Lahu Shi Women's Dress

It was on a long trek down a dusty jungle path on Three Hilltribes Mountain that we met these delightful Lahu Shi tribespeople. The fascinating trek began on the upper part of the mountain with the Akha tribe at the top, the Lahu tribe in the middle and the Karen village in the valley. Lahu are often called "Long-ears" because of the large silver tubes that the women wear in stretched earlobes. We found that even though they are 'on display' a great deal of time in this popular tourist destination, the Lahu were incredibly friendly and more ready to sit and chat and make music than they were to sell their wares.
These particular Lahu were of the Lahu Shi subgroup which has it's own style of traiditonal clothing very different from that of the other Lahu subgroups. Most noticeable is the predominance of red stripes in their adornment and the large number of small silver 'buttons' sewn to the jackets.

In the picture below are two Lahu women. The one to the left is dressed in unmarried woman's fashion while the one on the right is attired in a married woman's costume. While not profound, the differences are easily identifiable.

Traditional unmarried women's clothing consists of a loose, long sleeved jacket adorned with appliqued strips of cloth and silver, a woven tube-like sarong and a turban. The jacket is black with many stripes of colored fabric appliqued onto it at the hems. In between the stripes are sometimes rows of small silver 'buttons' which are generally applied in triangular designs. Larger silver bells can be seen on either side of the front of the jacket and it is closed with very large silver disc-buttons at center front. Notice the small row of adornment at the shoulder seam. The sarong is also mostly black with areas of brightly colored stripes woven in at the hips and a smaller section at the hem. It is simply a tube which is folded over itself to make a wide pleat in front, then tucked into a string or other belt at the waist which holds it in place. An unmarried woman's turban is elaborately decorated with silver button designs in vertical stripes, seperated by rows of applique. The turban's decoration is only for the last few feet which is all that shows after it has been wrapped around the head.

Above is a close-up of a section of silver-decorated turban. The lines of color that alternate with the rows of silver appear to be woven into the main cloth of the turban rather than embroidered. The long ends of the turban fringe have been left to drape down over the side after being tucked in the top. The older Lahu woman in the picture below has chosen to wear a modern scunci rather than a traditional turban. As always the interesting mix of traditional alongside the whimsical modern is rather delightful! Though she does not wear the turban, her jewelry is the epitome of tradition. Long silver tubes through stretched ear lobes, a hollow silver torc and long strands of beads are all considered necessary.

Married women's dress consists of the jacket, sarong and turban but the adornment of the jacket and turban are a little different. There is less color showing in general, particularly absent are the strips of ornamentation at the shoulder seams. Over top of the rows of colorful stripes, the married woman's jacket has an incredible amount of silver coins and bells sewn to it in rows and triangles. Cowrie shells are also sometimes used as decoration as the picture above shows. It is also easy to see the use of the silver sequin rather than 'buttons'. The turban, in stark conrast, has barely any silver on it at all and is a much plainer version of the unmarried woman's turban. However, the sarong seems to be no different between the married and unmarried women. Unlike the jacket, the stripes of color in the sarong are woven into the fabric and not added on with applique.

It is important to note that although in the past the use of silver was ubiquitous, it is just as often likely to be aluminum these days.

Rabari Skirt Border

This beautifully embroidered ghaghara border we found in a small Rabari village just north of Bhuj, Gujarat. It is a common practice to find other uses for the time-consuming embroidery when the rest of the garment has become unusable for one reason or another. In this case I do not know anything about the rest of the garment other than the fact of it being one of the heavy, gathered skirts that are generally reserved for brides. Whether this border was once embroidered onto a contiguous piece of cloth or sewn onto an existing garment, I do not know.

The ground fabric for the artful embroidery is black cotton and the embroidery threads are also cotton. Square and triangular mirrors abound in the motifs which are Kachhi Rabari designs.

At the top of the border are curving designs done in square chain stitch, called ambo, which is one type of mango tree motif. In the above picture some fading of the threads can be seen in the blue stitches on the left. The interior of the diamonds that make up the center of the ambo design are filled with a loose herringbone stitch.

Triangular mirrors form the bottom of the mango tree design. The stitching used to hold these mirrors in place on the fabric is very intricate with the stitches stretching out to the orange chain stitch in long lines at the bottom corners while being forced into tiny spaces along the lenth of the triangle borders. Below is a close-up of the small designs between each of the ambo. A diamond of small chain stitches above a very tightly woven example of interlaced stitching.Next comes a border of the popti (parrot-like) design. The yellow square chain stitches are contiguous lines that are embroidered over the tops of one another when they meet. An elongated chain stitch is used for the center fill.

In this shot of the back of the embroidery can be seen the jumbled maze created by the stitches on the inside fabric. It is easy to detect the different designs despite the messiness.Underneath the line of popti is a very intricate border, bavaliyo - thorny acacia, in between two lines of white square chain makoliyo borders. The bavaliyo is perhaps one of my favorite Rabari embroidery designs because I love the mixture of stitches. A square mirror, a line of herringbone stitching, an interlace stitch square, another line of herringbone stitching and so on, all encased in the ever-present square chain borders. In this example the mirror is sewn on by two different color threads which is intriguing. Did the embroiderer run out of the original color or just get bored with one color? Another popti line completes the border just above the bright red bias tape hem.

While the hem is machine sewn to the fabric on the front with a contrasting white thread, it is hand finished on the back with a bright green thread.

Judy Frater's book "Threads of Identity" was of invaluable help as reference for the stitches used, names and meanings of the embroidery motifs.