Hello all,
Today I will talk about the third region of Hutsulshchyna, and the smallest. This consists of one town, Kosmach. This town is found in the upper Pistyn's'ka river valley, and is rather isolated. Uninhabited highlands lie to the west of it.
This town is extremely famous for its folk arts, from embroidery to pysanky. It is very Hutsul, and yet is distinct from all the other Hutsul Regions. Many folk arts are very much still alive in this town.
The chemise is of the standard Hutsul cut, but adorned with the peculiar Kosmach embroidery. Here is a chemise from my personal collection. The shoulder inset is embroidered, as are the cuffs, front opening, and all the seams. Besides the ustawka embroidery, there are 4 different narrow designs used on the cuffs, edges and seams. The sleeves are gathered with very specific stitches on the upper edge by the ustawka, and at the cuffs. the sleeves themselves are generally not embroidered.
The embroidery is always composed of the same colors, overall giving a golden Indian Corn image to the costume.
The double aprons likewise are a warm golden orange color, or sometimes rather darker.
A striped or patterned sash is tied around the waist.
Coral beads are popular, and beaded necklaces [gerdany] are often made in typical Kosmach colors and designs.
Kapchuri today are knitted, usually in red or orange, and ornamented with any of the Kosmach designs, whether knitted in or embroidered upon. Postoly in Kosmach, especially for women, have rounded toes and may be highly embellished.
The kyptar, which in all Hutsul regions is identical for men and women, Has narrow gray lambskin edging, a rectangle of leather applique rich in rivets on the upper front, large curved teeth outside of that, patch pockets, and leather appliqued rachky in the lower corner. Old ones were ornamented mostly in brown, but newer ones feature colored squares making up the rectangle on the upper front.
The serdak in Kosmach is of the normal cut, either red or dark natural wool color. This garment is also worn by both men and women.
Men's shirts are found in two forms. The older, traditional form was quite long, at least mid thigh, with sleeves set in at right angles to the body. It had a fold over collar with embroidery, sleeves gathered into the embroidered cuffs, a modest amount of embroidery just around the front opening, and a narrow band along the seam where the sleeve connects to the body. There are underarm gussets, and of course, the shirt was worn outside the pants.
This is still seen. However many men, especially younger men, wear shirts that have been influenced by the modern Ukrainian embroidered man's shirt, with a stand up collar and embroidery all down the front. These continue to use the local embroidery style, and sometimes incorporate rows of merezhka hemstitching on the front. They may be worn tucked into modern pants, as is common across Ukraine. The front opening of the collar is secured by home twisted cords with tassels on the ends.
A relatively recent development is the addition of beaded ornaments to the top of the front of the shirt. These are called vushchynki.
As is true for other regions, many mixed photos are published. Here we see a woman from the village of Pistyn', in the Kosiw region, paired with a man from Kosmach. Watch out for things like this.
Like the women, men would wear woven sashes around their waists. However, it was extremely common for men to wear leather belts instead. If we look at this man above, his belt is about 2 inches wide. This is as narrow as the belts got.
This is still seen. However many men, especially younger men, wear shirts that have been influenced by the modern Ukrainian embroidered man's shirt, with a stand up collar and embroidery all down the front. These continue to use the local embroidery style, and sometimes incorporate rows of merezhka hemstitching on the front. They may be worn tucked into modern pants, as is common across Ukraine. The front opening of the collar is secured by home twisted cords with tassels on the ends.
A relatively recent development is the addition of beaded ornaments to the top of the front of the shirt. These are called vushchynki.
In the contemporary costume the pants, hachi, are not tucked into stockings or kapchuri. Rather the wool dress pants, usually dark natural wool, but sometimes red or white, have the ends turned up to form cuffs. The ends are then embroidered as the kapchuri would be in other regions. As in the shirts, the seams are often embroidered as well. These are worn over the socks, resting on the postoly. This type of pants seems to be restricted to Kosmach.
In this photo we see men from different regions. The second man from the right and the man in the center are from Kosmach, note their pants. The second from the far left is as well, but he is wearing city pants.
As is true for other regions, many mixed photos are published. Here we see a woman from the village of Pistyn', in the Kosiw region, paired with a man from Kosmach. Watch out for things like this.
Like the women, men would wear woven sashes around their waists. However, it was extremely common for men to wear leather belts instead. If we look at this man above, his belt is about 2 inches wide. This is as narrow as the belts got.
Most belts, called cheres, were about 5 inches wide. They had a metal buckle, and often metal ornaments attached all along their length. These were commonly paired with leather shoulder bags on straps that were similarly ornamented, as the traditional outfit featured no pockets.
Hats were generally lambskin in winter, or felt in summer. The summer hats, krysania, were often highly ornamented as we see here above.
