Mamianqun

Mamianqun (simplified Chinese: 马面裙; traditional Chinese: 馬面裙; pinyin: mǎmiànqún; lit. 'horse face skirt'), is a type of traditional Chinese skirt. It is also known as mamianzhequn (simplified Chinese: 马面褶裙; traditional Chinese: 馬面褶裙; lit. 'horse-face pleated skirt'), but is sometimes simply referred as 'apron' (Chinese: 围裙; pinyin: wéiqún; lit. 'apron'), a generic term in English to refer to any Chinese-style skirt, or 'paired apron' in English although they are not aprons as defined in the dictionary. The Mamianqun is a type of qun (Chinese: 裙; pinyin: qún; lit. 'skirt') a traditional Chinese skirt worn by the Han Chinese women as a lower garment item in Hanfu and is one of the main representative styles of ancient Chinese-style skirts. It originated in the Song and Liao dynasties and became popular due to its functionality and its aesthetics style. It continued to be worn in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties where it was a typical style of skirt for women and was favoured for its unique aesthetic style and functionality. Following the fall of the Qing dynasty, the mamianqun continued to be worn in the Republic of China, and only disappeared in the 1920s and 1930s following the increased popularity of the cheongsam. As a type of xifu, Chinese opera costumes, the mamianqun maintains its long tradition and continues to be worn nowadays. In the 21st century, the mamianqun regained popularity with the emergence of the Hanfu movement. The mamianqun has experienced various fashion changes throughout history. It was typically paired with ku, Chinese trousers and Chinese jackets, typically either the ao or gua.
The term mamianqun (马面裙) is composed of three Chinese characters: ma《马》, which literally means 'horse'; mian《面》, which literally means "face"; and qun《裙》, which literally means "skirt".
In some 19th century French publications, the mamianqun were sometimes described as "deux jupes plissés" (transl. two pleated skirts). The name Paired apron has sometimes been used in English literature to refer to the mamianqun due to its construction of using two overlapping panels of fabric tied to a single waistband forming a single wrap skirt which is tied around the waist, like an apron. The term Paired apron was coined by John Vollmer in the second half of the 20th century and can be found as early as the 1980s.
The mamianqun represents an important aesthetic and cultural concept in the life history of Chinese women as it is representative of the Zen aesthetic concept of "despising structure, emphasizing decoration, implicitly natural, and releasing the body"; this concept differs from the Western concept of emphasizing the structure and draping of the human body. These skirts were only worn by Chinese women and were not worn by the Manchu women of the ruling class during the Qing dynasty.
In the Qing dynasty, the mamianqun were also decorated with auspicious ornaments and patterns; these auspicious ornaments and pattern reflected the appropriate situational context and the social occasions in which its wearer partook; the colours and ornaments used in the mamianqun also had to be appropriate for the occasion and sometimes even reflected the interpersonal relationship between people during an important event, such as a wedding, and/or the social hierarchy between women in a household; e.g. a principal wife of the head of a household would wear a red skirt decorated with a Chinese dragon while a secondary wife was not allowed to wear red and had to wear green instead as red colour was an exclusive right for the first wife according to the legal code of the Qing dynasty.
Due to the unique overlapping construction of the skirt, there were openings at the front and back of the skirt which facilitated horse-riding; this characteristic would also allow for greater freedom of movement when walking, which was necessary for Chinese women who had bound feet who were walking with small and shuffling steps; the need for this kind of functional skirt when walking did not arise until the Song dynasty when foot binding became popular. The pleats of pleats in Chinese skirts and its association to foot biding practice also appeared in European literature, such as in Intimate China: The Chinese as I Have Seen Them of 1899 by Mrs. Archibald Little:
Moreover, the fullness of the skirt created by the side panels provided enough space to accommodate the traditional loose garments of Chinese women.
