Hmong culture is patriarchal and clan surnames (last names) are always passed from the father to the children. But because mothers are delegated with the reponsibility of clothing the family, styles are more than often passed from the mother’s maiden heritage lineage.

Hmongstory 40, will have a team that will research, identify and catergorize the most traditional Hmong clothing styles. We will then seek out the pieces that are associated with each style and then create an exhibit to showcase the findings.

In this exhibit, we will have a large map of southeast Asia alongside the samples of the different indigenous clothing styles. A system will be created to trace each individual clothing style to the region in which that style originated. This exhibit will be independent from the photo and fine art exhibition.