A sheet of nine Ukrainian stamps was recently donated to the TRC (TRC 2023.2460). The stamps show details of an embroidered blouse, called a vyshyvanka, including cutwork or drawn thread work in the form of small squares in a diamond-shaped pattern. This traditional woman’s blouse is very popular in Ukraine, especially since the Russian invasion.
Sheet of nine stamps from Ukraine showing the embroidery on the Ukrainian vyshyvanka blouses (TRC 2023.2460).
Like many garments, it is a marker of identity and even has its own day, celebrated on the third Thursday in May, when Ukrainians proudly wear their vyshyvankas (for examples of some of the Hutsul ethnic group’s vyshyvankas, see TRC 2022.0360-2022.0388).
Hand embroidered blouse from the Hutsul, Romania/Ukraine, 20th century (TRC 2022.0379).
There are many types of decorative needle work in Ukraine that deserve celebration. I’ve been reading a just published memoir by the American-Ukrainian writer Victoria Belim (The Rooster House: My Ukrainian Family Story, Abrams Press, New York, 2023). While the book is a family memoir, based on trips Belim made to her grandmother between 2014 and 2019, it includes some interesting segments on traditional Ukrainian embroidery.
Embroidered detail of Romanian/Ukrainian vashyvanka (TRC 2022.0379).I’ve written about Ukrainian embroidery before (see 3 May 2022) and also about the traditional embroidered towels known as rushnyk. During one visit to Ukraine, Belim, in her My Ukrainian Family Story, meets a fascinating woman in the city of Poltava, in central Ukraine, who has specialised knowledge about these towels. Pani Olga is an older woman who has taken it as her life’s work to preserve rushnyk.
There is a lovely part in the book where Pani Olga speculates on the emotions the embroiderer is feeling as she works on her rushnyk, based on the motif the woman has embroidered.
The author travels with Pani Olga to a near-by town called Reshetylivka, to visit the Rushnyk Museum there. The town has long had a reputation for its fine crafts work, in carpet making, weaving, shoe making—and embroidery. The two also visit the Reshetylivka Arts College, where they meet another remarkable woman.
Rushnyk-style towel from Hungary (TRC 2016.0306).Nadia Vakulenko is a master embroiderer and head of the Arts College’s embroidery school. She specialises in white-on-white embroidery, or bile po bilomu, as it’s called in Ukrainian. She believes this style originated in Reshetylivka, where the town’s characteristic motifs include cherry blossoms intwined with vine leaves, stars and snowflakes. “Different regions have their own styles as distinctive as their personalities,” Vakulenko notes in the book.
Belim falls in love with the embroidery, and begins lessons with Vakulenko. “…White-on-white embroidery doesn’t allow for a single mistake. Knots are not allowed, as the reverse has to look identical to the front side,” she writes. “To give a design luminosity and form, a master uses threads of different finishes and angles each stitch to catch the light. Making one blouse takes a year and the slightest miscalculation makes the whole pattern crooked.”
Fragment of the white-on-white embroidered blouse produced by Nadia Vakulenko.
Belim has written more in her memoir about this type of embroidery, which can employ up to twenty different techniques, including drawn thread work and cross stitch. There’s also a lovely photograph of the blouse Nadia Vakulenko made for the author. In the book, Vakulenko talks about her dream of seeing this special white-on-white embroidery achieve UNESCO Intangible Heritage Status. I am happy to note that this year bile po bilomu was nominated to this UNESCO list.
Shelley Anderson, 19 November 2023
