Hello all,

Today I will talk about the costume ofSzamotuły [Shah-mo-too-wih]. This district lies in the macroregion of Wielkopolska, in west central Poland, north of Silesia and south of Pomerania. Wielkopolska was the heart of the original Polish Kingdom of Mieszko in the 10th cent, with its capitol at Gniezno. It eventually became part of the Prussian Empire. While there were some German colonists in this region, the countryside remained strongly Polish. The folk costume ofSzamotuły was retained as a symbol of Polish identity. Here is a map which shows Wielkopolska within the borders of present day Poland, in red.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland

The major city of Wielkopolska today is Poznań. Szamotuły lies to the northwest of this city. According to historical sources, the costume was once more widespread to the south and east, as shown in the inset below.

In my opinion, this would be a good choice for dance groups who make their own costumes. The men's costume in particular is very sharp looking, stages well, and makes a good contrast to the women's pastel attire. The entire outfit can be made from bought materials, in a way that some of the costumes from central Poland cannot, as they rely on very specific woven cloth.

The women's base garment, is of course, a chemise. It is full length, and traditionally made of linen, although later it sometimes came to be made of cotton. Here are two possible cuts. The first is an older, more traditional cut. The second cut has been modified under the influence of city fashion.

In relatively recent times bloomers were worn under the chemise, this likely came from German influence.

The first petticoat, piekielnica, was red, and made of flannel or wool, depending on the time of year.It should reach to 10 cm above the ankle and have 2 cm pleats around the waist. It could have satin stitch floral designs in black, or other ornamentation. Here is an example.

For festive occasions, a second petticoat was worn over this. This one was of percale or batiste, and decorated with white embroidery. lace, and tucks.

The skirt itself, spódnica, was relatively full, with gathers on the sides and back, and relatively flat on the front. It might have a flounce on the hem. In summer the skirt was made of light material, white or pastel colors, often with a pattern of dots or small flowers. This was considered especially appropriate for unmarried girls, and is the type of skirt most commonly seen on stage today.

In cooler weather, and for older women, the skirt could be of many different colors, and was heavier, usually of wool. it could be dark red, dark blue, brown, with vertical stripes, usually red and blue, or even plaid.

The apron, zapaska, should be a few centimeters shorter than the skirt, and about a meter wide, gathered on the sides, but little in the center. For festive occasions it was made of batiste, or silk. For unmarried girls it was often pale blue, but it might be in green, turquoise, or white. It also might have a small subtle design.The white aprons were worn with the darker skirts, especially by older and married women. The girls' aprons were sometimes simply adorned with tucks. In this example they were skimping on material, and did not make the apron wide enough.

The white linen aprons were adorned with embroidery, lace, and sometimes tulle applique, as we see here shown off by a married woman.

For less dressy occasions the aprons were of a solid color, most often deep blue for work days, or a color which harmonized with the skirt. White embroidery on a colored background, along the bottom edge and the ends of the apron ties, was known, similar to that done in Kujawy.

The bodice, sznurówka, had the same cut whether for everyday or for festive dress. The everday might be closed by lacing it shut, as per the name, but more commonly they were hooked closed. Here is an example of an everyday bodice.

The bodice was lined with linen and had a stuffed roll at the bottom, called 'kishka', which was worn under the skirt, and helped hold it in place. The bodice was made in a variety of materials, depending on the occasion. It summer it was most commonly sky blue, blue, rose, aquamarine [celadon], sometimes with a design, but never a floral one. In colder weather it was made in darker colors. The festive bodice was of the same cut but of finer materials, and often had ruched ribbon as an ornament.

Over the bodice, and for married women, over the jacket, a separate collar was worn, called gorsik. This consisted of a length of linen 2 cm wide which went around the neck, closed with a button, and a wide length of embroidered linen, lace, or tulle which was heavily gathered into it.
Sometimes an intermediate length of cloth enabled the collar to be gathered so tightly. This collar was apparently sewn to the chemise until about 1890. Red coral beads were worn over this, at least by unmarried girls.

A cap, czepek, was worn by both girls and married women. These were originally of fine linen and lace, but later came to be made in embroidered tulle. They were edged in goffered lace, and later, tulle.

Married women wore a very similar cap. It was, however, larger, and they wrapped a rolled silk kerchief, jedwabnica, around the edge of it.

As in Kujawy and other parts of Wielkopolska, the ties and back of this cap were a major focus of embroidery.

Married women wore a jacket called rurok. It was waist length, but had a heavily gathered peplum. The front was closed with hooks, but it had decorative buttons and buttonholes down the front.

The most traditional piece of outerwear is called pstrucha. It is a piece of home woven wool cloth with stripes, which is sewn like an apron and worn over the shoulders, or carried over the arms. Various kerchiefs were also worn over the head for warmth.

For everyday, village girls often went barefoot, or in clogs. For festive dress, they wore short, black lace up boots, szadronowe trzewiki, over commercially knitted stockings, or more recently, black leather shoes. A folded handkerchief was often carried in the hand as an accessory.

Men wore a white linen shirt, koszula, with a stand up collar. The everyday shirts were made of thick, strong, linen. Festive shirts were made of finer linen, had fuller sleeves, and white embroidery on the collars and cuffs.

Sometimes the shirts were made without collars, and a dickey or shirtfront of exceptionally fine linen was worn over the regular shirt.This had a standing collar of about 4 cm. tall. This closed in front with a button.

Three different types of neckwear were known. The first, worn by courting young men, is known as podszyjnik, or fartuszek. These are sewn from black cloth with linen linings, and are colorfully embroidered by girls who give them to boys in whom they are interested, and also to others. The embroidery often features a heart. Most young men had at least two. These were narrower than the collar, which stood up above it.

The second option was called welnianka. This was a ribbon of wool or cotton, of a plain dark red color, about 3 cm wide and a meter long. It was tied around the neck with the bow in front. This was worn by married men.

The most formal, and perhaps most typical, was the jedwabnica. This is the same type of silk kerchief which married women tied around their caps, and called by the same name. It was rolled up and then wrapped around the collar, which was often folded over and pinned in order to hold it. Then it was tied into a bow in front.

At the beginning of the 20th cent., white pants were worn by unmarried men, and black pants by married men. Earlier, leather and gray pants made of heavy industrial cloth were also worn for work. The shirt was always worn tucked into the pants.

Sometimes a vest, kamizelka, was worn over the shirt and under the jaka. This was a late development, and has since been abandoned in this area, although it is common further south.

Much more commonly, the jaka was worn directly on top of the shirt. The jaka had brass buttons in two rows on the front and was usually worn closed. It was usually red, although it could be dark red/amaranth in color, or green, or 'marynusowe', red with black ribbon designs.

The jaka was commonly ornamented with topstitching.

Over the jaka was worn a garment called kaftan, which resembles a knee-length overcoat, but has no sleeves. It was black with a red lining, and had 24 brass buttons and red stitched buttonholes, but was almost always worn open. The skirt was very full in back.

Married men, besides wearing black pants, wore another coat over the kaftan called katana. It differed from the kaftan only in having sleeves, being longer, and often fuller in the back. The kaftan reached the knees, the katana was at least boot top length, and sometimes ankle length.

Unmarried young men wore fancy boots called kropusy, these had many pleats along their length and had scalloped tops.

Married men wore simpler boots with only a couple of pleats and which were cut straight across the tops.

In winter, men often wore sheepskin coats, called kożuch. A young man who could afford one of these was considered by the girls to be desirable, because that meant that he was well off.

Hats. In Szamotuły men wore the rogatywka,

or a felt hat,

or, in summer a straw hat,

or in winter a sheepskin hat.

As an accessory, the men of Szamotuły would carry a bentwood cane, called lola, which it was expected that they made for themselves.

Sometimes these were elaborately carved.

And, as in other parts of Wielkopolska, the men would often carry a whip when dancing. Check out the dance videos below.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

Just a few more images.

Here are a series of images from a wedding in Szamotuły

Here are people of Szamotuły taking part in a harvest festival. Some Green Kurpie dancers make an appearance in the second half. The blue and gold flags are those of the city of Szamotuly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Oi_45SlKY

Here is a collection of videos showing actual village dancers from around Wielkopolska. The groups from Szamotuły show up at about the 6:40 mark. This group has one couple in the single people's costume and the other in the married.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLRB-i6MrV8

Here is a video of a stage performance by a small local group. In my opinion, the skirts are too short, compare with the village performers in the first video. At the beginning and end you can see one of the musicians at left is wearing the married women's costume.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heJFFP_8JJc

Another small group doing dances from this region. They do a reasonably good job, and you can see the red petticoats flashing, even though they put them over the linen ones, which is not what it says in my sources is correct.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9W4ysVjzFs

This last video is of the Polish National Ensemble Masowsze. they do a reasonably good job with the costumes, but they are all alike. Notice the progression in choreography from the first video to the last.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhQZ41UK3ic

Roman K.

email

rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:
Iwona Rosinska, 'Suknia Wydaje Ludzkie Obyczaje, Folk Dress from Wielkopolska', Poznan, 2005
Adam Glapa, 'APSL Stroj Szamotulski', Lublin, 1951
Elzbieta Piskorz-Branekowa, 'Polskie Stroje Ludowe, vol 1', Warsaw, 2013
Elzbieta Krolikowa, 'Polski Stroj Ludowy', Warsaw, 2000
Stanislaw Gadomski, 'Stroj Ludowe w Polsce', Warsaw,
Aleksander Blachowski et al, 'Haft Ludowy',Torun', 1979
M Ataman et al, 'Rekodzielo Ludowe i Artystyczne Cepelii', Warsaw, 1988

Hello all,

I received a request to do some research on the costume of Lolland Island, Denmark. There is not nearly as much literature available for Denmark as there is for Norway or Sweden, so I decided to take up the project. Here is what I have been able to find. Lolland and Falster form an island group together in south Denmark, along with a couple of smaller islands.

The costume of this area is quite typical for Denmark, having much the same composition as that of most of the country. Falster has two different costumes, that of the North being quite distinct, but that of the south being quite similar to the costume of Lolland. This map shows the traditional districts of the two islands, which are called Herrads [hundreds].

The image at the head of the article is an artist's rendition of the costume of Lolland, Here are some photographs from Lolland, showing the costume, front and back. Refer back to these images while reading the article.

Most of these images are from the collection of the Museum of Maribor, on Lolland. These I got from the website of the Danish National Folkdance Society, which has a great deal of material, although it is poorly organized, and you have to dig to find it.
http://www.folkedragt.dk/

Like always, the foundation garment is a chemise, here called Saerk. Danish chemises fall into three types. The first is with narrow sleeves set in at a 90 degree angle. This is the type which seems to be used on Lolland.

Lace or embroidery may be done on the cuffs, which are often the only part that shows, The neckline varies. Simple cross stitch, often with the owner's initials, may be added. the year of embroidering may also be included.

In warm weather, the bodice may be worn directly over the chemise, but most of the time, another garment is worn. This is called Nattrøje. This means 'night jacket'.

These are knitted, usually in red wool, and finished off with patterned silk ribbon around the neck opening and usually the cuffs as well. They may have elbow length, 3/4, or full length sleeves, and the cuffs of the chemise protrude. In many pictures it is difficult to see, but they always have a textured design knitted into them. As this garment is worn under the bodice, it is sometimes quite short, or the bottom of the body is finished off in white or another color, as it does not show. This garment is common in much of Denmark, as well as in parts ofSkåne, which used to be part of Denmark, but now belongs to Sweden.

It also happens that the knitted sleeves are sometimes sewn directly to the bodice, thus imitating the effect of having two layered garments in one.

If this is the case, then a separate front may be pinned in place to show above the bodices neckline.

The bodice, Bul, which is worn over the nattroje, is made of many different types of cloth, both commercially produced, and home woven with designs in the cloth. The waist length also varies, some showing influences of the Empire period in their short waists. It may be laced or hooked closed, and always has ribbon trimming the openings. The cut can also vary somewhat. It is lined in linen. Here are several examples from the Maribo Museum.

A small shawl,tørklæde, is worn over the shoulders, and the ends are tucked into the front of the nattroje, or bodice. Often a linen shawl is put on first, and the fine silk shawl over that. These vary in color and design, as well as material.

In keeping with the traditions of Scandinavia, I am certain that a red flannel or wool petticoat is worn, along with at least one linen one.

The skirt itself is either gathered or pleated, is very long, and may have one or two rows of ribbon adorning the hem.They varied in color and material depending on the occasion, simple homespuns for working, and fancy material for dress.
I have found no images of skirts which are unequivicably labelled as being from Lolland, but here is one from South Falster. Since the skirt was always worn with an apron, they made the front out of a cheaper material. Also see the images above.

In the towns, the bodice and skirt are often replaced by a dress, all sewn in one piece, but made of the same kinds of cloth, and also worn with the shoulder shawl, apron, etc. Here are a couple of examples from the town of Maribor.

The aprons are almost as long as the skirts, and are made in a variety of colors and patterns, from home woven stripes and plaids to cotton prints or fine silk examples.

Knit stockings are worn, white or blue, usually. For dress, black leather shoes with silver buckles are worn, or wooden clogs for working.

The hair is braided or wrapped, and coiled on the back of the head. For workdays a simple linen cap is worn over this.

For dress, a cap, Hue, is worn over this. The back is cut in a circle which is flattened on the bottom and embroidered in many ways, or made of brocade. The front is a rectangle which is sewn around the edge of the back. This is usually edged in silk ribbon.

There are many images of such caps online, but many of them do not give the provenance of the cap. Here are some images from the Maribo Museum. Many are from Lolland, but some may be from Falster.

The back part of the cap is gathered at the bottom, and finished off with a silk ribbon tied in a bow. The front corners are also attached to a ribbon which ties under the chin.

The linen undercap has lace edging for festive occasions. These are sometimes made separately, and then pinned to a plain cap.

This last example appears to be of a piece of lace which very occasionally is worn pinned to the outside of the cap, and the wings then starched and folded to stick out. This is common in other parts of Denmark, but I have only found a couple of images of a cap worn in such a manner from Lolland.

If the sleeves are not full length, then half gloves may be worn with them for church going or for cooler weather or other dressy occasions. These may be knit or sewn of woven cloth, and cover the forearms.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Hello all,
The Frisians are one of the minority peoples of Europe, Inhabiting the coast of the North Sea from the northern Netherlands to the southernmost tip of Denmark. The Frisian Language is linguistically the closest living language to English [except for Scots].
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisians

There are over 500,000 people today who still speak Frisian, but Frisian, like many minority languages consists of several local dialects which are not mutually intelligible. They are generally grouped into West Frisian, in the Netherlands, East Frisian, which survives only in one small enclave in the Saterland, and North Frisian, which is spoken on the coast and the islands of southern Jutland, and also includes Heligoland. Other people in the area maintain a Frisian identity while having lost the language.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisian_languages

Here is a closeup map of the North Frisian Islands.

The four main islands are Sylt [in German], or Söl [in Frisian]; Föhr or Feer, Amrum or Oomram, and Pellworm or Polweerm. Helgoland or deät Lun, is culturally and linguistically related to the North Frisian Islands, but is separated geographically, being found further out to sea. While Sylt and Helgoland each have their own distinct costumes, the rest of the islands and islets share basically the same costume, which started on Feer and Oomram and spread to the others. The islands of Rømø and Fanø each also have their own costumes, but are inhabited by Danes.

Here is a print by Albert Kretschmer showing three variants of this costume. This was published in 1887. In the center is a more everyday costume, on the right is the Sunday costume, and on the left is the Dress costume for special occasions; the last is the one most commonly seen today. The apron waistband is narrower today, otherwise, the costume is very similar.

When I searched for images online, there was some confusion as to which island the various images came from . I did find out from a video the difference between the costume of Foehr, just below, and the costume of Amrum, in the second image.

If you look at the semicircle of silver filigree buttons on the front, The Foehr costume has 12, while the Amrum costume has 8.

The image below shows a woman from Hallig Hooge, one of the 10 small islets in the area. Note that she has ten buttons.

The only images which I could find from Pellworm has them in the Sunday outfit rather than the full dress costume.

Here is a video showing the Föhr costume being laid out by a woman who makes them.
The video is in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqptIM4_HGM

Here is a video from Amrum, showing the outer parts of the costume as worn today being put on. This is also in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYxkho1bJWs

The outfit as worn today only seems to go back a couple hundred years, and was heavily influenced by upper class costumes of Spain. The people of Frisia have always made their living as sea traders, sailors and fishermen. Even today the silver filigree jewelry is made in Portugal. Old drawings show a costume which is similar to that of Sylt. This costume is clearly that of an affluent society.

The base garment is a chemise, over which two petticoats likely are worn, one of red flannel, and one of white linen.

The skirt is black with a blue silk ribbon appliqued to the hem, full length and heavily gathered in back. It is connected to a bodice.

For everyday, it is likely that originally a linen overshirt was worn over the chemise and under the bodice/skirt.

Today this is no longer seen. This has been replaced by a jacket.

For going to market or Sunday dress, this may contrast with the skirt and bodice, the quality of the fabric being appropriate to the occasion. See also the print by Kretschmer above. This version below on the right is less commonly seen today.

For Sunday dress, the jacket is black. Two silver filigree buttons are pinned to each side of the bosom, and a shawl is wrapped around the shoulders or wrapped around the waist and tied in back.

Sometimes this shawl has embroidery on the point.

For the dressiest festive outfit, a semicircle of black satin with large silver filigree buttons around the edge is pinned to the front.

A silk shawl is wrapped around the shoulders and gathered into place with many pins.

The shawl originally had long silk fringes which the local women knotted themselves and then sewed to the bought shawls, but today the fringes are not connected to the shawl but are pinned on after the shawl is in place. Over the shawl is pinned a piece of jewelry that consists of three plates which are joined with chains, with other chains hanging below. There may be a religious medal hanging from the center, as in the image above, Or there may be three pendants as shown below; a cross, a heart and an anchor, the symbols of Faith, Charity, and Hope, respectively.

For the dress costume, the cuffs of the jacket are trimmed with lace and two silver filigree buttons.

The apron is very long and full, and may be made of embroidered white linen, silk damask or brocade, or plain material with lace or ribbons sewn to it. If the apron is not of linen, it tends to be in a dark color.

The waistband wraps all the way around the waist, and is fastened at the rear with a brooch that matches the rest of the jewelry.

The 'ties' are wrapped around to the front center of the apron and secured with a pin, which allows the ends to hang freely.

The hair is braided and wrapped into a bun on the back of the head. A large shawl is folded untill it is about 4 inches wide, and then wrapped around the head to make a headdress which stands up on top of the head. Formerly it would have an embroidered edge with fringes, but today this is a separate piece which is secured to the shawl with decorative pins after it is wrapped and pinned in place, so that the embroidery is shown off and the fringes hang down on the sides.

Married women wear a red 'cap', which is embroidered with black beads and covers part of the hair under the shawl. Unusually, most of the hair remains uncovered.

Knit stockings and black leather shoes complete the ensemble, but these are rarely visible.

A few more images of this costume; This outfit has been much photographed.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K

A video of the Amrum trachtengruppe explaining their costume, in German.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sW6F2uT07MA

A video of a dance group from Amrum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoGKueVbtJI

A video of a dance group from Foehr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISCQB6aqdvg&t=100s

A parade on the island of Foehr.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLqZhOGBjS8

Email: rkozakand@aol.com

Hello all,
Today I will talk about a Ukrainian embroidery style which is found over a large part of central and eastern Ukraine, but is particularly associated with the Poltava region. This can be seen in the image above, which shows the shoulder inset and upper sleeve of a chemise from the Poltava area. It combines flat stitch, hemstitching, faggot stitching, eyelets, decorative joining and gathering with cutwork. Cutwork was possibly invented by the Byzantines, but has spread all over Europe, being found in Greece, Hungary, Transylvania, and Norway among other places, as well as Ukraine.

