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1. To adapt to life there must be reform
Nowadays, the number of unemployed increases more and more in modern metropolises.
Due to the progress of technology and the flourishing of the market, the pace of people's lives becomes faster.
Modern life in comparison with the relaxed and easy life of the 1930s is more vigorous and enthusiastic, full of different kinds of activities including reading, sports, arts and literature, science and technology, tourism, visiting friends, household chores and work.
People like to have a high-quality life, which is rich, exciting and pleasant, and attire should not be an obstacle to activities.
Therefore it is more important to pay attention to adaptability.
Only by this can the reality of high efficiency and heavy social burdens be adapted to.
So the high sales and popularization of professional and practical garments are inevitable.
In China it must work in this way, as it does in all other countries.
The traditional Chinese-style women's Qipao lacks this kind of adaptability, so it must be improved in order to have a better future.
2. To achieve the vogue there must be reform
The present changes in fashion ideas determine the necessity of improving old attire.
It is a normal physiological and psychological response for people to seek new attire.
It is just like someone will be bored of fruit if he eats the same fruit each day, or bored of food if he has the same food everyday.
Attire must not only be nice, but also be in vogue.
Out-of-date garments will bring about a behind-the-times feeling.
It is a normal psychological response that contemporary people demand fashions stamped with the new times.
Since the 1920s and 1930s, many changes have taken place, such as TV sets replacing radios, highrises replacing old courtyard buildings, automobiles replacing rickshaws.
People like to have clothes conveying modern feelings, so why shall the Qipao not be improved?
3. To carry out economic reconstruct there must be reform
In the last 20 years, China's economy has been growing.
People's rising level of material well-being has been embodied in the purchasing level of consumers.
Buying different kinds of clothing to suit different types of activities has become the practice.
One of the examples is that besides high quality new concepts there are also the criteria for selecting evening and wedding attire.
This reflects that income level is a necessary condition for choices to become affordable.
When overseas Chinese come back to China, they see great changes and enthusiastically exclaim: "It's time to rejuvenate Chinese-style garment" "It's time for recovering the Qipao's position."
So reforms of the Qipao must be carried out to serve the modern people.
4. To adapt to the new century there must be reform
In the 21st century, high technology will be the strong driving force in the development of fashion designing, manufacturing and marketing.
To satisfy people's demands future garments shall not only satisfy physiological and safely standards, but also aesthetics and convenience along with individuality.
When we make a detailed investigation of the market, we can find flaws in mass production, while, on the contrary, small batches and multi-type production are more welcomed and have better sales, depicting development trends in the future garment market.
Only by raising the quality of products, and accelerating change, especially towards individuality, can garment production satisfy the rising demands of consumers.
High technology as a driving force should be reflected in the reform garment fabrics, production techniques and on improvement of equipment and facilities.
The Qipao is itself a traditional garment with high-quality requirements in tailoring methods, whether in the past, present and future, so it shall never be a product for mass production, and it is very much suited to the elements of the new century, concentrating on image and modelling through special designing.
As we enter into new areas of material, technology and equipments in the 21st century, only with timely reforms can garment industry be adaptable to new period and continuously be a part of life of the new period, and recognized and welcomed by people in contemporary times.
Through this, garment industry can develop.
5. To embody new values there must be reform
Some analyze that the reasons contemporary women do not like to wear Qipao are as follows:
- The Qipao dress makes too much demand on the wearer's figure and only those who have well-proportioned figures, with slightly slanted shoulders, narrow waist and well-endowed chest and buttocks, will be most suited. It seems that only models performing on the stage are suited to the Qipao and as for common people they have been excluded.
- In recent years, matre d's of star hotels and high-class restaurants have put on the Qipao as their uniform and this phenomenon has distorted people's recognition of the graceful identity of the Qipao and created a distance from the former affectionate feelings for it.
- People used to think that the Qipao was a dress suitable only for middle-aged women with high-status and dignified characters; and that Qipao attire was only complete if accompanied with brilliant and glamorous head accessories. On the whole it has an image of "madame or mademoiselles" and young women, even those who have an interest on the Qipao avoid it, for "being out of keeping with the times".
- The Qipao restricts people's movements, such as when bicycling, rushing into public buses, walking with big steps, etc, so it is difficult for many women to accept Qipao .
How to reform the Qipao:
1. A change in sensibility is necessary for ideological reform
In order to enhance China's clothing and accessories culture and rejuvenate Chinese garments, there must be:
- For a solid sense of identity, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the traditions, culture as well as artistic wealth of one's nation, together with the origins, background and development process of clothing and accessories culture.
- For a sense of the times, it is necessary to study the competitive focus of the contemporary garments industry, to have a profound understanding of contemporary social life, to keep up with information and prevalent trends and to create ideas of reform with advanced epochal on a national basis. In this way, we can control our own destinies, with not blind optimism, but full of confidence, while avoiding possible deviations. This kind of power of common sense feelings is especially important for a strong vision of the Qipao's reforms.
2. A focused understanding is necessary for re-creation through reform
The reform of Qipao has not been a simple change of forms and contours, but has been re-creation on the basis of realizing its cultural significance and the subtle effects of decorative accessories.
