Mengzi Miao ethnic costumes

As symbols of the Miao ethnic branches living in Mengzi City, Honghe Prefecture, the Miao ethnic costumes are brightly multi-coloured and vary from place to place and branch from branch.

The costumes can fall into two categories, the outfit and the casual wear. For the making of the former category, much complicated work is needed such as lacing and embroidering. Most of the patterns include animals, plants, and traditional patterns such as square, round, triangle and even polygon; besides, ornaments are inseparable such as jewelry; and such an orthodox Miao ethnic outfit, which is worn for market days, festivals and visiting relatives, usually costs a considerable sum of money and takes up to one year to complete because most work is done by hand.

The designs and headgears for Miao ethnic ladies vary not only in regard of the age, but also the branch.

Mengshi and Mengba branches: flatten their hairstyles with headwears made from multi-coloured, blue, white and black yarns; wear crescent-like wooden combs as hairpins; wear silvery earrings, bracelets, rings, necklaces and embroidered pleated (batik) skirts; however, the colours and patterns on the costumes of the two branches are different.

Menglou branch (white Miao):

White coats and pleated skirts, long sleeves embroidered with different patterns such as animals and plants.

Mengbei, Mengzhua and Mengshi branches (Flowery Miao, Green Miao and Blue Miao):

Coats made from cyanic cloth embroidered with patterns such as animals and plants; blue and white pleated (batik) skirts with red, green and yellow squarish decorations.

And ladies of all the Miao ethnic branches wear triangle foot bandage, embroidered aprons, embroidered belts, and jewelry pendants etc.