An authentic Poltava shirt, reconstructed based on a portrait of Liza Skoropadskaya, will become part of the Kyiv collection Museum of Hetmanate.
The inspiration for the joint project with Marie Claire magazine was a portrait of Liza Skoropadskaya.
A sculptor, public figure and ambassador of Ukraine from the Cossack noble family of Skoropadskys, whose lineage dates back to the 17th century, she lived in exile but considered it her duty to give her life for the benefit of her country. Work on the reconstruction of the shirt began with the study of Skoropadskaya's portrait and photographs.
Work on reconstructing the shirt began with studying Skoropadskaya's portrait and photograph. The portrait itself was previously considered lost until Kateryna Shal from the town of Oberstdorf, Germany, contacted the Hetmanate Museum. The woman reported that the lost painting had been hanging in their family home for 40 years. The Shal family continues to preserve this historical artefact while Ukraine is embroiled in full-scale war.
You can learn more about this fascinating story by reading the article in Marie Claire magazine. The team embodied the aristocratic and elevated aesthetics of the portrait in the shirt.
In developing the ornamentation and cut of Yelyzaveta Skoropadska's shirt, expertise in the regional characteristics of Poltava embroidery, the open digital archives of the private collection ‘Vidkryta Skrynia’ (Open Chest) and the collection of the Ivan Honchar Museum were useful.
The design of the product is based on the cut of an authentic dodilna shirt, which is sewn from a single piece of fabric. The ornament is made using three techniques: lishtva (white stitching on white fabric), shtafivka (stitching on fabric) and vyrezuvannya (stitching with fabric cutouts).
The project was developed by a team of graduates from the M. Boichuk Kyiv State Academy of Decorative and Applied Arts and Design. Etnodim designer Maria Pavlyuchenko managed the project, Olesia Cherkasova did the embroidery (which took 156 hours), and Oleksandra Storchai, senior research associate at the Ivan Honchar Museum, provided consultation during the final stage.
The creative work on the project was a source of inspiration for our team. And the Skoropadska shirt with machine stitching can now be found in the permanent collection of Etnodim.
