Karen Beaded Festival Tunic

Cowrie-white dashes march across a red field, row after row.

This beaded festival tunic is Karen, from the Burmese border, Thailand, and dates to the 20th century. It is embroidered cotton. Karen weavers and embroiderers often decorate garments with seeds, beads and small shells, and such work is generally linked to festival and marriage dress. The upper half is plain indigo, split at the center. The lower half carries a dense panel of red, worked in a basket-like grid with short white dashes. Two borders of small white crosses and bars finish the hem. It is 24 inches wide and 24 long.

Calm on top, and a lot of weaving underneath.