Nav: Presentation // Intro // Southern Song 南宋 // Yuan 蒙元 // Early Ming 明初 // Mid-Early Ming 明中前 // Mid-Late Ming 明中後 // Late Ming 晚明 // Fabrics Pt 1 // Fabrics Pt 2 // Misc Fun Facts // Conclusion
Model: Emily Chang (ig: @/emi1y_chang), MAISON at Yale
I want everyone to know that I wrote this entire post THREE FUCKING TIMES because tumblr deleted my draft. anyway moving on.
Background
A lot of the historical background for this one is a continutation of the content discussed in mid-early Ming, so I recommend reading that first if you're interested in the history (or you can just skip it go straight to the clothes if you like).
As previously mentioned, "mid-late Ming" in this project is really closer to "later mid-late Ming," so just keep that in mind.
The Rise of Materialism
We're gonna go all the way back to the beginning for this: the Hongwu Emperor, the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty. He held a strong personal belief in moderation: that restraint was a virtue, and excess was the root of evil. As a consequence he led a very simple, plain lifestyle, and expected powerful people under him to do the same.
L: Wikimedia Commons, A Seated Portrait of Ming Emperor Taizu, National Palace Museum of Taiwan // M: Seated Portrait of Emperor Yingzong of the Ming, Facets of Authority Exhibit, National Palace Museum of Taiwan // R: Wikimedia Commons, 明世宗坐像 (Seated Portrait of Ming Shizong), National Palace Museum of Taiwan.
The first portrait of the Hongwu Emperor, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty; the last is of the Jiajing Emperor, 1477–1555CE (mid-late). You can clearly see how much more extravagant the portraits become as time goes on.
The Hongwu Emperor was the one that set up the whole clothing regulation system after the Yuan-Ming transition. It was probably partially related to his personal philosophy, but it was also most likely a way of purging the influence of the previous dynasty to secure his rule: Yuan rulers and aristocrats were obsessed with nasij/nashiri, or cloth of gold, and indulged in more and more lavish fashions as time went on; plus, clothing had long been one of the main differences between Han people and northern Steppes nomads. The Hongwu Emperor's regulations restricted certain styles of clothing and types of silk to certain people, setting up the precedent of fashion representing rank, and it worked for a while.
But it didn't work forever: there were many problems with this: in placing the means of control in clothing, a material matter, you've already handed over a huge portion of your power to the object of clothing itself. You’ve said that this color is only for people who are this powerful, so that when you see someone wearing it you have proof of powerful they are. If that’s the case, who’s to stop me from making my own clothes in that color, wearing it, and calling myself powerful too?
Src: Illustration of the Jin Ping Mei, Wikimedia Commons, 17th century. Jin Ping Mei is a 16th century erotic novel satirizing this exact social issue—it's very famous and there are English translations of it floating around on the web.
And with commercialization on the rise, this was entirely possible for wealthy people, regardless of nobility, to do—as long as they could pay someone to make it. Everyone wanted the best and brightest. The worst offenders were people already in power, because nobody wanted to criticize them, lest they risk retribution or disrupting the delicate social ecosystem of a household that could probably buy you and your entire family's souls without blinking.
Some emperors tried to combat this by passing more detailed laws, but it never worked for long—at a certain level of detail, it becomes impractical or impossible to enforce. Emperors even violated their own laws, bestowing gifts of robes on individuals that they'd previously stated were banned from wearing said gift, and then expecting them to show up wearing it in court.
Src: 蓝地妆花纱蟒衣, 孔子博物館藏, 孔府舊藏, 齐鲁网, 2017. This is an example of a mangfu, clothing depicting the four-clawed dragon, a common motif for robes bestowed upon individuals by emperors as a sign of favor. Other common motifs include the qilin, feiyu flying fish, and ox.
Over and over again sumptuary fashion laws have been enacted, enforced, and then pretty quickly ignored by everyone. At a certain point, fashion was no longer an indication of your power, it gave you your power. By overemphasizing fashion as a vehicle to enforce ruling structure, they gave power to the fashion itself, not just what it was supposed to represent.
Formerly, only noble families with history and sociopolitical sway might have had access to these kinds of fabrics. But now, the divide between “wealthy” and “powerful” began to dissolve—when they both look the same, how can you tell the difference?
The Nine-Rank System: Mingfu and Buzi
Buzi
Src: 明中葉藍地織金獅紋方補, Middle Ming Blue-Ground Gold-Woven Lion Badge, Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum, Chiayi County, Taiwan
One of the systems first set up by the Hongwu Emperor was the nine-rank badge system for government officials. 補子 / bu3 zi0, also known as rank badges or mandarin squares, are decorative woven or embroidered squares (sometimes also circles) sewn onto the front and back of robes, usually depicting some kind of animal or scene. While their use goes all the way back to the Tang Dynasty, they were used in the Ming and Qing Dynasties to uniform differently ranked government officials.
It worked like this: there were two categories of officials, civil and martial. Each category had nine ranks, with the first rank being the highest. Each rank for civil officials was assigned a different type of bird, and each rank for martial official officials was assigned a different type of land animal. The animal would be depicted on the badge they wore on their robes.
For example, a first-rank civil official wore a crane badge, and a ninth-rank martial official wore a sea-horse badge (not a seahorse, a literal horse galloping over the ocean). First and second rank martial officials both wore lion badges.
Officials were allowed to wear badges of their own rank and also of lower ranks, so a first-rank martial official could wear a sea-horse badge if they wanted. But they couldn't wear badges of ranks above them, so a ninth-rank martial official could not wear a lion badge.
Mingfu
Src: 明代官夫人漢族服飾3D創作 - 以北京故宮女性肖像畫為列, The 3D Creation of Outer Peeress's Han Garment in the Ming Dynasty—Using The Palace Museum of Ten Female Portraits as an Example, dissertation by 徐儷心, advised by 長妃滿, Ming Chuan University, August 2015. Figures 3-2-3 失明男女像軸 (pg 53) and 3-2-2 失明夫婦像軸 (pg 51).
命婦 / ming4 fu4 were the wives of government officials. This set is primarily based on their style of clothing, because they were in an interesting position socially: they got their power through association with their husbands, so they were directly impacted by clothing regulations for officials, but they were also afforded a level of flexibility because they didn't work directly for the central government, and they were women.
But they were still powerful people protected by their ranks, so you couldn't go around accusing them of things randomly without severe consequences. As higher-ups, their fashion choices had the ability to set precedents for other people, but they were also immediately subjected to regulations from the central government specifically made for mingfu. I view them as a very well-positioned indicator of this entire cultural phenomenon as it was happening—their fashion choices reflected the situation.
