ПрезентаціяUkrainian Traditional Clothes

Ukrainian Traditional Clothes prepared by Yuna Isaeva

Common features of traditional Ukrainian clothing. Traditional Ukrainian apparel — the roots of which trace back to the times of Kievan Rus — has many stylistic varieties. Its look depends on the ethnographic region.

The main feature of the shirt (vyshyvanka) is the embroidery on the neck, cuffs and hem.

A girl is supposed to wear a shirt without outerwear, while a married woman has to cover her head with a shawl and supplement the outfit with her waistcoat and maxi skirt.

The highlight of the clothing are accessories like belts, jewelery and headdresses (a shawl or a floral wreath), decorated with ribbons and fresh and artificial flowers.

Men’s traditional clothing is simpler: they resemble the outfits of other Slavic nations but differ in the way they are worn. Thus, there are two main elements: a linen shirt and cloth pants, distinguished by the kind of embroidery.

Northern Ukraine. The clothing of Northern Ukraine was distinguished by the modesty of traditional decorative elements. A fair amount of attention was paid to weaving and embroidering in monochrome or bicolour combinations.

Thus, the apparel design in Polisia (a historical region in Northern Ukraine and Central Europe) was quite restrained and had clear geometric ornamental patterns.

Southern Ukraine. The fashion of the southern regions differed in certain details; for example, the bright embroidery of red, yellow and green colours was placed on the shirt’s open neck. 

Therefore, in Southern Ukraine, you can see the particularities of traditional clothing through their different way of life and through the ethnocultural interaction between Ukrainians and Moldovans.

Western Ukraine. Western Ukrainian apparel reflected its Polish and Hungarian historical past and was distinguished by complex geometrical patterns. The richness of decorative elements like embroidery, weaving (плетіння) and appliqué (аплікація) prevailed in the Carpathian region.

However, the geometric ornamental motifs of rhombuses, triangles and crosses were implemented in the multicoloured embroidery with a predominance of red and black. The clothing was also decorated with coloured beads, silver or gold thread and metal elements.

Hutsuls (an ethnic group of Ukrainians that inhabited the Carpathian Mountains) decorated the bottom edge of trousers with embroidery from the inside — yellow and green woolen threads — and folded it upwards.

Eastern Ukraine. The traditional apparel of Eastern Ukraine has the local features of the ancient Slavic clothing. So, shirts preserved the simple tailoring with narrow sleeves and neat decoration on the sleeve’s cuff. 

Multicoloured embroidery was complemented by elements like bright ribbons, lace and grey fringe (кайма). Ornamental elements and waist accessories also played a significant role and were appliquéd from brocade or cotton velvet.

Central Ukraine. The central areas like Poltava were characterized by white-on-white embroidery and also by a large amount of black and red patterns. The ornamentation was geometric or vegetative, and considerably less zoomorphic.

In the 20th century, women began to use multicoloured threads to decorate shirts, while in the 17th and 19th centuries the embroidery was minimalistic — just red and blue on white. Another key feature was the decoration of sleeveless and outer clothing with a cotton appliqué.

Thank you for attention!