Vietnamese clothing


Vietnamese clothing is the traditional style of clothing worn in Vietnam.

History

For centuries, peasant women typically wore a halter top underneath a blouse or overcoat, alongside a skirt. It was up to the 1920s in Vietnam's north area in isolated hamlets wear skirts were worn. Before Nguyễn dynasty, the cross-collared robe was worn popularly, like the other countries in the Sinophere including China, Japan and Korea.

Bách Việt (Baiyue)">Baiyue">Bách Việt (Baiyue) period

The Han Chinese referred to the various non-Han "barbarian" peoples of north Vietnam and southern China as "Yue" or Baiyue, saying they possessed common habits like adapting to water, having their hair cropped short and tattooed. The Han also said their language was "animal shrieking" and that they lacked morals, modesty, civilization and culture.
During the Vietnamese Trung sisters' rebellion against the Han dynasty's First Chinese domination of Vietnam, the Han Chinese administrator of Jiaozhi, Sū Dìng only managed to escape to China and avoid being discovered by the Vietnamese rebels by shaving his long hair to blend in with Vietnamese along the way since shaving hair was a common custom of Vietnamese men of that era but not of Chinese men as Nguyễn Khắc Thuần recorded.

[Lý dynasty] to [Trần dynasty] (1009–1400)

Vietnamese wore a round neck costume, which made from 4 part of cloths called áo tứ điên. Both men and women could wear that. Besides, there are other types such as: áo giao lĩnh. The garments "áo" is over knee length, round neck garments have buttoned, when cross-collared robe tied to the right. The ambassador Zhao Rukuo ''' commented that the dress style of Vietnamese people at that time was not much different from the Chinese in Song dynasty.
Short hair or shaven head had been popular in Vietnam from the ancient period. Vietnamese men had shaven head or short hair during Trần dynasty. Evidences are in the painting "The Mahasattva Trúc Lâm Coming Out of the Mountains" which drew Trần Nhân Tông and men in Trần dynasty as well as the Chinese encyclopedia "Sancai Tuhui" from 17th century. That conventionality had been popular until the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam.

Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam

When Han Chinese ruled the Vietnamese in the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam due to the Ming dynasty's conquest during the Ming–Hồ War they imposed the Han Chinese style of men wearing long hair on short haired Vietnamese men. Vietnamese were ordered to stop cutting and instead grow their hair long and switch to Han Chinese clothing in only a month by a Ming official. Ming administrators said their mission was to civilized the unorthodox Vietnamese barbarians. The Ming dynasty only wanted the Vietnamese to wear long hair and to stop teeth blackening so they could have white teeth and long hair like Chinese.

Later Lê dynasty">Lê dynasty">Later Lê dynasty (1428–1789)

After ending the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam, people of Đại Việt started to rebuild the country. Because the Ming invaders had destroyed almost documents from the previous dynasties of Vietnam, the government had to reconstruct, reused old clothes from previous dynasties, mostly Trần dynasty. In 1435 emperor Lê Thái Tổ had appointed the high-rank mandarin Nguyễn Trãi to find the new costume adoption, but Nguyễn Trãi had failed on a debating with another mandarin name Lương Đặng, who strongly suggests adopting Ming clothing. Since November 1437, the new dress regulation for emperor and whole bureaucracy system was adopted, which resembled from the Ming dynasty, included for every commune, district to province quan in the country. High-rank mandarins from 3rd to 1st wore red robes, medium-rank mandarin from 5th to 4th wore green robes, and all lowers wore blue robes, and all Mandarins wore mũ Ô Sa. During the first period, Lê emperors wore the mũ Xung Thiên, which was sent from Ming Dynasty, for examples, in October 1442, Lê Nhân Tông received mũ Xung Thiên from Emperor Yingzong of Ming. During this period, cross-collared robe called áo giao lĩnh was popular among civilians. The Lê dynasty encouraged the civilians back to the traditional customs: have teeth blackening as well as have hair cut and head shaven. A royal edict was issued by Vietnam in 1474 forbidding Vietnamese from adopting foreign languages, hairstyles and clothes like that of the Lao, Champa or the "Northerners" which referred to the Ming. The edict was recorded in the 1479 Complete Chronicle of Dai Viet of Ngô Sĩ Liên.
Before 1744, people of both Đàng Ngoài and Đàng Trong wore áo giao lĩnh with thường. The Giao Lĩnh dress appeared very early in Vietnamese history, possibly during the first Chinese domination by Eastern Hàn, after Mă Yuán was able to finally defeat the Trưng Sisters’ rebellion. Those of the lower classes would prefer sleeves with reasonable widths or tight sleeves, and of simple colors. This stemmed from its flexibility in work, allowing people to move around with ease.. Both male and female had loose long hair.

