Start With the Basics....
DescriptionA kokoshnik is a ceremonial headdress worn by Russian women. The name is probably derived from kokosha - hen - the symbol of the household. A kokoshnik is typically a tall headdress made of rich fabrics elaborately decorated with beads, pearls, embroidery, and sometimes gemstones. Historically, fish paste was used to glue plain fabric to a stiff foundation of wood or leather, all of which was then covered in satin or other silk fabric. Colors for kokoshniki are frequently red or gold, and the backs are generally of a contrasting fabric. The backs are also frequently embroidered, often with a tree-of-life or similar pattern.
Kokoshniki had countless variations distinguished by regional fashions, and the forms developed and changed from our period of study through the nineteenth century.
Historical context
Interestingly enough, it's difficult to pin down the kokoshnik within our period. The predecessor to the kokoshnik, the soroka - a headdress in the form of a cap with a stiffened embroidered panel on the top or front, developed in the twelfth to fifteenth centuries in Kievan Rus. There appears to be no real evidence that the kokoshnik as we know it existed prior to the 1600s, although this may simply be a problem of nomenclature. Sixteenth century pictorial evidence shows headdresses that look like kokoshniki, but might be more accurately termed soroka.
Most of the extant headdresses were collected for the Historical Museum in St. Petersburg in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, when the term kokoshnik had become the common name for the typical peasant headdress. We do know that these headdresses were extremely valuable, and were handed down through the generations. Thus the extant examples dated from the late eighteenth century might be similar enough to those from two hundred years previous to be useful for our purposes. At least they do not seem to be obtrusively modern.
So, what forms are typical for the late sixteenth century? There are archeological finds of crown-like shapes from the 11th century onwards (koruna, koruny), thus I believe that the crown- or pillbox-shaped kokoshniki are more typical of our period of study than the fan-shaped kokoshniki. The kika, a pillbox shape from Novgorod with flattened back and ear flaps, is known from the 1600s. However, of the single-horned type, the crescent-shaped one seems to be the oldest - older than the triangular or lobed shapes.
Compounding the "period" issue is that, while most of Europe enjoyed the Renaissance beginning in the fourteenth century, the Russian "Renaissance" actually occurred in the eighteenth century. So, do we use an arbitrary date for the determination of "period" Russian clothing, or the cultural climate? The question is still open to discussion.
Decoration
Since we have no extant examples of kokoshniki from our period of study, the details of headdress construction in period can only be inferred from headdresses of the same names worn in Russia post-period. Thus the decoration of kokoshniki depends entirely on the sources which are available, which in many cases include artifacts dated to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, or documents not readily accessible due to language barriers. Frequently, the construction and decoration of re-creation post-Keivan Russian women's clothing depends on methods and motifs regarded as "traditional", which in the case of Russia might not be terribly far from period reality due to the somewhat static nature of the condition of women in Russian society before the Revolution.
Such is the nature of the decoration and construction details presented.
Generally, a kokoshnik should be heavily beaded. In some extant examples, there are portions of the kokoshnik which are so heavily encrusted that the base fabric is no longer visible. The fabrics used are typically figured brocades of some sort, and red and gold predominate. The linings typically contrast with the face. A border is frequently worked on the part of the headdress surrounding the face. The face is further framed by ryasny and podniza.
It's easy enough to find a bit of yummy damask or cut velvet brocade, and embellish it with pearls, beads, gold embroidery, gimp, or metal findings. But you can design your own, too. For typical motifs, we might look to a source such as rushnychok, or Ukrainian embroidery. Although rushnychok is considered to be "from olden times", that's not nearly enough documentation to consider it "period". However, the motifs are certainly traditional, and might provide inspiration for designing your own designs. Some typical motifs are shown in ills 8. Some more motifs may be found at http://tulgey.browser.net/~kate/sca/rus/ , which is an excellent article on Russian embroidery.
Arabesques are always good, as are birds, flowers, tree-of-life patterns, fruit, and non-figural designs. To create a design without a plan, start with a few featured stones, flowers, or beads, and work from there, adding motifs as you work out from the featured details.
