Figure 1.--This cabinet card portrait shows two Lwów siblings. (Lwów is the Polish name for the modern Uranian city of Lviv). Notice the boy's bangs, a very popular style for boys in Eastern Europe. He may be wearing a sailor suit, but we are not sure. Ukranian cities at the time still often had a minority ethnic Ukranian populations. We are unsure as to the ehnicity of these children. Ukranian citites until after World War Ii tended to have large populations of Poles, Russians, and Jews. The mix varied regiinally. There is writing on the back, unfortunaley we can not read it. (Click on the image if you wabt to have a crack of it. The writing looks German to us, suggesting that the chikdren were German or Jewish. The studio was Klafsen (notice the German pesence) in Lwów. We are not sure how to date the portrait. The dealer suggested the 1900s decade. This seems about right, but the late 1890s is possible. What ever the date, it was clearly during the Tsarist era.

We have little information on Ukranian clothing before modern times. By the 19th centurry many Ukranian peasants were serfs with limited rights and opportunities. The serfs were finally emancipated (1861). We see boys weaing collar-buttoninh tunics which came to be called Russian blouses in the West where it became apopular style at he turn-of-the 20th century. Boys also wore baggy trousers and commonly went barefoot. We do nnot see substantial numbers of images until photography appeared in the Tsarist Empire. The earliest images we have found in any numbers are CDVs (1860s). Most of these images are of the well-to-do or commfortablke middle class in the cities. People in the cities dressed differently than the largely Ukranian peasantry. We see the popular European styles like suits, including sailor suits. Often the children wearing these outfits were not ethnic Ukranian boys but other grouos like Russians, Poles, Germans, and Jews who dominated Ukranian cities, the actual mix varying geographically. Ukraine has undergone renching changes in modern times, inclusing Tsarism ( -1917), Communism (1919-91), NAZIism (1941-44), independence (1992- ). This included two of the most brutal dictaors in history (Stalin anf Hitler) both of which targeted the very existence of the Ukranian peoole. All of this has meant tremendous change and adjustment. Only with the last few decades of the Tsarist Empire do we have a photograohic record. Fashion trends are a small part of what happened, but very real and to an extent reflect and illustrate the momentos changes at play in Ukranian society. Issues continue in Ukraine as Russia is determined to prevent Ukraine from becoming a modern, independent liberal democracy.

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Created: 9:04 PM 9/16/2019
Last updated: 9:05 PM 9/16/2019