THE FADING BEAUTY

Natalya Shabelskaya was the spouse of a prominent landowner based one time in Kharkov province. She also lived in Kharkov, Moscow and Paris. When traveling across Russia Natalya Leonidovna started collecting amazing vintage pieces: Russian folk embroidery, cloths, headwear, clothes items, bone carvings, creations from metal and wood.

Her Moscow house turned into a Russian vintage museum. The collection catalogue contained over 4000 pieces, making it the biggest collection of clothes and accessories in Russia from the second half of XIX through early XX century.

The end of XVIII century. Throwing, pearls, silk

The first quarter of XVIII century

In ancient Russia the female make-up bag prototype looked like a pouch pinned up to a waist belt. They were called ‘treats’ for women to carry sweets, sunflower seeds or petty things. For men the pockets were called ‘kalita’, to contain money. For picking berries and mushrooms one would take a birch-tree or elm box or a woven basket, but for a long-haul travel common was a makeshift headscarf container fit for accessories or shoulder bag utility sewn from a piece of regular cloth.

All kinds of accessory bags would be adorned by embroideries, filets or ornaments. Wicker baskets would be decorated as well – coloured with paints or trimmed the edges with extra weavings. One of the first hunter bags gained popularity among male hunters. Those bags got sewn together from pieces of tanned leather with a long shoulder strip fixed to them.

The end of XVIII century

The end of XVIII century

The year of birth of the bag, what was a part of contemporary fashion, to be held by strip is believed to be the year of 1790. That became the year of both the French Revolution and the new female fashion as well. Any hiding the make-up bag under the skirt or using some kind of a secret pocket, hanging the pouch onto the waist belt had proved to be impossible due to the elegance and exquisite lines.

The first professionally manufactured bags were called ‘reticules’ (a lady’s make-up bag that would be hung on the arm was made in the form of a pouch on a long silk cord). From that moment on the woman would leave home carrying a small accessory bag in hands.

The beginning of XVIII century

1740 — 1770 years

1730 — 1750 years

1730 — 1750 years

The beginning of XVIII century