Olympus OM-2N | Fuji Reala
The Palaung costume was once daily wear—even the fitted metal bands around the waist were worn to bed. Modern women eschew the costume outside of special occasions. The transition between women who wear Palaung dress every day and women who no longer do starts around women under 50 years old. These women's children definitely do not wear Palaung dress, while some of the middle-aged women—"middle age" in Burma being around 38—might still wear the traditional striped longyi, if not the full outfit.

The designs are different colors for different tribes of Palaung. This dark purple longyi is the one I bought for myself in Kyaukme, but some of the other women in Qsaw wore a bright fuschia longyi that we saw frequently. Women in a village could come from various parts of the Palaung world due to marriage.