The southern Estonian national costume group includes costumes from the counties of Viljandimaa, Tartumaa, Võrumaa and southeast Pärnumaa.

Peasant clothing in southern Estonia had many local differences, but it was primarily characterized by the persistence of many old forms of clothing. For example, as late as the middle of the 19th century or even longer, women wore large woollen or linen wraps across their shoulders, which were also worn in ancient times. Old-fashioned features were especially preserved in clothing in the western part of south Estonia in Mulgimaa. Women wore shirts cut using a primitive pattern, unsewn wrap skirts, tied head cloths and scarves, hip aprons with archaic floral patterns dating from the Middle Ages, and men wore long trousers. Until the transition to urban fashion, for festive occasions they valued their long black coat, cut from a similar pattern as the shirt. The distinctiveness of Mulgimaa was shaped by previous Latvian settlement in the region, as well as the culturally conservative attitudes in the region, which was further supported by their farming success in the 19th century. It was in wealthier families that the wearing of traditional clothing persisted.

The northern part of south Estonia was more susceptible to innovation and fashion influences, and from there these spread to the south.

Women’s clothing in south Estonia was typically a long-sleeved shirt, decorated with openwork or geometric embroidery. In the first half of the 19th century vertically striped skirts became common. Coifs, which identified married woman, were made of white linen with lace on the forehead and decorative silk ribbons at the back.

The cut and indigo blue colour of men’s suits, which comprised shirt, trousers and short-coat, was similar to those worn in north Estonia, especially in the northern part of the region. The men of Mulgimaa did not take to the short-coat. The men’s clothing in south-east Estonia shows a number of Russian features, such as wearing a belted shirt over trousers.

The influence of Russian folk culture was especially strong on the people of Setumaa, in the south-east corner of Estonia, who had been politically separated from the rest of Estonia for a long time (13th century – 1918). In the first half of the 19th century, Setu women wore Russian-style shirts with very long narrow sleeves. Festive attire included a white woollen tunic-like garment, in the style of a sarafan worn by Russian women, that was worn over the shirt. It retained the Estonian name of the former tunic – rüü. This garment had false (i.e., additional) sleeves that were tucked into the belt and hung down at the back. Women’s headwear, jewellery, and hip aprons, that originated in the distant past, and the use of geometric embroidery, prove the Setu’s affiliation with other southern Estonians.

Text written by Ellen Värv, researcher and curator of Estonian National Museum

South Estonia