Lisu Women's Style: Embracing the Modern

I don't know much about the Lisu. They are the tribe that we spent the least amount of time visiting during our short time in Thailand. They are also the tribe that my books have the least information about. Yet their elaborately colored garb calls to me, a vibrant mixture of old world tradition and new world materials.


A Lisu girl standing outside a bank in Doi Mae Salong, Northern Thailand. She is dressed in modern Lisu style.


Traditional clothing for Lisu women consists of a blue or green 'apron' dress which falls to the knees in the front and the calves in back. It is split up the sides to the waist, allowing a great freedom of movement. The dress always has a black yoke tight around the neck which is decorated with rows of bright strips of fabric appliqued in a circular pattern at the seam. Matching rows of applique define the shoulder seams.

This style of applique can be seen in this wonderful picture of a Lisu weaver by Peter Bongers.

The sleeves of the dress are always red in color, a deliberate contrast to the color of the rest of the dress. The front apron which folds left to right and fastens at the neck and armpit is of contrasting cloth as well, but usually just a lighter color than that of the dress. Over the dress goes a black sash to gather in the waist. Under the dress loose black pants are worn, sometimes with red leggings that cover just from knee to ankle and match the sleeves. This older style of dress is much more rarely seen in recent times.

Young women traditionally wear an incredible round headdress from which multicolored strands of yarn hang in a seemingly chaotic fashion at sides and back. The base of the headdress is a circular wrap of black cloth sewn into shape and the decorative accents deliberately draped to cross over the head and hang down to cover the back of the neck. Beads and pompoms are strung on the yarn that goes across the front of the headdress and form bright patterns against the black fabric.

Older women's garments are a bit less colorful with fewer rows of tiny applique, instead the areas of the yoke and shoulders have wider bands that take much less time to sew. The headress is more likely to be seen on the younger women.

Holiday dress means Silver, lots and lots of beautiful silver. A black velvet vest is worn over the apron dress and it positively drips with silver buttons, beads and plaques. Ornate silver necklaces are added, along with other bits of silver jewelry. Large collections of multicolored strings that end in bright pompoms are hung from the back of the belt for festive occassions. The entire effect is overwhelmingly impressive.

These pictures of young women in festival attire were taken during the Chiang Mai Flower Festival Parade. The silver vests are particularly striking in a group.



The Lisu near Chiang Mai have adapted modern materials to their traditional costume, embracing these often bright and flashy fabrics with great fervor. Their use is fascinating but at the same time saddening as the older mode of dress is morphing out of recognition. Spandex swimsuit fabric makes the festival garb above especially bright. The modern way of decorating the headdress is quite different from the older, the upstanding rows of pompoms along the back are modern as is the controlled interweaving of the strands going across the top of the head.


The dresses are generally still of the traditional colors, but the sleeves are fashionably pink. Here you can also see the tassles hanging down from the belt in the back. Below is a picture where the back of a vest can be seen to have even more silver sewn to it.




Modern bands of orange fabric have been applied at the yoke and shoulder seams on the apron dresses below, instead of the older method of multicolored applique that used to signify the Lisu. This is also the case in the festival garments seen at the Parade.


Lisu women playing with my daughter who was 14 months old at the time of our trip. I don't know who enjoyed it more, A-chan or the Lisu! The baby is wearing a traditional Lisu baby cap that I will explore more in a later post.



Purple fabric is popular in this group of Lisu women which is a vast change from the traditional blues and greens. The black yokes and pants are of the older style and the sleeves carry through the traditional look. It is easy to see how the apron dress is constructed since the apron flaps on the chest are of strongly contrasting fabrics.


These women wear modern belts rather than black sashes. Notice where the shoulder bands end - just at the seam where the sleeves are attached to the main body of the dress, they do not carry around under the arm. This is also a good look at the pants and how much extra fabric is incorporated into their design. It is very similar to middle eastern styles of pants with a large triangular gusset between the legs.

Trim is again applied to the back hem along the open side of the dress from waist to calf, but not on the front side or bottom hems. The lady on the left is wearing the traditional leggings underneath her pants. Another note of modern change is her purse which is western!


Young girls laughing at a magic trick and puzzling out how it was done.



