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Clothes of different social strata
Russia of the XIX century was various in social structures. The capital bourgeoisie, large factory owners, financiers, whose way of life and customs were reformed during the time of Peter I and Ekaterina II, joined to the nobleman’s aristocracy. Provincial merchant class and the representatives of a lower middle class differed from the aristocracy in taste and way of dressing. The main feature of their dress was the combination of Russian national dress and the elements of the European fashion, out-of-dates as a rule.
Class character of Russian dress of the XIX century was perfectly reproduced in a well-known picture by Fedotov « Marriage brokerage of the major ». There is the matchmaker in a bright jacket of a lower middle class woman of the 40s, father - a merchant in a frock-coat, mother – a merchant woman in a bright rich silk dress with a shawl on shoulders, and the bride herself in a dress with a crinoline made from French silk with a lacy shawl, too.
A critical attitude to the imitation of western customs and fashion appeared in the middle of the XIX century in Russia. It was spread all over the wide audiences of the nobility and intellectuals.
The Slavyanofils denying all European trends propagandized to go back to pre-Peter’s Russian clothes. In the 40s -50s many of them wore Russian shirts - kosovorotkas, poddyovkas, tucked trousers in their boots. This thoughtless imitation of external forms of old times dresses gave the birth to « Russian style » in clothes.
New aesthetic principles of simplicity, convenience, modesty in dressing were firmly establisheb by the democratic intelligency: dark calico or linen man's kosovorotkas worn with a belt over trousers and linen blouses - tolstovkas. In a female dress there were no cotton-wool linings, the tournure was substituted by a small soft drapery, a bow or gathered ends of tunika. Such dress we can see in Nesterov's picture « Portrait of the daughter of artist O.M.Nesterova ».
During the last triens of the XIX century the dress of factory workers was also formed. Men wore dark kosovorotkas with belts, waistcoats, jackets, trousers tucked in boots, women wore the so-called couples: a sarafan and a jacket from one and the same fabric a head and shoulder scarf, an apron. Holiday clothes followed the standard of fashion, but were worn without tournures and draperies on a skirt.
For every day clothes calico and other factory cotton fabrics were used, for holiday clothes - inexpensive silk, half-silk and half-woolen fabrics.
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