If anyone has been attracted by Hue girls with the violet “áo dài”, they must be unforgotten with the palm-leaf conical hat, too. Hue is famous about the light dreamy beautiful, from sight-seeing to the people, the conical hat also takes part in contributing this beauty.
In Hue, the conical hat is often embroidered a short poem in it so people call them poem conical hat. Tây Hồ village is the most famous one about making this kind of conical hat in Hue. The conical hat which is made here always is considered as a thing of all Hue’s soul.
Making conical hat craft requests the craftsmen must be skillful and careful, are you thinking that the craftsmen are women? The answer is that both men and women. Men polish the bamboo fibers to 16 slim circles minutely, these will be used to make hats’ brims. Women iron the palm-leaf, the leaf must still keeping the light green color, after ironing must be plane and glossy. The most difficult stage is arranging the palm-leaf. The palm-leaf can’t not be piled each other so that the conical hat can have a light, slender beauty.
People in Tây Hồ village often stitch a short poem on the conical hat. From Tây Hồ, these poem palm-leaf conical hats send out all over the world, they have become familiar and close to the daily life of women, especially Hue women.
