From:

Archangel region.

Time:

1890s.

Age group of a wearer:

18-25 years old (from the first child's birth).

Social category of a wearer:

a young married woman who has at least one child.

made by

Sonia Krugloff (headpiece), and Irina Zhoukova (shirt and sarafan).

To be precise, the outfit represented here combines items, which belong to different parts of the Archangel region. A shirt and a sarafan are copied from authentic clothes of Nenoksa village, whereas a headdress (so-called "soroka and sderikha" - kerchief and hat) is from Kargopol.

The shirt is made in accordance to a very late fashion, with a straight yoke. Besides, after 1880s women started to sew their shirts not as dresses (ankle-long), but as modern blouses, not lower than hips (nevertheless, we used an ancient full-length style here).

Yoke, cuffs, and a bottom part of an authentic Nenoksa shirt was decorated by red-and-black embroidery (cross-stitching, tambour stitch, satin stitch). Designs, being residues of an archaic fertility magic, belonged to a floral style. In this copy we applied fabrics with pre-embroidered motifs on it.

The dress (sarafan) is made of raw silk and decorated with golden trim (as it was appropriate for a wife of a rich farmer). Being a festive outfit, it is red.

After 1880s, a traditional outfit tended to be simplified (sometimes, even oversimplified). Shirts lost their true length and became blouses. Skirts displaced sarafans and ponevas. The only part, that persisted to be complex and symbolic, was a headdress. (for a detailed description of a headdress shown here please check http://traditionalrussiancostume.com/costumephoto/xru_en.php?nametxt=7).

1. Ethnographical expeditions of Povarskaya Sloboda Folklore Club (directed by Oksana Zhabina), and Russian Orthodox Learning Center "Russian Roots" (directed by P.F.Karelin)
2. Masterpieces of Arina Belyakova & Tatyana Valkova, restorers.
3. "Wonderful Moments", a magazine (#1/2002, #2/2003)
4. G.A.Grigorieva, "Fabrics and Clothes of Pomorie Region", Archangel, 2000.
5. S.P.Korablev, "Ethnographical and Historical Essay of Kargopol", 1851 (re-printed in 1993).
6. Yu.M.Shulman, "Chronicles of Nenoksa Village", M., 1997