There are also many records of the mamianqun in European publication dating approximately mid-19th century which described the skirts of Chinese women, such as in La revue des deux mondes: volume 71 dating from the 1846, which describes the mamianqun as being a "deux jupes plissés" (transl. two pleated skirts), which is covered with luxurious designs; its skirt length is above the ankle-level allowing for the exposure of the large embroidered ku, Chinese trousers; the skirt is tied around the waist of its wearer. Similar descriptions were found in the Voyage en Chine of 1847.
The mamianqun is composed of two overlapping panel of fabrics which wrapped around the lower body. Each of these two panels were identical and formed half of the skirt, which were then sewn together a single waistband creating the overlapping front. A mamianqun is a total of four flat and straight panels are known as qunmen (裙门; 'skirt door') or mamian (马面裙; 'horse face'); there are two flat panels at the right and left side of each panel of fabric. When worn, only two out of the four flat panels are visible on the wearer's body; the visible panels are seen located at the front and back of the skirt; The mamianqun were typically tied with ties which extended beyond the skirt's width at the waistband.
The historical mamianqun was made long enough to cover the ku, Chinese trousers, which were worn under the skirt. However, variations in skirt length may have existed during the Qing dynasty as European accounts prior to the 1850s have sometimes described it as being above the ankle level and allowed the exposure of the trousers in 1846s while others have described it as being long enough to cover the feet in 1849s.
The historical mamianqun is typically decorated with pleated side panels, gores, which can also vary in styles and types. The use pleats, gores, and sometimes godet on the left side of the skirt allowed greater ease of movements when walking, allowing Chinese women to swing gracefully as they walked. The trims which decorated mamianqun of the Qing dynasty did not only impacted the overall appearance of the skirt, but also influenced the way it would move as the wearer takes walk. For example, depending on how the each trims were sewed to the edge of the pleats, the pleats may move independently from each other or create "ripple effects".
Types of pleats used in the historical mamianqun: narrow pleats in honeycomb pattern or in fish-scale pattern, knife pleats; and box pleat.
The pleats could also be a combination of knife pleats which radiate outwards to the left and right of a central box pleat located at the middle region of side hips. These types of pleats used in the mamianqun contrasted from the pleats used in the wide skirt of Western ladies as described by Samuel Wells William in 1849:
Wrap-around skirt artifacts worn by Chinese women, known under the generic term qun, appeared as early as the Zhou and Han dynasties. Pleated skirts also appeared early on in China; according to the popular story, in the Han dynasty, pleated skirts became in vogue as women imitated the ripped skirt of Zhao Feiyan (? – 1 BC), a legendary dancer who later became an empress, who had her skirt ripped when she was saved from a fall by Feng Wufang. The term Mamianqun first appeared in the "History of the Ming Palace": "The drag and drop, the rear placket is continuous, and the two sides have swings, the front placket is two sections, and the bottom has horse face pleats, which rise to both sides. "But the history of the Mamianqun can be traced back to the Song Dynasty, because the skirt of the Song Dynasty already had the Mamian's shape of the Mamianqun. However, the prototypes of the mamianqun originated in the Song (960 –1279 AD) and Liao dynasties (916 – 1125 AD). The mamianqun experienced several changes of style, colours, fabric materials, and patterns over the dynasties. The tailoring of the side panels, construction, and decoration of the skirt reflect changes in social and economic conditions during the time in which the skirts were made.
During the Song dynasty, the mamianqun first appeared and apparently could have absorbed some influences from the clothing worn by China's nomadic neighbours. There are two forms of wrapped skirts which are related both to the early prototypes of the mamianqun and to the mamianqun which continued to be used in the Qing dynasty. Those two forms of wrapped skirts were found in the Song dynasty tomb of Huang Sheng in Fuzhou, Fujian Province.
