Garment Trimmings China Sourcing Reports: Fill & Download for Free

The ranting COVID-19(Coronavirus), is now a global concern with not only multiple countries being affected but also the global economy taking a rock hard hit. In 2003, the SARS pandemic caused forty billion USD losses to the world economy at a time when China accounted for only four per cent of global GDP. However, now that China contributes about eighteen per cent towards global GDP, the pandemic could have at least three to four times greater effect.Immediate concerns are related to the disrupted business dependent on China and while Coronavirus is still haunting supply chains in many industries including apparel manufacturing, technological manufacturers that have made China their base are also feeling the pinch. So, even as retailers and brands search for a China plus plan for sourcing, technology manufacturers are looking at other options including India and Bangladesh to set up alternate factories.This could, in the long run, be a very beneficial move from an Indian perspective as very little garment related technology is manufactured in the country despite its strength in IT and AI-related technologies which is the backbone of development today. It is too early to come to a conclusive result on what will actually happen once the pandemic calms down, but the idea has certainly been germinated.At this time, buyers from European markets travel to China to negotiate with apparel exporters for the coming season. Because of the pandemic spread, most of them have reportedly cancelled the visit and started discussing with exporters from many countries, including India. However, add exporters, most of our competing countries are too much dependent on China for importing raw material for textiles. So, India can still fill a void, if the government quickly responds and gives some tax benefits.People are searching for something beyond our situation right now, something that feels a bit more substantial.Highly dependent on China for its industrial raw materials and finished goods with nearly 20 per cent of India’s imports coming in from China (China supplies mostly fabrics and garment accessories to local manufacturers), the readymade garment sector, as is natural, is apprehensive of supply chain breakdown, which would be no good news for the export-oriented apparel sector that is struggling lately on the export front. The Association estimates about Rs 1,000 crore of trim accessories (buttons, zips, needles, sewing threads etc) are imported by garment manufacturers in the country from China, being 40-50 per cent cheaper than sourcing domestically or from other countries in the world.If we think as apparel manufacturers, with every day of not operating factories we are going back at least 5 days of the money we make. Even If we get back on our day to day work schedule it will take us months to get back on track. It is time to invest in technology as it is the only thing which will save us from drowning. Technology which is embedded with features like artificial intelligence, robotics, cloud computing, machine learning & Internet of thing(IoT) will help in pulling us out for the quagmire.“This time, it could be a cause for worry if the situation doesn’t come under control and continues for a longer time.”Coronavirus could push India’s future in technical manufacturing

I will say nothing is out of the question when looking back a few thousand years through time.That being said… Joseph’s coat was likely a pattern made during weaving multiple colored threads on the warp and weft of the weave. What we might call Tartan today. (Plaid for you Americans.)Now before you start looking at my name and accusing me of Scotifing (If that is a thing) I base this on the research of Orthodox Rabbi Yair Davidiy (He is a Quoran! Yair Davidiy) in Jerusalem, who is one of many Rabbi’s involved in locating the lost tribes of Israel. This is not some pet Caledoniaism of my own.I borrow heavily from his research available here:Brit-Am Lost Ten TribesPlease note that Brit Am means “Covenant people” in Hebrew, it does not mean British American as many may think based other usages. Also I am not promoting the racist and anti Semitic ideology known as “British Israelism”. Although Rabbi Davidiy quotes some of the research they have done, it is unlikely as a Jew he believes the Jews in Israel (where he lives) are not Jewish. That being said…The rest of this answer is a cut and paste of the first page of his white paper on the Hebrew invention and use of Tartan. Whether you believe his conclusions or not, the sheer volume of his research that he has made freely available as a place to begin your own research is amazing.Please support his research, and direct all love to him in word and in prayer.With Love,Tadhg“TartanPage 1 “The Scottish Tartan Cloak of Joseph”1. Introduction.Israel had twelve sons. His favorite son was Joseph. The Twelve sons of Israel became the ancestors of the Twelve Israelite Tribes. Joseph became two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. We trace Ephraim and Manasseh to Britain, North America, and related areas. Even though numerically many from Ephraim may be found in the USA we consider the USA to have been dominated by Manasseh and to be representative of him. Ephraim found his expression more in Britain especially England. Elements from Manasseh that were once in the British Isles (especially Scotland and Ulster) on the whole moved to the USA were they gave expression to their Tribal character.We are told that Jacob (also called Israel) gave his son, Joseph, a garment that in Hebrew is called a "cotonet pasim" (Genesis 37:3).The King James Version of the Bible translates this as "a coat of many colors". This translation, as we shall see, should be acceptable but there are those who contest it.On the other hand, one finds in various British Israel articles and the like the suggestion that this coat was in effect like unto a Scottish tartan design. As far as we know, however, no proof has ever been really given to equate the cotonet passim with a tartan design.Nevertheless as the present article below shows it is highly probable that such was the case. How did these other writers come to make such an assumption?Perhaps it was intuition? Inspiration?Perhaps it was the writings of Rabbinical Commentators?There are indications that relatively early British Israel scholarship was influenced by the presence of Jewish scholars or Jewish apostates who had learned in their youth. Here and there Jewish family names such as Abadie and Margolith are mentioned. Also references are made to Rabbinical works (such as Radak "Sefer HaShirashim". Maimonides, Eldad HaDani, etc) that appear in some cases to be based on memory or verbal communication. The Jewish input may have been deliberately played down. In the 1920s British Israel groups in Britain had began to be infiltrated by anti-Jewish reprobates. This trend continued until recently when there are indications that a change for the better may have been effected. The impression is that the BIWF (British Israel World Federation) under its present leadership is not anti-Jewish whereas in the past it may have been.At all events,An analysis of the meaning of the Hebrew term "cotonet pasim" and a comparison with garments of tartan-type design worn by Ancient Hebrews indicates that indeed the cloak of Joseph had a tartan design.But what does it matter?Why should we care?What is the type of dress worn by Joseph supposed to tell us one way or other?If we were to find tartan type designs in archaeological findings in China, Japan, Africa, would it make any difference?In answer, we would reply, Probably Not![In fact, as we will see, tartan designs have been recovered by archaeological excavations in China but here too they may be attributed to an offshoot of the Celts that moved eastward.]The Ten Tribes of Israel who were exiled by the Assyrians and lost their identity became entities in Western Europe.Part of the tribe of Joseph reached Scotland. Other Israelites reached Ireland and other portions of what in Modern Terms is considered ancient Celtic Civilization. The Tartan design became associated with Celtic bodies. From Ireland it passed to Scotland along with the Scots who gave Scotland its name. In Scotland it became a national symbol. Today in popular consciousness the design, especially as seen on the Kilt, it is considered particularly Scottish and the Scottish themselves so relate to it.We know from other sources that many of the inhabitants of Scotland (and their offshoots in Ulster and North America etc) descend from Joseph especially Manasseh. There is therefore significance that the Scottish alone retain and maintain the same dress that distinguished Joseph from his brothers.Genesis 37 (New King James Version)37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.37:4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.The tartan dress according to this may well have been the same dress that set Joseph apart from all the others. If this is so it has significance. It does not prove anything in itself but seen in the light of Brit-Am Teaching concerning the Scottish and their Israelite Origins it is well worth considering.The implication is that the cloak of Joseph had a tartan design. This design was similar to that known from the region of Ancient Canaan (Land of Israel) and may have been maintained by a portion of the Lost Ten Tribes (including the Tribes of Joseph) when they went into Exile. Some of these tribes reached the British Isles. In the past a tartan design was to be found amongst several of them. [Ancient tartan designs have also been reported from Scandinavia.] The Scottish received the design (together with the Scots) from Ireland. Only Scotland kept the design as part of its national self-recognition. From Scotland the design and the concept of a tartan distinctiveness has spread elsewhere and today is rather important in Canada and the USA. Since descendants of Joseph appear to be those who have persistently appreciated the design and elevated it to national levels then this could well reflect an instinctive subconscious identification with Joseph. Alternately the link between descendants of Joseph and the continued use of the tartan design may be attributed to Divine Providence. Either way it has an importance.Let us now examine the evidence.2. The Term "Cotonet Pastim" (Cloak of Many Colors) and its Actual Meaning.(a) CotonetThe expression "a coat of many colors" in the Hebrew Bible is "cotonet passim"."Cotonet" mean cloak or gown.In Modern Hebrew it is used to describe a gown. especially a nightgown.Pasim and Rashi: In the Commentary of Rashi besides the word "Pasim" we find the comment: "Expression connoting Garment of Milet." This could be the result of editing. Rashi may have meant his comment to apply to the combined words "Cotonet passim" and to be based on the meaning of the word "cotonet". Rashi mentions a garment of Milet meaning a garment of very fine high-qulaity wool named after the city of Miletus on the west coast of Anatolia i.e. present-day Turkey. This city is recorded from the Bronze Age and was apparently known for the quality of its woven wool.Rashi would therefore suggest that the garment of Joseph was made of wool but linen appears the most acceptable.The Talmud (Shabat 10b) however also supports the wool thesis.The Talmud says that a man should always be careful not to favor any of his children more than the others. It gaves as an example of the unfavorable results of favoritism the case of Joseph and the coat of many colors in which for "the sake of two shekels in weight of milet [fine wool] our forefathers went down into Egypt". Rashi in his commentary to this source concerning "milet" surprisingly says "not necessarily so" and brings a source suggesting that only a small part of the sleeve was actually of milet wool.A correspondent of ours (signing himself as "TG") points out:# Rashi, in his commentary on this passage [Talmud, Shabat 10b], explains ketonet passim as keli milat karpas, a term for clothing of fine wool similar to karpas in the Book of Esther, and to the striped garment of Tamar in II Samuel 13:18. Esther was in Persia of course, so the sound of the word is similar to the Persian karafs, defined as "a plant of which a salad is made from . . . parsley . . . [and] celery."Later references to karpas in the Mishnah, Tosefta, and Talmud, derive it from the Greek karpos, meaning "fruit" of the land or of rivers. Thus, in Talmudic usage the word is similar to Greek karpos and Persian or Sanskrit kirpas, i.e. resembling a vertically-striped vegetable.#TG also points out that:Midrash Tanchuma also refers to the many colored coat of Joseph.There you have it. Stripes. Pasim means stripes.Midrash Tanchuma is another early source.The Commentary Daat Mikra (Genesis 37:4 n.14b) links the word "cotonet" to the Akkadian [language of Ancient Mesopotamia, esp. Assyria] "kttn" meaning linen and "kitinnt" meaning linen cloth for a garment.Rabbi Abraham ben Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides) says that "cotonet passim" means a garment embroidered with Numerous Colors.(b) PasimThe words "pas" (singular) and passim (plural) derive from the root "pas" which can mean "end, finish, strip, line". The English word "pass" may be derived from this root.So too, in Hebrew there is the word "pisa" from the same root and meaning "piece" which English word may be another derivative.Different InterpretationsThe different meanings that the root "pas" lends itself to have lead to two differing lines of interpretation.One school says that "cotonet passim" means that the garment reached to the ends (passim) of the limbs i.e. long-sleeved and of ankle-length.The Midrash (Breishit Rabbah) reflects this notion and describes the "cotonet passim" as a Garment that reached to the ends (Pasim) of his arms and legs.This may be why The Revised Standard Bible (1952) translates the as "a long robe with sleeves".The other school says that the word "passim" applied to the design. This appears to be the majority opinion.Pasim means stripe or line. Thus we have the concept of stripes or interweaving lines that according to tradition were of different colors.The Septuagint says it was a garment of "many colors".The Wycliffe Bible (1380 to 1390) "a cote of many colours".Rabbi Yonah iben Janach#Each strip [pas, pisah] of the woven cloth was of a different color# (Rabbi Yonah iben Janach ca. 990-1050 CE Spain).Radak (1160 - 1235 Southern France):"It (the garment) was of many colors with each strip (Hebrew: "pas") being of a color in its own right" (David Kimchi, "Sefer HaShorashim" item "pas").Radak on Genesis 37:3.# Cotonet Pasim. Pasim, cf. the part [pas] of the hand (Daniel 5:5). The Cotonot was made of different pieces [pasim, strips]. One piece was of one color another piece of another like a garment of Miletus [Hebrew: cli milet] made with a design of different colored stripes [pasim].#Ralbag (Gersonides) translates "passim" as "mishbatsot" i.e. squares.HaNatziv (Rabbi Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, 1816-1893, Russia)HaNatziv also adopted a synthetic approach saying that Cotonet Pasim connoted both a long-sleeved garment and one decorated with a tartan type design of interlocking squares.HaNatziv (Genesis 37:3):##Cotonet Pasim. That reached up to the end [Hebrew: pas] of his hand. Alternately it defines a specific weaving as for stripes [pasim] [i.e. to create a pattern involving lines or stripes]. And so wrote Ramban [Nachmanides]. ..[Exodus 23]...like a garment design involving squares [tashbets] and so too would it appear from Rashi on [Talmud] Shabat 10 ...all men of rank wore such garments only that of Joseph was especially distinguished ##We thus find that the Natziv interprets "cotonet pasim" in a way that encompasses all of the discussed possibilities: reaching to arms length, square [tartan-type] design, denoting rank and status.#Aryeh Kaplan ("The Living Torah", 1981).Aryeh Kaplan utilizes both major opinions and translates "cotonet passim" as a "long colorful coat" (Genesis 37:3). This approach is in fact acceptable. The Hebrew Bible is a Divine work. Each word is there for a reason. The beauty of the Hebrew Language is that one word may have several meanings and the sentence so arranged that more than one of the meanings be intended at one and the same time.A Midrash Defines Pasim as Like Ears of Corn of Differing Colors"Torah Shleymah" (Hebrew) by Menachem Mendel Kasher, Jerusalem, 5752.on Genesis 37:3 (p. 1398 note 48) says:# PASIM. Each and every PAS [i.e. stripe] was an entity on its own like [overlapping in a diamond-type pattern] the ears on a piece [Hebrew: "pisat" from PAS] of grain # Midrash HaChafets Manuscript.[48]Note 48: # ..The Tunic was made of stripes with one stripe of one color and the next stripe of another like a Miletus garment which is made [plaided] of plaited stripes #Explanation: A certain type of fine woolen cloth was named after Miletus [Milet in Hebrew]. Here it says that clothing from Miletus was woven in plaited plaids. It was folded in on itself and woven in diagonal lines.An example of plaits is seen with girls with long hair who sometimes plait a kind of pony-tail with the plaits overlapping each other.The Midrashic source says that each plaited unit was of a different color.This is in effect a garment woven in the pattern such as that of the Temple Service tunic:Scottish Tartan and the Temple Garmentsi.e. in a diamond (tartan) -type pattern but in the case of the Coat of Joseph not only was the tunic woven in such a fashion but also the colors were variegated.Iben ShushanIben Shushan in his Hebrew-Language Dictionary (HaMilon HaHadash) in the entry:"Cotonet Pasim" says # According to the accepted meaning of Genesis 37;3: A garment made of different colored stripes#.Iben Shushan also notes that in Midrashic Literature Pas means line or thick line i.e. stripe.Marcus Jastrow, "Dictionary of the Talmud" (1903).Marcus Jastrow notes (p.1166) the verb "PIS" meaning to divide, split, distribute. This verb was associated was associated by the Sages with the word PAS (plural "pasim" as in Cotonet Pasim, Genesis 37:3) in the Midrash.Jastrow (p.1191) translates the PAS in "cotonet pasim" of Joseph (Genesis 37:3) as meaning stripe. He gives examples.Jastrow points out (p.1196) that a word from the same root "PIS, PISPAS" can mean colored stripes or checkers of different colors and brings examples from Talmudic and Midrashic Literature.# Pasipas...[four meanings are given]:1) cut and polished stone block...2) cube, die.3) check (in garments), square or stripe cmp. PAS.Paspasin... the faintest checkers (or stripes) [Hebrew: "paspasin"] of the Leviathan's skin outshine the sun (v. Yalk. Lev. 653).