History of Costume Culture

The Chinese culture is made up of a variety of component parts, all of which have had a profound impact on traditional Chinese clothing, styles, and fashion. As a class-structured society, clothing was used to denote a person's class, as well as to help that person perform various functions of the class he or she was born in to.

Han Styles

Clothing styles made popular by the Han Chinese 3,000 years ago still remain popular in traditional Chinese fashion today. Han styles are noted by beautiful silk robes with each style of clothing denoting a different strata of society. Royalty wore one style, academics and scholars another style, and members of the military class yet another style.

Manchurian Styles

Manchurian clothing, like the cheongsam, are relics of Manchurian domination of government and culture in historical China. The cheongsam, known as the qipao in areas outside of Guandong province, was initially the dress of an upper class portion of society known as the "banner people" or "qi ren." Manchurian woman of this class wore a dress which became known as a qipao, or chengsam in Cantonese.

Sui Dynasty

In the Sui dynasty, around 500 A.D., there was an official change in dress. The emperor decreed that only the wealthy and royalty could wear colors. Peasants and poor people were only allowed to wear blue or black clothes.

Sung Dynasty

Around 1,100 A.D., during the Sung dynasty, a fashion started in the imperial court. Small feet have always been considered more attractive in China, so women in the imperial court began binding their feet to make them smaller. Foot binding, a very painful process, resulted in feet that were sometimes only three or four inches long. Foot binding resulted in permanently broken foot bones and permanently deformed feet that made walking difficult.

Yuan Dynasty

Silk was, and often still is, the preferred material for traditional Chinese clothing. However, around 1,200 A.D., much of the mulberry trees, which are required to raise silk worms, were destroyed during the Mongol invasions. Later, Mongol emperors began importing cotton, which resulted, by imperial decree, in farmers being trained in the practice of raising cotton. Cotton quickly became a popular material for Chinese clothing.

Peasant Clothing

Pre-Mongol invasion peasant clothing was often made of ramie or hemp, the two least expensive and modern fabrics available. With the importation of the practice of farming cotton, people frequently came to prefer the softer fibers of cotton over the harder fibers of ramie or hemp.

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