Hmong skirt analysis

Abstract

The Hmong skirt or “daim tiab'' is an object that is a part of the Hmong traditional attire. Although the Hmong skirt was traditionally worn for everyday wear, in today’s global society traditional Hmong clothing is now worn for events such as weddings and the annual Hmong New Year. Western clothing became highly practiced because of the convenience over traditional Hmong clothing. The significance of Hmong cultural dress is determined by the different groups in the Hmong community and each group has cultural dress that identifies them. The skirt is most noticeable from a distant view and it is the easiest to spot thus, the Hmong skirt plays an important role in identifying which dialect the wearer speaks. Hmong history and cultural information is passed down by oral traditions. There is little published material or academic research on Hmong traditional textiles and cultural wear, which is why this research is so important. Dialect in the Hmong community is quite complex because there are a number of different regions or locations for the Hmong throughout all the different regions they migrated to. The Hmong diaspora represent many dialects of the Hmong from Thailand, Laos and China, and local regional dialects have not been early researched. The two most common dialects are Hmong Green (Hmong Leng or published in early articles about Hmong as Hmong Blue) and Hmong White in the United States. The complexity of categorizing and naming Hmong groups, not only are given names after the clothing they wear but also given names based on their dialect of speech. Some of these names or titles are as follows: Hmong Chinese, Hmong Stripe, Hmong Black, Hmong Flowery, and more. While some of these names are not necessarily due to dialect, but due to the region they live in or clothing they wear. For example, Hmong stripe is the name of white dialect speaking Hmong with stripe textiles on their sleeves living in a vast number of regions in China and Southeast Asia, including other countries they may have migrated to. Among these groups, there are different types of Hmong attire, accessories, and designs. Focusing on skirts, each dialect group may have one or more types of skirts that represent the dialect. Today, a Hmong skirt plays a different role. It is worn for its beauty and design quality, collection, fashion or academic purposes. Some women may wear it to identify themselves as “Hmong”, but it does not necessarily mean they are identifying themselves as a specific Hmong dialect group. Hmong skirts are still the most popular item to purchase or receive as a gift. To understand the significance of the Hmong skirt, an analysis of skirts from the Hmong Green dialect from participants who live in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota is presented. The reason white dialect skirts are not utilized in this research is because white dialect skirts are made of hemp with no specific cultural design or no motif.