Hanfu In Components: Structure Conventions (pt2)

Hanfu in Components: Structure Conventions (pt2)

navigation: hanfu in components 1 2 3.1 3.2 ...

Thanks for the love on the last post, I’ve been motivated to continue writing LOL Anyway: Construction/sewing pattern/structure is very important to hanfu!

There are a few important structure conventions when it comes to hanfu—almost all traditional-cut hanfu follow these rules; you could call them the defining characteristics of hanfu. There are exceptions to every rule of course (I will go over some caveats at the end of this post), but generally if a hanfu design ignores these rules we might consider it to be ‘incorrect.'

(There will be a longer follow-up pt. 3 post to this explaining the anatomy of a hanfu top/robe, where there will be more detailed in-context illustrations and descriptions. I just figured I should list these ‘rules’ somewhere separately.)

中縫/中缝/zhong1 feng4/Center Seam

雲化龍 / YUNHUALONG / SERAPHINE, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Jeremy (ig: @shotbyjerms), modeled by Yulan
(ig: @chlobaltblue)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1655718150
雲化龍 / YUNHUALONG / SERAPHINE, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Jeremy (ig: @shotbyjerms), modeled by Yulan
(ig: @chlobaltblue)
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1655718150

Take a look at your shirts. Is there a shoulder seam between the front of the shirt and the back of the shirt? Western clothing tends to consist of a front piece + back piece sewn together to create a space for your body to sit in:

Shitty Drawings by Tangtang 2.1

Hanfu doesn’t work like that. Traditionally, the garment isn’t separated into a front piece and back piece: it’s separated into a right piece and left piece, which are joined together at the vertical center seam. Why? Traditional fabric has a narrower width than the standard ~145cm that we have today, so a long, narrow piece is less wasteful to cut out from a bolt of silk than a wide one.

Shitty Drawings by Tangtang 2.2

Therefore there is always a center seam, one running vertically down the front and one down the back. 中 = center, 縫 = seam, so 中縫 means center seam. There’ll be a front center seam (前中縫) and a back center seam (後中縫).

錦鱗泉 / JINLIN QUAN / LAGOON, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by and modeled by Josh Chen (ig: @joshraychen)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1669921221
錦鱗泉 / JINLIN QUAN / LAGOON, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by and modeled by Josh Chen (ig: @joshraychen)
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1669921221

不破肩/不破肩/bu2 po4 jian1/No Broken Shoulder

Kind of an addendum onto the previous point? Additionally since the body pieces are separated into left/right rather front/back, there’s no seam at the top of the shoulder here. The fabric is simply draped over the arm/shoulder to hang down, covering the torso on both sides.*

錦鱗泉 / JINLIN QUAN / LAGOON, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Jeremy Savan (ig: @shotbyjerms), modeled by Josh Chen (ig: @joshraychen)
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1669921221
碎玉 / SUIYU / GOSSAMER, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Jin Han (ig: @hb1578), modeled by 英美
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1510277699

*Caveat: Some modified hanfu that vendors sell today will have a shoulder seam, especially thicker winter garments or short-sleeved garments. This is a design choice made to prevent the fabric from looking too stiff, known as 破肩/破肩/po4 jian1,literally “broken shoulder.” It can look great, lots of hanfu makers do it! But just to be clear, that is a MODIFICATION.

接袖/接袖/jie1 xiu4/Sleeve Connection

女英 / NUYING / HEROINE, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo & Styling by 玄曦閣, modeled by Yulan
(ig: @chlobaltblue)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1510289833
女英 / NUYING / HEROINE, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo & Styling by 玄曦閣, modeled by Yulan
(ig: @chlobaltblue)
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1510289833

Western clothing patterns tend to have something where the fabric of the sleeve gets connected to the fabric of the garment’s body at the shoulder/armpit, often with a concave arm hole shape to help with the contours of the garment when it’s worn.

Shitty drawings by Tangtang 2.3

Hanfu sleeves, on the other hand, are never connected at the armpit—they are connected halfway down the arm. In other words, the piece of fabric that forms the body extends to also cover the upper arm part of the sleeve. The actual sleeve piece is connected to the body at the bicep/elbow area via a flat seam. (In the case of half- or no- sleeve garments there might just not be a separate sleeve piece.)

