Lisa Petik

"... Catherine the Great set out to reclaim Russia’s national identity. Catherine’s new court uniforms were designed to discourage the outrageous spending that was encouraged during Peter’s reign. Catherine’s plan to russify her people was mostly carried out through the redesigning of women’s court dress. The court uniforms combined the traditional medieval Russian sarafan, a type of jumper with exceptionally long sleeves, with the high style of Western European court fashion. Women were required to wear the kokoshnik –the Russian headdress whose traditional ogee or rounded shapes are echoed in Russian architecture and remain one of the defining characteristics of Russian folk style costumes..."

complete statement below

In 1701, the Russian Emperor Peter the Great ordered all Moscow residents to wear German-style court costumes and forbade traditional Russian clothing. Everything including coats, breeches, boots, hats, and saddles had to be German. “From this day forward no one will be able to wear Russian dress, nor will artisans be allowed to make or trade these goods,” he decreed.

Peter’s cultural revolution continued until Catherine the Great set out to reclaim Russia’s national identity. Catherine’s new court uniforms were designed to discourage the outrageous spending that was encouraged during Peter’s reign. Catherine’s plan to russify her people was mostly carried out through the redesigning of women’s court dress. The court uniforms combined the traditional medieval Russian sarafan, a type of jumper with exceptionally long sleeves, with the high style of Western European court fashion. Women were required to wear the kokoshnik –the Russian headdress whose traditional ogee or rounded shapes are echoed in Russian architecture and remain one of the defining characteristics of Russian folk style costumes.

Before Catherine’s reforms of the court dress code, there were only two types of women’s clothing styles: European and Russian. The traditional sarafan, like the one I have designed and built, was able to combine Russian and Western design elements into one harmonious whole. It used a traditional form of folk dress as a pattern, but then built the pattern with richly embroidered heavy brocade fabric, decorated it with semi-precious stones, pearls, and gold braid, and had the added dimension of finely embroidered underskirts (never seen by anyone but the wearer).

The impact fashion can have on a society is fascinating. For example, in Peter the Great’s court, the haute couture of one’s costume or the amount of money spent on one’s clothing sometimes made more of a statement than did one’s political credentials. During the Baroque period, women’s wide farthingale skirts led to the development of wide staircases, French doors, and chairs that could accommodate the girth of the skirts. These developments occurred in Russia just as they did in the West.

Fashion, style, and costumes have existed historically as something far more than an indication of wealth. They occur everywhere and with everyone in every culture. We all make conscious decisions about what we wear, even if our statement is just to appear not to care about our appearance. Clothing is not just about covering the body. There is an art to what we put on our bodies and why we do it. Fashion is about communicating our identity through the interactive sculpture of apparel.