PEONY AND CHRYSANTHEMUM details; floral and butterfly themes were popular for dresses. Note edging of dress and elaborate
trim of red slip. Virtually every motif in Chinese art and culture has meaning, often of an auspicious nature. All color photographs:
Robert K. Liu/Ornament.
SHORT-SLEEVED DRESS with cranes, trimmed in
white at side slits; one of the seven extant dresses
that my mother wore. Lengths range from 110 to
134 centimeters.
RED SILK DRESS, with embroidered dragons in silver thread; note collar detail,
including use of frogs as closures and black snaps for convenience. The matching
shoes lack embroidery but have a design of subtle lines of thread.
MATCHING BLACK SILK SHOES accompany the
black crane dress. Embroidered cranes are in scale
with heel size.
31 ORNAMENT 36.2.2012
EMBROIDERED CRANES, showing detailed feathers, anatomy and animation. Each
one is in different flight attitude, increasing in size from top to bottom of the dress,
and gracing both front and back of the qipao.