Src: 明代官夫人漢族服飾3D創作 - 以北京故宮女性肖像畫為列, The 3D Creation of Outer Peeress's Han Garment in the Ming Dynasty—Using The Palace Museum of Ten Female Portraits as an Example, dissertation by 徐儷心, advised by 長妃滿, Ming Chuan University, August 2015. Figure 5-4-8, 一品夫人常服像:霞帔, 3D正背面二視圖 (pg 101). 3D recreation of mingfu dailywear from figure 3-2-2 above.
For example, mingfu were supposed to wear the same buzi as their husbands on round-collared robes of red luo silk. However, there are tons of portraits of mingfu wearing buzi badges way above their station. Apparently it got so bad that at a certain point, everyone only wanted to wear crane and lion badges; nobody wanted to wear the badges assigned to ranks 3-9, and workshops even stopped making them because of the lack of demand, which meant that even someone trying to follow the system would have a hard time.
The Little Ice Age
This is barely relevant at this stage tbh, but I included it in the video so I figured I'd talk about it a bit here. The Little Ice Age hit Asia at a different time than Europe, so the timelines don't match up completely, but most papers I've seen estimate it started in the last few years of the 16th century or the early 17th century, so it's plausible that the mid-late Ming fashions were impacted.
However it's also equally possible that the lengthening of robes got popular for a different reason, since the overlap in time period was so small. The impacts of the Little Ice Age weren't just colder climate either, it was more importantly the whole drought/famine/storms/etc. extreme climate change effects that disrupted everything else, whcih I'll talk about more in the Late Ming post.
Also since I'm looking at mingfu portraits for this, which is more of a formal thing, it makes sense that their robes are longer anyway.
The Skirt: Research & Evidence
Portraits
I'm gonna be so fr the sources for these are all over the place and the Shandong artifact organization's website has been down for like the past two weeks, so I'm having a really hard time tracking down the original sources for these, but I'll tell you what I do know about these images.
The leftmost portrait is of Lady Yu, wife of 藍銅 / Lan2 Tong2, and there's a watermark from Shandong Museum on it, so I'm guessing it was previously exhibited there, but I'm not sure if it's in their permanent collection. Lan Tong was the father of 藍章 / Lan2 Zhang1, who lived from 1453–1525CE, who was in turn the father of 藍田 / Lan2 Tian2, who lived from 1477–1555CE, whose second wife Lady Liu is depicted in the second portrait. So the second portrait is the granddaughter-in-law of the first portrait.
There isn't much information on Lan Tong, but assuming the age gap was similar to gap between Lan Zhang and Lan Tian, and assuming the wives of these men were of similar ages to them, it seems reasonable that all three generations lived during middle Ming. Lady Liu would be closer to mid-late Ming.
If Random Twitter Post is to be believed, the rightmost portrait is a portrait defaced during the Cultural Revolution, so it's very likely that the original name of the woman depicted has been lost. However, her rank appears to be the same as that of the middle portrait, and looking closely at the brushwork, I would not be surprised if the two were illustrated by the same painter at around the same time. All three wear very similar clothing, with a red round-collar robe with a badge + double-banded mamianqun.
Artifacts
There's like a hundred of these so I'm not gonna do in-depth detail on each of them, just kinda list the most relevant four out and the main features.
Src: 刘林,余家栋 & 许智范.(1982).江西南城明益宣王朱翊鈏夫妇合葬墓. Cultural Relics,(08),16-28+100-101.https://doi.org/10.13619/j.cnki.cn11-1532/k.1982.08.004.
Unearthed from 江西南城明益宣王朱翊鈏夫妇合葬墓 / jiang1 xi1 nan2 cheng2 ming2 yi4 xuan1 wang2 zhu1 yi4 yin3 fu1 fu4 he2 zang4 mu4 / Couple's Tomb of Yi Xuanwang and Zhu Yiyin in Nancheng, Jiangxi. Embroidered rather than woven, but has a knee + hem banding design pattern. Unlined, white cotton waistband, 87cm length, 108cm waist width. Jiajing era (1522–1566CE).
駝色纏枝蓮地鳳襴妝花緞裙 / tuo2 se4 zhan2 zhi1 lian2 di4 feng4 lan2 zhuang1 hua1 duan4 qun2 / Skirt of Brocaded Camel-Tan Damask with Interlocking Lotus Pattern Bearing Phoenix Design in the Lower Portion
Src: 北京文物精粹大系: 織繡卷, Gems of Beijing Cultural Relics Series: Textiles and Embroidery, China Press 2001, ISBN9787200042016, fig 25–27 pg 75
Unearthed from 北京618厂苇子坑明墓 / bei3 jing1 618 chang3 wei3 zi3 keng1 ming2 mu4 / Ming Tomb of Wei Zikeng at Factory 618 in Beijing. Dated to middle Ming. Has horizontal bands as well with woven phoenix designs.
裙M1:16 (it does not have a detailed name lmao)
Src: 王爲剛,張偉,周金波 & 劉偉.(2016).江蘇泰州明代劉鑑家族墓發掘簡報 The Excavation of the Tombs of Liu Jian' s Family of the Ming Dynasty in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province.文物,(06),41-62+1. https://doi.org/10.13619/j.cnki.cn11-1532/k.2016.06.003. Fig. 9
Unearthed from 江蘇泰州明代劉鑑家族墓 / jiang1 su1 tai4 zhou1 ming2 dai4 liu2 jian4 jia1 zu2 mu4 / Tomb of Family of Liu Jian, Taizhou City, Jiangsu. Interestingly only 58.5cm long, waist width 122cm, hem length 193cm. Has two horizontal bands, qilin and cloud patterns.
Src: Wikimedia Commons, 山东博物馆藏明葱绿地织金妆花纱蟒裙, Ming Dynasty Bright Green Brocaded Gauze Skirt with Gold Woven Floral and Dragon Patterns, Shandong Museum, March 2023
From 孔府舊藏 / kong3 fu2 jiu4 zang4 / Kong Family Mansion collection, heirloom piece (so not an excavated object, an heirloom passed down over generations), extremely well-preserved down to original color. 5-6 pleats on each side. Very clear knee and hem bands. Dated to Wanli era, so at the tail end of what could be considered mid-late Ming.
Design
Skirt
雙襴 / shuang1 lan2 literally means "double-banded," with the word "band" here referring to a horizontal length of multicolored pattern stretching across the skirt's fabric. 襴 / lan2 is used to refer to any number of clothing-related things that go across, typically at the bottom or lower half of a garment, so it can also be used to refer to the bottom half of a 襦 / ru2 top or the hem piece of a 襴衫 / lan2 shan1 scholar's round-collared robe.
