Jacket

ClassificationsClothing and Adornments-principal attire (upper body)

Culture Miao

Datemid to late 20th Century

Made AtGuizhou Province, China, Asia

MediumCotton and silk

Dimensions32 × 45 1/2 in. (81.3 × 115.6 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Long Shung and Anne Shih

Object number2016.13.4

DescriptionMiao girls learn to make textiles as early as six years old. By the time a girl reaches the marriageable age of sixteen she will possess the skills to make clothing and textiles needed for herself and her family throughout life. With guidance from older sisters, mothers and grandmothers, numerous complex embellishing embroidery and dyeing techniques are learned as are the foundations for producing textiles. These basics include picking and preparing cottons, raising silk worms and extracting their silk, producing yarns, dyeing fabrics and various special treatments to create textured, shiny and stiffened fabrics. As they have become available, many Miao have adopted the use of commercial fabrics, silks, dyes, plastic sequins and other embellishments, using them in combination with traditional techniques. It is interesting to note that a similar jacket in the Bowers Museum’s collection is dated to c. 1979.

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