A personal project I’ve done — I wanted to compare the two traditional costumes of my two bloodlines: Tatar and Russian.
I’m a Tatar & Russian halfzee. On Dad’s side, it’s Islam. On Mom’s side, it’s the Old Believers (pre-reform Russian Orthodox). Both communities are quiet closed, and it’s in me that their representatives mixed for the first time. I wanted to explore how traditional costumes of my ancestors would look on me. Luckily, I’m entitled to wearing both.
Bulgar Tatars’s costume was created by a costume designer from the movie industry. Nomadic horsemen people, they settled in the Kazan area during the Migration Period where in 1552 they faced Ivan the Terrible’s invasion. Some tatars were killed, some pleaded loyalty, while others ran into the woods and hills of the modern Bashkiria Republic, where centuries later my Father was born in the city of Ufa. His parents moved there from villages. The traditions were followed very strictly there: my Grand-Grandpa was a mullah, and the family was obligated to read Quran.
The Russian costume is a designer tribute to a traditional costume with its signature feature — kokóshnik. Mom’s ancestors were the ethnographic group of Pomors who lived on the White Sea coast. They were Christians but the splitting of The Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-17th century made them the outcasts called the Old Believers. They were heavily persecuted for their beliefs, burned at stake. The survivors fled into the woods, maintaining limited connections with the outside world. For example, they had separate dishes for visitors.
A lot of persecution and love for the woods here.
I wasn’t raised in any religious tradition and Dad would always call me Shakherezada Ivanna. In this project, my features aren’t distorted by pro makeup or Photoshop. I also wasn’t going for a historically believable look. Both outfits actually require braids while Tatar girls’s braids are decorated with copper bombons. The costumes are modern stylizations while true traditional costumes seem to have far gone.
The two costumes gave me totally different vibes. Which one do you like more? What do you think about traditional costumes?
Photography:
Tatar costume: Anastasia Suhareva (Ufa).
Russian costume: Maria Repina (Ekaterinburg).