The master Chinese traditional painter Qi Baishi evaluated the contents of his own painting as a kind of "between similarity and non-similarity", that is to say, shrimps are swimming in water, but his image, even without depicting the water, has vividly presented shrimps swimming in water.
With a free style of painting, the shrimps have been vividly depicted both in substance and in mood with their long antennae and deft tails.
Therefore it is just like "soundless better than the sounds" or "between similarity and non-similarity".
What Mr. Qi looked for was not only "similarity in form" but also more important "in demeanor".
The reformed Qipao must impress people with its figure, its feeling, its spirit and its beauty.
It should not be traditional, 300-years old, nor 20th-century modern—but contemporary, even 21st century.
3. It is necessary to preserve tradition yet study what's vogue
The so-called preservation of tradition should not be unalterable or just taking what the "ancestors" left, but reforms should be carried out with a foundation of deep understanding and study of tradition.
Since the old Qipao has its own origin, source, development and evolution, its emergence and existence have a clear stamp of the times.
The Qipao' s structure, coloring, selected fabrics, decorative accessories and tailoring process all have their antecedents, sources, and symbolic meanings.
Reform of the Qipao is not an oversimplifying matter, which can be carried out in accordance with one's own inclinations.
The great value of the Qipao is the reason this style of dress has been handed down generation after generation.
What's in vogue or prevalent in time and space, possesses outstanding period characteristics.
Its spontaneous and changeable cycles and speed must be kept up with and handled according to the times.
In order to suit the life of each period, there must be study, research, exploration and follow-up.
The reform of the Qipao must possess the earlier two conditions, otherwise lack of development, or too much avant-garde will result in incompatibility with present needs.
4. To import the Western-style in order to combine with the Chinese-style
Early in the beginning of the 20th century European and American-style garments spread into China through Japan and diplomatic exchanges.
Influential Western-style garments have occupied the Chinese market in the last hundred years, competing with Chinese-style garments.
In recent years the general trends of international garments has influenced and guided Chinese consumers with strong and changeable periodic prevalence, so the development of Chinese-style garments has only one easy and short-cut route, and that is to combine the fashions in order to appeal to the masses.
This is the trend of the times.
In recent years China reformed "Chinese-Western-style" garments have been most popular.
It is a type of dress, which mixes the traditional Qipao with the best qualities of the Western-style garments so as to transform the limited aspects into appropriate new style of garment.
For example, the collar of the Chinese-style garment has been changed into turned-down or collarless style, the slanted large front into front with buttons down the middle, the side slit on the right and the left moved to the front, back or bias, the connected cut sleeves into a ready-made style, the frog closures (buttons and button holes) into fabric-covered buttons, and the wholly handmade process into half-handmade and half-machine-made.
These kinds of clever reforms give the old dress an instant rejuvenation.
Today, there is a popular worldwide trend of retro styles and Eastern culture has become the hot spot of exploration which has aroused the enthusiasm of some Chinese fashion designers to fall deeply in love with domestic national clothing and accessories and start to pay great attention to; understanding the necessity of reforming Chinese-style garments with modern concepts; planting roots in China and establishing national brands; and combining tradition with modernity to preserve the Qipao's vitality.
In their explorative reforms a group of fashion designers with their own understanding of national dress have created some new works with different styles which have taken the urban spotlights.
One type takes modern aesthetic ideas and dress sense as the foundation to introduce the spirit of traditional garments and, through division of structure and reform of clothing and accessories also break through the restrictions of traditional garments and merge modern casual styles with Chinese-style garments.
The other type combines China' s traditional culture and simplified European and American styles to stress individuality and present urban sophistication and subtle classic charm with imported fabrics and drape cutting method to satisfy the needs of major customers.
The third type manipulates unique effects through strong contrast and selects not only fashionable fabrics to complete the national pattern, but also classic fabrics to have them embodied in modern fashions. Some other types preserve traditional style while simultaneously introducing modern ideas for a bohemian character which breaks through the original disposition of Chinese-style garments and changes its traditional "stereotyped face", so as to give retro feeling from avant-garde fashion.
For many years different kinds of experimental reforms have crept in to the different kinds of garments compatible with different seasons and ages, and achieved effective results.
Among them the most outstanding achievements are in evening dresses and wedding dresses. As for other Chinese-style garments most of them are reflected in the Chinese-style jacket and trousers which have been promoted and popularized from urban districts to mountainous areas of the countryside.
The fact has proven that the reforms are compatible with the needs of the new life, and new-style dressing ideas have been accepted by the vast masses and also proved that the reforms have awakened the Chinese people's pride.
"Winds from China" blowing strongly in the West have given a terrific shock to the Chinese people's national enthusiasm.
Through the fashion market young people have accepted the trends set by the fashion designers once again.
In summer wear the miniskirt accompanying a Chinese-style sleeveless and close-fitting jacket or with slanted and unsymmetrical front, or multi-colored small tunic, looks very pretty with infinite youth interest.
For fall and winter wear, the quilted Chinese-style down vest accompanying different types of woolen sweaters and jeans in different colors looks casually smart.
Young people's new fashions and national feelings originating from the yellow earth really mean that reform is the requirement of the times.
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