Rural Fashion of the 20th Century in Ukrainian Clothing and Textiles

Abstract

The relevance of the article is determined by active efforts to modernize the traditional forms of these days object-material creativity, to adapt them for modern stage and festival use, as well as for everyday life. At the same time, professional fashion designers and amateur craftsmen do not take into account sufficiently the experience of innovations accumulated in the folk surroundings itself. The submitted investigation is aimed at the ascertaining the ways and methods of renewal formed spontaneously in various regions of Ukraine during the 20th century, as well as the determination of the specific character of “rural” fashion, different from a “big” city vogue. The work methodology has included field research, conversations with craftsmen and consumers of their products, study of museum collections and specialized literature in order to trace stage and chronological changes in the cut and decoration of clothing, the use of new materials, ornamentation and local naming. We have concluded that the modification of fashion in rural society has taken place during the 20th century on average every 7–10 years, which is commensurable with the rhythm of urban vogue. The changes in fashion are influenced by a combination of natural and random factors. The main reason is the depletion of the resource of continuous aesthetic action of a certain form, colouring, ornamental design. The new thing in the village is sometimes a well-forgotten old used 2–3 generations ago. The specific character of rural fashion includes restraint, ordinariness, local nature of ornamental pattern, rejection of sudden changes as well as obvious eroticism, multilayered and multitextured clothing. Previously, there were no portrait or landscape images, which are now common in urban youth fashion. The study of folk dress and decor of the 20th century as changes in local fashion has significant cognitive potential.