Fashion stylists and ordinary sewing lovers are always interested in the history of the emergence of various suits, dresses, etc. And this is no accident, because it has long been noticed that fashion repeats itself after a certain period of time. This applies to both women's and men's clothing and footwear. Among Russian fashion designers, it is customary to include elements of the costumes of ancestors, in particular the ancient Slavs, in their collections. One of these outfits is poneva.
General Description
Many fashion lovers don't even know what a poneva is. And this outfit is a voluminous woolen skirt, which was previously worn by married ladies. Often this skirt was blue in a large cage, and its lower part was always beautifully decorated. Basically, this element of clothing was popular in the southern regions of Russia and some regions of Belarus.
Traditions of wearing
To understand what a poneva is, you need to delve a little into the history of wearing it. Women at that time dressed in poneva when they got married. A kichka (a type of ancient women's headdress) was worn along with the ponevoy, as well as special details of chest and shoulder clothing.
In addition to the married, dressed up in poneva and those girls who reached puberty. Thisa peculiar tradition even had its own name - the rite of passage of age. It is interesting that after putting on the poneva, the girl could be expressed as follows: “I took off my shirt.” It meant that the place of a children's shirt was now taken by an adult attire. If a girl is wearing a poneva, then this meant that she could already be wooed. But for the most part, poneva are clothes that were intended for married women. Moreover, this skirt was compared with the "female bondage" in the sense that every woman must go her own way - the birth of children for procreation.
Rite for girls
According to the descriptions of historians and ethnographers in Russia, young girls under 16 did not wear separate skirts. Their usual attire was a shirt, which was girded with a belt of wool. And when it came time to put on adult things, they performed a whole ceremony. The girl stood on the bench and walked on it back and forth. At this time, her mother followed her, holding an open poneva in her hands, and persuaded her to “jump up”. At first, the girl strictly refused, but then she jumped into the poneva. At that time, every girl already knew in advance what a poneva looks like and what she symbolizes. After all, dressing a poneva was considered to make it clear to all unmarried guys that matchmakers could be sent to this girl. And on Russian soil in ancient times, not a single young woman refused marriage.
Appearance
What is poneva in terms of cutting and sewing? Its main difference from the standard skirt is that it is traditional forcreations of poneva arranged three or more pieces of fabric. Usually, women wore a poneva over their shirt, wrapped around the waist and fixed with a cord. In some regions, the poneva was not kept at the waist, but below it or above it, depending on the fashion trend. A beautifully embroidered apron was also worn on the front over this skirt.
If you ask yourself what poneva is in terms of composition, then the fabric for its manufacture includes a hemp or nettle warp, as well as wool duck. Some wearers of this particular skirt preferred to have a canvas lining as well.
Regional differences
To this day, all the elements of the Russian folk costume have been preserved, in which poneva plays an important role. But it is noteworthy that in different Russian regions ponevs differed in color, cut and way of wearing.
As for the colors, there are a lot of options. Even each village could boast of its own ornament or special color scheme. The main type is a dark blue poneva with a checkered pattern. In some areas, black checkered ponevs were more common, and in the territory of the Ryazan province, women wore red striped skirts or blue smooth ones. Pure red was used in the Voronezh and Tula provinces.
According to the cut, special women's skirts can be divided into the following: poneva oar, with stitching, deaf, open in front or side, type-setting. Swing, in turn, are divided into such as:(one cloth in front, and two in the back); different regiments (all parts of different lengths). This fashion was the nature of the Smolensk province. And in the Kursk, Kaluga and Oryol provinces, it was fashionable to wear a poneva open in front, tucking the corners into the belt.
To go to the city, peasant women dressed with a seam. The seam was a fourth piece of fabric that could be temporarily sewn into the skirt in the front or side. Often, this seam differed from the base in color or was limited to stripes of calico.
There was also a poneva type-setting, for which four pieces of fabric were immediately prepared. At the same time, three parts were traditionally checkered and one was plain, for example, black. All this was collected on a special cord, which was called "restraint". The most important difference between the type-setting poneva and all the others is its colorful design.
Types of jewelry
Traditionally, it was customary to decorate the hem of the poneva, the seams of the seams, the edges of the cuts, etc. For this, embroideries, kumach ribbons, various types of stripes, rhombuses were used. In terms of decoration, there are also differences depending on the area.
Thus, in Voronezh, ponevs were decorated with bright orange embroidery from woolen thread. Various sequins and rosettes were also added to it. And the poneva, in which a looped seam was used with red threads, was called a “trinitka”. After this treatment, the fabric of the skirt looked like fur.
Differences in the decoration and color selection of ponies were determined not only by belonging to a particular region, but also by itsappointment. The most beautiful poneva, of course, was considered a wedding one, several people were involved in the creation.
