The Chinese Haute Couturier who copies

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In case you think that I’m angry over the Dior vs Hanfu Mamian incident —I’m not. I’m more intrigued and somewhat amused by how low they stooped, especially since the Western brands and public have always mocked the Chinese for copying.

And once upon a time, there was a famous Chinese Haute Couturier who copied quite blatantly as well.

It would be hypocritical for me to commit one article on Dior and not one the other way round (this person copies Dior quite extensively while it was still under the direction of John Galliano).

So here is just a very quick visual treat, which kind of looks like the Expectation vs Reality gallery for items purchased on SHEIN or Taobao. LOL

ROBERTO CAVALLI 2005 FALL

Let’s start with the hot favourite of mine. I love the Ming blue and white porcelain dress, so much so that I actually had one of my pre-wedding shot in it (even though I never had a wedding, but yes, pre-wedding shots are a MUST). I don’t think I need to indicate which is the original. Of course this said Chinese Haute Couturier later on made a couple more of blue and white vase inspired dresses with worldwide success, but I think it’s important to acknowledge the original designer and her copycat past, just to be fair. The Haute Couturier has even earned a nickname in China in the early days as “Copycat <Insert Family Name>”

And she copied not one, but two! And tried to be original by lengthening the skirt and added more loose fabric at the side. It’s like trying to cheat during an exam but appearing that you’re not by repeating the last sentence of your answer a few more times, hoping the examiner doesn’t find out.

DIOR 2005 FALL

This copying attempt made me laugh. The wearer appeared in the Spring Festival Celebration Show in early 2006, and the Chinese Haute Couturier lamented during an interview later on that she was at the end of her designing phase when Dior showcased their 2005 Fall collection. If lying isn’t her specialty, then it must’ve been telepathy.

VALENTINO 2007 SPRING/SUMMER

I think this Chinese Haute Couturier must’ve been high on mushrooms when she decided to copy Valentino and bloat it up a little, just to appear more original.

VALENTINO 2007 FALL

Maybe some wouldn’t call this plagiarism cos, she changed the length of the skirt…and added some embroidered details… It’s up to you to decide. I’m on camp Guilty-as-charged.

DIOR 2007 FALL

While this Chinese Haute Couturier is known for her promotion of the Chinese embroidery work, to be honest, her craftsmanship level isn’t that great. I’ve seen the actual products and was appalled by the quality of work. It’s the kind of things that looks great afar or on camera, but if you get closer, particularly if you know wat are good embroidery work, you would be greatly disappointed.

As another Chinese Fashion KOL commented during our exchange, the quality is so poor that you might as well get it machine embroidered. So.. quantity does not mean quality, and cheap labour doesn’t get you the finesse you hope for.

18TH CENTURY FRENCH DRESS

Since the Chinese are upset (rightfully) over the appropriation of the Hanfu Mamian skirt by Dior, they must feel somewhat consoled that this Chinese Haute Couturier has avenged them with this copy. Although, I am of the opinion that two wrongs don’t make one right! And it could also be argued that it is everyone knows that it is the French court style in the design of the Chinese designer, but nobody would know the Ming Mamian skirt was used in Dior’s design.

1930s CHINESE PERANAKAN WEDDING DRESS

If appropriating the West is justified because nobody would mistake it for a Chinese garment, then this following appropriation might be up for debate. I think this is the reverse version of the Dior vs Hanfu Mamian skirt saga.

A Chinese Haute Couturier taking a historical piece of garment worn by the Straits Chinese of a different country, and appropriating it without acknowledgement UNTIL it was found out by the collecting authority and got in touch with her. Of course this story has a happy ending with the two pieces reuniting in a public exhibition and the Museum got the chance to tell our side of the story.

I would like to reiterate my stand on copying. I’m not against copying as long as it is done respectfully, with proper credit given to the original, and with proper research which means that it ceased to be an act of plagiarism. Also, there are good copies and bad copies. Good copies are known as paying homage to the original, and they assume an iconic status through their innovative interpretation and a life of its own thereafter. Bad copies are just… thoughtless appropriations with little to no modification but if they somehow became popular/famous, that’s likely due to the amount of media advertisement and coverage they managed to secure.

