Miao Women’s Embroidered Lustrous Batik Shirt with Vertical Placket and Short Sleeves Front

With a straight shape, broad sleeves with 4.5cm-long folded cuffs and a vertical placket, this blouse is in indigo glossy cloth for the front and glossy cloth with lozenge patterns for the back, coupled with common glossy cloth for lining. It has two side slits opening from the bottom line up to 22cm below armholes. When being worn, the two panels of the front, which are slightly shorter than the back ones, will be crossed and fixed with a belt around the waist of the wearer.
On the back of the collar and along the vertical placket there are light blue strips with overlapped triangles in various colors. The patterns of figures and phoenix on the shoulder and cuffs were done by a thread-splitting embroidery, by which the crafter would first split threads into thin silk flosses and then rinse them with a mixture of rice milk and honey locust to make them smooth, glossy and elastic. Patterns of thread-splitting embroidery would take on a smooth and glossy surface, serving as the signature of the sub-group of the Miao people the wearer belongs to. On the outer edge of the collar and somewhere on the sleeves there are abstract geometric motifs created by counted stitches, which are the most frequently practiced patterns by the Miao women when they started to learn embroidery.