Festival ensemble

Festival Attire, Hmong Tribe, Eastern Thailand-Western Laos.

A) Bodice. Waist/upper hip-length, of black velvet with all-over printed pattern in textured "paint" of leaves/flowers in dark reds/purples done in "dots", outlined in silvery white. No collar. Center front opening edged on inside with wide band of needlework with "zig-zag" in red, pink, and green cross-stitch, bordered in green and yellow, and in band of sparkly silver ovals containing green, red, and yellow metallic reflective strands. Outer edge of "saw teeth" in groups of red, green, pale green, and white. Cuffs of the long sleeves with same wide bands. Back of bodice with "flap" at neck, edged with pink and green, upper section of black cloth with printed flowers in green, pink, purple, and white, edged in places with gold. Lower part of flap of cross-stitch/needlework in pink and green with dark on white forming zig-zig-based pattern. Bodice lined in white fabric printed with dense, all-over pattern of small purple flowers with green leaves.

No labels or tags in bodice.

b) Skirt. Wrap-style skirt, knee-length or lower. Wide woven blue waistband into which main body of skirt is tightly pleated. Upper section of skirt of plain blue fabric. Lower part of a blue denim-like fabric similar to waistband (indigo dyed) with white resist pattern of bands and blocks and circles. This panel, itself pleated into upper panel, is embellished with horizontal bands of pink/magenta stitching, and a band of green ribbon with pink diamond shapes. Long blue fabric ties.

No tags or labels in skirt.

c) Apron. Narrow "apron" set horizontally. Waistband consist of (from top to bottom): Band of printed fabric with narrow blue border with blue printed design, then band of blue with white flowerheads separated by gold "x" shapes, then thinner lower border; Wider band of needlework with pink triangles, then wide band of circles/octagons in red, orange, pink, and green on white, then band of pink triangles and pink band; narrow woven band of dark blue with blue leaves/foliages and green flowers with blue centers. From the woven band hang 7 beaded pendants terminating in various colored fuzzy "pompoms" - brown, blue, reddish, green, and yellow. Lower part of apron is formed of very closely pleated dark bluish-green fabric with white band of stitching and white stitched edges. Not pleated at ends. The whole secured by black ties.

D) Apron. Medium-width vertical apron. Rectangular main panel with bands of needlework matching the "zig-zags" of the bodice, separated by bands of sparkly silver rickrack with inner lines of red, yellow, blue, green, etc. reflective metallic fibers. Edged with "saw-toothed" border as the bands on the jacket. Backed with same figured velvet as jacket. Long ties made of the figured velvet.

E) Capelet/collar. "eye-shaped" collar with central neck-hole and "v" cut at back. Neck edged with red tulle with white string and white flower heads woven through edges. Beaded fringe just below neck-hole consisting of strands of pink, white, green, blue and pale green plastic circular beads. Collar comes to point at center front and center back. Body of collar covered with tight hand-stitched scrolls in white with bands of "arches" filled with orange, pink, and green embroidery. Collar edged in beaded fringe of green, pink, white, gold, and blue circular plastic beads, and pink tear-drop shaped beads. Collar is lined with a knit fabric printed with a duck, flower, and lanterns with Chinese(?) characters.

No labels or tags on collar.

On individual record:
F) Hat, ring form, with red feather upper edge and beaded fringe lower edge.