The first mamianqun prototype skirt found in the Tomb of Huang Sheng was made of plain silk with a reinforcing layer at the centre of the skirt and patterned borders on one side, on the hem, and also on one side of the central panel. It was made of 2 pieces of fabric which overlapped at the central region at the front and the back; the openings of the skirt allowed horseback riding. It also had a wide waistband and was closed with ties; the waistband was made from fabric which was different from the one used in the skirt. However, the skirt was similar to a wrap-around skirt and had no pleats, thus restricting movement when compared to the pleated mamianqun of later centuries; this form of skirt is known as liangpianqun (Chinese: 两片裙; pinyin: liǎngpiànqún; lit. 'two-piece skirt'), also known as the xuanqun (Chinese: 旋裙; pinyin: xuánqún; lit. 'swirl skirt'), or whirling skirt in English. According to the Jianglinjizazhi《江邻几杂志》of the Song dynasty:
Horse riding and donkey riding was common in the Song dynasty as means of transportation; according to Wen Yanbo of the Northern Song dynasty, "upper-class families in town and countryside [...] all raised horses and rode them instead of walking" while in the History Narrated at Ease, volume 3, it is also recorded that "donkeys were for rent in the capital, and thus people often meet each other in the street on donkeys". Donkey riding was not uncommon for Chinese women in this period. For example, Chinese women rode donkeys while playing luju, which was variation of the ancient version of polo, jiju (击鞠); the luju was a popular form of physical activity in the Song and Tang dynasties, and was often played by women and children as they perceived donkeys as being smaller, less violent and more manageable than horses. Illustration of two elderly women riding donkeys and wearing veiled-hat, known as gaitou, can be found in the Song dynasty painting《Along the River During the Qingming Festival》. Similarly, a design of two-panel skirts worn by imperial concubines of the Southern Song dynasty during the reign of Emperor Lizong, known as ganshangqun (赶上裙), can be found in the Songshi. The ganshangqun was also recorded as shangmaqun (上马裙) in the Xihuyoulan Zhiyu《西湖游览志余》of the Ming dynasty and maqun (马裙) in the Huayuehen《花月痕》of the Qing dynasty. The ganshangqun was also derivative of the xuanqun. Due to the novelty design of these skirts compared to the contemporary ordinary skirts of this period, they were considered as "qizhuangyifu (奇装异服; 'bizarre clothing')".
The second prototype also comes from the Tomb of Huang Sheng; it was made of thin silk printed all over with large dots; this skirt was densely pleated except for the two sections at both edges of the skirt and the waistband was made of the same fabric as the skirt. The pleats like the present-day mamianqun were also found on the two sides of the skirt. This form of skirt is currently referred as baidiequn (百迭裙).
In the Yuan dynasty, the mamianqun which was made of two fabrics and which could be found pleated appeared. The waistband was made from fabric which was different from the one used in the skirt.
In the Ming dynasty, the mamianqun was made of two fabrics and was deeply pleated. The waistband was made from fabric which was different from the one used in the skirt. The style of the mamianqun was considered as being pure and free of vulgarity. Some women in the Ming dynasty also preferred light colours or white skirts as their favourite colours; this characteristic would later be transferred in the mamianqun used on stage in Peking opera. It could also be decorated with a single or double lan, horizontal pattern, at the knee-level or at the hem of the skirt.
In the Qing dynasty, Han Chinese women were allowed continue the dressing customs of the Ming dynasty and were not forced to adopt the hairstyle and dress of the Manchu rulers under the Tifayifu policy. Therefore, Han Chinese women in the Qing dynasty continued to preserve Hanfu features in their dress and styles. During this period, the mamianqun was a fashionable garments. The style, however, progressively changed and the mamianqun became more luxurious. The panels of fabric were decorated with embroideries; however, they were typically only embroidered to where the Chinese jackets would meet the skirt. Compared to the skirts worn in the Ming dynasty, the skirts worn in the Qing dynasty also had a more structured appearance.
The tailoring of the mamianqun did not show significant changes except for the side panels which started to show some variations in terms of width and number of gores and the pleats techniques. Style variations of the mamianqun in the Qing dynasty included the yuehuaqun (Chinese: 月华裙; lit. 'moon flower skirt'), which was also known as the 'moonlight skirt' and 'rainbow skirt' in English; the fengweiqun (Chinese: 凤尾裙), the yulinqun (Chinese: 釋魚裙), and the langanqun (Chinese: 阑干裙; also written as《栏杆裙》), which gained their names based on their main characteristics and features differentiating them from other styles.