The most colorful yet are the young girls who also have the orange bands at yoke and shoulders, but where the older women's dress fabric is a muted velveteen-type theirs is the sparkling spandex. Again tradition remains in the cut and style of their garments, including the black pants and round headdresses.

The same style is seen in the far north of thailand as in the photo at the top of this post from Doi Mae Salong. There the orange bands and pink sleeves were repeated, but in this girl's outfit the dress is a sparkling green which is a little more traditional. Gold accents can be seen in the orange bands in the close-up below. A blue end has been applied to the orange band where it stops just above the underarm seam.

It is interesting that the applique work that the Lisu are so famous for is still being practiced. Rather than decorating personal items and garments, these skills are put to use making objects for the tourists. Bags, pillows, hats and more show off the narrow rainbow applique and flower petal designs in beautiful array.

Here is another great picture by 'Wolfies', showing the old style applique. Also shown are some of the various handicrafts that the Lisu make for tourists, decorated with the rows of color that is their hallmark.

Cloth Baby Cradle

This is one of the most poignant embroidery pieces for me. When we purchased it in India it had only been a short time before that we were told it wasn't safe for me to get pregnant. At the time I was wavering between being okay with that situation and being depressed about it. Then four years later I had a beauitful baby girl with the help of new advances in medicines. The cradle has graced a wall in her bedroom ever since.

I do often wonder at the circumstances that led to the selling of this beautiful cradle. There was obviously a lot of loving work put into it. During my pregnancy I worked diligently on a knitted baby sweater that will never leave my possession if I have that choice. It is almost as though all my hopes and fears for my baby were tangled in it along with the yarn. Perhaps there is a kind of magic that goes into the making of these so-important objects. So I look at this piece and wonder why this mother had to give up this cradle and I think about the fact that it is now my responsiblity to keep it safe and allow it's beauty to be appreciated.

The border is created with lines of Square chain stitch which enclose sections of cretan stitched diamonds and a couched lattice of bright pink and light green. The hem is a blue cotton band machine-stitched over the edges, a popular finishing treatment for the decorative textiles that we have from this region. On the inside border is a zigzag of open chain stitch in blue with what appear to be neem leaves in cretan stitch pointing inward. One of the neat features of the border is that the diamonds and leaves are done in pairs of colors which really creates a striking design.

Elaborate flowers decorate the inner portion with tiny mirrors forming their bases. The flowers and all their parts are done completely with cretan stitch in bright, cheerful colors. It is charming that in some areas the flowers are extremely close together while in others they are carefully spaced (reminds me of some of my less successfull knitting stitches on the baby sweater mentioned earlier!). On the close up above several areas can be seen which are damaged, with missing stitches and some discoloration of the ground cloth.

The cradle is fully lined with what appears to be a muslin back which the embroidery is also stitched through.

To use this type of cradle, a wooden frame forms the main support. This frame would have a long center pole from which the cradle is suspended. At each end a pair of legs would form an 'A' shape from the center pole to the ground. Here is a picture of one of the cradles when it is not in use. (Please forgive the horrible picture quality for I was a terrifyingly bad photographer back then.)

Hmong Story Quilt

The very first tribe that we visited in Thailand was Hmong. It was a long and winding road up a mountain that gave us breathtaking views whenever we went around a curve. Spirit houses lined the edge of the road in several places. They were both beautiful and alarming at the same time as our guide explained that some of them were put in place to placate the spirits of those who had died traversing this road.

The village followed the line of the mountain upward and made it a challenge to walk up and down carrying the baby. The absolute best thing in the world was the small culture museum that was set up in one of the buildings. The 80 year old woman who normally would conduct tours of it was gone to visit relatives in Laos so one of her daughters showed us the main points.

It seemed as though they weren't expecting tourists but as soon as we had been there about 10 minutes women started arriving with huge bags of textiles to show and sell. This story cloth was embroidered by the lady who gave us the museum tour. What had drawn me to buying this particular one is the food theme! I just can't resist that. It also has such wonderful vignettes of traditional life.

Hmong story cloths are an art unto themselves, totally seperate from other Hmong textiles which feature geometric designs rather than pictorial. They are a modern artform, having been inspired by the pictures in textbooks and story books that have come with outside education. They are an incredible blending of tradition and modernization. Story quilts come in an array of themes from food preparation to courting and wedding traditions to life in refugee camps.

