In the old days. men wore a stiff-collared shirt. buttoned down the front and it was usually white. It is the same as a western style shirt. and this has been worn ever since they abandoned the traditional Myanmar style long shirt. The shirt was either long-sleeved or short-sleeved. Men usually wore short-sleeved shirts with collar on informal occasions. But today. they have switched to T-shirts and sports shirts of all colours and designs for casual wear. But they still wear the longyi for all occasions. Formal occasions and office wear require men to don a jacket over the shirt. The jacket is of thicker material than the shirt and is worn open in front but has Chinese style cloth buttons and loops on each side. They hardly ever button up the front. It has two large pockets below and two smaller ones at the top on both front panels.
Formerly top wear for the ladies consisted of a waist-length blouse known as an "Aingyi". At one time its length was waist length but worn to show the "Ahtet Hsin". But later it was further lengthened to just about cover the black strip of cloth on the ladies’ longyi. The blouse had a squarish flap that was buttoned at the side. somewhat like the top half of the Chinese Cheongsam. The blouse had no fixed buttons. just loops.