Showcase 44. Secular dress in Russia in the XVIth to XVIIth centuries

The exposition of the showcase presents main types of secular dress and accessories of the XVI-XVII centuries. Ceremonial items of everyday life at the Tsar’s court illustrate the general features characteristic of Russian national costume and, in addition, are connected with specific historical figures. The collection includes zipuns, kaftans, fur coats, ferezeyas, platnos, volosniks, sapogs and etc. which are extremely rare specimens of secular attire of Medieval Russia.

The style of most clothing of the pre-Petrine age (with the exception of courtiers' and officials' dress) was the same for all sections of the population. Dress of nobles differed from that of a common people mainly in the quality of fabric, decorations and number of items worn. Various strata of society wore clothes made of linen, coarse coloured cotton and homespun wool. Precious textiles and ornamental embroidery were used for trimming the garments of Tsars and boyars.

The earliest item of clothing in the collection is Metropolitan Philip's fur coat, a unique specimen of XVIth-century Russian popular dress. It is made of homespun dark-brown wool and lined with sheepskin. The metropolitan wore this coat during his exile at the Otroch-Assumption monastery in Tver. Fur coats were very common in Russia and were worn by all sections of the population. The peasants made them with a lining of sheepskin or hare fur, the boyars and clergy with a lining of sable, marten or white fox. The collar and cuffs were of fur. With the fur coat they wore tall straight hats made from the neck fur of the marten, sable or fox.

A rare item of clothing, of which only one has survived, is the nalatnik which was worn over ceremonial armour. In cut it resembles a jacket open at the sides with short sleeves. The specimen on display is made of red satin densely covered with gold embroidery. It belonged to Tsar Mikhail Romanov.

The main type of male upper garment in mediaeval Russia was zipun, worn over a long shirt. It was unfastened with the edges just meeting. The long narrow sleeves were gathered at the wrist with hooks. A smallish round collar was attached on top. Zipun was encircled at the waist several times by an oriental belt. In the showcase you can see the domestic zipun of Peter the Great, made of green satin and quilted lengthwise with strips of wadding.

The largest group of garments on display are kaftans, long-skirted coats which was worn over zipuns. The earliest specimen is a XVIth-century oriental kaftan. It is made of pale blue Persian satin. The pattern, woven in silk and gold, shows a man fighting a dragon. In cut oriental kaftans differed little from those accepted in Russia and were often worn there without any alterations. In the showcase you can see three figured kaftans belonging to Peter the Great which were made at the end of the XVIIth century in the Kremlin workshop. They are similar in cut, adorned with silver-gilt lace and made of white watered and pinkish, dark red silk and pale blue wool.

On gala official occasions, such as coronations and receptions for foreign ambassadors, Tsars wore platno or state robe - a long, unfastened garment, very flared at the bottom, with broad short sleeves. The platno was made of the most expensive imported fabrics, brocade, axamite and altabas - silk cloth interwoven with silver.

Another type of ceremonial garment was ferezeya - a straight garment worn over the shoulders and fastened at the neck only by a tasselled cord or a stud. Its sleeves were very long, down to the ground, and were tossed back and tied behind the back. The ferezeya of Tsar Alexei on the left in the showcase was made of white woollen fabric in the second half of the XVIIth century. Unfortunately it gives only the idea of the ferezeya's design and cut as none of the decorations have survived.

By means of the represented articles one can also get acquainted with traditional headdress and other accessories of Medieval Russia, such as volosnik, kokoshnik, buttons, mirrors and etc.