Common Traits

Some consistency exists in the styles, patterns and colors of Chinese garments even as they have experienced infinite changes throughout the millennia.

Basically all Chinese clothing can be divided into either one-piece garments or two-piece garemtns.

Garments before the Shang and Zhou dynasties were generallly two-piece as were the garments of the northern and western tribes and women's blouses and skirts of later times. One-piece garment sappeared between the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, which ware the predecessors of robes. In the history of clothes, two-piece garments were mostly women's wear and lsted for a relatively long time. Men after the Sui and Tang dynasties mostly wore robes.

Decorative patterns included animal, plant and geometric patterns that evolved through abstract, standard and realistic stages.

Patterns before the Shang and Zhou dynasties were similar to primitive Chinese characters, beingsimple an dabstract. After the Zhou Dynasty, decorative patterns truned orderly, balanced and symmetrical. This was especially striking in the Tang and Song dynasties. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, patterns became realistic. Clusters of flowers, flocks of butterflies were depicted as lifelike. This feature was even more striking in the late Qing Dynasty.

The theories of Yin-Yang and Five Elements influenced the color of garments. Yellow, regarded as the noblest, symbolized the center; blue symbolized the east; red, the south; white, the west; and black, the north. These five colors were "principal colors," and in some dynasties were exclusive to the garments of emperors and officials. Common people were allowed to wear only secondary colors.

Looking at eh overall history of fashion design in China, we can see that clothes of the remote ages were in relatively simple, bright colors, similar ot the colrs of pottery of the same period. With economic and cultural development, taste about colors changed, and complicated, harmonious color replaced bright, simple colors. Contrasting colors like red and green, yellow and purple, and blue and orange were used together less; while similar colors such as red and yellow, yellow and green, and green and blue were used more. Hues gradually turned more discreet and subdued, but sill with some contrast. Garments generally displayed harmonious colors as a whole, with some accents of contrasting colors, for an overall elegant and splendid effect.

Clothing Style in the Qing Dynasty

Combining some features of Han customs and some of Manchu customs, the dress code of the Qing Dynasty style was the most complicated in Chinese history.

Men's garments including robes, outer garments, coats, shirts and trousers. Robes and jackets were major ceremonial garments. Officials and scholars wore robes with two splits at the bottom, while members of the ruling house wore robes with four splits and common people wore robes with no split. The cuffs were usually turned up, then were turned down when paying respect to a superior. Officials and wives of senior officials wore robes with python designs over their outer garments. Men's outer garments were generally reddish black, while those for funerals were black.

In the Qing Dynasty, the empress, imperial concubines and wives of senior officials wore phoenix headdresses and embroidered capes with tassels and emblems in the center. Ordinary women were allowed to wear these only at their weddings or at their funerals. Their ceremonial attire consisted of a cape, a blouse and a skirt. The cape was worn as an outer coat, and there were strict color regulations. Underneath the cape was a full blouse that could be unlined, lined, padded or leather. And undergarment was worn beneath the blouse that could be red, pink or cerise. Skirts were in many styles, which changed over time. Red skirts were regarded as the most elegant, but widows were not allowed to wear red. Some skirts were decorated with many small ringing bells.

Women's garments in the early Qing Dynasty were of quiet colors, decorated with narrow bands on the collar and cuffs. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the bands were wider and more numerous. Some garments had fronts and lower hems decorated with floral patterns formed with jewels of various colors, or open patterns cut by scissors.

Conservative, simple dress in the Song Dynasty

Generally speaking, the economy, politics, ideology and culture of the Song Dynasty produced a style of dress that was conservative, simple and quiet, with little variety in style, and duller colors comared with the Tang Dynasty. yuan Cai wrote in his book Social Standards, "one should be dressed in clean, simple clothes. No clothes can be worn that do not conform to the generally accepted style." The emperors also reiterated that the people should "wear simple clothing," with "no lavishness or other noncompliance with dress code."

Song Dynasty garments were divided into official garments, men's wear and women's wear.

Women's garments were elegant, and tended to be loose with more variety in style. Women of that time loved the effect of "garments flowwing in the autumn wind." Skirts were mostly made of thin silk or gauze. Long, floating dresses were popular, especially pleated dresses, which went beautifully with short, tight blouses. Noblewomen wore loose dresses with long, wide sleeves on ceremonial occasions. For casual wear, they favored long, more close-fitting dresses.

