Hello all,
Not long ago the Ethno-Gallery of Roksolyana Shymchuk published this photograph on their facebook page, and it was widely shared. It piqued my curiosity, because this is not typical of Ukrainian costume at all, and so I started some research.
The caption simply said that this was from Eastern Podillia, specifically Kodyma County in the northwest corner of Odessa Oblast.
According to Ukrainian Wikipedia, this county is 97% Ukrainian, Romanian Wikipedia confirmed this, but added that in 1926 the Soviet Census listed the village as being 45% Moldavian, but that they had since been assimilated. The costume was also worn over the border in the adjacent Moldovan County of Camenca Кам'янка, which is currently part of Transdnistria, which is today about 51 % Moldavian and 33% Ukrainian. I have found no evidence that this costume was worn anywhere else, and just as it does not resemble other Ukrainian costumes, it also does not resemble other Moldavian costumes.
Here are a couple of Images from the Moldavian side, of a bride dressing and part of the wedding ceremony.
A drawing of a bride from Moldavia.
And a Ukrainian photograph of a model dressed as a bride from this region.
A couple of Moldavian photos of dress outfits.
The chemise has a narrow band of embroidery on the collar, a wide band on the shoulder, with a narrow band just under it. Some also have spot designs on the lower sleeve, and embroidery on the cuffs and hem.
Here are a couple of chemises which were for sale online a while ago, specifically from the village of Shershentsi in Kodyma county.They are of the morshchanka type.
The embroidery is similar, but the narrow band of cross stitch is here replaced by a band of monochrome brick stitch, which is very typical of Podillia, and also of Moldavian embroidery.
1
This one had open sleeves with some embroidery and what looks like crotchet edging, no cuffs, and a narrow toothed edging on the bottom hem.
2
This one has embroidered cuffs and a narrow cross stitch design on the hem which may represent dogs or some other animal.
Here you can see photos of another chemise from this district, this one from the village of Zahnitkiw in Kodyma. This is the website Krovets'. This shows closeups of a chemise with the narrow band of rose cross stitch and stars on the lower sleeve.
https://krovets.com.ua/en/natilnyy-odyag/womans-shirt-45
Here are some photos of the outer garment, which is called Sharafan. The front field is smock gathered at the shoulders, the lower part has velvet ribbons for embellishement, and the back has ribbon ornament in the form of princess line seams. This particular one is gray, but they were also made in other dark colors.
You can see more images of this type of garment at Krovets here, these are from the village of Zahnitkiw.
https://krovets.com.ua/en/nagrudniy-odyag/sharafan-skirt-vest
The bridal headdress is shown here, it is distinct, but in line with other bridal headdesses of the area. This image is from Ukraine.
This image is from the embroidery on the end of a naframitsa, or namitka, according to a Moldavian source. I think it likely that it is actually a rushnyk. The embroidery is similar to that found upstream in the rest of East Podillia, and also across the Dnister in Moldavia.
Here are a couple of images from an Ethnoecofest in Kodyma. They were showing, among other things, wedding traditions from Shershentsi.
You can see more photos from this festival here.
http://kodyma-fest.com
This tradition is still alive.
The question as to whether it is really Ukrainian or Moldavian remains unresolved. It would appear to have been worn by both ethnicities in this region.
Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.
Roman K.
email: rkozakand@aol.com
Source Material:
V. S. Zelenchuk, 'Moldavian National Costume', Chisinau, 1985