FolkCostume&Embroidery: July 2011

Hello all,

Today i am going to talk about the costume and woven ornament of the Vilnius region. Not all sources even recognise such a region, which had me wondering where it came from. After a bit of research, i found out that this is a historical region, being an administrative province which predated the establishment of the independant state of Lithuania in the 20th cent. Here is a good article on the history of this region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius_Region

Here is a map showing the Vilnius region, which is sometimes divided between Dzukija and Aukštaitija.

As i said before, some of my sources do not recognise this as a region, and Jurkoviene and Kulikauskiene in particular do not illustrate any costumes that resemble these at all. Tamošaitis writes that because of their proximity to the capitol, and the clothing of townspeople and aristocracy, "Their costumes therefore were characterized by a more ornate appearance in the cut, colors, and patterns than costumes found elsewhere in Lithuania" and "Those of the Vilnius region were easily distinguisable by the exceptionally beautiful patterns, colours, cut, and style of their clothes." In the south and east of the province especially were large numbers of Poles, Belorussians and others, the various nationalities tended to live each in their own local areas.

Here are a few examples of the Vilnius costume as presented by V Palaimas.

This costume is a favorite of those who took traditional Lithuanian hand weaving for clothes and other textiles and developed it as a national art form in the 20th cent. Here is a set of clothing woven by Anastasia Tamošaitiene and presented to princess Diana of The United Kingdom on the occasion of her wedding. You can clearly see the exceptional care, planning and artistry that went into the weaving of every single piece of this outfit.

For the same reason, this costume is very popular among amateur dance groups and Lithuanian musem exhibits, especially in the Lithuanian Diaspora. Here are some examples.

[These are images i found on the web, if anyone would like me to remove any of these images, or to include information about the origin of, or the people in, these images, please contact me and i will be glad to oblige]

It would be very difficult not to be impressed by the elaborate pattens, tasteful compositions and striking colors of these outfits.

The basic article of dress is the chemise, which has the usual cut for Lithuania, with narrow shoulder bars on top of a single piece, front and back. The bottom half was typically made of coarser material. The festive sleeve is fuller than the daily, and is gathered on top at the seam with the body.

The festive chemise has woven ornament on the shoulder pieces, collar, cuff, front opening, and lower sleeve. Sometimes the ormament is made by hemstitching. On festive chemises, the collar and cuffs sometimes have triangular points or ruched woven ribbon sewn on for added interest.

Here is a graph of the design on the sleeve in the photo immediately above.

The skirt was full, and either woven in a small plaid, as in Dzukija, or with horzontal stripes, sometimes with cats paw or other designs woven in, sometimes over vertical ones, or with horizontal bands of patterned ornament, which are also foud in eastern Aukštaitija. For those of you who weave, i will quote a passage from Tamošaitis [I do not, myself weave, and only vaguely comprehend, lol. This author constantly refers to weaving techniques]

"Twill or satin striped skirts woven from wool on linen were unlike the skirts of any other area. The linen warp was striped and threaded on four shafts in a straight draw. The background of the skirt was of a plain weave, while the stripes were woven in twill or satin with homespun wool. The stripes on the visible side of the cloth appeared raised and distinct; as a result, the skirt did not seem checked, but horizontally striped."

The aprons were elaborately woven with bands of ornament, wider and denser at the bottom, and narrower and sparser towards the top.The same was true of those skirts which had horizontal patterned bands. The aprons were commonly woven from linen, or at least with a light colored background. Red and blue seem to be the commonest colors used overall. Peruse the various images to get an idea of the diversity of designs used. Note also the textures inserted between the ornamental bands.

The sashes are typical for Lithuania, wide, patterned in pick up and other techniques, usually with supplemental weft fringes inserted near the ends.

The bodice was made of handwoven cloth to complement the colors of the skirt and apron. The most common cut has a plaston in a solid color inserted behind the bands in the center front. Sometimes the bodice has a plain straight front closure. Usually it has pentagonally shaped lappets around the waist, but sometimes has a frill with pleats spaced about the same distance as the width of the lappets. See the various images.

The most common headgear in this region for girls is the karuna, made of a hoop of birchbark, and later, cardboard, with pattened ribbon sewn on the inside and outside, one or more rows of trianges sewn on to the top, of the same material or different, and often edged with tatting or crochet. Pattened woven ribbons were attached to the back.

The following three photos show a karuna in various stages of preperation by Vida Rimas.

The headcloth, or wimple, nuometas, is worn in this region as it is in Aukštaitija, but it is smaller in this region, resembling the one worn in Latgalia. It is always heavily ornamented on the ends, and commonly has a frontpiece resembling the karuna sewn on, or a wreath resembling the karuna worn over it. Originally this would have been a seperate piece worn underneath. The nuometa with a frontpiece sewn on, front and back.

The nuometas attached to a karuna. The difference is that the hair is covered.

The nuometas worn with a seperate wreath over it

A schematic showing how the wreath was made, again very similar to the karuna.

Ornament on the ends of one nuometas.

The linen wrap, panuometis was also worn in this region, and also highly ornamented

The costume was completed with necklaces of amber or coral or glass. Footwear consisted of knitted socks, with shoes, moccasins, clogs, or shoes woven of birch or linden bark. Moccasins in this region were also highly ornamented.They also wear slippers looped, knitted or crocheted of linen strings, as in Dzukija.