Techniques
Couching - couching is using thread to stitch down larger cord. Usually, the thread is somewhat smaller than the cord, which is generally fairly thick. Couching cord is generally metallic or of a color that contrasts strongly with the ground.
Pearls - River pearls were available to any who would harvest them in Medieval Russia. Thus, families of almost any means could afford to encrust headdresses (as well as other items) in pearls. There are three basic methods of applying pearls:
Beads - Beads can be handled in the same way as pearls. Use either semi-precious gemstones that were available in period, or glass in similar colors. Favorites include amethyst, lapis lazuli, citron, and garnets.
Hint: Use Fray-Check on the knots on the back of your kokoshnik to prevent knots from failing. Beaded and pearled embroidery is especially prone to pulling out due to the weight of the beads.
Embroidery - lines can be described and areas filled with embroidery. Period stitches include split stitch, satin stitch, tent stitch, and raised satin stitch. Silk, linen, and wool were used in period, although silk predominates.
Construction
These instructions are modern methods of constructing kokoshniki. They depart from period practice in that we will be using buckram for the form rather than wood or leather. The remainder of the methods are workable methods for achieving a period-looking headdress, and make no claim whatsoever as to their authenticity.
Supplies
| Paper grocery bags | Paper scissors | Marking pencil/chalk |
| Tape measure | Tape | Mirror |
| Iron | Ironing board | Fabric scissors |
| Buckram | Stabilizer - non-woven interfacing | Milliners wire |
| Heavy thread | A large-eye needle | Fabric - contrasting brocades for the front/inside and back/outside |
| Embroidery scissors | Embroidery floss | Beads |
| Ribbon | Pearls | Metal findings |
| Beading needles | White poly/cotton thread | FrayCheck |
| Cording | Tissue paper |
Making up
1) Research forms, styles.
2) Cut open a couple of paper grocery bags. Spritz lightly with water and iron to (mostly) remove folds.
3) Take measurements of your head. These will be used as guidelines and estimating tools, and need not be terribly precise.
For a pillbox or crown style, around the fullest part of your head.
For a fan style, across your head from ear to ear.
4) Make a pattern. Using your measurements, estimate the amount of room needed for your head.
Lay your tape measure along the curve, and measure. Mark the circumference you found in step 3. Cut out the curve, curve the paper into a rough cone, and tape it together at the seam.
Bring your tape and scissors with you to a mirror. Put on the pattern. Make changes where necessary in the curve. You are likely to have to flatten the curve.
When you get the curve right, take it off, and set it on the table. Look at the bottom edge. Is it flat to the table? Do the front and back angles match?
Make changes where necessary. You may find that you have to tape pieces of paper back into the pattern, or re-draw the parts that do work on to another paper bag.
Keep working with it until it a) fits, b) sits flat on the table, and c) has matching angles in the front and back.
Go back to the mirror, and don't forget your marking pencil, tape, and scissors. You'll also need a measuring tape.
Mark where you want the top of the hat to be. Measure from the bottom curve to your mark.
Make additional marks parallel to the bottom curve.
Cut along the dotted line.
Double-check the size, shape, fit, and make sure it sits flat on the table and that the front and back angles match. Remove the tape that's holding it together in the back, and you have a flat pattern.
Eventually, you'll make a pattern to fit the top of the pillbox, but don't worry about that right now.
Lengthen the curve.
Fit it upside down - that is, put the smaller end on your head, not the larger.
When you get a good fit, remove the tape that's holding it together at the back.
Fold the pattern in half.
Cut the top of the "crown". You can make it taller in the front, and cut 5 or 7 large scallops in the top edge. Or you can keep it the same height all around and cut embattlements or leaf-shapes.
Fold the paper grocery bag in half short-ways.
At the 90° corner made by the bottom of the paper bag and the fold, lay your tape measure in a curve to approximate one half of the opening needed for your head. Mark it and cut it out.
Go to the mirror. Remember to bring your scissors. And maybe more paper bag.