We have evolved and have had cultural exchanges for so long that it is impossible to say that something belongs exclusively to one culture and not the other, and it is a myopic way of looking at things. Of course the power imbalance and exploitation are problematic, so it should be assessed according to intent and not one’s race. I find that foreigners who are not native to a particularly culture can be equally if not even more appreciative of that culture than the natives, because cultural identity is often something that is taken for granted by the majority. I never thought much of my Chinese identity and cultural attachments growing up in a Chinese majority society until I lived overseas for a while.

Anyway, here’s a bonus one by another Chinese designer who apparently was quite famous and appeared in Paris Fashion Week— Lawrence Xu.

YVES SAINT LAURENT 2004 FALL

I got to know him while watching a documentary/show on the Chinese Brocade, and you can clearly tell the displeasure of the master craftsman with the way Lawrence treats his craft. And personally, I think Lawrence has the same kitschy taste as this Chinese Haute Couturier, and their lack of understanding of their own culture and craft are pretty obvious as well though they are the spokesperson of it. I think the biggest problem for China is that their officially endorsed cultural/fashion ambassadors do not represent the essence and the best of its ancient cultural heritage.

If everyone’s end goal is fame and money, then something’s gotta give and often it is culture.

So, what are your thoughts? Yay or Nay? Was the original better or the copy better?

Dior vs Hanfu Saga: Homage, Copycat or Appropriation?

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The Hanfu scene is bustling with excitement (for better or worse) today because of the Dior Fall collection. In particular, the black mamian skirt look-alike (Dior Pleated Skirt) and its pairing with the corset which looks suspiciously also like the way the modernised Ming dynasty (14th-17th century) hanfu style that you see a lot in the last few years in China.

Homage, Copycat, or Appropriation are all just similar concepts to different ends/results and of different intentions. I’m too lazy to be politically correct or prescriptive about their definitions and nuances, but the simplest way of looking at it is probably whether the finishing looks as good as, better, or worse than the original item/style that they are trying to emulate. Or if they managed to establish a strong style/design through thoughtful innovation on top of the original which makes it a new style by definition.

THE ORIGINAL ARTEFACT IN HISTORY

Here’s the original Ming style Mamian Skirt and the vest-like (or if you want to sound pretentiously superior, corset-like) undergarment artefact image:

The low cut with strings tying together is actually the front of the vest

This is a silk gauze brocade skirt with its pleats laid out flat. When worn, it would look like the Dior skirt.

THE MODERN HANFU INTERPRETATIONS

The Hanfu movement has been in full swing for a while, and there are many young Chinese designers who have came up with lots of variations of the Ming style modern hanfu wear which you might find shockingly similar to the one by Dior:

Even I have done that pairing once upon a time in my In Search of the Chinese Red series:

So they’ve shortened the skirt length, modified the fastening/securing mechanism of the skirt, and matched the undergarment as a summer top with the mamian skirt.

For autumn/fall/winter season, the Mamian skirt is even nicer to pair with winter coats and other basics as I did during my Sabbatical Trip. Thanks in advance for indulging me in my pre-covid + pre-baby travel trip photo-sharing.

IN VENICE

IN NYC

Of course mine were the original length skirts with tie-string fastening mechanism which was the most traditional method for the Chinese. But you could see just how non-costumey they can be if you paired them properly. I also have black mamian with subtly weaved motifs and golden thread weaved patterns. I’m a huge fan of Mamian skirts (Have more than a dozen of them of different colours and materials).

Anyway…

When it comes to innovating a nice fastening mechanism, I would say Dior 0 : Hanfu designers 1

Honestly for a S$5,500 skirt, I expected better. But obviously the Hanfu makers were probably also copying the kilt makers in the waist fastening mechanism.

