This is a girl’s sak winter coat worn by the Ob River Khanty. The name of the material is often included in the name of the type of sak coat. For example, nuy sak is a cloth sak.
The sak is a double-sided fur coat. Unlike the men’s coat, the women’s coat has a richer decor and has a robe-like cut. The right side of the sak coat is wrapped over the left side, tied with three pairs of ties and fixed with a belt around the waist. Women made sure that the sides of their sak coats never opened.
Some variations featured side inserts and gores, and others — wide extensions along the edge of the forepart and hem. Previously, the collar of the sak coat was decorated with patches, and now beads, buttons and pendants are used for this purpose.
Fur linings are sewn with the pile pointing inside — usually made from deer, hare or bird skins. Collars made of fur from the paws and heads of fur-bearing animals or from whole pelts, and sometimes bird skins were sewn to the lining. It was trimmed with strips of plane fabric with beads or buttons sewn onto them. The cuffs of the sleeves are decorated in a similar fashion.
The hem and the overlapping side are outlined with otter fur and decorated with a braided beaded stripe. The Khanty believe that otter fur is special, and it repels evil spirits. This is why women, wanting to protect their family, used otter fur when sewing clothes.
The sak coats of the eastern Khanty, which include the Yugan Khanty, are distinguished by the fact that their right half is wrapped around the left and the coat is fastened with a belt made of colored cloth or fixed with ties.
A traditional women’s outfit always included belts richly embroidered with beads, and a large number of metal elements. In the other groups of Ugrians who lived near the river Ob, the sides of the sak coat were connected to each other with a zigzag stitch.
For the Ugrians of the river Ob, the sak was mainly a women’s coat, but the eastern Khanty also had a men’s version. In the distant past, men from other ethnic groups wore robe-like clothes, but in the last century such clothes were only used as nightgowns and for burying the dead.
Throughout the 20th century, the hand-sewn sak coat was gradually replaced with store-bought coats. By the end of the century, it was preserved only in remote areas, for example, near the Yugan River, where people still wear it on a regular basis. Everywhere else, the sak coat is used only as festive clothing.
