Page 271 - Trang Phục Việt Nam

City-dwellers’ costumes

During festivals or on New Year’s Day, city women typically wore traditional garments with
designs and colors close to everyday life. Women in the North (Kinh Bắc) characteristically
wore a three-dress suit on holidays in spring. The outermost garment was a five-panel dress
made of dark, brown or tam giang colored gauze. The two inner dresses were bright yellow,
lotus pink, lemon yellow or blue. The neck was round, the dress panels were straight and the
sleeves were tight with small slits on the wristband to make it easy for the arms to go through:

They wore flat palm hats with fringes (called nón quai thao, nón thúng or nón ba tầm), which
were circular with the rim being 10-12 centimeters wide. Besides fine clothes and hats, they
wore a set of silver chains including a silver tube of lime and a small knife with the handle
made of horn to cut betel nuts and prepare betel quid. There was also an ear-pick, tweezers,
some keys and a small peach-shaped box to keep tobacco. They wore shoes made of
buffalo-skin or black wooden shoes which had curved toes and straps made of leather or
rattan; their shoes had one or two straps.

In the North, fashionable women often wore long dresses that extended to the ankle and áo
cánh made of white fabric or silk. The bra was white, or yellow silk. The belt was made of
colored silk. While going out or welcoming guests, they always wore an outer tunic. In hot
weather, they wore four-panel dresses, the two front panels allowed to hang naturally. The
flaps could also be tied at the front or at the back. In winter, they could wear two or three
dresses at the same time, called the three-dress suit. They wrapped crepe headscarves
around their heads, exposing a small strand at the nape of the neck. They wore nón ba tầm
and curved toed footwear. In addition, there were two-layered shirts, the inner layer and the
outer layer of different colors; áo mền (wadded parka) which had an extra middle layer made
of coarse fabric; short padded cotton shirts; long padded cotton shirt stitched in chessman,
sieve eye, custard-apple pip or pomegranate seed design.

On festival days, they wore a blue, pink or day lily colored dress made of Tây Hồ silk,
buttoned under the arm. They wrapped long dress made of La Cả dark colored gauze outside,
which matched well with the inner dresses. They wore skirts or trousers made of black Bưởi
silk. The belt was blue or violet and was tied in a knot on the front panel. They also wore vân
hài, a kind of soft footwear. They had yellow beads, the rich wearing many strands. They wore
gold or jade bracelets or gold xuyến which is a flattened bracelet, the two ends not being
joined together so that it could be loosened to let the arm go through and then tightened to fit
the arm. Shiny black teeth and betel red lips were considered a trait of female beauty. The
women in the Central region wore five-panel tunics with high collars. Senior women wore dark
colored garments, while young ladies preferred bright colors such as blue or white. Violet was
the most popular color in Huế. The women in the Central region also wore three-dress suits
like the women in the North but their dresses were tightly buttoned. The collar of the inner
dress was higher than the collar of the outer dress so that the three collars of different colors
were exposed. The dresses were slit on the sides at the lower part and thus, the three panels
of three different dresses were still visible. They wore white trousers. The two sides of the
waistband were folded three times and each fold was about one centimeter wide, making the
lower part of the trousers flare outward. They rarely wore black trousers. Senior women often