The main seams of garments are sewn by treadle machine, sometimes carried on someone's back many kilometres from the town. A decorative running stitch is used to top stitch the edges of the jackets and waistcoats. Here a pair of leggings are being made of triangular strips of cloth. They are wrapped around the calves and tied in place with commercial braids. The everyday clothing of men, women and children is almost entirely the darkest blue hemp with both male and female wearing trousers - usually full length on men and knee length on women.
Children wear exact scaled down versions of adult clothing.
The men pictured are part of a road works gang upgrading the road to Dien Bien Phu. The collar is the only area of decoration worn by men every day. It sits discretely at the back of the neck on the long, polished hemp waistcoat. The older collars tend to be finer in the work and more subdued in colour, whereas some of the new collars are extremely bright with vivid green thread and may be coarser in the embroidery. Women wear layers of hemp clothing tied at the waist with a belt.