What You Need to Know About Traditional Chinese Clothing

Ancient China is re-known of dynasty rulings. However, no fashion shows are documented as each dynasty had their own unique and exquisite cloths. To Chinese, their manner of dressing is a reflection of aesthetic, social status, and philosophy which has always been evolving. The following are some of the critical aspects of traditional Chinese clothing.

The traditional Chinese clothing was either one-piece clothes or top-bottom dresses. Also referred to as two-piece clothing, the top-bottom suits consisted of an upper and a lower garment IE a cross collar dress and a skirt respectively, which could be worn by both genders. On the other hand, one-piece suit was a gown like a garment with the upper and lower garments sewn together.

Among the fashionable Chinese dresses is Hanfu, Zhongshan suit, Cheongsam and Tang suit.

Hanfu. It is one the oldest traditional Chinese clothes commonly associated with the Hans, a major ethnic group in China. They were initially made of silk though they kept evolving with time. Initially, Hanfu was considered clothing for the members of the ruling class. However, with time especially during the era of the Hans Dynasty, hanfu became an identifying garment for people from the Hans ethnic group. Other than its popularity in China, this Chinese dress became widespread in numerous Asian countries such as Japan, Vietnam and North Korea.

Zhongshan suit. This was a typical Chinese dress in the early 20th century, which combined the aspect of the traditional Chinese clothing with western style. This suit was characterized by five central buttons at the front, four pockets and some three small cuff bottoms on both sleeves.

Cheongsam. This was a female cloth that was a development of the Manchu female's long gown. It was a one-piece garment which had a knob and two holes on both sides of the hems for active movement. It was buttoned from the right and was stylistic in terms of length, the width of the sleeves and colour.

Tang suit. It was a Chinese jacket that was an evolution to the Hanfu and the Magua dresses of Qing dynasty by the Chinese living overseas by absorbing the western way of cutting suits.

However, the four were the major traditional Chinese clothing; they were differentiated to signify social classes and hierarchy. Most of the clothes were varied in terms of colour, design, material, gender and history.

In term of design, most Chinese dresses were loose in shape and had a straight cut. On top of this, the overall harmony of the clothes was of great interest.

Colour. Certain colours represented specific social class or occasion. For instance, clothing having bright colours such as red, purple and yellow were worn by members of the Imperial family or the emperor while ordinary citizens wore light-coloured garments. Special events also had unique colours. Red was mainly worn during weddings while funerals were characterized by white colour. In ancient China, red was a royal colour. Only royal women could wear it and were forbidden for people such as concubines.

Gender. Women clothes were specially designed. They were attractive in design, style and contained more ornaments than those meant for men.