Wedding veil

This object is from the collection of Natalia de Shabelsky (1841-1905), a Russian noblewoman compelled to preserve what she perceived as the vanishing folk art traditions of her native country. Traveling extensively throughout Great Russia, she collected many fine examples of textile art of the wealthy peasant class. From the 1870s until moving to France in 1902, Shabelsky amassed a large collection of intricately embroidered hand-woven household textiles and opulent festival garments with rich decoration and elaborate motifs. The Brooklyn Museum holdings include many fine examples including the majority of the garments. Portions of Shabelsky's collection are also housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Cleveland Art Museum, and the Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg.

Headdresses, or kokoshniks had the greatest abundance of ornamentation of any type of garment in Russia. Married women were required to cover their hair entirely lest they be considered immodest; they wore fatas, usually a white muslin veil woven with silk floral designs and gold embroidery. The fabric of this veil is beautiful and expensive, indicating the wearer was quite wealthy. The grand size, reaching all the way to the floor suggests it was for a very special occasion, most likely a wedding.