Dior’s skirt buckle

Taobao Hanfu designer’s skirt buckle

One of my favourite part about the vest-like undergarment of Ming is the Ming style metal frog buttons that lined the front middle part of the undergarment as in the one below:

They’re wonderfully diverse and beautifully made, and often adorned with precious stones such as the ones below:

The least that Dior could do was to invest some of their marketing budgets into these finer details. They can keep the clean lines and ‘minimalistic’ look (sometimes I suspect minimalism is just an excuse to cut cost), but those metal eyelets and straps are hardly anything worth shouting about.

MAMIAN SKIRT, SCOTTISH KILT, DIOR—What are the differences?

My first instinct when I saw the controversy erupting was, hang on, maybe they’re just inspired by their own ‘Western’ (sorry I’m using such a loose term) dressing—kilts. But then someone noted that the kilts had full pleats at the back, whereas the Mamian skirt had the same flat panel front and back which was exactly what Dior had. And yes, we also saw how the Hanfu makers copied the kilt’s way of securing the skirt:

Although I can’t be 100% sure but from the video (based on how the skirt moves when the model is walking) it appears that the back flap of the Dior skirt also has that ability to flip open up from the back just like the front. [Update: OK, I can confirm that the Dior skirt is EXACTLY the same structure and everything as the Chinese Mamian skirt, video explanation below the image]:

This artefact is from the Southern Song dynasty (12-13th century) of China, and it already had the earliest form of the Mamian skirt. Interestingly, such skirts were initially worn by the courtesans (who were, as usual, always at the forefront of fashion), and then it became a skirt popular amongst the aristocratic women by the Ming dynasty.

Obviously everyone loves the Mamian skirt. The style has survived for almost 1,000 years now, with fashionistas constantly trying to emulate it in different forms, and it has not only fascinated the Chinese. The Western designers of our days were equally fascinated by the Mamian skirts and Dior’s 2022 Fall design is by no mean their first encounter with the Mamian skirt of China.

Back in 1998, the legendary John Galliano had presented several dresses inspired by the Qing dynasty Mamian skirts as well:

Here are the actual Qing era skirts and the resemblance is pretty evident:

But wait, Dior’s not the only one!

Princes Diana too wore it once, and Alice Through the Looking Glass film clearly also based Alice’s costume on it.

If you want to read a bit more about the Qing dynasty Mamian skirts, you can hop over to ‘From Hanfu to Cheongsam: The Missing Link‘.

WHAT IS YOUR TAKE?

Taste is subject, of course. That explains why many people splurge on what I would find ugly items. So what is your take on Dior’s latest Fall design that is obviously based on the Ming era mamian skirt?

Personally, I find it a blatant and poorly done copycat attempt (without acknowledgement at that!) because obviously the 2022 design doesn’t create anything distinctly new or impressive. The Chinese has a modern phrase 谁丑谁尴尬 which loosely translates to ‘Whoever does it better wins the game’. This applies to many of the art appropriation claims as well.

And I’m not even going to talk about cultural appropriation in this instance since it’s beyond obvious. But I’d love to hear your thoughts!

And I shall end my post with my Ming style mulberry silk vest embroidered with hydrangeas, in NYC (cos everyone is travelling now and I’m stuck! I deserve this. 😉

The Dragon Lady is actually a Snake

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While most of us associate the Chinese dragon with men, the idea of a Dragon Lady was very popular in the West in the 30s. To the West, Asian women were dangerous, domineering, mysterious but sexually alluring at the same time, and countless films and pop culture references played on that stereotypical idea of an Asian woman. To be fair, the women of the West weren’t spared of the femme fatale stereotype either so I think it is fundamentally a female objectification issue, and in the context of America at the turn of the last century, it was complicated by racism.

The Original Chinese Dragon Lady

But the Western men were not alone in their vile objectification of women, or Chinese women. The Chinese men, too, had lots of tales of female spirits who “tempted” men and filled them with lusts. The most poignant one, personally, was the case of the Investiture of the Gods, a 16th century Chinese novel.

