Turn back your cuffs

Turn back your cuffs

Oct 16, 2017 | Chinese dress

Perhaps because cuffs are so ubiquitous in our culture I totally missed the point of the shaped extension on Manchu robe sleeves when I first focused on them back in the 1970s. These prominent features of Manchu and Manchu-styled garments cannot be missed. They were...
Symbol of the moon

Symbol of the moon

Jan 12, 2017 | Chinese dress

This exquisitely embroidered motif of a toad and a rabbit within the white disk of the moon is one of many treasures in the Textile Traces Collection at the Cotsen Foundation for Academic Research. In the 1990s California businessman and philanthropist Lloyd Cotsen...
Never neglect the details

Never neglect the details

Nov 2, 2016 | Chinese dress

My career was greatly influenced by Dorothy K Burnham (1911–2004). Her research on traditional garments and their constructions was published in the best-selling Cut My Cote. She convincingly demonstrated that garments in cloth-producing cultures were directly linked...