It seems that most of the tribes of this northern region of Vietnam are presented in an ornate and decorative manner. From tribe to tribe, they are boldly differentiated, largely by the use of style and colour. I came to the region to find out why..
There is clearly a reason as to why these tribes still dress as they do. It seemed to me to be quite a ridiculed way of living in the mountains - dressed in funny, strange and impractical costumes. But with these tribes, clothing is stemmed from nature and producing them is a livelihood. Their 'uniform' is one of the key visual differentiators between groups [that still being a valid way in modern day western living]. Though it may seem shallow as a shallow end of a swimming pool can be...but, it surely is true, that - how you dress; is sense of identification, belonging and ultimately expresses and partly conjures who you are.
The Daos
A little history: Dating back, history finding their origins in the southern west parts of China. The Daos migrated to Vietnam around the start of the 12th or 13th century and continued until the early 20th century. Drought, failed farming of crops and Feudalism pressures in China promoted this migration during the Minh dynasty. Whilst in China, the Dao were divided into smaller groups - still with common language, though perhaps slight different cultural techniques and different visual costumes. It was here that....
The Red Dao migrated to the hills of Vietnam. The Red Dao are one main group of the Dao people and mostly found in and around the SaPa (tourist mecca) region of Vietnam - mainly emanating from the village of TaPhin. You cannot visit SaPa without witnessing the sight of their beautifully and intricately designed clothing.
Textiles
As mentioned above, I would like to reinforce that The Red Dao are very intricately styled. The daily female costumes are shown below:
Women attire: The married women tend to wear the red scarves on their heads and hand-embroidered aprons. I'm guessing red was chosen to represent strength and for ease of identifying amongst the green mountains. I'm sure there's more reason to it, but the differing head ornaments are worn according to the weather climate! i.e. heavier for the winter periods. The jacket is meticulously embroidered as are the short and wide trousers.
Headscarves:
Bodywear:
Hats: Small boys will traditionally wear hats and short shirts made by their mother or sister(s). Boys will wear red and black hats with fringes and beads , whilst girls will wear hats of three colours - black, yellow, white - with embroidered patterns and silk.
Embroidery: Embroidery is absolutely important in Dao families. It is the female's job in the family to produce clothing and decorate their tribal patterns. Girls are encouraged to learn at a young age (as young as 6 or 7). Failure to learn means they're clothing will not be beautiful enough and they 'will be left off the shelf'. Thus, nobody will marry them...eek! *Hurry up, girls. Get learning!* Before being trained to embroider, girls must be trained by mothers and grandmas meticulously on how to count threads i.e. two-thread and three-thread patterns, and how to embroider in a straight line in an up & down technique. They embroider on the reverse side of the cloth. The embroider forms beautiful designs of the images below. Embroidering is not done overnight. No way. There is quality involved here. A jacket's embroidery can take months and months to be completed. Small stitches and very, very intricate detail. Whilst time is irrelevant, quality is not!
Numerous images are created, some being; animals, weather (thunder), nature (flowers, trees)...etc. The embroidered pattern will portray various meanings, such as, representing the village where they are from, luck and fortune, happiness, power, strength, promoting crop growth (i.e. worms and snails), to tell stories of the moment.
A summary of cloth & serious dyeing talk:
Unlike other neighbouring tribes, the Daos do not plant hemp and do the weaving. Traditional villages will buy the cloth, dye it and design and tailor the clothes themselves. In most instances, naturally extracted dye is used and the following colours are created using the relative natural components:
.Yellow - fibraurea tinctoria Lour roots
.Red - sam mua wood
.Brown - dioscorea cirrhosa Lour roots
When using 'dioscorea cirrhosa Lour roots', the old roots are peeled sliced and then put into a clean pot to be boiled until the liquid becomes a dark brown colour. The cloth is to remain unpressed and lowered gradually into the dying liquid to soak for 2-3 minutes and is then this cloth is air-dried. Once the cloth is dry, the same is done to the other side to ensure that both sides are of the same colour.
Silk dying uses 'Fibraurea tinctoria Lour roots' - which are chopped and boiled. When highly condensed, the liquid is poured into a basin and is repeated 2-3 times.
So, there you go. That was a little insight into the Red Dao and their meticulously designed clothing that is worn on a daily basis. It seems impractical but it represents who they are, culture and traditions. I highly rate them, especially having seen first-hand how much time and effort is mounted to produce such clothing. Pure quality. There's more to it than meets the eye.
