A (possibly) sticky question

[kiltedcossack]

This morning My long-term girlfriend (whom I occasionally refer to as my wife) and I went to the Texas Gulf Coast with one of our friends in tow, I was, per usual, kilted, and I was wearing my Jacket with the (perhaps overly-large) Russian flag embroidered on the back, when a lady with a very very thick Russian or Ukrainian accent hobbled up to me on her cane and proceeded to tell me all about how the Kieven Rus' wore kilts soooooooo long ago, and how I was doing my heritage proud, et al. (this is paraphrasing, but gets the general point across). Now, my question is, did the Kieven Rus' (the Medieval Russians) wear kilts?
The only thing that I can find is this passage from Ibn Fadlan's account of the Russiyah:

" I have seen the Rus as they came on their merchant journeys and encamped by the Itil. I have never seen more perfect physical specimens, tall as date palms, blond and ruddy; they wear neither tunics nor caftans, but the men wear a garment which covers one side of the body and leaves a hand free. Each man has an axe, a sword, and a knife, and keeps each by him at all times. The swords are broad and grooved, of Frankish sort. Each woman wears on either breast a box of iron, silver, copper, or gold; the value of the box indicates the wealth of the husband. Each box has a ring from which depends a knife. The women wear neck-rings of gold and silver. Their most prized ornaments are green glass beads. They string them as necklaces for their women." (emphasis mine)

Can anyone tell me what this means?

[ccga3359]

Sorry I can't answer that but when searching for kilt belts on ebay I saw a couple of listings for russian military (cold war era) kilt belts. I do not know if they are actual kilt belts or are just being re-marketed as such.

[Dreadbelly]

I've seen some old pictures and even drawings of Cossacks wearing some kind of skirt. I don't know if I'd call it a kilt.

My memory is hazy but in the Addam's Family movie, in the Mamooshka scene, you can see the Cossacks of the family wearing their ceremonial dress skirts, and there are one or two Scots Addam's wearing kilts. Both look rather similar.

I believe the ones I have seen were white and pleated all the way around like a faustenella.

[gilmore]

The Rus were Scandanavian Vikings, weren't they?

[kiltedcossack]

The Rus' were, indeed, a Slavo/Scandanavian tribe.

[Warlock]

The garment called a kilt goes back to the Assyro-Babylonians. They were also worn by the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Celts, Picts, Saxons, Rus, Scandinavians and a whole host of other cultures. They are not kilts in the Scottish sense but in a very broad sense of the word. Basically a skirt like garment.

[kiltedcossack]

Well, alright, I suppose that satisfies my sense of curiousity.

[Warlock]

Sorry! I'm a major history buff and have researched clothing for the theatre. I also dated an Egyptologist.

[kiltedcossack]

No, no - I wasn't being sarcastic. I was being honest - it did, indeed, satisfy my sense of curiosity. I wasn't looking to find that Russians were wearing Tartan Kilts, or anything of the like, I was simply looking to verify what the lady said.

[sirdaniel1975]

I have read in literature where the "Leather Armored Skirt" worn by Roman soldiers, is refered to as a kilt.

http://kdl.to/misc/piccies/backdrop-...enturian-2.jpg