The double-banded skirt pattern is one of the most popular mamianqun fabric pattern structures in modern times. The top band is called a 膝襴 / xi1 lan2 / "knee band" because it's at the height of the knee, and the other band is called the 底襴 / di3 lan2 / "lower band" because it's at the hem of the skirt. Since the knee band is thinner and the lower band is much thicker, this arrangement could be called 窄膝襴 + 寬底襴 / zhai3 xi1 lan2 + kuan1 di3 lan2 / "narrow knee band + wide lower band." Other combinations with a wider knee band and thinner lower band, only a knee band, only a low band, etc. also exist, but over time this combination has proved to be the most popular in the modern Hanfu movement.
The innermost layer for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is a 主腰 / zhu3 yao1. Bearing some resemblance to western bodices, it's a slightly more sophisticated front-opening torso garment with straps tied over the shoulder and a line of buttons down the front. It has a high back with wide straps and buttons/ties down the front. (Refer to the Early Ming Dynasty post for more details.)
Src: 王爲剛,張偉,周金波 & 劉偉.(2016).江蘇泰州明代劉鑑家族墓發掘簡報 The Excavation of the Tombs of Liu Jian' s Family of the Ming Dynasty in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province.文物,(06),41-62+1. https://doi.org/10.13619/j.cnki.cn11-1532/k.2016.06.003. Fig. 11
The pants for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is of the form of the 直腰褲 / zhi2 yao1 ku4 / straight-waist trousers, a very standard form of pants worn by both men and women throughout the Ming Dynasty. Shown above is an example from the same Liu Jian family tomb as the third skirt artifact shown, M1:31, a pair of lined cotton pants. (Refer to the Early Ming Dynasty post for more details.)
Src: 刘林,余家栋 & 许智范.(1982).江西南城明益宣王朱翊鈏夫妇合葬墓. Cultural Relics,(08),16-28+100-101.https://doi.org/10.13619/j.cnki.cn11-1532/k.1982.08.004.
The The standing collar emerged in the last half of the Ming Dynasty, a variation from the basic cross-collar. This is something that the hanfu community has been arguing about recently because... idk some people just like looking for trouble, but yeah basically it's another variation of inner-garment usually only found in the Ming Dynasty. It's not quite the same as the Qing Dynasty standing collar or mandarin collar. Standing collars or vertical collars can also come in crossed or parallel lapel versions; the parallel lapel version is more commonly seen in innerwear. Our design has a red rayon body with a quiver-sleeve shape and bead buttons down the front. The inside of the collar is lined with teal, so it can be worn flipped down to expose the color if you want.
The round collar top or robe has evolved all the way from Tang to Ming. Women's round-collar robes typically don't have 擺 / bai3 or protruding flaps on each side. These are usually considered slightly more formal outerwear garments, with the buzi we talked about earlier on the front and back. Reflecting the discussion on the social phenomenon of the mid-late Ming Dynasty from earlier, the design for the buzi here is of a five-clawed 龍 / long2 dragon, which would historically be reserved for the emperor and only the emperor—this would be a unique restriction case that would almost never be violated. We are, however, in the present day where we can wear whatever we want, so I figured I'd basically max out the blasphemy to represent this phenomenon. The style of the buzi is also very much modernized and not meant to mimic a Ming or Qing style buzi, it's just a continuation of the white dragon theme from Journey to the West.
Other Styling
Makeup was still mostly similar, but we start to see the lip shape getting even thinner. The eyebrows also start to flatten out to almost a straight line rather than the arched look from previous time periods.
Hair continued on with the structure of the 三綹頭 / san1 liu3 tou2 / three-strand hairstyle. The mingfu portraits would've had a different kind of hairstyle mandated by, once again, fashion restrictions for official's wives, but for this project we went with another 三綹頭 variation, this time with a simpler doubled-up swoop style in the back.
Accessories
Hair accessories were once again 纏花 / chan2 hua1 / “wrapped silk” flower hair pins sponsored by the Forbidden Boutique (ig: @/forbidden_boutique), a small business selling handmade traditional jewelry and hair accessories based in LA. This traditional technique is estimated to have originated in the Ming Dynasty and involves wrapping silk threads around paper petal forms and wire to create flowers. We used two flower clips for this one, purple and light pink.
Earrings: Sooooooooo full disclosure there were originally gonna be earrings for this set but I Straight Up Forgot To Put Them On and only noticed when we got to the rotating shots, so like. Too late. Uh, here's a photo of them anyway, the pair on the right. These were also laser-cut and based on a carved jade artifact. I spent like several hours sanding the edges to make them look nice and then forgot to use them at all ;-;
Sources
I find this a pivotal time period for the Ming Dynasty so apart from the main spreadsheet I'm gonna point out a few sources that I think are especially good here.
Superfluous things: material culture and social status in early modern China by Craig Clunas, slightly older but extremely good discussion on material culture in the Ming Dynasty
Wearing the hat of loyalty: imperial power and dress reform in Ming Dynasty China by Buyun Chen
Dressing the state, dressing the society: Ritual, morality, and conspicuous consumption in Ming dynasty China by Yuan Zujie
I've been practicing these silk-wrapped flower (缠花/chanhua) accessories and was wondering if anyone would be interested in buying something like these:
They'd by priced between $20-50 USD (+shipping) depending on the time spent and material used.
If there's interest I'll take some photos of all the ones I've made so far.
Would you be interested in purchasing a silk-wrapped flower accessory?
Yes, for sure ✨
Not really my thing
Voting ended onJun 14, 2025
Chinese Silk-Wrapped Flowers (缠花/ChanHua)
The art of Chinese silk-wrapped flowers started during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and flourished in the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911).
Following the Qing Dynasty, this art declined and was almost lost to time, but in recent years more and more people have become interested in reviving this delicate handicraft. Originally this art was done using silk thread, which had a lifespan of 6 months to 2 years. This meant it was difficult to preserve their beauty and there are few samples that have survived to today. Nowadays, most artists use polyester thread which allows for more colours and longer-lasting results.
To make silk-wrapped flowers, the shape of each individual petal is first cut out using thick paper/cardboard. A thin wire is placed against the back of the paper while silk thread is wrapped around the shape as tightly as possible. If using polyester thread, the petal is then put through a small flame to burn away stray strands and to heat-shrink the thread. Once all the petals have been made, they are then combined together to form the full flower.
(Photos from this video)
The flower can then be attached to hair pins, brooches, or earrings. Although traditionally, the motifs for silk-wrapping were flowers, plants, and insects, nowadays many artists use modern motifs as well.
Do you have any shop recommendations for hair accessories? I’ve looked at your posts but there didn’t seem to be anything specific for hair stuff. Thanks!
