Belt (Ukrainian costume)

The belt in men's clothing played a more important role than in women's. Regarding prehistoric times, there is little information about this part of clothing, but it is known that the belt belonged to the outfit of the upper class of society, as well as to the outfit of the military class, who wore metal belts, while the common people were content with leather belts. Cotton belts probably began to be worn during princely times, and in the Cossack era, precious cast belts - woven with gold and silver - such belts were supplied from Persia and Turkey were widespread. And also recently in Slutsk such Persian belts were made. In the 19th century Among the Cossacks, kalamayka belts were common, made of kalamayka fabric, which was made especially for these belts.

Ukrainian clothing was always tied with a belt. In the 19th century such a belt was mainly made of wool. The belt was most often red, green, blue, white (towel), black. Such belts could be striped, most often red and green belts were worn. The best belts were red, woolen, which had longitudinal stripes of different widths. Most often, such belts were worn in the Kyiv and Poltava provinces. In Volyn, belts were knitted from white wool, and then they were dyed red. Such belts had large tassels at the ends. Black belts were worn by old men. Green belts were never striped, they were worn mostly by wealthy and respectable owners. Most of these belts were worn in Zolotonosky, Chygyrynskyi, Cherkasy poviats. In Polissia, white belts were worn from cloth, woven at the ends with blue and red cloth.

In some areas, instead of such belts, krayka or cheres were worn.

Cheres

There were also trading cheres. That is, the belts are made of suede leather in the form of a pouch, which is fastened to a buckle and a strap. Cheres of the late 19th century were made of yucht leather, up to 20-30 cm wide with several pockets and 3-12 buckles and straps. Such belts were worn by the entire population of the Carpathians and Subcarpathians, and especially by Boikas and Hutsuls.

Krayka

The krayka were knitted from wool and thread, the threads ran along the length, and the wool along the width of the krayka. The krayka were not wide, the widest krayka were in the Khotyn district. Children from 3 to 7 years old also wore krayka.

Reminnyk

The reminnyk was made of leather, which was also used for the soles, it was folded in half and stitched with wire. 4-5 buckles were sewn on one side, and on the other the same number of reminnyk with holes. At the top of such a belt, an unsewn hole was left at arm's length, in which money was later hidden, and which was fastened separately with a thin strap. From above, the reminnyk was decorated with a sewn ornament. Similar to the reminnyk, the cheres was also made, but the cheres was much wider than the reminnyk.