East Hutsul sleeve embroidery, Ukraine

Hello all,

Today I will talk about a few variants of Hutsul embroidery which are clustered at the eastern edge of Hutsul territory.

Here is a photo from 1938 taken by Roman Reinfuss in the village of Maksymets' which lies on the Bystrytsia Nadvirnaska river in the far west of Hutsulshchyna.

This 'newer costume' replaces the traditional double apron with gathered skirt and apron. The embroidery is that traditional for Hutsuls, on the shoulder, cuffs, front and presumably the collar. On the woman on the right you can see complex smock gathering above the cuffs and below the shoulder insets.

Most Hutsuls have this arrangement of embroidery. Recently some have made the band on the shoulder much wider, in the process making the shoulder and sleeve in one piece, but it remains one band.

There are a few Hutsul villages which are renowned for exceptionally extensive embroidery, among which is Verbivets' which lies northeast of Kosiv. This costume is shown at the head of the article in a print by Kul'chytska. This is also true of some other villages in the immediate vicinity, Stary Kosiv, Stary Kuty, Pistyn, Smodna. It is not often noted that these all lie right on the edge of Hutsul territory where it borders Pokuttia, and also lie quite close to Bukovyna.

Another group of villages which have sleeve embroidery as well as that on the shoulder are Vyzhenka, Dykhtynets', Kyselytsia, Serhii, Putyliv, Ploska and Seliatyn, which all lie in the Putyla river valley, at the eastern edge of Hutsul territory in Cherniwtsi Oblast next to Bukovyna. These designs have been recorded by Kolbenhier.

These types of chemises with embroidery over the entire sleeve tend to be overrepresented in museums and collections precisely because they are unusual.

It seems quite clear from the distribution of these villages that this arrangement of embroidery is the result of influences from the population further east, Bukovyna and Pokuttia. There they follow the three part canon of sleeve embroidery about which I have written before. This includes the embroidery on the sleeve inset, the morshchanka, which contrasts with the rest of the embroidery and lies at the top of the sleeve next to the seam, and vertical or diagonal stripes down the sleeve itself. Here is a chemise from Bukovyna.

The Hutsuls adopted this in their own way, omitting the morshchanka embroidery, as in the example from Verbovets' above, or substituting it with smock gathering, which they already did, as in this example from Pistyn'.

I was not able to find a map which showed what I wanted, so I made a series of screenshots from Google maps, and highlighted the appropriate village in each one. Each image is the same part of the map, with Hutsulshchyna on the left, Bukovyna on the right, and Pokuttia at the top. I have drawn lines at the approximate regional borders.  I will show the location of each village mentioned.

Pistyn

In Pistyn they specialize in embroidering in red and black. Here is another example.

Verbovets'

 

 

They did at times place a narrow band in the place of morshchynka like this chemise from Stary Kosiw.

Notice that in some of these northern villages they use stitches which give texture to the embroidery, called in general 'curly stitch'. This kind of embroidery is also known in Pokuttia and southwest Podillia. Here is an example from
 Stary Kuty.

Smodna

Outside of this northern group, many of these villages use more common Hutsul embroidery techniques like nyzynka and cross stitch.

Horod

 

Vyzhenka

 

 

Roztoky

Biloberizka

Ust'-Putyliv

Dykhtynets'

Here it seems that they do embroider a morshchanka band in their own style.
 

Putyla [Storonets' Putyliv]

Ploska

Selyatyn

A few more images for which I do not have exact origin, but which must be from this area.

Thank you for reading. I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative.


