Postoly — also called morshni or khodaky — were the everyday footwear of early-20th-century Ukraine, and in the Hutsul mountains especially, a single piece of soft rawhide, cow or pig, did all the work a modern shoe does in several. Depending on how the toe box was gathered and stitched, postoly split into distinct types: ‘vyrobyaky’, cut purely from leather, and ‘syrivtsi’, which mixed in wool. Some versions puckered evenly on both sides, so either shoe could go on either foot; others were shaped specifically for left and right.
The signature look was a softly curled-up toe, with holes punched around the opening for leather straps or woolen laces that wound several times around the ankle — and, for men, over the trouser leg as well. Underneath, postoly were always worn with ‘onuchi’, a specific style of wrapped sock rather than a knitted one.
What’s genuinely clever is the winter system built around them: a soft woolen ‘napersnytsia’ sock went on first, then a thicker ‘poverkhnytsia’, and finally a big, deliberately damp outer sock before the postoly went on. That dampness wasn’t an oversight — the sock would freeze almost instantly in the mountain cold, and that thin layer of ice turned out to be excellent insulation, keeping feet warm through genuinely brutal Carpathian winters using nothing but wool, water and a very old idea.