Hoàng Bào (Yellow Robe)

Phan Huy Chú wrote in the Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties, “Since the Restored Later-Lê era, for grand and formal occasions, always wore Xung Thiên hat and Hoàng Bào robe...”. Through many portraits and images of rulers during Míng, Joseon, and more recently, Nguyễn of Vietnam, one could see that this standard existed for a long period of time within a very large region.
According to the book Weaving a Realm, the only artifact of the Lê’s Hoàng Bào was the funeral robe of Emperor Lê Dụ Tông during the Restored Later-Lê period. However, the dragon patterns on this dress had already followed the “dragon–cloud ” style, a common style of late Míng dynasty. In this period, dragon designs were very large at the chest and back and smaller at the shoulders, with cloud and fire patterns all over the robe. One could see that the pattern style was closer to late Míng than early Míng, therefore Lê Dụ Tông’s robe patterns were only specific to an era of the Restored Later-Lê, while the Early Later-Lê possibly still followed the dragon mandala style.
In 1744, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát of Đàng Trong decreed that both men and women at his court wear trousers and a gown with buttons down the front. That the Nguyen Lords introduced ancient áo dài. The members of the Đàng Trong court were thus distinguished from the courtiers of the Trịnh Lords in Đàng Ngoài, who wore áo giao lĩnh with long skirts.

[Nguyễn dynasty] (1802–1945)

with standing collar and trousers was forced on Vietnamese people by the Nguyễn dynasty. "Váy đụp" was banned. However, it was up to the 1920s in Vietnam's north area in isolated hamlets where skirts were worn.
The Vietnamese had adopted the Chinese political system and culture during the 1,000 years of Chinese rule so they viewed their surrounding neighbors like Khmer Cambodians as barbarians and themselves as a small version of China. By the Nguyen dynasty the Vietnamese themselves were ordering Cambodian Khmer to adopt Han Chinese culture by ceasing "barbarous" habits like cropping hair and ordering them to grow it long besides making them replace skirts with trousers. Han Chinese Ming dynasty refugees numbering 3,000 came to Vietnam at the end of the Ming dynasty. They opposed the Qing dynasty and were fiercely loyal to the Ming dynasty. Vietnamese women married these Han Chinese refugees since most of them were soldiers and single men. Their descendants became known as Minh Hương and they strongly identified as Chinese despite influence from Vietnanese mothers. They did not wear Manchu hairstyle unlike later Chinese migrants to Vietnam during the Qing dynasty.
Áo giao lĩnh still be used during Nguyễn dynasty. Besides, the Nguyễn dynasty created áo nhật bình, khăn vấn. The áo dài was created when tucks which were close fitting and compact were added in the 1920s to this Chinese style. The Chinese clothing in the form of trousers and tunic were mandated by the Vietnamese Nguyen government. The Chinese Ming dynasty, Tang dynasty, and Han dynasty clothing was referred to be adopted by Vietnamese military and bureaucrats by the Nguyen Lord Nguyễn Phúc Khoát from 1744.

Examples of garments

From the twentieth century onward Vietnamese people have also worn clothing that is popular internationally. The Áo dài was briefly banned after the fall of Saigon but made a resurgence. Now it is worn in white by high school girls in Vietnam. It is also worn by receptionists and secretaries. Styles differ in northern and southern Vietnam. The current formal national dress is the áo dài for women, suits or áo the for men.