I check my blogs, sporadically. And I do miss the old feeling when it was good, aka when I started using this platform and being in my own bubble was a little more comfortable.
After the hiatus and not using Tumblr for a long time, now it just feel different and too unfamiliar to be regularly using it 💦
1. the sleeves of hanfu shouldn’t be attach right on the shoulder joint - even when it was at the “shoulder” portion of clothes, the hanfu was so big that the seam would fall in the upper arm
The sleeve attachment point will be much lower in Song/Ming style because the fabric width was larger at that point in history.
2. hanfu doesn’t have shoulder pad. A lot of cdrama loves to add those things - it is a modern influence of Japanese clothing. if one really want to accent the shoulder, especially when wearing Tang style, the character could wear a brocade/stiffer banbi (short-sleeve) underneath.
(this isn’t a good example because the yuanlingpao was stiff too.)
Hey! do you know what colour hanfu the bride and groom wear? I heard the bride can wear green but i'm not sure :/
Hi, thanks for the question! (image via)
@siumerghe wrote an amazing and thorough guide to hanfu wedding colors in their post “Historically, what was the color of wedding dress in China?” - please check it out!
I also recommend the following two articles: 1) What is Traditional Chinese Wedding Dress? & 2) Dress and color of Wedding Hanfu.
As summarized in the first link, the colors of wedding hanfu are:
Western Zhou to Qin & Han dynasties - black (with red details)
Wei-Jin and Southern & Northern dynasties - black with red, but also white
Tang & Song dynasties - green for the bride, red for the groom
Ming Dynasty - red for the bride; green, blue, or red for the groom
So as you can see, you are correct - the bride wore green during the Tang and Song dynasties (while the groom wore red). In fact, there is a saying for this tradition - “红男绿女” (Hong Nan Lv Nv), which literally means “red man, green woman”. It’s now become an idiom meaning “young men and women in beautiful clothes”. Here are a few visual examples:
1) Tang dynasty wedding hanfu (1, 2):
2) Song dynasty wedding hanfu (1, 2) - Note: in past years, modern wedding hanfu came in only three styles - Zhou/Han, Tang, and Ming. It’s only very recently that authentic Song dynasty wedding hanfu has come onto the market. My theory is that it was largely the influence of the 2020 Song dynasty-set Cdrama Serenade of Peaceful Joy, which created a fresh wave of interest in fancy & authentic Song dynasty fashion:
Although the color coordination is the same, Song wedding hanfu differs from Tang wedding hanfu in style & accessories. Here are two easy ways to tell the difference:
Obvious difference #1 - Song wedding hanfu for brides includes a long accessory worn over the shoulders called Xiapei/霞帔. Xiapei was a component of women’s formal clothing during the Song and Ming dynasties, and was therefore a part of Song and Ming wedding hanfu. Xiapei was not a part of Tang wedding hanfu (1, 2):
Obvious difference #2 - Men’s headwear is different. Song dynasty grooms wear unique Song official headwear called Zhang Chi Mao/长翅帽 (long winged hat) with long, straight flaps (x):
3) Most Chinese period dramas show the bride and groom wearing all-red wedding hanfu regardless of the time period, but the Song dynasty-set Cdrama The Story of Minglan does a good job showing the traditional red & green wedding colors (x):
For more visual examples & references, please check out my wedding hanfu tag.
Yan's concept is mainly inspired from a Sallow bird. With her petite figure, it granted her agility and flexibility. The waistcloth is cut into a dynamic shape that resembles a Swallow bird's tail, it is to emphasize the swift movements she displayed in battle. In addition, her outfit is derived from both Lu Xun and Xin Xianying's design.
Liu Yan had always been lively and curious at heart. She can be deemed rebellious, doesn't like to be chained by societal norms. Hence the association with a Swallow that symbolizes her free spirit.