Slutsk Sash

a type of handwork produced in Byelorussia in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Slutsk sashes were named after the city of Slutsk (in present-day Minsk Oblast), where they were first produced in 1758 to replace expensive imported sashes from the Orient. The sashes became a standard article of men’s clothing for the rich in Byelorussia, Poland, the Ukraine, and Russia.

Slutsk sashes were woven with silk, gold, and silver threads and were usually double-faced. They were very long (3–4 m) and wide (30–50 cm). The borders had a narrow pattern design, and the ends were embroidered with rich, usually foliage designs in which Oriental and Byelorussian folk motifs were combined.

Similar articles that were also called Slutsk sashes were produced in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Nesvizh, Warsaw, Krakow, and other cities. Imitations were made at factories in Moscow and France.