The State Hermitage Museum: Collection Highlights

E.YU. MOISEENKO

The collection of Russian folk costumes consists of over 1,000 items. About half of them are costume combinations, and around 500 are headdresses for girls and married women from different provinces. There are also accessories such as belts, beads, necklaces, earrings, as well as hundreds of embroidered fragments for headdresses and a significant number of head scarves. Apart from Russian costumes, there is a small number of costumes, headdresses and wardrobe accessories of peoples of the Volga region: the Mari and Cheremis, etc. The majority of items date back to the 19th century, although there are some 18th century exhibits as well.

The collection was formed at the turn of the 20th century, when the museum received donations from prominent collectors of Russian art, private persons and the Museum fund which existed in the years following the revolution. A major boost came between the 1960s and 80s, when field trips to different regions of European Russia organised by the State Hermitage uncovered a great number of interesting samples of peasant dress and headwear.

The core of the collection covers the Northern and Central regions of European Russia. The costumes are various combinations of sarafans and shirts. Of most interest are rich 18th-early 19th century costumes, with silk and brocade sarafans, including such festive additions as dushegreyas or waistcoats - short items of rich cloth with shoulder straps, open at the front and decorated with lacing. Velvet coats were usually embroidered with gold thread. They were most often included in women's costumes of the Nizhny Novgorod province. The collection of folk costumes has coats from many provinces, richly decorated with embroidered and woven ornaments.

The Hermitage collection of women's headdresses is one of the most extensive. It contains many types of kokoshniks (high decorated headdresses), headbands for unmarried girls, povoiniks (headdresses of married peasant women) decorated with pearls and gems as well as simple coloured glass, glass beads and bugles. Most of the 18th-19th century headdresses are decorated with traditional gold embroidery. Scarves and kerchiefs embroidered with gold thread were important accessories to festive costumes. They were often worn on top of the kokoshnik or povoinik or a headscarf made of chintz or other materials.

The Hermitage collection of Russian folk costumes and headdresses gives a good impression of main types of women's clothes and headdresses worn in most Russian provinces between the 18th and the early 20th century.

A peasant woman's costume: sarafan, shirt, apron, "Combination" headdress Late 19th century Image in the Digital collection		Headdress for an unmarried woman: garland Second half of the 19th century Image in the Digital collection

A woman's headdress: kokoshnik Late 19th century Image in the Digital collection		Festive female costume: sarafan, shirt, kokoshnik, scarf 19th century Image in the Digital collection

Festive dress of an unmarried girl: sarafan, shirt
Early 19th century
Image in the Digital collection

Festive costume of a Cossack woman: sarafan, "sleeves", belt, scarf
Late 19th - early 20th century
Image in the Digital collection

A woman's costume: sarafan, belt, shirt, band, necklace
Second half of the 19th century
Image in the Digital collection

A woman's costume: paneva (skirt), shirt, shushpan (jacket), apron, "Magpie" headdress
Late 19th century
Image in the Digital collection

A woman's costume: paneva (skirt), shirt, shushpan (jacket), apron, "Magpie" headdress
Second half of the 19th century
Image in the Digital collection