The best known style of cutwork in the west today is modern Hardanger style. There are similarities but also important differences between the two styles. Here is an image that shows the details of the Ukrainian style, called Vyrizuvannia.

Anyone who regularly does Hardanger will immediately see the difference. Modern Hardanger is built on the concept of 'kloster blocks', that you lay down blocks of satin stitch which forms the basis of the design. Here is one blog which will show you step by step how to do it.
http://aimetuhardangertutorial.blogspot.com/2009/07/kloster-blocks.html

To the Ukrainian eye, this looks very klunky and coarse. For the Poltava embroiderer, the main focus of the design are the cut out openings, and this is what is emphasized. Instead of laying wide blocks that lie flat on the fabric, we make relatively narrow overcast bars, just enough to hold the threads in place when the fabric is cut. Here is a chart of a similar motif done in Ukrainian style. We also put cross stitches in the corners to secure them, and use both finer cloth and floss than those who do modern Hardanger. They often use panama cloth and cotton perle, whereas Ukrainian embroiderers prefer to use a fine linen and either DMC 'brilliant' one stranded floss [which unfortunately is difficult to find anymore], or mouline, usually divided.

In this example, the embroiderer chose to do the overcasting over three threads and left five threads for each side of the cutouts. You will see Ukrainian cutwork done over three and three, but the overcast stitches are drawn tight, as in faggoting work, and the result is that the openings appear larger than the overcasting. This is the case in the photo above. Here is a closeup. If you look carefully you can see that the bars and cutouts each have three threads.

Here are a couple more examples.

In this image, counted satin stitch is used as an adjunct, which is very common. When modern floss, which has a certain sheen, is used, it reflects the light differently when viewed horizontally or vertically. The two half stars are executed in the same color, but they look different in the photo because of the way they catch the light. Some people are deceived by this and use two different shades. THAT IS INCORRECT. Use the same color for the entire star, or whatever the motif is.

In this example, the bars are done over three threads and four are left for the cutouts.

This is the basic difference between Poltava work and modern Hardanger. You will also notice that while Ukrainians tend to use three threads for the bars, Hardanger will often use four, so that they can weave the bars in the center instead of overcasting them. Many of the motifs and compositions are similar, although there are some which one style uses but the other does not. If you need the process broken down, feel free to look at the blog link above.

The first step is to design the composition, decide how many threads will be used for the overcast bars and for the openings. Then decide the placement of the other elements of the design. Then figure out how they will fit together, and how many threads of cloth you will need. figure out how many threads per inch, and put it together. I strongly recommend that you put your own project together; there is no need to copy someone else's project. In Ukraine, and in all traditional cultures, people made their own compositions using the traditional vocabulary.
Secondly, now that you have decided where each motif will go, start by securing the outline of the cutwork motifs, as shown in the schematic above.

Once the outline has been secured, then you cut all the threads that are secured by the overcasting bars, being very careful not to cut the ones which are covered by the bars. These threads must be pulled out.

This leaves a lattice of threads which connect across the open area where the bars secure the ground threads. It is very important that you make sure that the same threads are secured on both sides of the motif.

The interior threads must now be overcast as well. The arrows in the graphic show the recommended route. Usually all squares which do not border one of the overcast bars is strengthened and ornamented, most commonly by the cloverleaf shown here, but other options exist.

If you have never tried this before, I strongly recommend that you practice a motif like this on a sampler. You can use videos or books on Hardanger, as long as you ignore what they say about 'blocks'.

Here is how this motif looks when finished and embellished with other stitches.

This technique is never used in isolation, but is always combined with other stitches, most notably counted satin stitch 'lyshtva', faggot stitching 'zernovyj vyvid', braid stitch 'retiaz', hemstitching 'merezhka', and others. The area cut out may consist of single squares, or a zigzag of openwork which extends the length of the piece, or anything in between.
The range of possible compositions is infinite.

This kind of embroidery is most commonly used on women's, especially young women's chemises.

Sometimes older women will embroider the same type of design, but instead of cutting the holes will embroider them with black thread to make it look like they are cut, as openwork would not be seemly. This is called 'blind cutwork', [slipa vyrizuvannia]. Here is an example, shown front and back.

This technique can also be used on men's shirts.

It is also used on rushnyky, tablecloths and other household linens.

The zigzag border on this rushnyk is highly unusual, and shows influence from Hardanger embroidery.

It is the custom in Ukrainian homes to have embroidered cloths on tables and other furniture, often they set off other pieces of folk art, as here.

While the original embroidery was done in white on white, sometimes it would be done with threads coated with soot, or beeswax, to give a gray or pale gold color. These pale colors, also including light blue, are now more widespread. This chemise was embroidered in 1968.

This chemise above shows the typical arrangement of embroidery on a chemise. There is a horizontal band of embroidery on the shoulder inset, The sleeve itself is usually gathered into the inset in the center, as you can see above. The upper sleeve often has another band of horizontal embroidery echoing the one on the inset, as you can see here. This is not always the case. There is a band on the bottom hem, which always shows below the overskirt; in this case the garment is folded up to show the embroidery. There are also narrow bands of embroidery on the cuffs, collar and front opening. The lower sleeves may be left plain, or have vertical bands of embroidery as shown here, or may be covered with a reticulated or spotted design. The chemise on the right in this image was done in hemstitching. Such horizontal bands on the lower sleeve are known, but unusual.

One common motif used for the lower sleeves is a zigzag line, which is called lomane derevo, or 'broken tree'.

The black used with the cutwork here is unusual, the pale color on the right is much more typical. The hem of the chemise on the right is in the upper left corner.

Household linens in various colors; again the threads catch the light differently when viewed vertically or horizontally.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. I also hope that this has inspired you to try this type of embroidery; it is an important part of our cultural heritage that deserves to live on. I hope that the examples given have given you a good idea of the compositional possibilities. Here are just a few more.

These two images show examples which are not from Poltava, but from Rivne in Western Podillia.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Possibly the best illustrated step by step instructions for this technique can be found in 'Ukrainian Embroidery Techniques' by Tania Diakliw Oneill.

Source Material:
Maria Kutsenko, 'Ukrainian Embroideries', Melbourne, 1977
Kmit and Luciow, 'Ukrainian Embroidery', New York, 1978
Bilozub et al, 'Ukrainian Folk Art, Weaving and Embroidery', Kyiv, 1960
Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrajins'ka Sorochka', Kyiv, 1994
Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshywka', Kyiv, 1993
Olena Kulynych-Stakhurska, 'The Art of Ukrainian Embroidery', L'viw, 1996
Towstukha et al, 'Handicrafts in the Ukraine', Kyiv, 1979
Belokur et al, 'The Ukr. SSR State Museum of Ukrainian Folk Decorative Art', Kyiv, 1983
E. Lytvynets', 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vyshyvannia i Nanyzuvannia', Kyiv, 2004
Bitustøl Torbjørg, 'Hardangersøm' Utgitt av Husfliden Stavanger

Hello all,
This is my conclusion of the costumes of Zakarpattia. Today I will talk about two costumes that are influenced by Romanian ones south of the border, as well as the Rakhiw region, which is part of the Hutsul cultural area. Again, it would be helpful if you looked up the locations mentioned on Google Maps or some such other app.

8
Cherna zone
This consists of the small region between the Tisa River and the Romanian border. While the people in this area are Rusyn / Ukrainian, the costume is a version of the Oaş costume which is mostly worn across the border in Romania in the region of Ţara Oaşului. This man's costume is often mistakenly paired with womens' costumes from other regions.

Here are some images of the Romanian Oaş costume.

The costume worn on the Ukrainian side is basically identical. I have documented it from the three villages of Cherna, Novoselytsia and Khyzha. I believe that it was worn in the entire area south of the Tisza river.

Here are old photographs of a man and a woman from Cherna. Compare their costumes to those of the Romanians above.

Here is a woman's costume from Novoselytsia.

Here are some people from Khyzha.

The man's costume has the front and back of the shirt in one piece, with embroidery on the shoulders and sleeves set in at right angles. The shirt is short, just barely past the waist, The pants are very full, embroidered, and fringed, a bag is worn over the shoulder, and a small straw hat is also worn.

The women's costume has a rectangular yoke with the opening usually at the back. The yoke is embroidered around all four sides, The body of the chemise is gathered into the bottom of the yoke, and the sleeves into the sides. There is also embroidery on the cuffs and often in a stripe down the outside of the sleeve. The skirt is linen or cotton, very full, and has embroidery on the waistband which matches the yoke, and also has embroidery on the hem of the skirt in much the same way that the men have embroidery on their pants. The apron may be of matching embroidered linen or of a cotton challis print.

This is a stupid pose, but it does show the construction and embroidery well.

The details of the embroidery is quite interesting.

Ukrainians sometimes wear this costume with vests.

9
North Marmarosh zone

This consists of the Teresva and Apshytsia river valleys, and includes the triangle of Romanian settlement which is centered on The towns of Solovtyno and Apsha. This is a variant of the costume of Maramureș County which lies across the border in Romania. There is a Rusyn / Ukrainian minority in some villages in Romania as well.

Here is the Romanian costume as worn in the area around Nyzhnya Apsha, or Apșa de Jos.
The women wear double aprons with yellow and black or red and black horizontal stripes.

The same type of chemise is worn by the local Rusyn / Ukrainians, but they wear a skirt with it instead of the double aprons. This type of chemise is called Voloshka, and is widespread in this zone. It also has a rectangular neck opening, but is put together differently from the last one.
Here is a girl from this zone talking with a Hutsul girl.Note the frilled cuffs and the unusual construction of the chemise which includes little epaulets.

Here is a costume of this type from Velykyi Bychkiv, which is right next to the Hutsul region.

Here is a voloshka laid out so you can see the construction. The shoulders are relatively narrow strips that extend front and back to the hem. The front and back panels are shorter and very wide, and are smock gathered into a narrow collarband. This band may also edge the shoulder pieces. The upper part of the sleeve is also smock gathered into the shoulders, and short epaulettes may be gathered and attached in the same place. Embroidery is done around the neck opening and on the shoulders.

These next two images are from Oksana Kosmina's book on Ukrainian costume. While they show the voloshka well, and have the correct vest, she pairs it with an apron from the Khust region and a skirt from the Velykyi Bereznyi region. This is not correct.

Here are some photos of voloshky which I found online. Looks like they were being sold.

I found this one image from the north of this region, and it looks like embroidery which is done on a voloshka. This is from the village of Rus'ka Mokra.

The men's shirts are cut much the same as the ones from the Cherna region, above. they may be open or have cuffs. They have modest embroidery on them. The front may be smocked as the women's shirts are. They wear open linen pants in summer and heavy wool pants in winter.

Highly embroidered sheepskin vests are also worn here, as you can see.

These are a man's and a woman's kyptar from Velykyj Bychkiv.

This vest is from the village of Bedevlja.

10
Rakhiw zone

This lies in the easternmost part of Zakarpattia, including the town of Kobylets'ka Polyana and all points east of that. The people in this area are Hutsul, and wear their own version of the typical Hutsul costume.

Here is the church in the village of Lazeshchyna.

A couple of old photographs.

From these images it is clear that the men had embroidery on their shoulders. The kyptars of this region have a particular ornamentation that includes a floral motif on the lower front corners. Observe these three kyptars from Jasinya, Bohdan, and Kobylets'ka Polyana.

This kyptar is from Yasinya.

The embroidery, as everywhere in the Hutsul region, was well done. They did the normal Hutsul stitches, such as nyzynka and cross stitch;

But also more unusual ones, such as satin stitch and brick stitch.

Here are a couple that I find very interesting and unusual, from Yasinya.

This woman's shirt is from Kobylets'ka Polyana.

Here is both a man's and a woman's shirt from Rosishka.

The women wore double aprons, the men red or white pants with wide leather belts. They both wore heavy red jackets called serdaky, and embroidered footcloths with moccasins. Here are some images from the fashion show.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. If you do costumes for a Ukrainian dance group, please use this information and make real costumes for Zakarpattia, and not some gaudy fantasy or some mish mosh of different regions. Feel free to write me to ask questions or to get more ideas. Even these three articles fail to exhaust the subject.

Roman K.

A video from Zakarpattia made in the 1930's, narrated in Czech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAgJm55x06o

A 'fashion show' of some of the folk costumes of Zakarpattia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqA5aj4KrE

email; rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:

S. Makovski, 'L'Art Populaire en Russie Subcarpathique', Prague, 1926
Roman Pylyp, 'Khudozhnia Vyshywka Ukrajintsiw Zakarpattia', Uzhhorod, 2012
Sofia Hubash, 'Volovechchyna Moja', Uzhhorod, 2011
Myroslava Kot, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshyta Sorochka', Drohobych, 2007
R. V. Zakharchuk-Chuhaj''Ukrajins'ka Narodna Vyshywka Zakhidni Oblasti URSR', Kyjiv, 1988
Iryna Hurhula, 'Narodne Mystetsvo Zakhidnykh Oblastej Ukrajiny', Kyjiv, 1966
K I Matejko, 'Ukrajins'kyj Narodnyj Odjah', Kyjiv, 1977
Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshywka', Kyjiv, 1993
O. I. Kubajevych et al, 'Derzhawnyj Muzej Etnohrafiji ta Khudozhn'oho Promyslu AN URSR', Kyjiv, 1976
Robert Papik'ian, "Zacharovanyj Kraj', Kyjiv, 1988
Oksana Kosmina, 'Tradytsijne Vbrannia Ukrajintsiw', Kyjiv, 2001
Petro Odarchenko et al, 'Ukrainian Folk Costumes', Toronto-New York, 1992
M. S. Bilan et al, 'Ukrajins'kyj Stryj', L'viw, 2000
Tamara Nikolajeva, 'Ukrajins'kyj Kostium, Nadija na Renensans', Kyjiw, 2005
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetstvo - Tkanyny ta Vyshywky', Kyjiw, 1960
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vbrannia', Kyjiw, 1961

Hello all,
Today I am continuing with my series on Zakarpattia. Again, I encourage you to follow along in Google maps as I mention locations.

These two zones lie in the middle of the map above. They share the same unusual cut of the chemise, and indeed are distinguished most by their embroidery.

6
Irshava zone

This lies south of the Volovets' zone, from Mukachevo east to the ridge between the Borzhava and the Rika rivers. It includes the Borzhava and possibly the Latoritsa river valleys, except for the uppermost reaches. This and the next zone are often considered to be the 'typical' Transcarpathian costume. This is the fifth type of Ukrainian costume, the single apron type. An apron is worn directly over the chemise, and there is no skirt. The front of the chemise is gathered at the neck, there is a small area of embroidery or applique there, and the opening is in the back. The sleeve pieces are cut full length, up to the collar. This type of chemise is called Dowhana.

Here is a couple in summer attire from the village of Dovhe. The man's outfit is unusual for Ukraine, but is similar to that of other parts of the Pannonian plain, in Slovakia, northwest Romania, Hungary, and eastern Croatia.

Here is a woman from near Irshava. This photo was sent in by one of my readers, Jenna Herskovic. She says that this is her grandmother from the village of Pryborzhavske.

Here is a woman from the village of Kerets'ky, Notice that she is wearing a very large apron, which seems to be more typical of the Khust zone.

This chemise is from the village of Bereznyky.

Here is an old photo of a group of girls in this costume.

The type and arrangement of the embroidery is unique to this area. The front collar has a small inset of appliqued cloth, or sometimes a small patch of embroidery, which is done on a flat area.

The opening, as i mentioned, is in the back.

The sleeves are full length and gathered into the collarband. There is a band of embroidery across the sleeve at about shoulder height, which has a diamond of embroidery just below it in the center of the sleeve. It may have a narrow vertical line of embroidery above this band.

There is a seam at the back of the sleeve, which is joined with ornamental needlework. Just to the outside of this seam is a chain of diamonds forming a line down the rear of the sleeve.

This image is from the book 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshywka', by Tetiana Kara-Vasyljevych, who, unusually, mistakenly assigns it to Rivne Oblast.

You can see that the embroidery is mostly flat stitching, with some cross stitch on the collar nd cuffs. The cuffs are narrow bands, and the sleeves are gathered into them.

Moccasins, postoly, were commonly worn here, as in most of Zakarpattia. Those who could afford boots wore them for special occasions. This pair is from the village of Dovhe.

Short, highly embroidered sheepskin vests were worn here as well. This one is from the village of Kerets'ky.

Here are a few more images of this costume.

I am not sure that the vest in this image is correct. I believe that it comes from a region further east, namely the Teresva river valley.

And here are some images from a fashion show which depicted this and other Transcarpathian costumes.

7
Khust zone

This consists of the region between Khust and Bustyno, north of the Tisa river, and includes the lower and mid Rika river valley and the Tereblya river valley up to the northern border of Transcarpathia. The people in the northern part of this region are Boiko, but the costume is substantially the same..
Here is the cut of the chemise from this region. The dress chemise is exceptionally full. This particular one is from the village of Danylove, in the southern part.

As in the Irshava region, the opening is in back, but here there is embroidery done over the smocking in front. The apron, plat, especially for dress occasions, is extremely full and wraps most of the way around the body. The waistband is wide and has strings on the ends which wrap around the body more than once. No skirt is worn.

Here is a photo of a girl from Danylove. You can see the decorative stitching done on the waistband.

The cuff is generally ruffled, with a gathered portion slightly above. The embroidery above is done in bargello or brick stitch. The composition and techniques of the embroidery used in this zone is remarkable for its variety. One common arrangement is a large rectangle, as seen here. The following is also from Danylove. This is done mostly in a single color with a heavy wool yarn, the so called curly stitch.

Here are some embroidery examples from the northern part, namely the village of Synevyr, which is in the Boiko area.
They also use the rectangle as a form for the embroidery.

They use Nyzynka embroidery in one color, seen both above here and below, from the front and the back.

Another arrangement is two horizontal bands joined by a vertical band in the center of the sleeve.
These three are also from Synevyr. Some use darning stitch, nyz, and some use cross stitch.

The embroidery may also be very colorful, as in this next example from Synevyr, seen from the rear.

An additional example of embroidery arrangement is having two horizontal bands with no connection, as in this example from Sokyrnytsia.

And the final example is a large diamond in the center of the sleeve. This tends to be more common further north, especially closer to Mizhhiria. Here is another example, also from Sokyrnytsia.

And two more examples from Sokyrnytsia. It seems that these different compositions coexisted within the same village.

Some chemises show somewhat of a hybridization of the horizontal band and the diamond, as in this example.

The above example includes cutwork, as does this similar example, which also includes cross stitch and stem stitch.

Some examples can be very colorful.

The hair dressing and headpieces can be very complex. Here are some examples from the village of Iza. Two brides. [note that in eastern Europe, one is a 'bride' for up to a few years]. The open topped crown, parta, has a part which sticks up on one side, and is decorated with ribbons, feathers, artificial flowers, blown glass balls, and other items. Note also the bodice with little 'epaulettes'.

Here is a married woman from Iza in her dress outfit. Her vest is of embroidered sheepskin.

A young mother from Iza.

A colorful chemise from Iza.

Young girls from Kosheliovo.

A beautiful chemise from Bushtyno.