Hi, thanks for the question! (image via)
I have a post with some shop recommendations for traditional Chinese hair accessories for hanfu here, and you can also check out my hair ornaments tag for all my posts related to hair accessories. I also have a hair accessory recommendations tag. With that said, here’s a more comprehensive list of my recommendations for Chinese hair accessories shops on Taobao (click name for link to Taobao page):
1) Xun Zan Ji/寻簪记 - A large variety of elegant designs that make heavy use of floral themes and pearls:
2) Shui Mo Jiang Hu/水墨江湖 - Light, ethereal designs in gradated colors (my personal favorite!):
4) Jing Chen Xuan/静尘轩 - Traditional designs for a more formal and/or mature look. Has a gorgeous collection of gold filigree pieces, including lotus crowns:
5) Qing He Ji Yi/青荷记忆 - A wide assortment of classic styles showcasing traditional motifs (the ornaments in the top image of this post are from this shop). Notable collections include graceful crowns (guan) and lovely silk flowers:
6) Hua Yue Sha/花月砂 - Beautifully crafted designs mainly in gold and silver, including filigree, with gems providing pops of color:
7) Chai Dian Fang/钗钿坊 - This shop specializes in Chan Hua/缠花 (wrapped flowers), a traditional Chinese craft of making floral hairpins with fine textiles:
8) Yangzhou Feiyi Ronghua/扬州非遗绒花 - This shop specializes in Rong Hua/绒花 (velvet flowers), a traditional Chinese craft of making floral hairpins from fine silk on twisted wire frames:
9) Xi Qing/喜晴 - This shop has a gorgeous collection of crowns suitable for weddings, including phoenix crowns (fengguan/凤冠), among its treasures:
10) Hui Shou Zuo/翙手作 - This shop’s intricate pieces are truly works of art:
Of course there are a lot more great Chinese hair accessories shops out there, but hopefully this gives you a place to start ^^
Finally, I’ll leave you with this self-deprecating meme image (“Ladies who wear hairpins will never admit defeat!”) that pokes fun at how hanfu lovers can get addicted to buying the many different types of Chinese hair ornaments :P
Nav: Presentation // Intro // Southern Song 南宋 // Yuan 蒙元 // Early Ming 明初 // Mid-Early Ming 明中前 // Mid-Late Ming 明中後 // Late Ming 晚明 // Fabrics Pt 1 // Fabrics Pt 2 // Misc Fun Facts // Conclusion
Model: Tiona Zeng (ig: @/tinazzeng), MAISON at Yale
Background
Terminology
First some terminology clarifications. Late Ming can refer to two periods: 晚明 and 明末.
晚明 is the more literal translation of Late Ming. It usually refers to the period starting either at the beginning or middle of the Wanli era, going until the end of the Ming Dynasty where it gets taken over by the Qing. This period is sectioned out because it includes the gradual decline of the dynasty.
明末 more literally means ending Ming, referring to only the last few years of the dynasty, from about 1620 onwards, when the dynasty was pretty much on its deathbed. It may or may not include Southern Ming, also called 後明/hou4 ming2/“later/after/back Ming,” a tiny remnant of the Ming that hung around for a bit after the fall of the dynasty, which coexisted with the first few years of the Qing Dynasty.
For the purpose of this project, though, the last look focuses on the late Ming period starting from the mid-Wanli era and going until the official end of the dynasty in 1644, because Late Ming has established itself in the modern Hanfu community as its own popular sub-aesthetic. Late Ming style typically consists of long, minimalistic tops, very wide sleeves, and delicate ornamentation in very few select spots.
A note, though: while the Late Ming style as referred to in today's hanfu community means one thing, it's important to remember that "late Ming" actually lasted quite a long time, and moreover that it was especially known for how quickly trends changed at this time. 余懷/Yu Huai, a writer who lived from 1616–1695CE, stated that "衫之短長, 袖之大小, 隨時變易, 見者謂時世粧也.” or "the length of their robes, the size of their sleeves, all of these changed completely randomly, and these were called 'fashion' by those who saw it."
It's extremely likely that what we call Late Ming style today is only one small part of what was trendy at this time; there is no "Late Ming Style" in history. We know it was at least trendy at one point during Late Ming, but it's far from representative of the whole period in general. Beyond that, there were many conflicting opinions about fashion going on at the same time: some people liked the flashy stuff, some people thought minimalism was better, some people were super progressive in ushering in new trends, others thought that these new trends would upset the balance of nature.
So just keep in mind that when we say Late Ming style, we're referring to the specific style that the hanfu community calls "Late Ming style," which we know existed at some point for some people during Late Ming, but was almost definitely not ubiquitous throughout the time period.
The Invention of Taste
Part of the possible reason for the emergence of minimalism was the idea of tastefulness, which rose in opposition to the flashy, flamboyant style of middle Ming. I talked about the problem of mimicry in the previous post, how anyone with money could now afford extravagant fabric and fashion to look affluent and well-off, and the idea of conspicuous consumption, where your rank and social credit came from your material possessions.
“True” nobles from historically important households were very unhappy about this—they looked down on merchants and artisans as, like, “common people,” as opposed to their well-connected, socially superior families. Scholars, gentlemen, etc. held similar views. They needed a different way to distinguish themselves from the newly rich.
That distinguishing factor was taste. As a concept, it’s a set of… limitations, so to speak, on these material objects—and how to use or display them—exclusive to people with “good upbringing;” aka basically a set of symbolic rules that only the noble families would know about. Boundless extravagance from new money was labeled as superficial, gaudy and excessive, or in other words, distasteful. (We definitely have a similar concept of sophistication vs trashy flashiness today.)
That’s how I'm led to believe that the minimalistic but grand Late Ming style arose: they still wanted to show that they were well-off—super big robes that required lots of fabric to make, large sleeves that meant you had servants to do things for you, etc.—but the designs on them were very simple and elegant, with a lot of solid colors or subtle jacquard patterns, nowhere near as flashy as the mid-early Ming trends. In this way the “true” aristocrats distinguished themselves from the “fake” wealthy people: the real noble families were tasteful and sophisticated, while the overly gaudy merchants were just playing at looking high-class while not truly being from noble, educated, cultured households.
And again—this is only one sub-style, like cottagecore or lolita or dark academia, that was well-liked during this time period. Just think about how fast trends change now. Massively flashy gold embellished coats and stuff definitely existed at the same time.
The Little Ice Age
Note: most of the information references The Little Ice Age and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty: A Review, by Fan Ka-Wai. It is publicly available with extensive references. Refer to sources spreadsheet at the bottom of this post for more.
