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Áo bà ba


Áo bà ba (Vietnamese: [ʔǎːw ɓâː ɓaː] or Vietnamese silk ensemble) is a traditional southern Vietnamese garment. The áo itself ("shirt" in English) is the top part which covers the torso. It is most associated with rural southern Vietnam, especially in the Mekong Delta. Often worn as a top and bottom set, the áo bà ba is typically a long-sleeved, button-down silk shirt with a scooped neck paired with silk pants. The shirt will be somewhat long and split at the sides of the waist, forming two flaps, customarily with two pockets.

The term áo bà ba might be translated as "the shirt of Mrs. (aunt-like/grandmother figure) Ba (an woman who is a third-born, or second-born in the South, of her parents)." Áo is shirt, generically; is a social pronoun indicating an older woman near one's grandparent's age or grandmother or a widow; ba is the number three. Ba, in the South, is also colloquially the term for father, like Dad. Since the garment is associated mostly with the South, it can be considered a pun, meaning "the shirt of Mrs. Dad."

The term is believed to be a corruption on the name of a different garment, also associated with rural areas and the farming community, that of the three-flap tunic of folk tradition.

While the three-flap tunic has tribal and folk (long-lived, extended family communities in the countryside) roots, the áo bà ba most likely did not formalize as a distinctive garment of its own until after the appearance of the tunic. It was slightly shorter than the tunic and made of lighter fabric. The áo bà ba's widespread appearance came with increasing though modest industrialization and modernization. That is, the garment arrived when the lower class became an economic entity as they were elsewhere worldwide in the latter half of the 1800s.

We can infer this to be the case based on the progression of materials used, designs, and their appearances in folk art. The three-flap tunic is more likely to be made of comparatively courser material such as linen cotton and, in colder regions of the country, of animal material such as wool. The áo bà ba, on the other hand, was invariably made of silk or, until more modern synthetic fibers such as polyester, silk-like material. Also, the áo bà ba may have a small amount of accent embroidery but would likely never be of jacquard weaving. Jacquard weaving was associated with the upper class, the aristocracy, and Chinese tradition, for its ability to inlay intricate designs, motifs, and metallic colors.


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