Might Not

So now that you’ve learned about all these pieces separately, we arrive at the question: how do we put all of these pieces together? Let’s go over some ways these are usually put together, how to refer to them, and other details that might not have been covered in previous articles. Body, sleeves, collar: these are the main three things that we use to distinguish types of hanfu. In naming conventions, we usually refer to a piece in the order of collar-sleeve-body. Take a look at this image: What body type, sleeve type, and collar type is it? Well, I’ll tell you first that this is a Shan, meaning that it’s a single-layered top or robe shorter than the knees with no yao lan. Take a look at the sleeves—do they curve or change in diameter at all? Yes, they seem to narrow in a striaght line from the root of the sleeve to the cuff, meaning this is a feijixiu design, or airplane sleeve. The collar’s shape is pretty obviously parallel, or duijin, since the two sides come straight down and don’t touch. Well then, we can refer to this as a duijin feijixiu shan: a parallel collar, airplane…

So many choices for your first hanfu—what are some factors you should consider before making your first purchase? I’ve seen a lot of people around asking what hanfu they should buy first and how to pick their first set, so I decided to do an article on some of the factors that you might not have though to consider when choosing your first set. Without further ado, here’s how to pick your first hanfu! PRICE: HOW MUCH SHOULD I SPEND? No matter who you are or how much you predict you’re going to like hanfu, I recommend starting cheap. If you’re buying from an English site, I’d say around the $50-$60USD range is a fair bet; if you’re looking on Taobao I would day that 100-150RMB is a good range (not factoring in shipping) for your very first set. Use your budget as the first and foremost filter for finding your first set—keep it flexible if you’d like, but don’t waste money on your first set when you haven’t explored everything yet. You can think about changing your budget once you get a feel for what you like: do you want to buy a lot of hanfu because you’re not…

It might not be the first time you've heard of Hanfu (汉服). This kind of traditional Chinese costume has been discussed by media around the world frequently. More and more Hanfu events are being held, and more and more people are trying to wear traditional costumes. When browsing social media, you can often see beautiful pictures of Hanfu dresses. Even many people have incorporated them into their daily life. What types of groups are fancy in Hanfu? What are their original intentions of buying and wearing Hanfu? What attractiveness does Hanfu suit have? and more... This new report will introduce to you the current environment of Hanfu in several aspects. Hanfu lovers taking photos in the Forbidden City of Beijing. I. The Overall Situation of Hanfu Rapid Development of Hanfu Industry The revival of Hanfu culture began in 2003. An electric worker named Wang Letian walked with Hanfu on the street to promote it. This was the first person who wear Hanfu in the public. Currently, there are more than 1300 Hanfu cultural associations in the world in 2017, and there are more than 2000 in 2019, an increase of 46% can be seen in these two years. In China,…

First installment of the Hanfu in Components series is up! As a reminder, if you haven’t already, check out the introductory article to best find out how to use this guide, otherwise some things might not make sense to you. If you’ve done that already, charge on forward! To kick off the series, this is a brief article explaining how exactly we’re going to break down hanfu into its basic components. We’re still in the introductory stages here, but bear with me and we’ll get to the fun stuff soon.   WHAT MAKES HANFU, HANFU? What defines /han4 fu2/hanfu? What sets it apart from everyone else? How do we know when something is truly hanfu, as opposed to hanfu-inspired? These questions can be kind of scary when you first look at them, scared of making a mistake—don’t worry, it’s actually pretty simple! the shape of the fabric pieces and how the pieces are sewed together, not the ‘pattern’ printed on the surface of a piece of fabric or color) that we use today to make hanfu. So everything that counts as hanfu, we have a real historical artifact to back up its construction. Sometimes different types of hanfu are even…