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Traditional Thai clothing is called chut thai (Thai: ชุดไทย [tɕʰút.tʰaj]) which literally means "Thai outfit". It can be worn by men, women, and children. Chut thai for women usually consists of a pha nung or a chong kraben, a blouse, and a sabai. Northern and northeastern women may wear a sinh instead of a pha nung and a chong kraben with either a blouse or a suea pat. Chut thai for men includes a chong kraben or pants, a Raj pattern shirt, with optional knee-length white socks and a sabai. Chut thai for northern Thai men is composed of a sado, a white Manchu styled jacket, and sometimes a khian hua. In formal occasions, people may choose to wear a so-called formal Thai national costume.
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History
Historically, both Thai males and females dressed themselves with a loincloth wrap called chong kraben. Men wore their chong kraben to cover the waist to halfway down the thigh, while women covered the waist to well below the knee. Bare chests and bare feet were accepted as part of the Thai formal dress code, and is observed in murals, illustrated manuscripts, and early photographs up to the middle of the 1800s. Prior to the 20th century, the primary markers that distinguished class in Thai clothing were the use of cotton and silk cloths with printed or woven motifs, but both commoners and royals alike wore wrapped, not stitched clothing. Traditional Thai attire has changed significantly throughout the Rattanakosin period.
Prior to the 1700s, Thai men and women both kept their hair long. However, following the Burmese–Siamese War of 1759-60 and 1765–67 and repeated Burmese invasions into Ayutthaya, central Thai women began cutting their hair in a crew-cut short style, which remained the national hairstyle until the 1900s.
From the 1860s onward, Thai royals "selectively adopted Victorian corporeal and sartorial etiquette to fashion modern personas that were publicized domestically and internationally by means of mechanically reproduced images." Stitched clothing, including court attire and ceremonial uniforms, were invented during the reign of King Chulalongkorn. Western forms of dress became popular among urbanites in Bangkok during this time period. During the early 1900s, King Vajiravudh launched a campaign to encourage Thai women to wear long hair instead of traditional short hair, and to wear pha sinh (ผ้าซิ่น), a tubular skirt, instead of the chong kraben (โจงกระเบน), a cloth wrap.
On 15 January 1941, Plaek Pibulsonggram issued a Thai cultural mandate to modernize and westernize Thai dress, by deeming long-practiced customs of wearing underpants, wearing no shirt, or wearing a wraparound cloth, as forms of inappropriate public attire.
Pha nung
The pha nung(ผ้านุ่ง) is the Thai name for a cloth worn around the lower body that resembles a long skirt
Chong kraben
Chong kraben or Chang kben (Thai: โจงกระเบน Thai pronunciation: [tɕoːŋ.kràʔ.beːn]) is a lower-body, wrap-around cloth. It is a Thai word that is synonymous with the Khmer sampot. The sampot (សំពត់, ALA-LC: saṃbát, IPA: [sɑmpʊət], pronounced sampaot) is a long, rectangular cloth worn around the lower body. The traditional dress is similar to the dhoti of southern Asia. The Ching kraben resembles pants more than skirts. It is a rectangular piece of cloth measuring 3 meters long and one meter wide. It is worn by wrapping around the waist, stretching it away from the body, twisting the ends together then pulling the twisted fabric between the legs and tucking it in the back of the waist.
Sinh
The sinh (Thai: ซิ่น Thai pronunciation: [sîn]) is a tube skirt which is worn by wrapping around the waist. A sin typically consists of three parts: hua sin, tua sin, and tin sin.
Sabai
Sabai (Thai: สไบ Thai pronunciation: [sa.baj]) or pha biang (Thai: ผ้าเบี่ยง Thai pronunciation: [pʰâː.bìaŋ]) is shawl-like garment, or breast cloth. Sabais can be used by women and men. Sabai is also known as a long piece of silk, about a foot wide, draped diagonally around the chest by covering one shoulder which its end drops behind the back.
Suea pat
Suea pat (Thai: เสื้อปัด Thai pronunciation: [sɯ̂a.pàt]) is a long-sleeved shirt with no buttons. It is worn by wrapping the right side of the front panel of the shirt over the left side of the front panel, and the two panels are tied together via strings. Suea pats are typically worn by northern Thai women
Raj pattern
Raj pattern (Thai: ราชปะแตน, rtgs: ratcha pataen) refers either to a Thai men's costume consisting of a white Nehru-style jacket with five buttons, a chong kraben, knee-length socks and dress shoes, or to the specific form of the jacket itself. It was worn chiefly during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by government officials and the upper class in Bangkok, and nowadays is used in select circumstances as a national costume.
Formal Thai costume
The formal Thai costume, known in Thai as ชุดไทยพระราชนิยม (rtgs: chut thai phra ratcha niyom, literally Thai dress of royal endorsement), includes several sets of dress, designed as the Thai national costume in formal occasions. Although described and intended for use as national costume, they are of relatively modern origins, having been conceived in the second half of the 20th century.
Thai dress royally bestowed shirt
Few people know that woman in Thailand have traditional clothes by the graciousness of her majesty, queen Sirikit, the queen of King Rama 9. She has diligence to study about patterns of dresses that appeared since the days before the Sukhothai period until the Rattanakosin period, and she applies that lay out to set Thailand women's dress styles to be the traditional clothes of woman since 1960. The Thai woman’s traditional clothes are call “Thai dress royally bestowed shirt”.
The meaning of Thai dress royally bestowed shirt is a national costume, which represents the tradition, culture, race, and identity of the Thai people clearly. The layout of the dress is from uniforms of the ancient Thai woman, such as Sinh, silk fabric, and Sbai in various styles. Most of Thai dress royally bestowed shirt still use the original layout, but has been sewn and decorated to be appropriate with the present time.