The Pomor Costume.
Pomor folk costume can justly be regarded as a permanent element of material culture because it reflects not only the ethnic origin and geographical milieu, but also economic development, financial position and religious beliefs. During many centuries the traditional Pomor costume was made to the same design and ornamentation, which could be amidst a conservative mode of life with customs passed on from generation to generation.
Of particular interest are women s costumes for they shed light on the popular idea of beauty. In costume-making women demonstrated their creative potential, imagination and skill. The basic type of pomor women s costume was an ensemble with a sarafan, a sleeveless dress which has become a symbol of Russian women s clothes. The everyday ensemble consisted, as a rule, of a wide linen shirt, sometimes gathered at the neck, a sarafan of canvas or broadcloth decorated with simple traceries, an apron or a sash and a simple head-dress.
Costumes for festive occasions were made of smart fabrics (damask silk, muslin, velvet, brocade) and decorated with rich embroidery, gold-thread needlework, buttons, lace and galloons. Besides the sarafan, the shirt and the head-dress, the festive ensemble included a loose waist-long shoulder-strap garment, lined either with fur or cotton-wool (dushegreya ), and a specific collar-type neck ornament – a net-like necklace, decorated with mother-of-pearl, fine beads or imitation pearls. The entire ensemble was regarded as family heirlooms, carefully preserved and handed over from generation to generation.
The sarafan was the basic element of a girl s or woman s traditional costume. It made any woman s figure slender and stately. Typical of Pomorye were checked sarafans made of red-yellow or red-white home-woven ginghams or sarafans made of dark-coloured fabric, usually blue, brown or purple. This can be explained by the great influence of Old-Believers, people of strict religious habits. In some parts of Pomorye even the wedding sarafan was dark, mostly purple. Bright printed fabric was not so popular – very often it was evidence of a non-pomor origin. Dark somber colours were compensated for by the diversity of cuts. The sarafan could be low-cut or high-necked, cut on the slant or straight, with a stripe at the front or with a bodice. High-necked, cut on the slant sarafans were mostly worn by Old-Believers with a white shirt and a dark kerchief.
Young unmarried women often put on two or three sarafans one upon another or wore several skirts under the sarafan. It can be accounted for by a peculiar time-honoured custom. During holidays girls in festive sarafans and youths in embroidered shirts would stroll arm in arm up and down the streets and sing and dance in a great circle, khorovod. Meanwhile older women or even lads could approach a girl, raise the hem of her sarafan and study the under-skirts to see if the quality of the seams and embroidery of the underclothes was as perfect as that of the upper sarafan. Only then was she considered a neat, industrious and skilful girl. In this way a future wife or daughter-in-law was picked out.
The shirts worn with sarafans are also of interest. The upper part of the shirt: sleeves, a collar, a breast – and shoulder-piece – were sometimes made of a thin, factory-made fabric; calico, sateen, muslin with spangles or brocade. The lower part was made of home-woven cloth. In some parts of the region festive and wedding shirts had sleeves a couple of yards long, obviously not meant for work, which was a tribute to an old Russian tradition. As a rule, every girl and woman had different shirts for everyday, festive and ritual wear. It was a tradition for a bride to make and embroider a festive shirt for her future mother-in-law.
Sarafans were usually worn with aprons, not so much to protect the dress from getting soiled as to heighten the decorative effect. A peculiar feature of the festive ensemble of the sarafan in Pomorye was a sash with an attached pocket – purse, heavily decorated with needlework or appliqué. It was called a tit-bit pocket, because it was meant both for money and sweets.
There was a great diversity of women s headgear in Pomorye. Married women s headgear differed greatly from that of the unmarried. Women wore a kind of bonnet to conceal their hair which, as people believed, had magical power of attracting men. This custom had been observed by the slavs since time immemorial. It was considered a sin and a disgrace for a married woman to go bareheaded. The most popular women s headgear was called kokoshnik. Girls kept their heads uncovered and wore a special plait decoration, a headband with ribbons at the back or else a crown-shaped head-dress called venets. Most intricate head-dresses were made by professional craftswomen out of factory-made materials and adorned with mother-of-pearl, river pearls, white beads, foil and glass.
The male costume was much more modest. It consisted of trousers made of homespun fabric and a high-necked shirt, fastened on the side. Shirts were gathered at the waist with a woven sash or belt and worn over trousers. The sash was the most decorative element of the costume. It was often the pride of the owner as it had been presented by his girlfriend. Patterned sashes and belts had symbolic meaning, some of their signs dating back to pagan times when people believed they warded off evil.
Men s and women s overcoats were of a similar cut. Depending on the season they were either of linen, homespun broadcloth or fur. In spring and in autumn both men and women wore caftans – overcoats with a wide overlap buttoning on the left side. Festive caftans were decorated with coloured braid, with stripes of velvet, calico, buttons and multicoloured embroidery on the right flap and pockets. In winter Pomors wore sheepskin overcoats with the fur on the inside. Wealthy people had winter overcoats of expensive furs – beaver, bear, seal or sable, or of damask silk lined with fox fur. Woolen mittens, worn with them, had a traditional pattern, resembling reindeer antlers.
The main type of footwear in the southern parts of the province were birch-bark sandals, lapti. Peasants made them so skillfully that they were waterproof. Pomors whose main occupation was fishing or hunting preferred leather footgear which might seem a sign of prosperity, but was mostly due to the character of their labour. In winter felt-boots valenki and fur footwear (of the saami type) were worn.
The severe natural conditions and the hazardous occupations of Pomors made them create a special costume fro fishing and hunting seasons, which included a fur overcoat with a hood or a fur hat with ear flaps, high reindeer or seal leather boots, woolen, leather or tarpaulin trousers, and thick mittens, everything being wind – and water – proof.