Zhuang Women’s Light Yellow Samite Dress Front

The Zhuang-style samite is a firm, heavy and wearable tabby woven by crossing cotton threads in original color as the warp and colored silk floss as the weft, ending up with patterns on both the front and the back. As stated in the Qing dynasty (1644-1911 AD) book Geography and Customs of Guangxi (Yue Xi Suo Ji, 粤西锁记), (the making of Zhuang-style samite) is as painstaking as the silk tapestry “kesi”, involving processes of dyeing silk into lustrous colors and then weaving. Even high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen vie for this kind of fabric as material for apparel or bedding.