A fifth layer with a wide-sleeved Zhiju robe can be added for added warmth (I will be posting about that tomorrow).
If you're wearing a Zhiju robe today and historical accuracy isn't crucial to you, feel free to pick and choose which layers to wear based on the weather. At the very least an inner cross-collared shirt is ideal as the collar DOES peak through at the top. If you're wanting to wear Hanfu in winter, you can purchase inner robes which are lined for added warmth.
hi! i noticed too but unfortunately I'm not the right person that can confirm if it's historically accurate. I know the drama borrows a lot from Ming Dynasty but from what I've searched, I didn't find anything specific about this part of the wedding atire.
If you're referring to Li Yunrui's character in the cdrama "Blossom", his wedding attire is very historically accurate -- in fact, it's one of the most historically accurate depictions of Ming dynasty wedding hanfu I've seen in a cdrama ever:
Below are illustrations of historical Ming dynasty wedding hanfu for brides and grooms. Note how Li Yunrui's outfit replicates the red groom's outfit in the center (x):
Here's a modern hanfu wedding photoshoot with historically accurate Ming dynasty attire (x):
The red sash is called 披红/pihong. It was popular during the Ming and Qing dynasties as an accessory for celebratory events such as weddings, ceremonies, etc. It was often worn by grooms during weddings. Below are depictions of pihong in historical art from the Ming dynasty (x):
Pihong is still sometimes worn as a part of wedding attire today, especially for Ming dynasty-style hanfu weddings (1/2):
hey (culture ask incoming) im wondering about weddings in china and whether people generally wear more western style wedding clothes or traditional chinese style?
I would say Chinese/hanfu style wedding attire has been making a big comeback (so to speak) in recent years as a side effect of the hanfu revival movement, but there is also Chinese wedding attire that is distinctly it's own genre of clothing, i.e, bridal/groom wear. When you look at it, you know (if you know) that it's wedding attire. More on this in a second.
Still, for those who can afford it, it is popular these days to wear both western style wedding attire and Chinese wedding attire. Most people who I've seen wear both change into the Chinese attire for the wedding banquet. If they wear a western wedding dress, it will be at the ceremony/walking down the aisle. Likewise, if they wear both hanfu and Chinese wedding attire, they will wear the hanfu for the ceremony. Another thing to keep in mind is that in China, it is quite popular to take wedding photos in a myriad of outfits, not just the one you will be wearing on the occasion. So people nowadays may take photos in all the different kinds of wedding attire (via clothing rentals), whether they are going to wear it at their wedding or not. In that spirit, they still technically wear both western and Chinese style wedding clothes.
Hopefully that answers your question there. I have a #chinese wedding that covers a lot of videos but in which you can see the types of gowns and all that which I will briefly go into below.
So: when it comes to "traditional Chinese style" wedding attire, what does that really mean?
To me, three main types of clothing come to mind: 1) Chinese Wedding Attire™ , 2) Chinese style wedding attire, 3) Wedding hanfu
1) Chinese Wedding Attire™, AKA 秀禾服 Xiùhé
Visually distinct, it is not really hanfu nor qizhuang but a secret third thing.... In this case, it is a blend of Qing dynasty and Republican era styles dubbed "xiuhe". As bridal wear specifically, it is actually a rather recent trend (21st century), but it's become a fixture in Chinese wedding wear. While the colors can vary wildly and magnificently, the classic colors here are gold and red.
The style that exists today shows Qing dynasty influence in its construction and at its core consists of both bride and groom wearing embroidered tang suit tops and a matching silk skirt. The bride usually wears hair ornaments/pins in place of a veil. Since there are pins in the hair, brides may wear a xiapei/cape with a long train instead.
A few bridal styles (keep in mind that these are just the classic cuts and colors—there are other styles/colors that contain recognisable elements of bridal wear but are made of different fabrics, have different draping, have more tassels, have a softer look, etc):
2)Chinese style wedding attire
This is admittedly somewhat of the same thing as Wedding Attire™, just toned down as it was more popular/commonplace in the last century, when it was what was most affordable for most, but it's a style that nonetheless comes to mind. With this, the key is simply that the bride wears a mostly all red dress/top+skirt and the groom wears a suit. Bride and groom will also often wear a red flower/ribbon pinned to their top or worn around them gift-wrapped style, haha. My mom just wore a red top and bottom to her wedding dinner (that's as much detail as I've ever gotten out of her lol) when she got married in the early 80s. Another thing is, since white is a funerary color/color of death in Asian cultures, some people also just wear Western style wedding dresses that are red.