-4) voting tablet, verdict.In Modern Hebrew "PasiPas" (spelt with the same word root as "Pas" as in "Pasim") means a mosaic since it is comprised of colored squares! A "cotonet pasim" could therefore have been a coat of many colors in a checkered (tartan type) pattern!Cotonet Pasim means a Checkered Coat!!The "Coat of Many Colors" (Genesis 37:3) worn by Joseph in Hebrew is "Cotonet Pasim"."Cotonet" refers to the garment and "Pasim" to its type."Pasim" is plural of "Pas".Pasim according to the simple meaning means "lines" or "stripes" though normally another Hebrew word, "Kav",would be used if simply lines or stripes were intended.We may deduce what "Pasim" actually means by referring to Jastrow.The Dictionary of Jastrow gives the meaning of Hebrew and Aramaic words used in Talmudic Literature.The full and official titles of his work is:# A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature #compiled by Marcus Jastrow, Ph.D. Litt.D. Philadelphia, USA, 1903.The Hebrew words he defines are a later development from Biblical Hebrew.Biblical Hebrew itself differs from book to book.From the sources referred to by Jastrow we can see that the word Pasipas (derived from "Pas") means checkered or at least that "checkered" is one of its meanings.This is how the word is rendered in Later Hebrew.In Earlier Hebrew if we were to translated "Pasipas" we would render it "Pasim".In other words the word "Pasim" in Biblical Hebrew would double as a plural of Pas and also a construct of Pas.Therefore one of the meanings of Cotonet Pasim would be a checkered coat!In the light of the sources taken as a complementary whole the suggestion that a "cotonet pasim" was a cloak of several colors in a tartan type pattern should be accepted as a first choice. It is the answer that fits the different sources more than any other.(c) Rank:In the story of Tamar, daughter of David (2-Samuel 13:18) we read:#Now she had on a robe of many colors ["cotonet passim"], for the king's virgin daughters wore such apparel. #The "cotonet passim" given by Jacob to Joseph was also a mark of rank and status.Daat Mikra: #It would appear that we would not be mistaken in suggesting that Jacob when he made this garment intended that there should be fulfilled in Joseph the prophecy he had just received that "kings shall come from your body" (Genesis 35: 11)# (DM Genesis 37:4 n.14b).Gersonides opined that Cotonet Pasim connoted royalty.Nachmanides (1194-1270, Spain, Jerusalem in Israel)Nachmanides (like Gersonides) mentions both the signification of royalty and the tartan-type [tashbets] design.Nachmanides (Exodus 28:2): ## For these clothes are clothes of royalty and like unto them were worn by monarchs in the time of the Torah. And so we find concerning the Cotonet, "he made him a tunic of many colors" (Genesis 37:3), meaning embroidered in the form of lines [Pasim] this being a garment of [tartan-type] Squares [tashbets]##.Iben Ezra (1089-1164 Spain, London -England) had opined that the cotonet pasim was an embroidered garment. Nachmanides agrees with him but adds that the embrodered design was a tartan-type (tashbets) design of interlocking squares of many colors.Daat Sofrim (Rabbi Chaim Dov Rabinovitz 1909-2001, Russia, Israel) on Genesis 37:3.# Pasim. These were an external expression of appreciation and admiration for the inner essence [of Joseph] as well as an expression of faith in his future. Jacob made him a special garment that symbolized his primacy and superiority...#Sforno (Rabbi Obadiah Sforno, c. 1470 - 1550, Italy) on Genesis 37:3.# Cotonot Pasim. This was a sign that Joseph would be the leader in the house and in the fieldas it says, AND I WILL CLOTHE HIM WITH THY ROBE [Hebrew "cotonetcha"] ...AND I WILL COMMIT THY GOVERNMENT INTO HIS HAND [Isaiah 22:21].The "cotonet passim" was not just an attractive garment. It was also a mark of rank.The tartan kilts and designs in Scotland were also used to denote rank.The Many-colored coat of Joseph was a mark of rank, decorated with striped lines of different colors, arranged in squares and interlocking with each other. It may not have been exactly like the tattern patterns we are familiar with but neither would it have been much different and could well have given rise to them. It was also probably made of linen. The first tartan cloaks that arrived in Scotland from Ireland were also made of linen.(d) LinenLinenLinen - WikipediaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaLinen is a textile made from the fibers of the flax plant. Flax grows in the Middle East and in Ancient Times was also raised throughout Europe. The best linen came from Ireland.#Highly absorbent and a good conductor of heat, linen fabric feels cool to the touch. Linen is the strongest of the vegetable fibers, with 2 to 3 times the strength of cotton...Linen fabrics have a high natural luster; their natural color ranges between shades of ivory, ecru, tan, or grey linen fabric has the ability to absorb and lose water rapidly. It can gain up to 20% moisture without feeling damp####When freed from impurities, linen is highly absorbent and will quickly remove perspiration from the skin. Linen is a stiff fabric and is less likely to cling to the skin; when it billows away, it tends to dry out and become cool so that the skin is being continually touched by a cool surface. It is a very durable, strong fabric, and one of the few that are stronger wet than dry. ####Flax is grown in many parts of the world, but top quality flax is primarily grown in Western Europe. In very recent years bulk linen production has moved to Eastern Europe and China, but high quality fabrics are still confined to niche producers in Ireland, Italy and Belgium. Also countries including Poland, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, British Isles and some parts of India.##The Phoenicians, who, with their merchant fleet, opened up new channels of commerce to the peoples of the Mediterranean, besides developing the tin mines of Cornwall, introduced flax growing and the making of linen into Ireland before the common era, but the internal dissensions, which even in those early days were prevalent in Erin, militated against the establishment of an organized industry, and it is not until the twelfth century that we can find records of a definite attempt to systematize flax production.##When the Edict of Nantes was revoked, in A.D. 1685, many of the Huguenots who had to flee the country settled in the British Isles, and amongst them was Louis Crommelin, who was born, and brought up as a weaver of fine linen, in the town of Cambrai. He fled to Ulster, and eventually settled down in the small town of Lisburn, about ten miles from Belfast. Belfast itself is perhaps the most famous linen producing center throughout history, during the Victorian era the majority of the worlds linen was produced in the city which gained it the name Linenopolis.Nowadays kilts are often made with a wool and linen admixture. The linen provides strength, durability, and water-resistance. Such mixtures are however forbidden in the Torah.#You shall not wear a garment of different sorts [Hebrew: shaatnez], such as wool and linen mixed together# (Deuteronomy 22:11).#Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you# (Leviticus 19:19).Today in the state of Israel and in areas where Religious Jews are concentrated overseas there exist shaatnez laboratories that can tell whether or not a woolen garment (the usual case) has any linen admixture.Linen does not absorb natural dyes easily. For this reason the Bible (as explained by the Sages) allowed a woolen thread dyed with a special blue color to be attached together with white linen tassels to each edge of a four cornered garment.#Speak to the Children of Israel and bid them that they make fringes on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of each corner a thread of blue (tekhelet). And it shall be for you as a fringe, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of G-d, and do them...# (Numbers 15:38-39)The secret of making the blue thread was lost some time ago but nowadays attempts are being made to revive it.See:tekheletPtil Tekhelet - The common thread uniting our Jewish past, present and futureThe difficulty that then existed of dyeing linen may explain the great prestige and value possessed by the cotonet pasim being made of colored strips woven together and interlocking threads in a square-tartan type patterns.(e) Conclusion:All of the above brings us back to the meaning of the Hebrew words "Cotonet Pasim" and the varying interpretations they lend themselves to.The Brit-Am approach (which really is that of leading Rabbinical Authorities and Commentators) is to regard the Hebrew text as the sacred words of the Almighty. Every word used is there for a reason. The different nuances of a certain word or group of words may all have significance at one and the same time. This approach is not just one based on faith but may be justified objectively by an examination of the text."Cotonet" means some type of garment. Nearly everyone seems to agree on this point."Pas" according to the Concordance of Iben Shushan [Hebrew] means "retsuah" i.e. "strip" as in Cotonet Pasim (Genesis 37:3].The Cotonet Pasim was therefore made out of strips (pieces) or bore a striped design."Pas" can also connote "piece", "part of", end, trim, finish, etc.The word "pas" is used for the palm (or piece of) the hand in Daniel 5:5.One interpretation is that "cotonet pasim" meant a garment reaching to the ends (pasim) of the body i.e. the ankles and hands.It can mean "stripe" or line. The Talmud (Shabat 10b) said it meant "stripe".There is a certain logic in considering Pasim to refer to the design on the garment rather than the cut or tailoring aspects of the garment itself.The word Pas (singular) or Pasim (plural) may also be related to the word "Pas" or "Pasah" meaning the increase and the spreading of color as in the cease of the signs of leprosy (Leviticus chapter 13). It may be objected that "Pasah" meaning the spreading of color is spelt with a "Sin" (for the "s" sound) and not with the "samech" (as in the word Pas meaning stripe) but "sin" and "samech" can interchange (e.g. Tosefta, Yom HaKipurin 1;9).Not only that but in Rabbinical etymology the letter samech is considered a weakened devolution of the letter sin (Sources quoted in the works of Matatiyahu Galzerson).Jastrow (p.1244) points out that PaSaH with a sin and PaSaH with a samech are two different forms of the same word meaning to spread or expand and used in the Bible concerning the spreading of color (e.g. Leviticus 13:51).It may be therefore that another meaning of "pas" implies "color".We saw that most of the Classical Commentators did say that the garment was of different colors in addition to which several mentioned stripes while others said squares, checkers, both stripes and squares, or in diamond-type formation [i.e. tartan] as found in the overlapping buds of an ear of wheat.See the Table below:The Different Eplanations:Different Colors:Midrash Tanchuma, Abraham ben Moshe ben Maimon (Maimonides),The Septuagint, Rabbi Yonah iben Janach, Radak, Aryeh Kaplan, Jewish Legends Quoted by GinzbergDifferent Colored Stripes (Possibly interlocking)Talmud (Shabat), Radak, Rabbi Yonah iben Janach,Different Colored Squares (Interlocking Lines)Gersonides, HaNatziv, NachmanidesDifferent Colors as well as Long SleevesHaNatziv, Nachmanides, Aryeh KaplanDifferent Colored Lines and Squares as well as Long SleevesHaNatziv, Nachmanides,Connoting Rank and StatusHaNatziv, Nachmanides, Daat Sofrim, Daat Mikra, Sforno.In accordance with Rabbinical Tradition, the special qualities of the Hebrew Language, and the opinions of Nachmanides and HaNatziv we would say that a correct interpretation of what the reality was is to be found through a synthesis of the above opinions:”

LoveToKnow: Advice you can trustAncient World: History of DressBy Phyllis TortoraEvidence about dress becomes plentiful only after humans began to live together in greater numbers in discrete localities with well-defined social organizations, with refinements in art and culture, and with a written language. This happened first in the ancient world in Mesopotamia (home of the Sumerians, Babylonians, and Assyrians) and in Egypt. Later other parts of the Mediterranean region were home to the Minoans (on the island of Crete), the Greeks, the Etruscans, and the Romans (on the Italian peninsula).The sociocultural phenomenon called "fashion," that is, styles being widely adopted for a limited period of time, was not part of dress in the ancient world. Specific styles differed from one culture to another. Within a culture some changes took place over time, but those changes usually occurred slowly, over hundreds of years. In these civilizations tradition, not novelty, was the norm.Certain common forms, structure, and elements appear in the dress of the different civilizations of the ancient world. Costume historians differentiate between draped and tailored dress. Draped clothing is made from lengths of fabric that are wrapped around the body and require little or no sewing. Tailored costume is cut into shaped pieces and sewn together. Draped costume utilizes lengths of woven textiles and predominates in warm climates where a loose fit is more comfortable. Tailored costume is thought to have originated around the time when animal skins were used. Being smaller in size than woven textiles, skins had to be sewn together. Tailored garments, cut to fit the body more closely, are more common in cold climates where the closer fit keeps the wearer warm. With a few exceptions, ancient world garments of the Mediterranean region were draped.Strengths and Weaknesses of Evidence About DressMost of the evidence about costume of the ancient world comes from depictions of people in the art of the time. Often this evidence is fragmentary and difficult to decipher because researchers may not know enough about the context from which items come or about the conventions to which artists had to conform.The geography and climate of a particular civilization and its religious practices may enhance or detract from the quantity and quality of evidence. Fortunately, the dry desert climate of ancient Egypt coupled with the religious beliefs that caused Egyptians to bury many different items in tombs have yielded actual examples of textiles and some garments and accessories.Written records from these ancient civilizations may also contribute to what is known about dress. Such records are often of limited usefulness because they use terminology that is unclear today. They may, however, shed light on cultural norms or attitudes and values individuals hold about aspects of dress such as its ability to show status or reveal personal idiosyncrasies.Common Types of GarmentsAlthough they were used in unique ways, certain basic garment types appeared in a number of the ancient civilizations. In describing these garments, which had different names in different locales, the modern term that most closely approximates the garment will be used here. Although local practices varied, both men and women often wore the same garment types. These were skirts of various lengths; shawls, or lengths of woven fabric of different sizes and shapes that could be draped or wrapped around the body; and tunics, T-shaped garments similar to a loose-fitting modern T-shirt, that were made of woven fabric in varying lengths. E. J. W. Barber (1994) suggests that the Latin word tunica derives from the Middle Eastern word for linen and she believes that the tunic originated as a linen undergarment worn to protect the skin against the harsh, itchy feel of wool. Later tunics were also used as outerwear and were made from fabrics of any available fibers.The primary undergarment was a loincloth. In one form or another this garment seems to have been worn in most ancient world cultures. It appears not only on men, but also is sometimes depicted as worn by women. It generally wrapped much like a baby's diaper, and if climate permitted workers often used it as their sole out-door garment.In most of the ancient world, the most common foot covering was the sandal. Occasionally closed shoes and protective boots are depicted on horsemen. A shoe with an upward curve of the toe appears in many ancient world cultures. This style seems to make its first appearance in Mesopotamia around 2600 B.C.E. and it is thought that it probably originated in mountainous regions where it provided more protection from the cold than sandals. Its depiction on kings indicates that it was associated with royalty in Mesopotamia. It probably came to be a mark of status elsewhere, as well (Born). Similar styles show up among the Minoans and Etruscans.Mesopotamian DressThe Sumerians, as the earliest settlers in the land around the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in what is now modern Iraq, established the first cities in the region. Active from about 3500 B.C.E. to 2500 B.C.E., they were supplanted as the dominant culture by the Babylonians (2500 B.C.E. to 1000 B.C.E.) who in turn gave way to the Assyrians (1000 B.C.E. to 600 B.C.E.).One of the chief products of Mesopotamia, wool, was used not only domestically but was also exported. Although flax was available, it was clearly less important than wool. The importance of sheep to clothing and the economy is reflected in representations of dress. Sumerian devotional or votive figures often depict men or women wearing skirts that appear to be made from sheepskin with the fleece still attached. When the length of material was sufficient, it was thrown up and over the left shoulder and the right shoulder was left bare.Other figures seem to be wearing fabrics with tufts of wool attached, which were made to simulate sheepskin. The Greek word kaunakes has been applied to both sheepskin and woven garments of this type.Additional evidence of the importance of wool fabric comes from archaeology. An excavation of the tomb of a queen from Ur (c. 2600 B.C.E.) included fragments of bright red wool fabric thought to be from the queen's garments.Evidence About DressEvidence for costume in this region comes from depictions of humans on engraved seals, devotional, or votive statuettes of worshipers, a few wall paintings, and statues and relief carvings of military and political leaders. Representations of women are few, and the writings from legal and other documents confirm the impression that women's roles were somewhat restricted.Major Costume FormsIn addition to the aforementioned kaunakes garment, early Sumerian art also depicts cloaks (capelike coverings). Costumes of later periods appear to have grown more complex, with shawls covering the upper body. Skirts, loincloths, and tunics also appear. A draped garment, probably made from a square of fabric 118 inches wide and 56 inches long (Houston 2002), appears on noble and mythical male figures from Sumer and Babylonia. Because the garment is represented as smooth, without folds or drapery, most scholars believe that this unlikely perfection was an artistic convention, not a realistic view of clothing. With this garment men wore a close-fitting head covering with a small brim or padded roll.Women's dress of this period covered the entire upper body. The most likely forms were a skirt worn with a cape that had an opening for the head or a tunic. Other wrapped and draped styles have also been suggested.Transitions from Babylonian to Assyrian rule are not marked by clear changes in style. In time, the Assyrians came to prefer tunics to the skirts and cape styles