Today I will talk about the costume and embroidery of one of the Baltic Finnic Peoples, the Seto. They are sometimes considered to be a rather divergent Estonian group, but they consider themselves and their language to be distinct. In Estonian and in Russian they are called Setu. They call their homeland Setomaa, and it is currently divided between Russia and Estonia. They, like so many indigenous peoples, are a minority in their own homeland, being outnumbered by ethnic Russians on both sides of the border.
There are maybe 10,000 or so unassimilated Seto today.
Here is a map of Setomaa, in green. The Estonian provinces of Voromaa and Tartomaa are visible to the left, and Vinnemaa, which means Russia in Estonian is to the right. The dark line is the border.
Here is the Seto flag.
The photo at the top of the article shows three people in traditional costume. the woman in the middle is wearing the old costume which dates to the first half of the 19th cent, and the woman on the right is wearing the 'new costume', which was worn from the second half of the 19th cent. Both are commonly used now for performances and special occasions.
The old costume.
The chemise [ pikki käüstega hamõ ] of the old costume has a very archaic Uralic style cut, somewhat reminiscent of that of the northern Udmurt.
The sleeves are very long, and are gathered up on the forearms. When working, the women would put their arms through the openings at the elbows, and tie the ends of the sleeves in back. Red stripes are woven into the linen across the shoulders, then a piece of red and white bobbin lace would be inserted at the shoulder seam, and there is red embroidery at the upper end of the outer sleeve piece. A narrow ornament would also be embroidered at the cuff. You can see a seam across the middle of the garment, the upper part is made of finer linen, and the lower part, which does not show, of coarser.
In this museum piece, the embroidery looks like darning stitch. For modern pieces they use prepared linen which does not have the red stripes for the shoulders. They also tend to use diagonal Holbein stitch for the embroidery. We have seen this type of embroidery in Karelia, Ingria and northwest Russia, it seems to be spread all over the region.
A long white garment is worn over the chemise. This had a linen warp and woolen weft. It is called Rüüd, and also has long narrow sleeves which are never used, but which hang down in back and are tucked under the sash. It buttons to the waist, and hangs to the ankles. In modern pieces a couple of ribbons are usually sewn on above the hem.
A narrow inkle-woven sash with typical designs is wrapped around the waist and holds the outfit together.
Hanging on the sash is a garment which is unique to the Uralic peoples, the hip apron, Puusapõll. The Seto version is rectangular and has four different designs embroidered on it. Since the garment is folded when wearing it, only one of the four designs is visible at a time. This makes it possible to show off different designs at different times.
The embroidery is executed in a combination of Holbein stitch, counted satin stitch and darning stitch, with possibly some cross stitch on the borders of the designs. Obviously many designs are possible within this tradition.
The new costume
I have no information as to how or why this costume took over. This was still used into the 20th cent. and is still used today for special occasions.
The cut of the new chemise resembles one which is common in northern Russian costume.
The man in the center is not Seto, possibly Mari.
Raili Riitsaar, 'Seto Tikand', Väljaandja MTÜ Järveääre, 2012
Reet Piiri, 'Rahvõivaid Eesti Rahva Muuseumist', Schenkenberg, 2006
Melanie Kaarma et al, 'Eesti Rahvõivaid', Tallinn, 1981
Natalia Kalashnikova, 'National Costumes of the Soviet Peoples', Moscow, 1990