Empire of Style
Subtitle: Silk and Fashion in Tang China
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: 2019
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
ISBN-13: 9780295745305
Subjects: Clothing and dress; Fashion, history; Silk; Silk industry; China, history
Description: Tang dynasty (618–907) China hummed with cosmopolitan trends. Its capital at Chang’an was the most populous city in the world and was connected via the Silk Road with the critical markets and thriving cultures of Central Asia and the Middle East. In Empire of Style, BuYun Chen reveals a vibrant fashion system that emerged through the efforts of Tang artisans, wearers, and critics of clothing. Across the empire, elite men and women subverted regulations on dress to acquire majestic silks and au courant designs, as shifts in economic and social structures gave rise to what we now recognize as precursors of a modern fashion system: a new consciousness of time, a game of imitation and emulation, and a shift in modes of production.