The Little Ice Age hit worst in late Ming, stirring up even more unrest among the people. It hit during "the late 16th century to the end of the 17th century" (Fan Ka-Wai, The Little Ice Age and the Fall of the Ming Dynasty). Again, it wasn’t just the weather being colder—the LIA came with a whole host of issues related to rapid climate change, similar to (though opposite of?) global warming today: increased storms, weak summer monsoons, weather phenomena like El Niño, etc. China being a largely agricultural economy, the climate effects were devastating for most people. Probably the biggest effect was the "megadrought" that started in 1637, worsened in 1641 by the eruption of Mount Parker (among other volcanic eruptions), causing plague, famine, and general chaos.
We’ve seen before that the more anxious people get, the bigger the class divide gets. It’s happening today, too: to cope with the sense of impending doom, people turn to other things to take up their thoughts: material possessions, gossip, etc. Late Ming was no stranger to this. In addition, the colder temperatures encouraged the lengthening of tops into ankle or floor-length robes, under which the hem of a skirt could peek through. As a result, skirt decorations migrated to the bottom of the skirt (since the rest of it would be covered anyway).
We also see an increase in the popularity of embroidery on skirts here. I don't know the exact reason for this but I would guess that it's a more economical way of adding decoration to only a very small part of the skirt, rather than something all-over.
The Fall of Ming
I won't pretend to be in expert on the ending Ming/early Qing period; in fact it's probably one of the periods I know least about (in proportion to the amount of available info about it) because I generally don't really like the aesthetic of this time period, which is heavily Qing-influenced, so I haven't looked into it as much.
But from what I have seen, the factors contributing to the fall of a Ming as a whole were largely:
Natural effects from the LIA, as discussed above, causing "famine, drought, locusts" (Fan 2023)
Internal rebellion, from people unhappy with the government, especially because of the materialistic class war going on + the crop failures from the LIA
Inter-ethnic conflict, possibly made worse by the culture thing
Persistent invasion from the Manchus
People still don't really agree on which one/ones contributed most; many don't agree on the LIA being a factor because it should've equally affected the Manchus (I see the point but I still think it made people Not Happy, so I put it there anyway). I couldn't presume to tell you which I think was the most impactful either; I don't know enough to form much of an opinion. At the end of the day, though, I'm tempted to blame capitalism, because why not?
The Skirt: Research & Evidence
Artifacts
Various Skirts From 嘉興王店李家墳明墓 / jia1 xing4 wang2 dian4 li3 jia1 fen2 ming2 mu4 / Li Family Mausoleum in Wangdian, Jiaxing
Src: “梅里雲裳”明代服飾形象復原系列作品, 蔣玉秋, 北京服裝學院美術學院/中國絲綢博物館, various exacavation images from p7-10 (2022?) pdf
The Li Family Mausoleum in Jiaxing consists of four tombs labeled M1, M2, M3, and M4. From the tomb epitaphs it was determined that M2 belonged to 李湘 / Li3 Xiang1, M3 belonged to his principal wife with an unknown surname, M1 belonged to a secondary wife whose surname was 陳 / chen2, and M4 to another wife with the surname 徐 / xu3. As a result, three of the four tombs contained various women's clothing articles that we can examine for a look into late Ming fashion.
Out of these we know that Madam Chen died when she was 92 years old in the seventeenth year of the Wanli era, which would've been 1589. We don't know exactly when the other tombs were buried, but the report says it was probably before Madam Chen because her epitaph says she was entombed "to the left of the tomb of her late husband," so he must have already been deceased.
The most intact skirt artifacts were found in M1 and M3, so Madam Chen and unknown-surname-principal-wife's tombs.
Src: 嘉興王店李家墳明墓清理報告, 吳海紅, 嘉興博物館，彩插3，圖5、6，p53（2009）
Above are artifacts M3:17 and M1:24, screenshotted from a scan of the initial excavation report's colored print section, both of which have gold-thread woven decoration confined to the bottom of the skirt.
Src: “梅里雲裳”明代服飾形象復原系列作品, 蔣玉秋, 北京服裝學院美術學院/中國絲綢博物館, 四季花蜂蝶绸裙 p25-26 (2022?) pdf
Another artifact restored from tomb M4, the 四季花蜂蝶绸裙 / si4 ji4 hua1 feng1 die2 chou2 qun2 / Four Seasons Flowers, Bees & Birds Silk Skirt, was documented in a restoration report, with the technical line drawing included. You can see that the pleats are not at all trapezoidal, and the waistband is completely straight, in opposition to the flared shape of the earlier mamianqun. This skirt has a damask floral pattern for most of the body and a gold-threaded yingluo/beaded jewelry pattern decoration concentrated at the bottom.
From 孔府舊藏 / kong3 fu2 jiu4 zang4 / Kong Family Mansion collection, heirloom piece (so not an excavated object, an heirloom passed down over generations). Known colloquially in the hanfu community as 花鳥裙 / hua1 niao3 qun2 / "flowers and birds skirt," super popular recreation style now. 3-4 wide pleats on each side, slightly trapezoidal shape but much less pronounced curvature than middle Ming.
Not dated to a particular part of Ming, but given context and trends I would say it's very likely to have been from late Ming: we know that white skirts were one (of many) trend during late Ming, and that embroidery briefly overtook woven decoration.
Design
Skirt
低欄 / di3 lan2 directly translates to "lower lan" (refer to prev post for the definition of a lan), aka the band of patterning located near the hem of the skirt, which can peek out from the bottom of a longer robe/top. We know that this was a very popular arrangement during Late Ming (although many arrangements were simultaneously popular, so it's difficult to relegate any particular style to a particular period).
In addition, the pleats on this design are straight/parallel, not arranged in a trapezoidal sunburst pattern, leading to a straighter horizontal waist band with less curvature to it. Very early mamianqun had straight-shape pleats as well, but the trapezoidal silhouette took over in popularity for most of middle Ming. Straighter pleats made a comeback because they fit better inside of the long robes, whereas the trapezoidal skirts—which widen out from the waistband—tend to protrude outwards and ruin the shape of the top.
This skirt design has six pairs of pleats per side (again higher than average number historically, but more commonplace for the modern hanfu community).
