Historians have not come to a consensus on how the Russian clothes of the Proto-Slavic era looked like, since at that time the tribes lived mainly away from trade routes, often in forest areas and isolation. However, there are suggestions that the outfits in those days were simple and fairly monotonous. The latter is due to the fact that home-based fabric production was quite labor-intensive at that time, since there were practically no technical means for making wardrobe items.
There is little information about ancient clothes
Public education Ancient Russia, whose clothes became more diverse as they contacted other peoples, began to take shape by the ninth century AD. Prior to this period, data on the appearance of the Slavs is minimal, since wardrobe items at that time were made from natural materials, the organic remains of which do not last long. In addition, it must be borne in mind that in the 6-9th century AD, the Proto-Slavs had a customto burn the bodies before burial, so in the burial grounds they find mainly the remains of melted jewelry or metal elements of clothing. Archaeologists were lucky only a few times when, for example, during excavations on Staraya Ladoga, they found the remains of leather, which made it possible to restore the appearance of mittens and the likeness of stocking boots worn by our distant ancestors.
To fight in the same pants
In foreign written sources before the 10th century AD, there is no mention of what the Slavs and Russian clothes looked like. Neither Byzantine authors nor Arabic sources write about this. Only P. Kesarsky in the sixth century mentioned that the Slavs (from the Balkans) go into battle in the same pants of a shortened style, without a cloak or chiton on top. Later, when the Slavs acquired a new version of writing, scientists, based on written sources, had the opportunity to determine what people looked like at that time, at least the most eminent of them.
Kings wore shirts
What did those who ruled Ancient Russia look like? The clothes of Prince Svyatoslav Yaroslavovich, presented in the image in the Izbornik of 1073, are distinguished by their simple cut. This is a long, below the knees, shirt, over which a cloak is thrown over the top with a clasp on the shoulder. The prince has a hat on his head, presumably with a fur trim, and pointed boots on his feet. Members of his family standing nearby also wear shirts tied with belts. Svyatoslav's wife has a shirt almost to the floor, a scarf on her head. Children's clothing on a small child is a small copy of an adult. Sons of Yaroslavdressed in the likeness of caftans with collars and, most likely, wore the so-called "ports" - rather narrow trousers with a tie at the hips. Wardrobe items shown are reddish brown.
Clothes were made on a loom
Specialists suggest that the light clothes of Kievan Rus were mostly white, since from prehistoric times the Slavs made wardrobe items from flax and hemp, which gave a white fiber (or grayish, with insufficient bleaching). Already in the 6th-9th centuries, the tribes of Northern Russia knew what a vertical loom was, and in the south they found objects dating back to the 9th-10th centuries, which testified to possible work on a horizontal loom.
In addition to linen and hemp fabrics, the Slavs actively used woolen, the remains of which were found in East Slavic mounds. In addition, due to climatic features, fur clothing was very popular. Tailors of that time already had the ability to sew several skins together to get a large item. The skins of wolves, bears, rams were most often used for fur coats, and the trim (lining) was made of sable, otter, beaver, squirrel, ermine, and marten. Of course, only representatives of the nobility wore expensive furs. In Russia, they also knew how to process the skins of various animals (tanning with plant elements, etc.), so men's clothing in Russia included waist belts, mittens and leather shoes (for some members of the population). The Slavs often wore leatherproducts made from the skins of cows or goats than from horseskins.
Even in the cold, they probably wore bast shoes
What was Ancient Russia shod with? Clothing made from natural materials among the majority of the population here in the cold season was supplemented … with bast shoes and foot wraps, which are the oldest type of footwear (in summer, most likely, they walked barefoot). Archaeologists find special hooks for weaving bast shoes at Neolithic sites, so with a high probability both Slavs and Proto-Slavs wore these models. Bast shoes were made, as expected, from the bark of various tree species and were very durable. In a later period, it was found that in winter a peasant wore out bast shoes in ten days, and in the summer season - in less than a week. Nevertheless, even the Red Army marched in such shoes in the 30s of the 20th century, and a special commission, Chekvolap, was engaged in the preparation of bast shoes for military purposes.
To the temple - only in Slavic clothes
The Slavs, who inhabited Ancient Russia (whose clothes and shoes did not differ in a large assortment), nevertheless respected their simple wardrobe. For example, in the "Word of Danila the Sharpener" it is stated that "it would be better if we saw our foot in a lychenitsa (bast shoes) in your house than in a scarlet boot in a boyar yard." And the leader of the Czech Slavs Samo is known for not letting the ambassador of the German king Dagobert to his reception until he changed into Slavic clothes. The same fate befell the representative of the bishop, the German Herimann, who, beforevisit the temple of Triglav in the town of Shchetino, had to change into a Slavic cloak and hat (1124 AD).
Women have always loved jewelry
About how women's clothing looked in Russia at the very beginning of the emergence of Russian statehood, archaeologists find it difficult to say. It is assumed that in style it did not differ much from the men's shirt, only it was, perhaps, more richly decorated with embroidery and longer. On their heads, women wore prototypes of kokoshniks, temporal rings, and often blue or green glass beads around their necks. Bracelets and rings were less common. In winter, the ladies wore fur coats, as well as capes with ties, like aprons - “ponyavs”, which protected the lower part of the body from behind and from the sides. Their presence was recorded as early as the 11th century AD.
