Page 274 - Trang Phục Việt Nam

square neck or spoon-shaped neck. The light brown four-panel long dress had two panels
tied with a knot in front, or at the back. Another popular attire was a dress with many patches of
different colors on the back, shoulders, sleeves, front and rear panels. Patches of different
colors were arranged alternately. The idea for the dress was developed from the idea of
attached patches to torn sections of a garment, making the color of the garment variegated.
Clothes with patches later became fashionable. The tailor intentionally attached patches of
different colors, not only brown but also deep red or bright red, to make the garment more
attractive.

Men’s costumes (North, Central region and South Vietnam)

Everyday costumes

During this period, the costumes of men throughout the country were nearly the same.
When at work, men in the North and the Central region were often dressed in brown garments
made of Đồng Lầm cloth. They wore a áo cánh with four panels and buttons down the front or
one with five panels and buttons under the arm. The collar was round and high. There was a
lining covering the inside surface on the shoulders, parts of the back and the chest to make
the garment more durable when the wearer carried heavy things on his shoulders. The lining
was called lotus leaf. The men’s hem and the wristband were bigger than the women’s. Two
pockets were attached to the front.
Men’s hair was as long as women’s and they also wore their hair in a bun on the top of the
head. Laborers often walked barefoot. When they had to wash their feet or go out on business,
they wore wooden shoes with one horizontal strap or two slanting straps. The elderly wore
curved shoes.

In the South, the men typically wore black loose-fitting garments. The four-panel shirt had
high collar, buttons down the front and loose sleeves. They also wore baggy pants with
overturned belt like the men in the North. The senior men favored white shirts and black pants.
Southern men characteristically wrapped ox-head turbans. The senior men wore red ox-head
turbans, the middle-aged, white. Those who did not wear their hair in a bun wrapped blue
striped headscarves.

In hot weather, most of the men were bare to the waist. However, they still wore a fabric belt
around the waist. In the city, rickshaw drivers wore a stained white shirt under an undone four-
panel áo cánh with wide borders, white hem, wide collar and wide cuff (the four-panel áo cánh
shirt was offered by the boss to rickshaw drivers, together with the rickshaw). However, in
many cases, rickshaw drivers wore whatever they could afford. Normally, the poor had to wear
sleeveless shirts made of flax and they were so short that they exposed a section of the
wearer’s back. In cold weather, they wrapped sackcloth over it.
Festival clothing and officers’ uniforms
When the elderly men went out on business, for instance to the communal house, they often
wore black gauze tunics and pants with straight trouser legs and high crotches. In general,
Confucian scholars and people of high social rank wore tunics and turbans. Men’s festival
clothing was simpler than women’s. In the North and the Central region, the men typically