Folk Costume and Embroidery of the Hutsuls, Ukraine: Part 1. Nadvirna area.

 

Hello all, 

Today I would like to talk about the Hutsul people. I have written about them before, but today I would like to cover all the various subgroups, and exactly where they are found. They live in Western Ukraine and a bit of neighboring Romania. Being mountain people, they historically have found their homeland divided by various lowlander governments. Five different provinces contain part of their territory. The Transcarpathian, Ivano-Frankiwsk, and Cherniwtsi oblasts of Ukraine each contain a corner of Hutsul territory, as do the Romanian provinces of Maramureş and Suceava. Here are a couple of maps that show this, first one is in Polish, and the second in Ukrainian. 

The term 'Hutsul' seems to be an exonym, but its origin is unknown. There are 6 leading theories, each from a different language, none proven. They speak a west Ukrainian dialect, which is losing ground to standard Ukrainian, as most regional dialects are. Some consider their dialect to be part of the Rusyn Language, which is very closely related. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hutsuls

The Polish map above includes rivers, and you can see that Hutsulshchyna may be divided by the river valleys. Here is a map showing the distribution of inhabitants in the Hutsul Region, not including Romania. I will use these two to delineate the various regions. The colors on this map distinguish between the three oblasts. 

Hutsuls are considered to be one of the examplaries of Ukrainian Folk culture. Hutsul costume is clearly distinctive. However, most people, including most Ukrainians, do not realize that the costume in fact varies by region. I will point out the various distinctions in this article. The basic Hutsul costume is well known, as exemplified by the images at the head of the article and this one. All are from the region of Verkhovyno.

Hutsuls are known for a love of ornamentation, as contrasted to their neighbors, the Boikos who are known for a sense of restraint. Sheepskin vests, double aprons, moccasins [postoly] tucked into socks, either woven or knitted, sashes, belts, shoulder bags, and various outer garments. 

I will be dividing the Hutsul lands into the following 7 regions. Nadvirna, Rakhiw, Kosmach, Kosiw, Verkhovyna, Putylia, and Romania. 

1. Nadvirna. 

This region is in the northwest of the Hutsul area. I have subdivided this into 2 areas. 

A. Bystrytsia 

 

This first group inhabits the Bystrytsia River valley upstream of Nadvirna. They have the simplest Folk costume, intermediate with that of the Boikos, their neighbors. I have some old photographs of the daily costume, taken by Roman Reinfuss, famous Polish ethnographer. The clothing is rather generic, but the embroidery is clearly Hutsul style Nyzynka. No indication of what the overgarments look like. These photos were taken in the late 1930s.

The double aprons have been replaced by gathered skirts and aprons of bought cloth. A woven sash. The woman in the second image is wearing a gerdan woven of seed beads. The girl with the horse is wearing postoly, the others are barefoot. This next photo shows that the cut of the chemise is that typical of the Hutsuls. 

The chemise is cut with a shoulder inset, ustawka, which is sewn to the side of the body field, rather than the top. The body field is rectangular, even though this drawing makes it look like there is a diagonal cut at the top. There is not. The shoulder inset, the underarm gusset, and the sleeve are cut separately. The insets and the body fields are all gathered into the neck. The embroidery is done on the lower edge of the inset. Most of the images seem to have nyzynka embroidery, the woman with the gerdan seems to have a cross stitch design. Some more images that more clearly show the embroidery. 

Here is an old wedding chemise from the village of Maksymets'.

This is a photo of Maria Yaremchuk, taken in 1920 in the village of Zhary, as far upstream as one can get. She is wearing a kyptar similar to those made in the northern Yaremche area, see below.

The men. Here is a photo of a poor Hutsul. 

No ornamentation at all, which is almost unheard of for a Hutsul. No Serdak, no Kyptar. Yet we see the basic Hutsul outfit: postoly with straps around [white knitted] socks, dark wool pants tucked into the socks, white linen shirt worn outside the pants, plain leather shoulder bag, what looks like a narrow leather belt, and hat. He is wearing a city style coat thrown over the shoulders like a serdak. 

A few other images of men from this area. This man is from Zelena. Long hair, brass pipe. 

Here is another man from Zelena, Petro Sishchyk, 1995. He is wearing a serdak [a hutsul jacket], and holding a pair of knitted kapchuri, white wool with an ornamental band in the middle. This is typical for both the Nadvirna and Rakhiw regions. 

This photo is of the Yaremchuk brothers, taken in 1935 in the village of Zhary. The photo is not very clear, but they are wearing kapchuri similar to those in the previous photo, polstoly, Boiko style kyptars from the Perehinsk region just to their west, embroidered shirts and felt hats.

