Aoqun

I have already talked about Ruqun--the clothes that ancient Chinese people dressed mostly in spring, summer, and fall, now I want to talk about what are people, especially women are going to wear in Winter: Aoqun. Ao and Qun are the two main parts of Aoqun: Ao means the coat, and Qun means the skirt.

Ao (Coat)

There are two types of the coat “Ao”: the long Ao and the short Ao. The long Ao is always long enough to cover the knees, which is not convenient for acting and moving. So, most people prefer the short Ao instead, the short Ao should cover the waist at least to make sure that it can prevent us from the cold weather outside.

Also, both the long Ao and the short Ao have the crossed collar, and they always put the front of collar at right. And because the Ao is the clothes for winter, it has to in a double-deck structure, the inside cloth is always warm and comfortable while the outside cloth is always thick and beautiful.

Here are pictures of Long Ao and Short Ao：

 
Source: Back to Han

Qun (skirt)

The skirt “Qun” has a lot in common with the Qiyao Ruqun, which means that the waistband of it is on the waist instead of above the chest. The only difference is that people use much thicker cloth while making the Qun because it is a winter dress.

However, there is one special type of Qun in Ming dynasty named “Horse Face Qun”. As we can in the picture, both the front side and back side of this Qun are as flat and long as the horse’s face, this design will make the people in it look thinner and taller. But because it is hard to keep both sides as flat as new, people only dress it in the important festivals or ceremonies.

Here is a picture of Horse Face Qun:

Source: Gusu Chen