History of Naxi costume

Naxi people live in the northwest of Yunnan Province and the southwest of Sichuan Province. Lijiang Naxi Autonomous County and Lugu Lake area at the junction of Sichuan and Yunnan are the two main settlements of Naxi people, and the rest are scattered in Zhongdian, Weixi, Yongsheng, Yanbian, Yanyuan, Muli and Mangkang counties in Tibet. It belongs to Hengduan Mountains, backed by Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and facing Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, with magnificent mountains and rivers, beautiful scenery, simple folk customs and profound cultural heritage. It is regarded as a beautiful, mysterious and rich "Shangri-La". Today, Old Town of Lijiang, where Naxi people live in compact communities, has been listed as a world cultural heritage, which has attracted attention at home and abroad.

In ancient Naxi people, men wore shorts and women wore long skirts. In Weixi, men's trousers do not exceed their knees, and women's skirts cover their knees. Most of them, men and women, don't wear shoes and socks, while women wear flower belts and a piece of sheepskin or felt. Before the Qing Dynasty, the colors of Naxi folk costumes were mainly black and white, young adults wore white, and the elderly wore black, because black meant dignity. Toastmasters have luxurious official uniforms and hats presented by the imperial court, which are worn when meeting officials, welcoming guests and visiting guests. I seldom wear it at ordinary times. At home, they wear robes and jackets made of black brocade and melon-skin hats. The toaster's wife and daughter wear skirts that reach the instep to show their nobility.

From the early years of Yongzheng, under the influence of the policy of "changing the soil to the flow", successive officials of the Qing Dynasty ordered the Naxi people to change their customs many times, so great changes have taken place in their costumes. On the eve of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Lijiang men's clothing was basically the same as that of the neighboring Han nationality, wearing robes and jackets or double-breasted tops and trousers. Women's clothing, except for the custom of wearing skirts in some places, has been replaced by trousers, but the overall clothing still has distinctive national characteristics.