The clothes of the peoples living on the territory of Russia had not only the most varied forms, but in addition to their main purpose - purely utilitarian (protection from the cold, from heat, rain, and so on) - it had its own ritual and symbolic functions. This is exactly the Chuvash costume that will be discussed in this article. It can be considered in three aspects according to the main signs of ethnogroups: viryal - these are the upper (from the upper Volga), anatri - the lower, anat enchi - the Middle-Chuvash. Their costumes vary in sewing, color preferences and the ornamental nature of jewelry.
Materials
Chuvash clothes were made not only from purchased fabrics, but most often they were leather, felt, homespun canvas or cloth. Shoes made of wood and bast. Canvases were woven by all Deveren women, young and old, and not only Chuvash women. To do this, flax and hemp were grown, processed in rather laborious ways, and then went on to make the canvas.
The Chuvash costume, made for the holidays, was quite different from everyday clothes. Even the canvas itself was different: thin - for festive clothes, much coarser - for working harem pants and shirts. The thinly spun fleece was intended for wedding and holiday caftans, and thick cloth was woven from thicker yarn on ordinary chapans and caftans.
The nineteenth century left quite a few products that at that time represented the Chuvash costume, many of them can now be viewed in museums, admired and admired almost lost skills now. This clothes is beautiful, even everyday everyday krashenina (the one that is already dyed with a fabric in one color). A motley makes me wonder at how inventive people were in the pursuit of beauty. The motley was made of already dyed threads, and the patterns of fabrics were very different, not only strips and cells. This Chuvash costume from the lower Volga is so colorful, and the upper and middle Chisinau Chuvash preferred canvas on white, but with rich embroidery. Closer to the twentieth century, such a fabric was woven even from purchased threads. Factory fabrics were very expensive, but they were also bought and used sparingly - for decoration.
Types of clothing
The Chuvash national costume under the influence of time and various factors has changed quite a lot. This was influenced by the geographical environment, and the traditional occupations of people, world outlook in different eras of history. Of course, the division into outer and underclothing remained unshakable, since this was dictated by the functionality of each wardrobe item. However, not everything is simple here. For example, a female shirt was even differently embedded in each of the three ethnic groups - anatri, anatenchi and turi. And the set of wardrobe items was also different in each case. This is especially noticeable in the ornaments of embroidery, composition, manufacturing techniques. Yes, and wore them in slightly different ways. Moreover, the Chuvash national costume varies not only by gender, but also by age. And, of course, by season.
The oldest outfits that can be admired in museums are not too old - they were worn at the end of the seventeenth century. Unfortunately, the earlier Chuvash folk costume is no longer available for study. What do we see in clothes a little more than three hundred years ago? Almost all the shirts are cut in an old fashion - tunic-like. This is the easiest and most economical way when the fabric is bent at the shoulders so that the back and front of the shirt are made from one panel. Further, the design is constructed as follows: side wedges, a cutout for the collar, sleeves with gusset (this is a wedge sewn in by the armpit in the armhole for more freedom in movement). A rather complicated cut, by the way, for those times. In the variants, the Chuvash folk costume does not have big differences: the skeleton is detachable or solid, the shape of the collar (you can see both the standing and the turn-down, and the complete absence of the collar), the yoke is the cutting part in front.
For men
In the old days, men's shirts for Chuvash from the upper Volga were long and wide, right to the knees. They also cut out tunic-like, and the chest incision was on the side - on the right or left. Such a shirt had no collar.
The male Chuvash national costume is characterized by small but important distinctive details. The chest cut of the shirt was tied with braid, and embroidery flaunted around, and the richer it was, the more festive. The ends of the sleeves and the hem were also decorated. Everyday clothes were often not decorated at all.
The costume of the Chuvash people was intended not only for work and holidays. For example, the whiteness of men's shirts was traditional and obligatory for everyone, since it was also intended for pagan cult items. Here, the differences were only in the quality of the canvas: the rich were thinner among the rich and the coarser among the poor.
Shirts were worn under the belt. It is interesting to observe how the cut changed depending on the development of technological progress. As soon as wide purchased fabrics appeared, the Chuvash men's suit acquired round armholes, lost gussets, and a collar became mandatory. On cool summer evenings, the Chuvash showed off in a light canvas, snow-white caftan and a pasta of blue or black cloth. The smell was provided from right to left, a fitted back with assemblies was often found.
Festive fur coats are richly decorated on the chest, collar, edge of each floor and behind - a triangle. In addition to embroideries, other techniques were also used - silk applications, for example. Sometimes the coats were cut straight-backed, they were always white, they had to be belted with very beautiful woven belts. Such in the old days priests wore sacrifices. And then simple old men began to put on. That was such a Chuvash men's suit, the photo can be seen below.