A simpler outfit from Dubove.

A chemise from Dulovo.

An example from Horinchovo, showing the three dimensional curly stitch.

Two girls from Nyzhnje Selyshche.

A man from Zolotareve, wearing the jacket called uyosh.

A woman with an embroidered sheepskin vest from Steblivka, along with an everyday photo.

Two girls with fancy hair and parta from Vonyhove. Note the 'prairie points' on the vest.

Here is a girl from Lypets'ka Polyana.

A series of pictures from the village of Kolochava, in the north. This would be in the Boiko zone.

A couple of girls wearing parta. Note the decorative seam in the center of the aprons.

A couple of married women. The hemline varies with the decade.

Here are just a few shots from a wedding somewhere near Synevyr in the 1930's. These are taken from the historical video at the end of the article.

The Starosta and Starostynia are leading the procession. She is wearing the shaggy jacket for which Zakarpattia is famous.

This would be the bride. Note the headdress. Her embroidery is in a rectangle.

This would be the maid of honor, note that her embroidery is in a diamond.

The bride and other young women wear vests and aprons of colorful flower print material.

An older married woman wears a vest and apron of solid dark colored cloth which is not as full.

A video from Zakarpattia made in the 1930's, narrated in Czech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAgJm55x06o

A 'fashion show' of some of the folk costumes of Zakarpattia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqA5aj4KrE

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.
This information is far from exhaustive.

Roman K.

email; rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:

S. Makovski, 'L'Art Populaire en Russie Subcarpathique', Prague, 1926
Roman Pylyp, 'Khudozhnia Vyshywka Ukrajintsiw Zakarpattia', Uzhhorod, 2012
Sofia Hubash, 'Volovechchyna Moja', Uzhhorod, 2011
Myroslava Kot, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshyta Sorochka', Drohobych, 2007
R. V. Zakharchuk-Chuhaj''Ukrajins'ka Narodna Vyshywka Zakhidni Oblasti URSR', Kyjiv, 1988
Iryna Hurhula, 'Narodne Mystetsvo Zakhidnykh Oblastej Ukrajiny', Kyjiv, 1966
K I Matejko, 'Ukrajins'kyj Narodnyj Odjah', Kyjiv, 1977
Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshywka', Kyjiv, 1993
O. I. Kubajevych et al, 'Derzhawnyj Muzej Etnohrafiji ta Khudozhn'oho Promyslu AN URSR', Kyjiv, 1976
Robert Papik'ian, "Zacharovanyj Kraj', Kyjiv, 1988
Oksana Kosmina, 'Tradytsijne Vbrannia Ukrajintsiw', Kyjiv, 2001
Petro Odarchenko et al, 'Ukrainian Folk Costumes', Toronto-New York, 1992
M. S. Bilan et al, 'Ukrajins'kyj Stryj', L'viw, 2000
Tamara Nikolajeva, 'Ukrajins'kyj Kostium, Nadija na Renensans', Kyjiw, 2005
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetstvo - Tkanyny ta Vyshywky', Kyjiw, 1960
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vbrannia', Kyjiw, 1961

Hello all,

Today I will talk about the costume and embroidery of Zakarpattia. This area is also called Transcarpathia or Subcarpathia. The region's inhabitants are about 80% Rusyn / Ukrainian,
12 % Hungarian, 3 % Romanian, plus Romany, Germans, and others in small numbers. This area has been mostly Slavic for many hundreds of years, but was part of the Hungarian Empire until WWI. Under Hungary, this area formed part or all of the counties of Ung [blue], Bereg [gray], Ugocsa [brown], and Northern Marmoros [yellow].

Between the two world wars, this area was made part of that artificial Chimeric entity, Czechoslovakia, under the name of Podkarpatská Rus . After WWII, It was annexed by the Soviet Union, and subsequently became part of Independent Ukraine. It was also briefly independent twice before, once on its own, and once as part of western Ukraine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zakarpattia_Oblast

Going through the oldest and most reliable resources that I have access to , I have divided this region into 10 costume zones. These do not match up very well with the current administrative zones, as is generally the case. Unfortunately, you will often see images where pieces from different regions are worn together, because the curator did not pay attention to the fact that Transcarpathia has different costume zones.

I had to draw a map myself. The lines that I drew are very approximate, but here they are. I recommend looking up the different locations on Google maps to follow the regions.

Magyar zone

There is a strip of territory between the Hungarian border and roughly the cities of Uzhhorod and Mukachevo in which the majority of the inhabitants are Hungarian.

Their costumes are easily recognizable as typically Hungarian.

2
Western zone.

This consists of the area between Uzhhorod and Mukachevo, from the Hungarian zone up to the first range of mountains. I have found little from this zone. If anyone has more information, please let me know.

Here is a screenshot from the fashion show video to which I give a link at the end of the article.

These images are from a video made in the 1920's. It shows a gathering in the village of Nevyts'ke. You can see strong Hungarian/Slovak influence in these costumes.

These shaggy overcoats, called Hunia, are worn over most of Zakarpattia.

3
Poroshkova zone

This consists of the Turiya river valley, between the ridge of mountains which border the plains, and the next ridge north. The Turiya river flows into the Uzh at Perechyn, and this zone follows it east, and extends as far as the village of Solochyn.
The embroidery is not similar to that of the neighboring valleys, but does resemble Rusyn embroidery from further west in Slovakia. I assume that the women wear a skirt and apron, and the men linen or wool pants, but i only have images of shirts and embroidery.

Woman's shirt, village of Poroshkovo

Here is a married woman's cap, chepets, from Poroshkovo, decorated with ribbons.

Embroidery from the front of a man's shirt, village of Poroshkovo.

Reconstruction of the man's shirt.

Embroidery on the front of a woman's shirt from Tur'ya Polyana.

Shirt embroideries from somewhere in this valley.

Sleeve embroidery from the village of Solochyn.

Embroidery from the villages of Holubyna and Poroshkovo.

Embroideries, the first two from Poroshkovo, the third from Turya Bystra.

Embroideries from Poroshkovo, Ploske, and two from Holubyne.

Embroidery, two from Poroshkovo, and one from Holubyne. The top and bottom ones are probably cuffs, or maybe collars.

This woman, I believe, must be from this valley, even though the photo is attributed to 'Irshava area'. Compare her shirt construction and embroidery to the other images.

The following embroideries are all from the village of Zarichovo, on the Uzh river just upstream of the confluence with the Turiya.

Shoulder inset of a woman's shirt.

Collar of woman's shirt.

Floral embroidery from the front of women's shirts. This would be from a later date, showing influence from the next zone upstream.

The rest of these are embroideries from mens' shirts, cuff, collar, and front opening.

Some of these last show influence of Hutsul embroidery, which was imitated over a wide area of Ukraine.

That is all I have. A tantalizing glimpse of an interesting costume. If anyone can add to this information, please send it to me.

4
Velykyi Bezeznyi zone

This consists of the northwest corner of Transcarpathia, north of a line from the town of Velykyj Bereznyj directly to the east. This includes the valleys of the Liuta river and the upper Uzh. The people in this area consider themselves to be Lemko.
The costume as worn today consists of a shirt which is smock-gathered on the front, with the opening on one side. The sleeves are smock-gathered at the cuffs, and the linen skirts are also smock-gathered into the waistband and embroidered. Aprons are of bought cloth with stitching and ribbons. I have already written an article on this costume. The costumes of this and the next zone are closely related, and some older pieces are hard to assign to one or the other.

This chemise is from the village of Uzhok, it is, however, being worn with an apron from the Khust zone.

This is from the village of Vyshka.

The exact village of origin is not given for this costume.

A cap with patterned ribbon around the edge was worn in this zone, likely with a kerchief over it. In some villages the top was peaked by gathering in the back. These caps are all from this zone except the center one on the left [Poroshkovo] and the one on the upper right [Volovets']. A. Verkhovyna Bystra, C. Lubnya, D-E. Uzhok.

Here are a couple of images from the fashon show to which I have given a link at the end of the article.

Here are some images of this costume from another fashion show which I found online. They also show some of the vests and jackets worn in this area.

It appears that in the late 19th / early 20th century, geometric embroidery in red and blue was used in this area. This predated the shift to floral embroidery.
Here are sleeve embroideries from Lubnya, Kichernyi and Verkhovyna Bystra.

More embroideries from Stuzhytsia, Lubnya, and Verkhovyna Bystra.

Embroidery from Verkhovyna Bystra, Stuzhytsia, and Liuta.

Here is an old woman's chemise from Lubnya. The front is already smock-gathered, and there is embroidery done over the folds.

The exact origin of this one is not given, but I think it may be from this zone if not, then it must be from the Volovets' zone

I believe this woman is also from this area, or possibly from Volovets'.

Here is an old man's shirt from Lubnya.

This is labeled as embroidery in black from a woman's shirt from Lubnya, but I think it must be another man's shirt.

Some old photographs from this zone.

Children in everyday clothing from Tykhyi.

An embroidery class in Uzhok.

A group of villagers from Lyuta.

5
Volovets' zone

This consists of the upper reaches of the Latorica, Vecha and Rika river valleys and their tributaries which parallel the northern border of Transcarpathia, from about Roztoka west to Mizhhiria. The people in this area are Boiko.

As in the previous zone, the sleeves are cut in one piece without a shoulder inset. The front is smock-gathered, and the opening is on the side. The gathering on the front does not extend much past the embroidery. The embroidery in this zone has remained geometric.

This schematic is of a shirt from the village of Nyzhni Vorota.

Embroidery is done over the gathering on the front. Here are some old examples with simpler needlework on the front.

The ends of the sleeves are also gathered into cuffs, sometimes with ruffled ends.

Some more embroidery from this zone. These are from the village of Huklyvyi.

This is from the village of Nyzhni Vorota.

Here the first and third are from Volovets', the second is from Huklyvyi, and the fourth is from Abranka.

This one is from Volovets'

These are from the village of Kichernyi.

These are from the villages of Podobovets', Lozyanskyi, and Huklyvyi.

These are from the village of Verkhnya Hrabiwnytsia.

The pair of costumes hanging on the wall on the left are from this region. The man's is from the eastern part, near Mizhhiria.

Today they embroider with more colors, and one can see influences from neighboring regions.

This one shows Hutsul influence in the embroidery.

Here is one shirt from the eastern part of this zone in the upper Rika river valley, Mizhhiria distirict, showing the side front opening of the Volovets' area, but the diamond shaped embroidery typical of the upper Tereblia river area. Some would call this another costume zone.

Beaded necklaces are worn in this area, as in many parts of Ukraine.

If you take another look at the ladies on the staircase above, you will see that they are wearing skirts of patterned cloth paired with solid color aprons, both the same length and trimmed with ribbon.
I have here a couple of examples of embroidered linen skirts, such as the Boiki north of the mountains also wear. Both are from the upper Rika river valley in the Mizhhiria area. Here is the work on the hem of an old skirt from Pryslip.

And another skirt from Pylypets'.

Here is a chepets from Volovets'. This is again very much like those worn by the northern Boiki.

Here is a woman's kyptar from this region, followed by a man's kamizolia, both from Nyzhni Vorota.

These people belong to the local cultural society of the Volovets' region. Here is a rare shot of a woman from the back.

Here are a couple of images from a staged wedding.

Here you can see the women wearing vests similar to others found in Transcarpathia.

And just a few more images from this same group doing various exhibitions.

A couple of images of this costume from the fashion show below.

A couple of images of he Mizhhiria variant of this costume, also from the fashion show.

A video from Zakarpattia made in the 1930's, narrated in Czech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAgJm55x06o

A fashion show showing folk costumes of Zakarpattia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuqA5aj4KrE

I find that I have too much material, and need to break this article into three parts, so I will stop here for nowl
I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

email:rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
S. Makovski, 'L'Art Populaire en Russie Subcarpathique', Prague, 1926
Roman Pylyp, 'Khudozhnia Vyshywka Ukrajintsiw Zakarpattia', Uzhhorod, 2012
Sofia Hubash, 'Volovechchyna Moja', Uzhhorod, 2011
Myroslava Kot, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshyta Sorochka', Drohobych, 2007
R. V. Zakharchuk-Chuhaj''Ukrajins'ka Narodna Vyshywka Zakhidni Oblasti URSR', Kyjiv, 1988
Iryna Hurhula, 'Narodne Mystetsvo Zakhidnykh Oblastej Ukrajiny', Kyjiv, 1966
K I Matejko, 'Ukrajins'kyj Narodnyj Odjah', Kyjiv, 1977
Tetiana Kara-Vasylieva, 'Ukrajins'ka Vyshywka', Kyjiv, 1993
O. I. Kubajevych et al, 'Derzhawnyj Muzej Etnohrafiji ta Khudozhn'oho Promyslu AN URSR', Kyjiv, 1976
Robert Papik'ian, "Zacharovanyj Kraj', Kyjiv, 1988
Oksana Kosmina, 'Tradytsijne Vbrannia Ukrajintsiw', Kyjiv, 2001
Petro Odarchenko et al, 'Ukrainian Folk Costumes', Toronto-New York, 1992
M. S. Bilan et al, 'Ukrajins'kyj Stryj', L'viw, 2000
Tamara Nikolajeva, 'Ukrajins'kyj Kostium, Nadija na Renensans', Kyjiw, 2005
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetstvo - Tkanyny ta Vyshywky', Kyjiw, 1960
V. H. Bilozub et al, 'Ukrajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vbrannia', Kyjiw, 1961

Hello all,
Today I will talk about traditional Korean costume. This is remarkably uniform over the area which the Koreans inhabit. The differences are based on history and social class, rather than locality.
Korean ethnic territory is today divided politically into three areas. The southernmost part forms the Republic of Korea, or South Korea; The area between roughly the 38th parallel and the Yalu and Tumen rivers forms the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea, and the area north of those rivers is politically part of China. The Chinese government has recognized the Koreans with two autonomous regions; the Yanbian_Korean_Autonomous_Prefecture, and the Changbai Korean Autonomous County.
Ethnic Koreans are, however spread more widely. Here is a map showing the geographical extent of the various Korean dialects.

The Koreans have an old and complex history, and have distinguished themselves in many fields of art, science and culture. One example is that they invented a printing press with moveable metal type in the 1200's, about 200 years before Gutenberg.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans

What should we call the Korean people, or what do they call themselves? This, surprisingly, is a very loaded question. We could refer to them by the word for 'people' in their language, which is often what ethnic groups call themselves, but the Korean word for person is 'guk' or 'gook'. This has been borrowed into English with unfortunate connotations. The word 'Korean' which we use in English is derived from the Koryo Kingdom, a period in Korean history, and is, luckily, politically neutral. South Koreans refer to themselves as Hanguk [not to be confused with the term used for ethnic Chinese.The etymology and written characters are completely different.] This is derived from the name for the Three Kingdoms period, the SamHan, a time when political power was concentrated in the south. North Koreans use the term Choson, which refers to a different period in Korean history in which power was concentrated in the North. In the Chinese occupied area, the term most commonly used is Chiaoxian, which also refers to Choson. You may read more about this complicated subject here.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Korea

Thus there are double terms used for most things Korean. The indigenous alphabet, for example, is called either Hangul or Chosongul, and the traditional costume is called either Hanbok or Chosonbok.

The Koreans have often been called 'The people in white', and indeed, the common people preferred to dress in white. Here are images of Korean peasants engaging in traditional festivities, the women's round dance and a 'chariot fight'. Both men and women are dressed all in white, except for the two men riding the 'chariots' who are dressed in historical military uniforms.

These garments are traditionally made of hemp, ramie, or more recently, cotton. The man's outfit is made up of 'jeogori', shirt or jacket, and 'baji', or pants.

The shirt is closed with two pair of ribbons, goreum, one small pair on the inside, on the left, and a larger pair on the outside, where the left side overlaps the right. You can see this on the man on the lower left of this image, showing a tug-of-war, another peasant festivity.

The goreum are used on both men's and women's garments, and are tied in the same way. Those used on women's garments are wider and longer, and often in a contrasting color.

The collar, 'git', resembles that of the Japanese Kimono, or the Chinese T'ang robe, and like them often has a cotton piece on the edge which comes in contact with the neck and is easily replaced when dirty. You see that the jeogori is somewhat adjustable. The pants are likewise not fitted. Both the waist and the cuffs of the pants are folded and then secured with sash and ties.

Except when going barefoot, stockings are put on before securing the ankle ties. These are called Buhsuhn, and are made of cotton, lined or unlined, possibly with wadding, depending on the weather. They are made of woven cloth so that they do not stretch, and must be made to size. It is common for a pattern of the correct size to be kept in the house, as these stockings must be replaced often.

When working outdoors in dry weather, sandals woven of straw, mulberry bark, hemp, or some other such material are worn. These are called Jipshin, or, when made of hemp or ramie, Mituri. Similar footwear of woven fiber were worn by many other peoples, including Ukrainians, Russians, and the natives of the American great basin.

When necessary for ease of movement, leggings were worn over the lower legs. These are simple rectangles with ties at top and bottom, which were tied around the ankles and over the calves. These kept the full pant legs out of the way when working or walking. The two men on the right and left above are wearing these, as are the men in the following images.

In this image, which shows another variation of the 'chariot fight' from a different location, the leggings are black, which shows more clearly how they are made. They are also wearing black vests, Jokki. These vests are a more recent addition to the men's wardrobe, they open down the center and are generally secured with loops and buttons. They are not unlike western vests, and actually have pockets.

Today this type of working attire is not commonly seen, except for living museums or country festivals. Korean men more commonly wear what used to be the attire of the upper classes, or Yangban. This is essentially the same except that the clothing tends to be made of silk and may be in colors other than white.

For formal occasions, the vest may have an embroidered panel on the front. These were originally emblems of rank in the Chinese Empire, but have come to be used in men's formal wear.

These two examples are for boys. Men would not wear striped sleeves or this type of hat.

The vest may also be made to slightly overlap and be secured by goreum, this is an older and more indigenous style, and they are called Baeja.

For middle class men, and especially for scholars, there is a type of overgarment called 'Dopo' which is considered to be quintessentially Korean. This is a long coat with wide sleeves and a slit in the back. It is secured by goreum and is white for everyday, and usually pale blue for formal occasions. It is made to flare at the sides by the addition of triangular gussets. It is usually made of ramie for the summer and silk for cooler periods. A cord with tassels on the ends is worn tied around the chest, the color indicating the rank of the wearer. No vest is worn with the dopo.

Typical Korean shoes are worn, which vary in color and material.Here are man's shoes on the left and women's on the right.

The dopo is paired with a hat called Gaht. This is made in an open weave out of horsehair, and is actually in two parts. Korean men wore their hair in a topknot on top of the head. A sort of horsehair headband, Mahngun, was secured around the head.This actually supported the Gaht.

There is another type of overgarment which is called Jungchimak. This differs from the Dopo in that it does not have panels set into the sides under the arm for fullness, but rather falls straight down and is slit up the sides to provide mobility.

The Jungchimak is often paired with the Junbok, which is an outer robe that has flared sides like the Dopo, but no sleeves, collar, or goreum. It is worn over the Jungchimak, ties at the neck but is open down the middle. It is worn with a cord with tassels tied around the chest, Sedodae, and the Gaht, just like the Dopo. HIstorically, the Junbok was worn by military officers

These images are from a popular historical TV drama. Note that the costumer decided to put collar and goreum on the Junbok.

Durumagi is an overcoat which has no slits, and may be made of heavy wadded silk for warmth. It has narrow sleeves and may be of many colors. It is worn by both men and women today. It may also be made of a lighter material for warmer weather.

