UA Petrykivka Panties for Women with Cotton Gusset

Petrykivka is a real painting tradition, not a style name invented for a print. It comes from the village of Petrykivka in central Ukraine, where flowers, berries, leaves and birds were painted straight onto walls and household objects without a preliminary sketch, and in 2013 it became the first Ukrainian element inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This design is named after it and drawn in its manner.

What Petrykivka Painting Looks Like

• Floral motifs built from single strokes. The defining technique loads several colors on one brush so the transition happens inside a single stroke, which is why no two paintings are ever identical, even from the same hand.
• No outline and no sketch. The tradition is improvisational, so the shapes are soft-edged rather than drawn and filled, and that is a demanding thing to reproduce on fabric.
• Sublimation carries the gradient. Pigment dyed into the fiber reproduces a transition where a surface layer flattens it, which matters more on brushwork than on any hard-edged design.
• Flat seams and no sewn-in label, so nothing hard crosses a stroke that is meant to read as continuous.

How a Named Tradition Prints

The hardest part of any folk painting to reproduce is the part that made it folk painting: the loose edge where a stroke thins out. A printed layer sitting on fabric tends to harden that edge, and the whole thing starts to look like a copy of a copy. Dye held inside the fabric keeps it soft.

When Heritage Is the Reason

Sometimes the reason to buy a thing is that you want to carry something, and that is a perfectly good reason for underwear as much as for anything else. That applies here more directly than it would to a decorative pattern with no source behind it, and it needs no further justification. It also works as an ordinary everyday pair for anyone who simply likes the shapes, which is how most floral prints get worn anyway. Under jeans, black and mid tones nothing reads at all. Beneath thin light cloth the brushwork registers softly, which is the trade for having brushwork.

Fabric, Sizes and Care

• Outer fabric: 83% polyester, 17% elastane.
• Gusset: 95% cotton, 5% elastane, which is the breathable part of the garment.
• Stretch: four-way, so the knit gives across the body as well as along it.
• Styles: slip and thong.
• Sizes: Small, Medium, Large, X-Large.
• How to measure: run the tape around the widest part of the hip.
• Hip measurement: Small 87 to 93 cm, Medium 94 to 99, Large 100 to 106, X-Large 106 to 116.
• Brand: Mememe, a label that describes itself as Ukrainian and states its underwear is made in Ukraine.
• Finish: flat seams, no elastic bands, no sewn-in labels.
• Care: gentle wash, hand ironing, no dry cleaning.

Before You Order

Is this hand-painted? It is a print named after the tradition and drawn in its style, not a hand-painted piece. The tradition itself is Ukrainian, dates from the eighteenth century and is UNESCO-listed; this is a garment that borrows its motifs.

Does UA mean it was produced there? No. UA is the brand's own name for this print family rather than a place. The label describes itself as Ukrainian and states its underwear is made in Ukraine.