羞花 / XIUHUA / CAMELLIA, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Moshi (ig: @moshitea), modeled by Shuya (ig: @tangerinelover9)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1459671163
羞花 / XIUHUA / CAMELLIA, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Moshi (ig: @moshitea), modeled by Shuya  (ig: @tangerinelover9)
Marked up by Tangtang
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1459671163

右衽/右衽/you4 ren4/"Right Over Left" Rule

夢廣寒 / MENGGUANGHAN / REVERIE, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Christopher C. Lee (ig: @chrisclee.ig), modeled by Para (ig: @an_gel.a_q)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1327850536
月將沉 / YUEJIANGCHEN / MOONSET
Photo by Samm (ig: @sammdaya), modeled by Bel
(Unreleased)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1671692161

Applies to cross-collar, some varieties of round collar, and some varieties of standing collar tops. In the case that the front of the garment crosses over itself, the flap coming from the wearer’s left goes OVER the flap coming from the wearer’s right. Easiest way to make sense of this is, if you’re looking at someone wearing a cross-collar hanfu top, the cross will look like a lowercase y.

撲朔 / PUSHUO / ENIGMA, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Christopher C. Lee (ig: @chrisclee.ig), modeled by Tangtang
(Unreleased)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1341829937
鸞和 / LUANHE / ARIA, Cloud9 Hanfu
Photo by Moshi (ig: @moshi), modeled by Mars Bau (ig: @the.red_planet)
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1510293039

Caveats

NO RULE EXISTS WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!! These rules exist because a majority of hanfu follow them and they are a standard that people agree on right now. However, there are ALWAYS cases—historically or otherwise—where these rules may be broken. For example, there are several Ming Dynasty cross collar robes that happen to be left over right, and the location of the sleeve seam can differ based on what garment you're looking at.

Also, many modern hanfu manufacturers will deliberately choose to break these 'rules' in favor of aesthetics. This is a purposeful design choice—not one that's done out of ignorance or disrespect. It's easy for common modifications to get mistaken for 'historically accurate.' To be clear, it is 100% okay and super common for modifications to exist! Just don't go around claiming that it was historically that way.

My advice is that if you're starting out with hanfu, try to stick to these rules in the back of your head as closely as possible. Once you've built your foundational knowledge, then you can start exploring the exceptions to the rules. These rules may not be foolproof, but they are a useful tool to help you understand the commonalities and trends within hanfu without overwhelming you.

Last note: it is generally more of a taboo for seams that should exist to not exist in a piece of clothing (i.e. no center back seam) than for extra seams to exist. If you go look in museums for the artifacts that hanfu is based off of, you'll notice that a lot of them—especially the ones from earlier dynasties—are a chaotic patchwork of a bunch of random piece of fabric sewn together to create the garment. Fabric is expensive, people don't want to waste it! So it's not all that weird to have seams in random places.

Happy 除夕 everyone! 有蛇有得 :>

navigation: hanfu in components 1 2 3.1 3.2 ...

More Posts from Thejunkdrawers and Others

2 months ago

Tags
2 months ago

I get why fantasy authors would default to using, like, the same basic arrangement of seasons and weather and gravity that we have here in The Real World because they have to make up so much shit as it is and it IS probably good praxis to give your readers some familiar touchstones in your world so they can just focus on the plot, but. having said that. I think there should be more settings that have seventeen seasons, all of them different lengths, and constellations that don't have fixed patterns because sometimes they'll get pissy and just move to a different part of the sky, and sometimes the sun tells people things telepathically, and there's a type of weather where the air just gets really thick and difficult to walk through that's unpleasant but not any more uncommon than rain. it's called smärklf.


Tags
2 months ago

How I join skeins


Tags
2 months ago

why are yt to mp3 websites always the shadiest fuckin sites I feel like I’m going down a dark alleyway risking the chance of getting drugged and/or stabbed just bc its the only place where I can find a guy to deal me some decent fart with extra reverb dot mp3s


Tags
2 months ago
Via Google Images.

