As a true master puppeteer, it is always very important for me to come up with an image for my future doll. Violinist? High society girl? A dancer in the Moulin Rouge? There are always a lot of ideas, and the greatest pleasure I get is trying something new, creating dolls with completely different stories. And it is the suit that helps me convey this story to the viewer, making him feel all the emotions that I put into my work. Quite recently, I decided to take a rather bold step - to create images, albeit not royal, but princely, by making Ivan 3 and his wife, Sophia Paleologue. The difficulty for me was to present as accurately as possible these truly great people of our history. So let's move together for a second into the 15th century and see what the men wore.

The harsh Russian climate had a serious impact on the formation of not only the costume as such, but also its types in Ancient Russia. The clothes were warm and closed, although somewhat shorter than the Byzantine ones. Despite this, in general, it was considered indecent to wear short clothes. The wardrobe of princes and nobility was not very diverse, but the clothes were beautiful, colorful, harmoniously combined with the lifestyle, morals, concepts of beauty and dignity. The prince wore a long tunic-like shirt and ports on gashnik (the so-called lace), on which the retinue was worn. The suite consisted of a long outer garment with sleeves, widened downwards with the help of gussets hidden in the side seams. The suite was trimmed with a border around the hem, along the bottom of the sleeves and buttonholes on the chest. In the cold season, they wore a retinue lined with fur.

In general, in those days, men were considered beautiful if they were tall and well-proportioned. The skin of Russian men of the pre-Mongol period was white, blond hair, black eyebrows and eyelashes, eyes usually gray, and a rosy face. A special appearance - broad shoulders and a thin waist - was a feature of Russian men. The current haircut "under a pot" was considered a traditional hairstyle, the ends of the hair curled inward. Well, of course, wearing a beard was a must.

But now let's talk about the beautiful half of humanity - about girls. The colorfulness, monumentality, stately static character of the ceremonial clothes are characteristic of the female costume of Ancient Russia. Female outerwear was not belted and was buttoned from top to bottom. The outerwear for women was a long cloth of cloth, with frequent buttons, decorated with silk or gold embroidery at the edges. Rich women wore three dresses, putting one on top of the other. Wearing the same dress was considered obscenity and dishonor. The clothes of a princess or a noblewoman could weigh about 15-20 kilograms. Married women had to cover their hair and therefore at home they wore hairs or warriors on their heads, and also tied a scarf. When leaving the house, they put on a richly decorated kika or kokoshnik. The girls wore a wide embroidered headband (corolla) on their heads, with wide ribbons behind. In winter, women wore fur hats or covered their headdress with a scarf.

Russian women, like men, were distinguished by their beautiful appearance. All foreigners noted that Russian women were tall, white-skinned, blond, with a bright blush, black "sable" eyebrows and blue eyes. A dignified, unhurried gait, beautiful posture were, as it were, natural manifestations of femininity, gentleness and restraint.

But let's return to the current century. Let's summarize a little bit of our time travel. We remembered those very pictures from history textbooks with high, majestic princes and their irresistible princesses. And despite the fact that noble women already in the 15th century loved to dress up 15-20 kilograms, men who, like women, wore richly embroidered dresses and furs, were real fashionistas. Unfortunately, we only got acquainted with the dresses and customs of noble people, but who knows, maybe next time our journey will be a little longer, and we will have time to consider the outfits of other representatives of that era.

Natalia Korzhueva