Chinese Fashion Through the Dynasties Part 2

Hey guys, welcome to Off the Great Wall. It's Mikey. It's Danny. So we had a lot of good comments about the last Fashion Week video we did, so we wanted to do part two and guide you all the way through the rest of the ancient Chinese dynasties. I like to think that it's because we look so good. Yeah. My t-shirt. Anyway, we last left off at the glorious Tang Dynasty, so let's travel a bit further ahead to the Song Dynasty. This was a time of conservative moral values, when simplicity trumped opulence and flamboyance, quite the 180 from the fabulous Tang Dynasty. But sometimes you just gotta stick to the basics, you know? Men wore plain robes and shirts with either straight collars or diagonal collars crossed to the right side. They wore simple silk head coverings, the most popular being the Dongpo Wrap, named after the famous poet Su Dongpo. Women often wore the Beizi style, which consisted of a knee-length outer jacket with a straight collar, wide or narrow sleeves, and slits over two feet long under both armpits. Armpits. Yeah, I hope they had deodorant back in the old days. Grand sleeves were also popular for those with high social status, and were worn with a long skirt, a colorful silk shawl, and a hanging jade piece. Song Dynasty skirts were inherited from the Tang Dynasty and came in many styles, including the Tulip Skirt, which was dyed with tulip grass and kept the flower's fragrance. And the Hundred Pleated Skirt, which had pleats all over, and then tiny folds between those pleats. But now we put those pretty skirts on hold, as the Mongols are attacking. But don't worry, they may have invaded China, but they brought with them a great fashion sense and some sick clothing, so it's all good. The Mongols established the Yuan Dynasty, and while their clothing styles are technically considered ethnic and not traditional Chinese, we'll still consider it a part of the history of Chinese fashion as a whole. You know what I love that the Mongols brought over? What's that? Uh, hot pot and barbecue skewers. You know what I love? What? The hawk on Genghis Khan's shoulder. They brought over, uh, just, just stop. Just stop. Zhushan dresses, which combined Han and Mongol culture, were popular for all social classes and could be made from a variety of materials. The Mongols also had a thing for horses, but you couldn't really go galloping dramatically across the plain on horseback with a long, billowing skirt. That just spells trouble. So instead, many people wore the bījiān or pánzidàwǔ, a double-sided leather coat with no collar or sleeves that was shorter in the front. With the bījiān, you could ride horseback and hunt in style. But when they weren't galloping across the plains, the ladies of the higher classes didn't hesitate to dress up. They wore long, loose gowns with moon-shaped shoulders, wide sleeves, and narrow cuffs decorated with red and gold embroidered brocades, fur, and silk. Aristocrats, who were Mongolians, also liked to wear leather, marten, and sheepskin coats and hats. Nice. After the fall of the Mongols, we find ourselves in the Ming Dynasty, which took fashion advice from the dynasties of the past, the Zhou, Hong, Tang, and Song. This dynasty's elaborate clothing system, which outlined styles for formal and daily wear for all different social classes, took over 20 years to fully develop. Ming Dynasty fashion rules were serious business. People in the Ming Dynasty preferred loose, billowing clothes. Officials mainly wore robes and gowns with circle colors, wide sleeves, black edges, and a black ribbon-hanging belt. Gowns had square embroidery on the front and back with patterns that varied by social class Civil officials wore embroidered birds, while military officials wore embroidered mammals. And the emperor wore the dragon. Of course. Yeah. Ordinary men didn't get pretty animals on their clothes, unfortunately. They wore plain, straight, long gowns and dowry gowns. And of course, no outfit is complete without accessories. Men could choose from several dozen styles of headdresses. Dude, I love accessories. I know you do. Too much. Meanwhile, the ladies of the court wore big sleeves, short tops, decorated crowns, and long shawls with phoenix and flower decorations, and gold or jade hangings. So basically, all the top dogs got to flaunt animal stitchings on their clothes. And for common women, no fancy phoenixes. Only plain gowns, coats, shawls, and short tops, usually worn with a skirt and patty robe, a rectangular piece of fabric spliced with many other pieces of fabric, like a paddy field. Hey dude, in modern days, I would embroider mine with a pump. Yeah, you would. Yeah, I would. Yeah. That's not cool. Okay. Ming Dynasty skirts were often pleated, light colored, and simple, at least in the beginning. But enough is never enough when it comes to glitz and glamour. So while early skirts only had embroidered designs on the bottom two inches, later skirts were much more highly decorated. Finally, we reach the Qin Dynasty, which is when the Manchurians took over China. So Qin Dynasty fashion technically isn't a part of Han clothing, but we couldn't bring ourselves to leave it out. So here we go. About the Qin Dynasty, probably the most recognizable style is the hairstyle of the men, where they shave the front part of the head and have a little ponytail on the back. A big ponytail. Yeah. And then, like, there's one guy. Yeah. I saw a movie. Yeah. He trained his ponytail to be like a whip. Oh, I've seen that. He was, like, whipping people with it, and he was called God Whip. The Chinese adopted Manchurian-style clothing, which was characterized by a rectangular, waistless silhouette, short, narrow sleeves, saddle-shaped collars, plate buttons, and embroidered designs. And of course, one of the most well-known traditional garments is the qipao. But it might surprise you to know that this is actually a Manchurian invention. Can I just say, uh, qipao is one of my favorite, favorite, favorite, like, outfits for females. High five. I love it. Love it. This looks so beautiful. The name comes from the Qi people, another name for the Manchurians. Manchu rulers organized their people into banners, or qi, and called them banner people, or qiren. So their dress came to be known as the banner dress qipao. Manchurian ladies were also well-known for their shoes. Ladies, you think your high heels are a pain? Check out these crazy heels. The Manchu flowerpot shoes, or horse hoof shoes, had four-inch high raised soles, not at the end, where the heel is, but at the center of the shoes. These shoes made the ladies look taller and more slender. Imagine, like, if you were in these shoes, and someone was chasing you, how would you run in those? Actually, I think those shoes are a lot better for women's feet than high heels. Yeah, I heard, like, women, if you wear high heels for a long time, it actually messes you up really good. It actually really, it also messes up your whole, your whole everything. But this is also a time when binding the feet was commonplace. So a lot of these women, they would squeeze into, like, what looks like a little kid's shoe. That lasted for a long, long time. There's some creepy posts on the internet about that stuff. Can I just say, you got the good looking cheap hop, but I don't envy what you guys have to do to make yourself look good every day. I'm so glad every day I wake up and I say to myself, Dan, so glad you're a dude. Yeah, I say that every time I'm at an event, or at a conference, or a concert, when the line out of the ladies' bathroom is a mile long, and I go to the men's bathroom. That's right. Just walk right in. Yep. We should do a video about how awesome it is to be a dude. Yeah! No, let's not do that. We love our lady viewers. You guys are awesome. Anyway guys, thanks so much for watching. Let us know if you like this video. And please subscribe and continue to support our channel. Thanks so much. Later. Bye.