Image of Anna May Wong, a famous Chinese American actress in Hollywood in the 30s who was seen as the archetype of Dragon Lady on screen. Also, her biopic is in the making starred by Gemma Chan from Crazy Rich Asians.

In it, the creator of mankind, a goddess called Nüwa, was the main culprit of the downfall of the Shang dynasty (an ancient empire some 3,000 years ago). The story goes that the last king of Shang dynasty saw her sculpture at the temple, and was sexually attracted to her. He wrote poems expressing his lust and spoke of marrying the goddess. Upset by his blasphemy, the goddess brought down 3 nymphs (spirits disguised as beautiful women) to seduce him, causing him to neglect his nation and became cruel to his people and eventually the downfall of his empire.

Sounds about right for the idea of a “Dragon Lady” huh?

Except that this was a very problematic portrayal by the then extremely patriarchal Chinese society, of the goddess of creation who was an important female figure when Chinese society was still matriarchal.

The Chinese society (like many others) started as a matriarchal one which meant that kids would only know who their mothers were, and not their fathers. Thus Nüwa exemplified that far ancient part of Chinese when women ruled together as a community. It was only when the Chinese society slowly transited into a patriarchal one that a male creator Fuxi came into existence and they both came to be known as the creators of mankind.

In fact, Nüwa had a different name back then, it was Nüxi or Xihe (Xihe was also known as the Guardian of Sun and Moon way back, and she eventually was split into The Mother of 10 Suns and Chang-E The Goddess of Moon. I did a reinterpretation of her in my Sailormoon Series). She was said to have created mankind from the soil due to her extreme boredom of being alone on earth, which is a further evidence that there was no male figure at the very start. Also, it was believed that primitive societies did not associate sex with birth-giving, so they did not think that men were necessary in the birth of a child, while women could give birth to both genders.

Image from the Sailormoon x Chinese mythology series, depicting Xi He, the goddess of Time (Sun and Moon)

The Lady is a Snake

Interestingly, like the story of Adam and Eve, snakes were involved in this creation myth. And like many civilisations such as the pre-Classical Greek, snakes were often associated with the female goddess/creators. Fun fact: China formed a matriarchal society some 40,000-50,000 years ago and Greek slightly later, and China transited into patriarchal some 3,000 years earlier than the Greeks. During my research I came across this book in which the author said there is no culture where paternity was ignored in prehistoric times, I think she didn’t study Chinese texts because there were many mentions when paternity was ignored including the birth of the ancient ruler of Shang dynasty being a result of his mom swallowing the egg of a black bird.

Painting from Western Han (3rd century BCE) with Fuxi the male god holding the Sun and Nüwa the female goddess holding the Moon.

Eastern Han (1st century CE) wall engraving with Fuxi holding a tool to draw square, and Nüwa holding a tool to draw circle

Tang Dynasty painting from Astana graves (8th century) with Fuxi holding a tool to draw square, and Nüwa holding a tool to draw circle

After transiting into patriarchal society, subsequent Chinese artworks/records depicted the male and female creators as having the body of a snake. Now snake has been an important and highly regarded creature in ancient societies, and was present as a totem across civilisations. A far cry from its villain identity today.

The dragon, seen as the ultimate symbol of the Chinese ruler, was based primarily on the body of a snake (with many accessorising features from other animals such as the deer’s antlers, bull’s nose, Eagle’s claws, Tiger’s palms etc.). While some ancient Chinese tribes saw themselves as descendants of a bird, others saw their ancestors as snakes, and it is for this reason, the creator of mankind were depicted as snakes.

The modern Dragon with her snake body, eagle claws, beatle shell eyebrows, gill-like ears, and antler-inspired hair and accessories.

This styling was designed in collaboration with Aaron Han (@aharw) assisted by gabby @ga.bae.be
Makeup assisted by Danny @chenlingx0 with Jamie as model
Photo by Aaron and I

Symbolism of an Emerald Dragon

Yes, I call it Emerald, although prevalent sources translated it as Azure because of the context of its name.

