Cross-Stitching

The Mien clothes are famous for the colorful and from both sides’ beautiful motives, which require the very complicated reversible cross stitch technique passed down from generation to generation. The cross stitching itself is not just tradition, but also a very big part of the culture and the social life. Since embroidering one outfit can take up to one year or longer the women use this chance to spend time together. Walking down the street of a Mien village, you’ll notice at least one group of elderly women sitting on small chairs or on the ground stitching and talking all day long.

The women work from the back of the cloth and cannot see the pattern until it is turned over. Their embroidery stitches are more complex than they seem, and what may look like a simple cross-stitch actually requires a variety of stitches such as a weaving stitch or horizontal/vertical stitch. To allow the astonishing accuracy in the reversible stitching the women are using even-weaved fabric with fine meshes, which still have to be visible with the bare eye.

The motives are generally stitched with white, red, green, blue and orange yarn and each symbol has a specific meaning. Depending on how the embroideress arranges the different motive, one part of clothing can tell a whole story. The symbols mostly stand for things the Mien encountered on their journey through the mountains to Thailand. The patterns were mostly inspired by nature and tell about things like flowers that bloomed between the grass and the claws of tigers, but also about the houses of the Thai people which the Mien saw for the very first time.