A Rus Collar

Example of a Female's Ozherlya

In my reading to discover styles that fit in my husband's period and place, I came across the Ozherlya, a Russian collar, not attached to the clothing. A highly embroidered and embellished piece, it was used for high fashion. Extravagent ones were used as burial clothing or even passed from father to son. It could be laid down or standing up, but however it's position it was always embellished.

Ozherlya

Again pulling from Sofia La Rus (My favorite place to go for Dmitri's garb) "For the wealthy, both men and women, the ozherel'e was embroidered with pearls and decorated with buttons. The ozherel'e sewn with pearls was very valuable. Among the property of a Moscow gentleman was listed an ozherel'e worth 700 rubles, another worth 400 rubles, and two listed as worth 300 rubles each. There were 14 collars in his property all together, both standing and laid-down collars, and the women's seemed to be more expensively decorate than the men's. A fur standing collar was also called an ozherel'e. Prince Obolenskij had one of beaver fur."

Vorotnik - Standing Collar
Attached to the Garment

When I first started my husband's ozherel'e or ozherlya, I again couldn't find examples, other than words and a few hand drawn pieces. I have since come across several, and while I love mine, I have come to realize it may not be 100% accurate. I have seen several examples that seem to embellish an existing brocade. And most of the pieces I have found seem to have either a good
deal of repetition, or are so filled with the embellishments a pattern isn't as determinable.

An example of the pearling and embellishments

Collars didn't only use embroidery though, they were often edged with pearls, precious stones and metals, and glass, all placed on the most extravagant and expensive fabric the person could afford. Often pearls were edged with golden thread to set them off.

As I said, I didn't really know this when I began, and I couldn't find examples because, frankly, I didn't know what I was looking for, and Pinterest has only really blossomed in recent years with Russian Medieval Garb. But I still feel the piece I am working on for my husband will be beautiful when finished (and until then its nice to let him wear it out and about.) On Sofia's page she stated that often there was embroidery of animals, the heavens, arches, etc. I have incorporated some of these at my husband's request. Eventually I hope to add so much embellishment that these pieces are almost "edged" with pearls and stones, but, as I don't have 7 month winters in my home, I will settle for small pieces at a time.