Try the curve on. Don't worry about the top of the kokoshnik yet.
You may find that you want to deepen the curve along the fold. This will make the kokoshnik sit lower around your face.
When you have it where you like it, take it off and fold it in half along the original fold line.
Cut out the top.
Try it on, and make adjustments.
Make a pattern for an oval cap across your head, or for an "envelope" of fabric to contain the back of your head.
5) Cut materials.
Cut one each of the front and back fabrics. Remember that you will need to add seam allowances to the fabric.
Depending on the weight of the stabilizer, cut one or two. Consider the weight of the front material, and the considerable weight of the decoration under the influence of gravity.
Cut one of the buckram. Don't include seam allowances. If you're doing the oval cap to secure the fan shaped crescent, cut one layer of buckram for this as well.
6) Baste stabilizer to the front fabric along the top and bottom edges.
7) Assemble the parts along the top edge only. Make the inside/back side a little smaller than the front.
For the pillbox, stand the sides of the hat on a piece of paper grocery bag. Draw a circle that will fit on top of the pillbox.
Cut out fabric for the top of the hat using that pattern.
Fit the fabric to the top of the hat. Trim the fabric to fit if necessary.
Do the same for the lining of the hat. Remember to make the lining a little smaller - it has to fit inside.
8) Clip and press seams.
9) Remove basting that falls outside the top edge seam.
10) Build the buckram "frame".
Whip-stitch milliners wire firmly to the outside edge of the buckram.
As you're wiring the buckram, curve it to fit the frame.
Periodically fit the frame into the fabric envelope. Bend the wire to fit. You may need to trim the buckram to get a good fit. The frame should fit snugly within the envelope.
11) Decorate.
Here's the fun part! You've left the bottom edge open - you have access to the interior of the hat for beading and embroidering. Either use the ground as a basis for embellishment, or create your own. You can do a free-form design by starting with a focal point or three, and then developing the design as you go. Or you might lay out the design on lightweight tissue paper. Baste the tissue paper to the kokoshnik, and stitch right through it. Tear it away when the design is done.
12) Whip-stitch lower edge together.
13) Add raysny and podniz.
(Instructions coming soon....)
14) For the crown style, you'll want to attach long ties to the back for closures.
A Novgorod pillbox style kokoshnikDescription Kokoshniki had countless variations distinguished by regional fashions. This kokoshnik is a pill-box shape, a style typical to Novgorod. It is my second kokoshnik, and is still in process. I'll be posting more pictures as it progresses. Construction To construct this kokoshnik, I first created a crescent-shaped pattern out of newspaper. Then I cut one each of the gold outer fabric, a burgundy lining, heavy non-woven interfacing, some thin tissue paper, and buckram for interfacing/stiffening. The buckram is basted together in the shape of the hat and then a millner's wire is whip-stitched to the top and bottom edges of the form. I basted the heavy interfacing to the wrong side of the gold outer fabric. This interfacing will help stabilize the beads. The gold outer and the lining fabrics are each stitched together at the back, and the round top of the hat is stitched on. At this point, we have 1) a gold outer hat form, 2) a burgandy lining hat form, 3) a stiffener or foundation for the hat, and 4) a piece of tissue paper. On the tissue paper, I've drawn a design which is similar to one found on an ecclisastical cloth from the early 17th century. The design is pinned to the outer gold hat form, and then I began to add pearls. Once I get the outlines down, I'll tear away the tissue paper. This picture shows the form after I've begun to bead it. |
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| I use a thin (32 ga.) gold beading wire to string the rows of pearls. The pearls are then couched onto the hat with white sewing thread between each pearl. At the end of the row, I sink the ends of the wires to the back of the fabric.These rows will finally be couched with gold cord. Here is a closeup showing the beading happening over the tissue paper design. |  |
| The remainder of
the decoration is a combination of embroidery and beading. I plan to
use quite a bit of gold metal embroidery materials on this kokoshnik.
