The rich ethnic cultures of Guizhou have given birth to colorful and diverse minority costumes. Guizhou is the place where you can appreciate the most exquisite Miao costumes, with excellent embroidery, batik, weaving and silver ornaments. Those costumes are in different styles ranging from the fine and delicate Shidong Miao costumes to the primitive and simple Nandan Miao costumes, fully reflecting the characteristics of Miao costume art.

More than 90 sets of minority costumes, mainly Miao costumes, are displayed in the Ethnic Culture Exhibition Hall of Guizhou Provincial Museum, with pleated skirts, embroidered ribbons and gorgeous silver ornaments forming the unique “fashion wear” of the Miao ethnic group.

An interesting exhibit called “Miao Girls’ Ceremonial Dress” in the exhibition hall is then wedding dress worn by local girls of a Miao branch called “Bai Miao” in the northwest of Guizhou when they get married. The most typical feature of the dress is its overlapping short skirts. The batik pleated dress has more than 20 layers in total. Before the wedding, Miao girls will make their batik pleated dresses by themselves and wear all of them together on the wedding day. After the wedding, if they still want to wear the dress, they will add a black hem to the dress, representing that they have been married.

Batik is a traditional craft that uses a wax knife dipped in molten wax to draw a pattern on the cloth and then dyes it with indigo. When the wax is removed with boiling water, the cloth will show a variety of patterns, which are white patterns in the blue background or blue patterns in the white background, presenting a beauty of plain tones and graceful patterns.

The Ceremonial Dress with Embroidery and Silver Ornaments is the ceremonial dress worn by Miao girls from Shidong Town, Taijiang County, Guizhou Province. Miao girls wear this kind of dress at their weddings and major festivals. At the Sisterhood Festival, girls in such a dressy outfit have more confidence to dance in the middle of the dancing floor and attracts the attention of young men.

The dress has a large number of silver decorations, weighing over 10 kilograms. For the Miao, silver ornaments are the more, larger, and heavier the better, which are also a symbol of the family’s wealth. The Miao creates a large variety of silver ornaments, with their body decorated from head to foot, including ornaments on the head, face, neck, shoulders, chest, waist, arms, feet, and hands, etc. Especially at the wedding, a Miao girl will wear a full set of silver ornaments, just like the local saying goes, “no silvers or beautiful dress, no Miao girl”.

The Brocade Ceremonial Dress Embroidered with Geometric Patterns in the exhibition hall is a Miao dress for festivals, which has over a dozen skirts. Normally, only one skirt is worn, but at the festival, multiple skirts are worn to support the back apron with an embroidered ribbon attached to the waist, making the whole outfit look like a Chinese copper pheasant.

It is said that a Miao girl got the inspiration after seeing a beautiful Chinese copper pheasant in a mountain and then she made a dress in this style. The Miao language has no characters. Their history is mainly carried by traditions such as clothing styles, embroidery, songs and dances, so the Miao costumes are also regarded as a history book worn on the body.