Why is the dress of the Yi ethnic group characterized in this way?

Because the Yi people live in a vast area, the formation of its culture of its own regional differences and numerous branches, the Yi dress modeling and styles also fully display this feature. There are no less than one hundred kinds of Yi costumes, among which Liangshan and Chuxiong are the most representative, basically maintaining an independent and complete traditional costume culture system.

Liangshan type costumes are mainly popular in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province and the adjoining counties, as well as the Jinshajiang River area in Yunnan Province, wearing a population of about 1.8 million people, manipulating the northern Yi square blind. Big and small Liangshan. Mountain high potential dangerous, historically closed transportation, and little interaction with the outside world, until the 50s of this century is still in slavery, its dress simple, unique, more complete to maintain the traditional style.

Liangshan-type men and women's tops are right-overall lapel coat, men, women, children and old people are wearing "擦尔瓦"(披毡), wrapped legs, set of felt socks. Men used to store a strand of long hair at the top of the head, wrapped in a turban, the front end of the turban bundled a twenty to thirty centimeters cone, partial in front of the forehead, commonly known as the hero's knot. Left ear wearing honey wax beads or silver earrings and other ornaments, under the pants, and because of language, geographical differences in large, medium and small points. Women wear pleated skirts of several colors, headgear, gold, silver, coral, jade, shellfish and other jewelry. There are three kinds of Yi women's tops: blouses, smocks and undershirts. Young women's blouse to fine disk flower-based, with flowers and embroidery, middle-aged women ring shoulder, lapel, sleeve paste green cloth wide edge and embedded red, yellow, green pinstripes for the decorative, older women's clothing is wide lapel sleeve, only set green cloth. Overall presents a wide range of thick and simple and dignified characteristics.

Compared with the costumes of the Yi ethnic group in the Greater and Lesser Liangshan Mountains, the costumes of the Chuxiong Yi ethnic group are broad and simple, and more than a bit of red tape, and are characterized by a strong color. Chuxiong type costumes are mainly popular in Yunnan Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture and neighboring areas, wearing a population of about 400,000, Chuxiong area is located between Dianchi and Erhai, east of Wumeng, north of Jinsha, south of Zhijuan, is the ancient ministries of Yi migrated from place to place for the Yi several dialects of the confluence of the zone, so the dress also showed a variety of styles of style appearance.

Ching Kangxi years "Chuxiong Fu Zhi" has "women do not play, Department of tube skirt, clothing does not open the lapel, from the collar cover of the" record. More than a hundred years, due to economic and cultural development, Yi clothing has changed a lot, right lapel, short clothes and pants, has become the basic style of the type of women's clothing today, but "regardless of gender, all wearing sheepskin", "clothing fire grass cloth", with However, old customs such as "wearing sheepskin regardless of gender," "wearing fireweed cloth," wearing "kanji," and wearing skirts have been preserved to varying degrees. Women's clothing is characterized by a slightly shorter top. A wide range of flowers; color to black and blue, pink, red, green as the main feature, the entire blouse pattern varied. Layers spread. Several do not leave the color of the bottom cloth, the effect is rich and colorful. Headdress can be roughly divided into three categories of Baopa, wrapped head and embroidered cap, if subdivided but there are more than 40 kinds of headdress and each with distinctive regional characteristics, become a symbol of the Yi people. Men wear short clothes and long pants. Dress is becoming more and more fashionable.

Other areas of dress such as the Wumeng Mountains, the Red River, east Yunnan, western Yunnan and other types of characteristics, but more with other ethnic costumes and penetration, close to the urban areas of the Yi dress, by the Han's greater influence on modern dress.