Interpreting Ancient Chinese Fashion (Day 4)

This morning we met with Mr. Wu, a 6th generation silversmith in Tong Long, which is a village in Taizhen in Guizhou Province. He worked with his daughter and his wife in creating these really, in essence, miniature pieces of artwork. It was also really interesting to know, before his skill had only been handed down through men in his family, and so we got to witness this women's liberation in a sense, in that it was the first time that the Miao silversmiths were allowing women to study silvermaking. Mr. Wu's workshop is really, not really primitive, but it's definitely a very minimalist space. So he had this incredible little furnace that he would stoke with some sort of mechanism to make it very hot, and he'd put silver shavings into these really fine porcelain crucibles. The first object that he showed us how to make was hairpin, and so he would heat up the silver and melt it, and dump it into this long pan. And as soon as the metal cooled, he'd pick it up with tongs, and he'd just hammer repeatedly on an anvil. Mr. Wu's daughter taught us how to actually cut the metal, creating shapes for the crown of the headpiece. She had these miniature little scissors that carefully cut at the edges of each of the petals of the leaves. The next part of the process that we saw was the charms on the crowns, and also all over the clothes. Some of them are squares about this big, some of them are small circles, and then other ones are in the shape of phoenix, dragons, various mythological forms, and they're usually applied everywhere. So he did that by a process of hammering each individual piece onto a die, and what was really fascinating about that is the dies were so old, they had been passed down from father to son. So I think the highlight of it was seeing his really gorgeous daughter come out in full dress, and it was really one of the finest examples that we've been able to see so far of Miao textiles. So the whole outfit was covered with silver charms and silver studs. As I looked from the top down, I could see her beautiful crown. It was so royal. As I continued on, I saw her necklaces. There were about three beautiful, amazing wire necklaces. As I continued down to see her jacket, I saw the wonderful embroidery that she had created. The next thing that I saw was she had four rings on her hands. Around her wrist, there were about seven beautiful bracelets on each side. It was adorned with beautiful silver jewelry. And just knowing that it was handmade, you could really see how much work and effort went into it. So after we saw Mr. Wu's daughter in her traditional Miao costume, she shared some embroidery work with us. She had been in the process of building her dowry, and she said it was really important that it look very fine. And I suppose in any culture, that's very important for a young woman is how she looks on her wedding day. But one thing that was of particular interest for her was that she said if her embroidery wasn't good, and she didn't know how to embroider, she wouldn't be able to find a husband. So I think probably in the U.S., there aren't a lot of qualifications for getting married the same way. After we finished touring the studio of the silversmith, we got to take a look at a little shop that they have inside their house, which really was like a mini-museum. Wow, it was just quite amazing. My eyes were about to drool. Basically, I saw wonderful pieces from each shelf. It was really magnificent work. I think probably the most magnificent piece was one of the giant Miao neck pieces with all the charms dangling down. So earlier we'd only seen the alloy pieces or the plated pieces, but this one was so fantastic. I can't even imagine how much silver it took to make that incredible neck piece. It was really out of this world. I'm here at Tai Jiang Museum, known for their historical embroidery and wardrobe. As you can see, it's a spectacular surrounding, but the best part about it is what this museum houses. So inside these wings are examples of Miao textiles from all the different villages that we've seen. There's examples of clothing items, of skirts, as well as individual embroidery patterns, especially the sleeves and the back collars that we've seen earlier in the villages. The workmanship was so exquisite. There was sutash embroidery, as well as cross-stitching, and also the basic satin stitch, which they're known for. So I think I've taken a picture of just about every single textile in this museum. So it's really outstanding to be able to see all the villages side by side and really compare and see their differences. We even got to see sort of the holy grail of Miao textiles, which is the hundred bird dress. And it consists of an apron like we saw earlier and a Miao jacket with really brilliant embroidery of bird motifs and brilliant pinks and greens and blues and turquoises, and then also applied with bird feathers on them. It was quite bold, strong, and very definite. It was absolutely breathtaking.