Costumes

In the Tang Chang’an, more than thousand years ago, lavishness was the rule of fashion.

Court ladies were among the trendsetters. They preferred loose and light costumes elaborately embroidered with exquisite patterns, highlighting feminine elegance.

Besides gauzy silk and satin, feather could even be used to make skirts. A Tang princess was reported to have ordered a hunt for all the rare birds in the woods and had the feather interwoven. Seen from different angles or put in or out of shade, it took on different colors.

The hundred-year old Cosmopolitan Magazine is the barometer of the latest fashion. Its cover girls usually have a third of their chests exposed. The V-shaped collar of Helen Mirren, who won a best actress Oscar in 2007 for her role in “The Queen”, might represent the standard of Cosmo.

A millennium ago, wider collars were also in style with fashionable Tang women. The collar of a Tang figurine is measured at 0.26 m in depth and 0.24 m in width.