Volhynian folk costume
In warmer weather, Volhynians wore shirts and skirts (women) or pants (men); in colder months, they put on additional outer garments made from linen fabric or heavier materials such as wool.
[1] The Volhynian costume has a strong Polish influence due to the fact that some of the modern territory of the Ukrainian Volhynia (Volyn) belonged to Poland from 1569 to 1939.
[3] It also shares traits with the costumes of neighbouring regions: Polissya, Halychyna, Dnieper Ukraine and the Polish Chełm Land.
[6] The main part of both women's and men's clothing was the shirt, sorochka (Ukrainian: сорочка), made primarily from linen.
[11][4] The white or black-and-red satin stitch or pattern darning embroidery either covered the sleeve completely, or was added only to the top part.
[12][15] Volhynian waistcoats were sewn from cotton or cashmere, tightly fitted, waist-long or longer; they had a cloth belt and a ruffled hem and were fully embroidered.
[16] Other skirts would be worn with a white cotton apron with an embroidered hem (typically, with black-and-red geometric ornaments) or a green or dark blue two-sided wool one.
[21] Another new development of that time was the appearance of urban sleeveless dresses in the countryside, "skirts with a vest" (Ukrainian: спідниця зі стаником, romanized: spidnytsia zi stanykom), which were named after the fabric they are made of, for example, a silk "skirt" would be called Ukrainian: спідниця шовкова, romanized: spidnytsia shovkova.
[22] The edge was adorned with either black velvet inserts encircled with metal snaps, or an ornament embroidered with colourful worsted thread using the horodky openwork method (Ukrainian: городки).
[12][23] The opening was usually put at the centre of the garment or, in Western regions, on the left-hand side; it had a single tin or knitted button and a loop to close it.
[22] Both men and women wore long coats called svyta [uk] (Ukrainian: свита; опанча; куртина; сермяга), which reached at least to the knees.
[26] Side and waist seams, top of the lap, sleeve edges and pocket openings were embroidered with blue, green or red worsted ribbons, or black, brown, or yellow wool threads.
[28] The hook-and-eye closures were sewn to the left side of the vest; it had a falling collar, its small lapels and cuffs were decorated with black ribbon.
[29] Kabaty (Ukrainian: кабати) is a Western Volhynian 19-century unisex garment made fitted for women and loose for men.
[29] Western Volhynian women also wore shorter vests decorated with black sheep fur and embroidery, as well as bekeshi (Ukrainian: бекеші), a longer wool coat.
[30] Another typical head covering was a "wimple with a kerchief" (Ukrainian: хустка з чепцем) made from two pieces: a knit bonnet and a headscarf wrapped around it.
[10] They wore flower crowns, headscarfs and kozubenkas (Ukrainian: козубенька), which are 8-cm tall firm cylinders covered with colourful fabric and ribbons.
[34] Married women wore kymbalka (Ukrainian: кимбалка), a cylindrical ochipok with a hard wooden top wrapped in a netting.
[35] Another type of a common head covering is a towel-like headscarf made from a 3 metre long piect of linen fabric with embroidery at both ends.
[23] The ancient Volhynian women wore metal temple rings and silver crescent-shaped pendants as well as glass bracelets imported from Kyiv.
