A Study of the Changes and the Types of Chinese Women's Clothing Resulted from the Introduction of European Culture

Abstract

【The purpose of this study was to examines the changes in Chinese women's clothing resulted from the introduction of Western culture in the first hal# of the 20th century in terms of Chinese view of the world and their attitude towards European culture. The clothes are divided into four types according to their characteristics : traditional Chinese type, China-Europe adjustment type, China-Europe blend type and European type. As for the research method, both literature and visual data are examined. The traditional Chinese type showed changes only in the width and length retaining the features of the traditional qipao until the 1910s. The China-Europe adjustment type used the same flat pattern making of traditional Chinese dress while imitating only the appearances of European one-piece, two-piece and three-piece dresses. It also was presented with European accessaries and hair-styles. The China-Europe blend type, starting to appear with the introduction of the three-dimensional pattern making from the Europe in the 1930s, showed a perfect mixture of European and traditional Chinese costumes in the early 1940s when the Chinese learned and adapted the European pattern making. The European type was the most modernized designs using a variety of European-style details and constructions as the traditional clothing started to have unrestricted European-style changes. Great significance can be found in the fact that the Chinese modified their garments by themselves using the pattern mating they learned from the Europe.】