There are many special garments which are worn for particular occasions, performances, or by particular personages, such as shamans, buddhist monks, royalty, aristocracy, etc. I will not go into any of these, as each would be an article in itself. I will describe only one more variant of the men's clothing, and that is the wedding costume.

This was originally the court attire of high officials, and men who are not of this rank are permitted to wear the outfit once only, on the day of their wedding. This is called Samo-Gwan-Dae.

First he puts on the juhgori, baji and buhsun like normal. Instead of shoes he puts on low boots.

The robe is called Tanryong, and is made of rich silk with an embroidered badge of rank on the front.

A belt, Dae, which also indicated rank is attached to the robe. This combination is called Gwan-Dae. A black horsehair hat with curved wings, Samo, is worn with this outfit.

This concludes part one of this article. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Dr Yushin Yoo, 'Korea the Beautiful - Treasures of the Hermit Kingdom', Seoul, 1987
Cultural Relics Publishing, 'Korean Folk Costume', Pyongyang, 1985
Sunny Yang, 'Hanbok - The Art of Korean Clothing', Seoul, 1997
Youngjae Kim, 'Korean Costume Through the Ages, Seoul, 2003
Yi Songmi, 'Korean Costumes and Textiles', Seoul, 1992
Zang Yingchun, 'Chinese Minority Costumes', Beijing, 2004
Korean Overseas Information Service, 'Korea Desk Diary', Seoul, 1982

Hello all,
Today I will continue my article on Korean costume by talking about women's costume. Above you see two women spinning hemp in the traditional costume, called either Hanbok or Chosonbok.
The two main visible pieces of the costume are the Jeogori, top, and Chima, skirt.
Jeogori is also used to refer to the man's shirt, which is of a similar cut, but the woman's top is much shorter.

The jeogori in this drawing is rather fancy, with contrasting collar, cuffs, underarms and goreum, which is the name of the ties which actually secure the garment. Notice that those worn by the women above are quite plain. There is a second set of ties on the inside securing the left side. The collar tends to have a facing which lies against the skin and may be easily detached for cleaning. . Here again are instructions on how to properly tie the goreum.

While Korean peasants often wore white, the women in general were more open to other colors, especially for the chima.

A great variety of undergarments were traditionally worn, depending on the occasion and the social class of the wearer. As in the west, the richer or higher ranked you were, the more underwear.
Here are the five basic undergarments, Nae-ui, or Sok-got.

Dari-sok-ot, a sort of breechcloth, then Sok-sok-ot, bloomers, followed by Baji, pants, in this image called Sok-baji, under-pants. The Jolitmal, breastband, which resembled the band found on the top of the chima followed, often with a jucksam, a top of light cloth. The jucksam is made of a lightweight or even gauzy material, and is closed with a button and loop. This has also developed into a summer jacket for use in hot weather, and a version is even worn by men in hot weather [but waist length]. These garments are generally made of ramie, hemp, or cotton.
There are always exceptions.
Korean women almost always wore baji, which were similar to those worn by men, tied with a sash at the waist and also tied around the ankle. Here is a pair of sa silk baji.

In the past, women at times would omit the chima, as in this painting, and go out in pants. This woman seems to have found them practical for working.

Here are some village people from a rice growing area performing a dance, or game, which was called paekjung. The womens' baji are quite visible.

Here is a photo of a jolitmal, or breastband.

This was, apparently, not always worn. Here is a painting from the Choson period of a woman doing her makeup.

This was likely meant to be titillating, even though she is clearly a nursing mother.
Here are a couple of photographs likely from the early 20th cent. It appears that they are wearing jucksam without jeogori or jolitmal.

On the other hand, middle and upper class women often added more layers. Dan-sok-ot, or Sok-chima, were underskirts made much like the outer skirt, but in a contrasting color, often more than one. As the chima were wrap-around, this was practical. Mujigi were similar, but with tiered flounces. As was also true at times in the west, the desire was to create greater volume.

Here are some women performing a dance and showing off contrasting underskirts. They are also letting the chima ties hang down and be visible.

You can see this dance here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Coj8bzq_Yg

In historical paintings we can see very full skirts, always with pants underneath. Some of these are of Gisaeng, female entertainers, who predated and inspired the Japanese Geisha, with their customers. You can see that in the past, the skirts were often pulled up and secured with a sash. This is no longer commonly done.

In modern times a new undergarment has developed, called simply sok-chima, or underskirt, which combines the jolitmal and the daesyum chima. This greatly resembles a modern full slip and is a tube, not a wrap-around.

Here is a photo of a complete little girl's outfit, minus shoes.

The outfit is completed with buhsun, Korean style socks, of woven cotton, and shoes.

Here we see men's shoes on the left, and women's shoes on the right.

The chima, or skirt, is usually wrap-around, and thus very flexible in size. It may be made in a great variety of colors and materials, and sometimes has two fields of cloth gathered into one 'waistband'.

Here is an example of a modern chima.

Contemporary chima may include shoulder straps to help support the garment.

Here is an example of a two layer chima, with solid cloth underneath, and a gauzy overlayer.

A very old method of embellishment used on cloth is Geum-bak-pan, gold leaf printing, which dates to at least the Yi dynasty. At that time it was a prerogative of Royalty only, but in the course of time has come to be more widespread, although it is still a sign of status. Gold leaf and glue are applied to wooden blocks, and then literally printed onto the silk.
Here is a chima with two wide geum-bak-pan borders.

Jeogori, as you can see from these images can vary from simple white cotton to elaborate confections of contrasting fields of silk on the collar, cuffs, goreum and underarms with embroidery or gold leaf printing. The cut is always the same, however.

For some ceremonial occasions the jeogori is replaced with a garment called Dang-ui. This was originally worn only by aristocracy. It resembles the jeogori except that the front and back fields are elongated in an axe shape. The front and back of these fields are not sewn together but hang separately.

A small vest called baeja may be worn over the jeogori for warmth. It is often lined with fur and may be paired with a fur lined hat.

Both men and women may wear a short outer jacket for warmth. This is called Magoja. It is cut just like the men's or women's jeogori, but opens in the center with no overlap and is secured by one or more buttons.

Man's magoja.

Woman's magoja. The colorful striped sleeves are normally worn by children, but may be worn by adults if their parents are alive as an act of filial piety.

A long overcoat, Durumagi, may be worn over standard clothing by both men and women.

There were at one time two other outer garments which are no longer used.

The Nuhwool is a round hat with a veil attached. High ranking women in the Yi dynasty would never leave the house unless they were veiled. The highest ranked would wear a nuhwool which reached the ground, less highly ranked women would wear one that merely hung to their shoulders.

The other was called Jang-ot. It was cut much like the Durumagi, only fuller, but was worn over the head, the goreum being held under the chin instead of being tied.

Unmarried girls generally wore their hair in a braid.

Married women wore their hair in a bun at the nape of the neck.

This was often secured by a large hair bar called binyeo, which came in various sizes and might be highly ornamented.

Other ornamental hair pins, Ttul-jam, may be inserted into the bun. These often had extended ornaments mounted on springs, which fluttered when the wearer moved.

Accessories such as small knives, jangdo, were hung from the goreum by both men and women, men often hanging them on the waist ties of their pants.

Another such accessory was the Joomuhni, small bags that were worn by both men and women. They tied with a drawstring and varied from simple and utilitarian to very ornate.

Necklaces and bracelets, although known from early periods of Korean history have not been worn in recent centuries. Instead, a couple of distinctively Korean accessories are worn with the traditional dress.
Both are based on the old Korean art of Maedeup, ornamental knotting.

Large examples of such knots are hung on the walls of homes and temples. Smaller examples which feature a knot with a loop on top and tassels on the ends are still hung from the goreum of women's hanbok or chosonbok.

If these ornaments include another object between the knot and the tassels, then they are called Norigae.

The variety of objects included in norigae is immense. jade carvings, sachets, perfume vials, needle boxes, and amulets for good fortune, many sons, prosperity, protection from evil, etc. Materials used range from embroidered cushions to jade, silver and amber. There is a symbolic meaning to the shapes, characters and images used. The norigae above has three white jade pieces in the shape of bats; bats are a universal symbol of happiness and good fortune in East Asia.

The following norigae include tiger claws which are believed to provide protection against evil spirits, the five poisonous animals, and pestilence. They also include what are known as octopus tassels.

The following norigae is extremely opulent and would be worn with ceremonial clothing. It features a coral branch, an amber nugget and two jade and silver butterflies.

Here is an example of large opulent norigae worn with the dangui. This one is hung on the outer goreum.

This design of three jade pearls was one reserved for the empress.

Hand embroidered norigae were often worn by common people, and usually made by the wearer. Butterflies symbolize beauty, and bells chase away evil and call forth fortunate events.

Here is another example of the grouping of coral, jade and cloisonne butterfly and carved amber nugget.

These are modern mass produced norigae with a design of two cranes. Cranes symbolize marital fidelity and long life.

This norigae features a gourd, locust leg, and bunch of grapes in silver, the gourd symbolizes abundance, the grapes fertility, but the significance of the locust legs has been forgotten.

This norigae features an embroidered pattern of bamboo, one of the four gracious plants.

Another pair of embroidered silk cushion norigae.

Another example of contemporary massed produced norigae.

This is a museum piece which includes a perfume case of enameled silver. The contents would be a mix of aromatic materials.

Here we see two women with norigae attached to their inner goreum.

As with men, there are many specialized costumes for court dances, shamans. etc, that I am not going to go into. Perhaps I should go into the wedding outfit, but I will not do so at this time. I will simply say that Korean commoners are permitted to wear the ceremonial regalia of the members of the Royal court only one in their lives, on the day of their wedding.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

I will close with some more images

Here is the website of a woman who designs norigae.
http://www.paradispersans.fr/en/pages/maedup-or-korean-node.html

This is a blog posting written by a woman who describes the process she used in making her own traditional Korean dress.
http://sosteadyasshesews.blogspot.com/2013/12/hanbok-traditional-korean-womens-
dress.html

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:
Lee Kyung Ja, 'Norigae - Splendor of the Korean Costume', Seoul, 2005
Dr Yushin Yoo, 'Korea the Beautiful - Treasures of the Hermit Kingdom', Seoul, 1987
Cultural Relics Publishing, 'Korean Folk Costume', Pyongyang, 1985
Sunny Yang, 'Hanbok - The Art of Korean Clothing', Seoul, 1997
Youngjae Kim, 'Korean Costume Through the Ages, Seoul, 2003
Yi Songmi, 'Korean Costumes and Textiles', Seoul, 1992
Zang Yingchun, 'Chinese Minority Costumes', Beijing, 2004
Korean Overseas Information Service, 'Korea Desk Diary', Seoul, 1982

Hello all,
I decided, upon reflection, to do one more article on Traditional Korean Attire, about the Traditional Wedding outfits.

I find it sad that the Victorian white wedding dress fad is growing worldwide. It is supplanting so many wonderful and beautiful native traditions around the globe. The fact is that Queen Victoria wanted to use some lace that she really liked in her wedding, and so came up with the innovation of a gown of white for her wedding. She and her bridesmaids all wore white. This was the first time that anyone had done so, and it was widely copied. There is absolutely nothing traditional or symbolic about it. All the supposed symbolism was invented later.

Korean Wedding outfits are actually ceremonial robes that were once worn by the Royal Court. Permission was given to the common people to be able to wear these items once only, on the day of their wedding.

Some men choose not to wear the full outfit, instead opting for a less ceremonial one. This man is wearing gaht and cheollik. The Cheollik is similar to the Dopo [see part 1 of this article], but the lower part is made of a separate piece, and pleated. This outfit would be appropriate for any formal occasion, but he is underdressed if this is his own wedding; especially since she is in full regalia, although not quite at zenith.

This couple have both decided to be rather modest in their wedding attire. He is clad in Jungchimak and Junbok, with gaht. This is slightly more formal than the above example. She is dressed in Dangui and Jogdoori.

For the man, the most common outfit is called Samo-Gwan-Dae.

First he puts on the juhgori, baji and buhsun like normal. Instead of shoes he puts on low boots.

The robe is called Gwando [although Sunny Yang calls it tanryong], and is made of rich silk with an embroidered badge of rank, Hyoonngbae, on the front. The bird or animal depicted indicated the exact rank of the official. For weddings, it is most common to have two cranes, as cranes are also a symbol of marital fidelity.

A belt, Dae, which also indicated rank is attached to the robe.

This combination is called Gwan-Dae. A black silk hat with curved wings, Samo, is worn with this outfit.

Thus you can see that the name Samo-Gwan-Dae is a list of the various items that are worn.

Sometimes, in this day of Republics and Democracy, you will see bridegrooms going yet another step up the sartorial social ladder, putting on the Gwando of the crown prince, in some shade of red, with four embroidered Royal Dragon medalions.

This is paired with a different hat appropriate to the rank appropriated, called iksunkan. It is taller than the samo, with the wings at the top.

For the Bride, some opt for the minor ceremonial ensemble of Chima, Dangui and Jogdoori. This can be very striking.

This couple is wearing a modern interpretation of the wedding dress. She is in Dangui, but not wearing Jogdoori. The effect is picturesque, but decidedly less formal.

Jogdoori is a type of small hat originally borrowed from the Mongols. The simpler forms are no longer worn today, but for ceremonial occasions the lavish jeweled versions, called Hwa-gwan, are still worn. They are attached to a black silk ribbon which ties at the nape of the neck, under the chignon.

Most commonly, the Bride wears the robe called Hwal-ot. First she puts on her Sok-got, [underwear], a lot of it, then elaborate Chima, usually with gold leaf print border, and traditionally a green jeogori.

Sometimes two or three chima are worn, with the topmost one made shorter, so as to show off the ornament on the ones beneath.

Over this is worn a robe called either Won-sam or Hwal-ot. The difference seems to be in the materials from which they were made, and in the ornament. The Wonsam was made of brocade, usually green, and might have some gold leaf printing. Both had very long and wide sleeves, with contrasting bands of color near the end, and a wide white cuff stripe. Here is a wonsam which belonged to princess Duhgon.

The front opened in the middle, and was fastened by one button and loop. The front and back panels are loose, the front being in two parts and the back in a single field, and longer.

Here is another wonsam. This image also shows it being worn over three chimas, the topmost being made deliberately shorter.

If you take another look at the bride from the head of the article, you can see that she is wearing a wonsam with relatively plain chima.

The Hwal-ot is the same cut as the wonsam, but is usually red, which of course is the traditional color for weddings. It also has elaborate embroidery featuring a pair of cranes, symbols of longevity and marital fidelity, as well as peonies, lotus, waves and rocks, peaches, and pairs of other birds and butterflies. The sleeves have three colored stripes in yellow, blue and red, and a wide white cuff which is usually also embroidered.

In some of these images you can see the Bong-dae, 350 cm sashes which were tied around the chest to secure the Hwal-ot, with the ends hanging down behind.

The hair is put up in the married woman's bun, and fastened with a large binyeo, or hairbar. Doturak-Daenggi, ceremonial bridal hair ribbons are attached to it, a large one behind, and a smaller one in front.

Here is a back view of a bride. You can see the hair ribbons, the chest tie, and the hwal-ot all hanging down in back.

And now you know how to properly dress a Korean Bride and Groom.

Thank you for reading.
I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K.

I will close with some more images of Wedding couples. You should now be able to see what level of formality they have chosen.

Sometimes a white ritual cloth, hansam is carried over the arms. This is perhaps the older custom, and the wide white bands on the sleeves were derived from this.

Ok, this guy is just clueless. You never wear the junbok without a jungchimak underneath. Cheap and tacky! [see part 1 if you don't remember]

This woman has opted to wear the old ceremonial wig, Gachae, instead of the more usual headpieces. This went out of use in 1756, by Royal decree.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Hello all,
Today I will talk about the garment which is perhaps the epitome of embroidered clothing [although some were woven, either brocade or tapestry], The Dragon robe of the Qing [Ch'ing] Dynasty of China.
In 1644 the Manchu declared the official beginning of their rule over China, having been able to breach the wall and conquer the Middle Kingdom.
It is important to understand that the Manchu are NOT Chinese. Ethnic Chinese usually refer to themselves as Han漢人, although the terms Hua, 華人or Tang, 唐人, are sometimes used, especially in Taiwan or among the diaspora. [the second symbol in each of these is ren, which simply means person]. This is distinct from the term Chung Guo ren,
中国人,which refers to anyone who inhabits China, regardless of ethnicity; this might be translated as 'person of China'. There are tens of millions of people of many other ethnicities which also inhabit China, Uigur, Mongols, Xibe, Tibetans, She, Miao, Tujia, Bai, Zhuang, etc.

The Manchu were well aware of the fate of other foreign groups who conquered China only to be absorbed and assimilated by the Chinese, and from the outset established laws and customs to segregate their people. One of these was to forbid Manchu from wearing Chinese style clothing, and indeed to impose Manchu clothing on anyone who served in governmental office. Another law was imposed on all Chinese men that they had to wear their hair in a single braid at the back of the head, in the Manchu style. Here is an old photograph from that time period, showing a man feeding another who was in the stocks.

Since the Manchu rulership of China extended from 1644 to 1911, many in the west were under the impression that the imperial Manchu robes which they saw ambassadors, etc wearing was Chinese dress. Here is a cartoon from 1898 showing Britain [Queen Victoria], Germany [Kaiser Wilhelm], Russia [Tsar Nicholas], France, and Japan dividing up China, here represented as a pie, while China protests helplessly. The figure representing China is in a caricature of Manchu court dress.

Here is a painting of the opening of the Great Exhibition in Britain in 1851. A figure in Manchu robes can be seen among the guests.

Here you may see officials depicted.

After the humiliation of Manchu rule, followed by ruinous Western and Japanese Imperialism, then the crushing 'cultural revolution' of Mao, Many ethnic Chinese are seeking their own cultural identity, and one facet of this is the movement called 'Hanfu'. This is the adoption of traditional ethnic Han Chinese clothing, for which they have to return to the Ming Dynasty, or even further back to the Tang or Sung Dynasties. This topic will have to be saved for another article.

The garment which I will speak about was called in Chinese Ji-fu [Ch'i-fu]. I have not been able to find the name of the garment in Manchu. In the west, these garments are usually called 'Dragon Robes'. Here is a spectacular example.

This particular robe would have been worn by the emperor himself, as is indicated by the background color of clear yellow [the Imperial color], and by the symbols included in the design.
The cut of the robe is pure Manchu, but the expertise of production of the silk, the embroidery, and most of the symbols and symbolism of the robe are Chinese, so this might really be considered to be a hybrid garment. The Manchu did not fully succeed in maintaining a separate culture.

The Chinese traditionally wore the P'ao robe, which opened in the middle with some overlaps and had very wide sleeves. This was the original inspiration for both the Japanese Kimono and the Korean Dopo.

The Manchu found this to be not only foreign, but also cumbersome and effete. The traditional Manchu robe was cut closer to the body, and allowed freedom of movement to ride horses and shoot arrows.

Here is a painting of Emperor Kangxi in informal Manchu robes.

A man's robe laid out

This same cut was used in the dragon robes.

Some who wrote about this garment, [e.g. Schuyler Cammann] find the seam halfway down the arms to be 'inexplicable', and have come up with strange theories to explain it. It is however, extremely clear if you look at the garment's construction; The upper part of the 'sleeve' is integral to the body of the garment. The lower sleeve starts at the selvage, and was either made of the same material, or a contrasting one. A horsehoof cuff covers the hands. The Manchu robe for men was slit front and back, to allow for horseback wear.

