Hadyach vyshyvanka: The Story of Blue-Violet Threads and Cultural Identity

Traditionally, Ukrainian homemakers opted for the color red when it came to shirts, as it was easily obtained from plants or wax insects. However, in the Poltava region, there were special shirts embroidered with blue-violet threads, a color that couldn’t be achieved with natural dyes. These unusual blue threads could be purchased at the markets of Hadiach. Today, these shirts are known as Hadiach shirts. But once they were called something completely different – “zhidyvky”, because of the blue ornaments. Indigo dyes from India were brought by Jewish merchants, and that’s why the locals of Hadiach referred to their shirts as “zhidyvky”, and the threads as “zhidivsky”. Such shirts were popular in villages like Lysivka, Plyshivets, Brovarky, Velbivka, Khittsi, and so on.