Winter Hats on a Moscow Suburban Train

[Guest post by Masha Kirikova, on a train to Moscow]

We moved from Moscow to Korolyov in the suburbs a year ago. At first I was afraid I would never get used to a new harsh reality – second and third class trains packed tight with people. Russian trains are not as hard as Indian ones, but still winter clothes make us passengers unable not only to sit, but sometimes to stand freely. Daily train sketches helped me a lot, an hour in a train became fun and useful practice. My first drawings of passengers were pretty simple, more detailed portraits came over time.

This lady was one of the first victims of my hectic pencil. She was wearing a Renaissance beret that drew attention to her inspired face.

Train drawing sessions have only one defect – most of the models look down on a book or even sleep. It’s rare to see someone looking at the window. This man did. More so, his eyes were not sleepy. He was not wearing fur as the rest of passengers. A man in modest knit cap seemed strong yet aged, an engineer maybe.

No one knows when exactly elderly ladies in Russia begin to wear a head shawl. She was about 65. Those glasses made her look extremely nostalgic. She was not a wicked lady (you might think so observing her tight lips), just tired, very tired.

What a face! What a beauty! A young girl, about 15-years-old She was a Muslim traveling with girlfriend. Such an innocent face, oh. It would be so nice to paint her. I wanted to draw them both, but got stuck drawing her eyes. Head shawls are becoming more and more popular. 

It was my usual trip back home with carriage full of people. It was so tight we say in Russia that we were seated on each other’s heads. The lady sat in the middle of a bench squeezed from both sides. She had an unusual wrinkle on her forehead, I’d never seen something like it. Her face reminded me of my Ukrainian grandma, in spite of a fact passenger’s features are very different. I had not seen Grandma for 14 years. I was waiting for this train lady to talk, who knows maybe she also has a slight Southern Ukrainian aсcent like mine!

A common image of typical Russian stays similar for decades – it’s a man in a fur cap with earflaps. These kind of caps are really very popular, especially in the provinces. Monumental in tied version, cozy and warm with earflaps. These caps come in different furs. It was a question of prestige in Soviet Union to wear a fur cap made of mink, rabbit was a cheaper version. Modern young adults prefer synthetic and knit models. I have one too 😉 It’s a universal cap for both men and women, but ladies prefer wool head shawls with bright flowers. A good natural or faux fur cap with earflaps can protect it’s owner from a chilblain. My granddad and I both had one – his ears turned magenta and my nose, too, when it’s lower than -25C 🙂

The man in my drawing is wearing a mink cap with earflaps tied up.

I noticed a growing number of elderly ladies who choose to wear a hat. Most prefer a classical felt hat, but some wear playful solutions such as linen or denim. This lady had a light blue denim hat with bright decorative flowers on it.

No one smiles in suburban train in the evening rush hour. People come home exhausted and keep their warmth inside, hidden under fur coats and expressionless faces. The only lady in a train with an open face was the one with headphones. She was listening to an audio book with kid’s eyes wide open and a giggling smile. What was is it? A novel? Who can guess?

Diffused winter light from a train window brightened the delicacy of a teen’s skin. Still a kid, she was wearing a hat with pompom and rubber band with plastic balls. A quiet expression of her face made a girl look older, lost in thoughts behind rectangle spectacles. Pompons are the latest fashion. Soviet Union kids have pompons on their heads, but almost never adults. Nowadays I see this style became a playful addition even to a dress code gown.

Hoods are only becoming a signature teenager’s piece here in Russia and we have no prejudice against young boys in black hoodies. This detail is useful in winter to warm a head near entrance door of suburban train.

Russian ladies often have an indifferent and tired face expression, especially if no one looks. This fact is a common observation of newcomers, who call it an ‘angry look’. But in reality they are not angry at all! Women are the most important driving force of our country, but this fact leaves traces on beautiful faces. Lines, spots, dry skin, lifeless eyes – it’s all the result of a ‘peasant’s’ lifestyle they have to follow. Smiles are not an official part of our face expression, but a sign of appreciation and happiness.

There was a time, when only Mom could knit a cap for her boy or girl. Not the same now. Most knit caps are factory-made, looking all the same. Warm wool, of all sorts and colours, has been replaced with cold acrylic and even worse materials. Young girls buy an acrylic cap instead of a warm one. They add a second cap underneath!

Some hi-tech clothes with several layers of synthetic materials for tourists are used by suburban men. Trains are not always warm, so passengers wrap themselves in head shawls and parka hoods. Most of the male passengers use this time to read, watch films or work, most take a laptop for a half an hour train practice.

Fur is still the most popular material for winter clothes. If a lady has a chance to buy a fur coat she never resists. Our -30C and a necessity of using public transport with it’s open bus and train stops leave no chance to ecological way of thinking. If no fur then geese down!

It takes 34 minutes to come to Moscow from Korolyov, so all the drawings were completed in half an hour or less. I mostly drew sitting, observed from three sides by fellow passengers, some of them became first commenters. My tool was a simple 4-5cm (about 2 inches) pencil bit 4B-6B and an eraser, sometimes a finger. Drawing in train gave me a perfect opportunity to interact with different people without any complications.

Masha Kirikova is a natural history illustrator, artist and tutor living in Korolyov, Russia. You can see more of her work on her website here and on flickr here.

Curated by Marcia Milner-Brage