Magic Hat!

Random, but awesome!

Read Full Post »

Russian peasant costume

Im researching costume for Catherine I of Russia’s early life – she was born in 1684 to peasant parents who died when she was 3 and worked as a housemaid until she was picked up by Peter the Great and married him, ruling Russia as the first female ruler after his death. So the research is for a working class girl around 1700 living in Russia. Working class costume is always harder to research so I’m going to begin with the general silhouette of the time, Peter the Great was keen on westernising Russia of I think we can assume this would have been the usual mode.

I love this blog about folk costume, loads of interesting details and pictures. This is a sarafan which is a Russian dress, essentially a tube, gathered or pleated at the top with shoulder straps. The ones pictured here are higher status.

There’s loads of interesting costume stuff on this site, I love the woven bark shoes and all the embroidery.

http://folkcostume.blogspot.com/

On another website I found some wonderful pictures, this is a 1784 Russian peasant. Red is considered the most attractive colour, associated with the word ‘beautiful’. A large headdress indicates the woman is married, a smaller headdress or diadem shows that the woman is unmarried. The website states that the cut was very similar between low and high status clothing except for materials and ornament.

http://www.tristarmedia.com/bestofrussia/dress.html

Here is a drawing of Ukrainian peasants in 17th-18th C, I don’t know the source of this illustration however. http://www.kismeta.com/diGrasse/Costume/CossackGear.htm

These are lovely drawings of folk costume from here…

http://illustratedinfullcolourthroughout.blogspot.com/2009/04/russian-traditional-dress-set-of.html

These are costumes from central Russia…

This is north Russia….

These are of south Russia…

“The Russian Peasant Girl” by Jean Baptiste Leprince (1734-1781). She seems to be dressed, how shall we say… a little immodestly! But she isn’t wearing any of the colourful folk costume that we have previously seen, folk costume was partially a 19thC invention, partly used for special occasions and festivals.

William Carrick (1827 – 1878), photographer….

http://www.nls.uk/collections/foreign/slavonic

Thats going to be it for now, I need to do some book learnin’ about the cut of clothing around 1700, hopefully I can find some more interesting visual research too.

Read Full Post »

Catherine I: Housemaid and Empress of Russia

I’m researching  Catherine I of Russia for a costume brief. Catherine I had an extraordinary life, born in 1684 as Martha Skavronskaya, a peasant, and dying in 1727 the Empress of Russia. Her father is variously reported to be a runaway landless serf, a grave digger or a handy man, he died with Catherine’s mother of plague in 1689. She was brought up by a pastor where she remained uneducated and illiterate working as a housemaid for his household.

She was considered a very attractive young lady and with fears that she would get involved with the families son she was married off to a Swedish dragoon when she was 17, but she only stayed with him for 8 days. After working as housemaid in various houses she eventually became employed by Prince Aleksandr Menshikov who was the best friend of Peter the Great. Peter met her in 1703 while visiting his friend and took her as a mistress.

She converted to orthodoxy taking on the name Catherine in 1705 and she and Peter married in secret in 1707, having 12 children only 2 of which survived. Catherine accompanied him on military campaigns and when St Petersburg was being built they lived with their children in a 3 room log cabin like an ordinary couple.

Officially married in 1717, after Peter died she became the first female ruler of Russia until her death.

According to reports she was unshockable, enjoyed vulgar jokes, heavy drinking and was extremely strong!

This is Catherine in the 1710s by an unknown artist.

This is Catherine I in 1717 by Jean-Marc Nattier.

A quote from the delightful Princess Wilhelmina of Bayreuth declares “the Tsarita was short and stocky with a very swarthy complection having no distinction or grace. One only had to look at her to see that she was low born… She had a dozen orders and relics sewn all along the facings of her dress, so that when she walked you would have thought you heard a mule jingling.  …From her clothes you could have mistaken her for some German strolling player.”

“The family of Peter the Great 1717” by GS Musikiysky

This is 1717 again by Carel de Moor

Here she is in 1718 by Jacobus Houbraken.

“She has a pleasing plumpness, the colour of her face is very white with traces of natural quite high colour, her eyes are dark and small, her hair the same colour long and thick, fine neck and hands, a mild and very pleasant expression” written by a foreign observer.

This is a portrait by an unknown artist around 1724.

Catherine I in 1724 by Heinrich Bucholz. By this point her looks are reported to have been ruined by heavy drinking

I’m going to divide this post up because its going to get really long otherwise! Next up: Russian peasant clothing around 1700.

Read Full Post »