Yao Women's Pants

We visited a small Iu Mien Yao village in Thailand on the road from Doi Tung to Doi Mae Salong. The ladies that we met were delightful, including an elderly grannie who is probably the toughest person that I have ever met. As we purchased the trousers from her there was a long period of negotiation and bargaining in which she produced the most incredible scowls when we offered too low a price. Once the price was settled upon she came back to her normal smiling self and there were no hard feelings, it was all part of the 'game' of the bargain. I will do another post on her entire costume at a later date. She is the one that embroidered the trousers above and informed us during the bargaining process that it took her 6 months to finish them.

Yao costume varies quite a bit depending on sub-branches, groups and 'nationality' but the beautifully embroidered pants are common to almost all Yao. "All Yao Mien and Mun women wear trousers except for one Mien sub-branch, the Yao Tien from Northern Vietnam, and one Mun sub group in Hainan, China."pg. 102 of ' The Yao Mien and Mun of ...' by Jess G. Pourrett

The loose trousers remind me a bit of the way that some Middle Eastern pants are constructed with the large triangular crotch piece. The cloth is indigo-dyed cotton and the embroidery threads are also cotton. The leg panels are embroidered first, then sewn to the rest of the pants with a loose running stitch. Typical of Thai Iu Mien Yao trousers this pair has the mandatory weave stitch pattern at the bottom of the legs and then three large panels of designs going up almost to the waist.

Here you can see the stitching on the inside seams.

Amazingly the embroidery is done from the back of the fabric, a common theme in South Asian tribal embroidery. The bottoms of the legs are embroidered first in the extremely important bands of symbols that are employed in every pair of Yao trousers, anywhere from 2 to 5 rows, using weave stitch.

A close-up of the three bands of weave stitching. Originally the weave stitches would have been done in silk thread but lately cotton thread is much more widely used. Following the Iu Mien Yoa tradition, grid stitch has been used for the smaller bands of symbols within these rows.

The inside of the weave-stitch bands, also showing the hemmed cuff.

A close-up view of some of the designs of the next two rows of large colorful embroidery done with grid stitch.

The transition between the 2nd and 3rd bands of embroidery with a smaller geometric design between.


Embroidery at the very tops of the thighs. You can see the different tones of the indigo dye in the very top where the waist band has been sewn to the leg panel.

Final picture of the back side of a stitched panel where it has been sewn to the crotch fabric.