Chinese national costumes: Chinese fashion

Chinese national costumes are traditional clothes that existed until the first quarter of the last century. They differ from each other in a number of ways. Only Chinese national costumes of the tops of society were the same practically throughout the country. Common folk clothes have some local options.

Chinese national costumes. A bit of history

Traditional Chinese national costumes are clothing of wide layers of urban and rural population of the country, middle class and nobility, bureaucracy and intelligentsia. They refer to them and the festive attire of the emperor. In the cut, Chinese national costumes are one. They differ only in the quality of the fabrics and in several structural details. This unity intensified after 1911. At that time, out of use came out official Qing suits, decorated with a lush decor, which had a hierarchical and symbolic meaning. Over time, the skirt-placket disappeared from use. The female costume looked like a man's suit. The most uniform throughout the country are the elements of the shoulder garment. It's all swinging.

Characteristics

The clothes are divided into three groups - winter, spring-autumn and summer. It differs depending on the presence or absence of the lining and cotton padding. Clothing is distinguished by elegance and elegance. In a word, beauty and sophistication are all traditional Chinese national costumes. Male version of the female in the cut is almost the same. This applies to pants, single-breasted and double-breasted clothing for the upper body, holiday and festive clothing, etc.

Almost the same shape and collar-strut, free, with a cut from the front. The corners are straight or slightly rounded. The difference is only in height. In men's clothes, it does not exceed more than three centimeters. In the female - reaches almost eight.

Almost all jackets, jackets and robes have long sections at the bottom. The right smell is typical of clothes. The left floor, finding on the right, completely covers it. Sewing clothes, usually from five cloths (two on the back and the left floor, one - on the right). The number of buttons-fasteners in a suit is always odd. They are sewn on the left floor.

Men's Clothing

The Chinese national costume for a boy or a man is rather strict and concise. Summer clothes are made of fine cotton. A casual suit is made of a shirt and trousers. They gird themselves with a wide belt. In the cold season, the kit is complemented by a top jacket on the lining. In the recent past, he was also wearing a robe. Sometimes it adds a light raincoat impregnated with tung oil.

Pants do not have pockets and buttons. To their upper edge is sewn a wide strip of white fabric. This is the Kuyao belt. When putting on his pants, he clings tightly to the body with his right hand, and the left part is left to the right of the remaining part of it. A sash is put on top - kuiaodai. From the front, it is tied with a flat knot. He hangs a pouch and pokes a smoking pipe for him . Hanshanszza - a summer summer shirt - is cut according to the type of tunic. A single-breasted jacket (shanjia) is also covered. Demi-season sleeveless sleeves are sewn with a warm lining, winter stuffed with cotton or fur. During the solemn ceremonies, the Chinese also wear Hanfu, a long top shirt to the knees.

Women's clothing

This is what concerns men. But the Chinese national costume female, similar in cut, consisted of short pants and an extended sweatshirt. Festive clothing was different from everyday expensive cloth, and sometimes decorated with colorful braid, rich in embroidery and appliqués.

Kanjzar - the sleeveless tops with vertical straight cuts from the front. They very tightly fitted the figure and fastened on 9-11 buttons. This clothing was a kind of replacement of the bra.

Another traditional set - shanyun - an extended sweatshirt with a skirt. The latter can be either narrow or wide. Zhujun - a similar suit, but the jacket is short. It looks almost like a sundress, but with long sleeves.

Changshan - wide dress, reminiscent of a long robe-shirt. It hides the figure completely, leaving only the edge of the shoe, palms and head in sight. The design of the Chinese national costume is very simple in any case. And the outfits are simply magnificent.

To date, most often on Chinese women can be tsipao - long beautiful dresses. Modern women also wear different jackets, short blouses, vests and jackets, sweaters and capes.

Color spectrum

What else can be different national clothes? Of course, the color gamut. For example, the north of the country is dominated by gray, blue, blue and black. Brown and white are much less common. In the south - more often black, brown, white, gray, blue, less often - blue. This mainly applies to men's clothing. Women's outfits are distinguished by brighter colors.

Hats

The next element of the traditional costume is no less important. This is a headpiece. In the north we used tou jin - a piece of white cloth, in the south - black. The Chinese also wear felted round caps and cloth caps with a bump on the vertex. A huge variety of shapes in the southern regions are different woven hats or tsao mao. Wide fields help protect the head from the sun and from tropical downpours. They make hats made of bamboo and palm leaves split into strips. Often there are also rounded patterns, reminiscent of the shape of the fungus. Another option is a cone-shaped tall hat decorated with ornament painted. Only men wear headdresses. A Chinese national costume for a girl, girl or woman does not imply such accessories.

Footwear

And the final touch. It's shoes. Most often, the Chinese wore light black shoes with a cloth top and a thick sole covered with white cotton cloth. Heels in such shoes were absent. The Chinese made them mostly independently. Rich people wore shoes with a silk top. A Chinese girl in a national costume, as a rule, could boast of a decoration with beautiful embroidery. In the case of mourning, they wore white shoes.

The northerners wore chien. These are felt massive shoes. Often there was also leather shoes.

The rural population preferred to wear light woven sandals - rope, straw or hemp - with a low back and a square toe. The shoes were tied to the leg at the ankles with ropes or the fingers were passed under a transverse web of thick braid. Over time, the cities began selling sandals on thick solid wooden soles. Expensive women's shoes were covered with paint or varnish. Some models had a low heel.

In a word, this is how the Chinese national costumes looked. Of course, in the country, of course, they wear the usual European clothes for us. However, the Chinese do not forget about traditional dresses.