Paper Example on Chinese Design Impact on Western Fashion

Thesis Statement

The paper aims to help to show how the Hanfu design has an impact on the western fashion designs of women dresses. For this case, the paper discusses the Hanfu traditional dress regarding its make, material, and design. The paper will address how the design has impacted on current western fashion designs. To effectively understand the history of the Hanfu dress a background study is done on the Hanfu dress design. The paper points out that over the years Hanfu design has been the base of most western fashion designers.

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Introduction

Globalization has an impact on the aesthetics and visual nature of the clothes across cultural perspectives. Fashion is both irritating and compulsive, no matter the kind of person fashion will always have a twist on how individuals dress. Several countries have old cloth design basing on the gender of an individual; the Egyptians, for example, hade their clothes made from linen or cotton. The hot climatic condition in the region made the men wear loincloth while the women wore long dresses straps. In ancient Greek, however, despite having the same climatic conditions with the Egyptians, their women wore clothes that covered most of their bodies. The cloth was called peplos, and it was rectangular folded and sewn, it was tied at the waist. The ancient men wore tunics that were tied at the waist. Romans also had a culture whereby men wore tunics; the cloth was called toga the men togas was white made of wool. The women wore long dresses called stola and they comprised of various colors. In the Saxons culture, the men wore a shirt, and a tunic, the trousers are worn were like garments known as breeches. The women wore long linen garment with a long tunic over.

The Asians Americans constitute most of the American population, the Chinese are the most rampant of the group. Because of this population, the Chinese culture has impacted most of the designs and symbols in the United States. Symbols such as dragons and lotus are the identity of Chinese culture from ancient Chinese society in which the dragons were embossed on the clothes of the prince and those of the royal family.

Chinese Impact on Women Fashion

Fashion designers get insights on the next style to be developed from the interactions of the various cultures. The Chinese have had an impact on the style of women dress from the early period of 1890 to 1927. Below is a detailed discussion of the Hanfu dress design:

HanfuIt was mainly designed for the Han people and represents the traditional clothing worn by the Han people. The robes were worn before the Qing dynasty in 1644. The design combines several pieces to come up with the final outfit; it comprises of: a cross-collar garment that is worn by both gender (Yi), a shan is an open cross-collar shirt that was over the Yi and lastly the Qun which is a skirt for women and Ku which is the male trousers. The Han people had their clothing categorized based on the occasion hence the hanfu were of the three categories; formal, informal and court wear (Yu et al. 2001 P. 309). The design mainly existed from 21st century BC to the 16th century BC. It comprises an upper coat and a dress worn from the waist downwards; the design with no robes and buttons was worn during wars because of its flexibility that was the period before 476 BC.

Formal wear was worn during special events such as festivals and religious activities; the outfit was mainly reserved for those in power. It was primarily a long black or dark blue garment which had long sleeves and one red button with a white belt which was optional.

Court dresses were worn during ceremonies, the unique thing about this wear was that it had a cap, unlike the formal and informal wear. The rules were set to ensure that the outfits were observed and if found wearing a different outfit during a given event then there were consequences (Yu 126).

The Hanfu dress has been imitated by most Asian countries because of its length; long dresses are considered conservative and religious. In the current setup, the Hanfu is worn as a sign of cultural heritage during festivals to show that the Chinese honor the ancient culture of their people.

Material Used

The materials used in the design of Hanfu dress was specifically chosen to help in coming up with a good design of the dress. The fabrics used included: brocade, damask, silk, cotton, and yarn. After the selection of the appropriate material to be used, the product was dyed using the extracts gotten from natural plants to form the various colors desired. The ritualistic symbols were also used to show the cultural heritage of the Chinese people. The symbols used included animals such as elephants, dragons, and tigers. Other symbols included the use of the sun and the moon.

The Hanfu was made out of; a Yi, narrow-cuffed, knee-length tunic tied with a sash and narrow, ankle-length skirt called chang. All these materials were made of silk, and the colors used were either red or green.

Style

The Hanfu is made up of three segments to form the whole dress; it comprises underwear, inner cloth, and the overcoat. To come up with the segments, the various elements used include the collar, hem, sleeves, belt, and lapel. The hanfu has dress styles which can be worn, one of it is the jacket and skirt, and another one is the one dress style that is known. However, the jacket and skirt is the most preferred style by the Chinese women.