Via Google Images.


Tags
2 months ago

long-distance mech pilots don’t need to worry quite so much about traveling light. when you’re walking around in several tons of metal, especially one built to wander, you aren’t quite to the point of needing to choose which of two keepsakes you have room in your bag for— there’s plenty of space for both.

Things are different for interstellar knights.

You see, whether wandering alone or setting off on some quest for their lord, a knight’s only home is their armor. Anything they bring with them, they must carry within that armor, even through battles— and as such, every gram and every cubic centimeter can make the difference between life and death, and every calorie chosen to replace a keepsake can make the difference between survival and starvation. As such, a knight’s inventory is heavily optimized— and so is their armor itself. What matters more, the heating system or the EVA boosters? The extra fuel storage or the emergency release mechanisms? Pick one, and you’ll have no room for the other unless you can cut corners somewhere else. Every single element of a knight’s armor is there because they made the conscious decision to put it there. Every weapon they’ve attached to their shell had to replace some traditional aspect of a life support system. Every inch of their shells are packed full of every system that can fit until it’s tight against the pilot’s skin to leave them bruised whenever they exit their shell.

it doesn’t take long for them to realize which superfluous components are the weakest link.

They start small, at first— often as simple as a haircut to help a tighter helmet fit better. Some try to lose weight, but quickly regret it when they find themselves near starvation on some distant moon. The ones that survive past their first year are the ones that are willing to take things a bit further— the toes on both feet, to make room for a slight jump booster. One of their ribs, perhaps— replaced with a battery that connects to the armor through a cable that winds around bones and muscles. It’s only a matter of time before they do something about those bones and muscles too.

those who have only heard the stories will say that a knight’s armor is their home. Those who have met one, seen them exit their armor and seen just how little is left of the body inside— they will say that a knight’s armor is a part of their body. Integrated into them until they cannot survive without it. Both are wrong. Even some knights cannot pin down the true answer— what they really feel as they connect their armor to the components of it that they have placed inside of them. The best ones do, though. They know it well.

A knight’s armor is not a part of their body. Their body is a part of their armor— their home, to be renovated and optimized as they see fit. To be replaced, improved, amputated and eviscerated so that it can be remade into the glorious works of art that the heroes of the galaxy become as they charge into battle and become a story worth remembering.

As the armor learns to reach into your veins, pulling oxygen from the carbon dioxide you exhale and weaving it back into your blood, the space once taken up by inefficient organic lungs becomes the home of the heating system, warming you from within no matter what part of the void between stars you find yourself in. As it recycles amino acids into proteins again and infuses them back into what tissues remain, you’re free to remove your old digestive organs and find a home for your armor’s main computer, kept safe at the center of your shell. Many knights choose to put their own organic brain down there next to it, incidentally making room for more optical systems in their skulls.

Your armor is no longer simply “a part of you” and you are no longer simply “a part of it.” It is you. You are it. Your bones, its power cells, your organs its systems. You are its brain and its CPU in equal measure and its beautiful exterior plates, painted with the symbols of the lord you serve or simply the cause you stand for, will inspire others to take up arms themselves and let themselves become part of it.

your body, your home, your masterpiece


Tags
1 month ago

guys listen

mermaids would have to be dark-skinned and chubby to survive in the ocean 

water isnt a great means of protecting oneself from the sun theyd have to be very dark if they were shallow mermaids and they didnt want to be constantly sunburnt and they may be paler if they lived deeper in the water but theyd have to be buff and/or chubby as hell to resist the water pressure and cold of the deep sea

what im saying is pale-ass white skinny mermaids are just unrealistic


Tags
2 months ago
For Any Writers: http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/SFTerms.html

For any writers: http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/SFTerms.html

For more facts, follow Ultrafacts


Tags
2 months ago

i made a guide to help with ao3 tagging :)

I Made A Guide To Help With Ao3 Tagging :)

Tags
2 months ago

Feels like I should post these here as well - Chinese makeup elements iconic to Mulan’s era!

Meaning the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Sui dynasty, or the Tang dynasty (~400-900 CE). These few hundred years were when aesthetic styles in China were at their boldest.

