THERE'S nothing new about chasing fashion in China, the ancients did it too. Now a costume museum in Nanhui District showcases 600 years of style - dragon robes, cow's blood coats and sexy qipao, writes Tan Weiyun

It's a Chinese Lunar New Year tradition to get new clothes, so why not open up the closets of the past to see what was trendy 600 years ago?

The Metersbonwe Costume Museum has collected more than 8,000 pieces of royal finery, as well as fashions from around China and clothing of numerous ethnic groups.

The collection represents 600 years of fashion from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties through the Republic of China period. There are lots of classy qipao from the 1920s and 1930s and clothing of old Shanghai.

The museum in the Kangqiao area was established by the Metersbonwe Group, a domestic casual wear manufacturer and retailer.

It is believed to be China's largest privately owned costume museum.

"Beautiful ancient Chinese costumes, and the skills to make them, are on the verge of extinction," said Zhou Chengjian, the group's founder and owner.

"It is our social responsibility to preserve and carry forward this centuries-old clothing culture for future generations," he said.

Zhou himself started out as a small tailor in a small village in Zhejiang Province and now heads a major company with around 5,000 stores in China. He worked in the industry for decades, knows its ups and downs and has great affection for ancient Chinese clothing culture.

He was inspired to collect ancient clothing when he visited the United Kingdom in 2003 and saw many museums and manor houses where rare ancient Chinese clothing, accessories, ornaments and jewelry had been preserved as part of their collections.

"How sad it was to see our own traditional clothing in a foreign country," Zhou said. He decided to build a world-class museum dedicated to Chinese traditional clothing through the ages and clothing of its 56 ethnic groups.

"It inspired my sense of duty to protect the costumes of all ethnic groups," Zhou said.

In 2004, he dispatched a team to scour all provinces and regions and collect the old garments, accessories and fabrics. These included clothing of ethnic groups in Zhejiang, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

Zhou's team also purchased precious art pieces and costumes from private collectors.

The 2,000-square-meter museum, opened in 2005, was designed by Professor Tang Xuxiang from Tsinghua University, and was set up in the group's headquarters compound in Nanhui.

The exhibition has five sections: ancient Chinese costumes, nationality costumes, early Republic of China costumes, fabrics, and ornaments and accessories.

It displays silver jewelry, looms and weaving machinery from more than 30 representative minority groups. They include the She nationality, mostly living in mountainous regions in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces; the Naxi in Yunnan, the Buyi in Guizhou, the Hezhe in Heilongjiang, the Tujia in Hunan Province.

The museum also houses the manuscripts by Shen Congwen (1902-1988), a novelist and expert in ancient Chinese clothing and culture.

The display of imperial garments features 17 costumes of glittering, gold thread, one from the Ming Dynasty and 16 from the Qing Dynasty.

These robes also reflected the daily life of the emperors. Some are made of light gauze for comfort in the summer. More elaborate robes were worn while emperors held court and took part in magnificent ceremonies.

The Qing costumes were sewn in the reigns of emperors Qianlong, Jiaqing, Daoguang, Xianfeng and Guangxu.

China was long considered "a state of ceremonies and etiquette," and official apparel was strictly regulated in the hierarchy. Certain fabrics, designs and decorative symbols were limited to certain official groups.

Only the emperor, of course, was permitted to wear the dragon robe, the most sacred ceremonial dress and emblem of supreme power.

According to Shang Shu, an ancient book recording royal court documents and activities, 12 emblems and patterns were reserved for the exclusive use of the emperor in his dragon robe. These included the dragon symbol of the emperor himself, the phoenix (for the empress), the sun, moon, stars, fire, mountains and other images.

Robes intricately embroidered with these symbols are on display. Some of the weaving and embroidering skills have been lost, including kesi (silk tapestry), which often required two to three years to complete, and gold silk embroidery.

One of the dragon robes on display was embroidered with gold silk. The threads of the robe were fabricated by hand from a large piece of gold, and the ancient technique has been lost, though machines today can easily make gold thread.

In the Republic of China period, the fashions were more diversified. On the streets of fashionable Shanghai at the time, one could see long gowns, Mandarin-style jackets, new form-fitting qipao, coat-dresses, Western suits and leather shoes. The city was known as the Paris of the East.

Ethnic costumes

The exhibition hall of richly colored ethnic apparel is one of the most vivid and eye-catching sections. China has 56 ethnic groups, each has its own traditional clothing; costumes differ from north to south, mountains to plains and desert.

Rich in fabric, patterns, colors, styles and adornments, the collection features clothing of southwestern ethnic groups like the Yi people (Yunnan, Sichuan and Guizhou provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), the Miao (Yunnan, Guizhou and Hunan provinces), the Dai (Yunnan Province), Zang (Tibet Autonomous Region, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan provinces), Uygurs and Uzbeks (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region), and Hezhen (Heilongjiang Province).

There are long coats embroidered with 100 auspicious birds of the Miao group; women's shirts with two-sided embroidery of the Li group (Hainan Province); long silk brocade skirts of the Yi people and many others.

Each group has its special totems and crafts. One of the most extraordinary is made of fish skin - salmon and catfish - with stitching threads made from big-head carp.

Then there's the Miao cow's blood coat. Wet blood was painted on clothing and when it dried, it created a rich glistening glaze.

The Miaos also produced skirts made of feathers.

There are Zang minority fur coats of otter skin, sheepskin, tiger and leopard skins; Yi minority coats printed with wax patterns and using aluminum buttons; Uzbek religious embroidered costumes, and a wedding dress of the Shui people (Guizhou Province).

The adornments section includes jewelry and accessories of jade, silver, gold, bronze, coral, agate, and other materials.

In ancient China, shining silver and gold were revered, made into totems, used in religious ceremonies and in what people called magic. Objects of precious metals symbolized social status and wealth. Some were used to banish evil spirits. Silver was used as a currency in many dynasties.

People from the Wa, De'ang and Bulang groups like to wear big heavy earrings, while the Zhuang, Dai and Buyi people prefer delicate, light-weight adornment, elaborate fabric patterns and bold colors.

Each minority group has its own strict and complicated dress code. These dictated exactly how to decorate the human body - head, hair, ears, teeth, neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, back, waist and feet.

Metersbonwe Chairman Zhou said the museum not only preserves the past clothing culture but also gives inspiration to his designers for future trends.

In 2007, Zhou opened another costume museum on busy Nanjing Road East, showcasing more than 5,000 ancient garments and accessories. The downtown museum displays a huge coat designed by himself in 1993, just after he established the brand.

The 4.64-meter-long, 5.4-meter-wide garment was listed in the Shanghai Guinness World Records that year, Zhou said.



Nanhui museum

Hours: 9am-5pm

Address: 800 Kangqiao Rd E., Nanhui District

Admission: Free

Tel: 3811-9999 ext 8135



Nanjing Road E. museum

Hours: 10am-8pm

Address: 580 Nanjing Road E. (The museum is on the 5th and top floor)

Admission: Free