Man's costume of Southwest Kurzeme province, Latvia

Hello All,
Today I will talk about the men's costume for Nica, Rustava, and Barta. Nica and Barta are each often depicted as 'The' costume of Latvia, even though they are not typical. The men's costume of these three adjoining districts is not really distinct from each other. Here is the print from the series of Soviet Costumes representing Latvia that I showed you earlier.

White linen shirt, gray pants and jacket, white socks over the pants [in Rucava they would have a narrower pattern than shown on the top of the stockings, and none at all in Nica or Barta], footwear, and a tie or sild kerchief around the neck.

Here is part of a photograph from 1931 depicting what were then old wedding traditions from Nica.

Here we see a short jacket on the groom, a somewhat longer jacket on his father? Both are of wool and embroidered in the style typical of the region. We see two different versions of tying the neck kerchief. We also see what appears to be a plain dark colored double breasted vest on each of them. The pants are patterned linen, worn outside the socks of the one, but tucked into the boots of the other.Felt hats on both, the groom having a posy on his. Here is a painting made in 1820 of a man from Nica.

Here we see the long gray jacket, kerchief [scarf?] around the neck, fur hat, white socks or footcloths and pastalas [moccasins]. The gray wool pants seem to be worn over the socks. Here is another old painting of a man from Rucava.

Short jacket, vest, wool pants tucked into the socks or footcloths, leather belt, and again fur hat and pastalas. There was obviously some variation in the cut of the jackets and how the pants were worn. Here is a museum display in Moscow of a 'Latvian costume'.

In fact, all we see here is the long gray jacket, felt hat wraped with silk kerchief, another silk kerchief around the 'neck', and leather belt with brass buckle. All typical of this region. A white jacket was also worn on special occasions. Here is a closeup of the embroidery on the jacket, double rows of backstitch in curvilinear 'grass snake' patterns,substantially the same as on the women's jackets and vests.

Ok, one more photo of a man in the long jacket.

He seems to have some black embroidery on his collar. The men's shirts are cut substantially the same as the women's chemises, only shorter. The shoulder piece is narrower, and is sometimes omitted completely. The cuff, collar, shoulder piece and sometimes the shirt front are embroidered in patterns similar to, but usually simpler, than the women's. Here is the cut.

The embroidery on one man's shirt. Shoulder piece, the large motifs form the center line. The pattern runs vertically, as on the women's chemises. There are often loops on the edges, especially for dress shirts.

Collar.

Cuff.

Here is the front of a modern shirt used by a performing group. The shirt is held closed by a pin in the same way as the women's chemise. Hemstiching has been used to decorate this shirt front.

They used one row of backstitch in a thick thread instead of the traditional two rows in a thinner thread.

As we can see from the above photos, sometimes the silk kerchief was put around the back of the neck and tied in front, with long ends, and sometimes it was put around the front, then wrapped around both sides and tied in the front to make a short bow. In Nica, sometimes a long narrow tie was used instead, which was either cross stitched onto linen with a crocheted edge, or just crocheted. Here is a closeup of one of the embroidered ties, which match in color the mittens of the region.

The v necked gray or white wool jacket, whether long, midlength, or short, had essentially the same cut.

The 'wings' on the hips were folded onto themselves and pleats pressed in. Both men and women wore these jackets. Here is a woman wearing the short jacket showing the pleats on the 'wings'.

The men's short jackets were often less embroidered, and sometimes had a slit in the middle back to make 'tails'. Here is the cuff and back slit of one such jacket.

And a modern interpretation.

The pants were gray wool in the winter, and linen with a woven pattern in the summer. We can see two examples of the patterned linen pants in the wedding picture above. Here is another example. He is also wearing the short wool v neck jacket, and an embroidered or crocheted tie.

There is nothing particularly unusual about the cut of the pants.

We can see in the painting of the man from Rucava above, that there also existed a double breasted cut for the jacket. He is wearing a wool version, with a vest of similar cut underneath. The wedding photo shows the men wearing similar double breasted vests. Here is a man wearing the summer linen version of this jacket. Notice the straw hat, wich is also worn in summer, as in all of Eastern Europe.

Here is the cut of this jacket. One would assume that the vests seen above were the same cut, unless they were wearing jackets under jackets, which seems quite unlikely.

In this region, the jackets were held closed by leather belts with brass buckles. In Eastern Latvia, Finger braided sashes were used, but they are rare in this area. You can see examples above, here are a couple more.

Footwear, as you see in the images above, consists of boots for those who could afford them. Otherwise Vizes, shoes woven out of birch or linden bark, as we have met with so often

Pastalas, home made moccasins, also found all over Eastern Europe in various forms, [btw, either of these are sometimes referred to as 'sandals', which is very misleading, what we think of as 'sandals' are not a traditional part of footwear anywhere in Europe],

or in more recent times, actual shoes. Shoes in this region are decorated with metal rivets and come in various styles. Here is one example.

