Appreciation of the Designs from the First Han Couture Design Competition (1)
by Amy Lee
The first Global Han Couture Design Competition sponsored by NTDTV was very successful and won warm praise from audience last fall. The design and the finishing garments for the competition were fabulous. However, the saying goes, “laymen see the exterior, experts see beyond the surface.” How to appreciate the beauty of Han Couture? And why do the winning entries stand out? Let's look at these exquisite designs and explore what a traditional Han clothing is and its beauty.
| Gold Award: Moment (by Zhaoqing Wang) |
The beauty of this gold winning design is its beautiful color combination, put harmoniously together. This is a classic Tang style and known as short shirt jacket and long skirt. It was very popular among women from ordinary households to the palace during the Tang Dynasty, particularly during the early period of the dynasty. This style makes women appear slender and feminine. In addition, it is easy to wear and looks very graceful. The proper way to wear it is to tuck the shirt jacket inside the skirt and tie the skirt very high up on the chest or under the armpits, meanwhile wear a pair of long pants underneath, hence forming a three-piece suit.
The selection of colors in this design shows the designer's unique taste and vision: combining colors from nature, the designer catches a moment of tranquility and reflects in her work quiet river, with rocks and flowers of delicate fragrance surrounding it. Overall, it is a combination of blue, white and gray colors, in addition to patterns of flowers and leaves. The color rendering method is very comparable to the beautiful fabric of ancient times; from top to bottom, the belts, the pattern and color of the sword belts fit nicely together. The skirt opens to be a square piece with delicate thin pleats in order to facilitate the human body to move comfortably, and the shirt jacket barely covers the abdomen.
The sword belts are for decoration and they evolved from Fu belt, a symbol of status and dignity from the ancient times for both men and women. The sword belts are on both sides of a skirt, which floats when one walks and brings out a moving sensation and quietness. In ancient China, this kind of decoration was highly valued. In this creation, not only the look, style, pattern of the fabric, and artistic treatment, but also the layout and cutting of the outfit are very traditional.
There are also other ways to put this type of outfits together during the Tang Dynasty. Instead of wearing short dress jacket, one can wear various lengths of dresses, from mid-thigh to below the knee. However, one needs to add a long shawl to that style. For formal occasions, it is better to add another robe long enough to cover the knee caps. All together there are quite a few ways to mix and match the outfit.
Design by Elsie He
Appreciation of the Designs from the First Han Couture Design Competition (2)
by Amy Lee
In 2008, the first Global Han Couture Design Competition featured many traditional Chinese style designs. Though the cutting is flat surface, the fitting is not easy. For proper fitting, one should never apply methods used in the West. The Han clothing and the Western clothing are of two different systems based on the perspectives of structure or aesthetics.
In Han clothing, the sleeves and the main body are connected, cut from one piece of fabric. In ancient times, sleeves were called mei, connected mei. Mei means connecting together and not separating. The idiom “Open a sleeve and provides shade” describes how big a sleeve can be. Fat sleeves were worn by scholars and narrow sleeves worn by the laborers. No matter what size the sleeves are, they connect with the main body. If the fabric is not wide enough, one should splice it from the forearm. However, the way to splice it in Han dressing is totally different from the way in the Western style. If you add the Western method of cutting or concept of aesthetics to Han clothing, it will be quite messed-up. If you add anything from another nationality to Han clothing, it will mix with characteristics of another culture, thus it can no longer represent traditional Han clothing; if you add modern artistic value into Han clothing, you also violate the principle of etiquette in Han clothing.
Design by Xuemian Lin
Design by Shichang Lin
Design by Elsie He
Tang Dynasty's clothing is unprecedented in terms of style, structure, color, materials and decorative accessories. They are refreshing, broad-minded, graceful and regal, optimistic and of progressive qualities. Tang Dynasty interacted with other tribes and nationalities a lot and had strong influence on fashion around the world. For example, Japanese kimono and Korean clothing imitated clothes from Tang and Ming palaces, and improved further with their own characteristics. What we advocate is the return of our traditional Han couture without any changes or variations.
From the wall paintings inside the Dunhuang Cave, one can see the costumes of Tang Dynasty. The clothing of celestial maidens, flying or playing with musical instruments, is very similar to that of women from Tang Dynasty. In other words, the ladies from Tang Dynasty wore something very close to celestial maidens from Heaven. As a result, Tang Dynasty left elegant and noble attire and expression of beauty for generations to come.
