During the Song Dynasty there were two big trends in fashions for Chinese women, one was foot binding and the other was their clothing styles.
Most Chinese girls went through foot binding at a young age. The process was said to take two years. First, a 10" by 2" cloth was rapped tightly around the girls foot. The four smaller toes would curl into the bottom of the foot; meanwhile all the bones in her foot would brake. Every day the girl's mother would unwrap the cloth and clean off all the blood and rap it tighter. Every two weeks the girl would have to wear a smaller shoe. When her foot is finally three to four inches, she won't need to wrap it anymore but her foot will be broken and useless from then on. One girl said, "For the two years that I went through the process of foot biding, I cried every night from the terrible pain. I couldn't wait for it to be over. When my mom unwrapped my foot everyday I would see all the blood I was letting out, it was obvious it wasn't healthy. When I walked I felt as if my feet were on fire!" This was not a fun time in a girl's life.
Clothing styles were very important during this dynasty. The way a woman or girl dressed could symbolize her class and status. There three main types of clothing, one for empresses and noble concubines, the second was for government uses and the third were formal clothes. Depending on which one you would wear it showed your status. The way to tell if someone was wealthy was just by looking at their clothes or socks, if they was made of silk the woman was wealthy. People who didn't have as much money made their clothes and socks out of gauze or cloth. If a woman was wearing an outfit with gold printed hibiscus flowers, she was wealthy and had high status. The one thing that all women had in common was that they all wore life like patterns on their clothes.
These are the big trends in the Song dynasty, as you can see it was very hard and painful to stay beautiful.
Most Chinese girls went through foot binding at a young age. The process was said to take two years. First, a 10" by 2" cloth was rapped tightly around the girls foot. The four smaller toes would curl into the bottom of the foot; meanwhile all the bones in her foot would brake. Every day the girl's mother would unwrap the cloth and clean off all the blood and rap it tighter. Every two weeks the girl would have to wear a smaller shoe. When her foot is finally three to four inches, she won't need to wrap it anymore but her foot will be broken and useless from then on. One girl said, "For the two years that I went through the process of foot biding, I cried every night from the terrible pain. I couldn't wait for it to be over. When my mom unwrapped my foot everyday I would see all the blood I was letting out, it was obvious it wasn't healthy. When I walked I felt as if my feet were on fire!" This was not a fun time in a girl's life.
Clothing styles were very important during this dynasty. The way a woman or girl dressed could symbolize her class and status. There three main types of clothing, one for empresses and noble concubines, the second was for government uses and the third were formal clothes. Depending on which one you would wear it showed your status. The way to tell if someone was wealthy was just by looking at their clothes or socks, if they was made of silk the woman was wealthy. People who didn't have as much money made their clothes and socks out of gauze or cloth. If a woman was wearing an outfit with gold printed hibiscus flowers, she was wealthy and had high status. The one thing that all women had in common was that they all wore life like patterns on their clothes.
These are the big trends in the Song dynasty, as you can see it was very hard and painful to stay beautiful.
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