Part of a Painting Titled "Lady with a Flower in her Hair"

The Tang aesthetic was that of suppleness and opulence. In Tang paintings, women tried to show their suppleness by pleating their skirts in an accordion form, and raised the waist all the way up to under the armpits, so that the waistline was barrel shaped to show a full and rounded body contour.

Zhang Xuan and Zhou Fang, famous painters of the time, were particularly good at portraying opulent women in elaborate dresses. Zhou , in his painting Lady with a Flower in her Hair, portrayed a beauty with a gown lightly covering the breasts, revealing soft and supple shoulders under a silk cape.

Though the forms of woman’s garments were a continuation from the Han Dynasty (206BC-AD220) and the Sui Dynasty (AD581-618), they were also influenced by cultures and arts of the Western Regions.

In the Tang Dynasty, the trades and cultural exchanges with Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Persia and other countries gradually became frequent, and they mutually dispatched emissaries and accepted students of other countries.

The Tang government was tolerant, and often appreciative of religions, art and culture from the outside world. Chang'an, the Tang capital, therefore became the center of exchange among different cultures. In this way, an open and romantic style of dress and personal adornments was formed.

"Painting of Lady of Guoguo on a Spring Outing"

What is worth special mention is that women in Tang were allowed to wear dresses absorbing elements from other cultures. It was a fashion for them to wear hufu (garments of the Tartars or those who lived in the Western Regions). After the High Tang, the influences of hufu were gradually weakened and women's garments became broad and loose day by day. As to ordinary women's garments, the width of sleeve was always more than 1.3 meters.

Because of communication with the Western Regions, the influence of dressing culture of other minorities on the Tang court also reflected the change of thoughts and concepts.