Unlike women's garments in Sui and Tang that were usually of primary colors with circular flower patterns, women's garments in the Song Dynasty displayed such soft and elegant colors as pale purple, greenish white, and silvery gray. Designs included twigs with blossoms, or balanced patterns, that looked lively and natural.

Song Synasty women also wore a kind of "narrow-sleeved blouse," that was tight and formfitting, similar to the modern qipao (a close-fitting dress with high neck and slit skirt), showing off a women's curves. Pleated long skirts were popular, which, in northern areas, could reach the ground, covering the feet.

As for men-civilians, servants and laborers wore black head-coverings; warriors, court officers in the judiciary, scholars, etc. wore head=coverings of different styles. Their robes buttoned in the front on the right, with wide sleeves and an apron around it. According to a person's social status, the border of the apron was decorated with gold, silver, jade, stone, copper, or horn-shaped objects.

In the Song Dynasty, the emperor and officials wore garments of the same style, which was different from other dynasties. Rank was determined only through different patterns and emblems on these same-style garments.

Brilliant Fashions in the Tang Dynasty

During the rapid social and economic development of the Sui and Tang dynasties (581-907), feudal cultre in the Central Plains witnessed its height of development. It was a period of wide cultureal exchange and merging of social customs - including dress. For example, the attire of the flying Apsaras in the Dunhuang murals clearly originates from India. Popular jackets with a turndown collar were form northwestern people. The unification of the country with its thriving economy allowed innovations in textile technique and design. The variety of products, quality of weaving and sophistication of color reached new levels. Recorded materials included cotton cloth, thin silk, gauze damask, silk gauze, brocade, and embroidered woven silk. Silk fabris were discovered in recent years in such places as Turpan and Bachu of Xinjiang, and Dunhuang of Gansu Province - proof of the rich variety of textile design tna dexcellent weaving and dyeing techniques of that time. Color analysis shows over 20 hues in the silk unearthed in Turpan.

With teh developments in dyeing, textile, embroidery and silk weaving, the garment industry entered a flourishing period. The file quality of fabrics, brilliance of colors, variety of styles, flamboyantdesigns, and skill of tailoring all reached a peak in the garment culture of feudal times.

Tang Dynasty garments were characterized by elegance, beauty and daring. Women's garments were mostly low-cut and of translucent silk or gauze. Women wore no undergarments, only wrapping a piece of gauze around them. Many Tang Dynasty women wore blouses and skirts. Makeup and hair ornaments were very important, with a rich variety of hair styles and jewelry.

Tang Dynasty men wore robes with a round neck. Traditional ceremonial caps and garments were worn only on grand occasions such as sabrificial rituals. In everyday life men wore robes and head-coverings. Officials of different ranks wore different colors. Officials above the Thrid Rank ore purple, and those below the Third Rank and above the Fifth Rank wore red. The color of the Sixth Rank was green, and that of the Eighth and Ninth was black, which was later changed into bluish-green. This dress code changed in the reigns of later emperors.

Gorgeous Dress and Accessories in the Qin and Han Dynasties

In the Qin and Han dynasties (221 B.C. - 220 A.D.), people became more style-conscious and wanted more elaborate clothing. According to historical records, while Emperor Wendi of the Han Dynasty was on the throne (179 - 156 B.C.), in noble families even the servants wore expensive jewelry. In the Roadside Mulberry, a poem included in a Han Dynasty collection of folk songs and ballads, the hairstyle and dress of Luo Fu - a woman who was collecting mulberry leaves - was described:

Her hair was done in a bun,
Moon-like pearl earrings adorned her ears.
She donned a light-yellow damask skirt,
And wore a purple blouse to match.

The blouse reached to the waist and usually was worn with a hemless skirt made of four pieces of plain silk, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom, with two strings sewn to both ends of the silk top.

Men's garments in the Qin and Han dynasties could be divided into pleated and non-pleated. People of higher ranks wore robes, and officials usually wore robes without a lining. Robes had wide sleeves and open collars, both with hands. To facilitate their work, ordinary men wore tight cotton jackets with narrow cuffs, a plain gauze robe unearthed from the No.1 Han Tomb at Mawangdui in Changsha, Hunan Province, was discovered to be "as thin and delicate as a cicada's wing and as light as smoke and fog," weighing less than 50 grams. Dating back to over 2,000 years, the robe is still strong in texture and brilliant in color. It demonstrates the excellent textile techniques of the Qin and Han dynasties.