The waistband of the mamianqun in this period was larger than those worn in the previous dynasties. The wide waistband was without decoration; it was also made of different materials than the main skirt. It was typically made of cheaper fabric than the rest skirt as it was hidden by the upper garments. The main material used in the making of the skirt was typically silk while the choice of fabric for the waistband was usually cotton or hemp; the use of such cheaper fabric over silken fabric was also functional as it prevented the skirt from slipping from slipping down its wearer's body. The mamianqun were also held by loops and buttons which were found inside the waistband. Ties could also be used instead of loops and buttons. Several historical mamianqun in its variant styles are stored in museums in and outside of China.
The yuehuaqun (月华裙) was one of the most popular form of mamianqun style variant in the Qing dynasty; It appeared at least since the 17th century where it was recorded by Li Yu (李漁):
The yuehuaqun was a skirt made of 12 gores, in which each gore consists of a different coloured fabric. It was sometimes decorated with ribbons and small bells.
The fengweiqun (凤尾裙) appeared in the Qing dynasty during the Qianlong (r. 1735–96) period no later than 1750. According to author, Shaorong Yang, embroidered fengweiqun with gold threads and made of damask was worn at the end of the Ming dynasty and at the beginning of the Qing dynasty. It became the most popular style during the Kangxi (r. 1661–1722) and Qianlong period. The fengweiqun was mostly worn by women who came from wealthy families, but women from less wealthy families may have possibly worn the fengweiqun as a wedding skirt. This style continued even in the Republic of China period.
The fengweiqun was characterized by long and narrow strips of fabric with sharp bottom ends which could be sewn to the waistband of the skirt. The strips of fabric could be made of silk and satin and embroidered with different patterns. The edges of these fabric strips could also be decorated with gold threads or lace, which would make the skirt appear very luxurious. It was sometimes decorated with ribbons and small bells.
The yulinqun (lit. 'fish-scale skirt'), also known as the yulin baizhequn (lit. 'fish-scale hundred pleats'), appeared in the late 19th century and became popular. It was especially popular in Beijing in the 1860s during the Tongzhi era. The yulinqun continues to be worn by actors in Peking opera.
The yulinqun has two overlapping flat panels and side pleats; its main characteristic is the use of hundreds of tiny pleats which are then secured with an overlay of horizontal stitches in a wave pattern dividing these pleats into sections; the overlapping of these pleats would then give the impression of fish scales patterns. The impression of fish scale-like is where the name skirt gained its name.
The pleats can also be secured to the skirt through the use of hand-made basting stitches on the inside in an alternating pattern; this would then create a honeycomb effect; this form of pleat effect were also referred as fish-scale pleating.
The langanqun (阑干裙 or 栏杆裙) was characterized with sharp trims (typically black in colour) in the shape of langan (Chinese: 欗杆; pinyin: lángān; lit. 'railing').
The mamianqun continued to be worn by Chinese brides who were allowed to follow the Ming dynasty clothing customs; there wedding attire were in the style of the Ming dynasty's women court attire. The mamianqun was also worn on formal occasions along with ku, Chinese trousers, and other forms of Chinese jackets. They were also used on festive occasions, such as family sacrificial rites and birthdays.
The fengweiqun might have been worn by women who came from less wealthy families as a wedding skirt on their wedding day.
The mangqun (Chinese: 蟒裙; pinyin: mǎngqún; lit. 'python skirt'), also known as mangchu in English, could appear in the form of a mamianqun (and its variants). The mangqun formed part of the traditional Chinese wedding dress attire. It was either red or green in colour; it was worn together with the mangao, which is a loose ao, a Chinese jacket. This skirt would be first worn on the wedding day of the bride; and following the wedding, she would have to wear it for any formal occasions.
The mang (Chinese: 蟒; pinyin: mǎng; lit. 'python') was embroidered on the skirt; the mang was a creature which looked similar the long (Chinese: 龙), Chinese dragons, except that it had four claws instead of five and thus did not meet the contemporary definition of a long.
