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Jun 20, 2018

VN-VN : The Vietnamese Clothing Culture


1.       Cultural and historical background
Clothing is an important necessity and clothes naturally reflect the culture and history of each people.
Our country is poor, hence “eating must be solid and clothes long lasting”. Clothes are usually worn first and then dyed when their colors are faded, any torn areas will be patched.    
The weather is usually warm, so clothes are made of thin fabric, wide and loose.  
Women wear short sleeve shirts and wide skirts, men are bare breasted and wear loincloths (a long piece of fabric wrapped around the waist in single or multiple folds from front to back).  
Hats have a conical shape and do not fit tightly around the head, hairs are tied in a bundle or cut short. Feet are bare or protected by sandals or clogs, shoes are not often used.
             

Our country relies on agriculture, so clothes are usually neat and dark coloured (brown or black like the earth or mud). Fabrics are natural (we grow mulberry trees and silkworms to make silk, use cotton or the bark of the antiar tree or fibres from the banana tree to make fabric...) and our country is famous for many silk products such as brocade, velvet, crêpe, gauze...

Apart from having practical uses such as protection from sunshine, rain, cold, clothing has other characteristics:
-  Aesthetics: although simple, Vietnamese costumes are the result of thoughtful choices in form, design, color, decoration pattern, material.
-  Heath: due to the moist tropical monsoonal climate and prevalence of rheumatism, special wood is chosen to make clogs for the old people and special material used to make children hats.
-  Social: clothing reflects the hierarchy in the feudal society, preventing any violation of the pecking order (which is a characteristic of the feudal period).
-  Politics: one thousand years of Chinese domination and one hundred years of French colonization did not result in the assimilation of Vietnamese clothing. Chinese emperors tried many times to make the Vietnamese dress like the Chinese but our national character always prevailed.
-  Human morality: the proverb “hungry but full of integrity, tattered but preserving a good reputation” not only reminds people of the practical needs for clothing but also teaches the requirement for a high standard of behavior, a moral way of living, even in poor circumstances.

2.       Past and present Vietnamese costumes
2.1   Various epochs
During the nation building period, in the times of the Hùng kings, copper drums and many copper sculptures displayed inscriptions depicting various living scenes of this period with people in clearly defined costumes showing high levels of artistry.
Below are some images of Vietnamese costumes through the artistic eyes of Nancy Dương, a young artist deeply influenced by Asian culture.

   

3.       Characteristics of Vietnamese clothing
3.1   Northern area
-  Chicken tail hair
The Vietnamese think that "A person is defined by one's teeth and hair".
The hair is combed neatly with a central parting line (representing a woman’s decent character), tied close to the side of the head and enclosed in a narrow and long scarf wrapped around the head.
The end of the hair is cut at the side, leaving a small bundle called “chicken tail”.

Speaking about teeth, there is a special tradition of dyeing the teeth black. According to legend, this tradition goes hand in hand with the tradition of body tattoos and chewing betel nuts during the period of the Hùng kings. Due to chewing betel nuts, the teeth will turn black so people think of dyeing the teeth black for cosmetic reason, giving them a beautifully polished, totally black color, unlike the spotty black look of the betel nut. Another benefit is protection of the tooth enamel. This tradition has now completely disappeared (my paternal and maternal grandmothers still had black teeth), except within some ethnic minorities.

-  Khăn mỏ quạ (Raven beak shape kerchief) should be fittingly wound, in accordance with the person’s face to make it look like a lotus bud.

-  Nón quai thao (Coarse silk strap hat) is an expensive hat, beautiful and luxurious, usually worn or carried by women only at ceremonies, Tết or festivals.
The hat looks like a large wheel around 70-80 cm wide, covered in palm tree leaves.  
The strap is made of coarse silk so the hat is called “coarse silk strap hat”.

-  Yếm (Brassiere) is a piece of upper underwear clothing, one of the characteristics of Northern women in the past.
The brassiere is made up of a square piece of fabric with straps at opposite corners, these straps are tied at the back. It usually has two layers, with a pouch inside to hold money.  
The best brassiere material is silk, if it is cotton then it should at least be a good fine fabric. 
As to color, brown is for daily use in rural areas, white in cities, pink, peach, red... are for festivals.  Sometimes, at home, women only wear the brassiere, particularly when it is hot.

Wearing a brassiere is nominally to keep the chest warm but, in reality, it makes the chest look prettier. The image of a country woman wearing a brassiere on a hot summer day, leaving her back and sides exposed, is often considered beautiful. 
"A woman wearing a red brassiere with exposed sides is really pretty."

A brassiere is simple but strangely attractive and irreplaceable. It will continue to be a source of inspiration not only for musicians and poets but also for fashion designers.

-  At home, to go with the brassiere is áo cánh (a short sleeve shirt) worn, unbuttoned, outside.

-  Áo tứ thân (Four piece dress)
This dress replaces the short sleeve shirt when going outside. 
Nobody knows exactly its origins but images of this four piece long dress have been found on inscriptions on Ngọc Lũ copper drums many thousands years ago.
One logical explanation for the dress is that, in the past, with simple and rudimentary technology, it was not possible to weave large pieces of fabric, hence, people had to assemble four pieces of cloth to make a long dress – the four piece dress.

-  Áo ngũ thân (Five piece dress)
Around the end of the 19th century, to have a more formal, luxurious and noble look, women in the cities changed the four piece dress into the five piece dress.
In the picture, it can be clearly seen that the mistresses wear a five piece dress whereas the maids wear the four piece dress.

3.2   Central area
Characteristics of women clothing in the Central region include: khăn chít - khăn vành (wound head scarf), tóc thề (long hair), nón bài thơ (poetic conical hat) and, of course, áo dài (long dress). 

