Hmong Clothes
Posted on 10 November 2009
Photo found at Sabai designs gallery
In honor of the upcoming Georgia Hmong New Year celebration this weekend on Saturday November 14 and Sunday November 15, I had found this amazing and powerful image of a Black Hmong female making her beautiful embroidery for her Traditional clothes.
It is simple to tell she is a of the Black Hmong dialect from the clothing she is wearing. Each dialect has its own color and type of embroidery to establish which dialect she is from. Every dialect has their own uniqueness from their tone of voice, their accent and their color and style of clothes.
It is said that in a Hmong outfit, there are lost Hmong history within it. Without written proof, it was once said that the Hmong people were prosecuted by the Chinese government and was forced to burn all their written words so the clever Hmong women started to sew their written language onto their clothes, but soon enough, they too had forgotten how to read and the meaning of their written language on their clothes had slowly faded away. Now it is nothing but a mere design to make their beautiful clothes colorful, yet with full of history.
10 responses to Hmong Clothes
This is the type of craft that I saw in Laos, especially in the Luang Prabang night market,and fell in love with the designs and patterns. Will they have these embroideries for sale at the Hmong new year? I asked my local Asian store owned by a Hmong family if they’d carry these and the wife said that she wouldn’t be able to sell it, as most Hmong in the US wouldn’t buy it. I told her that I would buy it, she said ‘only you’.
so I’m out of luck.
Wow…I didn’t even realized that there are black Hmong as well. I just asked my parents and they said, yeah and many more. I didn’t even realized that. I need to learn more about the culture. Thanks for sharing.
beautiful.
Nye, I am not sure if they would have these embroideries at the Hmong New Year, but I’ll be there at the NC Hmong New Year thanksgiving weekend so I can check, or since you live close by, you can check as well.
Lily, we learn new things about our own Hmong people each time! There are many more Hmong people out there that we don’t know of. Did you know that there are a lot of Hmong people in Vietnam too? well you know we are everywhere!
Lome, thanks! it’s most rewarding when you complete one yourself! I had completed one myself and I felt truly proud about it. =)
Thanks mozemoua, I’ll check it out, it’s not too far for me.
If you come to MN and visit our famous Hmong international market, you can find paj ntau like these for reasonal prices. I bought a handmade hmong-thai skirt for $20. It’s made out of the original Hmong fabric called ntau maj but it’s sewn into a modernized skirt where you can wear it everyday. Very beautiful.
Kind of like this lady’s skirt.
Nye, maybe I’ll see you there! I am hoping and planning on going for at least two days! Let me know if you are able to find any okay.