The stitches used for story quilts seem very limited at first glance. But there is a surprising variety including back stitch and stem stitch in a dazzling array of colors, bokhara couching is used in the walls of the houses which does a fantastic job of mimicing the bamboo construction of the Hmong houses. People, animals, flowers and tools are all comprised of satic stitch. The ground fabric is a thin cotton, perhaps a cotton blend. Traditional style clothing and adornment are delicately portrayed. Note the black jackets with blue sleeve cuffs which are everywhere in a Hmong village.

The border of triangular applique is commonly used in Hmong textiles, perhaps because it has a protective meaning. Sometimes called 'tiger's teeth' and other times 'mountains', the name does not seem to change the meaning: a protective enclosure to keep danger from intruding.

Lahu Shi Men's Dress

Just as with the women's clothing, the Lahu Shi men's clothing is of black cloth with layers of brightly colored fabric strips appliqued to it along with silver 'button' or bell decorations. There are also differences between the married and unmarried men's clothing. In general the men's clothing consists of a loose jacket with decoration along the hems and a pair of loose pants with decoration from just under the knees to the ankles.

The married man's jacket shows considerably less decoration than that of the bachelor, a much narrower band of applique stripes follows the hem and there is much less silver. Again, there is a distinct lack of decoration along the shoulder seam with the married man's jacket, matching that lack in the married woman's jacket. Another interesting detail to note is the wrist hem as there is only a simple blue band high at the wrist rather than more of the colorful bands at the hem.

A very interesting difference between the men's clothing and that of the women is the addition of small bits of embroidery that do not show up in the women's adornment. Below is a close up view of the married man's jacket showing the line of embroidery running along the inside of the applique bands.

The unmarried man's outfit has considerably more decoration to it, not just in the amount of applique and silver but also in the number of colors used. The bands on the front of the jacket are much larger and more ornate. Silver 'buttons' are used liberally in the ubiquitous triangle design. The shoulder seams are decorated.

The above picture shows the interesting mock-detail of a traditional chinese jacket. The top of the right hand jacket front has a section of applique that is horizontal rather than vertical and mimics the type of adornment usually associated with Chinese garments. However, the Lahu men's jacket opens at the center rather than off to one side as would the chinese-style jacket that the decoration is suggesting.

Below is a picture of a rather flamboyant bachelor playing the naw pipes. The turban that he wears is quite brilliant, but I have absolutely no information about men wearing turbans in the traditional Lahu Shi costume. (Of course that in no way means that it doesn't happen, but that I don't have enough information to truly comment on it at this time.)

These close-up views above and below of bachelor's clothing show more of the embroidery that seems to be reserved for men's clothing. Note the very skillful bands of evenly applied applique!

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.

A small enigma

In the same tiny seaside village of round huts where we found the baby mobile, we found this. I am still not absolutely certain, but I believe it to be a hindhoni - a cushion worn on the head for carrying objects around. However, I could be quite mistaken. There is a paradox in what we were told by our guide and the research that I have been able to do after our trip. We were told that this object and another similar to it were children's bracelets. I loved that explanation :) This piece is certainly small enough to be a decoration for a child, it will not even pretend to go over my hand. At the same time, in all the books and pictures that I have looked through, and in all the pictures that my husband and I took - nowhere are there Rabari children wearing bracelets of this kind. There are many instances of Rabari girls and also Harijan children wearing bangles and either silver or gold bracelets, but nothing so brightly beaded!

It is possible that this is actually from another tribe or from the mainstream Gujarati community rather than being Rabari, despite the fact that we bought it in a Rabari village. Unfortunately, I don't know enough to be able to say with certainty! At the moment my opinion remains that this is a ceremonial carry ring for use with the copper pots that women carry on their heads when welcoming guests to the village. Or perhaps for resting a pot on a table or the ground?
The construction of this beaded ring began with the beads being threaded on a string which was then oversewn through the red fabric and into the stuffing. Inside the red fabric (as you can see in the top picture where I was so curious that I had to open up part of it...) was a roll of plain fabric. It is rolled so tightly that it is extremely hard and made the object much heavier than one expects. The inside roll is sewn together to meet in a circle and then the red fabric is whip stitched in place to cover it.
The tassels are made with 3 baby cowrie shells and cotton threads of many different colors. The circumference is: 3.5 inches across to the outsides.
The thickness is: .75 inches