Horse face skirt, also known as “horse face pleated skirt”, one of the main skirts of the ancient Chinese Han women, before and after the inside and outside of a total of four skirts, two and two overlap, the outer skirt door has a decoration, the inner skirt door decoration less or no decoration, horse face skirt tucks on the side of the skirt, the skirt waist with white cloth, take the meaning of the white head and old age, to the rope or button fixed knot. So, let’s have a look at the “What is a Horse-Faced Skirt? It!
🏮Origin of the Horse-Face Skirt
The word “horse face”, first appeared in the “Ming Palace History”: “Hiking Sa, the system of the back of the lapel is not continuous, and the two sides of the pendulum, the front of the lapel of the two sections, and under the folds of the horse face, to the two sides up.” But the history of the horse-face skirt can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, because the skirt of the Song Dynasty already has the horse-face shape of the horse-face skirt.
🏮Development of the Horse-Face Skirt
The spinning skirt of the Song Dynasty developed to the Ming Dynasty, gradually forming the horse-faced skirt. During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, people in the capital city liked to wear horse-faced dresses. From the mother of a country down to the common people, everyone wore the horse-faced dress. Just different classes, the texture, decoration and colour of the horse skirt have strict differences. Just at this time there is no “horse face dress” name, skirt style simple and undefined, beautiful colours, the overall give people a fresh and elegant feeling.
🏮 horse skirt production process
Ming system horse skirt generally use 7 cloth, every 3 ½ put together a piece of skirt, two pieces of skirt around the skirt; skirt before and after the stacked 4 skirt door to keep flat, both sides of the live pleats, pleats are large and sparse, fixed with the skirt waist, the skirt waist at both ends of the sewing belt; skirt is wide, the pendulum with weaving or embroidery on the form of decorative bottom flutter, or the knee glistening. The skirt is often decorated with auspicious motifs that are rich in meaning, and the rich and noble families use more elaborate dragon patterns, cloud python patterns, and so on. The combination of the horse face and the skirt has become the basis for the rich and varied form of the horse face skirt.
🏮The fabric of the horse-face skirt
The skirt fabric of the horse skirt is mainly made of silk and satin, and the composition of the fabric varies from style to style. Side pleated skirt because of pleating, the fabric should be not only good but also elastic, easy to shape, like fish scale pleated skirt, this kind of more need to be connected with silk thread between the seams, so often use the dark flower silk fabrics, � dry skirt is preferred to use the satin fabrics to produce the effect of the large surface. Most horse-faced skirts are lined, with silk being the predominant lining material.
🏮The pattern of the horse skirt
The patterns of the horse skirt can be divided into individual embroidered fabric patterns and large embroidered weaving patterns, each of which conveys a different meaning. For example, the animal pattern, in the traditional historical development, the dragon and phoenix pattern has been accompanied by every Chinese people, the dragon and phoenix also symbolises the good marriage of love between men and women. Plants and flowers, through the flowers and their different qualities to give the pattern a good symbolism, as the national flower of the peony, on behalf of the rich and noble; out of the mud, but not stained the lotus, on behalf of the jade clean and ice clear; chrysanthemum on behalf of longevity; the lily symbolises the sacred and holy, purity and friendship, meaning a hundred years of goodwill.