Market

The Chinese Hanfu dress design became famous for the introduction of Chinese action films on television. The films which mainly formed the primary market to the outside world, in 1949-1979 the Hanfu was considered to be a symbol of Chinese heritage. It was from this period that the Japan and Korean kimono and yakuza were formed as an imitation of the hand design. The Hanfu Chinese dress has gained popularity, and young Chinese designs have come together to form fashion clubs. The clubs mainly ensure the future of the Chinese designs by majoring on the traditional Chinese Han designs. The use of videos showing the activities and ceremonies done during the Han dynasty has helped to expose the Hanfu fashion to other cultures. In recent years there have been platforms that have been used to help in exposing the Chinese dress designs. The main platform that enabled the westerners to be aware of the Chinese fashion was from the films which showed movies of the Chinese heritage and culture. Example of such films is the Last Emperor which shows the activities and the events together with how individuals dressed in ancient China. The films, therefore, serves as the medium which enables the transmission of the Chinese culture to the western fashion designers. The idea of using the looking glass exhibition is to allow the viewers to be exposed to the outside world other than the normal designs that they have been used to (Delong et al. p. 179).

In a bid to make the traditional Hanfu dress known to the world photography has been used, an example of such is the work of one photographer known as Choco who named her collection the nine fairy tales of Hanfu. The photos are then circulated in chinas social media platform known as Weibo. Here is an example of Choco's artwork:

Cultural Significance

The Hanfu brought some cultural impact in the fashion industry, the Cheongsam which is an advancement of the Hanfu during the Manchurian dynasty has been anticipated by most western countries. The interaction of the Chinese and the western countries during the 19th century led to the admiring of the iconic male pigtails and the female Qipao. In the recent years, most people have confused the Kimono and Handbok with the traditional Hanfu dress, the most interesting part about this ideology is the fact that the Kimono and Handbok were made out of the inspiration of the traditional Hanfu Chinese dress.

The Hanfu dress is known to go in line with specific make-up and hairstyling. This has been evident in various scenarios such as that of the star wars movie in which Queen Amidala is decorated in two red dots which was used during the Han dynasty.

Production

The process of producing a Hanfu dress is a complicated process, and it requires attention for the designers to come up with a perfect Hanfu design. When producing the Chinese Hanfu dress, the following materials should be available; paper and pencil, sewing equipment and six yards of fabric. The designer should then draw the pattern of the Hanfu dress including the robes, cuffs, belts, and collar. A rectangle which is 80 by 18 inches should then be drawn to represent the width of the robe. A rectangle is then drawn in the inside which is 40 by 18 inches representing the sleeves of the robe. Another rectangle which is 40 by 19 inches is also drawn to represent the belts, cuffs, collar, and overlap. The material is then pinned on the drawn patterns, and the pieces are cut appropriately. Two pieces are needed from the first pattern, two from the second and six from the third. The first and the second pieces are then folded half-length and marked then cut appropriately to produce the robe and sleeves.

The robe pieces are then stitched together leaving a seam allowance of half inches. The fold lines of the sleeves are then lined up with the fold lines of the robe then stitched together.

The pattern below shows the period pattern widths, how the layers wrap around the body and how the collar should be cut and laid:

History of Western Fashion

Fashion mainly targets the dressing code of a particular individual; it gives a sense of fashionability. Designers have the task of looking for various themes and designs from historical cultures other than that of the western civilization to come up with new designs that will be catchy to the target market. The importation of the varied elements from the various cultures and subcultures helps designers to come up with designs which are comprehensive and bring in a new twist to the already existing style. Fashion is an authoritarian process that the elites dictate the trend to be followed by others. Fashion, therefore, is the imposition of the prevailing mode, the western style constitutes of dictators, imitators, and consumers. In ancient western culture, clothes were used as a sign of oppression; the masters wore decent clothes while the slaves walked naked or wore clothes that were of a lesser value. There are arguments that fashion should not only be equated to elite European fashion only, but it also constitutes of varied designs, and the European elite design is one of them. The trend should be considered a social technology that targets a given specific location. Western culture is perceived to be unique from other cultures, and other scholars argue that it should not be the case. The main western markets are Paris, New York, Milan, Tokyo, and London. The availability of varied design systems enables the western fashion to be a unique investment because the intelligence of individual designers enables them to capture the trend at a given moment. Elite fashion is related to cultural impulses of the era with political and economic conditions. The various themes addressed by everyday fashion include exoticism in fashion, masculinity, and femininity of clothes. Models can also be used to iconize normal fashion and converge them.

Christian Dior Design

He was a French designer who dominated in the 40's and 50's. In post-war design, Christian Dior brought in a unique fashion style which in-cooperated the ancient Hanfu design. The dresses were nipped waist and full skirt designs; this brought the hourglass figure gowns and sleek tailored suits. The new look design had ballerina skirts, tiny waists, narrow shoulders, and full busts. In 1961, the slim look was introduced as an upgrade of the new...