These Boiki were forcibly resettled by Operation Wisla in 1946, in the same way that the Lemkos were. I will be relying mostly on old photographs to describe this costume.
The following images are also from Berehy Horishni. This man has some embroidery on his collar and shoulders. He has his shirt tucked in.
This man was obviously well off, as he could afford a sheepskin coat and boots.
Here we can see the typical Boiko smocking of the skirt into the waistband on the woman at left.
This woman is showing off a typical Boiko overcoat with deep pleats at the waist.
Smerek
This photo shows the harvest of oats.
Struboviska Струбовиська [Strzebowiska]
Here we see two women in work clothing raking hay.
Khrevt Хревт [Chrewt]
Rybne
Mychkiw Мичків [Myczków]
This outfit is found in the village museum of Mychkiw. Note that the woman's costume shows city influence in the use of bought materials.
Volia Matiashova Воля Матіяшова [Wola Matiaszowa]
We have one drawing by Kul'chytska from this village, which seems to show city costume influence.
Kal'nytsa near Balyhorod, [Kalnica near Baligrod]
This man is also wearing a chuha.
Serednie Vielkie Середнє Велике [Średnie Wielkie]
Hichva Гічва [Hoczew]
This village lies on the northern edge of Boiko territory. In this photo we see two women preparing for a wedding. They both are wearing white skirts and aprons with contemporary cutwork embroidery.
Here is a photo of some official visiting a Boiko school in this region. The exact location is unknown to me.
Lemko / Boiko Transitional Region.
There is a region which lies outside of the Boiko area according to the map at the head of the article. This includes the villages of Polonna [Plonna], Kuliashne [Kulaszne] and Kozhushne [Kożuszne]. This region lies northeast of Komancha, and northwest of the Boiko region. Reinfuss calls this the Lemko / Boiko transitional region, and took several photographs there. Influences from both groups are obvious in the costume.
Here are a few photos which are supposed to be of a visit of "Lemkos from Eastern Lemkovyna" to Krakow in 1936. I do not know exactly where they were from, but the costume resembles the ones I am covering today. I find it interesting that the men are wearing the rogatowka, the four corned Polish hat.
Here are a few photos from Boiko museums in Poland, many from the one in Mychkiw. Some of the outfits shown are of this type, others show clear influence of Halychyna Town costume. The short vests became more ornamented in later years as this became popular in Poland.
Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. This Boiko costume is one which is often overlooked and rarely heard about. We should remember this region.
Roman K.
email: rkozakand@aol.com
Source Material:
Swiat Bojkow, Andrzej Karczmarzewski, Rzeszow 2014
Karpacki Swiat Bojkow i Lemkow, Roman Reinfuss, Olszanica 2016
Western Boikos Folk Costumes, Natalia Klyashtorna, Ivano-Frankiwsk, 2017
and various places on the web.