This cut, while foreign to the Chinese, was common enough in the north. The Nanai are relatives of the Manchu, who live to their east. Here is a Nanai family.

Here is one of their robes pieced together from fish leather, and another one of trade cloth.

The Mongols, while not closely related to the Manchu, had a similar culture and bordered them on the west. They also wear similar robes to this day.

Some have theorized that the difference in cut stems from a time when the northern peoples designed their clothing based on the shapes of animal skins. One such offers this hypothetical 'reconstruction'.

This is completely wrong, and rather ludicrous This person fell into the trap which often beset 20th century clothing reconstructionists. Firstly, this wastes too much leather/fur. Secondly, the sloped shoulders, curved shoulder seam and set in sleeve is a modern phenomenon, and was never found in clothing construction of earlier centuries. I have seen some very strange things made by people who could not figure this out. They looked at images, and although they could never see a seam at the peak of the shoulder, they just assumed that it had to be there, and so added weird extra pieces to sleeves. The same thing here. This kind of sleeve construction was never done in traditional cultures, not to mention that it would restrict movement too much. [If you ever see a set-in sleeve in a reconstruction prior to the 19th century, it is wrong. Keep researching]

I will now turn to the ornamentation and symbolism of the Dragon Robe. I often dismiss talk of symbolism in embroidery, but here it is intentional and explicit. Firstly the dragons.

In the west, dragons are considered to be aggressive creatures that den in the earth, and breathe fire. In China and the Orient, however, dragons are considered to be benevolent and auspicious creatures of water and air. They live in great waters, and have control over clouds, mist, and rain. They are wingless and do not truly fly, however they can swim through the air. The dragon has the head of a camel, the horns of a deer, the eyes of a demon, the ears of a bull, the neck of a snake, the scales of a carp, the belly of a sea serpent, the claws of an eagle, and the pads of a tiger. He also has a protuberance on his head, as you can see here above, that confers his powers upon him. [This might be a Buddhist addition] This is occasionally shown as a third eye, as in this Tibetan robe.

The Dragon is a powerful Yang symbol, and a fitting symbol for the Emperor, as the Phoenix is for the Empress. Early dragons were drawn with three toes, a powerful yang number. Later, the Imperial dragons, Lung, were drawn with five toes, while lesser dragons, Mang, were drawn with four toes. Five is a yang number, while four is yin. In theory, the five clawed lung was only supposed to be worn by the emperor, his immediate heirs, and occasional people upon whom this honor was bestowed. Lesser officials and nobles had to be content with mang, while commoners were not allowed to wear dragons at all. Like so many laws of this type around the world, however, this one was often broken.

The dragon is usually shown chasing a flaming pearl through the clouds.

The original meaning of the flaming jewel seems to have been lost, but it is interpreted by Buddhists, and perhaps even Taoists as standing for enlightenment, wisdom and spiritual essence, which it is imperative that all constantly pursue.

There were at first various ways in which the dragons were arranged on the robe, but in 1759 it was decreed that most officials would have 8 mang dragons, one each on the chest and back, one on each shoulder/upper arm, and two each on the front and back of the lower part of the robe.The dragons on the upper body were usually shown full face, while those on the skirts were shown in profile. Noblemen could wear nine mang, Princes and high officials could wear eight lung, and the emperor and his heirs would wear nine lung. The ninth was on the underlap, and did not show when the robe was closed. Here is a fleece lined winter robe.

The composition of the robe is a schematic diagram of the universe as a whole.

The dragons form such a strong yang component that they have to balanced with an equally strong yin component, so the hem of the garment is embroidered with the world sea, water being yin.

The surface of the water is shown with turbulent waves, below which are the still deep waters represented by undulating stripes. The world mountain, K'un Lun is shown at the four cardinal points of the garment, the five peaks being shown from each side, one of which always hidden behind the others. Above this is the firmament, with five-colored clouds, a good omen, filled with dragons and the symbols of imperial authority and good fortune. The neck opening becomes the gateway to heaven when the garment is worn, the human body being the world axis, and the head of the wearer representing the realm of the intellect and the spiritual.
If you look carefully at the image above, you can see the waves bearing colored pearls and branches of precious coral, two of the symbols of wealth. The 'eight' precious things are very commonly added to many Chinese compositions in any medium and are prescribed for the dragon robes since 1759. There are in fact more than eight, but they are always shown in groups of eight, that being the number of completeness. You will also often find the eight Buddhist symbols and the symbols of the eight Daoist Immortals. The symbols are not uncommonly mixed, but there are always eight of them.

Besides the pearls and branches of coral, the eight precious things originally included round ornaments called sheng, which were later often replaced by a coin with a square hole in the middle, which Chines coins had,

square ornaments called fang sheng, later often represented as a mirror or lozenge,

ju-i or ruyi, a medicinal mushroom which later developed into an auspicious symbol, often attached to a handle as a scepter,

a stone chime,

rhinoceros horns,

and bolts of silk, later sometimes shown as scrolls.

These symbols are so old, that many of them were replaced or reimagined, a common addition being an ingot of precious metal.

Much better defined are the other two groups of eight. The eight Buddhist symbols are shown here.

These are, from the top, the canopy, which symbolizes protection, the conch shell, which calls the faithful to worship, The lotus, which represents purity growing from mud, as enlightenment grows from the material, The paired golden fish, for the Chinese a symbol of plenty, for the Buddhists, freedom from fear to move in the correct direction, the dharmachakra, or wheel of the eightfold path, which represents the teachings of Buddha, the vase of treasure, The victory banner, sometimes called an umbrella, which symbolizes the overcoming of obstacles, and the endless knot, symbolizing the infinite mercy of Buddha.

The Daoists tell stories of the eight Immortals, as a response to other faiths who talked about their Saints or Boddhisvatas.Here are their symbols.

It is interesting to note that of the eight Immortals, six were men and one was a woman. The gender of the last one was apparently uncertain. This is Lan Caihe, whose symbol is at the top, a basket of flowers. This individual was sometimes shown as a man, sometimes as a woman, and sometimes as 'a man who did not know how to be a man'.

Next is a lotus, the symbol of He Xiangu, the only undisputed female of the group.

Then are the stone castanets of Cao Guojiu, patron of theatre and actors.

Next is the bamboo flute of Han Xiangzi

Then the sword of Lü Dongbin.

The fan of Zhongli Quan

The 'fish drum' of Zhang Guolao, the oldest of the immortals.

and the gourd and iron crutch of Li Tieguai.

The Taoist Immortals were never shown in Manchu dress.

If you look carefully at this robe, you will see the Daoist symbols being carried through the sky by the red bats of happiness.

Another more important group of symbols, although found much less commonly are the 12 symbols of Imperial Authority. These were shown on the robes of Chinese Emperors for many centuries, and after 1759, were also added to the Manchu Emperors robes, although they were small and not prominent. These were never used by anyone else except the Empress and the Heir. Let us take another look at the robe illustrated earlier.

On the left shoulder above the dragon the red disk of the sun, with the three legged sunbird in it. This was originally a crow, when the archer Li shot down six of the seven original suns, but by the Qing Dynasty usually looked like a rooster.

On the right shoulder above the dragon is the silvery disk of the moon, with the white rabbit who lives there. When the Moon rises, you can still see the outline of the rabbit, with his ears pointed to the right.

On the front of the robe above the dragon are the stars, forming a constellation of three. This represents the sky, or Heaven.

These three symbols are visible in the closeup above.
On the back above the dragon is the mountain which represents Earth.

These four, Sun, Moon, Heaven and Earth are the objects of four of the principal sacrifices offered yearly by the Emperor on behalf of all under his care.

To either side of the dragon on the back of the robe are found a small dragon, symbol of Adaptability and the animal world.

and the pheasant, symbol of literary refinement and of the bird world.

On the two sides of the dragon on the front of the robe, and visible above, are the Fu symbol on the right, which symbolizes Discrimination and Judgement.

And onn the right side of the dragon on the front of the robe is the axe, symbol of the power to punish.

The last four are found on the skirts of the robe, one in each quarter, and together with the mountain already shown represent the five elements, metal, water, fire, wood and earth, the five directions, and the seasons.

On the left side of the robe, next to the world mountain are the sacrificial cups, one with a tiger, the other with a monkey. These symbolize filial piety, and spiritual responsibility. They also represent the element of metal, whose color is white, whose direction is west and whose season is autumn.

On the right hand skirt shown above, also next to the mountain is the water weed. This symbolizes purity. It also represents the element of water, whose color is blue/black, whose direction is north, and whose season is winter.

On the back tails, next to the world mountains are placed the last two symbols.

The plate of millet, which represents the Emperors ability to feed his people, and the plant life of the world. It also represents the element of wood, whose color is green, whose direction is east, and whose season is spring.

Flames, which represent brilliance. They also represent the element of fire, whose color is red, whose direction is south, and whose season is summer.

Already represented is the element earth, whose color is yellow, whose direction is center, and which represents the solstices and equinoxes, the changes from one season to another.
Thus you can see that the dragon robe represents the entire cosmos.

Other auspicious symbols often join them in the sky, the most common being the red bats of happiness, well represented in these images.
This robe has cranes flying in the sky. Cranes are symbols of long life and marital fidelity. The Taoist symbols fill the sky and the Buddhist symbols float on the sea. The flowers of the four seasons also seem to be represented. I believe that this is a woman's robe, from the width of the sleeves and the fact that there seems to be no slit in the center of the skirt. The 12 imperial symbols are absent.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. Luckily, many western collectors have bought many of these robes and they can be seen in collections and museums worldwide.

Roman K

email:rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:
Schuyler Camman, 'China's Dragon Robes', Philadelphia - Chicago, 1952
John Vollmer, 'In the Presence of the Dragon Throne', Toronto, 1977
Valery M. Garrett, 'Chinese Dragon Robes', Oxford, 1998
Imelda DeGraw et al, 'Secret Splendors of the Chinese Court', Denver, 1981
Verity Wilson, 'Chinese Dress', England, 1986
Wim Crouwel, 'The Forbidden City', Rotterdam, 1990
Henny Harald Hansen, 'Mongol Costumes', Copenhagen, 1993
William Fitzhugh and Aron Crowell, 'Crossroads of Continents - Cultures of Siberia and Alaska', Baltimore, 1988

Hello All,
Today I will talk about an embroidery technique which is found in the Horoden'ka region of Pokuttia, and also in a few villages across the Dnister river in western Podillia, in the Buchach and Zalishchyky regions. Above you can see this stitch on the front [pazukha] of a man's shirt, and on a shoulder piece [ustawka] of a woman's shirt. This stitch is not used anywhere else, not even on the collar or cuffs of the same shirt. Both of these pieces were made in the 1920's in the Zalishchyky region of Ternopil' oblast.
This stitch is called nastyl or pozaihlenne, as well as other similar names. It is a variant of the verkhoplut or topwinder stitch.
This stitch begins by laying out short straight stitches in cotton thread which are all parallel. This forms the 'carcass' of the design. A second journey is then made diagonally across the ground threads, which rarely penetrates the cloth, except at the ends of a diagonal element. In Borshchiw, as I have written before, this is done in a heavy black wool, forming one of the types of curly stitch, but in the area which I am speaking of now it is done in untwisted silk floss.
Here is an ustawka from the village of Sadky, Zalishchyky region, Ternopil' oblast, with the carcass of a similar design shown below.

Here are a couple of diagrams which show how this stitch progresses. Pay especial attention to the triangle of solid stitching, which shows how the thread proceeds on the diagonal.

Here is an ustawka of a woman's shirt in progress.

Here are a few examples of women's ustawky and sleeves done in this technique, with auxiliary stitches.

The original colors used were either a brick red, as in this man's shirt from the village of Sadky, Zalishchyky region, Ternopil' Oblast;

Or a dark cherry red, as in this man's shirt from the village of Khmeleva, Zalishchyky region, Ternopil' Oblast.

Close examination will reveal the diagonal progression of the thread in making this zigzag design. In both of these cases, the edges are further ornamented with stars in counted satin stitch.

Here is the reverse of one of these shirts, showing the short parallel stitches which make up the carcass.

Here are a couple of schematics which show how these designs were placed on men's shirts. These are unusual in having a zigzag outline to the design.

This shirt is from the village of Beremiany, Buchach region, Ternopil' Oblast.

This shirt is from the village of Lysychnyky, Zalishchyky region, Ternopil' Oblast.

The cut of the shirt is of the long tunic type typical of this region, which reaches the knees, either with or without gores under the arms.

Later other colors were added to these designs. Liudmyla Bulakova-Sytnyk shows this image of a woman's ustawka, which she says is from Vinnytsia Oblast, which I question.

Here is another woman's ustawka and sleeve with more colors added. The seam is under one of the rows of braid stitch at the right.

Men's shirts of this type also came in for elaboration of color and design.

Most of these final images are from various places online, and I unfortunately do not have exact provenances for them, However they must be from this same general area, and show us a very different sort of men's shirt embroidery than we are used to seeing. The cuffs and collars are done in a variety of other stitches.

Often the addition of other colors is also combined with the addition of other stitches into the composition as well.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.
I would very much like to see a revival of this technique, and see such shirts made and worn once again.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Liudmyla Bulakova-Sytnyk, 'Podil's'ka Narodna Vyshywka', L'viw, 2005
Olena Kulynych-Stakhurska, 'The Art of Ukrainian Embroidery', L'viw, 1996
Liudmyla and Oleksij Pokusynski, 'Borshchiws'ka Narodna Sorochka', Kyiw, 2012

Hello all,
Today I will start an introduction to the traditional costumes of Vietnam and neighboring countries where the ethnic groups extend past the border. Despite being a nation of modest size, Vietnam recognizes 54 distinct ethnic groups within its borders. These groups belong to the 5 major language families which populate southeastern Asia.Today I will concentrate on two of those families, the Austronesian and the Austro-Asiatic. This will not be an exhaustive list, but I will give at least one representative of each group of peoples.

Viet

This is the major ethnic group of Vietnam, giving its name to the country, and comprising a mathematical majority of the population. They call themselves Kinh, and the major part of the population lives in the Mekong and Red river deltas, as well as in a narrow band along the coast. They also inhabit an island in China, where they are known as the Jin. Their language forms one branch of the Austro-Asiatic language family, along with Muong. The distribution is indicated in the following map by pink.

The current national outfit of the Viet is called Ao Dai. This was fully developed in the 20th century, with influence from the Cheongsam of south China. In general, the Viet culture is strongly influenced by that of the Han Chinese. The image above shows a couple in Ao Dai fit for a wedding. Here is another couple in a less formal version.

There is a great variety in color and detail, and designers keep making more. This dress is still commonly worn for holidays, Tet, and weddings.

Here are some college students dancing and showing off some variations of the Ao Dai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSjqx_0RarU
Muong

The Muong are closely related to the Viet linguistically. Their territory is inland of the northern range of the Viet people, but does not extend to the highlands. They call themselves the people in the middle, between the Kinh and the Highlanders. They number roughly 1.3 million.

Here is a short clip of Muong people dancing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8avReumhyrI

Cham

The Cham, unlike most of the peoples of this region, are Austronesian, and not AustroAsiatic. It is speculated that they originally came from Borneo. They founded and ruled the Kingdom of Champa in what is now south central Vietnam from 192 to 1832. The spread of the Viets at that time resulted in the disappearance of Champa. Some of the people are still there, others fled to Cambodia, where many still live, some moved back into the highlands, and some went to northern Sumatra, where they became the Aceh. Here is a map of Champa, in green, at about the year 1000.

Here are maps showing the location of Cham people in both Vietnam and Cambodia.

Here are some examples of the costume of the Cham people.

A dance of the Cham
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N48AAb2E8uY

Montagnards or Highlanders

Inland from the Cham are the southern Highlands. These are inhabited by a number of tribal peoples, some speaking languages related to Cham, others speaking languages of the Bahnaric branch of the Austro Asiatic language family. These are often referred to collectively as the Highlanders, or Montagnards [French for Highlander].Here is a map showing the rough extant of these peoples in Vietnam. They are also found across the border in adjacent parts of Cambodia and Laos. Many of these have similar costumes.

Here is a Vietnamese news report on the traditional music of he highlands. There are clips of M'nong, Giarai, and Ede dancing, among others
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBhLEwPNtb8

Chamic Highlanders
These are represented by the light green area on the map above. and also extend over the border into Cambodia
.
Churu

Raglai

A dance of the Raglai people
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EY2mxxw-oQI

Ede

Also called E de or Rhede

Giarai

Also spelled Gia Ray or Jarai

Bahnaric Highlanders

These tribes speak languages of t he Bahnaric branch of the Austro Asiatic language family, and are found to the south, west, and north of the Chamic speaking tribes, being found also in Cambodia and Laos.

M'nong

This is the major tribe which is found to the south.

Bahnar

This tribe lives to the north of the Chamic Highlanders. In Vietnamese, this tribe is called Ba Na.

Sedang

In Vietnamese, Xo Teng.

Katu

The Katu are not one of the Bahnaric tribes, but speak a language from yet another branch of the AustroAsiatic language family. You can see that their costume is significantly different from the tribes above.

This concludes this article. The rest of the peoples of the northern part of Vietnam are of the Kam-Tai [Tai-Kadai], Miao-Yao [Hmong-Mien], and Tibeto Burman language families, and have more in common with populations in Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, and neighboring parts of China.

I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Ngo Duc Thinh, 'Traditional Costumes of Vietnam', Hanoi, 2009
Nguyen Van Huy et al, 'The Great Family of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam.

Hello all,

Today I will start talking about a large family of peoples with their own language family and amazing folk costumes. The Han Chinese refer to them as the Miao and the Yao. They refer to themselves with a wide variety of names, depending on the group. The best known groups in the west call themselves the Hmong and the Mien, but there is no native term that covers all the different groups. Here is a map showing the current extant of this language family.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong%E2%80%93Mien_languages

As you can see, these peoples live in southwestern China, from Hunan, Jianxi and Fujian provinces west to Yunnan, and also across the border into the hill country of Northern Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand.

The two main branches of this language family are Miao, or Hmongic, and Yao, or Mienic. They split a few thousand years ago. It seems that they originated in what is now northern China. It would seem that the Yao lived south of the Miao. There are references in Chinese history to what is believed to be these peoples. At the time that the Han Chinese were expanding their territory, the Miao lived along the Yellow River, and the Yao along the Yangtse. The Han record some semi-legendary battles over territory, recognizing the valor of their enemies. Rather than live under foreign domination, both of these peoples moved to the southwest. This pattern repeated several times, resulting in a scattered migration of these peoples, each of which split into several groups, which split further into subgroups, etc. On the map above you can see a hint of the migration pattern of these two groups of peoples

The image at the top of the article shows embroidery on a Hmong woman's 'jacket' from Nankai in western Guizhou province. This is one of the designs which they say symbolizes the long and winding road which they have traveled.
Here is traditional embroidery from a northern Hmu woman's skirt from Gedong of Taijiang county, showing a line of riders on horses, which also symbolizes their many migrations

One thing which most of the branches of this language family has in common is a love of embroidery, an emphasis on excellence in the ornamentation of their clothing, and a great love of silver ornaments.

Miao

Although this is a foreign term, it is handy to refer to this group as a whole. The Chinese government considers all of the peoples in this group to form one nationality. The Miao language family has three main branches, Qo Xiong, Hmu, and West Hmongic, which includes Hmong.

