The lifestyle of reindeer herders with their work, harsh climate, and national traditions has influenced the design of traditional clothing. Modern Nenets have preserved many aspects of sewing clothes from deer hides. In the past, it was the only clothing of the indigenous peoples of the North, because they did not have undergarments. Nowadays, coats with or without a front opening represent the main type of outerwear.
The centuries-old Nenets traditions and cultural heritage were also manifested in the headdresses. Often, both adults and children did not wear hats at all because their malitsa and panitsa coats had deep hoods, which were tightened around the face with a cord and were often fastened with a chin strap.
Still, the Nenets have many types of headdresses. The Western Nenets believed that a hat should be soft, light, warm, and roomy enough. It should be comfortable for riding a reindeer sled and performing any work related to the nomadic lifestyle, reindeer herding, and hunting. The Nenets from the Malozemelskaya Tundra disagreed, believing that a hat should fit tightly around the head. The latter type is represented in the collection of the Nenets Museum of Local Lore.
In the Malozemelskaya Tundra, girls and women wore “suyu sava” hats with long earflaps made of young reindeer hides. They were sewn of four triangles converging at the top of the head. The earflaps could be tied together using chains or strings of beads or worn loose, falling beautifully down the back. Their ends were decorated with kamus decorative patterns and the hooves of young reindeer, which made a distinctive sound when the wearer was walking.
For the hat to stay on the head better, its front was equipped with straps or ribbons that were tied under the chin. To achieve a tighter fit, the hat was made heavier, with metal pendants suspended to the earflaps, for example, in the shape of a wheel with spokes.
Like all traditional Nenets clothing and footwear,
headdresses are still made of reindeer fur and decorated with pieces of
colorful cloth. In the past, the Nenets hunted wild reindeer, but they never
sewed hats from a wild calf’s hide, because its pelt was considered stiff and
its inner side hard.
