Just wanted to share a hanfu I completed recently!
It consists of four pieces: a long overcoat, a sheer pink inner coat, a solid pink top inside the inner coat, and a black mamianqun (pleated skirt). The overcoat has patterned cuffs and a patterned collar made out of the same fabric as the mamianqun (if you look closely, you can see the pattern on the collar and sleeve cuffs on the mamianqun itself). On the back of the coat, I hand-painted a dragon and phoenix that was based on the design of the front panel of the mamianqun. (I do Chinese painting and calligraphy, so I just used fabric paint and some Chinese painting techniques.) The sheer inner coat is made of a sheer pink fabric with blue bias tape finishings on its collar and sleeves. The pink top inside the collar has an embroidered collar (jiaolingyouren, closes on right as per traditional Chinese garments) and ties on the inside and outside (not visible here because they are covered by the skirt and by the shirt itself). The mamianqun arguably took me the longest to complete: it has seven front-facing pleats and seven back-facing pleats on each side, which took me way too long to iron lol. It has ties that wrap around the back and tie in the front. All fabric except from the pink and blue solid colors is from Taobao, and the bias tape is from Joanns.
This is a pretty untraditional combination of garments; I’ve seen the mamianqun worn primarily with a square-neck top (not sure what this is called, but I think it was from the Ming dynasty period?), and never with a top with a jiaolingyouren. I modified patterns from the book “Traditional and Modernized Hanfu Pattern Making” by TT Duong, which I highly recommend :) The entire project took a total of 30-40 hours (conservative estimate) and the fabric painting took 7 hours.
Overall I’m really proud of the entire project! I created this so that I could enter it into the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards under Fashion (I’m a high schooler) and I had a lot of fun making it :) I’m thinking of making a green one next!
18K rose gold, diamonds and rubies, approx US$138,163.
‘The profound Chinese culture sees the “auspicious union of the dragon and phoenix” as the pinnacle of harmony. It is also the best line for wedding wishes. The King and Queen collection symbolize the harmony between yin and yang, and the promise for love.’ X
The most cherished human dream is cast in bronze – the dream of money growing on trees.
Chinese custom associates the money tree with abundance and prosperity. The money tree as a burial item served to ensure that the deceased continue to prosper in the afterlife. Elephants laden with wealth roam along the branches emanating from the trunk. The ensemble of auspicious figurines refers to all kinds of blessings.
Pecuniary symbolism is combined with pretty archaic depictions of phoenixes and taotie-like (饕餮) imagery. The treetop Phoenix is a later modification of the Solar Raven, so the artifact becomes more and more related to the World Tree.