The Han Chinese have a saying 'If you meet a hundred Miao, you will see a hundred costumes.'

This is literally true.

Qo Xiong

Almost a million speakers

This is what they call themselves.The Han refer to this group as the Xiangxi Miao. They are also referred to in the literature as the 'West Hunan Miao'. They speak Northern Hmongic dialects. These people live in the northwest corner of Hunan province, as well as over the border in southwest Hubei, southeast Sichuan and northeast Guizhou provinces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qo_Xiong_language

Because they are the northeasternmost of the Hmongic peoples, their costume has been the most influenced by the Han, and even, during the Qing dynasty, by the Manchu. Whereas most often the women's costume features a pleated skirt, here they usually wear pants.They live in close proximity to the Tujia people.

Enshi in southwestern Hubei Province.

Youyang in southeastern Sichuan Province

Huayuan County in Northern Hunan

Chiping, Yuanling county, Hunan Province

This costume is found in Songtao in Guizhou Province, as well as across the border in Shanjiang, Fenghuang County, Hunan Province.

This costume is worn in Yingjian, which is slightly west of Songtao in Guizhou Province

Zhongying of Qinglong county is in southwestern Guizhou Province, but the people there migrated from this area during the Ming Dynasty. They have kept the language and much of the costume tradition. This is common among the Hmongic peoples.

As in many of the eastern areas, the men wear simple and plain costumes

Hmu

This is their self designation; the Han call this group the Qiangdong Miao, you will also see them referred to as the Southeastern Guizhou Miao. They inhabit southeastern Guizhou Province, where they share an Autonomous Prefecture with the Dong people. They are also found over the border in southwest Hunan Province and north central Guangxi Province. Linguists usually group the Hmu dialects into 3 or 4 languages.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmu_language

In this map Guizhou is in yellow, Hunan in pink, and Guangxi in gray. Three clusters are visible; these correspond to Northern Hmu, Eastern Hmu and Southern Hmu. Western Hmu is only spoken by a few thousand people in a handful of villages

Northern Hmu
about 1,000,000 speakers

These form the densest cluster of the Hmongic peoples in existence, Centered around Kaili municipality. Every summer they hold a remarkable array of festivals. The land here is rich and the festive costumes are characterized by a great deal of silver, as well as mind blowing embroidery and other handwork. I will only give a few representative costumes; many more exist.

Gulong of Huangping county

This lies to the north of this area. If a piece of cloth is rubbed enough, it becomes shiny. In the west this is considered a sign of wear, but these people treat their cloth this way on purpose to get the shine.

A round cap is worn when not in full festive dress. Married women wear a kerchief over it.

Xijiang in Leishan County

This costume is often photographed, because of the flamboyant silver headdresses. Note the skirt made of many separate bands.

Gedong of Taijiang

Girls all dressed up in their best. If you look carefully you can see a row of horses and riders embroidered on the middle of the skirt.

A girl spinning in everyday clothes.

Shidong in Taijiang

Mothers and daughters getting ready for a festival.

Older women from Shidong

The pleated skirts of Shidong have a ribbon with three fine red lines. They represent the three great rivers which they have crossed in their migrations over the centuries, The Yellow River, the Yangtse and the Qingshui.

Around Leigong mountain, various groups have short skirts worn in layers, They refer to themselves as 'Gannao'. One example is this costume from Taojiang in Leishan County.

Another version is worn in the village of Yanban of Taijiang.

One group of northern Hmu migrated from Huangping to Baqiao town of Zhenfeng county in southwestern Guizhou in the Qing dynasty. They have kept the language and a similar costume, but they make it all in black and blue.

Young girl in full dress

Woman in festive attire, not the large headdress with a double kerchief

Children

ladies attending a festival

Here is a closeup of the stitchwork on the sleeves and backs of the jackets

and the apron

Eastern Hmu
About 250,000 speakers

This is from Guben in Jinping county in Guizhou province

This is from Jiupang area, on the border of Juianhe and Liping counties

These girls are from Liping County, Guizhou province

These girls are from Zhulin in Tianzhu county, Guizhou province

This is from Dapu of Jingzhou county, Hunan province

This is from Pingcha of Jingzhou county, Hunan province

Southern Hmu
About 350,000 speakers

This costume is that of the town of Langdong, in Rongjiang County, Guizhou province
The embroidery on the lower part of the aprons is amazingly similar to that of the Hutsul people of Ukraine.

And we finally see men with nice costumes

Biasha, Congjiang county, Guizhou province

And a Biasha man dressed for a festival

Gundong of Liping county, Guizhou

Gandong of Rongshui county, Guangxi province. This and a couple other costumes of the south Hmu include feathers.

A man from Gandong in festival dress

Chunde village, Fulu municipality, Sanjiang county, Guaxi province.

Just to show diversity, here is the costume from another village in the same municipality, Qinya.

A group of southern Hmu rebelled against oppression during the Qing dynasty, and in the end fled to the north of Vietnam, where they settled, and can still be found today. They call themselves the Na Mieu. The Vietnamese government, like China, lumps them in with the Hmong, but the two languages are completely unintelligible to each other, and these people consider themselves to be distinct.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A1-Meo_language

Here is the one photo which I have been able to find of these people, from 1925. The costume is definitely similar to these above, and not close to those of the Hmong of Vietnam.

Western Hmu
This language is also called Raojia, and is spoken by only about 15,000 people.

This is the end of part 1. In the next article i will introduce the costumes of the Western Hmongic peoples, including those of the Hmong proper.
Part three will introduce the costumes of the Yao or Mienic peoples.

Please note that this article is far from exhaustive. There are many costumes which I had to omit. I will be doing more in depth articles on particular costumes and embroidery techniques in the future.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative, and possibly inspirational.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Robert Lam Ping-fai et al, 'Ethnic Costumes of the Miao People in China, Hong Kong, 1986
Tomoko Torimaru, 'One Needle, One Thread', Honolulu, 2008
Wu, Shizhong, 'A picture album of China's Miao Costumes and Ornaments', Guiyang, 2000
Zhao Yuchi et al, 'Clothings and Ornaments of China's Miao People', Beijing, 1985
Yan Da, et al, 'Miao's Attires', Guiyang, 2010
Deryn O'Connor, 'Miao Costumes', Southhampton England, 1994
Florian Knothe et al, 'Embroidered Identities', Hong Kong, 2013
Gina Corrigan, ' Miao Textiles from China' Seattle, 2001
Zeng Xiangyang, 'Ethnic Miao Embroidery', 2009

Hello all,

today I will talk about the third branch of the Miao/Hmongic language family. The West Hmongic, or the Qianzhongnan Miao,which has nine branches and from 3 to 15 tones. These people are mostly found in south central Guizhou Province. The two exceptions are A Hmao and Hmong proper. The A Hmao are found in northeast and north central Yunnan Province, as wellas a small part of westernmost Guizhou Province.. The most widespread and well known language of this group is Hmong, which is found from Sichuan Province through northern and western Guizhou Province through Yunnan Province and into Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. I will cover the Hmong in my next article. I will present costumes by language group.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Hmongic

Gejia
These people have their own distinct language, but call themselves Mhong. The Han Chinese call them the Chonganjiang Miao. They live along the Chongan (Zhong'an) river in Huangping and neighboring counties, especially in the village of Matang. They number about 50,000.These are the easternmost of the West Hmongic peoples, and are outnumbered by the surrounding speakers of Northern Hmu. Not surprisingly, they consider themselves to be distinct from them, and have repeatedly petitioned the government to be considered a separate nationality.
An ancient Chinese myth reports that when the world was young, there were nine suns who took it in turns to fly across the sky, one at a time. Being young and restless, they chafed at this restriction, and finally decided to fly up all together. This, of course, caused the Earth to burn. A great archer by the name of Li shot down eight of the nine suns, and so saved the world. The Gejia claim to be descended from him.

Two girls working on batik, for which this group is particularly known.

A Hmyo
The Han call these people the Luobohe Miao. There are more than 50,000 in Kaiyang, Fuquan, Longli, Guiding, Weng'an, and other counties in Guizhou province. who live just west of the northern Hmu.

These ladies are from Guiding county

Machangping of Fuquan county

Pingtang
The Han call these the Pingtang Miao. They speak their own language of the western Hmongic family. They live south of the A Hmyo, in Pingtang county in southern Guizhou province, and over the border in Nandan county in Guangxi province.

Kaluo of Pingtang

Xintang of Pingtang

Youbia of PIngtang

Yueli of Nandan, Guangxi

Guiyang
These group is centered on Guiyang County, which lies to the west of the A Hmyo.

The most famous and impressive costume of this group is that of Huaxi. The embroidery at the head of the article is Huaxi work.

Another well known costume of this group is Gaopo, in the same area.

Huishui
This group is centered on the county of the same name which lies to the south of Guiyang.
I have found two groups of costumes.

Baijin

Some of these photographs were taken in the village of Gaozhai. The men wear Han Chinese costumes from the Qing dynasty. The hat is the only thing which is native.

Here an older woman demonstrates how to pleat material for a skirt.

Yarong

This group is distinguished by the long skirt with an unusual arrangement of motifs.

Hmang
These people are also called the Mashan Miao. They live to the southwest of the Huishui, and west of the Pingtang, in the counties of Ziyun, Luodian, Wangmo and Changshun.

Lewang
This is worn around the township of Lewang in Wangmo county, as well as in neigboring regions of Luodian and Ziyun counties.

Jiao'e village of Donshun Township, Wangmo County

Songshan township, Ziyun county

Zongdi area of Ziyun county

Sidazhai of Ziyun County

Qinghai of Ziyun county

A Hmao
The Han call these people the Big Flowery Miao, or the Northwest Yunnan Miao. They live mostly in northwestern Yunnan Province, as well as in the Weishing area of Guizhou Province, separated from the other objects of this article by Hmong and other peoples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-Hmao_language

This clothing, unlike the others which we have looked at, incorporates wool.

Weining County, Guizhou province.

Chuxiong county of Yunnan province.

The eighth group are the Bunu, who, although they speak a Hmongic language, are culturally Yao. I will cover them when I write about the Yao/Mien.

The ninth group are the Hmong proper, called by the Han the Chuanqiandian Miao.
They inhabit scattered areas from Sichuan province, through the western parts of Guizhou and Guangxi provinces, Yunnan province, and over the border into the hill country of northern Vietnam, Laos and Thailand, from which some have migrated to the west. This will be the subject of part 3.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. Perhaps some of you will try some of the embroideries pictured.

If I have mistakenly assigned some of these costumes to the wrong language group, then please send me better information, Thank you

Roman K

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Robert Lam Ping-fai et al, 'Ethnic Costumes of the Miao People in China, Hong Kong, 1986
Tomoko Torimaru, 'One Needle, One Thread', Honolulu, 2008
Wu, Shizhong, 'A picture album of China's Miao Costumes and Ornaments', Guiyang, 2000
Zhao Yuchi et al, 'Clothings and Ornaments of China's Miao People', Beijing, 1985
Yan Da, et al, 'Miao's Attires', Guiyang, 2010
Deryn O'Connor, 'Miao Costumes', Southhampton England, 1994
Florian Knothe et al, 'Embroidered Identities', Hong Kong, 2013
Gina Corrigan, ' Miao Textiles from China' Seattle, 2001
Zeng Xiangyang, 'Ethnic Miao Embroidery', 2009

Hello all,
Today I will talk about the costumes of the speakers of the Hmong language. The Han call this the Chuanqiandian Miao language cluster. These people live in Sichuan province, western Guizhou and Guangxi provinces, Yunnan province, and the northern hill country of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

There are three major branches, sometimes considered languages, within this group.
The smallest, numbering a few hundred people, is Xixiu Miao. This is spoken in Zhuchang township of Zhijin county of Guizhou Province.

The second group call themselves Gha Mu
. The Han refer to them as the Small Flowery Miao. The embroidery at the opening of the first article of this series was from this group.
They live around in the area just east of Weining and the A Hmao, or Big Flowery Miao. This includes the counties of Hezhang, Nayong and Shuicheng near Bijie, Guizhou province.
The costume is also similar, but with more elaborate embroidery, and strip applique which symbolizes the many roads that they have traveled.

The largest group are the Hmong proper. There are many dialects and subdialects which I will not go into, but I will present several costumes, moving north to south. By my count I have now shown you 50 costumes; it is unlikely that I will actually post 100, but I could.

Sichuan Province
These costumes are from south central Sichuan province. The ones which are found in southeast Sichuan are Xong, and I have already covered some of them. Here is a map showing this area. Guizhou province is shown in yellow, and Yunnan province in blue.

Gaoping of Junlian county.

this is number 1 on the map. This lies to the north of the territory of the Large and Small Flowery groups.
This is a fairly typical Hmong costume; pleated skirt with batik and stitched work, apron, top with sleeves. In this case they wear a second apron with a bib under the regular apron.

A variant of this costume is also worn across the border in the area of Zhaxi of Weixing county, Yunnan province

Wangwuzhai of Gongxian county

This is number 2 on the map above. The costume is similar to the first, but it illustrates a regrettable tendency that I have noticed in many photos of southeast Asian peoples; the use of actual towels in place of traditional headgear.

Jiuqing of Xingwen county.

This is number 3 on the map above.
Unusually for western costumes, this has no skirt, but still has an abundance of embroidery on the top, the headpiece, and the front and back aprons

Liupu of Xuyong county

This is number 4 on the map above. The apron with its appliqued ribbon is unusual.
It reminds me of Hungarian Kalatoszegi aprons.

A variation of this costume is also worn just over the border in Weixing county of Yunnan province.

Macheng of Xuyong county

This and the next costume are around 5 on the map above. Both are worn in eastern Xuyong county and also in western Gulin county
Often there is strong similarity between the women's and the men's costumes.

Here is another version of this costume from across the line in Gulin county

Zhengdong of Xuyong

This costume is also worn in parts of Gulin county

This man's robe is clearly full length, but apparently a shorter one may also be worn, see below

Guizhou Province

The Hmong live in scattered pockets in the north and west of Guizhou province. You can follow most locations on this map. Click to enlarge, if necessary. I will work more or less north to south.

Hushi town of Chishui Municipality, Zunyi prefecture.

This lies just north of Gulin county in the peninsula at top center in the map above. There is some similarity with the Gulin county costumes Note the all over batik designs on the skirts.

Huashan of Tongzi county

This lies east of the previous village, and north of Zunyi county. Note the plain white hemp skirt.

Banqiao

These people live south of the Huashan, but north of Zunyi town, near the border of Zunyi and Tongzi counties.

Pudi of Dafang county, Bijie prefecture

This is further west and is shown on the map above. This type of long skirt pleated only on the sides is found in pockets from here to southeast Yunnan county.

Qianxi county

This is 25 on the map above. These women are playing leaves as musical instruments.

Douqing, Shuicheng county

Many Hmong women in this area wear fake hair to increase the headdress.

Tunjiao of Qianxinan prefecture

This is in southwest Guizhou province

Gangou of Guangnan county, Yunnan Province

This is far south of the others. Here we can see how one branch of Hmong has scattered itself while keeping a very similar costume. This is found in other locations as well.

Xianmu of Dafang county

back to northwest Guizhou province.
This is close to number 35 on the map. This is one of the group of costumes which the Han call the 'Horned Miao'. The women of this region wear large wooden combs in their hair, which is usually wrapped with long fake hair.There are a few different versions of this general type of costume in northwest Guizhou.

Suoga of Luizhi district

Another example of large wooden combs usually covered with fake hair. These are probably the group which in old Han texts were referred to as the 'Big Headed Miao' The batik and embroidery on these costumes is, like usual, amazing. Men wear wide hemp trousers and aprons for festive dress.

Baixing of Nayong county

This costume is similar to the previous one, but the combs are painted red and the fake hair is wrapped differently

Yanla

This costume is found in the area where Zhenning, Ziyun and Anshun counties come together. It is distinguished by the asymmetrical horns worn by girls.The cross stitch design at the head of the article is from this region; see the woman with the baby below.

Huashiban of Panxian district

This is in the southwest of Liupanshui prefecture. I love the embroidery on the mens' headcloths. The women's tops have long fronts that wrap around the waist and tie.

Changshujiao, Fengshan town of Anshun Municipality

Also worn around Guankou. This is an unusual costume and appealing in its simplicity. The headpiece is also unusual.

Hualipo of Muzan township, Anlong county

This costume is spead in the southwest corner of Guizhou, as well as being found over the border in parts of Guangxi

Guangxi Province

These are a few costumes from the northwest corner of Guangxi province, between Guizhou and Yunnan. We have already covered the north central and the northeast costume. These form a continuum with some of the costume types which we have seen earlier, and will see again further south.

Longlin County
This is the area around number 50 on this map. The gray is Guangxi, the yellow is Guizhou.

Kechang

Changmo

Shechang

Xinzhou

Yunnan Province

There are just a few Hmong groups scattered in western Yunnan province.

Mangkuan of Baoshan

Xiaoweigeng of Weishan

Most of the Hmong in Yunnan county are in the southeast, close to the border. Some of these same groups are also found over the border.

Xi'er of Mile county

this lies to the north of the city of Honghe

Shaba of Yangjie township, Kaiyuan County,

This lies to the south of Mile, but still north of Honghe

Hongzhai, Minze county

This lies just to the west of the city of Honghe

Mingjiu of Menzi county

this lies to the east of Honghe

Gumu of Wenshan county

this lies yet further east

Maguan county

This lies south of Wenshan

This first image is from Jiazhaiqing

Panzhihua of Wenshan

This lies to the south of Maguan

Xinhua of Pingbian county

This county lies on the Vietnamese border

Jinping county

This county lies just west of Pinbian, also on the Vietnamese border

Yingpan

This lies in the northeast of Jinping county

Darao of Jinping county

This lies further west

Jinshuihe of Jinping county

Tongchang of Jinping county

The following map shows the distribution of ethnic groups in northern Vietnam and Laos. Hmong areas are shown in medium green. Vietnamese in Kelly green, Austro-Asiatic tribes in bright yellow-green, Tribal Tai groups in rust, Muong in orange, Lao in lilac, Yao/Mien in blue, and Tibeto-Burman tribes in gray. As you can see, Hmong areas cover a considerable amount of northern Laos.

Vietnam

In Vietnam, they distinguish between the various Hmong groups by color, which is common enough. Here are four of the most common. Compare the costumes with those of the south Yunnan Hmong above. I have no information as to which tribes are found where. Hmong of different tribes cannot necessarily understand each others' dialects.

Black Hmong - Mong đen

Red Hmong - Mong đỏ

Blue [Green] Hmong - Mong Xang

White Hmong - Mong trắng

Flower Hmong - Mong Hoa

Laos

My sources say that there are 5 Hmong tribes in Laos, but are not very clear as to the costumes. Here are a few

Hmong Lay - Blue Hmong

This type of turban seems to be typical of Laos, not only for the Hmong, but also for the Mien.

Striped Hmong

White Hmong

The white skirts for which they are named are today only worn on special occasions. For everyday they wear pants.

I have not found images specifically labelled Black or Red Hmong from Laos, but they may be the same as in Vietnam. Here are a couple more images which I have found.

This image shows some of the modern trends in costume. Tinselly, strings of plastic beads and factory made skirts from China.

Thailand

Most sources only mention two tribes of Hmong in the very north of Thailand, This is the edge of their distribution.

Blue [Green] Hmong - Meo Lai or Hmong Njua

This man is the headman of his village.

This image shows young men and women throwing balls. This is a courting game done on great holidays.