Other Outfit Pieces
Cami/underlayer: 主腰 / zhu3 yao1 / "Zhuyao Bodice"
Src: "Leisurely Life of a Lady," 孫璜 Sun Huang, mid-17th century, Qing Dynasty, Freer Gallery of Art Collection
The innermost layer for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is a 主腰 / zhu3 yao1. Bearing some resemblance to western bodices, it's a slightly more sophisticated front-opening torso garment with straps tied over the shoulder and a line of buttons (or ties) down the front. Later on sleeveless versions may or may not have existed (there's one artifact floating around but it's unclear if the straps just rotted off). Shown above is a painting from the early Qing Dynasty by Sun Huang, formerly attributed to famous Ming Dynasty painter Qiu Ying. While the painting was made during the Qing Dynasty, it was made very early on during Qing by a Han painter, and it depicts Han women dressed in extremel characteristic late Ming clothing (as is common for paintings of ladies—often they are clothed in outfits from previous time periods, it's a genre norm). The two women in the painting are shown wearing a red zhuyao under a longer sheer robe, a very common summer fashion choice of the time. (Refer to the Early Ming Dynasty post for more details.)
The pants for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is of the form of the 直腰褲 / zhi2 yao1 ku4 / straight-waist trousers, a very standard form of pants worn by both men and women throughout the Ming Dynasty. Shown above is an example from the Dingling mausoleum of the Wanli emperor. (Refer to the Early Ming Dynasty post for more details.)
Shirt: 無領衫 / wu2 ling3 shan1 / "Collar-less Top"
The so-called 'collar-less' top is named that way because it lacks a separate collar piece/strip/rectangle that's pieced together with the body of the garment; instead, the raw edge of the collar area is just enclosed with bias tape. However, the result is remarkably similar to the round collar parallel-lapel shirt, just with a very thin collar piece; as a result, it's also referred to as 窄圓領 / zhai3 yuan2 ling3 / narrow round collar. Our design has a red rayon body with teal collar binding and placket, plus agate bead buttons running down the front.
While similar to the mandarin collar, the standing collar is a separate collar type hailing from the Ming Dynasty. The popular Late Ming aesthetic often features the long standing collar robe with a diagonal lapel going from the center of the collar to the side of the body, often paired with a very long length and large sleeves, as embodied by the artifact shown above from the Shandong Provincial Museum. One feature of Ming Dynasty wide sleeves is that the front of the sleeves are almost always sewn closed, leaving only a small opening at the wrist, which is highlighted in our design by a gold piping, 圈金/quan1 jin1/'gold outline.' Our design is a dark inky rayon-polyester blend lined with a pale teal polyester-cotton-silk blend. The inside of the collar is lined with a red rayon, which can be folded down for a slightly shorter two-tone collar, also outlined in gold.
Other Styling
L: 明代帝后半身像（二） 冊 孝靖皇后, Empress Xiaojing, 中畫000327N000000006, National Palace Museum Collection // R: 明代帝后半身像（二） 冊 孝定皇后, Empress Xiaoding, 中畫000327N000000004, National Palace Museum Collection
Makeup is where you start to see the eyebrows starting to droop at the outer ends—not only are they pretty much completely flattened out with no arch at all, the outer half curves downward, giving you this sort of permanently-slightly-disappointed look. The lips also continue to take on a flatter and thinner shape. The petal shape is a lip shape that was at least existent during Late Ming—it's a bit more exaggerated than the thinner historical shape, which is shown above in the empress portraits of the Xiaojing Empress, the wife of the Wanli Emperor, and the Xiaoding Empress/Empress Dowager, his mother.
I lowkey can't find where I got this painting from but from what I remember it should be a Qing dynasty painting of Han women sitting around a table playing some sort of card or other gambling game, I think in an opium den or something???? If someone else manages to find it lmk lol but I know there's more than one version of it, I just for the life of me I can't track it down, all the women in the painting have this hairstyle so it's a really good example
Hair was based on the 牡丹頭 / mu3 dan1 tou2 / "peony head" hairstyle (idk why it's called that either tbh), which was a look that imo looked very similar to a beehive or pouf where the hair was coiffed with extra volume on top and hair combed directly back from the hairline. This lasted from late Ming into ending Ming and (I think? Not sure about this one) early Qing as well, with varying degrees of exaggeratedness from a slight bump to a prominent Marie Antoinette-style high roll. We kept it kind of in the middle for this one.
Accessories
Hair accessories were once again 纏花 / chan2 hua1 / “wrapped silk” flower hair pins sponsored by the Forbidden Boutique (ig: @/forbidden_boutique), a small business selling handmade traditional jewelry and hair accessories based in LA. This traditional technique is estimated to have originated in the Ming Dynasty and involves wrapping silk threads around paper petal forms and wire to create flowers. The one shown is actually a brooch that I managed to work into the hair.
Src: 明代帝后半身像（二） 冊 孝純皇后, Empress Xiaochun, 中畫000327N000000008, National Palace Museum Collection
Earrings: The five-petal plum blossom earrings I made here were based on the pearl petal flower earrings worn by some of the later empresses in their portraits. The photo on the right above is a portrait of the Xiaochun Empress/Empress Dowager, the mother of the Chongzhen Emperor, the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, in which she is wearing similar earrings. These took the most effort to make out of all of the pairs of earrings.
Src: 金脚宝玉佛面环 上海肇嘉浜路打浦桥明代顾姓族墓出土
The original most likely had a stamped or cut metal base that the gemstones were then welded or glued onto; for my version, I twisted the frame out of 18 gauge brass jewelry wire (essentially just made 5 connected double-layered loops with round-nose pliers and then bent then around each other until the end loops met in a plum blossom shape). Then I used 28 gauge brass wire to wrap the pearl beads onto the frame, plus a tiny red bicone that I just had laying around for the center.
The longer pearl strands are just pearl beads threaded onto a head pin, then attached to the flower frame. The last pearl in the center one is slightly larger than the rest.
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Okay we're almost done! Just a fabric design post + concluding comments left! Also sorry for lack of pics in the first half making it really dense lol, the 30 image limit is lowkey killing me
^ srces wip for late ming at time of post (ill add them in gradually in the next few days)
Nav: Presentation // Intro // Southern Song 南宋 // Yuan 蒙元 // Early Ming 明初 // Mid-Early Ming 明中前 // Mid-Late Ming 明中後 // Late Ming 晚明 // Fabrics Pt 1 // Fabrics Pt 2 // Misc Fun Facts // Conclusion
Model: Emily Chang (ig: @/emi1y_chang), MAISON at Yale
Background
History
Entering into the Ming Dynasty I figured I should give some context on how this will be split up. The Ming Dynasty lasted for nearly three centuries (depending on whether or not you count Southern Ming), and lots of mamianqun development—especially as relevant to today’s Hanfu movement—happened here. Four of the six design versions for this series are dedicated to the Ming Dynasty.
This is a helpful graphic of the Ming Dynasty timeline. We usually refer to smaller time periods within a dynasty by the era name of the emperor at the time, e.g. the xth year of xxx’s reign.
