Clothes of the Muong Ethnic

The Muong people have their own identities in decorating their clothes. Muong men dress in shirts which are chest-opened, round-necked, shoulder-horn-made buttoned with two low pockets and sometimes with an upper pocket on the left.

This shirt is usually short and bottom covered. They also often wear short hair or cover their head with a white scarf. Their pants are called “quan la toa” which means they have broaden leggings worn with a scarf fastened at the belly, which is also call the pant scarf. In the past, people often have their long hair fastened into a bunch behind their neck. For the festival dressing, they wear the purple or yellow silk shirts, purple scarf, double layer, armpit and shoulder buttoned, long shirt outside.

In everyday life, Muong women wear a short shirt open at the front, shorter than the same version of King people, long sleeve, in white or brown color (later there are more color with different fabric rather than the traditional one). They wear a short vest inside, a long skirt with its edge emerging under the shirt. Women wear white or blue rectangular scarf, which is not very complicated in comparison with other ethnics. Their skirts are usually closed and in black. The decoration are made in both edges of the skirt, so that when being worn, this decoration will be placed in the center of the body. This is an identity hardly seen elsewhere among the other linguistic ethnics in the neighborhood (except for the Tai people in Mai Chau, Hoa Binh who get the influences from the Muong people and have the same clothes as the Muong in everyday life).

The Muong in Thanh Hoa wear unopened shirts, fitting in through its neck, wavy hem. The skirt will cover the shirt when being worn up to the chest. The decoration on the skirt are made along the hems and at the upper part of the skirt. During the Tet or festivals, another long front-opened jacket is worn outside the daily outfit, which is considered the formal one and able to show the decoration hidden inside. Those who wear the front opened shirt usually use another short brassiere inside which is similar to the King version.