This image shows how the leggings which are part of traditional Hmong attire are put on. They are strips or triangles of cloth which are wrapped around the lower legs and tied.

These two guys are dressed in their very best.

This woman is waxing cloth for batik.

White Hmong - Meo Khao or Hmong Dher

A common feature of many Hmong costumes is a panel which is attached to the back of the neck on shirts which is embroidered or appliqued. Among the White Hmong, many different designs are used.

Here we have a White Hmong girl on the right, and a Blue Hmong girl on the left, both dressed up.

And I think that I have actually coverd 100 costumes in these three articles!

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Please send me any corrections, and especially send me materials with more information.
I will present some of the many embroidery techniques in future articles.

Roman K

email:rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Joachim Schliesinger.'Ethnic Groups of Laos, V 3', Bangkok, 2003
Ngo Duc Thinh, 'Traditional Costumes of Vietnam, Hanoi, 2009
Nguyen Vab Huy et al, 'The Great Family of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam', Hanoi, 2011
Margaret Campbell, 'From the Hands of the Hills', Hong Kong, 1978
Paul and Elaine Lewis, 'Peoples of the Golden Triangle', London, 1984 Robert Lam Ping-fai et al, 'Ethnic Costumes of the Miao People in China, Hong Kong, 1986Tomoko Torimaru, 'One Needle, One Thread', Honolulu, 2008Wu, Shizhong, 'A picture album of China's Miao Costumes and Ornaments', Guiyang, 2000Zhao Yuchi et al, 'Clothings and Ornaments of China's Miao People', Beijing, 1985Yan Da, et al, 'Miao's Attires', Guiyang, 2010Deryn O'Connor, 'Miao Costumes', Southhampton England, 1994Florian Knothe et al, 'Embroidered Identities', Hong Kong, 2013Gina Corrigan, ' Miao Textiles from China' Seattle, 2001Zeng Xiangyang, 'Ethnic Miao Embroidery', 2009

Hello all,
Today I will start talking about the second major branch of this language family, the Yao or Mienic peoples. The image above is a closeup of a piece of Yao embroidery from Thailand in my personal collection. For a long time I had no idea exactly where it came from. I finally discovered that it is part of a pair of pants for a Iu Mien woman from the Fang area of Chang Mai province of Thailand. Here is an image of a complete pair of pants from that area. My piece of embroidery would have been the top edge.

This is the second major branch of the Hmongic/Mienic or Miao/Yao language family.
Here is a rough map of the locations of some of the languages of this family. Please refer to this map throughout the article. Some would argue that the term 'Yao' be dispensed with, to be replaced by 'Mien', but in fact, 'Mien' is the self designation of only one branch of this group.

The different Yao peoples, like the Miao, have been given various names by their neighbors, which can be confusing and misleading. One case in point, the 'White Trousered Yao', which I read about in one source, part of the Kim Meun group, found in northern Vietnam, whose women, unusually, wear white pants as part of their dress attire. Then I read more about them in other sources, and the information did not jibe. Eventually I figured out that there is a second group called the "White Trousered Yao' who speak Bunu, live in Libo county, Guizhou province in China, and whose men wear white pants as part of their costume.

Moving roughly from East to West, and like the previous articles, this one will not present all the different groups.

She

The She are not considered to be Yao or Miao, but they speak a language from the same family. Some linguists place this language in a third branch of the Hmongic/Mienic language family. The She have a similar origin story as the Yao. Their ancestor was named Pan Hu, who helped a Chinese King defeat his enemies and was given his daughter in marriage as a reward. She women make a point of embroidering Phoenixes on their clothing as a symbol of their ancestor. [The Phoenix is the symbol of the women of the Royal House.] Of the 409,000 She alive today, only about 1,200 still speak their ancestral language.The rest speak Hakka Chinese, but have kept alive their cultural identity. The She are found far east of the Miao and the Yao, mostly in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, although the few who still speak the language live in Guangdong province, not all that far from Hong Kong. They call themselves and their language Ho Nte, and are shown in the map at the head of the article. Here is an Ethnolinguistic map of China which shows the location of the She.
http://factsanddetails.com/china/cat5/sub87/entry-4369.html

It is thought that the She were originally fishermen, and were forced into the hills by the southern spread of the Han Chinese people. They have lived in Southeastern China for a long time. Although there are not many of them, they live in scattered communities among the Han. Much is made of some of the unusual hair arrangements which they have.

Yao

The Mienic branch of the Hmong/Mien or Miao/Yao language family has four main languages: Iu Mien, Kim Mun, Biao Min and Dzao Min.
Like the Hmongic peoples, however, Both China and Vietnam consider all these to be one people, called Yao.The Pa Hng, Bunu, and Lakkia are also considered to be Yao, even though they do not speak Mienic languages, as they share much of the same culture.

One of the stories told about the Yao ancestor, Pan Hung, is that he came to the assistance of a Chinese King by killing his enemy and bringing back the head. The King had promised not only his daughter in marriage to whomever could do this deed, but also half of his kingdom. Being faced with such a loss, he was in a panic, but following the advice of a wily counselor, gave to P'an Hung and his descendants the 'upper half' of his kingdom. Thus the Chinese live in the lowlands and valleys, and the Yao live in the hills and the mountains.

Dzao Min

About 60,000 speakers. As you can see from the map above, this group lives in northern Guangdong province, and over the northern border into Hunan province.

Bapai of Guangdong province

Sanpai village, Liannan county, Guangdong province

Biao Min

About 43,000 speakers. This group lives in northeast Guangxi province.

Gongcheng

The various Yao groups converted to Daoism at some point. Here is a Woman in front of a group of Daoist icons.

Taoist priests leading a procession for a festival.

Yao men sacrifice a buffalo to their ancestor, P'an Hung, the Dragon Dog.

Peach Blossom Festival

The next couple of groups do not speak Mienic languages, but are considered Yao.

Pa Hng

This language has a few thousand speakers. It belongs to the Hmong-Mien language family, but seems to form another branch, divergent from the others. They occupy an area just to the west of the Biao Min.

In Longli Huanglo village of Longsheng county, Guangxi province, some Pa Hng speakers are called Red Yao, which are not to be confused with the Red Yao of Vietnam, who are Mien. The women do not wear turbans, but instead wind their uncommonly long hair around their heads.

One group of these people, numbering about 7,000, have migrated to northern Vietnam, where they are called the Pa Then. The Vietnamese consider them to be a distinct ethnic group, although they sometimes call them Meo Do [Red Miao]

Lakkja

These people are not shown on the map at the head of the article, but live about where the g and x of the word Guangxi are placed, in Eastern Guangxi province, specifically, Jinxiu Yao Autonomous County. They are generally called the Chashan Yao, or Tea Mountain Yao. They actually speak a language which belongs to the Kam-Sui branch of the Tai-Kadai language family. The women's costume is distinguished by the three large silver plates on the headdress.

Bunu

The Bunu are several groups which are considered to be ethnically Yao, but speak Hmongic languages. Linguists often group the various dialects into 4 languages, but are divided on the issue of whether they are closely related to each other. There are about 50,000 of them.

One group of these are the Dounu, which the Han call the Baiku Yao, or White pants Yao.
The costume of this group commemorates one Yao King whose seal was stolen by a Zhuang General, who also wounded the King. The seal is reproduced on the womens' jackets, and the five red streaks on the mens' pants represent the wounded King's fingers.

Here are more images of other Bunu groups.

The last two groups are by far the largest. Both are found in the western part of this area, from western Guangxi province into Yunnan, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

Kim Mun

There are about 400,000 of these people. They are sometimes also called Lanten. They use less embroidery on their clothing than the Mien, but it is as fine in quality, and often confined to the headcloth. They love red pompoms, tassels and streamers, as do also the Mien. They tend to live at lower altitudes than the Mien.

Hainan Island Yao

The natives of Hainan speak Tai-Kadai languages, the Li or Hlai in the south, and the Ong Be in the north. Han Chinese have settled the island, and there are also scattered pockets of Kim Mun, who for some reason are traditionally called 'Miao'. They were brought in to act as garrisons in the 18th cent.
This is the only group of the Kim Mun in which the women wear a skirt. The skirt is ornamented with batik, always in the same pattern. The top is as long as the skirt, so it is only visible through the slit on the side. The headcloths have very beautiful embroidery.

Parts of a wedding

In these two shots we can see the men's costume

Kim Mun Lanten Sha

This branch is found in China, western Guangxi and southeast Yunnan provinces, Northern Vietnam and Laos.

The costumes of the different branches of this group are very similar, the distinction being in the headpieces. Here is a typical costume. This particular one is from Laos. The various white embroidered headscarves come from different sub groups.

There is a separate collar, tunic buttoned to the side with red piping, narrow pants that come just below the knee, white leggings, and long red silk tassels attached to both the sash and a silver neck ring.

Some young girls wear the white headscarves by themselves, as these two from Phong Tho, Vietnam. The long fringes are folded back.

Or these girls from Laos. Both of these pictures were taken in the 1920's.

When a woman comes of age and is initiated, then she is permitted to wear the celestial crown. The front hair is parted, and the hair in back is put into a bun. The crown always has sunrays on it, and is surrounded by a circle of hair pins. This is usually covered by a scarf.

Depending on the group, there can be up to 200 of these pins. like this woman from Motiang in Yunnan.

There is one large group which is found in both Yunnan and Vietnam, in which the crown of pins is rectangular. This is accompanied by braids of fake hair.

Usually this is worn with a scarf on top.

In this image, you can see some young men in costume on the left.

Here is a man's outfit

The cap with the streamers is worn by boys and unordained men. This next image shows two Kim Mun Lanten Sha men with a friend who is Kinh Vietnames in the center. The man on the right wears the lay cap, and the man on the left wears the cap of an ordained Taoist priest. This image is from Phong Tho, Lao Cai province, Vietnam.

Here are two images from Hekou in Yunnan province, China.This group has traded their red tassels for pink ones.

There is only one group found in Laos, around Luang Nam Tha. They do not wear the celestial crown everyday, but reserve it for special occasions.

This is a photo of a village headman and his son from Laos, taken in 1952. His status is indicated by the Shan sword with silver pommel.

The restraint shown by the Kim Mun Lanten Sha in their clothing apparently disappears when making bags, the design of which are not dictated by tradition.

Kim Mun Lanten Shanzi

This is a sister branch to the last one. They are found in Yunnan, in Hekou, Maguan, Malipo, Funing, Shizong, Luchong, and Mugang. These have also spread over the border into northern Vietnam, in Ha Giang, Lao Cai, and Tuyen Quang, where they are called San Chi. More live in Guangxi, in Napo, Jinxiu, Lipu, Pingle and Bose. The dress varies slightly in each group. They generally do not wear the celestial crown daily. Some wear aluminum or silver triangles on their headscarf.

These young women are at work, with shovels and babies.

Kim Meun

For this dialect, I will present two different groups. Both of these groups wear a dickey or bib, which covers the front of the torso under the tunic and is richly embroidered.

Kim Meun, Yo Pae Mun, Houatou, Fangcheng, Thanh-Y

These are some of the various names by which this group is called. They are found in Yen Bai, Lang Son and Quang Ninh provinces in Vietnam, and also in The Shiwan Dashan mountain area in Southwest Guangxi. They seem to have arrived in Vietnam from Fangcheng in Guangxi. They are not found in Laos or Thailand. The celestial crown is attached to a cap, the right front panel of the tunic is shorter than the left and always hidden behind it. The women wear relatively full pants that come to mid calf, although some groups which live closer to the delta have much shorter pants. Other details also vary by subgroup.

Some older photos

The cap which bears the rayed celestial crown is usually covered with a cloth that has intricate embroidery, which leads to one of their nicknames, Houatou, or flowered, Yao.

Here are some contemporary photos. Note that the traditional red unfortunately seems to be shifting to pink.The men have limited but colorful embroider on their shirts.

This man is having womens' headscarves pinned to him as part of the wedding ritual.

This girl is from Lang Son province, which is almost at sea level and very warm.

Kim Meun, Qua Pae Meun, Quan Trang

This group lives between the Red and Lo rivers in Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai, and Lao Cai provinces in Vietnam. They claim to have arrived a long time ago, and by boat. They are not found outside of Vietnam. The Vietnamese call them the Quan Trang Dao, which means the 'White Pants Yao', because they wear white pants for special occasions, although the daily pants are indigo, like other Kim Mun. The dickey is extensively embroidered.

Some shots of everyday wear.

Now some images of festive wear, including scenes from a wedding, in which the women are wearing the white pants, and in this case, so are the men.

Iu Mien
There are about 4,000,000 of these people. These are the Mien proper. The other groups above do not call themselves Mien. I will cover the Mien in my next article.

Thank you for reading; I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.

Roman K

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Jess J. Pourret, 'The Yao', Chicago, 2002
Joachim Schliesinger.'Ethnic Groups of Laos, V 3', Bangkok, 2003
Ngo Duc Thinh, 'Traditional Costumes of Vietnam, Hanoi, 2009
Nguyen Vab Huy et al, 'The Great Family of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam', Hanoi, 2011
Margaret Campbell, 'From the Hands of the Hills', Hong Kong, 1978
Paul and Elaine Lewis, 'Peoples of the Golden Triangle', London, 1984 Robert Lam Ping-fai et al, 'Ethnic Costumes of the Miao People in China, Hong Kong, 1986Tomoko Torimaru, 'One Needle, One Thread', Honolulu, 2008Wu, Shizhong, 'A picture album of China's Miao Costumes and Ornaments', Guiyang, 2000Zhao Yuchi et al, 'Clothings and Ornaments of China's Miao People', Beijing, 1985Yan Da, et al, 'Miao's Attires', Guiyang, 2010Deryn O'Connor, 'Miao Costumes', Southhampton England, 1994Florian Knothe et al, 'Embroidered Identities', Hong Kong, 2013Gina Corrigan, ' Miao Textiles from China' Seattle, 2001Zeng Xiangyang, 'Ethnic Miao Embroidery', 2009

Hello all,
Today I will finish this series by talking about the Mien. This is the largest language of the Mienic branch of the Miao/Yao or Hmongic/Mienic language family. The speakers of this language number about 850,000, spread between Guangxi, Yunnan, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yao_people

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iu_Mien_language

The following maps will be helpful as you follow the article.

Most of the Mien live in Guangxi, Yunnan, and Vietnam, with small numbers in Laos and Thailand. They are divided into many groups and subgroups, and it appears that noone has yet made a methodical arrangement of the various groups and their relationship to one another. I will present several groups, but by no means all, and try to identify them by their self designation as best I can.

The Mien share with the Hmong a love of silver, embroidery, and outstanding composition. Most Mien have the same basic pieces to their costume, and distinguish themselves by various details in ornamentation, color, cut, etc. In their homeland, the costume is an important sign and badge of identity. Here is a typical Mien costume from Jinxiu in Guangxi province, China.

The pieces consist of a tunic with embroidery, this one having it on the cuffs, collar, front opening, front and back tails, and Pan Hung patch on the back. This last commemorates the Yao's original ancestor, the Dragon Dog. Not every group has embroidery in all of these places. There is a sash with embroidery on the ends, and a pair of pants with embroidery along their length. All are indigo dyed. Wrap around leggings, or puttees, similar to those worn by the Hmong, are common. Accessories vary, but most Mien costumes are variations on a theme. Note the row of small pompoms around the embroidery on the front opening. Mien have an especial love for pompoms, tassels, and streamers, and they play important roles in their costumes.

Kam Mien

Some call themselves Kem Mien,
also Dao Tien, Tsio Ban Yao, Sapeque Yao, or Coin Yao.

I will start with the biggest exception. This is the only branch of the Mien in which the women do not wear pants, but rather a batik skirt. Batik is rare among the Mien, and the style of the skirt is very different from that of the Hmong. It is not pleated, and does not have an embroidered border. Ethnologists think that it was picked up from the Bouyi, and it certainly resembles the skirt worn by the Kim Mun of Hainan island. The design of circles and zigzags does not vary.

Here is a skirt panel which is waxed and ready to dye.

There is an eastern group in which the women wear white turbans, around Cao Bang and Tuyen Quang provinces, Vietnam.

A western group which wears black turbans is found in the Hoa Binh area, Vietnam.

A brides' outfit

A grooms outfit. Hey! he gets more embroidery! All right!

Im Mien

Also called Black Dao of Dien Bien and Lai Chau; This group includes an apron in their costume as well as a large black turban.

Red Dao of southern Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Son La. This is one of several groups called Red Yao.

Kiem Mien

Also called Hongtou Yao [Chinese for Red Head Yao], Dao Do, Red Dao, or Red Yao.
The costumes include a double dickey, or bib, the front part is worn inside the tunic, but the back part hangs down on the outside, taking the place of the Pan Hong patch.

These first two are Hongtou Yao from the Cao Bang area, in Vietnam close to the Guangxi border, and likely the other side of it as well.

The rest of these are some of the groups called Red Yao, with various red turbans.

Kim Mien

This and the next are the two largest groups, The Kim Mien having many branches.

Hongtou Yao from Tianlin in Guangxi,

A little north of the Vietnamese border. This group has large red pompoms on the front which are still separate, and tassels on the sides, as well as in back. This group wears a large apron, and no longer embroiders their pants. A dickey with silver plates is worn under the tunic.

The woman in the middle of this photo belongs to a different group.

Moving somewhat to the west,
Hongtou Red Yao from Hekou, Yunnan. This group also lives across the border in Lao Cai, Vietnam.

Here are a couple images from Hekou in Yunnan.

These images are from the village of Thanh Uyen in Lao Cai province of Vietnam. The outfits are slightly different.

Moving west yet again,

Hongtou Tapan Yao from Jinping area, Yunnan.

Tapan means big plank and refers to the extremely large wedding headpiece which this group and many Iu Mien wear. Unmarried girls wear a black turban, but married women wear a red conical headpiece with a silver tiara. This group has the more typical embroidered pants and a very short blue edged apron.

Unmarried outfit.

married women

Some closeups ot this group's rather restrained embroidery/

Hongtou Tapan Yao of Quyet Tien

This group is found in north central Vietnam in the province of Ha Giang, the village of Xa Quyet Tien, not far from the border with Yunnan. Again, this group does not embroider its pants.

Hongtou Tapan Yao from Bac Quan.

This group lives southwest of the last group. These first images are of the festive costume. Note that here the pompoms on the front have become tassels.

We can see that in the past the apron was larger.

An everyday outfit. Note the child's hat. Fancy hats for the protection of children are widespread in east Asia, being found not only among the Mien, but also other Yao, Hmong, and even Han, and other peoples.

Red Dao or Red Tapan Yao of Tuyen Quang and Bac Can

This group is found downstream from the last two, at the edge of the delta area. In this group the pompoms have grown to extremely large size.

Here are a couple of images of the 'large plank' wedding headdress.

Note that the woman on the right here above is from the Bac Quan group.

Hontou Red Yao of Babe

This group is found slightly to the east of the last one.

Hongtou Red Yao of Yen Bai.

This is in the highlands to the west of The last few groups.

There are three divergent branches which are also found in this general area of northeastern Vietnam. They are sometimes considered to be distinct from the Kim Mien.

Lo Gang Yao

These live in the Loc Binh area of Vietnam, along the eastern border with Guangxi. They have a unique padded roof-shaped headpiece which reminds me of the Italian tovaglia. Note that the pants have limited embroidery.

O Gang

This is a sister group of the above. They live in the Tuyen Quang area near the group above with the large pompoms.