Src: Wikipedia/Wikimedia commons, List of Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Timeline
The rules for where the cutoffs for early/mid/late Ming aren't super well-established, so that part is often up to audience discretion. For many historical applications, it's often not as simple as just splitting the dynasty into four chronologically equal sections: the density of important events might be different at different points, and the development of the whole time period may not scale linearly with time. Often historians will take into account the actual events and economic activity at different points in time when splitting up the eras.
For the Ming Dynasty, for example, usually people split it up into three or four big chunks: early Ming or beginning Ming is when the dynasty was first being established, middle Ming when it's already been established but has changes over time, and then late Ming when the dynasty starts to decline. Middle Ming is longer than the other two so that sometimes gets chopped in half.
There are also different ways to name a set of 4 time periods—I used 初/中前/中後/晚 because these are very face-value names easily read by partially-literate people in mandarin, literally "beginning/middle front/middle back/late," but sometimes the mid-early period can be referred to as 盛 / sheng4 / "flourishing" (this is the case with the Tang Dynasty) while the mid-late is just 中, or sometimes the mid-late period will be called 晚 and the late period called 末 / mo4 / "ending," in which case the mid-early period would just be 中.
For this project I’ve divided it up roughly like this. You'll notice that the each of the time periods are not necessarily the same length as the others. You’ll also notice that the four zones overlap—this is on purpose, to hedge the time zone a little bit.
Src: Wikipedia/Wikimedia commons, List of Emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Timeline, annotated
Generally early Ming irrefutably refers to the first two substantial reigns, that of the 洪武 / hong2 wu3 / "vastly martial" emperor and the 永樂 /yong3 le4 / "eternal joy" emperor (sorry Jianwen emperor but you were only there for like four years), as in probably everyone would agree that these two periods belong to early Ming. Technically 明初 is closer in sentiment to "beginning Ming," but “early” seems more standard for referring to historical periods in English. The rest of the period is kinda blurry in terms of where it ends, so I tried to stick to the earliest sources as references for this design.
The Skirt: Research & Evidence
Artifacts
My primary source for this set is from 無錫錢達周氏墓 / wu2 xi1 qian2 da2 zhou1 shi4 mu4 / "Qianda Zhoushi mausoleum in Wuxi city." This site is dated back to the Yongle period, 1402–1424CE. There's a report (太湖流域出土的明代早期女性服饰 / tai4 hu2 liu2 yu4 chu1 tu3 de0 ming2 dai4 zao3 qi2 nv3 xing4 fu2 shi4 / "Early Ming Dynasty Women's Clothing Unearthed from the Taihu River Basin") specifically focused on early Ming women’s clothing written about these pieces by 趙豐 / zhao4 feng1 / Zhao Feng. There are a few places where you can find this article online, but you have to poke around to find a stable one that the images will load for; the one I linked is Sina news and it works right now but it might not later.
Zhao Feng is an extremely accomplished textile researcher & professor at China Silk Museum and Zhejiang Sci-Tech University; his work pops up everywhere in Hanfu research and I highly recommend any work with his name on it.
There were a number of clothing artifacts unearthed from this site, but the most complete ones were this three-piece set including a skirt, a long-sleeved inner top, and a short-sleeved outer top. You can find the whole set in China Silk Museum's collection database.
Src: 趙豐, 湖流域出土的明代早期女性服饰 "Early Ming Dynasty Women's Clothing Unearthed from the Taihu River Basin"
Focusing on the skirt, a sketch from the report clearly shows the same two-panel construction, with each panel being made of 3 full-widths of fabric + 1 half-width. Each panel has 8 total pleats (aka 4 pairs), which you can see represented by the zigzag lines in the diagram. At the center (four pleats in), you can see that the direction of the pleats reverses, resulting in two mirrored sets of pleats that point towards each other.
Src: 趙豐, 湖流域出土的明代早期女性服饰 "Early Ming Dynasty Women's Clothing Unearthed from the Taihu River Basin"
Below is a photo from the China Silk Museum's entry for the skirt itself. I've put it next to an annotated version that I made to help you see the pleats and construction better. At first glance it may look like a regular pleated skirt. It can be hard to tell what's a wrinkle from being stored for so long and what's an actual pleat line—the key is to look at where the pleats are sewn down at the waistband, as well as how they lay at the hemline.
The flat skirt doors are colored in green, and the outside pleat lines are outlined in red and blue: red is the pleats pointing (to the viewer's, aka your) right, and blue is the pleats pointing left. You'll see that the central red and blue pleat lines on each side meet in a ^ shape where they reverse directions. This would be the point where either side of your hips would be.
Src: 素紗裙, China Silk Museum
So you see this is very clearly a mamianqun. You may also be able to see from these photos that this mamianqun has trapezoidal folds: while it's not very pronounced, the waistband curves up on either side because the pleats are slanted so that the bottom is wider than the top, resulting in a 'sunburst' pleat pattern. In modern hanfu-making terms this would probably be classified as 微梯形 / wei1 ti1 xing2 / slight trapezoidal shape: the pleats lean out a little bit, but not by much. The display, too, tacks the skirt's pleats down to show the trapezoidal shape of the skirt. This way you get a flared-out silhouette when you put it on.
You can compare this to earlier mamianqun from the Yuan Dynasty post, which have straight knife pleats: the straight pleats allow the waistband to lay flat, rather than being curved.
According to the report, each skirt door is 17cm wide. The skirt head is 129cm wide, and the hem is 27+56+56+56+27.5+56+56+54.5= 389cm wide.
Design
Skirt
The design for the early Ming version of 龍馬附圖 Metamorphosis is a slight trapezoidal-pleat 馬面裙 with a black body. This skirt uses 6 meters of fabric and has 5 pairs of pleats on each side. That's one more pair of pleats than the Zhoushimu artifact, but I wanted to show a level of progression from the Yuan Dynasty design, so both of them have an extra pair of pleats added.
The black body material is a custom-woven jacquard polyester. Unfortunately the pattern is kind of hard to see in photos because it's a black fabric, but it's a combination of three images: (1) the Cloud9 stamp logo, (2) a section of flower filigree, and (3) a symbol I illustrated based on a representation of the 洛書 / luo4 shu1 / "fallen document." They're arranged in a diagonal checkerboarded pattern with the first two images alternating.
Since all the mamianqun fabrics are versions of each other (and also I keep running out of image limits) I've decided to save the lore behind the fabric design for its own post (and there is a LOT of lore). I'll go through every single designed/illustrated element in that post, since a lot of them are repeated throughout all the skirt fabrics, but these are the three elements used in the solid black fabric.
