Hmong Fashion Evolved

Mr. & Mrs Jua & Michael Her dressed in modern Hmong Dawb outfits.

Written by: Niam Twsv Kos Vaj

Historically, the style of clothing that a Hmong woman or man wears, would be how one can tell what ethnic group or province they are from. Around the early 1900’s there was known to have five different ethnic groups of Hmong: Hmong Dawb (White Hmong), Hmong Ntsuab (Green Hmong), Hmong Dub (Black Hmong), Hmong Lia (Red Hmong), and Hmong Paj (Flowery Hmong). The easiest way to tell one from another is in the clothing worn by the men and women. For the women, it is identified by the type of skirt worn, and for the men it is by the pants and shirt.

Hmong Dub is identified by their pleated black skirt, and black straight legged pants and full length black shirt for men. Hmong Ntsuab is identifiable by their colorful green/red striped pleated skirt and wide baggy black pants for men. Hmong Lia, by the red headdress worn by both the men and women, and by the dyed blue skirt with red embroidered fabric. Hmong Paj (flower Hmong) have the most exquisite and colorful skirts and tops. Hmong Dawb are distinguished by their pleated white skirts, and black straight legged pants and mid high black shirts for the men, with a white collar shirt generally worn underneath.

The importance of recognizing from which group a Hmong person is associated with, comes down to communication, due to the differences in dialects.

For example:

The word: Rice

Hmong Dawb
"Txuv"

Hmong Ntsuab

"Ntsiab"

With the Hmong Dawb, there are many different sub-categories. For instance, if the arms of the womens’ shirt is striped and wears an embroidered headwrap, that means they are Hmong Txaij (Stripe Hmong), or if the headdress is a purple turban wrap with a black and white striped ribbon, then they are Hmong Xeev (Hmong Seng). Xeev is the root word defined by the black and white ribbon, on the headwrap. Here is where the province differences comes in: Hmong Txaij are known to live in the northern provinces and the Hmong Xeev are known to live in the southern province.

It was easy to distinguish a Hmong person’s ancestral village or province, because historically, most residents will help one another with making or trading cloths to make their outfits more colorful, with the resources they have. Due to the secret war in Vietnam, villages were split and dispersed to various different countries around the world, providing them the opportunity to have outfits premade and custom designed. Since it became more convenient to buy an outfit than make one, many Hmong want to order the more fashionable and newer designs than old fashioned traditional ones. So Hmong clothing gradually evolved itself to adapt to, the country’s latest fashion trend, into their outfits. The photos below illustrate the evolution to Hmong outfits.

With October being the beginning of Hmong New Years in California until the end of December, many vendors and merchants alike are stocking up on their supply of the latest trendy style. At the Wednesday Galt Market, 2 young ladies looking to buy some custom made Hmong jewelry from one vendor, said that "the most poplar style now would be the halter top one".

Halter tops is fasionable and trendy in the younger American society, and have evolved it’s way into modern day Hmong outfits. Traditionally, showing skin in Hmong culture would be considered taboo, but with todays liberal society in America, young adults feel free to express themselves.

The same goes for other countries like China and Thailand. Hmong outfits have adapted the Chinese fashion into their traditional clothing by adding beads, and the Thailand fashion by adding more triangular designs.

So as you can see in this collage of pictures, Hmong fashion has evolved from many societies and has it’s own unique multicultrual history.

Even though our fashions are different in many ways, and speak many different dialects, in the end, we are still all HMONG. Brave enough to take on a change, and proud enough to hold true to our heritage and traditions.