Dress Code for Women in Myanmar

I visited Yangon and Inle Lake in Myanmar for Escapers17. It was a fast paced super fun event. I still found time to look at what was the dress code for women in Myanmar.

The local women dress beautifully in Longyi and tops. Men also wrap the same longyi in a slightly different style. Given the hot weather, the comfortable skirt makes a lot of sense. It is almost the same as the wrap around skirts worn in North East India and Thailand.

I clicked this picture at the Yangon Airport. You can see both men and women wrap the same longyi but slightly differently. They wear it with a t-shirt/shirt/top. This is by far the most common way to dress in Myanmar.

When it came to tourists, they have more leeway in the way they decide to dress. It might be a little contrary to the local dress code but I don’t think wearing sleeveless or spaghetti is going to raise too many eyebrows, though locals certainly cover up more.

Women (men too) in Myanmar put Thanaka on their face. It comes from the tree (not sure what is the Indian equivalent) bark and it is applied on the face to prevent sunburn. It is also used as a beauty product in Myanmar. I tried it out too, it is cool stuff!

The people in Myanmar are friendly, but many may not speak English! I saw this group walking by on the road! Not sure what they were talking about but I am sure wearing sleeveless tops in no way affected their conversation!

By now I was used to clicking beautiful women in Longyi but I was wondering why these two were wearing an identical dress. I was in the Scott Market in Yangon and my guess is they worked in a place where this was the uniform? But then what do I know, I am just a curious tourist!

And nearby, a tourist was dressed for the hot summer afternoon in Yangon! Let me bring in the temple code here. If you are dressed like this you cannot enter a temple (pagoda, shrine etc) in Myanmar. Like many other Buddhist places in South East Asia it is required that you cover your knees and shoulders. If you are wearing a short dress you can cover the knee by simply carrying a longyi! For shoulders many places will give you a wrap.

At Inle Lake which is in the Shan State of Myanmar women wear a headgear which I am sure can be part of a ramp model’s style! Inle Lake has cooler weather so you can see women wearing a jacket over their top. Longyi is still by far the common dress here too.

I close the post by a picture of the woman I chanced upon in Inle Lake. She was smoking the local cheroot. She has swag!

PS. I visited Singapore and Myanmar for Escapers17 where my hosts were Accor Hotels, Scoot and Asia Holidays.