Rus' Women's Costume

Women's dress

Once again, the basic garment was the shirt, cut just like the man's shirt, except it reached the feet and sometimes featured a slightly gathered neckline. Women often wore two shirts, the outer one often made of coloured silk in aristocratic costume. Like the man's shirt, the women's shirt was always worn belted. A variety of additional pieces could be added to this basic costume. A shorter shirt which reached the calves and featured wide, short sleeves was called a navershnyk . This would be worn loose over the belt. Married women sometimes wore the pan'ova, which was made of three rectangular pieces of cloth (usually in a diamond or other geometric pattern), attached to a leather belt and opening down the front; while unmarried women wore a garment (zanaviska )made of one long strip of fabric with a hole for the neck, which was then pinned at the side or belted. For winter wear, women either wore multiple layers or added a simple cloak. Princesses usually wore the basic Byzantine style of a dalmatic worn over a longer tunic but added characteristically Russian headgear. [[1]]