All of these photos show men in everyday work clothes, with no embroidery. The last photo was taken in a market in the town of Nadvirna. The woman wears lowland Halychyna clothing, kerchief on the head, full skirt with decorative tucks, large print apron, she is presumably wearing a chemise with embroidery on the shoulder, but she has a jacket over it. The man is wearing a rather towny version of Hutsul clothing. Felt hat with a rather Tyrolean look, this was not uncommon in Western Hutsulshchyna. Short hair, linen shirt worn over the pants, embroidery on the cuff, presumably on the front, and only a very narrow stripe on the shoulder. Linen summer pants with city shoes. Kyptar with minimal ornament, black sheepskin trim, wide black triangular teeth around the armhole and the bottom edge, a patch pocket, the front not visible. 

A couple of Churches from this region, in Maksymets'

and Bystrytsia

Embroidery

Iryna Svjontek, presents some embroidery designs from Zhary that she researched in the 2000s. 

1 Woman's shirt, ustawka, front and cuff. This is a modern design which illustrates the recent tendency to make the embroideries bigger on the shoulders. 

Cuff of a woman's shirt.

This is from the museum in the village of Bystrytsia, and is labelled as an ustawka for a man's shirt. I think this is unlikely, and that this is for a women's shirt, as mens shirts do not have an ustawka, and embroidery on men's sleeves do not usually have a toothed edge.  

B. Yaremche

This costume region lies along the upper Prut river valley, from Delyatyn up to Tatariv. The villages of Vorokhta and Yablunytsia belong to the Rakhiw region. There are two sub regions, north and south, which differ in the ornament of the kyptar and kozhuchok, which is basically just a kyptar with sleeves. The exact border between the two is unclear, with Yaremche seemingly belonging to the northern, but Dora belonging to the southern. 

The northern, or Zarichchya kyptar looks like this. 

This kozhushok is from Zarichchia

This is from Delyatyn

This kyptar is from Zarichchia

A few large, downcurved teeth on the front, with embroidered crosses at their tips, often in red leather applique, red 'rachky' on the lower front corners, some use of ornamental rivets in the applique. 

The southern, or Mykulychyn kyptar looks like this, showing great influence from the nearby village of Kosmach. 

This one is from Yaremche, and seems to be intermediate, with the ornament of the northern version done in dark leather.  

The women's costume looks typical, with floral skirt or double apron. Here is the only image that I have found of the double apron from this region, from Mykulychyn.

Notice the visible stripes. All Hutsul double aprons have stripes, but they are usually very fine and not visible as a design. Note also in the following images that the front apron was sometimes replaced with a regular floral or other print apron. 

 

Here are a couple of drawings by O. Kul'chyts'ka showing women from this region, underscoring the aprons. This first girl is from the village of Yamna. 

This second image is of a bride from the village of Yamna, with wedding crown. 

Here is a photo of Maria Kumaryn from Mykulychyn in bridal dress.

This is a wedding crown from the Museum of the town of Nadvirna.

This man is Andryj Vasyliv, who makes U Tube videos about Hutsuls and neighboring localities. The are worth watching, but of course they are in Ukrainian. Here he is wearing an outfit from this region. 

He is wearing a serdak, hat with krysania, a kyptar in the Yaremche style, white wool pants, a woven shoulder bag, kapchuri and postoly. 

Note that he is wearing a festive shirt that features embroidery on the upper sleeve. This seems to be a feature of this region, together with that of the Rakhiv region. Thus western Hutsulshchyna shares this detail with the Boikos to their west. 

Here is a painting of a man from somewhere in the Nadvirna region. 

Here is a photo of a man from Mikulychyn. Notice that he is wearing a full sized cheres, or belt.

Narrower ornamented belts were also worn by men in this region. Here is an example from the village of Yamna. 

More men from Mykulychyn. 

Here are some photos from Yaremche and Dora. 

Here is an Easter Celebration from somewhere in this region. 

This photo is labelled "Hutsuls from Nadvirna". Note that the woman on the left is wearing a northern Yaremche kozhushok, while the others seem to be perhaps wearing the outfit of Bystrytsia.

This photo was taken in the village of Tatariw, which leads me to tentatively include that village in this region on the basis of the kyptary. 

Embroidery. 

This image is of a woman from Yaremche embroidering. She is shown wearing a headdress of orange wool yarn. I have found no other images from Yaremche of such a garment, but it is common in the village of Kosmach, which lies just to the east. The drawing is by O. Kul'chytska. 

 

The embroidery of this region seems to have been mostly nyzynka, with a smattering of cross stitch, with both warm and cool color schemes known.

A couple of designs from Tatariw.

Here are some embroideries from Mykulychyn. 

These embroideries are from Dora. The first image includes a wedding wreath as drawn by Olena Kul'chytska. 

A few from Yamna

These embroideries are from Yaremche. 

These designs were graphed from specimens in the Folk Museum of Nadvirna, exact village of origin unknown. Assume that most of the originals were nyzynka. 

And I will end here with part 1. I hope that  you have found this to be interesting and informative, and that I have helped you expand your understanding of Hutsul culture. 

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