In the Republic of China, the mamianqun was still being worn by Han Chinese women even at the time when the cheongsam was created in the 1920s. However, the style also changed, and the mamianqun eventually became unadorned and became shorter in length. In July 1912, the Senate published clear regulations on women's clothing known as Wenming xinzhuang (文明新裝) which had to continue the wearing aoqun tradition of the late Qing dynasty and did not break women dressing in yichang:
In the 21st century, the Ming-style mamianqun became a popular form of skirt for Hanfu enthusiasts.
Ever since the beginning of the Hanfu movement around the year 2003, more modified, modern-style variations of the mamianqun based on the Ming dynasty design, such as shorter mamianqun (e.g. above the knee, mid-calf, and ankle length), mamianqun with pockets, have been developed over the past years by Chinese Hanfu designers and Hanfu enthusiasts.
Some Hanfu enthusiasts sometimes combined the wearing of mamianqun with a T-shirt or blouse, and other contemporary garments, as an alternative to daily outwear and in opposition to the complete traditional style which looks more formal in style.
The mamianqun used as a type of qun, Chinese skirt, in xifu, Chinese opera costumes. In Chinese opera, the mamianqun is often worn with a nüpi or a nüxuezi; this combination reflects one of the most common style of aoqun attire in the Ming dynasty consisting a knee-length, duijin shan (Chinese: 对襟衫) over a pleated skirt.
Styles of pleats used in the show the combination of a central box pleat with knife pleats radiating outwards at the right and left side of the central box pleats; the pleats are not found on the grain-line, allowing the creating of a slight flared skirt. The size of the pleats, as well as its depth, reflect the different roles types of the actors and are used as distinguishing indicators. For instances, mamianqun with relatively few pleats and/or wider pleats could be worn by Huadan. If tighter pleats were used, it was an indication of a person with a high status as tighter pleats requires more fabric.
In Jingqu, a traditional form of qun used is the yulinqun of the Qing dynasty. It also inherited characteristics of the Ming dynasty mamianqun through its usage of light colours or white skirts, which were the preferred colours in the Ming dynasty.
The Xiuhefu (simplified Chinese: 秀禾服; traditional Chinese: 繡和服) is a two-pieces garment set of attire which was designed to look like a traditional Chinese wedding dress; it was developed in modern China and became popular in 2001 when it was popularized by when Zhou Xun, the actress who played the role of Xiu He, in the Chinese television drama Juzi Hongle《橘子紅了》(lit. 'Orange turned red'), thus gaining its contemporary name from name of the television drama character.
The Xiuhefu is a modern recreation version of the Qing dynasty wedding aoqun which was worn by the Han Chinese women, composed of a lower and an upper garment. The qun used in the Xiuhefu is influenced by the historical mamianqun of the Qing dynasty, especially those used in the late years of the Qing dynasty in the 1910s, which was used as part of the bridal attire. This wedding skirt is also called mamianqun.
In general, the design and construction of the Xiuhefu is not bound by any traditional clothing making rules. The mamianqun used in the Xiuhefu can either be an A-line, pleated skirt or a pleated circle skirt. It has panels of flat fabric, which is embellished with decorative designs which uses an embroidery technique known as Chaoxiu (Chinese: 潮绣). Compared to the historical mamianqun which has qunmen (裙门; 'skirt door') or mamian (马面裙; 'horse face') created by the overlapping characteristics of the skirt, the flat and straight panels of fabric used in the Xiuhefu are added on top of the pleated skirt, like a pendulum; it can also have more than two visible flat panels.
The Qing dynasty mamianqun made its apparition in the magazine Vogue published on the 15th December 2011 where it was presented as forming part of the "Boudoir Set" along with the Qing dynasty-style ao and Chinese shoes; Vogue also recommended that people shopped in Chinatown for the "Boudoir" set where it was a common place for Chinese women to wear the aoqun.