In the cold
Chuvash men in autumn wore long, below the knees, caftans of thick cloth, which had a large turn-down collar and floors smelled under the sash. And in winter, large sheepskin coats appeared - yellow or black. They were very long, there were numerous assemblies or folds at the waist, and fur trim was on the collar and on the sleeves. By the way, the more assemblies and folds, the more the fur coat was considered richer. And the best of them were trimmed with a hem along the sleeves, pockets, collar and edges of the floor - most often black. The border was merlushka, morocco or good expensive cloth. On the way over a fur coat or caftan, in case of bad weather, we put on a chapan, raincoat or epancha from very dense cloth, which were cut straight-back and ankle-length, with a huge collar and a very deep smell. They wore raincoats either wide open or under the sash.
Women's costume looked a bit different, although the type was the same. Just cut options were more, and also the nature of the jewelry differed dramatically. Women from the upper Volga had purely white coats and black caftans that looked like a bathrobe. And the lower chuvashki wore cloth caftans, the coats were fastened one hook at the waist. White color was generously decorated with colored strips of fabric on the floors and on the collar, in pockets. And they had much more embroidery even on winter clothes. Sleeves, pockets were merrily embroidered, and the waist was also emphasized with embroideries.
The Chuvash women's costume, which was intended for weddings and holidays, was especially richly decorated - here even silver or gold galun went into business. The fur coat on the upper part and all the sleeves is made of red satin, and the entire bottom is made of black. The caftans for young women were especially soft and thin cloth - green or black, with fabric colored stripes or with embroidery on the chest. Work clothes were shorter and most often dark brown. Grassroots Chuvash liked blue and black at holidays, and horsebacks liked white and yellow. Women preferred winter fur coats from black sheepskin, with numerous (up to ninety pieces!) Assemblies at the waist.
Ornaments
The Chuvash embroidery also differed geographically: the grassroots loved polychrome, dense, and the horseback embroidered jewelry. The former were dominated by embroidered medallions, rhomboid figures throughout the chest section of the shirt, and the latter adorned their outfit with removable shoulder pads made of richly and finely embroidered ribbons. Rosette, rhombus, circle - for many peoples, these patterns symbolized the sun. Chuvashki also almost always used them.
The sleeves, the back and the hem were decorated with burgundy stripes from the braid, inside which was placed the embroidery. Lace was also often sewn on the hem, and a little higher on the fabric they were duplicated by an embroidered pattern. Geometric ornaments were chosen, in which one could observe an ancient idea of a picture of the world. The Chuvash women's national costume is filled with symbols. The world tree, an eight-pointed star and many other images on ancient embroideries can tell a lot about the relationships, borrowings and preferences of ancient peoples. He will show how the Chuvash costume looked, photo. Female and male, of course, had differences.
Women's festive appearance is very elegant. Underwear was ornamented much more modestly: two rhombuses or an inclined strip on the lower shirt, rather served as a talisman than decoration, despite the fact that the complex of the Chuvash costume suggests it as its main element. The rest of the outfit was subordinate to her and the color pattern, and the composition of jewelry. The dress over the shirt was always worn with an apron - brightly decorated with lace, stripes and embroidery.
Women at the holiday are smart - like dolls in Chuvash costumes. And each outfit is complemented by a patterned or embroidered belt. By the way, before they were tied at the same time as many as three: one on the dress, then on the lap of the dress, and the last on the apron. And all are tied on their sides, dropping the long ends down, where they ended with colored pompons. But in groups of anathe enchis and anatri women always wore only one belt. That is what their Chuvash national costume looked like, the photo can be seen in the article.
Footwear
The most basic type of shoes for three, or even four seasons, was for both women and men ordinary bast shoes. Each nation had its own way of weaving this eco-friendly, comfortable and lightweight shoe. The Chuvash people wove men's bast shoes of seven bast, where the head was relatively small, and the sides were quite low. But the women weaved elegantly and carefully. Strips of a bast were made thinner, narrow, therefore a larger number of bast strips was required - there were nine or twelve. In addition, riding chuvashki near the head passed a thin rope, so it was easy to distinguish them from men.
