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History is reflected on handcrafted Chinese Miao garments

Who are the Miao?

Over 100 distinctive Miao ethnic groups inhabit the mountainous south and southwestern China. Each group is characterized by its unique clothing, and the colorful women's garments are especially interesting. Embroidery, batik, and beautiful silver jewelry are all indispensable additions to Miao style.

Clothes for the holidays

During holidays, weddings, and other large ceremonies, Miao women usually wear a short jacket with beautiful, embroidered patterns on the narrow sleeves, shoulders, and collar. In some areas, they have glistening pieces of silver and silver bells sewn onto the front, back, cuffs, and lap of the jacket. So people call it a silver jacket.

Their beautiful pleated skirts have as many as 40 layers with over 500 pleats. Some Miao women wear long skirt which reaches directly to their feet.The short skirt comes to their knees.

An embroidered apron dropping in front of the skirt also comes to the knees or feet. Looking like a bird's beautiful tail feathers, four or five long waistbands fly behind the apron. Some Miao women also have embroidered shoes and leggings on.

With extraordinary silver ornaments, like big silver headdress, neckbands, earrings, and silver bracelets to go with these clothes, many Miao women can proudly claim they are the most beautiful women in the world.

Colors found in Miao costume are mainly blue, yellow, red, black, and white. The clothes are always homemade by Miao women themselves.

Casual suits

Miao casual suits look simple and light, but they are still very beautiful. Shirts, jackets, and pants are all embroidered with beautiful patterns.

Without a huge silver headdress, Miao women only wear a colorful embroidered handkerchief on their head on informal occasions.

Embroidery

Girls start to learn how to embroider from their mother when they are only seven or eight years old. When they reach 14 or 15 years old, they have come to be an experienced embroiderer. Before they are prepared to get married, they will spend 3-5 years embroidering a suit of clothes for themselves as a dowry.

The excellent Miao embroidery work reflects their culture, history, and religion. Water waves, mountains, stars, butterflies, dragons, birds, flowers, and animals are themes that have lasted throughout the centuries.

Without historical scripts for many generations, the Miao have their history reflected on their beautiful embroidered clothing.  Many ancient stories and legends can be seen in the patterns that have been passed down over time. Yes, almost every embroidered piece has a beautiful story.

Batik

Techniques for making batik, a durable cloth with remarkable colors and designs, have been around for more than 1,000 years.

First, a worker will use a knife immersed in hot wax to paint a picture on a sheet of white cloth. Then they will use five distinctive colors to dye the cloth in a large vat. After dyeing, the cloth is rinsed and boiled.

Chinese Miao batik art is quite interesting and unique. C. Liu has been studying and researching Miao culture and art for a few years. Go to her website to learn more about Miao batick and other fascinating arts like beautiful Miao silver ornaments.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 4:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.