I mentioned in my recent series, Hanfu Through the Ages: A Brief Overview of How Fashion Evolved in Ancient China, that clothing worn during the Qing Dynasty is not considered hanfu. You may recall that the term hanfu refers to the various styles of clothing worn by the Han Chinese people during Ancient and Imperial China. So you may ask, how come Qing Dynasty-style clothing isn’t considered hanfu? Han Chinese people wore it during that time period, after all! The answer to t

Last but not least, here's the final installment in the Hanfu Through the Ages series! Song Dynasty As opposed to the ostentatiousness of the Tang Dynasty, fashion in the Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 AD) favored simpler clothing. The beizi (背子/褙子)—not to be confused with a homophonous word meaning ‘quilt’—helped create a straight silhouette, making for an understated yet elegant aesthetic. It also became fashionable for women to wear ku (裤), or trousers, without a skirt over them

Welcome back to Hanfu Through the Ages, my series on the various styles of hanfu, or traditional Chinese clothing, throughout history! Today I'll be talking about styles of hanfu that were popular during the Three Kingdoms period, as well as the Jin and Tang Dynasties. Three Kingdoms/Jin Dynasty Women’s wear developed further after the Han Dynasty ended, resulting in the rise of ruqun (襦裙). As a type of yichang, the ruqun consisted of a shirt paired with a long skirt, with th

Previously on Hanfu Through the Ages, I gave a brief introduction to hanfu and some of its associated accessories. (If you’d like a refresher, click here!) Here, I’ll be introducing some clothing styles that developed during the Zhou, Qin, and Han Dynasties: Zhou Dynasty A new type of garment, the shenyi (深衣), was invented during the Zhou Dynasty. It was a one-piece garment, unlike the earlier yichang, and consisted of a top and bottom sewn together. By the Eastern Zhou Dynas

A timeline of women's clothing from the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty. What is Hanfu? Hanfu (汉服) is the traditional clothing of China’s dominant ethnic group, the Han (汉族). Nowadays, it refers to the various styles worn by the Han Chinese people over China’s millenia-long history, excluding the Qing Dynasty. (See my article “Is Qing Dynasty Clothing Hanfu?” for more information on why that is the case.) Hanfu styles changed dramatically throughout the course of Chinese hist