Page 255 - Trang Phục Việt Nam

a cloth sewn in a tubular form; and an open skirt (wrapped around the body), with a cloth sash
around the waist. These were short or long, reaching to the knees or touching the heels for
casual wear, or in upper-class costumes.
Men often wore a loincloth made from a strip of cloth 10cm in width and 1,2m or more in
length. Depending on the length, the cloth was wrapped once or many times around the belly,
the long or short end of the loincloth was dropped behind, sometimes in front. As seen from
the embossed statues, men in the Đông Sơn time were often half-naked. However, as seen
from the figures on other bronze objects, they might have worn shirts over the head, or
patterned overcoats.
Through remains such as pottery objects, pieces of wood and leather, it appears that yellow,
black, brownish-red, light gray, and light yellow were the frequently-used colors. The painting
materials were paints (pure sơn ta), and special water-resistant dyes.
Since the people led a hard life of hunting, gathering, fishing, and wet rice cultivation, they
usually tied their hair. Men and women often had shoulder-length hair, or tied back their hair
neatly. Some had such short hair-cuts that even the roots of the hair were revealed. Both men
and women often gathered their hair in a roll at the back, or wore part in a roll, the rest braided
and allowed to hang at the back. In addition, strips of cloth, leather, or flat copper were also
worn on the forehead.
On the Sông Đà drum there are figures of men with hair to the neck and women with hair
halfway down their back. As seen from the statues in Việt Khê, men gathered their hair in a
pointed long bun. A sword handle found in Thanh Hoa is engraved with a statue of a woman
with a cake-shaped bun at the back.

Soldiers’ costumes

Up to now, soldiers’ costumes were only known through remains of some accessories
such as armors parts, bronze belts, leggings and arm-guards. We know that breastplates of
this time were made from rectangular pieces of copper that were 1mm thick, 30cm long, and
13cm wide. Square pieces of armor (each side was 13-15cm) were used to cover each
essential part of the body. The breastplate had four straps, while the square pieces of armor
had holes at the corners to slip in a string or pin to the shirt.

Both types of armor had a smooth surface inside. On the outside surface were figures of
men disguising themselves as birds, or images of stylized crocodiles, or X-shaped and
horizontal S-shaped patterns, dots, circles with dots in the middle, or parallel lines. Bronze
belts, with big buckles, were made from a bronze chain of 5cm diameter pieces joined by
hooks. There were designs of turtles or birds on each piece; some pieces had small musical
bells attached.

Bronze buckles were made in the shape of a vertical rectangle (7.6cm x 5.5cm), decorated
with twisted S-shaped patterns. The edge of the buckle was hemmed with fish-bone designs.
A tubular bell hung from a hook.
Different kinds of bronze leggings and arm-guards, which might have been used by
common people in dances in festivals, had many tubular bells attached to them. This reminds