The history of the dress

Dresses have been one of the most commonly used garments since ancient times. The deep garment of ancient China, in which the upper garment was connected to the lower garment, and the corseted garment of ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Two Rivers Valley all have the basic form of a dress, which can be worn by both men and women, with differences only in specific details.

In Europe, until World War I, the mainstay of women's clothing was the dress, and was used as formal attire for various ceremonial occasions. After World War I, as women became more involved in society, the type of dress was no longer limited to the dress, but still served as an important garment. As dresses go, most of them still come in the form of dresses. With the development of the times, there are more and more types of dresses.

In China's pre-Qin era, people commonly wore deep clothes, which can be seen as a variation of the dress. In the Yuan Dynasty, the quality of the Sun dress, the lower skirt as a pleated skirt. However, overall, the style of the dress is relatively rare in ancient China. In recent times, Western-style dresses have been introduced to China and have become one of the garments often worn by the Chinese....

In 1973, Changsha, Hunan Province, Mawangdui No. 1 Han Tomb unearthed a number of intact, various colors of gauze, silk and qi texture of the cotton robe **** 11, which belongs to the continuation of obeisance and straight-train cotton robe (i.e., the deep clothes), **** there are 4 pieces. Deep clothes is one of the clothing styles of the Han Dynasty Qin system, in fact, it is the upper garment and the lower garment sewn together, somewhat similar to today's dresses, due to the body is deep, so the name "deep clothes". It should be added here that the lower garment in ancient times was different from the skirts worn by women nowadays, and it was a bit like the apron in later times, of course, there were still pants worn inside the garment. These pants have no crotch, no waist, only two with a belt tied around the waist of the pants, and the private parts of all rely on the garment to cover.

The evolution of the deep garment went through two processes: the first was the adoption of the "curved train". Before the emergence of the deep garment, people's clothes were divided into two parts, namely the upper garment and the lower garment. The garment, the upper garment and the pants inside were each in their own way, and the lapel and the train (hem) of the garment were not related to each other. Later, because of the deep clothes to remove the apron, the lower part of the body is not easy to deal with: such as in the hem on both sides of the slit, it is inevitable that the spring light; if not slit, it is bound to affect the walk. In order to solve this contradiction, the ancients came up with a "curved train" to cover the way, that is, the lapel will be connected to the long, forming a triangle, wearing it around the back, tied with a belt, from the back of the look like a swallow tail. In this way, it is easy to walk, but also without the risk of revealing the body. When people's underwear was perfected, it was developed into a "straight train". Compared with the traditional top and bottom garment, this kind of deep garment was much easier to wear and more appropriate. Therefore, in the pre-Qin period, it was the household clothes of the lords, the great doctors and the scholars, as well as the general dress of the common people. The reddish-red yarn printed color continuous obeisance with straight train is unearthed from Changsha Mawangdui No.1 Han Tomb. The length of the garment is 130 centimeters, the length of the sleeves is 236 centimeters, the width of the sleeves is 41 centimeters, the width of the cuffs is 30 centimeters, the width of the waist is 48 centimeters, the width of the hem is 57 centimeters, the width of the collar is 29 centimeters, and the width of the hem is 38 centimeters. It has a cross-collar, right-overlapping, hu-sleeve, straight train, and a large, wide rim on both the sleeve and hem. This piece of clothing has a major feature, there is a wide continuation of obeisance, that is, the lapel (known as "obeisance" in ancient times) from the armpit set in the lower part of the train, through and hem flush, as if the right obeisance of the continuation, so the name is "continuation of obeisance". This kind of deep clothes with straight train and wide obeisance is the popular style in Changsha area of Western Han Dynasty, but it keeps the former straight train form, which was to be compatible with the "curved train" form introduced just now. It can be wrapped behind the back with a wide lapel and tightened with a belt to keep warm in winter. The fabric of this deep garment is a transparent yarn (a thin, lightweight, plain silk fabric with square holes), and its warp and weft filaments are 10.2 denier, making the warp very thin. Because its warp and weft densities are closer, the yarn has a denser texture.

The color dyeing of this dress is also outstanding. The fabric is colored in reddish-red. This reddish-red color is made of alizarin by mordanting and dyeing, and this red color is still brilliant to this day. Printing and coloring on the reddish-red yarn is called printing and coloring process in ancient times. The printed pattern is the deformed pattern of the vine, which is made of vermilion red, pink and white, silver gray, gold, brown gray, black and other pigments, through the combination of printing and painting process, produced the flowers, leaves, buds and buds, and finally with pink and white outlining the clouds and water patterns and dots, the flowers and the ground is clear, gorgeous and colorful.

The garment is worn with the inner obeisance concealed into the left armpit, the outer obeisance folded to the right side beside the body, and the bottom hem flared. Hands flat, the large sleeve hu is curved down, the coat pattern shows the appearance of today's bat sleeves. Until the Middle Ages. Most Western skirts were dresses, and after the 16th century, tops and skirts were gradually separated. After World War I, the mainstay of women's clothing continued to be the dress. The types of dresses also became diverse. From the mid-16th century to the early 20th century, boys in the West usually wore robes or dresses in their early years.