Tolstoyan shirt [tolstovka]

Tolstoyan-style shirt--A traditional full Russian shirt with the collar opening from one side.

Originally called "kosovorotka"-- "skew-collared," they came to be associated with Tolstoy, who liked to dress in peasant costume and mow with his peasants. Hence the name "tolstovka."

Photograph of Tolstoy


Drawing of Tolstoy mowing,
by Leonid Pasternak, 1893

Since they were non-Western, such shirts were at various times signs of Russian nationalism.