Roman K.


email: rkozakand@aol.com

Source material:
Olena Nykorak et al, 'Hutsuls'ka Vyshywka', Rodovid, 2010
Eric Kolbenhier, 'Ukrainian Bukovynian Cross-stitch embroidery', reprinted Windsor, Ontario, 1974
 O. Kul'chytska, 'Folk Costumes of the Western Regions of the Ukrainian SSR, 1959

Costume and Embroidery of the village of Yaseniv-Pil'nyi - Ясенів-Пільний, Horodenka district, Pokuttia, Ukraine

Hello all, 

  Today I will continue to talk about the costume of Pokuttia, focusing again on one village, Jaseniw-Pil'nyj. This lies near Serafyntsi, which also has its own distinct costume. 

Both lie southeast of the town of Horodenka, quite close to the border with Bukovyna, which coincides, more or less with Cherniwtsi Oblast. 

Here is Ivano Frankiwsk Oblast within Ukraine.

 

Here is Horodenka district within the Oblast.

Here is Yaseniv-Pil'nyi within Horodenka district. Serafyntsi is shown but not labelled, just to the northeast.

We are lucky that someone in the village took and saved a number of photographs early in the 20th century. The image above is a wedding photo of Anna Tychyns'ka and Stepan Bodnaruk. The costume resembles that of the rest of Horodenka district with the exception of the womens' vest. Similar vests are worn in Polissia, parts of Volyn' and Halychyna, and even by some Boikos and Lemkos, but by no other village near Jaseniw-Pil'nyj. 

The base garment is the chemise, with embroidery on the shoulder piece, sleeves, cuffs, and sometimes around the collar and front opening. The embroidery is usually of one of two kinds, curly stitch or cross stitch. The curly stitch designs use Holbein or back stitch with a heavy thread causing the design to be made up more of texture than outline. 

Here is one example, called sleeve with circles. 

This is always done in some shade of red, usually a maroon. You can see the three part canon which is typical for the whole Podillia - Pokuttia - Bukovyna - Moldavia region. Sometimes it is done in a brighter shade of red. 

Here is the same design done in narrow thread so that the stitching is visible. They do not wear it this way, Iryna Svyontek did this just to show how it is made. Click to enlarge.

Here is another design from this village, called winged sleeves. Here the three part canon is even clearer.

A third design is called sleeves with pasochky.

This woman has decided to do hers in black, to reflect her age.

 

Another design called sleeve with flies.

Here is a famous photograph showing a bride with two bridesmaids. if you look carefully, you will see that each is wearing a chemise with one of the above designs. From left to right, 'wings', 'circles' and 'flies'.

Cross stitch designs are also used in this village. These are probably newer, and often did not have embroidery on the sleeves, but only on the shoulder and cuffs. Here are some of them.

Traditionally, a wraparound overskirt 'obhortka' was worn, the corners tucked into the sash, and a vertically pleated apron worn in front. This was replaced later on, at least for less formal attire with a skirt and gathered apron as you can see here above.

A multiplicity of gerdans [beaded necklaces] were worn, both around the neck and on the head, as well as other jewelry. Brides wore complex crowns with hanging ribbons, and married women wore kerchiefs which replaced the earlier namitky.

The unique vests are cut straight, trimmed with ribbon, and are usually a plain blue, red or black, although sometimes they were made with patterned material, as we see here worn by this bride in 1945

In the early 20th cent. the men abandoned their traditional attire for jodphurs, vests and suits, likely under the influence of Austrian Army dress, but still wore embroidered shirts for festive occasions, as Ukrainian men do to this day.

Here are a few older photographs from this village, likely from the turn of the 20th cent.. These show the older men's outfits, and seem to indicate that the distinctive vest was adopted later, likely in the 1920's or 30's.

 Just a few more images from this village.

 Thank you for reading, I hope that you have found this to be interesting and informative. Try your hand at some of these embroidery designs.


Roman K.


email:  rkozakand@aol.com


Source Material:
Iryna Svyontek, 'Pokuts'ki Vyshywky Prykarpattia', L'viw, 2013
V. Bilozub et al. 'Urajins'ke Narodne Mystetsvo - Vbrannia' [Ukrainian Folk Art - Clothing] Kyjiw, [Kiev] 1961