The leaves will be filled with seed pearls and gold metal threads, and
then other beads and possibly some gold metal bits - plaques or studs -
will be added. I typically use freshwater pearls and garnet and
amythyst beads, although any beads that contrast sufficiently (and
would have been available in period) are possible. Once the beading and embroidery is finished, it's time to assemble the hat. Put the three layers together, the lining, foundation, and outside. Fold the lining and outside over the foundation at the bottom edge and whipstitch shut. To finish the hat, you'll need ryasny and a podniza. Ryasny are the temple pendants - the long strings or webbing of pearls that are attached to the hat at the temples. To make them, you can either simply string pearls and other beads into several shoulder-length ropes, or make a single woven or netted ryasny. The podniza is the construction of beads that falls across the forehead and is typically woven or netted too. Some 19th century examples show strings of pearls that are attached to the hat, so one might reasonably infer that period examples might be the same. Webs or nets of pearls are easy to make. Remember that ryasny and podniza are removable, so I would reccomend that you make them and then attach them to your kokoshnik. Use tiny pearls especially for your podniza; the tinier pearls will make a more uniform net. Larger pearls tend to look kind of klunky. Use real or glass faux pearls because they hang better. Feel free to be creative and accent your pearls with colored beads. This process is much easier to show you than to describe, but here goes: First, string a long rope of beads or pearls on white sewing thread using a #10 or #12 beading needle. Sewing thread is strong enough to support the pearls, but supple enough to allow them to hang properly. Don't use metallic thread or embroidery floss; I can tell you from painful experience that they'll stretch and break. Don't use silk beading thread either. It's too thick to pass more than once through most pearls. Make the rope as long as you need it - temple-to-temple for podniza or just a inch or an inch and a half long for ryasny. Then add about 20% of the length to account for what you'll loose in the netting. Now bring your needle around the end of the rope, and slip it through the third or fifth pearl from the end of the row. Pull the thread lightly tight, and thread five pearls on your needle. Skip three pearls, and run the thread through the next pearl. Thread five more pearls, skip three, run your needle through the fourth, and so on to the end of what is now the second row. String five more pearls, and this time run your thread through the middle pearl in the first group of the second row. You should see the netting begin to develop here. Again, string five pearls, run your needle through the middle pearl in the second group of the second row, and so on to the end of the third row. Continue this as song as your want. The podniza should fall to the eyebrows; the ryasny should fall to the shoulder or maybe a little longer. On the last row, you may want to embellish the net. You can make a little picot loop of three or five pearls. To make the picot, pick up six or eight pearls on your needle. Run the needle through the third pearl in the row, add two more pearls, and then run your needle through the middle pearl on the previous row. You might add an extra pendant bead perhaps in a contrasting color. To do this, pick up three pearls and your extra (garnet??) bead. Run your needle back through the third pearl, add two more, and then run your needle through the middle pearl on the previous row. You can even extent this pendant bead motif to two or more beads. Whipstitch the ryasny and podniza on the kokoshnik, and you're finished. Don't forget to wear the kokoshnik with an ubrus and povoynik. It looks funny on top of hair. Be prepared. People will never look you in the eye when speaking to you again; they'll be looking at your hat! |
Women's Headwear in the XIIIth - XVIIth Centuries, by Lady Liudmila Vladimirova doch'
17th Century Style Russian Costumes worn by the Russian Nobility to the Romanov Anniversary Ball held at the Winter Palace, February 1903 ("Balnoi platye rossiiskoy znati Oochastniki costumirovannovo bala vi Zimnem dvortza", published by the Imperial Stationary Office, St. Petersburg, 1904 ) [Lost link]
"Especially clothing they created..." (Clothing and ornaments of ancient Russian women.) Translation of chapter IV of Pushkareva's "Zhenshiny Drevnej Rusy" translated by Sofya la Rus, Mka Lisa Kies
Russian Embroidery, Kat'ryna Neblaga Volchkova (mka Kate Jones)
Techniques of Russian Gold and Pearl Embroidery By Soraya Evodia of Odessa, Slovo, Spring AS XXXI (1997) [Lost link]