In order to understand what traditional Han Couture is, one must understand both the techniques to make Han Couture clothes and the principles of harmony between man and nature, which is reflected when wearing Han Couture clothes.
The second annual Global Han Couture Design Competition was kicked off during the spring season of 2009. We sincerely invite all interested parties to participate. NTDTV organizes this event with an intention to promote the appreciation of traditional Han Couture worldwide, and to spread the goodness and beauty of Han couture. The final runway show of this competition will take place on September 10-11, during the New York fashion week. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Some changes have been added to the regulations of this competition. Deadline to submit sketches is May 15, 2009. For detailed information, please check: http://hancouture.ntdtv.com.
Appreciation of works from Han Couture Design Competition (3)
by Amy Lee
Slowly five thousand years drifted by
Among countless glorious garments
Not one is from heaven.
So misled by the confusing world
Splendid Tang are simple Song are the outfit of the bygone era
Forget not our glorious moment
Hurry to find the retuning path…
This poem expressed the poet’s longing for the lost glory of our Han couture and her joy in her yearning and searching. It is the theme used by gold winner Elsie He in this competition.
| Design by Elsie He (Gold Award): Reminiscence of Ancient Times |
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Design by Elsie He: Reminiscence of Ancient Times
This design has an elegant color combination and a superior tailored fit. The pattern and color of the fabric and the style represent the women's apparel from Song Dynasty. The design sketch won the award for best clothing presentation.
The top was called a shirt jacket at that time, and would be called a coat if it had a lining. In reality, one could also wear a white or plain color shirt underneath, which could be worn to sleep. People in ancient times often wore an under shirt, also called a middle shirt. The shirt jacket was made of jacquard cotton fabric, which was environmentally friendly.
Even though the shirt is made of plain fabric, it has a woven floral pattern and a delicate style. One will not find it monotonous when the gentle and warm touch of the fabric is matched with a small floral pattern skirt.
The collar, waist belt and trimming are made of embroidered brocade. This kind of fabric with diamond-shaped lattice was abundant in the Song period. Its characteristic is a small compact design. The smallest design is called millet grid texture, as small as a grain of millet. The choice of fabric is very close to Song period style.
The measurement and form of the skirt are also near perfect. If one wraps a square fabric around the waist, it would not compliment the human body. The bottom of the skirt would give an uneven feel according to various body shapes. Ancient people solved this problem with wisdom. With Han clothing, one can also make pleats around the waist.
On this skirt, you can see numerous pleats, however, when the skirt is spread, it is flat and square in shape. But when one puts it on, the skirt turns into a round shape surrounding the human body. The bottom of the skirt becomes arc-shaped. The fabric for the skirt is very good, and it is silk Crepe de chine, which is somewhat transparent, therefore it is double-layered. It will be very beautiful when one adds a pair of pants underneath the skirt.
Besides adding pleats to a skirt, one can also make it with 12 pieces of fabric which echoes the twelve months in a year. And the shirt jacket is made with 4 pieces of fabric representing four seasons in a year. Thus, it follows the principles that man and nature are one.
The location of the belt ties is also very appropriately. The color of the belt compliments that of the shawl. The waist and the collar are of Song style. If the collar were smaller, it would appear skimpy; if it were bigger, it would more closely resemble the Ming period. But the form and structure of a collar here belongs to Song period, a more slender and delicate style.
Design by Elsie He
Song clothing has many accessories. If this outfit could have a silk ribbon hanging a piece of jade or small silk pouch, matching hairdo and shoes, it would be superb. This shirt jacket and skirt combination was very popular in Song Dynasty among civilian women and aristocratic ladies alike. Very often a long gown was added outside the shirt and skirt.
In order to understand traditional Han couture, one needs to understand not only the techniques to make the clothing but also the harmony between the heaven and human in dressing.
“People of present day
Fail to understand the clothing style,
Trying to look glorious and pleasing the heart.
Astray, astray…
One needs to follow the old way,
Return, return,
Try again to remake the attire…”
The second annual Global Han Couture Design Competition was kicked off in the spring of 2009. We sincerely invite all interested parties to participate. NTDTV organizes this event with the intent to promote the appreciation of traditional Han Couture worldwide, and to spread the goodness and beauty of Han couture. The final runway show of this competition will take place on September 10-11, during the New York fashion week. Everyone is welcome to attend.
Some changes have been added to the regulations of this competition. Deadline to submit sketches is May 15, 2009. For detailed information, please check: http://hancouture.ntdtv.com