Burmese man's white cotton ein-gyi. Early 1860s. Konbaung Dynasty (1752-1885). Quilted with acheik patterns in yellow silk. Length: 58 cm shoulder to hem, Width: 35.5 cm across shoulders, Length: 57 cm sleeves. Acquired from Burma by the Indian Museum in 1867. Museum number: 5631(IS). Victoria & Albert Museum © V&A Images

Short and drawn in at the waist, flaring over the hips with side vents, long tight sleeves; it is open in front, and to the right side a breast flap is attached with a single button at the neck and left open at the waist. The decorative element of the body mainly consists of narrow verticle stripes of simple zig-zag acheik patterns; the bands round the neck, the arms at the shoulder and wrist, down the front and along the lower edge, are filled with a more elaborate rolling wave acheik patterns and twisted rope designs.

This tightly tailored white cotton jacket--with projecting side flaps over the hips and a rectangular panel behind the front opening--would have been worn by a fashionable Burmese man during the second half of the nineteenth century. Known as an ein-gyi this example is embroidered in a quilted yellow silk displaying the wave and twisted rope patterns typical of Burmese design. It would have formed an ensemble, as shown, when worn with a pah-soe (a voluminous wrapped and draped) skirt. (See (0798 (IS))

Bibliographic References: Franklin & Swallow. Identifying with the Gods Hali Annual Edition: 1994. p.53, Fig.9 
Rosemary Crill, Jennifer Wearden, Verity Wilson; Dress in Detail From Around The World; V&A Publications 2002; p. & ill. 96