Augšzeme Women's Folk CostumeFold-out, Latvian State Printing House, ca. 1960

This quick reference fold-out on card stock appears to be a Soviet-era work (priced in kopecks, some with references to the Baltic SSRs) reminiscent of Latvju raksti—Ornement Letton, which was offered as a subscription series by the State Printing House from 1924 to 1931 and also published in three volumes. We have assembled our collection from multiple sources. It is worth noting that illustrations of folk costumes in the Concise Encyclopedia of the Latvian SSR (1970) are virtually identical to those presented here.

A traditional weave pattern appears on the cover. Inside are an illustration of a full folk costume and various details: women's full dress, shawl embroidery, skirt fabric weave pattern, blouse with embroidery details, jacket pattern, crown and sock weave pattern. The obverse side provides a brief overview in four languages: French, English, Russian, and Latvian.

Augšzeme, "the highlands," is also and better known as Selonia (Latvian: Sēlija; Lithuanian: Sėla or Aukšzemė), a region of Zemgale spanning modern Latvian and Lithuanian territory and whose inhabitants, at one time, spoke their own dialect, reflected today among those that speak the Latgalian dialect. The Latvian Selonians and Lithuanian Aukštaitians are likely of the same ancient tribe. Below the territories of the Selonians and Aukštaitians[1].

For more background on Latvian weaving, we recommend the Anna Apinis: Latvian Migrant Weaver's Collection at Museum Victoria, Melbourne Australia.

Click on a thumbnail to view the picture. Mouse over the either side of the picture and click to navigate or use the left/right arrow keys. Fold-out cover Woman's full dress, restored image Woman's full dress Shawl embroidery and skirt fabric weave pattern Woman's blouse with embroidery stitching Jacket pattern, crown weave pattern, sock weave pattern Overview (French) Overview (English) Overview (Russian) Overview (Latvian) Publisher's imprint