Features of Traditional Folk Raiment of Transcarpathian Lemky (XIXth to Early­­to­­Mid­­XXth Centuries)

Author

Kotsan Vasyl – a Ph.D. in History, an associate professor at History of Ukraine Subdepartment of the Transcarpathian Museum of Folk Architecture and Folkways

Features of Traditional Folk Raiment of Transcarpathian Lemky (XIXth to Early­­to­­Mid­­XXth Centuries)

Abstract

The research, based on field materials, available literature, and fund collections of ethnographic, historical­cultural and local­history museums of Transcarpathia, analyses the region’s folk clothes of the Lemky. The detailed description of women’s and men’s complexes of raiment of the region under study is separately given.

The study shows special and distinctive features of cuts and embroidery decoration of women’s chemises of Perechyn and Velykyi Bereznyi districts’ Lemky. Colour photographs serve us for vivid visual demonstration. It is also worth mentioning detailed descriptions of women’s attire: chemises, aprons, and belts. The author also observes evolutionary changes in the development of outwear and shoulder sleeveless cloths of Transcarpathian Lemky­women. They were primarily associated with the emergence of new materials, new approaches to decoration. Women’s haircuts, headdresses and beaded jewellery were distinguished by their singularity. Among them, chepets (a kind of married woman’s headdress, her attire’s obligatory element) and kryza (a beaded neck adornment) deserve consideration.

While characterizing men’s raiment of Transcarpathian Lemky, the author minutely describes the early­XXth­century replacement of short shirts by long ones with embroidery created with white­on­white thread, as well as the appearance, in the early 1920s, of men’s shirts with polychromatic ornamental compositions. While comparing Lemky’s linen trousers with Dolyniany ones, the author attributes a long narrow cut and minimal décor to ethnographically differentiating features. Men’s sleeveless garments, jackets and huni are similar to women’s ones. They were made of linen, fur and cloth. Up to the early­to­mid­XXth century, Lemky had not sewn sleeveless garments out of factory fabrics. Among headgears of Transcarpathian Lemky distinctive are festive hats decorated with bird’s feathers, pig’s wool and coloured hairpins.

In general, folk attire of Transcarpathian Lemky has preserved many archaic features: white colour, non­stitched shapes, uniformity of cuts and decoration of individual raiment elements.

Keywords

clothes, Lemky, chemise, cut, embroidery, skirt, apron, belt, hunia, sirak, shawl, chepets (a kind of married woman’s headdress), zaplitky (fillets), necklace, men’s trousers, caps.