Krustpils Women's Folk CostumeFold-out, Latvian State Printing House, 1958

WOMEN'S NATIONAL COSTUME OF THE KRUSTPILS DISTRICT

The national costumes of the Krustpils district were extremely colourful, decorative, and variegated in ornament, and from the artistic point of view, they held the place of honour.

The most decorative part of the festive dress was the "sagsha" or twilled woollen shawl. Several rows of embroidery, forming one broad embroidered border, ran along its edges. The embroidered border was narrower at the sides. The more ancient type of shawl was embroidered in cross-stitch. Along the hem the embroidery finished with a long-stitch group-design, or "bush-design" (kruhmu raksts). Green, dark blue, yellow, and red wool was used for the ornament. The side edges were finished with a special kind of hem worked in bright colours, the so-called "celu apauds", while multi-coloured fringes adorned the lower edge. The "sagsha" was fastened in front with a special kind of brooch called "burbulsakta", i. e. "bubble-brooch".

The blouses varied. The one seen here has a stand-up collar and sleeves that broaden out at the wrists. Both collar and sleeves are richly and colourfully embroidered along the edges.

The skirts had small chequers in carefully matched colours. Bodices were not worn, and jackets went only with the working dress.

The sash was manifold in design and colour composition. The ornament was divided into three rows — uniform along the edges, and varied along the middle part. All shades of red, green, and yellow prevailed, but at funerals sashes ornamented in dark blue were worn.

The young girls' headdress was a red cloth coronet with a modest ornament in small beads. Married women donned tall tower-shaped hats with a tulle trimming along the front.

Married women wrapped a cloth round their heads — the "married woman's cloth" — or "rag", as they called it, and wore a hat on top of it trimmed with gathered lace in front. The hat, in its turn, was covered with a green silk kerchief tied in a small knot on the forehead, and on top of that was worn another kerchief tied under the chin.

The stockings were knitted in red with a yellow, green and blue pattern.