A chest adornment is one of the most vivid decorations on a Bashkir woman’s costume. One type of coral chest adornment is called a selter. It had a rectangular, shape that slightly widened as it went downward, and consisted of two parts: an upper piece of cloth that is completely sewn over with coral, and a lower part, a coral mesh that hangs freely over the underlying material. Between the lower and upper part, one or several rows of small silver coins were sewn in, and the mesh was always capped at the bottom with a fringe made of short threads with coral and silver coins at the end of those. The selter was often trimmed with a chain along the top and side edges, and a row of silver coins was sewn between the corals that was somewhat set back from the edge. Selters used to be sewn from canvas dyed red, and at the end of the 19th century they started to be manufactured from factory-made red fabric.

The southeastern selter, which consisted of “a coral chaplet with coins mixed in…simple silver-plated metal plates” A. Ignatovich recalls in his essay on the population of Burzyanskaya District. The chest adornment was massive, and covered the chest but also dropped to below the waist by 15-20 centimeters. The mesh woven from coral occupied the lower half of the decoration, and it was capped off with coral fringes. On top of the mesh, there were two or three pendants with a more complex makeup called “sulpas”. The breast area was tightly sewn over with coral that formed circles, semicircles, and rhombuses. Mother-of-pearl plates, medallions with carnelian or faceted glass, and large coins fit into the picture. Several rows of coins were located between the bottom and top of the chest adornment. The upper edge of the adornment, cut along the neck, was encircled by a row of coins or chains. The decoration was held in place by straps and a sewn belt.

Despite the high cost of these chest adornments, there was a great quantity of them back in the twentieth century.