Quite often the best inspirations for fashion or textile designers do not come from exhibitions strictly linked with these disciplines. At the moment there is, for example, a major exhibition at the British Museum in London that will provide many creative minds with great inspirations, thanks to its focus on history, garments, accessories, embroidery techniques and materials.
"China's Hidden Century" (the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery, until 8th October) showcases the resilience and creativity of 19th-century China through a wide range of items.
The event stretches from the accession in 1796 of the fifth emperor of the Qing dynasty, Jiaqing, to the abdication in 1912 of the tenth, child ruler Aisin-Gioro Puyi, after a violent revolution that ended 2,000 years of dynastic rule. Between 1796 and 1912 Qing China endured cataclysmic internal uprisings, civil and foreign wars, including the White Lotus Rebellion (1774-1805), the Xinjiang wars (1820s and 1860s), the Opium Wars (1840-42 and 1856-60), the Sino-French War (1884-85), the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) and the Boxer War (1898-1900).
Tens of millions perished in the conflicts of this violent and dark century that also saw in 1860 British and French troops pillaging and destroying the Summer Palace of China's Qing emperors, carrying off pieces of art and architecture (and even the emperor's dog, renamed "Looty" and given to Queen Victoria, as shown in a portrait by Friedrich Wilhelm Keyl included in the show).
Despite all these calamities, as explained in a press release by Julia Lovell, Professor of Modern China at Birkbeck, University of London, the 19th century was also an era of extraordinary cultural creativity and of political, social and technological innovation.
"Government and governed engaged in new debates about the balance of power between monarch and people," Lovell explains. "High politics, elite culture and everyday life opened to global influences and exchanges. Artistic and literary traditions were challenged, dismantled, added to and remade – the amalgam of and dislocation between old and new generated a cosmopolitan cultural modernity."
The show opens with the "All Under Heaven Complete Map of the Everlasting Unified Qing Empire" on eight blue scrolls. Then the journey begins through the various sections, exploring the court, the military, the production of artists and writers, the lives of farmers and city-dwellers and of the globalized communities of merchants, scientists, diplomats, reformers and revolutionaries. The show features 300 objects, half from the British Museum, half borrowed from 30 different British and international lenders, with most being publicly displayed for the first time.
The art section includes watercolours of landscapes, lithographs of a British opium factory in India reminding us of the tragic consequences of the opium wars; and ink on paper portraits of Lady Li and her husband, Lu Xifu, both of them wearing a midnight blue jacket, accessorised by Lady Li with a jade necklace and earrings.
Fashion-wise, visitors will be able to admire stunning gowns, dresses and fur-trimmed robes and jackets with intricate patterns and embroideries.
Among the others there's also a garment (loaned from the Metropolitan Museum of Art) that belonged to the Empress Dowager Cixi, the de-facto ruler of China from 1861 to 1908 and a direct contemporary of Queen Victoria. She was known for changing her attire several times a day and this gown - featuring a swooping phoenix amid lush chrysanthemums and wide sleeve bands - is a combination of Manchu, Chinese and Japanese motifs, in purple, gold and turquoise.
But there is more to discover amid robes embroidered with dozens of butterflies representing happiness, steamships hinting at modernity, golden characters wishing the wearer long life, plum blossom borders which refer to Spring and cloud shaped scrolls, considered an auspicious emblem.
Children's clothes are also on display: a baby's bib is stitched with the face of a fancy European clock, while a child's jacket and trousers integrate a chequered patchwork motif created from lozenges, sewn into a three-dimensional cube effect. To our modern eyes the pattern looks like a crossover between Harlequin's costume and an Op Art painting, but actually the graphic motif had a precise purpose - confusing the eye and keeping evil forces away from the wearer (the pattern existed since at least the Song dynasty, when it was found on temple walls, and later it appeared as a design on robes worn by Buddhist priests).
Some of the garments included in the event, such as fur designs (like a man's reversible fur jacket with a yellow silk lining), were imported from other countries, in particular Russia, northeast China and Mongolia. They were popular at court and made the emperors feel reconnected with their Manchurian origins.
The selection of intricately embroidered sleeveless jackets is a feast for the eyes: one of them, for example, is covered in overlapping embroideries of ancient and modern coins in bright and bold colours.
