{ National Costume is closely connected with our history and culture.

 As future designers we can say that the cutting and models of our national dress are not difficult. It is easy to sew but at the same time it is difficult to decorate it as the main feature of our costume is a complicated decorations. National costume of our country spans more than a thousand years.

Each region of Ukraine has some differences in dress, particularly in embroidery patterns.

The Ukrainian Midland is the area where the Ukrainian national dress can be regarded as “classical”,that it is very typical of the Ukrainian costume in general.

For men national costume consists of a shirt, thousers, a vest, a belt and black shoes. Oak branches, symbols of enduring, beauty and strength, were the favorite ornament on a men’s shirt.

The most popular and widespread woman’s attire is a long shirt with a belt around the waist. Stylized flowers, solar symbols and geometrical patterns are widely used in embroidery of the shirt.

It’s hard to imagine a woman indifferent to earrings, necklaces, rings and other decorations and to be sure Ukrainian women wore all kinds of ornaments. Coral necklace was an especially highly prized item but they cost a lot. About years ago for a price of a coral necklace one could buy a cow. The poorer had to be content with glass beads, the richer sported necklaces made of gold and silver coins.

The woman’s shirt – or a blouse, worn in the area of Poltava was a long one, with embroidered sleeves; the one from the Chernihiv land was the longest among others. The shirt to be worn on weekdays differed from the one that was worn on Sunday.

Every woman had to know how to make a shirt and the girls at the age of about 12 were taught how to do the needlework. A woman had about shirts.The number of shirts, their quality, type of embroidery were good indicators of what the girls was as a potential housewife.

In the early twentieth century cross-stitch gained predominance over other types of stitches. In the early twentieth century cross-stitch gained predominance over other types of stitches.

Belts had to keep the skirts in place but besides this they had a role to play in the general arrangement of the dress. Some of the belts were long strips of fabric, wound several times around the waist (thus they served also as a support for the spine.)

National costume makes woman more feminine and attractive. National dress is in fashion now. Nowadays prominent Ukrainian designers often use national elements creating their own collection.