Leather shoulder bags are restricted to men. Both men and women would wear shoulder bags woven from wool, however. These were generally woven out of natural dark and light colored wool, usually in plaids. The strap would be inkle woven, just like the sashes. These bags would often be ornamented with pompoms and other items.
Saddlebags were woven in the same way, horses being very important to the Hutsuls, and wagons often being impractical in the mountains. These can be seen slung over the shoulders.
Here I need to introduce one new garment, called huhlia [or guglia]. This is an extremely simple and presumably ancient garment, consisting of a rectangle of wool with one side partly sewn together, forming a sort of tent, or bag. Here is an example from the village of Velykyj Rozhyn, in the Kosiv region. The ones from Kosmach do not seem to be as ornamented, and I have not been able to find a clear image of one. It does not seem to be found in Western Hutsulshchyn
One could easily imagine a shepherd in the mountains using this garment as shelter. Today, however, it is only worn for weddings. It is worn by both the bride and groom. It may be worn without keptar or serdak, however, the bride wears over it a shoulder shawl, then a shawl over the head, then an embroidered rushnyk, and a wedding crown. The groom would wear an ornament similar to the center of the woman's crown attached to his lambswool hat, and perhaps a bouttoniere. Here is a photo of a couple standing on a rushnyk during the wedding ceremony. This is a ritual observed all over Ukraine. Here someone was worried about the couple, and under the rushnyk put a regular pink kitchen towel, and a folded lizhnyk. The groom, of course, is not wearing his hat in church, but notice that his pants are white wool to match the huhlia.
Here is an old photo where one can observe the same thing. Here she is wearing a serdak under the huhlia, and he is wearing a kyptar and a kozhushok under his huhlia. Note the wedding ornament on his lambskin hat.
For comparison, this is how the hat looks without the ornament.
A few more images of wedding couples. Note that among Hutsuls, like other Ukrainians, The bride and groom and wedding party would proceed together to the Church. Hutsuls would often do so riding horses, rather than riding in a wagon, as this was more practical in the mountains. Hutsul women have always ridden straddle.
A version of the bridal crown is worn by bridesmaids, and often by girls for special occasions. This can be seen in the last image above. These crowns can be distinguished in that the tall center piece which matches the groom's ornament is absent, and ornaments of orange yarn hanging down are added. The crowns have a front piece, and a separate piece in back.
Young girls will braid their hair, and for less special occasions will wear a woven headband with pompoms added for decoration.
Married women today wear a kerchief to cover their hair. There seems to be no chepets', but here is a mention by Iryna Svyontek of "a traditional red cord of wool yarn which indicates that a woman is married."
I have found a couple of old photographs which seem to show a cord or ribbon over the forehead, but I have no images or descriptions of what it looked like without the kerchief. This custom seems to be almost totally abandoned today.
Necklaces of venetian glass, coral, coins and woven beads were common. One older "ornament" is a fancy pipe, traditionally used by both men and women, but rarely seen today. I have seen no photos of zgardy in this region.
And that concludes this article. Again, I will talk about the embroidery in a separate article. I will close with some more images of people from Kosmach.
Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. May the culture of Kosmach brighten your day. I will focus on the embroidery of Kosmach in the next article.
Roman K.
email: rkozakand@aol.com
Source Material:
A. O. Kratiuk et al, 'The Kolomyja Museum of Hutsul Folk Art', Kyjiw, 1991
Stepan Pavliuk et al. 'Etnohrafixhni Hrupy Ukrajintsiw Karpat - Hutsuly', Kharkiw, 2020
Olena Nykorak et al, 'Hutsul's'ka Vyshywka', Rodovid, 2010
Olena Kul'chyts'ka, 'Narodnyj Odiah Zakhidnykh Oblastej Ukrajiny', reprint L'viw, 2018
Roman Reinfuss, 'Karpacki Swiat Bojkow i Lemkow', Krakow, 2016
Hryhorij Smol'skyj, 'Kosmats'ki Vustawky', L'viw, 2001
Alicja Wozniak, 'Wyrozniemi Strojem - Huculszczyna Tradycja i Wpolczesnosc', Lodz, 2012
Mykola Domashews'kyj, Istoria Hutsulshchyny', Chicago, 1975
Myroslava Shandro, 'Hutsul's'ki Vyshywky', Cherniwtsi, 2010
Iryna Svjontek, 'Hutsuls'ki Vyshywky Karpat, vol 3', Ivano Frankiwsk, 2008
Iryna Svjontek, 'Hutsuls'ki Vyshywky Karpat, vol 4-5', L'viw, 2016
Iryna Karpynets', 'Keptari Ukrajins'kykh Karpat', L'viw, 2003
Eudokia Sorochaniuk, 'Nyzynka - Embroidery of the Hutsuls, Pennsauken, NJ, 2002