3) Wedding hanfu
As you can imagine, this is ornate hanfu that is worn for weddings. Song/Ming style hanfu is particularly popular here.This clothing is traditional in the sense that it has historical basis and is what those who could afford to word for weddings historically. Historical wedding colors varied but color pairings like red & blue and red & green are traditional (man wears red, woman wears blue/green; 红男绿女). Wearing hanfu for weddings is a trend that has become popular with the hanfu revival movement and is, as you might guess, a trend for Han Chinese people
Chinese ethnic minorities have their own wedding attire that they may choose to wear/wear as well (if they do a banquet, etc). Or they might just wear red/xiuhe/western style dresses, too—this is another area where wedding photos let you basically wear everything.
Agreed that it's commonplace nowadays for weddings in China to involve multiple outfit changes, so that both Chinese-style wedding attire (hanfu, xiuhefu, qipao, qungua, etc.) and Western-style wedding attire are worn. In addition to the ceremony and banquet/reception, there's also the Chinese 接亲/jieqin ("picking up the bride") tradition that occurs prior to the ceremony, during which the groom goes to pick up the bride from her parent’s house. Most couples choose to wear Chinese-style wedding attire for jieqin and other pre-ceremony activities, even if they wear Western-style wedding attire for the rest.
Below - examples of couples wearing wedding hanfu during jieqin activities (1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9/10/11/12):
It's also common for the bridesmaids, groomsmen, and parents to wear hanfu if the couple does (1/2):
The red sash and large red flower that the groom and/or bride (usually the groom) often wear are called 披红/pihong and 大红花球/dahong huaqiu, respectively. They are mostly red, but can also have green colors.
Quju robes are identified by the diagonal cut of the fabric at the front. It was worn around the same time period as the straight-edged Zhiju robes (直裾).
There are actually various types of Quju, some with curved sleeve bottoms, some are straight, some have thin collars, others are thick, etc. but they all share the same diagonal cut, with the fabric being wrapped around the body when worn.
For anyone interested in actually purchasing Hanfu for wear, Quju and Zhiju robes are AMAZING for fall/winter weather. You can wear multiple layers underneath, you can even throw a sweater and jeans underneath and no one would know. In the summer, however, the heavy and excessive fabric makes it feel like you're wearing a portable sauna 🥵🥵
直裾战国袍 / Straight-edged Warring States robe:
Distinguished by the excessive amount of fabric for the sleeves and the waist-to-floor straight edge, this style of Warring States robe was worn between the Warring States period and the Han Dynasty.
Warring States robes can usually be purchased in 2 lengths;
- trailing on the floor (great for photos, awful for walking)
- hemmed right at the floor (not as beautiful in photos, a lot easier for walking)
Most stores selling this style of robes have skipped the extra piece of fabric between the sleeve and body, changing the entire drape of the fabric. Instead of it naturally opening at the front, this small change in the design causes the fabric to be completely closed at the front which makes walking without stepping on the fabric impossible (speaking from personal experience) T___T
Hi. "Han" in "hanfu" refers to the ethnic group, Han people. Han people also referred to themselves as "Hua" or "Huaxia".
Modern Hanfu movement aims to reclaim the ethnic clothing of Han people, after it was forcefully banned in the Qing dynasty with the Queue Order. It is like Scots started wearing kilts again after the lifting of kilt ban imposed by the English.
Currently (2024), people who seemed to be wearing hanfu may be:
1. people who are into historical clothing only;
2. people who are into hanfu as a concept of ethnic clothing;
3. people who like alternative fashion;
4. people who are just dressing up as part of the tourist experience.
A person maybe into all four things at once, or only into one of these four categories.
It is still a relatively young movement (~20 years) so the concept is still building. On top of that, this is a grass root movement so no one has a ultimate power to define the boundaries of "hanfu". Hence, within the movement, there are many schools of thoughts of what should be included and what shouldn't be. With archeological discoveries and fashion trend shifting, the hanfu fashion is changing rapidly as well.
No but fr this last one is probably the most throhough and comprehensible out of the three sources I found if you don't hate videos too much you should check it out
Hi! ♥ As someone who's interested in (western) historical fashion, I think your blog is utterly wonderful. "The Untamed" introduced me to hanfu so I'm a newbie but could you maybe explain the men's hair to me? I've understood that the long hair + top knot look is a fantasy thing but how is the knot actually constructed? And what are those shield-like ornaments called – are they guans or is Google lying to me?
Hi, thanks for the question, and cool to hear that “The Untamed” introduced you to hanfu! ^^
I have a post specifically explaining traditional Chinese men’s hair here - please check it out! It contains a basic pictorial guide on how to construct the topknot, which is the best reference I’ve been able to find so far (perhaps @fouryearsofshades or @fate-magical-girls may have better references for how to create the men’s knot?).
Regarding the “shield-like” ornaments – are you referring to the hair ornaments covering the knot, like in the photos above? If so, then yes - they are called Guan/冠. I have posts specifically on Guan here and here, so please check them out! You can also go through my “Guan” tag for all of my posts on the subject. As you can probably tell, the Guan featured in the drama are more fantasy-like rather than being historically accurate.