that were more common in earlier periods. The length of tunics varied with the gender, status, and occupation of the wearer. Women's tunics were full-length, as were those of kings and highly placed courtiers. Common people and soldiers wore short tunics.Fabrics ornamented with complex designs appeared in Assyria. Scholars are uncertain whether the designs on royal costumes are embroidered or woven. Elaborate shawls were wrapped over tunics, and the overall effect was complex and multilayered. Priests selected the most favorable colors and garments for the ruler to wear on any given day.Hairstyles and headdress are important elements of dress and often convey status, occupation, or relate to other aspects of culture. Sumerian men are depicted both clean-shaven and bearded. Sometimes they are bald. In hot climates shaving the head may be a health measure and done for comfort. Both men and women are also shown with long, curly hair, which is probably an ethnic characteristic. Assyrian men are bearded and have such elaborately arranged curls that curling irons may have been used. In art women's hair is shown as either ornately curled or dressed simply at about shoulder length.The status of women apparently changed over time. From laws it is clear that Sumerian and Babylonian women had more legal protections than did Assyrian women. Law codes make reference to veiling and it appears that in Sumerian and Babylonian periods, free married women wore veils, while slaves and concubines were permitted to wear veils only when accompanied by the principal wife. Specific practices as to how and when the veil was worn are not entirely clear; however, it is evident that traditions surrounding the wearing of veils by women have deep roots in the Middle East.Egyptian DressThe civilization of Ancient Egypt came into being in North Africa in the lands along the Nile River when two kingdoms united during a so-called Early Dynastic Period (c. 3200-2620 B.C.E.). Historians divide the history of Egypt into three major periods: Old Kingdom (c. 2620-2260 B.C.E.), the Middle Kingdom (c. 2134-1786 B.C.E.), and the New Kingdom (c.1575-1087 B.C.E.). Throughout this entire period Egyptian dress changed very little.The structure of Egyptian society also seems to have changed little throughout its history. The pharaoh, a hereditary king, ruled the country. The next level of society, deputies and priests, served the king, and an official class administered the royal court and governed other areas of the country. A host of lower level officials, scribes, and artisans provided needed services, along with servants and laborers, and, at the bottom, were slaves who were foreign captives.The hot and dry climate of Egypt made elaborate clothing unnecessary. However, due to the hierarchical structure of society, clothing served an important function in the display of status. Furthermore, religious beliefs led to some uses of clothing to provide mystical protection.Sources of Evidence About DressIt is religious beliefs that have provided much of the evidence for dress of this period. Egyptians believed that by placing real objects, models of real objects, and paintings of daily activities in the tomb with the dead, the deceased would be provided with the necessities for a comfortable afterlife. Depictions and actual items of clothing and accessories were among the materials included. The hot, dry climate preserved these objects. Works of art from temples and surviving inscriptions and documents are additional sources of information.Textile Availability and ProductionLinen fiber, obtained from the stems of flax plants, was the primary textile used in Egypt. Wool was not worn by priests or for religious rituals and was considered "unclean" although the Greek historian Herodotus (c. 490 B.C.E.) reported that he saw wool fabrics in use. From samples of fabric that have been preserved, it is evident that the Egyptians were highly skilled in linen production. They made elaborately pleated fabrics, probably by pressing dampened fabrics on grooved boards. Tapestry woven fabrics appeared after 1500 B.C.E. Beaded fabrics are found in tombs, as are embroidered and appliquéd fabrics.Major Costume FormsDraped or wrapped clothing predominated in Egyptian dress. Lower status men wore the simplest of garments: a loincloth of linen or leather, or a leather network covering a loincloth. Men of all classes wore wrapped skirts, sometimes called schenti, shent, skent, or schent by costume historians. The precise shape of these skirts varied depending on whether the fabric was pleated or plain (more often plain in the Old Kingdom, more likely pleated in the New Kingdom), longer or shorter (growing longer for high status men in the Middle Kingdom and after), fuller (in the New Kingdom) or less full (in the Old Kingdom). Royalty and upper-class men often wore elaborate jeweled belts, decorative panels, or aprons over skirts.Coverings for the upper body consisted of leopard or lion skins, short fabric capes, corselets that were either strapless or suspended from straps, and wide, decorative necklaces. Over time the use of animal skins diminished. These became symbols of power, worn only by kings and priests. Eventually cloth replicas with painted leopard spots replaced the actual skins and seemed to have had a purely ritual use.Tunics appear in Egyptian dress during the New Kingdom, possibly as a result of cross-cultural contact with other parts of the region or the conquest and political dominance of Egypt for a time by foreigners called the Hyksos.Long wrapped garments appear to have been worn by both men and women until the Middle Kingdom, after which they appear only on women, gods, and kings. Instead during the New Kingdom men were shown wearing long, loose, flowing pleated garments, the construction of which is not entirely clear. Shawls were worn as an outermost covering and were either wrapped or tied.Slaves and dancing girls were sometimes shown as being naked or wearing only a pubic band. Laboring women wore skirts when at work. Women, especially those of lower socioeconomic status, wore long, loose tunics, similar to those worn by men. From the writings of Herodotus, it appears this garment was called a kalasiris. Some costume historians have mistakenly used this term to refer to a tightly fitted garment that appears on women of all classes. Although this garment has the appearance of a tightly fitted sheath dress, it is thought that this representation is probably an artistic convention, not a realistic view. The garment was more likely to have been a length of fabric wrapped around the body. Gillian Vogelsang-Eastwood (1993) in an extensive study of garments from Egyptian tombs has found no examples of sheath dresses, but has found lengths of cloth with patterns of wear that are consistent with such wrapped garments.Sheathlike garments are often shown with elaborate patterns. Suggestions for how the patterns were made have included weaving, painting, appliqué, leatherwork, and feathers. The more likely answer is that beaded net dresses, found in a number of tombs, were placed over a wrapped dress.Garments from tombs from the Old Kingdom and after also include simple V-necked linen dresses made without sleeves. A later, sleeved version has a more complex construction that required sewing a tubular skirt to a yoke.Like men, high status women wore long, full, pleated gowns in the New Kingdom. Careful examination of representations of these gowns indicates that the method of draping these garments that was used by women was different from those of men. Like men, women used wrapped shawls to provide warmth or cover.Egyptian jewelry often provided the main sources of color in costume. Wide jeweled collars, jeweled belts and aprons, amulets worn around the neck to ward off evil, diadems with real or jeweled flowers, armlets, bracelets, and, during the New Kingdom, earrings were all part of the repertoire of ornaments available to men and women.Headdress and hair coverings were often used to communicate status. As a result works of art show a wide variety of symbolic styles. The pharaoh wore a crown, the pschent, that was made by combining the traditional crown of Lower Egypt with the traditional crown of Upper Egypt. This crown was a visible symbol of the king's authority over both Upper and Lower Egypt. Other symbolic crowns and headdresses also are seen: the hemhemetcrown, worn on ceremonial occasions; the blue or war crown when going to war; the uraeus, a representation of a cobra worn by kings and queens as a symbol of royal power. The nemes headdress, a scarflike garment fitted across the forehead, hanging down to the shoulder behind the ears, and having a long tail (symbolic of a lion's tail) in back was worn by rulers. Queens or goddesses wore the falcon headdress, shaped like a bird with the wings hanging down at the side of the face.Men, and sometimes women and children, shaved their heads. Although men were clean-shaven, beards were symbols of power and the pharaoh wore a false beard. When artists depict Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh, she, too, is shown with this false beard. The children of the pharaoh had a distinctive hairstyle, the lock of Horus or the lock of youth. The head was shaved, and one lock of hair was allowed to grow on the left side of the head where it was braided and hung over the ear.Minoan DressWhile the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations were flourishing in the Eastern Mediterranean, the island of Crete, farther to the west, was home to the Minoans. This people, named after a legendary king Minos, thrived from about 2900 to 1150 B.C.E.Archaeological evidence provides a glimpse of Minoan and Mycenaean dress. From wall paintings and statuettes scholars have reached some conclusions about clothing of these periods. Archaeologists have determined that both linen and wool were produced. Wall paintings show Minoan textiles with intricate patterns that required both simple and complex weaving processes, embroidery, or painting. Excavations reveal that dyestuffs were imported. And Egyptian wall paintings showing men dressed in Minoan styles lead to the conclusion that Minoan traders brought their textiles to Egypt.Major Costume FormsMinoan dress had some similarities to and some marked differences from other Mediterranean civilizations. Leaping over the horns of bulls was a sport or religious ritual in which both Minoan men and women participated. Wall paintings show that for this sport, both wore loincloths reinforced at the crotch for protection. Minoan men wore skirts that ranged in length from short thigh-length versions with a tassel in the front, to longer lengths that ended below the knee or at the ankle. Skirts that appear to be very similar to the Mesopotamian kaunakes garment are also seen in Minoan art.Ancient Minoan PlaqueWomen, too, wore skirts, but the construction was quite different from those of men. Scholars propose three different skirt types. All are full length. One is a bell-shaped skirt fitted over the hips and flaring to the hem. Another appears to be made of a series of horizontal ruffles widening gradually until they reach the ground, and the third is shown with a line down the center that some have interpreted as depicting a culotte-like, bifurcated skirt. Others see that line as merely showing how the skirt fell. With these skirts women often wore an apronlike overgarment. Arthur Evans, an archaeologist who was one of the earliest to study Cretan sites, suggested that the apron garment was worn for religious rituals and was a vestige of a loincloth worn by men and women in earlier times.With these skirts, the top women wore a garment unique to the Minoans: a smoothly fitted bodice that, if the art is being accurately interpreted, had to have been cut and sewn. Tightly fitted sleeves were sewn or otherwise fastened onto the bodice. It laced or fastened underneath the breasts, leaving the bosom exposed. Authorities do not agree on whether all women bared their breasts. Some believe this style was restricted to priestesses and that ordinary women covered their breasts with a layer of sheer fabric.With skirts or loincloths both men and women wore wide, tight belts with rolled edges. They also wore tunics. Men's were short or long; women's were long. Most of the tunics, as well as bodices and skirts, seem to have had woven patterned braid trimmings covering what appear to be the seam lines or points where garments would have been sewn together.Men and women are both depicted with long or short curly hair. A variety of headwear can be seen in Minoan art, much of which may have been used in religious rituals or to designate status. Women are often shown with their hair carefully arranged and held in place with decorative nets or fillets (bands).Greek DressPorch of the Caryatids built between 421 and 406 BCESOURCEA "dark age" of which little is known separates the Minoan/Mycenaean period from the Archaic Period of Greek history on the mainland. The history of Ancient Greece is generally divided into the Archaic Period (800-500 B.C.E.), the Classical Age (500-323 B.C.E.), and the Hellenistic Period (after 323 B.C.E. to the absorption of Greece by the Romans).Greek sculpture and vase paintings provide numerous illustrations of Greek costume as do some wall paintings. Some even show individuals putting on or taking off clothing; therefore, scholars believe they understand what was worn and how it was constructed. Color of clothing, however, can be problematic. When first created and displayed most sculpture had been painted with colors. Those colors have been bleached away over time. For many years people believed that Greeks wore white almost exclusively. Most vase paintings are not a good source for information about color because the traditions of vase painting showed either black figures on a red background or red figures on a black background. From the few white background vases on which figures were painted in color and from frescoes it is possible to see that Greeks wore a wide range of often vivid colors.Married women in ancient Greece ran the household. They provided for the family's needs for textiles by spinning and weaving. Fibers used included wool, which was produced in Greece. Linen came to Greece by the sixth century B.C.E., probably making its way from Egypt to the Ionian region of Asia Minor, where some Greeks had settled, and from there to the Greek peninsula. Late in Greek history silk evidently came from China by way of Persia, and the Greek island of Cos was known for its silk production. Imported woven silk fabrics were probably unraveled into yarns and then combined with linen yarns and woven into fabrics. In this way, less of the precious silk was needed to make a highly decorative fabric.Dyes were made from plants and minerals. A particularly prized and valuable color was purple, which was obtained from shellfish. Dyeing, bleaching, and some other finishing processes were probably carried out in special facilities, not in the home, because of the noxious fumes they produced. Women were skilled in decorating fabric with embroidery and woven designs. Garments were draped and were most likely woven to the correct size and therefore required little cutting and sewing. Many garments appear to be pleated, so it is likely that there were devices for pressing pleats into fabric and for keeping textiles smooth and flat.Major Costume FormsThe Greek name for the garment roughly equivalent to a tunic was chiton, which is what costume historians now call Greek tunics. Throughout Greek history one form or another of the chiton was the basic garment for men, women, and children. Its size, shape, and methods of fastening varied over time. Even so, the chiton was constructed in much the same way throughout Greek history. A rectangular length of fabric was folded in half lengthwise and placed around the body under the arms with the fold on one side and the open edge on the other. The top of the fabric was pulled up over the shoulder in the front to meet the fabric in the back, and pinned. This was repeated over the other shoulder. This rudimentary garment was belted at the waist. Sometimes the open side was sewn or it may have been pinned or left open. By beginning with this simple garment, variations could be made easily. Often the top edge of the fabric was folded down to form a decorative overfold. The width of the folded section could vary. Belts could be placed at various locations or multiple belts could be used. The method of pinning the shoulder could also change.The names used today for these different styles are not necessarily those given to them by the ancient Greeks, but have been assigned later by costume historians who sometimes differ about terminology. The terms employed here are those that appear to be most commonly accepted.In the Archaic Period, the chiton type garments are known as the chitoniskos and the Doric peplos. Both had the same construction and were made with an overfold that came to about waist length. They appear to have been closely fitted and seem to have been made from patterned wool fabrics. Men wore the chitoniskos, which was usually short and ended between the hip and the thigh. Women wore the Doric peplos, similar in shape and fit but reaching to the floor. The Doric peplos was fastened with a long, sharp, daggerlike decorative pin.Herodotus says that the transition from the Doric peplos to the Ionic chiton came about because the women of Athens were said to have used their dress pins to stab to death a messenger who brought them the news of the resounding defeat of the Athenians in a battle. Herodotus says that the use of these large pins was outlawed, and small fastenings mandated instead.This story may be apocryphal, but it is true that the Ionic chiton did replace the Doric peplos for both men and women soon after 550 B.C.E.The Ionic chiton was made from a wider fabric and was pinned with many small fasteners part or all of the way down the length of the arm. With more fabric in the garment, overfolds were less likely to be used. Instead other shawls or small rectangular garments were placed over the chiton. Many of the wider Ionic chitons appear to be pleated and were most likely made of lighter weight wool or of linen. Styles could be varied by belting the fabric in different ways.Around 400 B.C.E. the Ionic chiton gradually gave way to the Doric chiton. The Doric chiton was narrower and fastened at the shoulder with a single pin very much like a decorative safety pin. The Romans called such pins fibulae and this Latin term is now used for any such pin from ancient times. This garment was more likely than the Ionic chiton to have an overfold. Doric chitons could also be worn with the previously mentioned small draped garments and belted in various ways. They seem to have been made from wool, linen, or silk.Some scholars see the transition from the large, ostentatious Ionic chiton to the simpler Doric chiton as reflecting changes in attitudes and values in Greek society. A. G. Geddes (1987) suggests that in the late fifth century B.C.E. emphasis was being placed on physical fitness (more