Thank you all for reading. I hope you have found this interesting and maybe have an inspiration on how to use some of these designs or concepts.

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:

AntanaTamošaitis and Anastazija Tamošaitienė, 'Lithuanian National Costume', Toronto, 1979

Vida Kulikauskienė et al, 'Lithuanian National Costume', Vilnius, 1994,

Kati Reeder Meek, 'Reflections from a Flaxen Past, For Love of LIthuanian Weaving', Alpena, Michigan, 2000

Teresė Jurkiuvenė, 'Lithuanian National Costume', Vilnius, 2006

Mikalina Glemžaitė, 'Lietuvių Tautiniai Drabužiai', [Lithuanian National Clothing] Vilnius, 1955

Stasė Bernotienė, 'Lietuvių Liaudies Moterų Drabužiai XVIII a XX pr.' [Lithuanian Women's Folk Clothing from the XVIII to the XX cent], Vilnius, 1974,

Stasė Bernotienė, 'Lietuvių Valstiecių Išeiginės Prijuostės XIX a. - XX a. pradžia' [Lithuanian Aprons of the 19th and 20th cent], Vilnius, 2007

J. Grigienė et al, 'Lietuvių Liaudies Menas - Drabužiai' [Lithuanian Folk Art - Clothing], Vilnius, 1974

Elena Matulionienė, 'Klaipėdos Krašto Tautiniai Drabužiai' [Folk Clothing of the Klaipeda Region], Klaipeda, 2005

V. Palaimas, artist, set of postcards, 'Lithuanian Folk Costume', 1961

R. Paknys, photographer, set of postcards, 'Lietuvių Tautiniai Drabužiai', 1991

Tatyana Razina et al, 'Folk Art in the Soviet Union', Leningrad, 1990

Irma šidiškienė, 'Buti LIetuve', Vilnius, 2004

Hello all,

I will continue our survey of Lithuanian costumes by travelling east into Dzukija, [Dzukia], also called Dainava, the land of Song.Dzukia lies in southeastern Lithuania. The cultural capitol of the region is Alytus. For more information see this article.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dz%C5%ABkija

Here is a map showing Dzukia according to the 5 region system.

And here is a map showing Dzukija according to the seven region system.

First, a couple of images from V. Dalaima, showing his view of the Dzukia costume

A couple of images from the recent book by Andrašiūnaitė.

A photograph by R. Paknys.

And a couple of images from Jurkuviene.

Notice the footwear, moccasins on the boy, and shoes looped or knitted from hemp or linen string on the girl.

A couple images from Tamošaitis.

And one from Glemžaitė.

The chemise is the standard tunic type cut of LIthuania, with relatively narrow shoulder tabs. The lower sleeves often have woven ornament, see the various images in this posting. Here is the design woven into the sleeves of the girl shown just above.

Here is a closeup of some pick up designs, most likely in red, woven into the sleeve of a chemise.

Dzukia, like Kapsai, has embroidery on the chemise perhaps more often than in other regions. This may be due to proximity with Belarus, where embroidery is just about universal in the folk costume. Here is a woman with very fine counted satin stitch embroidery on her lower sleeves and cuff.

And some examples of the different kinds of embroidery used on the sleeves. Notice that the linen in both of the sleeves on the right have been woven with a pattern. Broderie Anglaise was also popular in this region for chemises in the late 19th cent.

The skirts, as the most casual perusal of the images in this posting will show, were overwhelmingly made of plaid. One characterisic of all the weaving in this region is the inclusion of small float patterns placed linearly in the weaving, and also isolated overlay patterns woven into the basic plaids. Here is an example of the first.

If you look carefully at the skirt, you will see the overlay designs individually woven on top of the plaid in the skirt.

Here is a closeup of the skirt.

The apron takes center stage again in this costume. Most are of a small plaid design, but some other designs are used as well. Take another look at the various images. Dzukia is especially known for plaids with overlay designs woven in the squares, which is unique to this region.

Another type of apron typical of this region has small vertical stripes or plaids, with overlay designs woven in contrasting colors above the hem. Here are a couple examples.

There are several other types of aprons worn in this region, but these are the most distinctive.

The sashes are typical for Lithuania, with elaborate pickup designs, or other woven ornament. One type of sash unique to Dzukija is a white one with isolated self contained colored designs woven in overlay, placed at intervals along the sash much as they are on the aprons. The mannequen just avove the aprons features such a sash, as do a few other images in the posting, and the two sashes on the left in this image.

There are several cuts of bodice used in this region, as you can see from the various images, but the two most distinctive to the region are distinguished by side closure. Here are the patterns for these two types of bodice. The first tyope has four large lappets around the waist, but none in front, where a panel covers the front down to the waist and attaches at the side, C is is one of the lappets and D is the front panel. You can see this cut in several of the images above.

This bodice wraps around and closes on the side. You can see it here below and in the second image above from Tamošaitis

Either of these cuts are made either from home woven cloth, like the following example, or from brocade or other expensive bought material, as in the images above.

The headcoverings are similar to those we have already covered in Kapsai. The costumes are completed with necklaces of amber, coral, or glass beads.

Thank you for reading, I hope you have found this interesting and maybe even inspiring.

For more information, you can reference this article by Jurkoviene.

http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/costume/cost_dzukija.html