Category: Hwon gelpeð, se þe wide siþað (Little boasts the one who travels widely) Make something from outside Europe
Entrant: Rose Taillor
Title: Song Dynasty Garb
I present this with limited documentation, due to my very poor documentation of sources during the process of creation, and the fact I made it over six months ago. The skirt (Qun) and red top (Ru) are both silk cotton blend, the white undershirt is cotton, and I managed to find actual ramie for the over-jacket (Beizi), with some old dupion silk edging. Ramie was the more popular fabric choice in China during the Song dynasty, so I was excited to find ramie rather than linen. Please excuse the wrinkles!
I chose Song dynasty because they tended towards brighter colours than the very muted colours of the Tang dynasty, although these colours are probably too bright for even the Song.
The cut of these garments all have a centre back seam, which reflects the width of the looms used in the period. As I am not a large person, this means that the arm seam for me falls near my elbow, rather than high on the shoulder, as it would for a wider person.
Hilariously, because I was looking at extant garments at photos, I set the closures the wrong way round, as I mirrored the closure on the extant garments! It is meant to be a right sided closure, as my garb is for a Han lady. A left sided closure was consistent with the Mongolian deel, popular in the Yuan dynasty, which followed the Song. Therefore, perhaps this garb reflects the transitional period; where Mongol fashions were influencing Song fashions – after all, evolution of fashion is never a sharp line, but is a gradual process.
Whilst I love wearing this garb, I am having trouble finding the right season and event to wear it in. It is too cold for many events in Cluain because I lack a warm outerrobe, but the silk means it’s often too hot for Ildhafn tropical weather! I thought it would work for CF, but CF was unseasonably cold this year, so it remained in my bag. It is also long and flowy, which limits my ability to wear it whilst cooking Song food. My next foray into this garb era will likely be peasant clothing which is easy to launder, so I can wear it whilst cooking.