obvious in the more fitted Doric chiton), equality, and less flaunting of wealth.The Hellenistic chiton appears from around 300 to 100 B.C.E. It was a refinement of the Doric chiton that was narrower, belted just beneath the breasts, and made of lighter weight wool cloth, linen, or silk. It is this chiton that is closest in style to many of the later garment styles that were inspired by the Greek chiton.In general, styles for men and women were very similar, with women's garments reaching to the floor and men's more likely to be short for daily use. A poor man's version of the chiton was the exomis, a simple rectangle of cloth that fastened over one shoulder, leaving the other arm free for easier action.Several garments seem to have been used more by men than women. The himation was a large rectangle of fabric that wrapped around the body. In use from the late fifth century, the garment might be worn alone or over a chiton. It covered the left shoulder, wrapped across the back and under the right arm, then was thrown over the left shoulder or carried across the left arm. For protection against inclement weather and while traveling, men wore a rectangular cloak of leather or wool called the chlamys. It could also be used as a blanket. The petasos, a wide-brimmed hat that offered additional protection against sun or rain was often worn with this cloak.The question of whether married, adult Greek women were required to be veiled when out-of-doors is still debated. Some statues do seem to show this. A respectable married woman's activities were limited; most of her time was spent in the home and she was excluded from men's social gatherings. The women shown socializing with men in Greek art are courtesans or entertainers, not wives. Some scholars believe that when a woman went outside the home, she pulled a mantle or veil over her head to obscure her face. C. Galt (1931) suggests that veiling came to Greece from Ionia in the Middle East about the time the Ionian chiton was adopted.Etruscan DressEtruscan and Greek Warrior OutfitsSOURCEA number of tribes occupied the Italian peninsula. By 800 B.C.E. one of these groups had occupied a fairly large area and had developed an advanced culture and economy. Their burial practices, which included tomb paintings showing daily life, provide good evidence for how they dressed.Trade brought them into close contact with Greece, Greek art, and Greek styles. In some periods Etruscan costume shows more shaping in the sleeves, which flare out at the ends, and a fit that molds the body more closely. Other distinctively Etruscan garments included a tall peaked hat, called a tutulus; shoes with pointed, curved toes; and several different styles of mantles. One especially notable mantle was the tebenna, which was apparently made with curved edges and semicircular in shape. Scholars believe that this mantle was the forerunner of the Roman toga. Even though individual characteristics can be noted for some Etruscan styles, for the most part Etruscan and Greek costumes show so many similarities that Etruscan versions are virtually indistinguishable from the Greek.As the Romans rose to power in Italy, the Etruscans were absorbed into Rome and by the first century B.C.E.no longer existed as a separate culture.Roman DressRoman Emperor Julian the ApostateSOURCEA tribe occupying the hills near the present city of Rome, the Romans gradually came to dominate not only the Italian peninsula, but a vast region including present-day western Europe and large parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Because much of the Mediterranean region had been under the domination of Greece, Greek influences permeated much of Roman life. Dress was no exception. As with the Etruscans, it is often difficult to distinguish between Greek and Roman styles. However, Roman dress is far more likely than Greek to include elements that identify some aspect of the status of the wearer.Not only are there ample works of art remaining from the Roman era, but also literary works and inscriptions in Latin that can be read and understood. Even so, some aspects of Roman dress are not clearly understood. The precise meaning of certain Latin words referring to clothing may not be clear. One example is a man's garment called the synthesis.The synthesis was a special occasion garment, worn by men for dinner parties. The traditional Roman man's garment, the toga, was cumbersome. Romans reclined to eat, and apparently it was difficult to stretch out in a toga, so the synthesis was the solution to this awkwardness. Based on what Roman texts say about the garment, scholars have concluded that it was probably a tunic worn with a shoulder wrap. But there does not appear to be any depiction of the style in Roman art.Wool, linen, and silk were used in Rome and apparently cotton was imported from India around 190 B.C.E. or before. Silk was available only to the wealthy; cotton might be blended with wool or linen. Textiles were not produced in the family home, as in Greece. Instead they were woven by women workers on large estates or by men and women in businesses located throughout the empire. While some clothing was made in the home, ready-to-wear clothing was also available in shops.The Roman version of the chiton was called tunica, from which the word tunic derives. Roman men's tunics ended at about the knee and were worn by all classes of society. Bands of purple that extended vertically from one hem to the other across the shoulder designated rank. Tunics of the Emperor and senators had wider bands; those of knights had narrower bands. Precise placement and width of these bands, called clavi, changed somewhat at different time periods, and after the first century C.E. all male nobles wore these bands. At this time ordinary citizens and slaves had no such insignia, but later they became more common. All male citizens were expected to wear the toga over a tunic.The toga was the symbol of Roman citizenship. It was draped from a semicircle of white wool and placed across the shoulder, around the back, under the right arm, and pulled across the chest and over the shoulder. As previously noted it probably derived from the Etruscan tebenna. Some officials wore special togas and throughout the history of Rome the size, shape, and details of draping did change somewhat.Various types of cloaks and capes, with or without hoods, served to provide cover outdoors. Those worn by the military often identified their rank. The sagum was a red wool cape worn by ordinary soldiers. This term entered into the lexicon of symbols, and when people talked about "putting on the sagum" they meant "going to war."Women's dress in Rome differed only a little from that of Greek women of the Hellenic period. They wore an under tunic, not seen in public, and an over tunic very much like a Greek chiton. A palla, rather similar to a Greek himation, was draped over this. The colors of these layers varied. Opinions differ as to just what the stola with the instita was. Many costume histories use the word stola interchangeably with outer tunic. However, literary works clearly indicate that the garment was associated only with free, married women. Some sources describe the instita as a ruffle at the bottom of the stola or outer tunic. But a careful analysis by Judith Sebesta (1994) leads her to conclude that it is a special type of outer tunic suspended from sewed-on straps.Hairstyles show marked differences from one time period to another. Men are generally bearded during the years of the Republic, clean-shaven during the Empire until the time of the Emperor Hadrian who wore a beard. Each family celebrated the occasion of the first shave for a young boy with a festival at which they placed the hairs in a special container and sacrificed them to the gods.Women's hairsAnne Fogartytyles were relatively simple during the first century C.E., but later grew so very complicated that they required the addition of artificial hair and special curls and braids arranged into towering structures.Literary sources speak of extensive use of makeup by both men and women. Cleanliness was valued and public baths available to all levels of society.The children of Roman citizens dressed like adults. Both boys and girls wore a toga with a purple band around the edge (toga praetexta). Boys wore it until age fourteen to sixteen, after which they wore the citizen's toga (toga pura), and girls gave it up after puberty. Initially this garment was only for the children of noble families, but eventually became part of the dress of all children of Roman citizens. Roman male children also wore a bulla, a ball-shaped neck ornament containing protective charms that was given to them at the time they were named.Both brides and vestal virgins, women whose lives were dedicated to the goddess Vesta, seem to have worn a special headdress. It consisted of pads of artificial hair alternating with narrow bands. A veil was placed over this. For brides the veil was bright orange and a wreath made of orange blossoms and myrtle was set on top of it. This association of veils and orange blossoms with weddings continues until modern times and may have its origin in Roman custom.See also Prehistoric Textiles; Toga.BibliographyGeneral WorksBarber, E. J. W. Prehistoric Textiles. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1991.--. Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1994.Born, W., III. "Footwear of the Ancient Orient." CIBA Review p. 1210.Sichel, Marion. Costume of the Classical World. London: Batsford Academic and Education, 1980.Tortora, Phyllis, and Keith Eubank. Survey of Historic Costume. New York: Fairchild Publications, 1998.Mesopotamian and Egyptian Dress"Herodotus on Egypt." Reprinted in The World of the Past. Vol. 1. Edited by J. Hawkes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.Houston, Mary G. Ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Persian Costume. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2002.Vogelsang-Eastwood, Gillian. Pharaonic Egyptian Clothing. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1993.Minoan and Greek DressEvans, A. "Scenes from Minoan Life." In The World of the Past. Edited by J. Hawkes. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963.Evans, M. M. "Greek Dress." In Ancient Greek Dress. Edited by M. Johnson. Chicago, Illinois: Argonaut, Inc., 1964.Faber, A. "Dress and Dress Materials in Greece and Rome." CIBA Review no. 1 (n.d.): 297.Galt, C. "Veiled Ladies." American Journal of Archeology 35, no. 4 (1931): 373.Geddes, A. G. "Rags and Riches: The Costume of Athenian Men in the Fifth Century." Classical Quarterly 37, no. 2 (1987): 307-331.Houston, Mary G. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Costume. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover Publications, Inc., 2003.Etruscan and Roman DressBonfante, Larissa. Etruscan Dress. 2nd ed. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003.Croom, Alexandra T. Roman Clothing and Fashion. Charleston, S.C.: Tempus Publishing Inc., 2000.Goldman, N. "Reconstructing Roman Clothing." In The World of Roman Costume.Edited by J. L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante, 213-237. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.McDaniel, W. B. "Roman Dinner Garments." Classical Philology 20 (1925): 268Rudd, Niall, trans. The Satires of Horace and Persius. Baltimore, Md.: Penguin Books, 1973.Sebesta, Judith Lynn. "Symbolism in the Costume of the Roman Woman." In The World of Roman Costume. Edited by J. L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante, 46-53. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.--. "Tunica Ralla, Tunica Spissa." In The World of Roman Costume. Edited by J. L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante, 65-76. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.Sebesta, Judith Lynn, and Larissa Bonfante, eds. The World of Roman Costume.Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.Stone, S. "The Toga: From National to Ceremonial Costume." In The World of Roman Costume. Edited by J. L. Sebesta and L. Bonfante, 13-45. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1994.Wilson, Lillian May. The Roman Toga. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1924.--. The Clothing of the Ancient Romans. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1938.China: History of DressBy John S. MajorSOURCEChinese clothing changed considerably over the course of some 5,000 years of history, from the Bronze Age into the twentieth century, but also maintained elements of long-term continuity during that span of time. The story of dress in China is a story of wrapped garments in silk, hemp, or cotton, and of superb technical skills in weaving, dyeing, embroidery, and other textile arts as applied to clothing. After the Chinese Revolution of 1911, new styles arose to replace traditions of clothing that seemed inappropriate to the modern era.Throughout their history, the Chinese used textiles and clothing, along with other cultural markers (such as cuisine and the distinctive Chinese written language) to distinguish themselves from peoples on their frontiers whom they regarded as "uncivilized." The Chinese regarded silk, hemp, and (later) cotton as "civilized" fabrics; they strongly disliked woolen cloth, because it was associated with the woven or felted woolen clothing of animal-herding nomads of the northern steppes.Essential to the clothed look of all adults was a proper hairdo-the hair grown long and put up in a bun or top-knot, or, for men during China's last imperial dynasty, worn in a braided queue-and some kind of hat or other headgear. The rite of passage of a boy to manhood was the "capping ceremony," described in early ritual texts. No respectable male adult would appear in public without some kind of head covering, whether a soft cloth cap for informal wear, or a stiff, black silk or horsehair hat with "wing" appendages for officials of the civil service. To appear "with hair unbound and with garments that wrap to the left," as Confucius put it, was to behave as an uncivilized person. Agricultural workers of both sexes have traditionally worn broad conical hats woven of bamboo, palm leaves, or other plant materials, in shapes and patterns that reflect local custom and, in some cases, ethnicity of minority populations.The clothing of members of the elite was distinguished from that of commoners by cut and style as well as by fabric, but the basic garment for all classes and both sexes was a loosely cut robe with sleeves that varied from wide to narrow, worn with the left front panel lapped over the right panel, the whole garment fastened closed with a sash. Details of this garment changed greatly over time, but the basic idea endured. Upper-class men and women wore this garment in a long (ankle-length) version, often with wide, dangling sleeves; men's and women's garments were distinguished by details of cut and decoration. Sometimes a coat or jacket was worn over the robe itself. A variant for upper-class women was a shorter robe with tighter-fitting sleeves, worn over a skirt. Working-class men and women wore a shorter version of the robe-thigh-length or knee-length-with trousers or leggings, or a skirt; members of both sexes wore both skirts and trousers. In cold weather, people of all classes wore padded and quilted clothing of fabrics appropriate to their class. Silk floss-broken and tangled silk fibers left over from processing silk cocoons-made a lightweight, warm padding material for such winter garmentsMen's clothing was often made in solid, dark colors, except for clothing worn at court, which was often brightly ornamented with woven, dyed, or embroidered patterns. Women's clothing was generally more colorful than men's. The well-known "dragon robes" of Chinese emperors and high officials were a relatively late development, confined to the last few centuries of imperial history. With the fall of the last imperial dynasty in 1911, new styles of clothing were adopted, as people struggled to find ways of dressing that would be both "Chinese" and "modern."Cloth and Clothing in Ancient ChinaThe area that is now called "China" coalesced as a civilization from several centers of Neolithic culture, including among others Liaodong in the northeast; the North China Plain westward to the Wei River Valley; the foothills of Shandong in the east; the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River Valley; the Sichuan Basin; and several areas on the southeastern coast. These centers of Neolithic cultures almost certainly represent several distinct ethnolinguistic groups and can readily be differentiated on the basis of material culture. On the other hand, they were in contact with each other through trade, warfare, and other means, and over the long run all of them were subsumed into the political and cultural entity of China. Thus the term "ancient China" is a phrase of convenience that masks significant regional cultural variation. Nevertheless, some generalizations apply.The domestication of silkworms, the production of silk fiber, and the weaving of silk cloth go back to at least the third millennium B.C.E.in northern China, and possibly even earlier in the Yangtze River Valley. Archaeological evidence for this survives tombs from that era; pottery objects sometimes preserve the imprint of silk cloth in damp clay, and in some cases layers of corrosion on bronze vessels show clear traces of the silk cloth in which the vessels had been wrapped. Silk was always the preferred fabric of China's elite from ancient times onward. As a proverbial phrase put it, the upper classes wore silk, the lower classes wore hempen cloth (though after about 1200 C.E. cotton became the principal cloth of the masses).Depictions of clothed humans on bronze and pottery vessels contemporary with the Shang Dynasty (c. 1550-1046 B.C.E.) of the North China Plain show that men and women of the elite ranks of society wore long gowns of patterned cloth. Large bronze statues from the Sanxingdui Culture of Sichuan, dating to the late second millennium B.C.E., show what appears to be brocade or embroidery at the hemlines of the wearer's long gowns. Later depictions of commoners portray them in short jackets and trousers or loincloths for men, and jackets and skirts for women. Soldiers are shown in armored vests worn over long-sleeved jackets, with trousers and boots.Chinese silk textiles of the later first millennium B.C.E.(the Warring States Period, 481-221 B.C.E.) testify to the possibility of making very colorful and elaborately decorated clothing at the time. Surviving textiles also demonstrate the widespread appeal of Chinese silk in other parts of Asia. Examples of cloth woven in the Yangtze River Valley during the Warring States Period have been discovered in archaeological sites as far away as Turkestan and southern Siberia. Painted wooden figurines found in tombs from the state of Chu, in the Yangtze River Valley, depict men and women in long gowns of white silk patterned with swirling figural motifs in red, brown, blue, and other colors; the gowns are cut in such a way that the left panel wraps over the right one in a spiral that goes completely around the body. The gowns of the women are closed with broad sashes in contrasting colors, while the men wear narrower sashes. Bronze sash-hooks are common in tombs from the second half of the first millennium B.C.E., showing that the style of narrow waist sashes lasted for a long time. Elite burials also demonstrate a long-enduring custom of the wearing of jade necklaces and other jewelry.The Han DynastyUnder the Qin (221-206 B.C.E.) and the Han (206 B.C.E.