In keeping with the mercurial dictates of high fashion, styles in women's clothing are often as temporal as the weather, with the chic of one season routinely outmoded by the next. Imagine then, reaching back more than one thousand years into the wardrobe and retrieving an outfit that is not only stylish, but well suited to present day lifestyles. Today in the Republic of China, a handful of young fashion designers, inspired by the almost forgotten beauty of dynasty era apparel, is making such styles available.
Drawing inspiration from old Chinese costumes, antique ornaments, and traditional clothing cuts, these designers are creating comfortable but extremely fashionable styles with a distinctive dynasty flair. At the fore is Chou Chih-liang of the I'm Fashion Co., who has long deplored what he calls the "oversaturation" of Western esthetics on the island and the resulting exclusion of a Chinese style heritage. He hopes to reinvigorate that heritage by emphasizing both the allure and unique practicality of selected earlier styles.
And his designs are quite convincing. His loosecut outfits in subtle earthy hues, whimsically adorned with hand-painted, batik, embroidery, and silkscreen appliques, are eye-catching additions to Taipei's top department store boutiques.
Another young designer of note is Phillip Shaw of Felip and Pietr Enterprises. A designer of wide scope, Shaw has a particular passion for embroidery and brilliant fabrics. Glamorous Mandarin-style robes are a trademark of his work. His patterns are often gleaned from Chinese antique design. A bodice applique might suggest the line of a pagoda roof; an embroidered border might be a careful reproduction of an early Chinese robe.
Versatile pants suits eclipse the dull, mannish designs of recent decades...may be worn for work or play
While Chou's designs seek a romantic, natural air, Shaw's suggest the splendors of Chinese pageantry. Both are redefining images in Chinese fashion clothing. They are bringing islanders a new awareness of the depth of Chinese fashion history.
Until recently, most Chinese as well as Westerners mistakenly assumed that the traditional Chinese fashion legacy was defined by the chi pao, a very snug-fitting dress with clean tailored lines, and distinguished by an abrupt, stiff little collar. They are often cut of fine silk fabric in order to bring luster to the simple shape. Today, Chinese women of the older generation pretty much as a rule wear the chi pao on formal or ceremonial occasions. Female personnel in the tourist and restaurant businesses also often wear chi pao, fueling the impression of the uniformity of traditional Chinese clothing. Actually, the chi pao is drawn from the very last chapter of dynastic history—the Ching or Manchu period (1644-1911), an era that was preceded by thousands of years of fashion history, rich in its variety of forms.
The chi pao derives its name from one of the eight dominant clans of the Manchu Ching Dynasty, the Chi. Actually quite Western by Chinese standards, which traditionally favored the more modest and figure enveloping lines of loosecut garments, the chi pao was originally a Manchurian design. Other stylistic "reforms" introduced by the Manchu rulers included a prohibition on Ming Dynasty costumes, except for use as burial dress. Thus, Chinese styles were forcefully influenced by Manchurian tastes during the Ching Dynasty, and some of these same forms are popular as "traditional Chinese" costumes today.
I'm Fashion looks further back in history for authenticity and diversity. Designer Chou, accordingly, has selected the harem-style pants and tunics of the Han period (circa 220 A.D.) and the skirt and jacket combinations of the Ming (1368-1644) not only as more characteristically Chinese, but as particularly adaptable to present day usage. Chou is, actually, particularly fond of the fashions of the Tang Dynasty, which he heralds today as sensual and modern before their time. Tang costumes are marked by wide open collars, dolman sleeves, and an overall soft, wide cut.
A pristine design lends a youthful air to a very sophisticated mannequin
These styles, fostered by the modernizing and liberal temper of the Tang era (618-906), have their origin in an influx of new ideas as Buddhist, Moslem, Christian, and Taoist doctrines were disseminated, and each held sway. A huge expansion in trade nurtured such Chinese commercial arts as pottery and sculpture and cultivated tastes for imported goods. In this way, change and growth set the tempo for new directions in styles, which also reflected the Tang's sway as the golden age of poetry and romantic literature. The costumes of the Tang are mirrors for their time.
Experts on the Tang often note the surprisingly unconservative styles in women's apparel. Backs are partially bared and open collars reveal throats, freedoms, Chou has found, that today's young women prefer. The chi pao's tight collar is seen less and less among the contemporary generation, since the garment is difficult to care for as well as to fit into, and since it lacks the expansiveness of the sporty Western casuals.
Chou, however, is really loathe to see Chinese girls forget any of their heritage, and he points to the Japanese kimono as an example of a tradition that survives in modern usage. Originating in Japan's Nara period (645-724), the kimono is a contemporary of Tang fashions, but a design which has never gone out of style in Japan.
Chou's hand-worked clothing ornamentation usually captures a mythological personality, a line of poetry, or a symbol from the Chinese pantheon: Sai Weng, the fabled philosopher, and his horse are silk-screened across a billowy jacket; batik bamboo fronds track a black vest; hand-painted trigrams, cover the surface of a handbag. Well-seasoned with traditional spice, his clothes are nonetheless unmistakably modern, easy to care for, and appropriate for both office and casual wear.
