Features of Chinese Clothing
The varied designs of Chinese clothing came to be one of the unique features of traditional Chinese dress.
It was from the Xia and Shang Dynasties that dress system came into being in China. From then on the distinctions as to color, design and adornment of dress were strictly made among the emperor, officials and the common people. * Darker Colors
Darker colors were much more favored than lighter ones in traditional Chinese clothing so the main color of ceremonial clothing tended to be dark while bright, elaborate tapestry designs accented. Lighter colored clothing was worn more frequently by the common people for everyday use. Zhou dynasty placed high regard on the color red – fire – stronger than the golds, Qin Dynasty Emperor wanted to show his dynasty superiority and emphasized the black or water to extinguish the fire of Zhou. * Colors and Seasons
During the approximately 5000 years of Chinese history, color had it own particular meanings. The Chinese associate certain colors with specific seasons: green represents spring, red symbolizes summer, white represents autumn, and black symbolizes winter. White is a symbol of the unknown and purity. It is white is the color of mourning, death, and ghosts. Therefore Chinese people will wear white during a funeral or while summoning ghosts. * Red and Yellow
Red is favorite for most Chinese people since Red symbolizes good luck in traditional mind. Chinese people prefer to wear in red when they are celebrating some important festivals or events in their life, such as births, wedding ceremony.
Yellow is the most valuable color as a symbol of center. It is reserved for royalty and emperor. Although each dynasty designates their own color in each official rank, clothing and objects that are yellow in color still resemble a higher social status. Yellow also is the main color of Buddhism, thus it represents being free from worldly cares.

Slide 2 Design
Typical design of Chinese clothing, besides their wide cut and voluminous sleeves, were a design utilizing mainly straight lines, and a loose fit forming natural folds, regardless of whether the garment was allowed to hang straight or was bound with a sashe at the waist. All types of traditional Chinese garments utilized a minimum number of stitches. It’s distinctive for relatively plain design and structure, embroidered edgings, decorated bands, draped cloth, embellishment on the shoulders, and sashes were often added as ornamentation.
5-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors, with the phoenix or fenghuang the symbol of the Chinese empress. The nine dragon and five clouds embroideries used to bring a good fortune and this design still holds its significance with modern china.

Slide 3 Adornments
The decorative flowers, leaves as well as jade were the main features of Chinese adornments. They widely used bamboo and metal elements in the design of earrings, hairpins and bracelets. The nature has always been the important part of the decoration– birds, plants,butterflies.
Traditional macrame is used on borders, shoulders,openings and bodices.
Lotus shoes are footwear that were worn by women who had bound feet. Food binding – tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. It displayed the status,women from wealthy family who didn/t need their feet to work could afford to have them bound The shoes are cone or sheath-shaped, intended to resemble lotus bud, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand. Constrycted from cotton or silk, some of them had heels, made in different styles and colors.
We can see that different from the other countries, Chinese clothing features is very distinctive and with profound Chinese culture.