Advanced Search

The story appears on

Page A6

May 8, 2016

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Sunday » Art

Photos capture history of Chinese fashion

By Yang Meiping | May 8, 2016, Sunday | Print Edition

OVER 200 photos are on display at the Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume, located at Donghua University, in a show tracing changes in urban Chinese fashion since 1949.

Many of the images on view are personal photos supplied by family and friends of 30 fashion experts. According to Li Yongzhi, the vice president of the university: “The photos were not taken of celebrities by famous photographers. They show the real lives of ordinary people so as to depict the real fashion history of China.”

The first section of the exhibition covers the period between 1949 and 1957. Urbanites mixed Western and Eastern styles during this time, with Chinese robes and business suits both being popular among men, while women switched between traditional qipao dresses and imported fashions from Europe and North America. Russian-style clothes were also popular, given the newly-founded People’s Republic of China’s close connection with the Soviet Union.

This section also includes photos from a group wedding held in 1951. In the pictures, the dozen brides who took part in the ceremony all wore white gowns and veils, while the bridegrooms wore suits and bow ties.

The second section covers the period from 1958 to 1965, when loose Chinese tunic suits meant for workers and members of the proletariat replaced form-fitting, Western style clothing.

Later, during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), military-style uniforms and outfits became widely accepted by youth in cities. Blue, gray and black were the dominate clothing colors of this time, which is covered by the third section of the exhibition.

The rest of the exhibition focuses largely on the years following the launch of China’s reform and opening, with special sections devoted to imitations of celebrity fashions, the emergence of Chinese clothing brands, and also the internationalization of local tastes as the country connected to the outside world.

With its many images of elegant qipao dresses, once-ubiquitous worker’s outfits and the bell bottom pants that were popular in the 1980s, several visitors told the Shanghai Daily that the photos awakened memories from their youth and childhood.

“My family had a lot of such pictures, but most got lost when we moved houses,” said one old woman in his 60s, “It’s nice to see so many similar pictures here. The family albums make me think about how I had taken such pictures with my brothers and sisters.”

“The wedding photos are similar in style to my parents’ and one photo of a child riding a tricycle impressed me too, as I had one like it when I was a child and had also taken a picture of mine,” said another woman in her 30s.

 

Date: Through June 11

Venue: Shanghai Museum of Textile and Costume

Address: 1882 Yan’an Rd W.

SundayArt


 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend