Ukrainian language is incredibly rich when it comes to naming objects of everyday use, clothing elements, traditional dishes of national cuisine, as well as types of plants, vegetables and fruits, and even animals (eg. stork is called łełeka, czornohuz and buzko). There are at least several dozens of potato names registered by dialectologists (eg. bulba, barabola, grula, kartopla, krumpla, mandeburka); it is a similar situation with made of potatoes pancakes, which have several terms across the whole country (depending on the region these are: bacony, barabolanyki, deruny, gugli, kyjzłyki, tarczanyki).
No different is the case of such a traditional female clothing as the vest. In Eastern Galicia kamizola is a vest, made from factory produced fabric (not homespun). Between Lviv and Ternopil „łajbyki” were in use- female vests up to a waistline, made from white baize, which had a dark baize on edges, decorated with flower ornaments, embroidered with color cotton thread. Also, vests called „sznuriwki” were made from color or monochrome factory made fabric. There were also vests made from sheepskin, with skirts without buttons, fastened with hook and eye.
For the Carpathian region, that is the south- west part of Ukraine, an extremely characteristic element was „keptar”- a vest hemmed with fur. In Bukovina such a vest could be called „curkanka”. „Keptar” could be decorated with embroidery, usually along the fur line.
„Kersetki”- at the turn of XIX and XX century appeared in the area of Central Ukraine. Originally they were made from homespun baize, in white, gray and dark reddish-brown. As a result of industrial processes affecting Ukraine at the beginning of the XX century, the number of used fabrics had increased, which resulted in an increased number of cloth decorations. In the case of „korsetka” the area of a rich embroidery decoration was the lower part of the right skirt of a vest, decorated with embodied application, with the use of a sewing machine or by hand.
In Volhynia the female vest used to be made from monochrome fabric (cashmere), in blue, red or black, or from barragan (patterned cotton fabric with a delicate white ornaments), with the sewn at the bottom so called „łapcie” (rounded tongues), which were fastened with a row of red buttons.
In Poltava region, the native land of Ivan Kotlarevski- the father of contemporary Ukrainian literature, „korsetki” with lining were made from factory produced fabric (originally homespun cloth was used, later on with the popularization of factory made fabric it was eg. satin). The vest had high waist wedges on the back. Right skirt was wider and was overlapping the left one. Korsetka was decorated with a symmetric design in the chest area, with a vase shaped ornament in a form of velvet application. Such a type of decoration distinguished Poltava region from the adjacent Kievan region or Sloboda Ukraine (Kharkiv region).
In the Transcarpathia region fur vest were called „Kamzloe” (with a straight back) or „bundy” (with a fitted back). Rich embroidery decoration was created mainly based on plant motives. The most common were patterns based on tulips, rosetta, branches, leaves, flowers; the dominant colour was red. In some regions of Transcarpathia the ornaments were so rich and complex that they covered the whole background.
In Polesia region the female vests were called in many terms: sznurowyci, kamizoli, staniki, gorsety, kabaty, kersety, kersety with kłepki (the latter had sawn in at the west tooth like cut-outs called kłepki). That element of the clothes was decorated with ribbons, applications or embroidery, tied with eg. ribbon (shoelace). Polesia region „karnety” were often made from thin wool fabric or satin (male vests- without lining – were made form homespun cloth), in black or navy color. In the east part of the region (Chernihiv area) young girls (maidens) wore red „korsetki” in flowery patterns, while among women (married ones) dark colors were dominant.