Chinese Dress and Adornment Culture

Dress and Adornment Culture  Dress and adornment culture is a culture formed in the course of protecting people’s bodies and beautifying their images. “Hunger breeds discontentment.”  It is made up of dress and adornments including ornaments and jewelry. The former mainly functions as a physical protection with certain aesthetic consideration, and the latter displays appreciation of beauty, with protection as a minor function.  So the culture has two functions: protection and aesthetics.

The Inheritance and Development  Dress culture is characterized by distinctive development stages. Different styles in different historical periods, with prototype in ancient dress.  In primary times, people used leaves and grass to cover their bodies. Fur clothes with bone needles twist linen into threads with stone or pottery spindles. “apron, cloak and slip-overs” “ 围，披， 套 ” twist linen into threads with stone or pottery spindles. “apron, cloak and slip-overs” “ 围，披， 套 ”  During Shang and Zhou dynasties, “right-buttoned and hari-bound” dress characteristics were formed.  As for hair-style, ancient Chinese all bound their hair upward with hair claps.

The Inheritance and Development   Of all the hats in ancient China, coronet had the longest history.   There were 12 strings on emperor’s crown, But only three on the coronet of the peers. People of lower ranks were forbidden to wear it.

The Inheritance and Development   Dress in Western Zhou Dynasty inherited the customs of Shang. Men usually wore high hats, broad belt with pleats under it, while women wore low collared narrow sleeved blouse with pleats decorated beneath the waist.

The Inheritance and Development.In the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, gown and Hu Dress appeared. In the same period, hat-wearing was a much emphasized rite. The dress of the Qin and the Han dynasties basically followed those of the Warring States Period. The pant of the Han were equivalent to today’s split pants. Furthermore, pants with crotch and short pants also appeared. Women in Han liked awl- shaped hair bun with ornaments, such as Buyao and scarf.

The Inheritance and Development   From Wei Dynasty to the South and North Dynasty, China was in a period of ethic merging. The dress of this period was characterized by diversified styles and obsolescence.   Skirt-wearing was a fashion among women in the Tang Dynasty. Women’s clothing was mainly made up of three parts: skirt, blouse and shawl.

The characteristics of ancient Chinese Dress   In remote ages, little difference was found between women wearing and that of men.   Clothes had become a distinct symbol of professions as different clothes corresponded with different careers in ancient China.   Originally, dress did not symbolize social status, but the situation changed after class polarization （分化 ).

Different kinds of ancient clothes   Civilian clothes   Working suits   Ceremonial dress   Religious dress