Quan Chet Dao or Yao

This is another divergent branch, some live in the Tuyen Quang, Vietnam area, like a couple of the groups above, and a few live in Thanh Hoa, close to the coast. The costume is distinguished by tight pants and a floppy headdress.

Coc Mun or Man Coc

These are sometimes considered to be a subgroup of the Quan Chet. They live in northeastern Vietnam.

Lang Son province, Vietnam, along the Guangxi border

This woman is from the Thai Nguyen area.

Iu Mien

This is the group which is best known in the west, because they live in northern Laos and Thailand, and some have emigrated to the west as a result of the Indochinese wars. In this group the pompoms on the front of the tunic have grown together into a continuous ruff, and the lower panels of the tunic are not embroidered, but the front ones are tied around the waist to secure the outfit. The colors and embroidery techniques used on the pants vary by location, and also by fashion, Brighter colors and more cross stitch being used in more recent times.

Laos

in Laos they tie their turbans in a W shape, and for dress occasions put silver chains on them. The Hmong in Laos have copied this fashion.

Here we see the bride with the large plank headdress, and the groom on the right.

Here the groom is in a red turban.

Here we have a couple of images of the everyday costume.

Thailand.

In Thailand, the turbans are generally round, but the outfit is otherwise similar.

Here we have a groom from Thailand and a bride whose family came from Laos. For special occasions they put on a greatly ornamented garment which can be worn either as an apron or a cape, as well as a great deal of silver.

Just a few shots of Iu Mien women at their favorite pastime.

This concludes my introduction to the costumes of the Hmongic-Mienic peoples. It may have been exhausting, but it is not exhaustive. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative, and perhaps has inspired you to try out some of the incredible embroidery which these people produce. Thank you for reading.

Roman K

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Jess J. Pourret, 'The Yao', Chicago, 2002
Joachim Schliesinger.'Ethnic Groups of Laos, V 3', Bangkok, 2003
Ngo Duc Thinh, 'Traditional Costumes of Vietnam, Hanoi, 2009
Nguyen Vab Huy et al, 'The Great Family of Ethnic Groups in Vietnam', Hanoi, 2011
Margaret Campbell, 'From the Hands of the Hills', Hong Kong, 1978
Paul and Elaine Lewis, 'Peoples of the Golden Triangle', London, 1984
Robert Lam Ping-fai et al, 'Ethnic Costumes of the Miao People in China, Hong Kong, 1986Tomoko Torimaru, 'One Needle, One Thread', Honolulu, 2008
Wu, Shizhong, 'A picture album of China's Miao Costumes and Ornaments', Guiyang, 2000Zhao Yuchi et al, 'Clothings and Ornaments of China's Miao People', Beijing, 1985
Yan Da, et al, 'Miao's Attires', Guiyang, 2010
Deryn O'Connor, 'Miao Costumes', Southhampton England, 1994
Florian Knothe et al, 'Embroidered Identities', Hong Kong, 2013
Gina Corrigan, ' Miao Textiles from China' Seattle, 2001
Zeng Xiangyang, 'Ethnic Miao Embroidery', 2009

Hello all,

Today I will take a break from Asia. It is fascinating, but difficult to research. Setesdal is one of the regions of Norway which has an unbroken folk costume tradition to this day. The costume is iconic of Norway, even though it is far from typical. It is worn today on special occasions and has changed little over the last couple hundred years.

Setesdal is in the south, part of the province of East Agder. It borders Telemark on the east and Rogaland on the west.

In actual fact, I should refer to this as the bunad of upper Setesdal, as it is native to the three municipalities of Bykle, Valle and Bygland, and is not traditional for the lower parts of the valley.

It appears that traditionally, no foundation garments were worn. I have been told that this is the reason that the traditional dance moves of the area are so restrained for the women, with no fast spinning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvA6jkDdccA

The first garment put on is the shirt, skjorte. The shirt is identical for men and women.
Many of these images are from the Norwegian Digataltmuseum website, available for perusal by all.
https://digitaltmuseum.no/search/?aq=text%3A%22setesdal%22%20owner%3F%3A%22NBF%22&o=0&n=176

The shirt was originally made of linen, but today is much more likely to be cotton. It has shoulder insets, or yokes on either side, then the body and the shoulder pieces are gathered into the collar. There are gussets under the arms for freedom of movement. The shoulder seams, like for most traditional shirts, falls on the upper arm.

There is a wide collar and cuffs, which are fastened by collar buttons and cuff buttons. For dress, they are edged with lace or tatting.

Here is a cut which is common today.

Here is a closeup of the buttons used to secure the collar and cuffs.

The front opening of the shirt is secured by one or more silver pins, as is typical for Norway.

The basic garment which is always the first garment to be worn over the shirt is the kveitestakk, or 'white skirt'.

For everyday, this was the only garment worn. It is basically a jumper of white wool, with straps over the shoulders. It is gathered into a black wool band with embroidery on the front. There is a green wool edge binding. There is an opening with a clasp in the center front.

In the back, the band is black wool, and there is a very abbreviated bodice added to the top in the rear, to which the straps are attached.

The embroidery, Loyesaum, varies quite a bit, which is unusual for Norway, but typical for a living tradition.

The embroidery in front is generally of a geometric design.

In this image above, you can see the inside of the 'liv', or bodice. The bodice has vertical stripes which are embroidered, usually with a curvilinear design. The band on top of the bodice and the straps are usually embroidered as well. Notice the variety in the embroidery. The design is drawn on the wool with a sliver of soap.

The body of the kveitestakk is made of several pieces of wool. Here is a layout.

The garment has a triple hem, each is sewn separately, and then they are sewn together, and attached to the hem of the white skirt. This is a very old detail, here is a museum piece.

Today each hem starts as a stiff band, then is wrapped in white wool and has a band of black wool sewn to the outside of it. On the lowest one, the black wool wraps around to the inside.

Here is a photo of the finished hem from the front side and the back.

Cording is couched to the back of each hem, I am not certain what function it serves, but it can be seen on the finished garment. The composite hem is sewn to the bottom of the white skirt, but the ends are sewn into the front seam. This, together with the stiff hem, gives a distinctive shape to the garment, forming a fold in front, which makes it resemble culottes.

On this woman, the seam between the skirt and the hem is distinctly visible.

A couple more images showing the distinctive shape of this garment.

When worn alone, the kveitestakk is cinched either with a leather belt that has a buckle, or a patterned woven sash. The sash is often attached to a metal clasp, but occasionally is just tied into a knot.

When worn for work, an apron, blåtyforkle, may be worn with the kveitestakk. It may hang from the waist, or be attached to the top of the garment.

Today it is usually of blue gingham, but it may be plaid, plain white, or of blue printed material.

Knee socks krotasokkar, are worn. They are identical for men and women. They are knit with textured patterns from white or natural wool yarn.

Men wear them like this, women dye them black. They are held up by garters. Sometimes these are fingerwoven wool sokkebande, as in other parts of Norway. They are tied around the leg above the calf.

More commonly, however, they use leather straps with buckles, which look like miniature belts. These are called sprette og sprote.

Generelly, leather shoes are worn, unless they are going barefoot, which, like country people everywhere, was often. The woman above is wearing regular black pumps, and the woman further above is wearing standard Norwegian bunad shoes. For special occasions, however, fancy shoes in local style can be worn.

For dress occasions, a second skirt is worn over the kveitestakk. This is called svortestakk, or 'black skirt', and is very similar to the first one, except for color. It has the same abbreviated bodice, which is often red, the band into which the skirt is gathered is green, and both, along with the straps, are embroidered. When put on over the kveitestakk, the top band of the svortestakk lays lower, so that both are visible. Likewise the triple hem is shorter, so that again, both show. The svortestakk's uppermost hem is green, and the lower two are red.

Again, the embroidery varies, and silver galoon is usually incorporated.

Here is the layout for the svortestakk, which varies somewhat from the kveitestakk.

You will notice that the outer two fields of the skirt, which lie in the front, are labelled glatt, which means smooth. The remaining three are traditionally pleated. This pleating is very fine, done like smock gathering on the wool which has lines woven in as guides.

After the entire piece of cloth is gathered, it is then wrapped around a pole, boiled, dyed, mordanted, and left for up to two years for the pleats to set. If you want to read more about this, Here is a website which translated and printed Aagot Noss's description of the process.
http://norwegiantextileletter.com/article/setesdal-pleating/

Here you can see the pleating, if you look carefully.

Occasionally, the lowest hem of the svortestakk is not plain red, but embroidered, or pattern woven. This may be how the stiffened hem got started.

For some especially formal occasions, the svortestakk is replaced by the blåstakk, or 'blue skirt'. This is actually also black, and the only significant difference is that the colored wool on the two upper hems is replaced by silver galloon, and the background of the middle hem is red instead of also being black. Here is a woman dressed up to have her child christened. Not only is she wearing a blåstakk, but her kerchief is silk.

Short jackets are worn with this outfit. They come in three variations. The plainest and least formal is the gråkupte, or gray jacket.

This is made of natural colored dark wool, brown or charcoal gray, with the cuffs, front, and collar trimmed in black wool. The embroidery is minimal, by Setesdal standards. The cuffs and front may be closed with buttons. It is usually worn with the kveitestakk.

The back is plain.

It can also be worn by men, in a slightly different form.

When wearing the svortestakke or blåstakke, a more formal jacket is worn, the blåkupte. This means 'blue jacket', but it is in fact black, like the blåstakke.

It has more extensive embroidery on the front, shoulders and cuffs, and is trimmed with green and red wool and silver galloons.

Here is the layout of the blåkupte.

Although the exact design may vary, the placement of the embroidery remains the same.
It is secured in front by a silver chain threaded through eyelets on either side. See above. Sometimes the chain is attached to the eyelets, fancy dangles are added, and it closes on hooks, as here.

The third type of jacket is worn by brides, and I will not talk about it today. here are some examples of jacket embroidery.

The hair is divided into two, and the two parts are wrapped with a pattern woven band, similar to the sash, but narrower.

Girls often stop there, but women will cover it with a kerchief, tied either behind the neck, or
on the forehead.

Shawls are worn when attending Church. There are two types; the first is older and woven in three narrow pieces which are then sewn together, these are called kyrkjekjeld. The newer ones are woven in one piece, and are called kyrkjetaepe. Here are a couple examples of each.

And I think that is enough for one article. I will continue in the next one.

Here is a husflid which specializes in Setesdal costumes. If you wish, you can order one through this website.
http://www.setesdalsbunad.no/omoss

Here is a video which shows scenery, music and dance from Setesdal. The dancing starts at the 1:45 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m4yHJjGvpw

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. You might try some of this embroidery for yourself.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source Material:
Aagot Noss, 'Stakkeklede i Setesdal', Oslo, 2008
Laila Duran, 'Bunader og Tradisjoner fra Setesdal', 2015
Bjorn Sverre hol Haugen, 'Norsk Bunadleksikon' Oslo, 2009
Kjersti Skavhaug et al, 'Norwegian Bunads', Oslo, 1991
Heidi Fossnes, 'Norges Bunader og Samiske Folkedrakter', Oslo, 1993
Ellen Scheel et al, 'Bunad-Brodering', Oslo, 1997
Janice Stewart, 'The Folk Arts of Norway', University of Wisconsin, 1953
Guvnor Traetteberg, 'Folk Costumes of Norway', Oslo, 1966, 1976
Thorbjorg Ugland, 'A Sampler of Norway's Folk Costumes', Oslo, 1996
Laila Duran, 'Scandinavian Folklore vol I - III', Sweden, 2011-2013

Hello all,
Today I will continue my series on the costume and embroidery of Setesdal, East Agder, Norway. The Women's outfit has remained essentially the same for at least three hundred years, but the men's changed significantly about 150 yrs ago. The current outfit does not resemble any other men's attire anywhere in the region.
One theory of its origin is that sailors from Setesdal wanted to imitate clothing they saw abroad, perhaps in Spain, and so created this ensemble.

The base garment is the shirt, skjorte, which is identical in cut to the women's shirt.
It was likely originally linen, but today is usually made of cotton. For festive dress the collar and cuffs are edged with lace or tatting.

The main garment of the outfit is called bukse, dalebukse or skinnfo. It resembles a set of bib overalls more than anything else. It is made of black wadmal, a type of heavy homewoven wool.

The bib and cuffs have patches of embroidered green wool sewn onto them. Some also have green wool strips below the pocket openings. Others either do not have pockets, or the pockets are internal. There is a large leather patch on the seat, and also two patches on the upper inseam of the legs. These last have a narrow projection which extends from the crotch up to the middle of the bib. When new, the leather is black.

There are two leather straps which button to the bykse front and back. The front buttons are attached to buckles which make the straps adjustable.

A seam leads from the side of the bib straight down to the cuffs, where there is an opening for the foot. This seam is always picked out with green piping.

The bukse, even if they are modeled on Matador outfits, are made to fit loosely. This is for ease of movement, comfort, warmth, and also because typically nowadays, a man receives a bunad for his confirmation, and then wears it for the rest of his life, so he needs some room to grow.

Here are a couple of young men on whom the bukse are rather large, notice that the back comes almost to the shoulder.

This man has obviously grown quite a bit since he got his bunad, but by lengthening the straps, he can still wear it. Today it is unusual for a boy as young as his son to have the bunad, but it can be handed down.

The embroidery on the bib, like that on the women's outfit, has standard placement, but the exact design varies. Even the extent of the embroidery varies somewhat.

The same is true for the cuffs.

Note that both the bib and the cuffs are edged with black leather. This is a heavy garment, so the buttonholes are reinforced. Pockets are made of linen.

Most often a vest, called 'vest', is worn over the bukse. It is very short, and greatly resembles the women's jacket, except that it has no sleeves, and the back is made of linen. It is of black wool and is also lined with linen. The embroidery is also very similar to the women's jacket.

The vest often has buttons and a gold plated silver clasp, and sometimes has small pockets in front. The armholes may be edged in green or black.

In cold weather the famous Setesdal sweater is added. This is usually called 'lusekofte', which means 'louse sweater'. This is a reference to the traditional design of white dots on a black background, which looks like lice crawling on the body. It was originally made of natural dark and pale wool, but nowadays is usually made of wool dyed black and bleached white. The body and sleeves are knitted, but the collar, cuffs, and front plackets are of embroidered woven wool. Because it was worn inside the bukse, in older examples the bottom was left plain white, because it would not be seen. Some examples also feature a white woven wool lining on the yoke. Unlike some other parts of Europe, like the Slavic countries, knitting is an old tradition in Scandinavia.

The vest is often worn over the lusekofte.

A gråkupte, or gray jacket, similar to that worn by women is sometimes worn, as we can see by the man on lhe right above. Normally leather shoes are worn, but he has put on boots as well. A couple more images of the gråkupte. See also the image at the head of the article.

In general, a felt hat is worn.This has a brim and the top may have straight sides, or be pinched in the middle and wider on top. It is ornamented either by a woven band, or silver chains with a clasp in front. See the image of grandfather and grandson just above, and this group of men here.

These men are comparing Sølje. Silver is part of every Norwegian bunad. It includes the filligree buttons on the bukse, vest, lusekupte, as well as the clasps on the vest, pocket watches on chains, silver chains on the hat, as well as collar and cuff buttons on the shirts, and pins to hold the shirts closed. The man on the right has a knife in a sheath which buttons to his bukse. The square shirt pin seen here is also worn in Telemark.

These two men have fancy silver pocket watch chains.

On the day of his wedding, a man would put on the 'bridegroom's cross' on a silver chain, and then would wear it for special occasions after that. You can see that this man is dressed for his wedding. He also has a knife and sheath buttoned to his bukse.

Men may also wear embroidered gloves when it is cold. These are commonly given as gifts by those who make them.

There is one more type of jacket which is worn by men and boys in Setesdal. This is called grautkupte, which means 'porridge jacket', because it keeps you warm as porridge. It is made of black wool with green cuffs and front plackets which have some embroidery. It has a clasp at the neck, and hooks that enable it to be closed down the front.

There is a practice which is common to many places of putting small boys into frocks or kirtles. This was also done in Setesdal, where a boy's frock was called guttekjole. Many silly stories have been spun to explain this, often about tricking the elves, faeries or evil spirits. The truth is much more prosaic; little boys were not put into pants until they were out of diapers, it was just not practical until they were 'dry'.

Just a couple more images of this bunad.

Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. Perhaps you should try some of the embroidery which was featured in this article.

Roman K.

email: rkozakand@aol.com

Here is a video which shows scenery, music and dance from Setesdal. The dancing starts at the 1:45 mark.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m4yHJjGvpw

Here are two websites where you can order this costume if you wish.

http://www.setesdalsbunad.no/omoss

http://www.setesdalhusflid.no/?menuid=7

Source Material:
Norske Digitaltmuseum
Aagot Noss, 'Stakkeklede i Setesdal', Oslo, 2008
Laila Duran, 'Bunader og Tradisjoner fra Setesdal', 2015
Bjorn Sverre hol Haugen, 'Norsk Bunadleksikon' Oslo, 2009
Kjersti Skavhaug et al, 'Norwegian Bunads', Oslo, 1991
Heidi Fossnes, 'Norges Bunader og Samiske Folkedrakter', Oslo, 1993
Ellen Scheel et al, 'Bunad-Brodering', Oslo, 1997
Janice Stewart, 'The Folk Arts of Norway', University of Wisconsin, 1953
Guvnor Traetteberg, 'Folk Costumes of Norway', Oslo, 1966, 1976
Thorbjorg Ugland, 'A Sampler of Norway's Folk Costumes', Oslo, 1996
Laila Duran, 'Scandinavian Folklore vol I - III', Sweden, 2011-2013

Costume of Szamotuły, Wielkopolska, Poland

Costume of Lolland and South Falster, Denmark

Costume of the North Frisian Islands

Poltava style cutwork embroidery, Ukraine

Costume and embroidery of Zakarpattia, Ukraine, Part 3, the East

Costume and Embroidery of Zakarpattia, Ukraine, part 2; the Center

Costume and Embroidery of Zakarpattia, Ukraine, part 1, the West

Traditional costumes of the Korean People, part 1, Men

Traditional Costumes of the Korean People, part 2,. Women

Traditional Costume of the Korean People; part 3 Wedding Attire

Dragon Robes of the Qing Dynasty

Pozaihlenne Embroidery of Pokuttia and West Podillia, Ukraine

Introduction to some of the folk costumes of Vietnam

Introduction to the costumes of the Miao-Yao, or Hmongic-Mienic peoples, part 1 Xong and Hmu

Miao

Although this is a foreign term, it is handy to refer to this group as a whole. The Chinese government considers all of the peoples in this group to form one nationality. The Miao language family has three main branches, Qo Xiong, Hmu, and West Hmongic, which includes Hmong.

The Han Chinese have a saying 'If you meet a hundred Miao, you will see a hundred costumes.'

This is literally true.

Qo Xiong

Almost a million speakers

Introduction to the costumes of the Miao-Yao, or Hmongic-Mienic peoples, part 2 The Western Hmongic Peoples

Introduction to the costumes of the Hmongic/Mienic peoples, part 3 The Hmong

Introduction to the costumes of the Hmongic/Mienic Peoples. Part 4 The She and the non-Mien Yao

Hainan Island Yao

Kim Mun Lanten Sha

Kim Mun Lanten Shanzi

Kim Meun

Introduction to the costumes of the Hmongic/Mienic peoples. Part 5 the Mien

Costume and Embroidery of Setesdal, East Agder, Norway, part 1 women

Costume and Embroidery of Setesdal, East Agder, Norway, part 2 men