Heritage

Hello, dear friends. Helen Bells is in the studio for you.

It seems to me, that bandwagon with "hand-made" things becomes stronger and stronger every year. Now we pay not for the valuable material, but for a unique design. A hand-made has become a synonym of exclusivity and special energy. Also traditional is on fashion nowadays. I guess, you would agree with me, that it's the best combination, about which you will learn from my today's guest a talented textile designer - Natalia Yarmalinskaya. Do not miss a trip to the magical world of traditional designs.

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I know that some years ago you was involved in sewing of folk costumes, more over you was one of the first Belarusian designers you began making modern accessories with national motives. What are you doing now?

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Now I study up on traditional weaving. I was interested to learn traditional Belarusian fabrics, as you grandmothers had weaved. So I decided to continue my career as a designer from the very cradle and to learn how to make, create fabrics. Moreover now I teach other young women to weave. We are involved in creation of belts, and more serious things, I teach them different techniques of Belarusian traditional weaving on loom and also we try to adapt them somehow in modern life. Thanks God, we have a lot of books and different scientific researches about our traditional textiles. And in collection of Student's ethnographic society there are enough interesting textile showpieces, that demonstrate traditional ways of weaving, national designs. So we use source materials and try to give them second thought, to feel them in here to understand how ornaments are made, how fabrics operate. First of all we try to copy ornamental patterns then we try to experiment, to create something new in traditional. For the moment we are involved in creation of interior textiles. So we sew fashionable door mats, toss pillows and handbags from our fabrics, but it is just a beginning. We are going to weave fabrics for clothes and bedcovers. Nowadays I work in the center of additional education of youth and kids, called “Vetraz'”. We have a little, but very cozy studio in which authentic looms stand.

Also now we are examining demand on such things, I guess, fashion on such things will be in future. More over, I think, that still in our villages there are authentic textiles, which were made by our great grandmothers, which could be successfully used in modern interior. I would like to mention that in Classic traditional North style, such fabrics are widely used. These stylish door mats are very popular there. We still don't realize its beauty, but they are really wonderful, ecologically friendly, cozy, unique. And they fit in modern interior very well. Talking about me, I use such floorclothes very actively at home, also I weaved fabrics for toss pillows, sewed them for adornment of my interior. Also I'm still involved in creation of national and historic costumes. I stopped making accessories, because on our market there are a lot of proposals, I don't afraid of rivalry, but I'm just not interested any more, because I had been involved in this stuff for several years, when nobody even thought to create something like that. Maybe I'm just not inspired. And to tell you the truth it's very hard to compete with mass market, it's a common truth, that hand-made things are more expensive, that accessories or clothes produced by machines.

As I've mentioned above, I'm also involved in creation of historical costumes. As I always say, the best reenactors turn out from ethnographers. I created dresses of Empire style, dated back to the time of war with Napoleon. Also I make accessories for these costumes and different interesting military stuff, without which army of Great Duchy of Lithuania couldn't exist. Of course, I do like sewing such costumes, it's a very interesting part of my work, because I have to learn new techniques and also to find ways to implement them in simple apartments. Also now I'm interested in Kuntuch historic costume, which was invented in the 17^th century.

Dear friends, what do you know about kuntush? It is the men's overclothes for prosperous dwellers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Kingdom of Poland, which was put on zhupan (warm overcoat worn by our ancestors). Kuntush originated in the 16th century, was long (below the knees), button up with a vent-hole in front. The upper part wasn't buttoned, so that zhupan was seen. Its distinctive feature is slit sleeves, which are freely hanging along the body or thrown over the shoulders. Kuntush used to have bright colors and was darker than zhupan. The backing was sewed from different color. In addition, there was a woven colorful belt, including also famous Slutsk belts. According to my today's guest, textile designer - Natalia Yarmolinskaya, kuntush is a kind of our manifesto, the Belarusian brand that soon will shine on modern fashion catwalks.

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From my point of you, Kuntush is a brand, that will soon become popular as well as embroidered clothes. I would say, that if our geometric ornamental patterns are our everything, inherited from rural traditional culture, then kuntush is a heritage from traditions of our nobility. By the way the fashion on this clothes hadn't changed for 200 or more years. The nobles of different well-being wore such type of costume. The difference was only in fabrics. In the 18^th century, this kind of clothes became for our ancestors not just a simple apparel, but a manifesto, symbol of their belonging, demonstration of their world view. And even after separations of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, noble people wore this apparel. In such a way, they demonstrated their affection to Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Also they used to wear kuntush during different festive Days and celebrations. More over in those lands, which were under the rule of Russian empire, kuntush was forbidden to wear, because to attire kuntush was a political action. The interesting fact is, that there was such an interesting political figure as sir Buslovsky, who took a decision to serve Russian empire, but he was allowed to wear kuntush, even during the meeting with Tzar. Even in the 19^th century people attired kuntush to show their belonging to Grand Duchy of Lithuania. So kuntush is a very interesting and symbolic part of our history.

Also I would mention that interest to Slutsk Belts increased. I guess, it's a good tendency. Of course it's very hard to create such Belt, and it's rather expensive, but it's also Belarusian symbol.

To tell you the truth, there are few historical clubs, in which reenactment of the 17^th century is done, but there are, for example, the historical club in the town of Babruisk. And also my husband is a leader of military history club “Sekirsh”. Now they are involved in reenactment of the 17^th century. They hold very interesting trainings in Polish sword. And of course they need corresponding apparel. So I help them to make such attires.

Exemplary traditional fabrics, made with authentic motifs can be used both in the interior and for the contemporary fashion apparel pret-a-porte. One of the trends in the Belarusian fashion is an appeal of contemporary designers to authentic ornaments. Some people even consider, that the embroidered clothes or accessories in the Belarusian traditional style became not just a super trendy, but even poppy. There was even a new word "vyshymayka". It became a real fact of language and has a certain meaning – an imitation of traditional national embroidery on the simple and cheap youth attire. However the Belarusian traditional ornament is only a small part of what our designers have in the arsenal of expressive means. There are still plenty of ways to create a unique fashion ethnic style. Traditional designs in the hands of talented craftsmen become a real fashionable stylish and unique zest, which helps to create an image that is difficult to forget. We will continue this topic next time.