Cultural Background of Oriental Style Fashion

In the previous blog, we talked about the background of ancient Chinese style clothes. These kinds of style of Chinese clothes have been lasted for a long time over the Chinese history with minor modifications in fabric and styles. The general idea was just to make them more elegant but not revolutionizing the dressing styles. However, after the invasion and rule of Manchu from the northern part of China ie the Qing Dynasty (1644~1911), the Chinese style clothes has been changed a lot due to the mixture of different cultures. Manchu was established in the northern grassland of China and the ladies have been grown to be stronger and took up some of the responsibilities of men such as herding sheep and cows. Their dressing styles are more casual and open. The mixture of two kinds of dressing styles during the rule of Manchu over China then laid the foundation of the modern well known Chinese dressing : cheongsam / close-fitting woman's gown.