Kyrgyz women’s headwear

Kyrgyz clothing reflects the nomadic lifestyle and features of different regions. Natural materials prevail: wool, felt, leather, coarse fabrics. The design uses patterns and themes inspired by nature and tribal traditions. Today, modern Western clothing is worn in Kyrgyzstan, but it also contains traditional elements that the Kyrgyz are very proud of.

Women often wore beldemchi, a skirt with a slit in the front, worn over the main robe or dress. For special occasions, it was customary to wear dresses with frills on the sleeves and skirt, complete with embroidered vests and cone-shaped hats with feathers on the top (the so-called shokulo). Women also wore elechek, a kind of turban up to 30 meters long, intricately wrapped around the head (this headdress is still popular at various festivals and ceremonies). Elechek is shown in the 2014 film Kurmanjan Datka as one of the basic items of traditional women’s wardrobe.
 
National women’s clothing of the northern Kyrgyz people.

Elecheks differed depending on the region of residence, since different regions had different climates and the headdress itself was adjusted to it:
 
– In the north, women wore white elecheks with additional white material that covered the neck and chin from the wind and cold.
 
National women’s clothing of the southern Kyrgyz people.

It was hot in the south, so women there protected themselves from the sun. To do this, they wound the oromdor in a special way so as to hide their faces from the sun. Also in the south, elecheks could be colorful with different embroidery and ornaments.
 
Winding an elechek is a difficult and painstaking job, so it was unraveled only when necessary.
 
Another ritual is associated with the elechek – yrum: women wore the elechek until the end of their days. If the owner of the elechek was a long-liver, then after her death, her elechek was unwound onto a shroud and part of the fabric was cut off and distributed to relatives and friends so that they would also live as long.

Topu is a headdress intended for girls before marriage, which was decorated with the feathers of a bird – “uku”. Girls began wearing tebetey from a young age. Girls’ tebeteys were trimmed on the outside with red velvet or manat – in nomadic times they were worth their weight in gold. They were decorated with beads and embroidery, and often had amulets sewn on to protect against the evil eye.

Girls’ tebeteys had a trim made of otter, marten or fox fur. A bunch of eagle owl or owl feathers was often added to the top of the tebetey. Then the tebetey was called “үkү-tebetey” or “үkү-topu”.
 
Girls could wear tebetey until marriage, and then it was replaced by another headdress.