The museum also has female bast shoes of a very whimsical weaving. They wore such shoes with black, densely wound onuchs, on top of which two-meter heights were wound, and with cloth stockings. A lot of skill was required by wrapping them on, and braiding them with oboras, it took quite a lot of time. Therefore, cloth breeches were often worn with bast shoes, put them on faster. And when winter came, it was impossible to do without boots. Although in ancient times, not all Chuvash could afford them. At the end of the nineteenth century, a tradition took shape to give leather boots to a son for his wedding, and his daughter the same boots. The Chuvash from the upper Volga really liked the coded boots, in which short and very hard shafts were assembled with an accordion. But such shoes were rarely worn and extremely cherished.
Hats
In the old days, all the headdresses of women in Chuvashia were divided into two groups - hats and bedspreads. The latter include Surpan (headband with a bandage), a scarf with a bandage and a turban. All these things are for married women, including the bride’s bedspread. Surpans were decorated in each group with their own specifics. Grassroots Chuvash wore a very long Surpan - two and a half meters, which completely covered his head. Its middle was made of white canvas, and the endings were richly embroidered or decorated with patterned strips, gowns, ribbons, cumack or lace. Surpans patterns are basically geometric - in the form of squares, rhombuses, crosses. Surpan was fixed at the bottom Chuvash with a special headband.
The anatenchi chuvash had shorter shirts, the decorations were also narrower - the same woven cumack stripes, white lace and embroidery. But this headdress was worn differently, with the help of the masmak dressing. Surpans made horse chuvash almost short - up to one and a half meters, and their thin canvas was decorated with bilateral embroidery, the geometric ornament of which was placed in tiers. At the ends of the Surpan was fringe and multi-colored beads. Headbands are very different in groups. Wide and with massive patterns in anatenchi and anatri, and narrow with small embroidered patterns in viryals. Ornaments on masmaks included individual stylized images of leaves, trees, flowers, figures of birds, horses, dragons, sometimes you can see the whole picture of the creation of the world through the eyes of the ancients. It is in jewelry that the Chuvash costume is unique. Coloring and ornaments usually do not repeat even in two equally cut clothes.
Decoration as a talisman
The feminine attire was also represented by hip and waist jewelry embroidered with silk and woolen threads, beads, stripes, and fringe. The latter exclusively enriched any fragment of the dress, as the whole costume came to life in motion. The national costume of the dude will not be complete without a headdress of beads, coins and small cowrie shells. In these jewelry, you can see the woman’s affiliation, her age, and social status, all her notions of beauty that ancestors have been developing for centuries. There are clearly visible traces of popular understanding of the world. The main function of jewelry until the very last times is their protective, magical purpose - to protect the owner from evil spirits and many dangers.
The most complete set of Chuvash jewelry is presented at holidays and weddings. A wedding outfit, for example, weighs along with jewelry around a pound (sixteen kilograms). The bead-sewing technique in ancient Chuvashia was simply brilliant: the patterns on the headdress of a girl (tuhya) looked like a single unit, where it was organically combined almost incompatible: beads, silver coins, precious metals and stones. No less interesting are hats for women (hushpu). What else was heavy in a women's suit? That’s all: breastplates, neck-straps, a long embroidered band, pendants on it, bracelets, rings, belt pendants, tailbands, a purse on a belt, a hanging mirror in a metal frame in the same place … It’s hard to carry. But beautiful!
Wedding wear
They dressed the bridegroom for the wedding in a beautifully embroidered shirt, which the bride had prepared for him, a cloth blue caftan with a sash, followed by a boot, boots, a cap and black gloves. Riding Chuvashs wore a special mantle on the caftan - a bead net decorated with shells at the edges, and the caftan's gates and its front edges were sheathed with kumach. Both the groom and his friends were gifted by the bride with embroidered towels, which they either tied around the waist or threw over his shoulder.
The bride, as already mentioned, carried a pud. A richly embroidered shirt, an decorated fur coat, cloth pustav, leather boots or boots with stockings, and the rest - jewelry. Moreover, her outfits during the wedding ceremony changed from girl to woman, but did not become easier. Three more people were very beautiful at the wedding: the host (leader), the senior friend and matchmaker.
The buddies bathrobe was really impressive. A snow-white canvas, cut out according to the principle of a swinging gown, is long, straight, without fasteners. White color was considered sacred, it was very kindly treated. But the wedding leader's caftan was already decorated to the maximum with embroideries and stripes of silk fabrics or ribbons. The matchmaker, on top of her richly embroidered caftan, was wrapped in handmade a huge scarf - silk with patterns or simply embroidered with embroideries. This is a sign that was understandable to everyone - its special position at this celebration. Bright ornaments of wedding items - bedspreads, scarves, the back of the groom, a special dance scarf, bedspreads for chiri with beer - all this added to the colorful and solemnity of the event.
