Exhibition features Nguyen dynasty’s attire and headgear regime

An exhibition on the attires and headgears under the Nguyen dynasty is underway at the Le Ba Dang Arts Centre in the former imperial city of Hue on the occasion of Hue Festival 2022.

An imperial robe on display at the exhibition.
An imperial robe on display at the exhibition.

The show features more than 100 documents, pictures and artefacts relating to the costumes worn by different social classes during Vietnam’s last imperial dynasty.

The items on display have been arranged into three categories: attire for the royals, attire for mandarins and soldiers, and attire for new graduates in the imperial examinations.

For imperial dynasties, costumes were regarded as one of the standards of civilisation.

Visitors to the exhibition can see the differences in the fabrics, colours, styles, patterns and accessories depending on the ranks of the people who wore them as well as the formality of the occasion.

The exhibits are versions of those currently kept at the National Archives Centre I, the Ho Chi Minh City History Museum and the Hue Fine Arts Museum.

Among them, there are about 50 Han-Nom documents within the Nguyen Dynasty imperial documents which are being introduced to the public for the first time.