Round Collar Robe

Most types of Han clothing that we had talked about in the past few weeks are mainly for the females, but as I mentioned before, the Han clothing as the traditional Chinese clothing is not only designed for females, I would like to talk about one important type of Han clothing that is mainly designed for males--Round Collar Robe.

Here is a picture of Round Collar Robe in an ancient wall painting:

Source: Yangmei Jianwu

Features

The round collar robe was created in Tang dynasty, and it became extremely popular at that time as well, so it was also known as “Tang Round Collar Robe”. It was designed only for males to wear at first. But because this robe can make people look taller and thinner than his original body, which exactly satisfy the females’ need, so it gradually become popular among females as well.

Also, because the round collar robe is designed as a coat, it is usually loose so people can wear underwear in it. And it is convenient to wear for the daily life because it is not as long as the other dress, it allows us to see people’s feet. So, when the females are wearing it, they have to put on a pair of boots instead of normal shoes, because in ancient China, the females’ feet are not allowed to be seen by others except their own husbands.

Here is a picture of Round Collar Robe in the contemporary society:

Source: Liu Li

However, in the contemporary society, in order to make the round collar robe more convenient, some designers made changes on it, they cut it shorter and put more beautiful pictures on it, which makes it looks pretty and handsome. And because nowadays, the female masculinity becomes more and more normal, so the round collar robe is now also more popular among females than males.

Accessories

Ancient Chinese women love to make themselves look beautiful and attractive as well, but they cannot do that without accessories, today I want to introduce the accessories that they used to put on while dressing the Han clothing. There are two main categories of the accessories in ancient China: the hairpin and the hand ornament.

Hairpin

Ancient Chinese women liked to have long hair, so they can put their hair in a bun to make them look more elegant. The hairpins are usually just a long, thin wood stick with some fake flowers on one point. When using it, just put the empty and shark side into the hair bun, because the hairs are all gathered in the bun, they will lift the hairpin and will not let it fall down.

Because our ancestors believed that flowers are the most beautiful natural things in the world, so they encouraged women to put on something that contain flowers to make them look more amazing. When they walked, it looks like that the flowers are actually growing on their heads.

Here are pictures of hairpins:

 
Source: Mega

Hand Ornament

The ancient Chinese hand ornaments are usually made of pearls, some of them are short, some of them are long. We prefer to wear the long hand ornament so we can hold part of it in our hand and play with it, because we believed that it can make us look smarter.

Also, because the Han clothing all have long sleeves, the long hand ornaments can prevent the long sleeves from covering our hands and influencing the daily life. They are both beautiful and useful.

Here are pictures of hand ornaments:

Long hand ornament

Short hand ornament

Source: Mega

Overall, the ancient Chinese women tried really hard to make them look more attractive, and they succeed, the classical beauty of ancient China can never be replaced or exceed.