Feels Like I Should Post These Here As Well - Chinese Makeup Elements Iconic To Mulan’s Era!
Feels Like I Should Post These Here As Well - Chinese Makeup Elements Iconic To Mulan’s Era!
Feels Like I Should Post These Here As Well - Chinese Makeup Elements Iconic To Mulan’s Era!
Feels Like I Should Post These Here As Well - Chinese Makeup Elements Iconic To Mulan’s Era!
Feels Like I Should Post These Here As Well - Chinese Makeup Elements Iconic To Mulan’s Era!

My Instagram

My Chinese history tweet collections


Tags
Loading...
End of content
No more pages to load
  • strawberries-in-december
    strawberries-in-december reblogged this · 2 weeks ago
  • notoriousmks
    notoriousmks liked this · 2 weeks ago
  • comingupwurlsisnotmything
    comingupwurlsisnotmything reblogged this · 2 weeks ago
  • redsugarx
    redsugarx reblogged this · 3 weeks ago
  • thepiratekitty
    thepiratekitty reblogged this · 3 weeks ago
  • tea-em0
    tea-em0 reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • tea-em0
    tea-em0 reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • peldragora
    peldragora liked this · 1 month ago
  • lemonadesoda
    lemonadesoda liked this · 1 month ago
  • starscream
    starscream liked this · 1 month ago
  • specspectacle
    specspectacle reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • specspectacle
    specspectacle liked this · 1 month ago
  • plotdesigner
    plotdesigner reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • jaggedcliffs
    jaggedcliffs reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • imightstealyourkneecaps
    imightstealyourkneecaps reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • imightstealyourkneecaps
    imightstealyourkneecaps liked this · 1 month ago
  • redoceanwaves
    redoceanwaves liked this · 1 month ago
  • willowwispflame
    willowwispflame reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • willowwispflame
    willowwispflame liked this · 1 month ago
  • toffeecoco1
    toffeecoco1 reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • toffeecoco1
    toffeecoco1 liked this · 1 month ago
  • ladylongbow
    ladylongbow reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • moonchildsisan
    moonchildsisan liked this · 1 month ago
  • tea-em0
    tea-em0 liked this · 2 months ago
  • chaoticgoodcryptid
    chaoticgoodcryptid reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • chaoticgoodcryptid
    chaoticgoodcryptid liked this · 2 months ago
  • lemonstealinglibrarian
    lemonstealinglibrarian liked this · 2 months ago
  • sodasora123
    sodasora123 liked this · 2 months ago
  • lexi-anastasia-astra-luna
    lexi-anastasia-astra-luna liked this · 2 months ago
  • brianna-lei
    brianna-lei liked this · 2 months ago
  • themirage-prismatic
    themirage-prismatic liked this · 2 months ago
  • cynical-harlequin
    cynical-harlequin reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • cynical-harlequin
    cynical-harlequin liked this · 2 months ago
  • iridikron
    iridikron liked this · 2 months ago
  • fleurdecapucine
    fleurdecapucine liked this · 2 months ago
  • sizzlingthingnickelcash
    sizzlingthingnickelcash liked this · 2 months ago
  • s0li4s
    s0li4s reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • s0li4s
    s0li4s liked this · 2 months ago
  • roncheg
    roncheg liked this · 2 months ago
  • sleepysandwichguy
    sleepysandwichguy reblogged this · 2 months ago
  • coolssmm
    coolssmm liked this · 2 months ago
  • nighthaunting
    nighthaunting liked this · 2 months ago
  • zhoudadudugongjin
    zhoudadudugongjin liked this · 2 months ago
  • carnelianflames
    carnelianflames liked this · 2 months ago
  • stardelabourgeoisie
    stardelabourgeoisie liked this · 2 months ago
  • gravitasmalfunction
    gravitasmalfunction liked this · 2 months ago
  • mizuriii
    mizuriii liked this · 2 months ago
thejunkdrawers - I might need it later...
I might need it later...

A side blog where I'll *try* to keep things organised.yeahthatsnotgoingtolastlong

241 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags