Traveling around this part of the world you will see numerous traditional hats. In most cases they are as beautiful as they are practical. If you look on the web, you can find a huge variety of pictures of the hats in this region, see the example below from http://www.fotosearch.com/
Many of these hats are made from traditional materials, and they protect the wearer from all kinds of weather, with large brims they shelter from the harsh sun which beats perpetually down in the hot months, but they also double as an ‘umbrella’ keeping rain at bay away from the face during the seasonal rains that dominate this region in the wet season.
The hats in this room are from around Thailand and Vietnam. You will seldom get on a plane from Vietnam for instance without seeing at least one of the famous conical hats as hand carry, and you need to take them as hand carry, for all their durability in the rice fields, they do not survive well the trials of baggage handlers!
Most of these hats are still hand woven. A wooden frame is often used to create the shape while the leaves and other materials are held in place. Then they are stitched, glued and wrapped with more binding, onto the light weight structural frame which remains inside the hat.
Various decorations are added in different regions, some are painted, some embroidered, but most are plain, purely for function, not for decoration!
Source - http://www.worldofstock.com/search_pages/
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Some hats in the region are also not hats! The Dao women in Vietnam make their hair into an amazing hat!
I don’t need a photo credit for these as I took them myself in Vietnam at the Muong Huom market near Bac Ha in the Sa Pa region in northern Vietnam!
The photos in our alcove are also from Vietnam – the Red Dao have these amazing red scarves with the most ornate silver adornment and the Flower Hmong use these bright scarves. The Red Dao in particular have the most beautiful of traditional costume seen below! And an interesting selection of safety sandal for those tricky mountain paths! |