Other Outfit Pieces
Cami/underlayer: 主腰 / zhu3 yao1 / "Zhuyao Bodice"
L: Wikimedia Commons, 墮胎產亡嚴寒大暑孤魂眾.jpg, Buddhist painting of Ming Dynasty. Death from miscarriage, severe cold and great heat, Baoning Temple, Ming Dynasty.
The innermost layer for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is a 主腰 / zhu3 yao1. Bearing some resemblance to western bodices, it's a slightly more sophisticated front-opening torso garment with straps tied over the shoulder and a line of buttons down the front. Along with depictions in paintings, several Zhuyao artifacts have been found in the past. Above is part of a Ming Dynasty painting from Baoning Temple dated to have been made during the Tianshun era between 1457 and 1463 (陳玉女, 《成大歷史學報》第三十一號, p73, "寶寧寺的水陸畫推測是天順年間"). The woman in red is wearing a zhuyao that's visible inside her long-sleeved shirt. Ours is made of teal jacquard viscose and lined with a robin's egg silk-cotton-poly mix, with a column of red bead buttons.
The pants for all four of the Ming Dynasty sets is of the form of the 直腰褲 / zhi2 yao1 ku4 / straight-waist trousers, a very standard form of pants worn by both men and women throughout the Ming Dynasty. Cut extremely wide, it's held in place with a fabric belt through three belt loops distributed along the waistband and can be folded to accommodate an extremely wide range of waist sizes while not being elastic at all. Ours is made of red jacquard viscose with a matching belt.
Based on this artifact from the aforementioned Zhoushi mausoleum, the inner shirt is a long-sleeved top constructed with a parallel collar. Duichuanjiao, or "parallel-worn-crossed," means that the garment can be worn crossed over or open like a normal parallel-collar top. Often designs with this intent will have ties, s slight slope to the collar angle, or most importantly an especially wide bust to facilitate this. The result is a crossed collar that drapes down the body a little differently from a garment that's constructed in a crossed way. This artifact has a contrasting collar going halfway down the body as well as sleeve cuffs, which we reflected in our design, which has a teal rayon body and red details.
TL: 绢短袖衫&绮长袖衫&绢裙, China Silk Museum // TR: Annotated ver of prev, red highlighting (wearer's) right collar and green highlighting left collar piece // BR: 绣花卉纹缘素罗短袖夹衣, China Silk Museum
The outer layer for this set is very similar to the inner with some differences: its sleeve length is shorter and it's lined, two features indicating that it's a 披襖 / pi1 ao3 / coat; another more descriptive way to refer to these is 半袖短襖 / ban4 xiu4 duan3 ao3 / half-sleeve short lined top. The artifact shown above is also a part of the Zhoushi outfit. Two clues tell us that it's meant to be worn crossed: first, the collar piece is uneven; one side is longer than the other, because as you can see in the bottom right picture, once it's crossed over, the missing part on the (wearer's) left collar gets covered. Second, there's a tie on the outside of the (wearer's) left armpit, which must be meant to connect to the tie in the center. Notice that this artifact is worn right-over-left as opposed to the traditional left-over-right: this is a hint of residual Mongolian influence left over from the Yuan Dynasty, still abundant during Early Ming. Because most hanfu enthusiasts are used to crossing things left-over-right, though, our design still has its ties placed in the traditional locations rather than following the artifact's design.
Other Styling
L: Photography by Lizi Studio // R: Wikimedia Commons, 仁孝文皇后徐氏（明太宗（成祖））.jpg, National Palace Museum (Taipei)
Makeup didn't move much here either, but there are a few key points. First, the pearl ornamentation on the face fell slightly out of popularity compared to the Song Dynasty, where you could see they were just... slapping them on everywhere. Pearls were still popular, just not directly on the face. Brows were fairly evenly curved, the lip shape fairly natural (by hanfu standards anyway). This did not stop me from squinting over Yulan's shoulder while she was doing the lip makeup and saying "hmm, I think you can go even smaller actually" like fifty times + being a general pest.
Hair maintained the middle part from the previous dynasty to now. Most Ming Dynasty hairstyles have hair pulled away from the face, leaving the temples clear, and a loop of hair hanging down at the neck—there are many different ways to make this loop; for this look Lizi secured it very simply with red string.
Accessories
Hair accessories were fairly minimalistic, only used in a few places as delicate ornamentation. The ones used here are handmade 纏花 / chan2 hua1 / “wrapped silk” flower hair pins sponsored by the Forbidden Boutique (ig: @/forbidden_boutique), a small business selling handmade traditional jewelry and hair accessories based in LA (you can find them at a lot of craft fairs in that area!). This traditional technique is estimated to have originated in the Ming Dynasty and involves wrapping silk threads around paper petal forms and wire to create flowers.
Random aside:
Not a lot of people know this, but chanhua is also known by another name: 春仔花—spring flowers. This is a term originating in the Minnan dialect (a good clue is that it uses the character 仔 instead of 子, which is much more common in southern min). Its pronunciation is written as tshun-á-hue in peh-oe-ji, but since nobody knows how to read peh-oe-ji these days I think it's closest to cun3 a0 hui1 in pinyin (don't come after me, I know the tones and the exact vowel/consonant sounds aren't the same this is just my best approximation because most people on here will be more familiar with pinyin).
Also called bride-flowers, within this context they were traditionally associated with blessings, weddings, and new beginnings—hence the spring name. In the 1800's the southern craft of spring flowers were also brought to Taiwan by immigrants crossing over the strait, where artisans continued to craft them. While certain styles of chanhua has become popular in the hanfu community as accessories, I also encourage you to look up some of the more traditional framed works, dioramas, entire scenes made out of spring flowers. The style is a little different from the chanhua popular with hanfu, but the number of things they manage to depict with this craft is really astounding.
TR: 王玺家族墓 | 金葫芦耳坠（一对）, 四川省文物考古研究院文物圖片庫
Earrings: The hulu is back! Seriously, people went crazy for the gourd shape for a very long time. Above top right pic is a gold gourd earring in Sichuan Archaeology's online database that's dated to the 8th year of the Tianshun Era, 1464CE.
I made a second version of hulu earrings, also with some beads I had lying around: a larger pearl at the bottom and a smaller imitation-jade (it's probably glass or something) bead at the top. I put a small 26 gauge wire coil at the top to imitate the thinner mouth of the gourd, and then allowed it to spiral down over the two beads to meet the bottom of the gourd, just to bring everything together. I disguised the end of the head pin and where the wire ended up with a spacer.
Initially I had these on normal clip-on findings (top left pic), but I didn't love the way that looked, so instead I attached these to spring-back clip-on hoops because Emily doesn't have her ears pierced. I think they look very convincing as going through her earlobe!
^ srces wip for early ming at time of post (ill add them in gradually in the next few days)