-7 C.E.; restored 25-220 C.E.), dynasties, China was unified under imperial rule for the first time, expanding to incorporate much of the territory within China's boundaries today. The famous underground terra-cotta army of the First Emperor of Qin gives vivid evidence of the clothing of soldiers and officers, again showing the basic theme of long gowns for elites, shorter jackets for commoners. One sees also that all of the soldiers are shown with elaborately dressed hair, worn with headgear ranging from simple head cloths to formal official caps. Cavalry warfare was of increasing significance in China during the Qin and Han periods; in funerary statuettes and murals, riders are often shown wearing long-sleeved, hip-length jackets and padded trousers.The well-preserved tomb of the Lady of Dai at Mawangdui, near Changsha (Hunan Province, in south-central China) has yielded hundreds of silk dress items and textiles, from spiral-wrapped or right-side-fastening gowns, to mittens, socks, slippers, wrapped skirts, and other garments, and bolts of uncut and unsewn silk. The textiles show a great range of dyed colors and weaving and decorating techniques, including tabby, twill, brocade, gauze, damask, and embroidery. Textual evidence from the Han period shows that government authorities attempted through sumptuary laws to restrict the use of such textiles to members of the elite landowning class, but that townsmen including merchants and artisans were finding ways to acquire and wear them also.The period 220-589 C.E. (that is, from the fall of the Han to the rise of the Sui Dynasty), was one of disunity, when northern China was frequently ruled by dynasties of invaders from the northern frontier, while southern China remained under the control of a series of weak ethnically Chinese rulers. Depictions of dress from northern China thus show a predominance of styles suitable for horse-riding peoples. Elite men are sometimes shown wearing thigh-length wrapped jackets over skirts or voluminous skirtlike trousers. In southern China the traditions of colorful Yangtze River Valley silks predominated (though with a discernible trend toward plainer everyday clothing for elite men). Buddhism arrived in China via Central Asia during the late Han period, prompting the production of typical patchwork Buddhist monks' robes, as well as more formal embroidered or appliqué ecclesiastical garmentsThe Tang DynastySOURCEUnder the Sui (589-618) and Tang (618-907) dynasties, China was reunified and entered upon a period of unprecedented wealth and cultural brilliance. The capital city of Chang'an (now Xi'an) was, during the eighth century, the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the world. It supported a true fashion system, comparable to that of the modern West, in which rapidly-changing prevailing modes were adopted by fashion leaders and widely disseminated by emulation. Hairstyles (including the use of elaborate hairpins and other hair ornaments) and makeup also changed rapidly in fashion-driven patterns. Ceramic statuettes, produced in huge numbers during the Tang for placement in tombs, often depict people in contemporary dress, and thus give direct evidence for the rapid change of fashions at the time.Under the Tang, trade along the Silk Route between China via Central Asia to the Mediterranean world flourished, and influence from Persian and Turkic culture areas had a strong impact on elite fashions in China. Chinese silk textiles of the Tang period show strong foreign influence, particularly in the use of roundel patterns. Young, upper-class women outraged conservative commentators by wearing "Turkish" hip-length, tight-sleeved jackets with trousers and boots; some women even played polo in such outfits. (Women more commonly went riding in long gowns, wearing wide-brimmed hats with veils to guard against sun and dust.) Another women's ensemble consisting of an empire-waisted dress tied just below the bustline with ribbons, and worn with a very short, tight-sleeved jacket. This style would reappear several times in later ages, notably during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); it strongly influenced the development of the Korean national costume, the hanbok.Dancers at court and in the entertainment districts of the capital and other cities were notable trendsetters. In the early eighth century, the fashionable ideal was for slender women wearing long gowns in soft fabrics that were cut with a pronounced décolletage and very wide sleeves, or a décolleté knee-length gown worn over a skirt; by mid century, the ideal had changed to favor distinctly plump women wearing empire-line gowns over which a shawl-like jacket in a contrasting color was worn. One remarkable later Tang fashion was for so-called "fairy dresses," which had sleeves cut to trail far beyond the wearer's hands, stiffened, wing-like appendages at the shoulders, long aprons trailing from the bustline almost to the floor, and triangular applied decorations on the sleeves and down the sides of the skirt that would flutter with a dancer's every movement. "Sleeve dancing" has remained an important part of Chinese performative dance since Tang times. Near the end of the Tang period, dancers also inspired a fashion for small (or small-looking) feet that led to the later Chinese practice of footbinding.The Tang Dynasty was an aristocratic society in which military prowess and good horsemanship were admired as male accomplishments. Depictions of foot soldiers and cavalrymen in scale armor and heavily padded jackets, and officers in elaborate breastplates and surcoats, are common in Tang sculptural and pictorial art.The Song and Yuan DynastiesIn the Song Dynasty (960-1279), influenced by an increasingly conservative Confucian ideology and social changes that saw the gradual replacement of a basically aristocratic society by one dominated by a class of scholar-gentry officeholders, clothing for both men and women at the elite level tended to become looser, more flowing, and more modest than the styles of the Tang. Women, who sometimes had bound feet, stayed home more, and sometimes wore broad hats and veils for excursions outside the home.Portraits of emperors and high-court officials during the Song period show the first use of plain, round-necked robes worn either by themselves or as over-robes above more colorful clothing, and also the first appearance of the "dragon robes" embroidered with roundel figures of dragons as emblems of imperial authority.The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) was the Chinese manifestation of the Mongol Empire conquered by Genghis Khan and ruled by his descendants. Mongol men in China, as well as men of Chinese ethnicity, wore loose robes similar to those of the Song period; horsemen wore shorter robes, trousers, and sturdy boots. Round, helmet-like hats were adopted for official use, replacing the earlier black horsehair or stiffened silk official cap. Women of the Yuan period sometimes wore two or more gowns at once, cut so as to show successive layers of cloth in harmonizing colors at the collars and sleeve-openings; Mongol women also wore high, elaborate headdresses like those of the Mongols' traditional homeland.The Ming and Qing DynastiesIn Ming (1368-1644) times, both men and women wore voluminous clothing, a long robe with wide sleeves for men, a shorter robe worn over a wide skirt for women. In the early and middle Ming, there was a revival of the Tang style of empire-line dresses worn with short jackets, especially for young women. For much of its nearly three centuries of existence, the Ming was a time of prosperity and expanding production of goods of all kinds; there was a concomitant expansion of the type and variety of clothing available to all but the poorest members of society. Cotton, which had been introduced into China during the Song Dynasty, began to be raised extensively in several parts of the country. A short indigo-dyed cotton jacket worn over similar calf-length trousers (for men) or a skirt (for women) became and remained the characteristic dress of Chinese peasants and workers. Cotton batting substituted, in cheaper clothing, for silk floss in padded winter garments.The dragon robe was adopted for standard court wear for emperors, members of the imperial clan, and high officials. The dragon robe evolved a standard vocabulary of motifs and symbols; typically such a robe was embroidered with large dragons, coiling in space and with the head shown frontally, on the chest and back; smaller dragon roundels on the shoulders and on the skirt of the robe; the space around the dragons embroidered with other auspicious symbols, and the bottom hem showing ocean waves and the peak of Mt. Kunlun, the mountain at the center of the world. The background color of the robe indicated rank and lineage, with bright yellow limited to use by the emperor himself. Official court robes for women were similar but decorated with phoenixes (mythical birds depicted as similar to pheasants or peacocks), the feminine yin to the male yang of the dragon. (Hangings, banners, and other decorative items showing both a dragon and a phoenix are wedding emblems.)Associated with the dragon robe and the codification of court attire was the use of so-called "Mandarin squares," embroidered squares of cloth that were worn as badges of office for civil and military officials. These indicated rank in the official hierarchy by a set of sixteen animal or bird emblems-for example, a leopard for a military official of the third rank, a silver pheasant for a civil official of the fifth rank. These embroidered squares were made in pairs to be worn on the back and front of an official's plain over-robe, the front square split vertically to accommodate the robe's front-opening design.The Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) brought new rulers to China-Manchus from the northeast, who overthrew the Ming Dynasty and preserved their hold on imperial power in part by being careful to preserve Manchu dress and other customs in order to keep the small population of conquerors from being submerged culturally by the much more numerous Chinese. The Manchus introduced new styles of clothing for official use; men were to wear short robes with trousers or wide skirts, cut more closely to the body than the flowing Ming styles, fastening at the right shoulder and with a high slit in front to accommodate horse-riding. A distinctive feature of the Manchu robe was its "horseshoe sleeves," designed to cover and protect the back of a rider's hands. Other Manchu styles were the "banner robe" (qipao), a straight-cut long robe worn by Manchu troops, and the "long gown" (chang-shan), a straight, ankle-length garment worn by Manchu women (who wore platform shoes on their unbound feet). Ethnic Chinese women wore loose-fitting jackets over wide skirts or trousers, often cut short enough to reveal the lavishly embroidered tiny shoes of their bound feet.At court, the emperor, his kinsmen, and high officials wore dragon robes, the symbolic elements of which had been elaborately codified in the mid-eighteenth century; other officials wore plain robes with Mandarin squares. For all ranks, conical hats with narrow, upturned brims were worn for official occasions; buttons of precious or semiprecious stones at the hat's peak also indicated the wearer's rank.Throughout China's history, the country's population has included many minority peoples whose language, dress, food, and other aspects of culture have been and remain quite different from those of the Han (Chinese) ethnic majority.Chinese Dress in the Twentieth CenturySOURCEAfter the Nationalist Revolution of 1911, it was widely felt in China that, after a century of foreign intrusion and national decline, the country needed to rid itself of old customs in order to compete with the other nations of the modern world. Thus began a search for new styles of clothing that were both "modern" and "Chinese." The simple adoption of Western clothing was not a popular choice; foreign menswear was associated with Chinese employees of foreign companies, who were derided for being unpatriotic; fashionable Western women's clothing struck many Chinese as both immodest and odd. Loose, baggy Western dresses introduced at some missionary schools in China were modest but unattractive.Many men continued to wear a form of traditional clothing until the mid-twentieth century-a plain, blue, long gown for scholars and older, urban men, jacket and trousers of indigo-dyed cotton for workers. But among urban elites, there emerged in the 1910s a new outfit, based on Prussian military dress and seen first in China in school and military-cadet uniforms; this had a fitted jacket fastened with buttons in front, decorated with four pockets, and made "Chinese" by the use of a stiff, high "Mandarin" collar, worn over matching trousers. This suit was often made, Western-style, in woolen cloth, the first time that wool had ever been the basis of an important Chinese garment type. This outfit became known as the Sun Yat-sen suit, after the father of the Chinese revolution.Several proposals for creating a modern women's dress for China met with little enthusiasm, but in China's cities, and especially in Shanghai, women and their dressmakers were trying out a modern variation of Manchu dress that was to have lasting consequences. The Manchu "banner robe" (qipao) and "long gown" (changshan, generally known in the West by its Cantonese pronunciation, cheongsam) were adapted by fashionable women to be somewhat more tightly fitting, with a closure folded left-over-right to the shoulder, then down the right seam, often fastened with decorative "frogs" (cloth buttons and loops), and sometimes with a slit to knee height. This new style, in colorful silk, rayon, or printed cotton, was widely publicized in "calendar girl" advertising prints of the 1920s and 1930s, and soon became firmly entrenched as China's appropriately modern women's wear. The qipao (or cheongsam) continued to evolve to become more form fitting, and by the mid-twentieth century was widely accepted, both in China and the West, as China's "traditional" women's dress.For a few years after the Communist revolution of 1949, older forms of dress, including the man's long "scholar's robe" and the women's qipao, continued to be worn in China. But by the late 1950s, there was strong political and social pressure for people to dress in "modest, revolutionary" styles-the Sun Yat-sen suit (usually in blue cotton, now beginning to be known as a "Mao suit"), or as an alternative, a modest blouse and calf-length skirt. By the time of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), the qipao had been denounced as "feudal," and the wearing of the blue Mao suit was nearly obligatory.Fashion made a cautious return to China in 1978, with the promulgation of the post-Mao "Four Modernizations" program of economic reform. By the early 1980s, fashion magazines had resumed publication, fashion shows were held in major cities, and fashion design and related subjects were beginning to be taught once again at the high school and college level. The qipao also has had a revival, both in China and in overseas Chinese communities, as formal wear that conveys a sense of ethnic pride, and as "traditional" dress worn by women in the hospitality industry. But in general, Chinese dress today is a reflection of global fashion. By the turn of the twenty-first century, prestigious international brands were a common sight in the shopping districts of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, and other major cities, and Chinese consumers were participating fully in international fashion. Meanwhile China had become the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of garments.See also East Asia: History of Dress; Footbinding; Mao Suit; Qipao; Silk.BibliographyChinese Clothing: An Illustrated GuideSOURCECammann, Schuyler, R. China's Dragon Robes.New York: Ronald Press Company, 1952.Finnane, Antonia. "What Should Chinese Women Wear? A National Problem." Modern China 22, no. 2 (1996): 99-131.--, and Anne McLaren, eds. Dress, Sex and Text in Chinese Culture. Melbourne: Monash Asia Institute, 1998.Garrett, Valery M. Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994.Ng Chun Bong, et al., eds. Chinese Woman and Modernity: Calendar Posters of the 1910s-1930s. Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1995.Roberts, Claire, ed. Evolution and Revolution: Chinese Dress, 1700s-1990s. Sydney: The Powerhouse Museum, 1997.Scott, A. C. Chinese Costume in Transition. Singapore: Donald Moore, 1958.Steele, Valerie, and John S. Major. China Chic: East Meets West. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1999.Szeto, Naomi Yin-yin. Dress in Hong Kong: A Century of Change and Customs. Hong Kong: Museum of History, 1992.Vollmer, John E. In the Presence of the Dragon Throne: Ch'ing Dynasty Costume (1644-1911) in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1977.Wilson, Verity. Chinese Dress. London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd. in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986.Zhou Xun and Gao Chunming. 