Understanding early 20th-century Chinese Fashion requires a step back into history. During the Qing Dynasty, established by the Manchus in the mid-17th century, Han Chinese men adopted Manchu clothing styles. However, Han Chinese womenswear maintained its distinct identity. Unlike Manchu women who favored single, floor-length robes, Han Chinese women traditionally wore two-piece outfits as outerwear. This exploration will focus exclusively on Han Chinese women’s fashion during this period.
In the 19th century, the “aoqun” (袄裙) was the quintessential two-piece ensemble for Han Chinese women, comprising a robe (袄 – ao) and a skirt (裙 – qun). The robe featured a subtle standing collar, known as “liling” (立领). The mid-19th century saw the aoqun robe evolve with a generous, roomy cut and expansive sleeves, reaching its zenith in the 1860s and 1870s. By the 1870s, knee-length hems became fashionable, and the collar remained low, accommodating just a single button. Robes were fastened with “pankou” (盘扣) closures, typically plain in this era, featuring a bead or fabric knot tip. Side closures, or “dajin” (大襟), usually on the right side, were standard, though left-side closures also existed. The “shuangjin” (双襟), or double closure, style, derived from the Manchu men’s “batulu vest” (巴图鲁坎肩), a riding vest that opened on both sides, was also present and foreshadowed a revival in the 1920s.
The skirt component of the aoqun was frequently the “mamian” (马面) style, constructed from two wide pleated fabric panels attached to a waistband. When worn, the wrap skirt gave the illusion of flat, unpleated sections at the front and back. Nineteenth-century mamian skirts were highly ornamental, adorned with embroidery, tassels, and intricate trim. Despite a misconception about separate aprons in traditional Chinese womenswear, these decorative elements were integral to the skirt design, not separate pieces. Similarly, robes were richly embellished around the seams, with ceremonial garments like wedding gowns often exhibiting embroidery that completely obscured the base fabric.
Another common style, particularly from the early 1800s, was the “aoku” (袄裤), a combination of robe and pants. By the 1890s, aoku became the prevailing fashion.
Foot binding was a notable, albeit controversial, fashion trend. The mid-19th century marked the height of this practice, where fashionable women aspired to have incredibly small “lotus feet.” This was achieved by tightly binding feet from childhood, hindering growth and likely fracturing bones. Despite the presumed limitations, photographs depict women with bound feet actively moving about. However, foot binding prevalence varied significantly by region, class, and family. Manchu women did not practice foot binding. Among Han women, a mid-1850s account indicated that in Beijing, about half of women did not bind their feet, with higher rates of unbound feet in southern coastal provinces, possibly due to indigenous cultural influences. In contrast, foot binding was almost universal in the northwest.
The 1890s marked a shift in silhouette. The aoqun began to adopt a more slender, form-fitting shape, a change often attributed to Western influence. However, this evolution may also reflect a natural fashion cycle, as the wide-sleeved style had been in vogue for nearly eight decades. While maintaining the knee-length hem of the 1880s, the robe became less voluminous and straighter in cut. Collars remained low until the end of the decade. Pants surpassed skirts in popularity, possibly linked to emerging feminist ideals and a desire for greater mobility, though aoku had already been popular in previous decades. Pants remained straight and ankle-length but with a slimmer fit than earlier styles. Overall, 1890s fashion appeared as a streamlined and simplified iteration of the 1880s styles.
By the late 1900s, collars began to rise to a medium height, echoing late 18th-century Han womenswear collar styles. Robes and pants became even more fitted, with robes still around knee-length and pants becoming notably tighter, almost skinny. Foot binding declined in popularity, and more women had natural-sized feet, indicating a shift in parental choices against foot binding starting in the 1880s and 1890s.
The 1890s witnessed a significant reduction in the wide, embroidered trims that were prevalent throughout the 19th century. Multiple rows of binding or trim from the 1870s and 1880s persisted, but in a more minimalist, geometric style. Plain white robes finished with multiple black bindings of varying widths were a popular, avant-garde choice. Garments were still constructed using traditional Chinese methods, featuring a seam down the sleeve’s center for length adjustment, which could be decorated but wasn’t always. Embroidery on robes and skirts/pants was rare, with plain fabrics becoming the norm. The “changzijin” (厂字襟), or factory-shaped closure, became common on robes, featuring a front placket secured by one or two buttons and further buttons down the side seam. Pankou closures became more elaborate and served as a primary decorative element. Simplicity, comfort, and proportionality defined the fashion aesthetic of this era. While mid-18th century robes had introduced folded cuffs (“wanxiu” – 挽袖), by the 1850s, these became decorative trimmings. By the 1890s, this detail largely disappeared, leaving sleeve edges plain or simply bound.