   - Khăn chít - Khăn vành (Head scarf)
Photos of the last Empress Nam Phương wearing khăn vành (left) and khăn chít (right)

Khăn chít is the simple head scarf, made of silk or crêpe. It is a piece of cloth around 50 cm long, covering the hair and wound around the head, giving a neat but pretty and tender look.
At important ceremonies, the khăn vành has two components, an internal scarf (khăn chít) and an external blue piece of fabric wound on the outside. It usually takes one half hour to wear this scarf. 

Khăn chít, khăn vành, early on, were only reserved for royalty and aristocracy but, with time, they reach the common people and are used in weddings and festivals.

   - Tóc thề (long hair)
Image of a Huế young girl with her long hair is the symbol of poetic Huế.
In love, the boy and the girl usually choose hair as a token of their love for each other, like in the novel of Nguyễn Du, when Thuý Kiều cut her hair and promised to spend her life with Kim Trọng. Hence, this hair together with this promise gives meaning to the word “Tóc thề (promised hair)”.
Huế girl’s hair falls down and covers her shoulders and is not held by a brooch like Chinese girls. The hair covers the shoulders, down to the back, hips and sometimes lower, for some people, it can reach the feet.
The Huế promised hair represents an unmarried woman with no child (in love or not yet in love) and particularly in her youth, full of life and vitality.

 - Nón bài thơ (poetic conical hat)

The palm leaf conical hat has been carved on Ngọc Lũ and Đồng Sơn copper drums, Đào Thịnh copper jars in 2500-3000 AD. The Vietnamese, in ancient times, already knew how to tie leaves to make objects to protect against rain and sunshine.
The palm leaf conical hat is a thing used to protect against sunshine, rain or as a fan and is a characteristic of Vietnamese women.
The hat is woven from various types of leaves such as palm tree, straw, juniper...
It usually has a strap made from soft cotton fabric or velvet, silk to keep it on the head.
The palm leaf conical hat is one of the characteristics of Vietnamese women but the conical hat with a poem is a typical product of Huế conical hat industry.
In daily life, the conical hat is an intimate item for Huế women.

   - Áo dài (long dress), Vietnamese graceful trait
It is difficult to translate the word “áo dài” in any language since no other country has áo dài like in Vietnam.
We can't say precisely when áo dài first appears but the statue of the Ngọc Nữ deity carved in the XVII century in the Dâu temple, in the town of Thuận Thành, Bắc Ninh province, is a clearest proof of áo dài existence.

Áo Dài fits snugly on the body, has a high collar and is around knee length or more.
It is parted at the hip, its bottom hem is usually around 20 cm above the ankles.
Girls everywhere wear white pants with áo dài.  Black pants are for married women.
The dress fits snugly so it can not be ready made.  Each piece is a piece of art by the artisan.

Áo Dài is attractive and charming (the Chinese calls this dress “bì bào”, which means a dress worn close to the skin), it is demure but still shows the young girl’s figure.
Áo Dài is not only a dress but it has become a symbol of Vietnamese woman clothing, a traditional cultural product which is an unmissable part of the Vietnamese woman grace.

3.3   Southern area
Nobody knows since when but every time “áo bà ba” (bà ba shirt) is mentioned, one thinks straight away of the kind, simple, soft beauty of Southern women.
Daily clothing of Southern people in the18th century consists of a short sleeve shirt and long pants. Subsequently, in the 19th century, there is an important change in this earlier clothing, making it the popular costume that we see nowadays, named bà ba suit.
    Áo bà ba is a short shirt, collarless, with long sleeves, with buttons from the neck in the centre to the belly area.
The shirt together with black pants reaching down to the ankles or heels adds to the beauty of the woman with narrow, soft, delicate waist.

   -  Head scarves are small but are part of the ethnic populations' traditional costumes, giving them a charming character.
Khăn rằn (checkered bandana), originally belonging to the Khmer people in the South, has spread to other peoples during the cohabiting process.
The bandana is around 1.2 m long, 40-50 cm wide, usually has two colors, black-white or brown-white, on small squares spread across the whole surface of the bandana.
The bandana has become a useful and familiar item for everybody, every labour class, in every daily activity, to protect against sunshine, absorb a flow of sweat, shield a strong wind, dry tears or hide a smile. 

Khăn rằn and áo bà ba have become items closely associated with the lives of Southern people.

3.4   Clothing of other ethnic groups
Apart from the Kinh people which form the majority, Viet Nam has 53 other ethnic groups with rich and diverse cultural characteristics.
In the narrow context of this article, we can only have a look at some images. 

4.       Conclusions
Historically, our culture is very rich and diverse in every aspect.  Vietnamese clothing clearly proves this point.

I have always fallen in love with the yếm brassiere, the four piece dress, the long hair under the palm leaf conical hat, the unique áo dài, the bà ba shirt, the checkered bandana and the pair of wooden clogs.

In this 21st century, the whole world has become a single village and Vietnamese clothing has been heavily influenced by the Western styles. However, this is the essence of our culture and at Vietnamese weddings or Tết, my heart is filled with joy when I see the ladies and the young girls wear áo dài.

I hope that we can keep these treasures forever. It's part of ourselves.
Translated by Khai Phan 
from Trang-phục Việt-Nam by Yên Hà
In the same topic:

VN-VN / Beliefs of the Vietnamese people : 
https://phu-tran.blogspot.com/2018/04/vn-vn-beliefs-of-vietnamese-people.html 

 VN-VN : The Vietnamese culinary culture





VN-VN : Let’s celebrate the VietnameseTết!
http://phu-tran.blogspot.com/2017/01/lets-celebrate-vietnamesetet.html


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