5000 Years of Chinese Costumes. San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, 1987.East Asia: History of DressBy John S. MajorSOURCEEast Asia includes the present countries of China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam (the latter also can be considered part of Southeast Asia), along with adjacent areas of Inner Asia that have historically sometimes been part of the Chinese empire and often have been heavily culturally influenced by China. These regions include Manchuria (now the three northeastern provinces of China); Mongolia (including the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region of China and the independent Republic of Mongolia); East Turkestan (now the Chinese province of Xinjiang); and Tibet (now the Tibet Autonomous Region of Chhia, plus adjacent areas of the provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan).China was historically the dominant presence in East Asia, by virtue of size, population, and wealth; China regarded itself as the center of the world, the fountainhead of culture, and a beacon of civilization to surrounding peoples. Surrounding peoples did not necessarily share that assessment, but they could not avoid, and often did not wish to avoid, the influence of Chinese culture. The importance of silk in the history of East Asian dress is both evidence and metaphor for China's cultural domination of the region.Silk, produced in parts of China since at least the third millennium B.C.E., was the favored textile material of China's elite thereafter (commoners wore hempen cloth in ancient times, cotton increasingly after about 1200 C.E.). Both the technology of silk production and the cultural preference for wearing silk were exported from China to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam in the early centuries C.E.Silk cloth (but not, except by accident or industrial espionage, silk technology) was exported regularly and in large quantities from China to Central and Western Asia along the Silk Route beginning in the first century B.C.E.The cultural frontier is a very old one. Around 1000 B.C.E., near the Tarim Basin in East Turkestan (now Xinjiang Province, China), the easternmost representatives of the Celtic people were weaving woolen twill cloth in plaid patterns indistinguishable from those made by Celts in Europe at the same time. A thousand miles to the east, the kings of China's Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-781 B.C.E.), in their capital city near present-day Xi'an, clothed themselves in richly patterned silks woven in royal workshops. The border between the Chinese culture and the Inner Asian culture areas may thus be thought of as the border between silk and wool, with Chinese silk serving to create trade connections between the two cultures.ChinaThe basic garment of China, for both sexes, was a robe-like or tunic-like wrapped garment. Elites wore robes, preferably of silk, that were wrapped around the body and tied closed with a waist sash. Such robes were either long enough to require no lower garments or somewhat shorter (e.g. thigh length) and worn over trousers or a skirt. Trousers and skirts were not closely tied to gender and were worn by both men and women. Both sexes considered it socially essential to wear their hair bound up in a topknot or other dressed style, and covered with a head cloth or hat of some kind. Elite women favored highly colorful patterned silk cloth for their clothing. Fashion in women's clothing went through an era of rapid change during the Tang Dynasty (618-907), when a wealthy and cosmopolitan imperial culture stimulated consumption and emulation, and novelty was supplied by cultural influences, via the Silk Route, of Persian and Turkic peoples.Chinese couple, circa 1880Elite men's clothing in ancient times was also often quite colorful, but men's clothing tended to become more somber and plain-colored in later periods. This trend toward plainer clothing was offset, however, by the development, from the late Song Dynasty (twelfth century) onward, of the "dragon robe" for use as court dress.Commoners generally wore short robes or jackets over trousers or leggings; women sometimes wore skirts, and men sometimes wore only a loincloth as a lower garment, particularly when doing heavy agricultural work. Cavalry became an important part of the Chinese military from the late first millennium B.C.E. onward, and cavalrymen typically wore short wrapped jackets or short robes over trousers.The dragon robes of late imperial China conveyed, through color and design details, precise information about the rank of those who wore them. Similar information for lower-ranking officials was conveyed through Mandarin squares, embroidered cloth badges that showed a wearer's civil service rank and were worn on the front and back of official robes.Chinese dress changed radically after the end of the imperial period in 1911. A new form of men's clothing, called the Sun Yat-sen suit, developed on the basis of European military uniforms and won widespread acceptance; this suit had a jacket with a high, stiff "mandarin" collar, four pockets, and a buttoned front, with trousers in matching cloth. A new women's dress, called the qipao or cheongsam, evolved in Shanghai and other Chinese cities in the 1920s and 1930s; it was based on a restyling of the Manchu long gown of China's last imperial era, the ethnically Manchu Qing Dynasty. After the Communist revolution of 1949, the Sun Yat-sen suit evolved into the ubiquitous blue cotton Mao suit worn by both sexes; the qipao fell into disfavor in Communist China. It has since had a modest revival as formal wear. In general, however, traditional dress has disappeared in China, except among China's ethnic minorities, some of whom retain traditional or quasi-traditional dress styles as markers of ethnic identity.Many "national minority" groups exist in China, the majority of them concentrated in the southern and southwestern provinces of Guangxi, Guizhou, and Yunnan. Important minority groups include the Zhuang, Miao, Yao, and Dai, among many others. Some are ethnolinguistically akin to Austronesian-speaking populations of Southeast Asia, such as the Shan of Burma (Myanmar) and the Hmong of Vietnam and Laos. The dress of these minority peoples varies widely, but often (as in the case of the Miao) features black-dyed cotton tunics worn with skirts or trousers and ornamented with colorful embroidery and sewn-on silver coins or beads. Women of the Dai minority wear fitted blouses with wrapped skirts similar to the lungyi (sarongs) commonly worn by Burmese women.VietnamModern woman in ao daiSOURCEHistorically, Vietnam can be divided into three regions: from north to south, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China. The northern and central regions were strongly influenced by Chinese culture while vigorously resisting Chinese conquest or political domination over the course of many centuries. Elite dress for both sexes was based on Chinese models, with males of the ruling class wearing plain long robes for ordinary wear and dragon robes or robes with Mandarin squares for official use. Women's dress strongly reflected Chinese women's fashionable attire. Working people of both sexes wore dark, wrapped jackets with skirts for women or short trousers for either sex-the "black pajamas" of Vietnam peasants that became an iconic image for Americans during the Vietnam War.Culturally, southern Vietnam-Cochin China-was more closely related to Southeast Asia, and especially Cambodia, than to China. That was reflected in local dress, which featured wrapped skirts (sarongs) for both men and women, with wrapped upper garments for women and light, shirtlike jackets (or no upper garment) for men.Under French colonial rule, from the 1860s to the 1950s, some elite men wore variant or hybrid forms of European dress, and some women of the same classes wore fashionable Western dress. Partly in response to this Westernization of Vietnamese dress, a new women's ensemble, the ao dai, evolved in the early twentieth century. It features a blouse worn above loose silk trousers, the whole outfit topped with a long, loose tunic open to the hip at each side. Though a recent innovation, the ao dai was accepted as a "traditional" and national dress by the mid-twentieth century and had retained that role.KoreaKorean national dress for both men and women is known as hanbok, which simply means "Korean robe." The traditional men's ensemble, which is related to clothing of Manchuria and the steppe lands beyond but has no close connections to Chinese men's clothing, consists of a wrapped short jacket worn over voluminously baggy trousers tucked into black felt boots, the whole outfit topped with a stiff silk gauze coat in some light color, such as pale green or pale blue. A stiff black horsehair or straw hat completes the outfit.The woman's hanbok, in contrast, is probably derived from a Tang Dynasty women's fashion for high-waisted dresses worn with a short jacket (or from a later Chinese revival of that Tang style). It consists of a skirt or very wide trousers worn with a long-sleeved wrapped top tied with a ribbon just below the bustline, the whole outfit covered with a silk gauze overskirt. The woman's hanbok has undergone numerous changes in style over the course of time. A simplified version has been revived in Korea as a form of national dress that is considered beautiful, patriotic, and feminine.JapanJapan began to be influenced strongly by continental culture from Korea, and from China via Korea, by the end of the third century C.E., and increasingly with the introduction of Buddhism in the mid-sixth century. Soon domestically produced silk fabric competed with imported Chinese and Korean textiles, though the latter retained high prestige value. In the aristocratic culture of the Nara (710-785) and Heian (795-1185) periods, fashion was thoroughly assimilated to Japanese cultural norms and was expressed in details such as color, cut, and decorative motifs in clothing that retained always the basic theme of the wrapped long robe. Men wore long robes of patterned silk or, for riding and other activities, shorter wrapped jackets over wide, baggy trousers of matching or contrasting material. Women of that era wore multiple layers of wrapped robes, cut so as to reveal each layer beneath the last; the tasteful blending of colors of such layered ensembles was an admired feminine accomplishment.During the era of rule by a warrior aristocracy (samurai) that began in 1185 and lasted for nearly 700 years, clothing for both men and women evolved toward the T-shaped wrapped garment known as the kimono, in which elements of taste were expressed more in textile elements than by the cut or style of the garment itself. Fashion and style found expression in dyed, woven, or embroidered fabrics of sumptuous quality and fantastic variety; the wearing of an embroidered family crest at the nape of the neck by families with the right to do so; the choice of fabric and tying technique of the wide obi sash used to fasten a woman's kimono, and so on. Kimonos were displaced for most purposes by ordinary western-style clothing in the post-World War II period, and afterward were largely worn only as formal wear and on special occasions.Clothing of working-class Japanese in premodern times was made of hempen cloth or, from about the sixteenth century onward, of cotton, usually indigo-dyed using techniques that are now much admired by connoisseurs of folk textiles. Traditional working-class garb survives in some rural Japanese communities as a somewhat self-conscious expression of conservative values.Inner AsiaMongol in traditional deelSOURCEThe three northeastern provinces of China that formerly made up Manchuria, barely retain a separate ethnic tradition, and there are only a few thousand remaining native speakers of Manchu. Traditional clothing has largely disappeared.Mongolia, in contrast, retains a vigorous national culture, both in the independent Republic of Mongolia and in the ethnically Mongol region of the Chinese Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region. The national dress of Mongolia for both sexes, called the deel, is a wrapped robe, preferably of colorfully patterned silk (imported from China), closed with a long sash at the waist, worn over trousers for riding, and sometimes worn with a silk sleeveless vest. For cold-weather wear the deel is padded with cotton or silk floss and sometimes lined with fur. In all seasons it is worn with heavy leather boots. Mongol women traditionally wore extremely elaborate headdresses set with silver ornaments, in styles that were identified with particular tribes and clans. Men, too, wore hats distinctive of clan affiliation, and the hat played a singular role as the repository of male honor; to knock off or even to touch a man's hat without permission was to invite violent retaliation.An unusual and distinctive item of Mongolian dress is the costume worn by men for wrestling-one of the "three manly sports" (along with riding and archery) of Mongol tradition. It consists of very tight short shorts, ordinary heavy Mongolian leather boots, and a tight-fitting, vestlike top that covers the shoulders, upper back, and upper arms, but leaves the chest bare.In East Turkestan (now Xinjiang Province, China), the non-Chinese indigenous population consists largely of Uighurs and Kazakhs, both Turkic peoples ethnically akin to other Turkic peoples of Central Asia. Traditional dress varied widely among specific groups but tended toward wrapped, coatlike outer garments worn over a shirt and trousers, for men; and blouses, voluminous skirts, and long vests for women. Many men of the region wear the small, round, embroidered caps found widely among Central Asian peoples. Today, because the Islamic belief of these groups is seen as a bulwark against Chinese cultural hegemony, there is an increasing trend among Uighur and Kazakh women to wear international Islamic hijab clothing, which consists of a shapeless outer garment and head-scarf.Tibet, now the Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, retains a strong indigenous dress tradition. The basic garment for both sexes is the chupa, a narrowly cut, long, side-closing wrapped garment bound at the waist with a sash. Men often wear a sheepskin coat over the chupa, leaving the right arm out of its sleeve and the right side of the coat pulled down off the shoulder-this is supposedly to facilitate knife-or sword-fighting should the need arise. An alternative women's ensemble consists of a loose, long-sleeved blouse, a dress, often of plain black cotton, with a sleeveless jumper top and a skirt that wraps in back and ties at the waist with cords, giving a trim line to the garment. It is worn with an apron sewn from several strips of multicolored, horizontally-striped cloth-a badge of married status for women. As in many cultures with a tradition of pastoral nomadism, Tibetan women often wear a wealth of jewelry, favoring in particular silver ornaments set with turquoise, coral, and lapis lazuli.See also Central Asia: History of Dress; South Asia: History of Dress; China: History of Dress; Hijab; Japanese Traditional Dress and Adornment; Kimono; Korean Dress and Adornment; Qipao.BibliographyCrihfield, Lisa Dalby. Kimono: Fashioning Culture. Rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.Fairservis, Walter, Jr. Costumes of the East. New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1971.Garrett, Valery M. Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1994.Kennedy, Alan. Japanese Costume: History and Tradition. New York: Rizzoli, 1990.Roberts, Claire, ed. Evolution and Revolution: Chinese Dress, 1700s-1990s. Sydney: The Powerhouse Museum, 1997.Vollmer, John E. In the Presence of the Dragon Throne: Ch'ing Dynasty Costume (1644-1911) in the Royal Ontario Museum. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1977.Wilson, Verity. Chinese Dress. London: Bamboo Publishing Ltd. in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986.Xun, Zhou, and Gao Chunming. 5000 Years of Chinese Costumes. San Francisco: China Books & Periodicals, 1987.Yang, Sunny. Hanbok: The Art of Korean Clothing. Elizabeth, N.J.: Hollym International, 1998.Japanese Traditional Dress and AdornmentBy Alan KennedySOURCEJapan, an archipelago consisting of four principal islands situated off the east coast of the Asian mainland, was a relative latecomer in terms of both receiving from the outside and nurturing at home a rich and sophisticated material culture. Whereas ample archaeological evidence exists in China of extant garments, ceramic sculptures, and tomb paintings, giving a credible view of Chinese costume history across several centuries before the advent of the Common Era, a verifiable history of Japanese dress does not begin until the eighth century C.E.Speculative Early History of JapanApart from its indigenous peoples, Japan was populated by successive waves of immigrants from China, Korea,Southeast Asia, Central and North Asia, and possibly Polynesia. Native textile fibers were processed from the inner bark of trees and plants, and weaving was done on a backstrap loom. Textile technology continually advanced as the result of immigration, with the production of silk presumably established by the third century. Silk remains the fiber of choice for traditional Japanese dress.The archaeological record in Japan yields little in the way of human imagery until the fifth century C.E. Prior to that time representations of stick figures found on pottery shards and bronze bells allow for the hypothesis that a long tunic-like garment, belted at the waist, may have been a common form of dress.In the fifth and sixth centuries, large quantities of haniwa, terra-cotta tomb sculptures, were produced for important burials. Male figures are often depicted wearing tight, body-hugging, long-waisted jackets flared at the sides with long tubular sleeves and baggy pants secured with ties just above the knees. Such garb is reminiscent of the practical wear of horse-riding, nomadic steppe peoples from the Asian mainland. The horsemen required full mobility of arms and legs to guide their mounts and tightly fit garments for warmth in the cold, wind-swept northern latitudes. Loose-fitting, wide-sleeved, floor-length Chinese robes, the other dominant elite mode of dress on the continent, were the antithesis of this kind of nomadic clothing.Typical female haniwa figures wear an upper garment resembling the men's jacket and a skirt, rather than trousers. It is important to note that haniwa jackets tend to be fastened in a sequence that places the right front panel over the left panel, after which the ties are secured at the right side of the jacket. This was considered a barbaric practice by the Chinese, whose robes were closed left side over right. Japanese dress was to mimic the Chinese mode in this and in other ways soon thereafter.It is doubtful that haniwa dress was widespread in Japan during the fifth and sixth centuries. Such dress would not be suitable for Japan's long months of warm and humid weather, and a life on horseback would have been unlikely in mountainous Japan. Judging from the large number of extant haniwa horse figures, a horse-riding elite may well have established itself in Japan during this period, perhaps after an incursion from the Asian mainland, but their way of dressing was not to prevail.Asuka and Nara PeriodsThe year 552 is considered the official date for the introduction of Buddhism in Japan and marked the first year of the Asuka period (552-710). Buddhism had its origins more than a thousand years earlier in India, spread to China by the beginning of the Common Era, and finally reached Japan by way of Korea. One of the important cultural advances that arrived with Buddhism was literacy. The Japanese employed the Chinese writing system based on ideograms.Japan's native religion, Shintoism, coexisted with Buddhism, in keeping with a continuous theme in Japanese history of borrowing from the outside while preserving the most valued native traditions and ultimately transforming foreign ways into something uniquely Japanese.The history of Buddhist dress in Japan, as embodied in the religion's principal ritual garment, a patchwork mantle (kesa), illustrates the theme of importation and adaptation. Kesa are among the oldest extant garments in Japan. As the physical manifestation of Buddhist teachings, examples were brought from the Asian mainland in order to aid in the implantation of the religion on Japanese soil. In later times, certain kesa tested the limits of the garment's parameters in a uniquely Japanese way.Another early group of costumes in Japan were used during performances and