Ancient China Clothing

History of Fashion in China
The ancient Chinese people had very distinctive social classes. Each of these has specific styles and significance of dressing. Varied symbols are used on the clothing to distinguish between various strata of society. The ancient Chinese clothing has varied greatly throughout different periods of time. Each social or historical period brought about a new style.

During the Pre-Qing Dynasty (also known as the Manchu Dynasty was the last ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912.); the prevalent ancient Chinese clothing was broadly referred to as hanfu with many variations such as traditional Chinese academic dress. Every individual stratum displayed a different fashion. In fact the military was totally distinctive in its appearance.

Chinese civil or military officials had an assortment of motifs to depict their rank and position. Hat knobs were used as an icon of their rank. There were nine types of color coded hat knobs that represented the nine distinctive ranks. Another popular insignia was the Mandarin square or rank badge.

Filed under: History of Fashion in China on August 21st, 2008