The grand opera costumes (accompanied by wall hangings from the operas performed at court) are also extraordinary: the costume designed for the role of a princess or an emperor's consort, features sleeves made with nine thin strips of embroidery, and a skirt featuring two layers of narrow streamers with pointed tips, tassels and jade pendants.
The accessories section features several remarkable pieces such as headdresses and precious hairbands, like two headdresses, decorated with pearls, semi-precious stones and bright blue kingfisher feathers.
Among the other accessories such as beautifully crafted fans with floral designs and delicate snuff bottles, there are also tiny silk shoes and boots made for Han women with bound feet.
While the embroidery on the shoes is a testament to women's technical skills and creativity, their size is disturbing and points at the disabling practice that was very common among elite families in 19th-century China. Young girls had their feet tied by their mothers and other female members of the household using strips of cloth, with their toes broken and tucked under the soles. The feet were thus moulded into tiny "lotus" stumps that crippled women, even though it was believed that this practice made them more attractive and therefore capable of marrying more advantageously.
Jessica Harrison-Hall, Head of the China Section, Curator of the Sir Percival David Collection, Chinese Ceramics and Decorative Arts at the British Museum, explains in a wonderful YouTube video (highly recommended to embroidery fans) in which she unpicks the details of a 140-year-old Han woman's outfit, that the intricately embroidered garments in the exhibition give voice to the hidden women in 19th century Chinese society.
Besides, these pieces also highlight the creativity and resilience demonstrated by so many citizens of Qing China amid exceptionally hard times. One item in particular, a water-proof rain cape made from the leaves of the Chinese windmill palm (Trachycarpus fortunei) with matching hat and bag made with bamboo strips, made for a street worker, a farmer or fisherman, will fascinate many visitors, offering insights into everyday life.
The coat was made by folding layers of leaves in dense overlapping rows, then stitching them to the layer above using thread made from rice straw.
The configuration of the cape, similar to a thatched roof would have kept the water off its surface. Regional variations of this ensemble existed, depending on which plants were available locally. In the far south, palm leaves or coconut fibres were used instead of rice or millet.
A post on the British Museum blog shows the painstakingly slow and accurate process conservators went through to clean the garment, brushing individual strands of straw and humidifying each stalk to bring the garment back to its original shape. To be able to display it, conservators also built a special display mannequin with soft cushioning pads, tailor-made to support the shape of the cape.
This piece is juxtaposed to the elite soldiers' armoured costumes: while the imperial garments with their intricate embroideries are stunning, the bannermen (the elite of the Qing imperial army) uniforms are grand with those padded silk ceremonial armour with protective brass studs, polished metal plates, and helmets complete with eagle feathers and sable-tail plumes.
Last but not least, it is essential to acknowledge the substantial four-year-long research that underpinned the creation of this exhibition. Assembling such a remarkable showcase was an immense endeavor that relied on the collective dedication of numerous scholars, collectors, designers, and students, a diverse team of individuals with a wide range of skills - from conservators and photographers to graphic and 3D designers.
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue, "China's hidden century: 1796–1912", edited by Jessica Harrison-Hall and Julia Lovell, published by the British Museum Press.
Image credits for this post
Complete Map of All Under Heaven Unified by the Great Qing, China, about 1800. © The British Library.
Unidentified artist, Portrait of Lady Li (Lu Xifu's Wife). Ink and colour on paper, China, about 1876. Gift of Mr. Harp Ming Luk. With permission of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Toronto, Canada. © ROM.
Unidentified artist, Portrait of Lu Xifu. Ink and colour on paper, China, about 1876. Gift of Mr. Harp Ming Luk. With permission of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Toronto, Canada. © ROM.
Elaborate headdress, 1800-1900, China. © The Teresa Coleman Collection.
Empress Dowager Cixi's robe, China, about 1880–1908. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Jacket with border of steamships 1860-1900 © The Trustees of the British Museum.
Luxury fan, Guangzhou, 1800–1840. © The Teresa Coleman Collection.
Snuff-bottle with image of Li Hongzhang (1823–1901), Bejing, 1900-1910. © Water, Pine and Stone Retreat Collection. Photographed by Nick Moss.
Unidentified artist, Ancestor portrait of a bannerman. With permission of ROM (Royal Ontario Museum), Toronto, Canada. © ROM.
Waterproofs for a worker, 1800-6, Southern China. © Trustees of the British Museum 2023.
Woman's informal court robe, China, 1895–1911. © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
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