A red, mid-calf Qing dynasty langan-style mamianqun with chrysanthemum embroideries was worn by Princess Diana on the 23rd February 1981 prior to their official engagement announcement when she posed with Charles III (then Prince Charles) at Clarence House. The use of auspicious red colour was in line with Chinese wedding tradition; however, the skirt was not considered fully auspicious according to Chinese beliefs and traditions as it lacked the presence of a white belt (Chinese: 白色的束带; pinyin: báisède shùdài; lit. 'white colour belt') and instead a red one was used. A mamianqun with a white coloured belt was usually worn by Chinese brides to symbolize "to grow old together", following the Chinese idiom baitou xielao (simplified Chinese: 白头偕老; traditional Chinese: 白頭偕老) which literally means '(to live together until the) white hairs of old age', which Princess Diana's skirt lacked of. As a result, based on the Chinese wedding beliefs, the mamianqun of Princess Diana did not conform to the established rules (simplified Chinese: 规矩; traditional Chinese: 規矩) and was instead considered an inauspicious omen (simplified Chinese: 不祥的预兆; traditional Chinese: 不祥的預兆; pinyin: bùxiángde yùzhào).
Following the Hanfu movement, the mamianqun re-appeared in several fashion magazines, including the Women's Wear Daily published on 25 November 2020, in Vogue published on the 8th March 2021, in the Harper's Bazaar on 16 July 2021,
The mamianqun also appeared in the animated film Turning Red (2022) by Domee Shi.
In 2022, French luxury fashion house Dior fell under heavy public criticism in China after the release of a new black flared, pleated midi-skirt for its Fall 2022 collection which was officially branded as its "hallmark silhouette". This new skirt appeared earlier in an April 2022 runaway in Seoul, and according to the post-show notes of Maria Grazia Chiuri, Italian fashion designer and Dior's art director, the design of Fall 2022 collection was inspired by school uniforms and aimed to pay homage to women who contributed to the success of Christian Dior, which included his own sister Catherine Dior. The new Dior skirt bore close resemblance to the mamianqun. It was a wrap-around skirt, which was made of two panels of fabric which was sewn to the waistband of the skirt; it featured four flat panels with no pleats (one at each side of each panel of fabric) and pleats; it was constructed in an overlapping fashion such that there was two overlapping flat surface at the back and front and side pleats when worn. On its official website page, this skirt was described as "a hallmark Dior silhouette, the mid-length skirt is updated with a new elegant and modern variation [...]". On its official website page, this skirt was described as "a hallmark Dior silhouette, the mid-length skirt is updated with a new elegant and modern variation [...]" in English.
In July 2022, Chinese netizens and Hanfu enthusiasts took notice of the skirt and observed that the new Dior skirt had the same construction of the historical mamianqun of the Ming dynasty with only its length as its main difference from its orthodox version being a midi-skirt. However, the 21st century modern-style mamianqun based on the Ming dynasty design can also be found in mid-calf length. Dior was thus accused of plagiarism as the new skirt was deemed to be "a copycat of a traditional Chinese garment" and of cultural appropriation by Chinese netizens and official media outlets, such as the Global Times and the People's Daily, for not acknowledging the (possible) Chinese origins of the new Dior skirt. According to the Journal du Luxe, a French news media, the adoption of the mamianqun cut and construction design by Dior was not the main issue of the debate and critics but rather on the absence of transparency surrounding the origins of the inspirations behind the skirt design. Some Chinese netizens also criticized Dior on Weibo with comments, such as "Was Dior inspired by Taobao?" while another Instagram user commented on the official Dior account:
Under these accusations, Dior did not immediately respond to a request for comment and decided to stop this sale in the Mainland China's website to avoid controversy. On July 23, about 50 Chinese overseas students in Paris made a protest in front of a Dior flagship store at Champs-Élysées, they used the slogan "Dior, Stop Cultural appropriation" and "This is a traditional Chinese dress" written with a mixture of French and English, and call for other overseas students from the United Kingdom and the United States for relay, the Communist Youth League of China also expressed support for this protest. Similar protests are expected to take place worldwide, such as in New York, United States, and London, United Kingdom.