Tribal Costume

12 H'mong star decorations

A pack of 12 embroidered stars or suns.

H'mong women use small embroidered patches like this to decorate their clothes. 

Size approx 1 inch diameter

Tiny reverse applique baby collar

A beautiful little collar salvaged from the back of a babys jacket from the H'mong hilltribe of northern Thailand.

Tiny, tiny stitches and reverse applique. A miracle of fine stitchwork!

Size: 9 x 6 cms

Stitched and reverse appliqued child's collar

A lovely hand stitched piece salvaged from the back of a H'mong child's jacket. Embroidered pieces are often recycled in this way once the garment becomes too tatty to wear.

This is a miracle of lovingly stitched double spirals 

Size: 10 x 11.5 cms

H'mong baby hat

A black satin hat for a little H'mong baby with hand sewn panels of reverse applique on either side of a little padded "beak" and an embroidererd square on the top.

From northern Thailand

Circumference 47 cms.

H'mong child's jacket

A black velvet jacket made for a H'mong child or young teen.

Machine embroidered trim on the front, and around the hem and cuffs plus rows of characteristic H'mong stars. Fastened with press studs at the front

Size: Neck to sleeve cuff 47 cms . Chest (if worn done up) 78 cms

Yao embroidered headcloth

A beautifully woven dark blue indigo square decorated with red, orange, green and white hand stitiched stars, tassles in acrylic wool and cotton and a very finely hand woven long narrow braid.

Made by Yao women as a traditional head covering.

Size: 36 x 38 cms.

Mangarrai sarong

A hand woven long tube garment woven in the western part of Flores island, Indonesia. Garments like this are worn by Mangarrai women either right up to the armpits or folded over at the top to make a skirt.

Supplementary weft weave (also known as songket)

Shot green and red background with pink and orange motifs.

Size (if unstitched) 114 x 176 cms.

Tai Daeng brocaded skirt

A traditional tube skirt made by the Tai Daeng women of northern Laos and completely stitched by hand.

The skirt is made up of a pale pink waistband, an upper section with red stripes and a panel of very intricate handwoven brocade (supplementary weft technique), a lower section of fine dark cotton with 6 patchwork print vertical strips and a central section of handwoven braid (worn at the front), then a bottom section with two handwoven braids going all the way roind the hem.

Size (if opened out) length 102 cms x width 110 cms (at waistband)

Chinese jacket with stud work

Blue cotton jacket with hand embroidered details on collar and sleeves, and metal stud work in a curve across the front.

Bought from the maker in Dali, Yunnan SWChina.

Length 56 cms Width across back 57 cms.

Yao embroidered trousers

A excellent example of a pair of finely embroidered Yao women's trousers.

Indigo handwoven cotton patched up into a fine pair with beautiful hand stitching. The pale blue indigo waistband is just made to fold over and pin at the waist. An old, worn and soft pair of trousers!

Size: length 73 cms x waist 121 cms.

Embellished H'mong woman's skirt

A wonderfully heavy deep indigo blue skirt fully pleated with hand drawn batik and appliqued strips and squares in red and white.

The top section is commercial cotton and the lower section is handwoven hemp with batik and machine stitched appliqed prints.

This traditional skirt is fully around 5m in width at the hem. It is open at the back with long waist ties. It could be made into a wearable skirt (or two!) or make a beautiful circular display.

Waistband 69 cms Length 58 cms

Dark Indigo pleated batik skirt

A wonderful cotton pleated skirt from the Miao minority women of Guizhou province in south western China. The skirt panel is all hand drawn batik with a blue cotton waistband (11 cms wide)

Natural indigo in pale and dark blues

Measurements: Skirt length 46 cms. Waist 89 cms

Pale Indigo pleated skirt

A wonderful cotton pleated skirt from the Miao minority women of Guizhou province in south western China. The skirt panel is all hand drawn batik with a pale cotton waistband (11 cms wide)

Natural indigo in pale and dark blues

Measurements: Skirt length 54 cms. Waist 98 cms

Kachin beaded tunic

A wonderful piece of weaving and beadwork made into a totally hand stitched woman's tunic top. From Kachin state in northern Burma.

Very fine brocade hand weave with 16 cowrie shell flower decorations and an intricate network of tiny black beads front and back.

Length 40 cms. Width underarms 52 cms.

Akha Jacket Xichuanbanna

A beautiful hand woven indigo cotton jacket with an array of 6 incredibly finely hand stitched panels on the back.

Bought from the Akha woman who had made it in a village in Xichuanbanna, Yunnan, SW China. You can read more about this on An Akha Jacket from the Tea Mountains

All the panels and the whole jacket is hand sewn. The jacket fabric is handwoven and dyed in indigo

Width (across back) 46 cms Length 65 cms

Miao jacket with folded patchwork

A large burgundy red figured  satin jacket with incredible details on the front and sleeve panels of tiny and very intricate folded patchworks, weaving and raised hand embroidered stitch work.

Bought at a Miao village in Guizhou, southwestern China

Size: length from collar to back hem 75 cms. back underarms 62 cms.