Thank you for reading, i hope that you have found this interesting and helpful. And perhaps even inspiring.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol

Source Material:

Velta Rozenberga et al, 'Latviesu Tautas Terpi II Kurzeme' [Latvian National Costumes II Kurzeme], Riga, 1997

Margrieta Vandelis-Muir et al, 'Latvju Novadu Terpi - Nica', Hamilton, Ontario, Ca, 1990

N. Kalashnikova, 'National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples', Moscow, 1990

Ilze Zingite, 'Latvian National Costumes', Riga, 2000

J. Sudmalis, 'Cimdu Rasti' [Mitten designs], Riga, 1961
Aija Jansone et al, 'Ieteikumi Latviesu Tautas Terpu Valkatajiem', Riga, 2002
T. Razina, 'Folk Art in the Soviet Union', Leningrad, 1990



Knitted Mittens of Nica, Kurzeme province, Latvia

Hello All,

Today  I am going to concentrate on a piece of clothing that might be surprising, mittens. Knitting has become a strong piece of the craft history of the northern peoples, in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries, and even among the Komi of North Russia. In many of these places, it is common to see people dressed up in the traditional costume with a pair of knitted mittens tucked into their sash or belt.Among the slavs one does not see this, typically mittens are sewn of sheepskin or heavy woven wool, and are considered completely utilitarian.
A good friend of mine, Aelita, who is from Latvia, tells me that women, especially young women, were expected to make many pairs of mittens [or gloves, the same word is used in Latvian, Cimdi, but usually mittens], and give them as gifts on special occasions to fathers, uncles, brothers, friends, and of course, those in whom they had a romantic interest. They in turn were expected to let them be seen. Thus the skill of knitting fine patterns was valued and shown off by displaying them even when not actually being worn. Thus, of course, they also formed an important item in a girl's trousseau. Here are some Nica mittens being displayed on a hope chest.

Latvian mittens all had basically the same shape and were a good field for displaying designs, being flat with a peak. Here is one example.

There are many many pattens known. Today I will present several from the town of Nica. I do not know how distinct the patterns of the different regions are. In Nica, there is a tendency to make the cuffs in a different contrasting color and design. They freely mixed colors which we might consider clashing, like pink with red.

These added a spot of color to a costume that was otherwise mainly an array of restrained shades. I will present several more designs. Here is one more photo.

The rest of the designs are graphed. This is a graph of the pair shown immediately above. Note that the cuff is shown at the top of the graph.

Not all of them have this gaudy coloring.

For thos of you who knit, i hope you find some of these intersting enough to use, or adapt them to cross stitch or needlepoint, or whatever you might do. These latest graphs are from an old book in which the inks available were limited, so feel free to adjust the shades of the colors so that they harmonise. Or, for that matter, change the colors entirely for your project.

Here is one last design which must have been executed in extremely tiny stitches. This was obviously meant for someone special.

Thank you for reading. I hope that this has been interesting and inspiring. The advntage of making things oneself is that one can put ones personal stamp on ones environment. We should not have to settle for mass produced items that are the same as everyone else has.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol

Source Material:

Velta Rozenberga et al, 'Latviesu Tautas Terpi II Kurzeme' [Latvian National Costumes II Kurzeme], Riga, 1997

Margrieta Vandelis-Muir et al, 'Latvju Novadu Terpi - Nica', Hamilton, Ontario, Ca, 1990

N. Kalashnikova, 'National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples', Moscow, 1990

Ilze Zingite, 'Latvian National Costumes', Riga, 2000

J. Sudmalis, 'Cimdu Rasti' [Mitten designs], Riga, 1961
Aija Jansone et al, 'Ieteikumi Latviesu Tautas Terpu Valkatajiem', Riga, 2002
T. Razina, 'Folk Art in the Soviet Union', Leningrad, 1990

Costume of Nica, South Kurzeme province, Latvia

Hello All,

Today I am going to shift focus a bit. I am always torn between covering a topic exhaustively, and offering a breadth of material. I wish to do both. So today i will venture into a different Nation, Latvia.
It often happens that one or two particular regional costumes of a nation are effectively used as 'national' costumes, for Poland, Krakow, for Ukraine, Poltava, for Germany, Miesbach Bavarian, for the Netherlands, Vollendam, for Norway, Hardanger, etc. For Latvia, the costumes most commonly presented are those of extreme South Courland, Kurzeme in Latvian. There are three variants of this costume, based around the towns of Rucava, Nica and Barta. Today, I am going to present the Nica version. I am going to assume that you can find Latvia on a map, and in any case, it is easy enough to google. it. Here is a map of Latvia showing the historical province of Courland [which has a fascinating history, btw].

