Burmese Dress

Overview: The hand-woven garment has long cotton fringe colored with natural dyes. The lower section of the white cotton under-dress has a surface that has been woven to appear similar to chenille. A tag on the garment reads: Burma/Thailand Saymoewah (Say Moe Wah), Dress for single girls to wear at home, Kenkat (Kan Yan). Dresses like this are traditionally worn by the Karen peoples in the Karen State in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

Construction: The dress is hand-woven from cotton and ornamented with a variety of stitches and colorful yarns. See supplemental pages for additional information.

Provenance: Donated by Harriet Herring in 2010.