Textiles
Description: Traditional textiles
By Myo Thiha
Myanmar is renowned among foreign travellers as a country that has retained the culture of wearing traditional eingyi (shirt or blouse) and longyi (sarong-like garment wrapped around the waist). This is done not only as a means to preserve traditional but also because such clothing styles are compatible with the tropical climate of Myanmar.
Since long ago, the material of choice for everyday traditional clothing in Myanmar has been cotton. But cotton later came to be considered an unfashionable and dull material among young locals, and foreign-made clothing began domination the market.
However, in the past two years this trend has started to reverse itself as young, trendy Myanmar women have begun favouring cotton clothing that combines traditional styles and modern desings, from skirts and trousers, to blouses and dresses. This fusion of traditional material and contemporary designs has allowed youngsters to be chic and stylish while at the same time maintaining Myanmar's culture.
A tour around Myanmar will reveal many differences in clothing styles from one region to the next, and even from village to village. Clothing that mixes traditional and modern styles is more commonly seen in urban areas like Yangon and Mandalay, whereas young people in smaller towns and villages tend to stick with purely traditional eingyi and longyi.
Seeing Myanmar women in traditional attire is an amazing spectacle. While everyday traditional clothing is usually made from cotton fabric, on special occasions traditional silk or silk-cotton blends take priority. Such outfits often feature colourful designs or embroidery and also consist of two pieces, a blouse and a longyi or skirt.
Myanmar has more than 130 ethnic groups, many of them having their own traditional weaving methods. Most of the responsibility for weaving is taken by women in their leisure time while men normally spend their time farming, fishing or weaving baskets.
These different ethnic groups also have their own distinct clothing styles, so different patterns can be seen on textiles throughout the country, from northern Kachin State to the Ayeyarwady Delta, from the western coastline to eastern Shan State, with the central plains - the location of many of the country's most important heritage sites and from which Myanmar culture originally spread - lying in between.
For example, Kachin textile patterns are often zigzagged or floral, and predominant colours are black, red, yellow, blue and purple. They are made using hemp, cotton and natural dyes to ensure that they last a long time. Meanwhile, the floating village of Inle in southern Shan State produces fabrics with checkered designs for men and gorgeous floral designs in shimmering colours for women.
The town of Amarapura in Mandalay Division is famous as a traditional weaving zone. There, skilled women produce lun yar kyaw, or special fabric made using 100 or 200 shuttles of multicoloured silk thread. It is not easy to create - weavers must spend at least three years learning how to make such fabric, with one length taking about a month to produce. Lun yar kyaw is so special that clothing made from the fabric is worn only on important occasions like weddings or engagement ceremonies.
Traditional textiles are used to produce not only clothing but also many accessories such as handbags, blankets, shawls and handkerchiefs. Also, many hotels throughout Myanmar use traditional fabrics for decoration to provide international guests with a genuine local environment and to show the charm of the art of the weaver's art.
From : Lotus (Inflight Magazine of AirBagan) Vol.3, Issue.3, June-September 2007