Here is the district of Dienvidkurzeme, or South Courland.

These three towns are all found in the extreme southwest corner of Latvia, Nica about 10 miles south of the city of Liepaja, shown on the map, Rucava further south, about halfway between Nica and the Lithuanian border, and Barta directly east of Nica about another 10 miles. These are not the most typical of Latvian costumes, but one could argue that they are the most colorful and impressive. Here is a Soviet era print, from a series of the costumes of the 16 Republics.

Although inaccurate in some details, this is the Nica Costume. Here are a couple of photographs of people wearing various versions of this costume.

Now that we have left Tatarstan, the basic piece of the woman's costume is, of course, the chemise, called Krekls in Latvian. Here is the cut.

The chemise is embroidered on the collar, cuff, and the shoulder piece. The shoulder is embroidered lengthwise, unlike Ukrainian or Russian chemises. The embroidery is in a combination of white and blue, or white and black, in counted satin stitch, hemstitch, surface stitch and hemstitched loops around the edge. The collar is fold-down. Here is the embroidery of one chemise. Shoulder piece.

Cuff.

And the collar.

There were a couple different kinds of skirts worn in Nica. We have historical records of blue skirts with green, red and yellow stripes with a red hem, but none of these have survived. The more festive skirt was woven of linen warp and blue wool weft, with a plain linen band at the hem which was then embroidered with red and other colors. There was a narrow red hem, and it was pleated from top to bottom. The girl in the bridal crown above is wearing this type of skirt, although little of it can be seen. Here is one such skirt.

In the 1860's a new type of skirt became popular, and this is now considered to be typical of this region.

It is an orange red, with darning stitch designs done vertically in lines about 1/2 yard apart. This is the skirt being worn by most of the women above. A thin rope was sewn into the hem, so that it stood out in a bell shape. It was quite full, and finely gathered at the waist. Skirts were worn at mid-calf so as to show off the finely knitted stockings.

Here are a couple of examples of the embroidery on this type of skirt.

In modern times, these stripes are often placed closer together, and more designs are used on each skirt.

The most typical vest of this region can be seen in the above two photos. It is called Nieburs, and for the summer costume it is made of a patterned linen twill, and in the winter of a gray wool Either way it is lined with plain woven linen and finely embroidered with double rows of backtich in curved, serpentine designs. This same type of embroidery is used on men's jackets, and one of my sources claims that the men wore the same vest as well.

Unmarried girls wore the vainags, the crown-shaped headress so typical of the Baltics. It is made of cardboard covered with cloth, and decorated with gold and silver galloon, seed beads, bugle beads, sequins, and a row of large faceted beads on the brim.

The most defining characteristic of Latvian female costume is the large woolen rectangular shawl, called the Villaine. This is pinned closed with a large round brooch, as you can see in the photos above, and sometimes more than one. In this region it was wrapped under the left arm and pinned on the right shoulder. It was usually embroidered around two or four edges, compare the various images above. The embroidery varies quite a bit from region to region. Here is a closeup of some embroideries from Nica.

The brooch had 8 'bubbles' on it, and was known as Burbulsakta. Here is a close view of one of them.

The chemise is closed with a similar pin, only of course much smaller, either round or heart shaped, of silver or of amber. Necklaces of amber were of course also worn.

On the right you see an alternative, two buttons joined together, each of which was put through a buttonhole on either side of the chemis opening, and held it closed. This one has engraved dangling amber pieces for decoration.

Stockings were finely knit, a solid knit with a design in another color in cool weather, or with an open knitted design in in warmer weather, as in this example.

Footwear consisted of Vizes [shoes woven of birch or linden bark], or Pastalas [leather home made moccasins], for either of which see the images in the posting on Men's costumes.In more recent times actual shoes were worn, which in this region were decorated with metal rivets and came in several styles. Here is one example.

As always, thank you for reading. I hope that you found this interesting and inspiring.

Feel free to contact me with requests for research. I hope to eventually cover all of Europe and the Former Russian Empire/Soviet Union. I also gratefully accept tips on source materials which i may not have. I also accept commissions to research/design, sew, and/or embroider costumes or other items for groups or individuals

Roman K.
Rkozakand@aol

Source Material:

Velta Rozenberga et al, 'Latviesu Tautas Terpi II Kurzeme' [Latvian National Costumes II Kurzeme], Riga, 1997

Margrieta Vandelis-Muir et al, 'Latvju Novadu Terpi - Nica', Hamilton, Ontario, Ca, 1990

N. Kalashnikova, 'National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples', Moscow, 1990

Ilze Zingite, 'Latvian National Costumes', Riga, 2000