Does anyone have any recommendations for where to buy embroidered shirts like those used a lot in the Varushka kit guide? I’m struggling to find one on standard larp kit websites and don’t really know where to start outside of that. Also, if anyone has any idea of how much I should expect to pay for one I’d be very grateful.
For the mid range costs (£15-30), last season for high street shopping (River Island and Marks & Spencers) had some pretty decent white shirts with decorative blue embroidery in a similar style
For cheaper (£3-15), but a bit more DIY I know that someone I know in Varushka did a thrift shop haul, found a plain white shirt with the style sleeves and neckline that they wanted and then embroidered/wove thin ribbon through the broader anglaise (sp?) holes to great effect
(Alas, I lack photos, as they wore it during E1 for the coronation stuff. Hopefully there’ll be some good shots as they were one of the folks who performed a solo at it)
There’s also commissioning folks. Empire has some amazing costumers and costs range all over the shop…but you’d probably be looking at £40-60 at the low end for a plain handmade one and upwards of £100 if you want embroidery.
Some search terms that might be useful are ‘slavic folk shirt’, ‘Russian folk shirt’, ‘Slavic folk blouse’, ‘Rusian folk blouse’, ‘vyshyvanka’, and ‘kosovorotka’. Though that last one is specific to the traditional men’s shirt with the off-centre opening, the internet being the internet key words get thrown about fairly broadly.
You’re looking at the £40-50 mark new, of which around a tenner will likely be postage from the Ukraine or Russia.
Went to the source and asked the varushkan wives in the picture:
The search term is vyshyvanka, ours are from small sellers in Ukraine!
I rec Ukrshop and Svit Vyshyvanok on Etsy, but there are loads of other sellers on Etsy and you can get them on eBay etc as well
Prices are £30-£70 for a proper one, but you can approximate the look by searching for “embroidered peasant blouse” and similar, just keep to natural fibers for fire safety if possible
They rec supporting a small Ukrainian creator if you can afford to do so.