Regional festival of folk costume
“Traditional costume through ages”,
Nyuksenitsa village of Vologda Oblast
 

There was no coincidence in selecting the place for the regional festival “Traditional costume through ages”. It was Nyuksenitsa municipality where local folk traditions are preserved and recreated very deeply and seriously. It was the team of the Nyuksenitsa center of traditional folk culture that represented Vologda Oblast and won the highest awards at the similar All-Russian festivals. In 2006 the festival of the folk costume was successfully tested on the municipal level and that’s why Nyuksenitsa was selected as the place for the I Regional festival of traditional costume.

Amateur groups, ethnographic and folklore groups, fashion theatres, employees from the centers of traditional folk culture and houses of trades, museums; teachers of subsidiary education, families and guests from cities and regions of Russia take part in the festival.

The main aims and tasks of the festival are to promote national traditions in costume; to form the artistic taste on the basis of traditional folk culture; to stimulate the interest for studying and preserving folk costume in local traditions of Vologda Oblast; to reveal and support the most successful experience in mastering traditions of folk costume of Vologda Oblast.

The program of the festival includes contests of costume collections; exhibition of folk costumes, its elements and accessories (ethnographic samples, reconstruction); exhibition of traditional ornamental patterns and elements of the decoration in costumes and subjects of traditional textile; exhibition of dolls dressed in traditional costumes of Vologda Oblast; exhibition of specialized literature, methodical books, individual investigations on this subject; master-classes on traditional embroidery, weaving, making of waists; round table “Traditional costume of Vologda Oblast, problems in studying and reconstruction”, gala-concert of the festival.

The contest is held in 4 nominations – reconstruction (copying of ethnographic samples: style, technologies, colors, decoration); a costume as an image (preservation of selected regional peculiarities of the style, technologies, decoration, its functional purpose); elements of the costume (accessories: handbags, waists, decorations, headdresses, scarves etc.) and ethnographic style (a modern costume with traditional elements).