Hmong American New Year's Dress: The Display of Ethnicity

The article that we read was about the Hmong Americans who are refugees from Laos who settled in the United States from China as a result of the Vietnam conflict. It tells the story of how textile and dress have continued to play a traditional role in structuring their social life and marking their cultural significance within the Hmong American community. 

 The Hmong woman have been practicing their way of dress through fashion all of their lives. This way of dress is considered a symbol of what defines the true ethnic background of these woman. The Hmong American's differentiate their different cultures in whatever celebration they are celebrating at the moment. If they are celebrating something American they dress American, and if they are celebrating their Hmong culture they dress in Hmong clothing. As time went on they slowly began to incorporate the American culture into their own style of Hmong dress. 

There were different dress styles among different regions depending on the subcultures of the Hmong. The way you were able to tell the different styles apart was the use of two different colors, green and white. The white dress consisted of a white pleated skirt with black leggings with a black shirt with blue cuffs and front embroidery. A rectangular collar that was placed on the back of the shirt was decorated with handwork and it included a black apron and also worn with a belt that had silver coins. The green style of dress included a pleated skirt that was a huge visual aspect because of its wide central panel of blue batik work and decorated appliqué and embroidery called the "Paj ntaub" which was their cultural flower cloth that has been practiced and passed on throughout the culture. Just like the white Hmong women they wore dark shirts, but their collars were face down. Both of the groups wore a version of a dark wrapped turban form, which generally featured a black and white striped turban tie. 

The Hmong men wore black shirts with blue cuffs and black flared pants, they had red or pink sashes around their waist. Narrow coined belts and black skullcaps were also apart of their dress. 

The Hmong American New Year's was celebrated in the Laos village, which was a annual family celebration. This was a time that friends and family were able to gather together to tie the bonds of family and community together as a whole. Celebration continued to reassure the new year by various rituals and traditions. The woman would sew throughout the year to prepare new clothing to be worn first at the New Year's celebration. This was a time where men and woman met each other and marriages would fall after the season. Just like our New Years, this was also their time to show their public display of ethnic pride. Ethnic identity for many is confirmed and displayed especially through the teenage years. This celebration was a national trend moving towards using dress to express the identity of a shared group rather then being apart of a small subgroup. The Hmong Americans wanted to bond the two cultures together.