Influence of other states
As contacts developed between other countries and the state of Ancient Russia, the clothes of the Slavs became more diverse due to new fabrics, borrowing styles and dividing society into different layers. For example, in pre-Mongolian Russia (10-13 centuries), the appearance of the Russian nobility was more in line with Byzantine traditions with their long flowing shirts, cloaks with fasteners. And among the common people, in particular among women, such tendencies were emphasized by a "crosslink" - a simple piece of fabric, folded in half, with a hole for the head, which was put on the main shirt and girdled (there were no side seams on the link). On holidays, the ladies wore "heads" made of fabrics with embroidery, which were wornover a cufflink or shirt and were tunics without a belt with wide sleeves. Almost all clothes of the times of Kievan Rus were put on over the head and did not have their own collar (there were overhead).
Mongolian warrior clothes
The Tatar-Mongol invasion left certain borrowings in the sphere of material culture, which influenced the way clothes were worn in Russia in subsequent centuries. Many wardrobe items of Mongol warriors later appeared in Russian men, including boots with felt stockings, a hat with earflaps, a fur coat made of two layers of fur (outer and inner), trousers, armyaks, skullcaps (tafyas), sashes, etc.
How did the clothes of Muscovite Rus differ from the clothes of Kievan Rus?
Clothing of the 15th century, when the Tatar-Mongol yoke was overthrown, and Russia became the Moscow principality, changed in accordance with the era, but mainly for boyars, nobles and townspeople. During this period, the main features of the costume of Kievan Rus were preserved in the costume - a shirt and ports for men, an uncut cut of wardrobe items, a significant length, but signs of a new fashion appeared. These include, in particular, the presence of swing clothes in the wardrobes. For women, it was unbuttoned to the bottom, for men - to the waist, and at first it was supplied with a butt clasp through hinged loops. Subsequently, the right floor formed from above to the left, which was explained by the convenience of such fasteners for men in saber battles.
Fake sleeves and gold embroidery
Approximately during this period,non-functional elements in the clothing of the nobility. These include framed multi-layered collars and folding sleeves, which, for example, on okhabna, were tied on the back, emphasizing that the wearer of the clothes does not do hard work. Rich people could wear several layers of clothing even in the hot season. At the same time, wardrobe items were often completely fastened with fasteners. The latter led to the fact that the clothes had many jewelry-level elements, including decoration with pearls, precious stones, embroidery with gold and silver wire, buttons made of gold, silver, enamel and precious stones.
There were in the Russian wardrobe of that time and items that could emphasize certain properties of the figure. These include a belt bag-purse ("kalita"), which the warriors wore at the waist with a slender figure, and the boyars - on the hip line with a significant overlap of clothing, since fullness in this environment was valued very highly, as a sign of a well-fed life.
It is not known what children's clothes of the period of Moscow Russia looked like. Most likely, she was again a simplified copy of adult models. But the samples of women's fashion of that time inspired many artists to create pictorial masterpieces (Korovin, Repin, Surikov). At the heart of the entire wardrobe, again, was a shirt, expanded from top to bottom due to wedges (the width could reach up to 6 meters below!). It was sewn from cotton or silk fabrics (ordinary people - again from flax) and gathered at the neck.
Fashion suit… weighing 15 kilograms
Over the shirta sundress made of bright fabric with a vertical embroidered stripe in the middle was worn, which was held on by narrow straps and often tied under the chest. Outerwear for women in Russia of the 16th century was represented by a “soul warmer” made of bright fabrics, which was also held on the shoulders with straps. In the days of Muscovite Russia, ladies continued to wear ancient elements of clothing - a poneva, an apron, a zapon, etc. Representatives of we althy families put on a "letnik", often with a beaver collar-necklace, and a padded jacket made of fur. Of the hats, the “kika” was popular - a hoop covered with fabric and a kokoshnik, in winter - a cap with decoration. The clothes of the noblewomen were almost always fitted, made of expensive fabrics with numerous embroideries, and their weight could reach up to 15 kilograms. In such a dress, the lady was a static, sedate, partly monumental figure, which corresponded to the fashion and norms of behavior of that time.
The clothes of the 17th century in Russia in general were similar to the clothes of previous centuries, but some new structural elements appeared. These include the entry into fashion of a wide sleeve gathered at the wrist of women's shirts, the widespread use of shushuns - sundresses, to which two fake long sleeves were sewn on the back. Historians note that since the 17th century, a fashion has come to decorate the hem of a sundress with a strip and its disappearance from the front panel. During this period, Russia was little concerned with foreign fashion, only new fabrics and individual elements, such as the Polish caftan, were popular. It should be noted that Russian society actively opposed the introductionPeter the Great at the beginning of the 18th century of "German" fashion, since the proposed outfits, hairstyles and lifestyle did not correspond to the centuries-old way of life and trends in Russian clothing.
