Collection: Northern Estonia

The north Estonian national costume group includes costumes from Harjumaa, Järvamaa and Virumaa counties. The southern border of this region coincided with the border between Estonia and Livonia.

In terms of clothing northern Estonia formed a relatively uniform group that was more open to innovation. From here many features derived from European fashion spread all over the country – knee-length breeches and a short-coat for men, colourful vertically striped skirts for women and dark blue indigo-dyed woollen garments.

The most typical item of women’s clothing here was the gathered short blouse worn over a sleeveless shirt. From the end of the 18th century the short blouse and white linen coif of married women was decorated with colourful floral-patterned embroidery instead of the earlier geometric designs. By the beginning of the 19th century, the most popular headwear for women in north Estonia was the pot-shaped cap.

However, there were also minor local differences in northern Estonia – the coastal areas standed out for their influence from Finland and the area on the northern coast of Lake Peipsi showed Russian and Votian features.

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