Moving into the 1900s, geometric trims became even simpler and more austere, while pankou closures grew increasingly ornamental.
Hairstyles remained largely consistent with 1880s styles in the 1890s, with fashionable women incorporating bangs. A common style featured hair pulled back into a large bun or two smaller side buns, with neat, precisely cut bangs close to the forehead. Without elastics, women used strings and hairpins, often thick and sturdy, to secure their hair. Flowers and pearls were popular for bun decorations.
A thin headband adorned with pearls, worn at the hairline, was a popular headpiece since the 1870s.
Around 1905, bangs lengthened, still not covering the eyebrows, but longer at the sides and shorter in the middle, creating volume and a forehead curve.
By the decade’s end, these evolved further. Longer hair styled in braids or low buns gained favor over tight, high buns.
Minimal makeup was fashionable in the 1890s, influenced by unadorned female university students. This contrasted with the heavier makeup of the 1870s and 1880s, popularized by Shanghai sex workers and increasingly viewed as indecent. Common makeup included white powder, lipstick, and blush, with lipstick applied smaller than the natural lip line and blush broadly applied outwards.
Undergarments of the era included drawers worn under pants, similar in construction but plainer and easier to launder. Drawers served as the innermost layer, providing essential coverage. Similarly, plainer, sturdier robes were worn as undershirts. By the mid-1900s, as outer robe sleeves shortened, undershirts became more fitted at the wrists and could have decorative elements.
Breast binding with fabric strips was practiced to achieve a flatter chest. The “dudou” (肚兜), a unisex garment, had a female-specific version called “moxiong” (抹胸), “wadu” (袜肚), or “wafu” (袜腹). Contrary to some modern interpretations, the dudou was not typically worn alone as outerwear by adult women but was used with breast binders for warmth and compression, worn tightly around the breasts and waist.
During this period, women began to advocate against foot binding, and depictions of women with natural feet increased. However, women who had undergone foot binding in childhood retained smaller feet. Western-style shoes were not yet widespread, so most women wore Chinese-style fabric shoes with slightly upturned toes. Women with bound feet used cloth to maintain foot shape and wore small fabric pumps with white soles, sometimes with a slight wedge heel known as “gong xie” (弓鞋), or bow shoes. Women with natural feet wore similar fabric pumps in normal sizes. While embroidery on shoes was common in the 19th century and earlier, it declined in the 1890s, with plain shoes becoming typical. Western leather shoes gained popularity in the 1900s, becoming more prevalent by the early 1910s.
Reflecting on 18th and 19th-century Chinese fashion reveals misconceptions about the Qing Dynasty. The elaborate styles of the 1870s and 1880s, once misconstrued as conservative, were in fact innovative for their time. Chinese women’s fashion underwent a revolution in the early 19th century, evolving from flowing 18th-century robes to more structured designs with flared sleeves. Decade-to-decade style variations were significant, but under-researched, partly due to stigma around Qing Dynasty fashion. This lack of nuanced understanding leads to mislabeling 18th-century reproductions as Ming style, further obscuring Qing fashion history. The perception of late 19th-century styles being imposed upon Han women is inaccurate and oversimplified. Fashion evolution in China, like elsewhere, was a gradual process.
The concept of “modernity” in fashion is complex. What Westerners once deemed conservative Chinese clothing of the 1870s and 1880s was, in its context, a new and exciting development. Attributing a “backward” or “stagnant” label to Chinese fashion from this period may be a result of colonialist biases, demonizing Chinese society and misinterpreting its cultural context. While Chinese fashion did adopt Western elements in the 1890s and 1900s, “modernization” is a subjective term. Fashion changes are a natural and continuous phenomenon.
Historical accounts from late 19th and early 20th-century Western historians and politicians often reveal a lack of understanding of pre-19th century Chinese fashion, leading to inaccurate assumptions of unchanging Chinese style and culture. Even 18th-century European Orientalist paintings often drastically misrepresented Chinese fashion, bordering on caricature. It is crucial to recognize 18th-century Han Chinese fashion as a distinct and worthy area of study. Initial assumptions about Manchu influence on embroidery and trims in 1890s Han fashion have been reconsidered as well, requiring further nuanced historical analysis.