There is no room for shyness for the wearer of this "imperial" gown—It announces in majestic tone that you have arrived
Chou maintains that early Chinese fashions were intrinsically "modern." Indeed, the similarity of men's and women's outfits in ancient China is quite precocious by Western standards. It was not until the growth of the women's movement in this century that Western women enjoyed the freedom of wearing pants and ambiguously shaped clothing. Previously, Western fashion always accentuated the female form, from the draped Roman robe to the hoop skirt. By contrast, Chinese women were stylistically "liberated" in loose fitting garments and with an open option to wear pants. Also, while today's Western fashions for women are often adaptations of menswear, in China the opposite was true. For example, the wide, loose sleeves common to nearly all Chinese clothing were at first a feminine fashion. With the original objective of allowing a modest maiden to shield her face in the company of strangers, the big sleeve also proved a convenient place for handkerchiefs, fans, and other small objects, as well as a demure place to rest and conceal the hands. These sleeves were copied into men's garments.
In Tang China, a court dancer's costume was one definite exception to a frequent similarity in men's and women's styles. The court dancer, however, was an import. Her costume emphasized small feet and waist, and wide hips; floor-length hair added to her feminine charm. While a trousered Tang lady wore wide straight-legged pants suited to walking and work, the court dancer's pantaloons were tapered at waist and ankle. This style spread outside court circles after 950, introducing a distinctly feminine character to women's wear. Such harem pants and, unfortunately, bound feet were two important legacies which the Tang dancer left to China.
For the most part, however, a Tang woman enjoyed the freedom of unbound feet and comfortable, practical clothes. Pants were a matter of convenience when it became necessary to leave her sedan chair and travel by horse or on foot. Pants were first introduced in the 3rd Century when mounted archers of the Prince of Chao adopted the boots, trousers, and belt-buckles of their Parthian enemies in order to wage combat freely, on a par with the saddle-bred step-pesmen. Chinese cavalry units also brought the utilitarian styles of Turkic, Mongol, and Tungusic tribesmen back to court. While urban dwellers and idle gentry, after the 3rd Century, continued to wear long robes, working people quickly switched to pants. Thus, it was from their ladyservants that the Tang women garnered the notion of wearing pants.
Chou Chih-liang probes into Tang era poetry and paintings to glean material for his work. He feels now that the increasingly large number of Chinese women choosing his designs, infers their growing affection for Chinese tradition.
At first, Chou's customers were primarily students of Chinese art and history—they alone immediately recognized the character of his work. But now his clients, too, are cut from many different kinds of cloth. Women in the business and entertainment fields are buying his designs...even some of those older women, so intensely loyal to the chi pao, are substituting Tang era fashions for those occasions that call for Chinese flavor costumes.
Philip Shaw poses before decorative designs and a motto on his office wall
A scrupulous craftsman, Chou dyes and prints many of his own cottons in order to attain a subtle hue—and also to combat a popular taste for bright, bold fabrics. As a matter of fact, careful attention to fabric quality and design is a principal ingredient of Chinese fashion. In ancient China, fine quality fabrics and handworked embellishment were works of distinction. As the same basic styles were similar to men and women, and transcended divisions in rank and wealth as well, this was one means of expressing individuality as well as differentiating social and economic levels.
Chou limits his design production to only thirty copies of each garment. However, a wealth of new ideas and old inspirations keeps his storehouse full and his sewing machines whirring. Presently, I'm Fashion has a domestic orientation, but recent expansion has caused Chou to look towards export possibilities for the near future, both in fashions and accessories.
Traditionally, the accessories were an elemental aspect of fashions in China. Whereas Japanese people made up their faces with elaborate paints, Chinese ornamented themselves lavishly with jewels. Magnificent hairpieces and large finger rings and necklaces were an everyday part of a lady's wardrobe. A knotted waist belt was common to all Chinese costumes before the 4th Century, and was prescribed in later centuries by the wealthy, who suspended jade and silk pieces from its length. Lacking precious gems, but not short on Chinese flavor, such accessories are being produced by I'm Fashion today—hand-painted ceramic necklaces and flowing hemp belts compliment Chou's revival designs.
Careful attention was also paid to coordinating colors in dynastic China. A precise system for linking colors originated in the Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.) and was used for nearly 800 years.
The five elements—earth, wood, gold, fire, and water were read as the colors yellow, green, white, red, and black, and the colors were linked according to mystic relationships: "Fire gives rise to earth," so red garments have a yellow border; "wood gives rise to fire," so green garments should have a red border, and so on.
Today, Philip Shaw's clothes shine with such bright colors. He designs garments for women of all ages and sizes—from baby vests to maternity wear. With sixteen years of design experience behind him, Mr. Shaw focuses on Chinese forms in his renditions of formal wear for both local sale and export.
Shaw gives fresh shine to antique treasures, and Chou revives the easy romance of Tang era apparel. Each in his own manner is reinvigorating the long overlooked legacy of Chinese traditional fashions. Their designs offer Taiwan's women a welcome alternative to the chi pao and Western garb, and point forward along the long road from Changan—the Paris of dynastic China.