ceremonies commemorating an enormous bronze Buddha completed in 752, midway through the Nara period (710-794). Dignitaries from various Asian countries came to Nara, then the capital of Japan, to attend. These costumes, along with most of the early kesa, have been preserved in the famous temple storehouse known as the Shôsôin.The Shôsôin performance wear is mostly left-closing and includes both knee-length sleeveless vests and long-sleeved full-length robes. Collars are either narrow and round or V-neck, with front panels that either abut or overlap. Both figural and geometric decorations, in either woven or dyed patterns, are part of the rich legacy of this diverse group of silk robes. Also included are trousers and accessories such as leggings, socks, shoes, and aprons.Other costumes in the Shôsôin include robes worn by craftsmen, similar in cut to the full-length robes with the round collars mentioned above, but in hemp rather than silk; robes with wide flaring sleeves; and even archaic, right-closing haniwa-style costumes.The Shôsôin costumes are very likely representative of diverse types of Asian dress then in use, and any number of them may well have been made outside of Japan. In later Japanese traditional dress, several of these early modes of clothing were to be reflected in the costumes of the No theater.According to period documents, dress at Japan's imperial court followed that of China's at this time, with rank indicated by color. Contemporary pictorial representations depict both male and female courtiers in long flowing robes with voluminous sleeves ample enough in length to cover the hands. A characteristic of male dress was a close-fitting, narrow, round collar, while female dress featured wide front panels that overlapped in the left-over-right sequence. Women's court dress also included one or more underrobes that closed in the same manner.Heian PeriodKyoto became the new imperial capital at the end of the eighth century, marking the beginning of the long and relatively peaceful Heian era (794-1185). Japan's previous periods of intensive cultural absorption from the Asian mainland was followed by the internal development and refinement of foreign ways combined with native sensibilities.A costume history of this period cannot be based on extant garments, as extremely few examples have survived. Knowledge of Heian dress is largely derived from pictorial representations, wardrobe records, and two of the earliest novels in world literature-the Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki Shikibu, and the Pillow Book by Sei Shônagon.The novels describe the insular world of the imperial court and its daily life full of intrigue, poetry, wit, romance, and a remarkably refined way of dressing. Women wore layer upon layer of silk robes, with only the edges of individual robes being revealed at the sleeve ends, collar, and hem, and the outermost robe setting the overall tone for the color scheme. A woman's taste and sensitivity was displayed by her choice of color combinations in selecting the various robes for the ensemble in accordance with the season, an occasion, or a prevailing mood. Further articles of clothing, such as a jacket, skirt-like pants (hakama), and an apron worn at the back completed women's court dress.The robe, presumably worn closest to the body in this ensemble, is considered the precursor to the Edo period (1603-1868) kosode in terms of construction and shape. This innermost garment had an overall T-shape composed of square- or rectangular-shaped sleeves with narrow openings for the hands. These sleeves attached to long, straight lengths of cloth composing the body of the robe. A relatively wide, flat collar and lapels were sewn to the inner edges of the body panels at the front of the garment. This article of clothing conforms to the present-day kimono.Male dress of the Heian period retained the narrow, round tunic-like collar reflecting the earlier period of influence from the Asian mainland, and men also wore a skirt-like trouser and an underrobe or two. Sleeve shape departed from previous mainland models in that a square or rectangular shape came to dominate, and a single sleeve could be as wide as the entire body of a garment. In the wearing of such a robe, the bottoms of the sleeves, which were unsewn at their extremities, could practically sweep the ground.It is also during this period that family crests are thought to have first appeared on clothing. Some Heian costume types have persisted to the present day as seen in imperial court wear, religious dress, and costumes of the No theater.Kamakura PeriodDuring the latter part of the twelfth century, the base of power in Japan shifted away from the increasingly decadent, self-absorbed imperial court in Kyoto to provincial military clans who chose the town of Kamakura as their headquarters. There are few extant garments from the Kamakura era (1185-1333), and the period literature is not very rich on the subject of costume. However, well-detailed surviving paintings do give an idea of dress at that time.Women's clothing was less encumbered by exaggerated multilayering, and large-scale dyed patterns appear on some female outer robes. Pattern-dyed designs were to become one of the most important creative expressions in later Japanese dress. Expressions of originality in men's clothing also began to be manifest through the use of outscaled motifs and the splicing together of pieces from two completely different robes in order to create a startling new costume. Buddhist sects (such as Zen), previously unknown in Japan, were introduced from the Asian mainland, which resulted in the importation of kesamade from certain luxurious types of textiles otherwise unavailable to the Japanese. Earlier kesa were, on the whole, more humble in appearance.Nambokuchô, Muromachi and Momoyama PeriodsThe imperial city of Kyoto became the capital again with the advent of the Nambokuchô era (1333-1392), a period marked by clashes between rival military clans. Warfare continued during the subsequent Muromachi period (1392-1568). Since the advent of the Kamakura era, the imperial family had ruled in name only; the shogun, as the supreme military power, wielded the real power.In regard to cultural matters, the imperial court ceased to be in the vanguard. Elite members of the military class and high-ranking Buddhist monks were the leading practitioners of the newly established and extremely aesthetic tea ceremony. The shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) was the first important patron of the No theater.Costumes of the No theater continued to exist in a wide variety of different types through the early twenty-first century. During the initial centuries of the all-male theatrical form, actors wore garments donated from the wardrobes of their elite patrons. By the Edo period (1603-1868), No costumes were being made specifically for use on the stage; however, for the most part the costume styles did not change and continued to reflect the clothing of earlier periods.Within the broad category of No robes called ôsode, a term referring to tall and wide sleeves that are left unsewn at their ends, are certain types of robes long since obsolete in Japan, except within the most conservative and traditional spheres of Japanese life, such as imperial court rites and Shinto rituals.Often making use of gold threads in the form of flat, gilded narrow strips of paper, along with silk threads, ôsode costumes always have woven designs. These designs can be quite bold in scale and composition, though their coloration is more reserved, usually limited to just one color for the silk. The No theater also preserves the skirt-like trousers (hakama) of earlier times, and the layered wearing of costumes, with an ôsode robe typically worn as an outer robe.The other principal category of No costumes features robes with sleeves shorter in height and width relative to ôsode sleeves. The sleeves are also rounded off at their bottommost outer edges rather than having a right angle as in ôsode. Sleeve ends are sewn up, allowing just enough of an opening for the hands to pass through. The name for this general category of No costumes is kosode. The same term had been used for the plain silk robe worn next to the skin and under layers of voluminous garments in the Heian period.During the Muromachi period, the kosode literally emerged as acceptable outerwear. What had previously been private intimate wear was now permissible outside of domestic interiors. This form of dress became the principal vehicle for the expression of changing fashions and styles.During the Edo period, most kosode-category costumes still preserved Muromachi and Momoyama period styles. Archaic styles that persisted included the use of heavy, ornate brocade fabric, extensive gilding, the splicing together of two completely different kinds of fabric in one robe, and an empty-center composition that concentrates the design motifs at the shoulders and hem of the robe. Such costumes did, however, change their over-all sleeve shape from oblong to squarish in response to an Edo period trend, and certain No robes with embroidered designs were occasionally influenced by contemporary fashion styles.Extant No costumes date as far back as the latter part of the Muromachi period. No robes were still being made in the early twenty-first century, and some of the modern producers made use of traditional hand weaving and natural dyeing techniques.For the purpose of providing comic relief from the tragedy and melancholy of No, kyôgenplays were traditionally performed along with No plays. Costumes for kyôgen reflect lower-class dress and are made of bast fibers (usually hemp or ramie) rather than silk, use no gold threads or gilding, and are patterned by means of dyeing-unlike No robes with their woven, embroidered, or gilded designs. Extant kyôgen costumes do not predate the Edo period.In the 1540s, when the first Europeans reached Japan, the country was in the midst of protracted civil war. This combination of turbulent times and a new wave of foreign influence led to the creation of some astonishing examples of samurai-class dress. Western-style tailoring and the newly imported "exotic" fabrics of European woolen cloth, Indian cotton chintz, and even Persian silk tapestry can be seen in several extant jimbaori (a type of vest worn over armor).Further creativity in male dress is evident in some short kosode-shaped garments (dôfuku) associated with the leading military figures of the sixteenth century. These robes exhibit unconventional motifs and surprising color combinations.Edo PeriodThree successive military leaders were to emerge as unifiers of war-torn Japan. An enduring peace was finally established by the last of the three, Ieyasu Tokugawa. A new capital was established in Edo (later known as Tokyo), and all of the subsequent shoguns were supplied by the Tokugawa clan ruling from Edo while the imperial court remained in Kyoto. Japan entered a period of isolation, during which time the new religion of Christianity was suppressed, travel to and from Japan was prohibited, and foreign trade came under strict controls.Conservative dress became the norm for the samurai class. Men's formal wear consisted of a short vest with winglike shoulders and the traditional hakama, with both garments made from a bast fiber patterned with tiny repeat motifs and invariably dyed blue. The samurai had no more wars to fight, though armor and its associated vest continued to be made. Although creative examples of the vest were still produced, samurai were not encouraged to dress like dandies.The greatest creativity in dress during the Edo period was manifest in the kosode. Much of the impetus for transforming this garment into such a fashion-conscious form of dress came from the newly rich merchant class, which was, nevertheless, at the bottom of the social hierarchy.Whereas the No theater was the preserve of the upper classes, Kabuki theater was the performance art for the nouveau-riche merchants. Most Kabuki costumes have the standard T-shape of kosode; however, their coloration tends toward the garish and their design motifs can be overwhelming in scale. For example, a giant lobster might cover the entire back of a robe.Leading Kabuki actors (also an all-male theatrical form) became wildly popular, their faces and dress disseminated in myriad woodblock prints. However, their costumes tended to be too outlandish to influence fashion, other than by popularizing a particular shade of a color or a certain motif. Kabuki costumes of the early twentieth century continued to resemble those of the Edo period.Buddhist clergy ranked high on the social scale and were given administrative powers and official support under the Tokugawa government, enabling them to share in the general prosperity. The most unusual tendency seen in kesa, the patchwork garment, was a pictorial impulse that resulted in examples being woven, embroidered, or painted with such narrative representational imagery as birds and animals in landscape settings, gatherings of divinities, and even flower arrangements. Two of the methods used to satisfy token adherence to the patchwork tradition involved the stitching of cording or the drawing of lines onto the garment in order to create the impression of a pieced construction. As the kesa is a flat, wide, horizontal-oriented, usually rectangular-shaped garment, an inspiration for this new style in surface design was quite likely to have been the broad painted screens widely in use during the Edo period.The kesa also reflected fashionable taste in a more indirect way as a result of the custom for lay Buddhists to donate valuable clothing to temples. The garments would be unstitched, cut up, and remade into Buddhist robes. Other kesa were assembled from rich brocades, which were being woven domestically, as the Japanese textile industry had, by this time, absorbed the foreign skills and technology necessary for the weaving of luxury textiles.The extravagant tendencies in kesa led at least one Buddhist sect to make an austere, monochromatic, unpatterned vestment in a bast fiber. Although there were no new innovative styles, kesa-in the early 2000s-reflected all of the variety seen in the Edo-period examples. However, several early twenty-first-century textile artists in the West have made creative works inspired by the traditional form of the kesa.Meiji PeriodJapan was forced to end its isolation in the 1850s when Western powers with advanced military technology demanded trading concessions. The Tokugawa Shogunate collapsed, and power shifted to the imperial family, which moved the court to Tokyo in 1868 and proclaimed a new era, the Meiji (1868-1912). Once again, the Japanese realized the need to keep pace with more developed nations, and embarked upon a policy of rapid Westernization.Western dress was adopted, with the emperor and empress helping to set an example for the rest of the country by occasionally wearing Western clothing. Buddhists and elite samurai families sold off quantities of kesa and No costumes, ultimately enriching museum and private collections in Japan and the West. For the more sophisticated urban population, and especially men, traditional Japanese dress ceased to be a part of everyday wear until eventually the use of traditional dress was relegated to Buddhist temples and monasteries; Shinto shrines; No, kyôgen, and Kabuki theater; tea ceremony and other traditional arts such as flower arranging; and the imperial court. Geisha, still an institution in Japan at the start of the twenty-first century, were still expected to entertain in kimono.In the early 2000s, rites of passage such as children's coming-of-age ceremonies, school graduations, and weddings are occasions for members of the general public to wear traditional dress. A Japanese family also might don kimono when participating in special national and regional festivals or when relaxing after bath time at a traditional inn. It was not uncommon for a Japanese housewife to attend kimono school in order to better understand how to select and properly wear a kimono and its most important accessory, the obi.During the Meiji period, terms were coined in order to distinguish the old Japanese way of dressing (wafuku) from the newly adopted Western dress (yofuku). Kimono (derived from the verb for wearing clothes and the word for "thing") became the new term for the T-shaped garment formerly known as the kosode. The word has entered the dictionaries of languages the world over and commonly serves as the designation for the national dress of Japan, just as "sari" is universally recognized as the timeless Indian garment.During the early Taishō (1912-1926) and late Taishō (1926-1989) periods, the mingeimovement was founded by artists and intellectuals for the purpose of preserving and perpetuating the folk crafts of Japan, especially as practiced by farmers and ethnic minorities. Those who championed the idea of mingei can be thought of as the East Asian inheritors of the Arts and Crafts movement, although they did not have to insist on the importance of handicraft, as did their Western predecessors, because in the traditional Japanese distinctions between fine and decorative arts were not emphatic. However, the elevation of handcrafted works made by simple-living country people and minorities on the fringe of Japanese society did not fit with conventional ideas of social hierarchy in Japan.Examples of costumes collected and studied by mingei enthusiasts include the bast fiber and cotton robes of the indigenous Ainu tribe, specially dyed costumes from Okinawa, heavily stitched farmers' jackets, and fishermen and firemen's garb.See also Kimono; Japanese Fashion.BibliographyBethe, Monica, and Iwao Nagasaki. Patterns and Poetry: Nô Robes from the Lucy Truman Aldrich Collection at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Providence: Rhode Island School of Design, 1992.Bethe, Monica, and Sharon Sadako Takeda. Miracles and Mischief: Noh and Kyôgen Theater in Japan. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2002.Dalby, Liza Crihfield. Kimono: Fashioning Culture. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.Dusenbury, Mary. "Textiles." In Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan. Vol. 8. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983, 16-20.Kennedy, Alan. Japanese Costume: History and Tradition. Paris: Editions Adam Biro, 1990.Kirihata, Ken. Noh Costumes. Kyoto: Kyoto Shoin, 1993.Liddell, Jill. The Story of the Kimono. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1989.Matsumoto Kaneo, ed. The Treasures of the Shôsôin: Musical Instruments, Dance Articles, Game Sets. Kyoto: Shikosha, 1991.Minnich, Helen Benton. Japanese Costume and the Makers of Its Elegant Tradition. Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1963.Noma Seiroku. Japanese Costume and Textile Arts. New York and Tokyo: Weatherhill/Heibonsha, 1974.Yamanobe Tomoyuki. Textiles. Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1957.QipaoBy Verity WilsonSOURCEThe qipao is a Chinese dress for women. The style is also called cheongsam in Cantonese, and this term has come to be the more widely used one in English, though spelled in several different waysDefinition of QipaoThe defining features of the dress are a fitted silhouette, a high collar, and side skirt slits. In its classic form, there is a front flap overlapping to the right, which fastens along the collarbone, under the arm, and down the right side. The details are subject to changing fashions within the limits of the basic form. It can be sleeveless, or have sleeves of any length. The hemline varies, but usually reaches somewhere between the knee and the ankle. The qipao can be made of almost any fabric, although it is mostly associated with silk. The dress material can have a printed or woven repeat pattern across its surface or, if the material is plain, a favorite way of tailoring the style is for the front panel of the dress to be pre-embroidered with a sweeping floral or dragon design, leaving the back of the garment unadorned. The entire dress is often edged in one or more strips of narrow binding, which is sometimes in plain-colored bias-cut satin, or else of lace or patterned ribbon. Although press-stud and zip fastenings are used, traditional knot buttons made from fabric are popular. These can be extravagantly shaped and are specially made to suit the pattern or color of the chosen dress material. To be a genuine qipao, the dress needs to be custom-made. Purchasing off the rack is not considered correct form.Origins and Development.The qipao can be elegant rather than flashy. Although one of its hallmarks is a good fit, it does not need to fit tightly. In the first half of the twentieth century, there is no doubt that the qipao provided a cross-section of Chinese women with a style of dress, and consequently a mode of deportment and way of moving, that suited their increasingly public lives. But, bound up with the charges of decadence leveled at the dress, it became enmeshed in questions concerning nationalism. At the height of the style's popularity, China, having overthrown imperial rule in 1911, was trying to forge itself into a modern nation-state. For some, certain traits of the qipao were perceived as western and therefore tainted, especially when worn with high-heeled shoes and bobbed hair. For many others, however, the qipao seemed both modern and Chinese, and Song Meiling (1897-2003), the wife of the Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek (1888-1975), was rarely seen in any other style and used it to good effect to rally supporters to her husband's cause.SurvivalAfter 1949, the qipao survived outside China among overseas Chinese, in Hong Kong, a British colony until 1997, and also in Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek set up an opposing government after being defeated by Mao. However, in these places too, by the 1960s, a younger generation of women came to view the qipao as old-fashioned and adopted a more international style of dressing. Older women still favored it as formal wear and in Hong Kong, a big tourist destination, it became associated with the service industries as a type of uniform. With the loosening up of the strictures after the death of Mao, all kinds of dress regimes became possible in greater China and the qipao was just one of several styles that was revived and also reworked by Chinese fashion designers. Hong Kong's return to the People's Republic of China heightened the profile of the dress and some saw it as a patriotic garment. Qipao are increasingly worn by students of Chinese origin at graduation ceremonies both in East Asia and in the United States. Weddings in Chinese communities across the globe provide arenas for lavish spending and the qipao has become an accepted part of the marriage ritual. Western women, too, have eagerly taken up the dress and it continues to provide inspiration for Euro-American couture designers.See also China: History of Dress; Orientalism.BibliographyRoberts, Claire, ed. Evolution and Revolution: Chinese Dress, 1700s-1900s. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing, 1997.Steele, Valerie, and John S. Major, eds. China Chic: East Meets West. Yale and London: Yale University Press, 1999.Definition of OrientalismBy Patricia MearsSOURCEThe Orient has been a source of inspiration for fashion designers since the seventeenth century, when goods of India, China, and Turkey were first widely seen in Western Europe. While the use of the term "Orientalism" has changed over time, it generally refers to the appropriation by western designers of exotic stylistic conventions from diverse cultures spanning the Asian continent.Influx of Asian Merchandise in the WestThough luxury goods have been filtering into Europe from countries like China since ancient times, it was not until the great age of exploration that a wider array of merchandise from cultures throughout Asia found their way to the west. For example, the importation of Chinese ceramics exploded in the seventeenth century. Not only did these wares remain popular for centuries, they also inspired the creation of stellar ceramic companies like Sevres in France and Meissen in Germany. Even plants, like the legendary flower from Turkey that led to the "tulipmania" craze in Holland and the brewed leaf that became the status drink of the well-to-do and evolved into the ritualized "high tea," fueled the love of all things from Asia.Impact on FashionIt was in the realm of fashion that the impact of "Orientalism" could also be profoundly felt. Platform shoes from central Asia led to the creation of the Venetian chopine in the sixteenth century. Textiles from all over Asia, primarily China, India, and Turkey, inspired the creation of fashions like the robe á la turquerie in the eighteenth century. This was a more extraordinary phenomenon since the fear of Turkish Islamic invaders was a constant and imminent threat. Coupled with the threat of an invasion was a diametrically opposed view: the romantic notion of a far-distant land, such as Cathay (or China), filled with genteel philosophers and lovers of art. This idealized impression of China would continue until the rise of the industrial revolution and European colonialism in the early nineteenth century. The gritty reality of ever-increasing business transactions between East and West, as well as the ever-encroaching military dominance by European powers in Asia was firmly cemented by the middle 1800s.Victorian EraAs Queen Victoria ascended the throne of England 1837, then the most powerful empire in the world, she oversaw an eclectic art style that would come to dominate the remainder of the nineteenth century. The Victorian era brought together many historical European styles of the past, Gothic and Rococo for example, which were sometimes surprisingly combined with elements from cultures like Japan. The end result of one amalgamation, Gothic and Japanese, led to the creation of the Aesthetic Movement. Fashion gowns reflected this blend: smocked robes like medieval chemises were embroidered with asymmetrically placed floral motifs of chrysanthemums, two distinctly Japanese design elements.InfluencesThe influence of Orientalism on fashion could be seen in many other ways, both frivolous and profound. For example, the fad for harem pants from Turkey appeared in the form of fancy dress costume at balls, just as the Zouave costume of North Africa found its way into the wardrobes of some Southern soldiers fighting in the American Civil War and the closets of European ladies. On the other hand, items of dress from Asia would become essential for women through the mid-nineteenth century. Kashmiri shawls, originally woven in India then exported to the west in the late eighteenth century, became a ubiquitous part of the neoclassical costume. The shawl was often paired with a white columnar dress made of diaphanous, finely woven Indian cotton. Its popularity inspired many weaving companies in Europe to create their version of this essential nineteenth-century wrap, later known as the paisley shawl.Ballet RusseLe dieu bleu costume designed by Leon BakstSOURCEThe Orientalism trend reached an apex in the early twentieth century, and the sources for this mania for "all things oriental" ranged from nostalgia for the legends of Persia and Arabia, as popularized by "A Thousand and One Nights," to the Paris debut of Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes in 1909. This burst of Orient-inspired creativity in the realm of fashion also had lesser-known sources, including the avant-garde art movement Fauvism and Japanese kimonos made expressly for the western market.French couturiers, such as Paul Poiret and Jeanne Paquin, were inspired by the Ballet Russes' performances of "Cléopatre," "Schéhérazade," and "Le Dieu Bleu." This Russian dance company took Paris by storm with their revolutionary choreography, music, and costume and set designs by the Russian artist Leon Bakst (1866-1924). In addition to these fantastic costume shapes and opulent decorative elements, couturiers incorporated the vibrant color palette of Fauve artists such as Henri Matisse. Not only did designers create garments with Orientalist influences, so did the modistes: turbans topped with aigrette or ostrich plumes and secured with jeweled ornaments were paired with either neoclassic columnar gowns or fantastical lampshade tunics.Asian TextilesClothing created more in the realm of craft by artists such as Mariano Fortuny and Monica Monaci Gallenga also fused historical European and Asian styles into cohesive aesthetic statements. Using silk velvet as a base, both Fortuny and Gallenga precisely incorporated textile patterns from East Asia and the Islamic world for their creations. The importance of craft also fueled the European and American fad for batik cloth. Both the technique for making resist-dyed fabrics like batik and the motifs perfected in cultures like Indonesia were created by artisans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean in the 1920s.Callot SoeursMarie Callot Gerber (1895-1937), the venerable head of the leading couture house Callot Soeurs, was another innovator who readily embraced Orientalism. She was inspired by the kimono and created some of the earliest versions of harem pants. From 1910 to the out-break of World War I, acclaimed beauty and woman of style, Rita de Acosta Lydig, worked with Gerber to create versions of Oriental costumes that were composed of vests made from seventeenth-century needle lace that topped trousers or one-pieced garments that were full and loose over the lower part of the torso before tapering over the calves. Often called the tango dress, after the dance craze imported from Argentina, this style was popularized by couturiers like Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon, 1863-1935) and by fashion illustrators. The house of Callot would go on to lead the 1920s trend for embellishing the columnar dresses of the era with rich embroideries that readily copied Persian and Chinese design elements.Moroccan ArtAlso influential were exhibitions and expositions geared specifically to exhibit products of France's colonies. One of the first was a major exhibition of Moroccan art installed at the Pavillion de Marsan in March, 1917. The exhibition also forecasted far larger things to come: the Exposition Coloniales, held in Marseilles in 1922 and in Paris nine years later. These shows not only generated public interest in non-Western cultures, but also projected France's commitment to imperialism. According to art historian Kenneth Silver in his publication Esprit de Corps, the exposition of 1922 expressed a "less than covert sense of racism." The French were still recovering from the devastating effects of World War I as late as 1925, and there is little doubt that these exhibitions and expositions allowed them to publicly display not only their high position in the modern world, but also their dominance over a vast array of Third World cultures.Colonial ExpositionsMany of the centuries most noted couturiers in France were readily absorbing the influences of the Colonial Expositions of 1922 and 1931. It was the first time that many had direct access to art from such remote countries. This exposure to ethnic dress gave them a far more profound understanding of non-Western dress, primarily objects from Asia. This understanding would enable a few enlightened couturiers to create both new fashion silhouettes as well as imbue their designs with a fundamentally different construction that emphasized the textile rather than complex tailoringBalinese CourtPoster of the colonial exhibition of Marseille of 1922SOURCEMarcel Rochas, for example, was directly inspired by dance costumes from the Balinese court, as seen in his broad-shouldered garments of the season immediately following the 1931 Exposition. His "robe Bali," a black silk dress with a broad and square collar trimmed in white pique, is interesting in that it follows the silhouette of a non-Western garment but uses typical European colors and fabrics. Madame Alix Grès also created her version of a Balinese costume in 1937. Jacques Heim designed a sarong-style bathing suit inspired by the Tahitian exhibits in the 1931 Exposition. These sarong suits, in a radical departure from contemporary bathing-suit construction, were made not of knitted wool but with draped woven cotton. Harper's Bazaar made mention of these sarongs and his pareos from later collections. By the mid-1930s, Hollywood costumer Edith Head designed a version of the sarong for actress Dorothy Lamour in a series of comedic films starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. As noted earlier, all these designers' ethnic-inspired work of this period was not based on non-Western construction techniques, but rather their inspirations came from overall cultural impressions.Historic StylesThe output of "ethnic" garments by fashion designers was to drop off significantly during the 1940s and 1950s as the influence of exotic cultures on fashion had already begun to diminish around 1934. Inspired by the play "The Barrets of Wimpole Street" and the Hollywood film version, couturiers like Madeleine Vionnet, to cite but one of many examples, began to create modern versions of nineteenth-century Western dress. This trend dominated fashion from the late 1930s through the 1950s. The revival of historical styles offered an escape from the pressures of the Great Depression of the 1930s and helped assert the growing sense of nationalism in Europe at that time. Also a factor in the United States was strong anti-Japanese sentiment during and after World War II.Fashion PeriodicalsFashion periodicals of the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s seem to indicate only a minimal interest in foreign dress for most designers, as compared with earlier decades. However, a strong revival of ethnic influences arose during the mid-1960s, as the fashion world responded to the purposeful rejection of standard, mass-produced fashion by young people. The young people known as "hippies" ushered in a style noted for its free-form mix of fashion elements from around the world, particularly the Middle East, India, and Native American cultures. Coupled with this renewed interest in non-Western cultures was the emergence of Asian designers. For the first time, Japanese creators like Hanae Mori not only made fashion, they began to influence the work of western designers.Fashion MainstreamAfter World War II, other Asian garments began to find their way into the fashion mainstream. One example is the quintessential twentieth-century Chinese dress-the qipao or cheongsam. This figure-revealing garment worn by a range of urban Chinese women since the mid-1920s has become known in the Western world as the "Suzie Wong" dress, deriving its nickname from the infamous, fictional prostitute in Richard Mason's novel, The World of Suzie Wong, published in 1959. Born in the tumultuous years of early Republic China, the qipao (meaning "banner gown" in Mandarin) or cheongsam (meaning "long dress" in Cantonese) is a true fashion hybrid that fused the elements of traditional Qing Dynasty court dress, Han Chinese costume, and the modern European silhouette. Despite its respectable status in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, the qipao came to represent in the Occidental mind a two-pronged, stereotypical view of Asian women-subservient, obedient, traditional, on the one hand, and exotic, sexual, even menacing, on the other. Films such as Love Is a Many Splendored Thing (1955) and The World of Suzie Wong (1960) are tales filled with textual excess whose narratives featuring Asian-Caucasian sexual liaisons use the qipao to uphold and sometimes subvert culturally accepted notions of race.Contemporary ReinterpretationsPerhaps it is those provocative elements of the qipao that have made contemporary reinterpretations of it so prevalent in the early twenty-first century. European or American designers, along with Chinese transplants like the New York-based Hong Kong native Vivienne Tam, have been creating their popular versions of Chinese-inspired fashions since the late 1990s. Examples range from the lavishly embroidered Neo-Chinoiserie gowns by John Galliano for Dior, Miuccia Prada's minimalist remake of the Mao jacket, and the body-revealing corseted mini qipaos by Roberto Cavalli. It is clear that the continued fascination with Orientalism continues into the twenty-first century.See also Japonisme; Qipao.BibliographyAmes, Frank. Kashmir Shawl and Its Indo-French Influence. Woodbridge, U.K.: Antique Collectors Club, 1988.Barbera, Annie. Interview by author, Musee de la Mode et du Costume, Palais Galliera: Paris. January 1992.Battersby, Martin. Art Deco Fashion: French Designers 1908-1925. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1974.Beer, Alice Baldwin. Trade Goods: A Study of Indian Chintz. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1970.Burnham, Dorothy. Cut My Cote. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum, 1974.de Osma, Guillermo. Mariano Fortuny: His Life and Work. New York: Rizzoli, 1980.Druesedow, Jean. Interview by author, Costume Institute, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 18 December 1991.Garnier, Guillaume, et al. Paris Couture Années Trente. Paris: Musée de la Mode et du Costume, 1987.Jon, Paulette. Interview by author. Paris: January 1992.Kirke, Betty. Madeleine Vionnet. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998.Koda, Harold. Interview by author, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York. January 1991.Levi-Strauss, Monique. The Cashmere Shawl. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987.Martin, Richard, and Harold Koda. Orientalism. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994.Poix, Marie-Helene. Interview by author, Musee des Arts de la Mode: Paris. January 1992.Steele, Valerie, and John S. Major. China Chic: East Meets West. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999.Tiel, Vicki. Interview by author: Paris. January 1992.White, Palmer. Poiret. New York: Studio Vista, 1973.Wichmann, Siegfried. Japonisme: The Japanese Influence on Western Art in the 19th and 20th Centuries. New York: Harmony Books, 1981.Fashion History | LoveToKnow