Kazan Ichigi (boots)

Sergei Yesenin's muse Isidora Duncan wore Kazan boots! She survived.
A picture of her in those boots.

Our people have preserved the ancient art of our ancestors – the Volga Bulgarians. Who dressed in these barns in the 7-10 centuries!! Bulgarians since ancient times (Some historians believe that over the past 2,500 years) hand-made various products from pieces of multicolored leather national symbols, patterns: these are shoes, and bags, and bracelets, and Sofa pillows decorated with Tatar leather mosaics. An important place in the world culture is occupied by Tatar Ichigi boots - a type of light footwear with a soft toe and internal rigid back, which were sewn with a unique Tatar seam. And yet. They're made by hand.

“Tatar sewn silver boot” was very popular in the XIX century. In Ichigi was worn by old Prince Bolkonsky in the novel War and Peace. And Marina Tsvetaeva in her memoirs mentions the mother of fashion at that time, the poet and artist Maximilian Voloshin: her foot was in the a fabulous Kazan boot. In 1899, the great Russian actress Vera Komissarzhevskaya takes to the stage of the Imperial Alexandria Theatre in St. Petersburg as Varie in the play by A. Ostrovsky and N. Solovyova “Savage” in a folklore dress with red embroidery and Tatar boots, ichigah. Tartar boots are expensive. (about 10 thousand rubles or more), but the gift will be truly exclusive. Instead of boots, you can buy slippers with upturned noses (in the past). For centuries, the Tatars believed that it was impossible to scratch the ground with a shoe, also made from soft skin - they cost from 2.5 thousand rubles.