Languages and words take on the meaning of the context, and in this case, the Emerald Dragon represented the regeneration of life in Spring. While the word Qing 青 could refer to blue and green (as in the case of the same character ‘aoi’ 青い in Japanese) in Chinese culture and at times even Black, it would make sense that the Qing Long would be green like the colours of Spring leaves. The ancient people saw colours quite differently from us today, which probably explains why humanity didn’t have separate words for green and blue way back.

The emerald dragon’s boots is a reference to its green/blue scales of the snake. A Tang period hairstyle to exaggerate the shape of the head to look like a dragon. An a vintage Gucci green jacket to signify the luxury and royalty of the dragon as an auspicious animal.

The Emerald Dragon represents Spring, when flowers bloom and butterflies flock from one bush to another. This costume from the Legend of Miyue is obviously a copy of the Japanese dress, which I will go into detail another time.

Japan and China

The East, where the Sun rises, is also associated with the Emerald Dragon. And of course, the land of the rising sun in our modern memory, also refers to Japan. So I’m going to share w a few funny stories about Sino-Japanese historical relations, and muse over how the Chinese inverse-appropriates the Japanese culture these days.

One of the most hilarious accounts I’ve read about Japan and China relations was one that happened in 607CE. The Japanese diplomat of Asuka period Japan Ono no Imoko presented a letter from the Japanese female emperor (Yes, it was a female emperor!) to the Sui dynasty emperor with the following line:

日出处天子，致书日没处天子，无恙

Greetings, from Son of Heaven where the Sun rose, to Son of Heaven where the Sun set.

Clearly I was bored and wanted to try a few different renditions with different mood for this portrait. Which is your favourite?

Now, I don’t know how you understand it, but I thought that is HILARIOUSLY APPALLING! Because as romantic as it sounds with the mention of sun set and sun rise, of heaven and all, I can totally imagine how offended the Sui dynasty emperor must’ve felt upon hearing it. The general consensus today was not that he was offended by the “sun set” part, but by the fact that Japan saw itself as an equal with China (Chinese emperor had always thought of themselves as the superior one to its neighbouring countries). And true enough, he told his liaison officer that he did not wish to hear from the “Barbarians” if they continued sending such rude letters.

I have styled the Dragon Lady in a Japanese-Chinese fashion also because Chinese pop culture depiction of ancient Chinese women over 1,000 years ago have always been extremely influenced by the Japanese aesthetics. And the Chinese liked to claim that it was because the Japanese were influenced by Chinese aesthetics at that point in time. I find this inverse-appropriation by the Chinese extremely interesting because instead of looking at their own artefacts to uncover the original Chinese look of the period, they decided to turn to the Japanese’s interpretation and evolved adaptation of the Chinese culture.

The long flowing hair was indeed valued by the ancient Chinese, but in nowhere could we find women draping it down like the Japanese during the Heian period although women did drape a little of their hair down with a knot at the neck area.

Have a look at the Han Chinese style vs the Heian Japanese styling of hair:

Chinese Han Dynasty female figurine

Chinese Han Dynasty female figurine

Japanese Heian style female

The Han woman would not have long flown hair, or loose hair (unlike what has been portrayed in shows). It is a very Japanese-influenced aesthetic. So is the multi-coloured, layered robes with a long tail, like their juni-hitoe.

Even though the TV produces and stylists of China refuse to acknowledge it, they have been extremely influenced by the HK period drama creators of the 80s and 90s, who were in turn influenced by the Japanese aesthetics greatly. And fast forward a few decades, the Chinese period drama stylists and consumers have naturalised this Japanese aesthetics, blending what seems Chinese but essentially very Japanese aesthetics into their mix, creating a new fusion aesthetics today.

This topic is fascinating and a fun exploration to go into for a future post.

Yes, I should probably also talk about the recent/age-old debate about Korean vs Chinese dressing in modern Chinese period shows too, some day.

Emerald Dragon, Symbol of Spring, and the East where the Sun rises. It was a creature full of vitality.