Chinese Fashion Through the Dynasties

What's up guys, welcome to Off the Great Wall, I'm Dan. Hey, I'm Mike. You know Dan, you're always a well-dressed guy, except for, I don't know who the sleeves belongs to, but I'm always a t-shirt and jeans kind of man. Did you know that back in China, ancient China, men actually wore dresses? Oh yeah? You know what? I support that. That would be like, pretty super comfortable. Anyways, what's really interesting about Chinese culture is that throughout every dynasty in Chinese history, the style of clothing would adapt to the new dynasty and will last until the end of that dynasty. Here's a look at the fashion throughout Chinese history. To kick things off, let's travel all the way back to the Xia and Shang dynasties. The basics of traditional Chinese fashions were born during the Shang dynasty. People wore a narrow, cuffed, knee-length shirt jacket tied with a sash with a narrow ankle-length skirt and a piece of cloth that hung down to the knees. Clothes were generally in vivid primary colors, were green, and didn't vary much between different jobs and types of people. But during the Zhou dynasty, with the development of strict social hierarchy, people started to get picky. Clothing turned into a statement. The color, the length, width, and decorations of your clothing marked your status and rank in society. Say you wanted to wear this sick new yellow skirt your mom just made for you, but nope, too bad, only the emperor was allowed to wear yellow. Other developments during the Zhou dynasty, besides the emperor hogging all your favorite color for himself, included the first appearance of the dress jacket, which stayed popular dynasty after dynasty. A long silk belt, usually with a ring or a piece of jade at the end, was tied around the waist and a cotton shawl was worn around the arms. Nice, I like cotton shawls. I know, you do. But while the dress jacket stayed around, the Zhou dynasty unfortunately didn't. Enter the Qing state and Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor, who defeated the six other warring states of China and established the Qing dynasty. Besides unifying China, Qin Shi Huang tried to unify clothing, what a dictator. If you're gonna give a nation a makeover, you gotta make sure it looks good, right? Unfortunately, Qing wasn't around long enough to completely unify Chinese fashion, but he managed to unify color. The color of choice? Black. Yeah, that one fly with me, as I believe in fashion, black should only be used for funerals and award ceremonies. Yes, as you mentioned so many times, why black you ask? Qing was a fan of the concept of yin and yang in the five elements theory. Now the Zhou dynasty favored the color red, which was symbolic of fire. The ancient Chinese associated the color black with the element water, so Qin Shi Huang used the color to symbolize the power of water, the Qing dynasty, to extinguish fire, the Zhou dynasty. But other than color, clothing styles didn't change much during the Qing dynasty. The norm was loose one-piece clothing with long, large sleeves. I like that. Yeah, I like that. I prefer things a little more tighter. Next up, the Han dynasty, China's first golden age. This dynasty had a huge influence on Chinese history and culture, and it's done a good job making sure we don't forget it. China's majority ethnic group is called the Han Chinese, traditional dress is called Han clothing, even the writing is known as Han characters, and the language is known as, of course, the Han language. Han dynasty clothing was generally dignified and elegant. During the first 200 years, the Western Han dynasty, the dark style clothing of the Qing dynasty continued. Court dress was black, while formal dress for sacrificial rites was etched with red. Typical clothing styles included cicada-like hats, one-layer coats with twin diamond-shaped collars, sloping necklines, square sleeves, jade-hanging decorations, and red shoes. Sound like a fashion week in ancient China. There were two robe styles, one with a diagonal opening and one with a straight opening. In the Eastern Han dynasty, red replaced black as the It color, as a symbol of the Han dynasty's fire virtue. But people, especially government officials, also dressed seasonally, changing the color of their clothes to match the season. As far as accessories went, there were 13 different types of hats. But be careful, you couldn't just pick and choose at will. The style of a man's crown was an indicator of his rank in society. Alright, now let's skip forward a few hundred years to the glorious, the glamorous, the one and only Tang dynasty. Ah yes, the peak of the Chinese civilization, a time of unparalleled peace and prosperity and of dumplings and fashion. Yes, and it was reflected in the styles of clothing of the time. Tang dynasty clothing was luxuriant, looser, more relaxed, and more revealing than before. Women had several choices of outfits, including the classic short skirt jacket, tucked into a long skirt tied up high over the chest, loose-sleeved shirts with long skirts, and long shawls and low-cut gowns with high waistbands and full-flowing skirts. I love Tang dynasty female outfits. Love them. Most beautiful outfits ever. Shoes were made of silk or woven from grass, and hair covered the temples, framed the face, and was tied up into a bunch of different buns. Get it? Like, cloud bun, or gazing god's bun, or breakfast buns. Yes, we got the buns thing. Also popular during the Tang dynasty was a style that's now considered a trademark of traditional Chinese clothing, and one of my favorites, da xiu xia, which literally translates to big-sleeved shirts. You know people used to put things into their sleeves? I can imagine. And carry it like that. And if you drop your arms, they fall out. Yeah, like I'll pull a bunny out of that. These elegant, heavily-embroidered garments were worn by Tang ladies on special occasions. This type of dress is also often used in depictions of Chinese fairy maidens. Hey, hey, no judgment on our ancestors, they had some serious style. We've still got another thousand years of Chinese fashion to go. Alright Dan, I think all these styles and rules are starting to kind of blur in my non-fashion sensitive head, so we're gonna stop for now, besides, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling pretty inspired. Alright, let's go try on some shirts. Not dresses, just regular shirts. Alright guys, thanks so much for watching, please subscribe, like this video, all that good stuff. See ya! Bye!