Karen dresses come in wide varieties differing from tribe to tribe or even sometimes from village to village. However they all have certain design themes and colors in common and they are clearly distinguishable from the costumes of the other tribes in the Burma/Thailand region. Karen dresses are made to be comfortable to wear and are designed so that they are easy to produce.

 The basic and the traditional Karen dress is call the "Hse" and it is worn in one form or another by all the Karen tribes. It is worn both by men and women. The Hse is simply two oblong pieces of cotton cloth joined at the sides to form a "sack" with a hole for the neck at the top and two holes for the arms on either sides of the sack. The variation of the Hse among different tribes are usually in the length that they are worn in and the decorations on them. Most Hses are variegated and embroidered.  

The mordern forms of the Karen dress are usually a combination of the Hse, which is usually used as the top portion of the dress worn with a longyi, for women, or a piso, for men. The longyi and piso are cloth sewed to form a tube which one wears around one’s waist. To keep it on the body, a knot has to be tied around the waist to prevent it from slipping off. The following are pictures of modern Karen dresses. As you will see, the colors and styles are widely variying but the general shape of a Hse is maintained.