Is the early 20th century aoqun's skirt a mamianqun?
It was until the 1920s, when skirts of other construction became more popular. You can check out my series on early 20th century womenswear for the exact changes in skirt style through the decades. Skirts in formal ensembles like wedding qungua were still commonly made in the mamian style though, and some could be seen even today. Aoqun skirts faded into obscurity due to cheongsam replacing aoqun as standard womenswear since the 1930s, but they briefly resurfaced in the 1950s and that was the last we hear of them. It should be noted that early 20th century mamian skirts may not be consider genuine mamianqun, as they were often just pleated in a mamian style but didn't have two separate pieces of fabric i.e. the seams were sewn shut, and weren't actually wrap skirts as they could also be closed with buttons or hooks and eyes etc.
1910s cover of literary magazine 中华小说界, showing a mamian skirt.
Photograph of the Song sisters, showing 1920s skirt styles.
Infrographic about qungua from fashion historian 撷芳主人.
1950s aoqun from the 1958 issue of fashion magazine 服庄, the rightmost design has a mamian skirt. These designs were considered quite unique and not that common in the 50s though, cheongsam and Western clothes were much more popular.
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