Costumes of the Pa Then ethnic

(Cinet)- Pa Then’s women costumes are now almost preserved while men costumes are changed a lot. Most of Pa then men wear ready-made shirts, trousers. Only on wedding day, grooms wear chan que trousers (a kind of wide-legged pants that looked something like a skirt), black and white loosing-fitting shirts, 2 scarves crossing the chests and white belts.

Colors make Pa Then women’s costumes salient. Bright red is the main color, that’s the reason why some ethnics call them the Red H’mong. Clothes include scarf, shirt belt, dress, and brassieres. In the past, women had long hair rolling around heads by turbans. There are two kinds of turbans: the inside and outside ones.

Pa Then people use only one kind of shirt for four seasons, under any circumstances, on daily life or special occasions. Dresses have no necks, when wearing 2 shirt bodies are crossed over, the back body longer than the front. The main color is red, however they use other bright colors  such as white to decorate by joining clothes or weaving thread into patterns

The Pa Then’s dresses are open and red. The part near dress hem are folded into creases. The decoration can be divided into 5 parts: the 2 outside parts are black, have no patterns and when wearing, they are overlapped backward. The 2 next parts are decorated a lot. Patterns are interposed between red and white clothes. The middle area is divided into 2 parts: the black above half with no decoration and the red below half embroidered patterns.

Both Pa Then men and women, but normally women, wear necklaces, bracelets and earrings. They often wear these on special occasions, festivals, social events or wedding days and on daily day, earrings are preferred.

Hand bags are considered as jewelries for Pa Then women especially when they go to the market, go out and get married