on his fur hat.

Traditional headdresses of Belarus

Woman from the Western Polesse region in namitka

As I am in Belarus at the moment today I decided to write about traditional headdress of my homeland. It is one of the most beautiful and important part of the traditional costume. Its type, decoration and way of wearing could tell many things about the woman: her age, social and marital status, the place she belonged to.

Traditional headdress of the women of Brittany

I have already written about the unusual headgear of the Mongolian , Chinese Miao and Ladakhi women. And today's post will focus on maybe not as exotic, but very beautiful head dresses of the women of Brittany. Brittany is a historical region in the north-west of France, with a population of just over 4 million people. This small region is famous for its variety of traditional costume, officially there are 66 of them. Essential part of the women's costume is a headgear called coiffe. There are more varieties of coiffe than of costume, because for a young woman of marriageable age, for a married lady or for a widow coiffe must be different. They vary in size and complexity, from small pieces of lace worn over a bun, to elaborate, towering creations with flowing ribbons, but there is something common between them all: they are of white colour and mostly are made of lace (sometimes embroidered calico is used instead).

Medieval costume of Belarus

While being on holiday in Belarus last summer I visited an interesting exhibition that took place in one of the museums of Minsk. Reconstructed costumes of the Medieval Belarus were shown at the exhibition covering the period of time between the 15th and the 17th centuries. At that time Belarus was part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and town people's and court costumes were mostly influenced by the European fashion, though some of the Byzantine-Russian designs were wearable too (for example, fur-coats, which unfortunately were not presented at the event).

Reconstruction of the court costume of a noble woman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1540-50

Wedding dresses through the 20th century

1890, Canada

Wearing white dress for a wedding is not that old tradition as it may seem. Actually, the fashion for this colour for the bride's outfit came only at the second half of the 19th century and thanks to Queen Victoria. In 1840 she married Prince Albert wearing a white gown and it came as quite a surprise because in those days white wasn't that popular colour in which to be married. Blue was generally the favourite choice for bridal wear because traditionally it was associated with purity and the Virgin Mary. It was also a symbol of fidelity and eternal love. Wedding gowns were seen also in greens, browns, yellows, and even black, if the bridegroom was a widower.
Soon after the queen's wedding women all over Europe and America began wearing white wedding dresses as well. And in 1920s Coco Chanel introduced a stunning new design: a knee length white wedding dress with a long train. And this strengthened white colour as the colour of a bride and nowadays it's very rare for a bride in Europe or the United States to get married in a colour other than white.
Look at these brides of the past in their beautiful white dresses. It is interesting to see how the gowns' design has been changing with the time.

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.

Traditional costume of Belarus

Being a Belorussian I dedicate my first post on this blog to a traditional costume of my country. Though it is not worn on every day basic nowadays, in some villages it is still possible to see old women in beautiful national dresses. As to the young generation, they like to appear in traditional costumes at folk festivals.
Woman's attire consists of a chemise (kashulya) made of homespun linen; a skirt (spadnitsa or andarak); an apron, and a vest. The chemise is usually shorter than the skirt worn on top, and so does not show below the skirt hem. Before the mid-nineteenth century the chemises were decorated on the upper part of the sleeves and the collar. The use of embroidery additionally on shoulder insets and bosom appeared only in the second half of the nineteenth century. The embroidered patterns are usually made in red and black yarn, the composition of ornamenting depending on the region where the set belongs.