Epitome

Ancient China is called “Huaxia”, with “Hua” referring to the elegance of costume and “Xia” the greatness of etiquette. Following the development through the Zhou, Han, Tang and Song dynasties, the costume in the Ming dynasty had distinct Chinese cultural characteristics and was the epitome of Chinese apparel, which had a wide and profound impact on the costume and aesthetics of later dynasties and neighboring countries.  The Ming Dynasty had fully restored the costume tradition, which had been inherited for thousands of years. Being magnificent and elegant, the Ming costume is the epitome of Chinese costume culture. Ceremonial court dress was usually worn by civil and military officials at formal and grand occasions such as court meetings. It consisted of court hat, red silk robe, white silk gauze shirt, knee-covering，silk belt, leather belt, etc. Normal court dress, well-known to all, was a symbol of the Ming Dynasty costume, for example, the red silk gauze round-collar robe with subtle pattern and square patches embroidered with cloud and crane design, black silk gauze hat and so on. Festive dress was worn by officials on various festive occasions and in some ceremonial activities. The yellowish-brown linen pleated robe with Feiyu design, woman’s…