These two videos from Bilibili (Chinese youtube) show how to wind the hair with a single hairpin, which is what most men (and women of modest means) would have done.
Hi, I was just wondering if you have had a post regarding those metal things men in pre Qing imperial China wore over their topknots? I was wondering if you knew what they were called and if their were an indication of social rank?
By metal things - do you mean this kind of headwear?:
If so, I actually do have a post on the various types of traditional male headwear here, and I have a mens headwear tag for more on the subject.
This headwear is a Guan/冠 (headdress), which can cover either the full top of the head or just the topknot, and makes use of a hairpin which goes across the topknot to stabilize itself. The type of Guan you’re asking about is probably the Xiao Guan/小冠 (small Guan), which can come in various shapes, as long as it is the size fitting to that of a topknot. (Source)
Here’s a nifty collage showing the Xiaoguan in the TV drama Nirvana In Fire (the middle one and the ones circled in red are Xiaoguan; the rest are a different type of Guan called Long Guan/笼冠):
Male headwear is absolutely an indication of social rank. Guan occupy the highest rank, and were worn by men of status, such as royals, nobles, and officials (they are also worn for weddings and ceremonies in general). Different types of Guan signified different occupations, occasions, and positions in society.
Hello! This may seem random but could you perhaps provide some information or resources about historical Chinese clothing? Especially from the Ming and Jin dynasty?
I am kind of making an oc and I want to do my research before designing her outfits, and as I was looking for resources I remembered you!
It's okay if you can't or don't want to, of course
I really don't know anything about non-Western fashion, and even for Western fashion, I only really know about fashion from the 18th century onward. Clothes only last so long and extant garments from before then are extremely rare.
There's a lot of Western bias in museums, so finding historical clothes from other cultures can be next to impossible. There's some Chinese stuff out there, but it's pretty much entirely court wear from the Qing Dynasty.
So, there’s this book. To buy, it ranges from ‘pretty damn expensive’ to ‘yikes!’ It’s been on my ‘expensive reference books I will buy when I win the lottery’ list. The good news is, is that many, many libraries carry it and if your library doesn’t have it, you can probably do an inter-library loan!
It’s called 5,000 Years of Chinese Costumes by Xun Zhao and it’s amazing. It is one of my most beloved books.
It is absolutely worth it to check out your library systems wherever you are to see if you can get your hands on it. It’s fantastic if you’re interested in historical Chinese costume.
(Disclaimer: I also own this book, which I purchased for art reference years ago back when I was way more interested in historical Chinese fashion than I am now and was not aware of its inaccuracies!)
Just so you know, for all its beautiful illustrations, I would take much of the information in this book with a grain of salt since it's outdated (published in the late 1980s!) and is riddled with inaccuracies as the illustrations were largely derived from heavily stylized artworks and paintings that often referenced dynasties earlier than when they were actually painted.
Gao Chunming has published more books on hanfu in recent years, but most of them aren't in English; I couldn't tell you how accurate they are either if you're still interested in looking into them. Unfortunately, I otherwise can't really point you in the way of better resources myself.
Hello! This may seem random but could you perhaps provide some information or resources about historical Chinese clothing? Especially from the Ming and Jin dynasty?
I am kind of making an oc and I want to do my research before designing her outfits, and as I was looking for resources I remembered you!
It's okay if you can't or don't want to, of course
I really don't know anything about non-Western fashion, and even for Western fashion, I only really know about fashion from the 18th century onward. Clothes only last so long and extant garments from before then are extremely rare.
There's a lot of Western bias in museums, so finding historical clothes from other cultures can be next to impossible. There's some Chinese stuff out there, but it's pretty much entirely court wear from the Qing Dynasty.
So, there’s this book. To buy, it ranges from ‘pretty damn expensive’ to ‘yikes!’ It’s been on my ‘expensive reference books I will buy when I win the lottery’ list. The good news is, is that many, many libraries carry it and if your library doesn’t have it, you can probably do an inter-library loan!
It’s called 5,000 Years of Chinese Costumes by Xun Zhao and it’s amazing. It is one of my most beloved books.
It is absolutely worth it to check out your library systems wherever you are to see if you can get your hands on it. It’s fantastic if you’re interested in historical Chinese costume.
Hello! This may seem random but could you perhaps provide some information or resources about historical Chinese clothing? Especially from the Ming and Jin dynasty?
I am kind of making an oc and I want to do my research before designing her outfits, and as I was looking for resources I remembered you!
It's okay if you can't or don't want to, of course
I really don't know anything about non-Western fashion, and even for Western fashion, I only really know about fashion from the 18th century onward. Clothes only last so long and extant garments from before then are extremely rare.
There's a lot of Western bias in museums, so finding historical clothes from other cultures can be next to impossible. There's some Chinese stuff out there, but it's pretty much entirely court wear from the Qing Dynasty.
You are using an unsupported browser and things might not work as intended. Please make sure you're using the latest version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge.
