18th- to 20th-Century Women’s Folk Costume of Russia exhibition presents almost 500 works. It is an exceptionally valuable part of the museum collection of folk costume that comprises above 5 thousand items.
The collection had been formed for almost 150 years. First folk costumes were acquired by Petersburg museums in the 1870s. From 1937 they have been stored in the Russian Museum. The formation of the museum collection had been in progress for the whole 20th century due to annual research expeditions, acquisitions and donations. The last large acquisition (more than 20 old costumes from Voronezh Oblast) was made in 2006 with the support of Sistema Finance Investments.
The folk costume is shown as a vivid element of urban, small-town and peasant culture. The wardrobes of well-to-do city women and merchant’s wives, that open the exhibition, included traditional sarafans (sleeveless dresses), dushegreyas (sleeveless vests) and shugais (sleeved jackets) sewn of expensive fabric and ornamented with gold-thread lace, passementerie and filigreed buttons.
Local arts and crafts traditions play an important role in folk costume as well, giving a unique appearance to the clothing of each region and locality. Costumes from Nizhny Novgorod, Solvychegodsk and Kargopol are richly decorated with gold embroidery. Folk costumes from the Russian North impress by diversity of shirt, sarafan and apron decorations: lace, stitching and embroidery. Peasant cloths of women from Middle and South Russia have preserved the most archaic examples of the Slavic costume: open-front ponyovas, long-sleeved shirts, decorations made of feathers and floss.
Wedding dresses of Russian peasant and urban women demonstrate stages of the old ritual: match-making, meeting the future relatives, wedding ceremony, “major garment” of the first days of married life.
Festive and ceremonial costumes comprised decorations worn in the ears and on the temples, on the neck, breast, waist, arms, and in the plait. The most favorite decorations were earrings and necklaces of freshwater pearls and beads, amber beads.
Major centers for the manufacture of footwear developed in provincial Russian towns. Goatskin boots and shoes with gold embroidery, as well as knitted footwear are shown at the exhibition for the first time.
Bright scarves and shawls with stitched or printed patterns were not only a part of the costume, but constituted one of the most prominent sectors of the Russian art industry. The best items from the collection of headscarves naturally complement the exhibition.
The exhibition You’re Lovely, Dearie, in Any Attire, where masterpieces by artists Dmitry Levitsky, Mikhail Nesterov, Konstantin Makovsky, Elena Polenova and others are exhibited alongside authentic old folk costumes, gives us a chance to pay homage to the Russian woman, whose beauty is highlighted and shown to best advantage by just such costumes.