Power, Fashion, Craft: Histories of Early Modern Chinese Dress and Textiles

This in-person course will introduce you to the history of Chinese dress and textiles.

Dress and textiles played pivotal roles in marking imperial identity and court power, but they were also the stuff of fashion-setters in China’s leading cities, a means of creating religious and ritual presence, and one of the most important category for producers making for domestic and export markets.

Topics will include the use of clothing and textiles at the Ming and Qing dynasty courts; the production of silk and cotton; export and domestic markets for textiles; gender and female agency in textile art and production; and the representation of Chinese textiles and dress in fashion prints, commodity chain albums, and shop scene albums.

We will also examine the collecting of clothing and textiles inside and outside China, with lectures on key collections, collectors and the history of collecting Chinese dress.

The course is convened by Dr Rachel Silberstein (co-convenor of the Arts of China module of the SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art Programme, running annually each January to April).