Dressing-up for Qing-Republican Yaji

Christmas is a time for many things, including feasting and dressing up. Both of which are what will also be happening in Yaji (depending on which one you’re attending).

To save you the trouble of research, I’m going share some quick tips on dressing up to the time-period!

Fashion has always been central to human existence, despite historians’ tendency to write them out of formal historical narratives because it has always been deemed as frivolous. To make things worse, China had been dismissed as having not much of a Fashion History by early historians and art critics in the West.

As a result, there is very little information about Chinese fashion history in English (although recently I found 2 tumblr blogs which are SO GOOD: https://www.tumblr.com/ziseviolet and https://www.tumblr.com/audreydoeskaren).

Anyway, unless you have lots of time to read, here’s a quick dress-up tip for you which hopefully would help you get started!

Our Yaji is going to be set in a parallel universe that retains the late Qing dynasty fashion and the decades that followed, because our theme is “What if the Qing Chinese monarchy had successfully transitioned into a constitutional monarchy of today”. 

We will spare you the technicality of it all for now, because that’s what you will find out during our lecture (if you are attending, that is). Essentially, it would be a mix of anything between the 19th century to the early 20th century, and you can definitely add in your own interpretation of the 21st century fashion elements because Fashion, as we know it, is always evolving and adapting to its immediate societal influences.

We will provide you some tips in increasing order of difficulty below:

HAIR

The Bob

Difficulty level: ★

If you have short or shoulder length hair that is really hard to gather into any bun at the back of your head, then you could either cut it really short (like ear-length, least effort option), or perm them (you could pin-curl them too for a temporary look)! It would be a sign of a modern, ‘progressive’ woman who has rebelled against her perceived oppressive traditions. You can be the original ‘woke’ group and you can pair it with any type of modern-looking dressy-wear, eastern or western style. As long as it’s short hair, you are satisfied with the apparent progressiveness of the look. A side hairclip optional.

You technically do not need to do anything to your hair if it is already at this length. The only reason I have a star that is because you might need a visit to your hairdresser, or spend some time to cut it yourself.

The Bun

Difficulty level: ★★☆

If you had really long hair, you could comb them neatly into a bun and secure it at the back of your head or at the side. If you are not so experimental with hair partings, you could just have them in centre parting. You could also add on a bit of a brow-length fringe, or opt for a really high forehead short fringe.

But to look coherent, you would need to be dressed in a slightly more traditional manner with loose cutting and long sleeves, top, skirt, or robe.

The hardest part about this look is the combing. You need to ensure that you separate out the hairlines clearly, comb your hair thoroughly with some hair oil and pull them tightly together into a bun. Hair accessories optional.

The Curls

Difficulty level: ★★★☆

Permed/wavy hair take a bit more time and effort but can be done with some youtube tutorial! You can search Wet Pin Curl, or Pin Curl 30s for ideas. Essentially if you have fine hair that curls easily, you don’t even need the heat to curl it! You just need to have towel-wet hair, split them into small sections, roll them from end to hair root, and clip them out. Go to bed, and wake up with the curls the next morning! 

Of course there are the more challenging styles that require hair sprays and curlers, but that’s for the more advanced dress-up party-goers!

The Artificial Inserts

Difficulty level: ★★★★☆

Just for the fun of it, if you have a lot of hair extensions, cardboard, flowers, wigs and above all, time, you are free to style your hair like the Manchurian imperial women, or the Southern Chinese women:

DRESS

If you have a piece of cheongsam that you are DYING to wear, be our guest! However, do not limit yourself to that stereotype! You can always opt for a fusion style of dressing. The women of the last century were very experimental as they embraced their new-found freedom in sartorial choices. Should you choose to go for the pre-30s look, remember, a flat chest is essential. If you wish to go for the 40s, you can consider a padded shoulder look.

Fusion Dress of any kind/modern Cheongsam

Difficulty level: ★

Any dress that is fusion would go, be it one-piece or two-pieces.

Mandarin collar? Not mandatory—women of the last century went through a short period of anti-mandarin-collar where they just had round collars! And even for hundreds of years before, the collars that Han Chinese women had were also pretty low and nothing like the high mandarin collars that we always associate the Cheongsam with. The Mandarin collar was not even part of the Manchurian robe (which Cheongsam was named after) until late Qing dynasty, so it was a hybrid creation in itself!

We even have a collar that is like a turtle neck, likely an influence from the Victorian high collars:

Flapper Dress

Difficulty level: ★★☆

Yes, if you have a Roaring 20s flapper dress from your other D&D event, bring it on! We have Chinese flappers too! Of course they would not be wearing the exact same ones as their Western sisters, but they would have similar styles so you could get away with less-than-accurate flapper dresses available in the market. Just say you’re their flapper sisters from the West!

And although the snobbish art history world doesn’t really regard Art Deco highly as an art movement but more of a design style, it had an important place in our fashion during that period. You will never look out of place with an art deco accessory or dress motif, in our Yaji.

Two-piece Blouse-Skirt

Difficulty level: ★★★☆

This is not the easiest one because quarter-long sleeves + tucked-out top hasn’t been the most fashionable look of late, and I highly doubt that you could find one that is buttoned on the side unless you are a collector of such tops! But if you have something similar, you could match with a knee-length or calf-length pleated skirt to complete the look :

Cheongsam

Difficulty level: ★★★★☆

Surprise, surprise! I rate this the highest to achieve because Cheongsam, as we know today, is a very different creature from the early 20th century. It would be unlikely that you could find something quite like the style of the past, as modern Cheongsam has gone through quite a lot of evolution since. The material used for Cheongsam as well as the motif and cutting all add up to the entire look and feel of the period. Often, the easiest and most readily available things might just be the hardest to grasp for real. But since we are in a hypothetical world, perhaps anything goes!

MAKE-UP

By now you probably have seen enough images from the period to decide what style you would like to go for. And the make-up is always bright red lips. If you like to look really period, you could be inspired by a Chinese celebrity of that period, Hu Die (butterfly). She painted her lips with really obvious Cupid’s Bow. And their eyebrows of that period was always really thin and long. This has been the trend for Chinese women for a large part of our make-up history (I’m thinking about 1,500 years).

SHOES

If you’re wearing really traditional dresses with long skirts, it really doesn’t quite matter what your shoes are. If you are wearing anything more revealing, then you could go with anything but stilettos. They had much flatter and wider heels back then. You could opt for open toe strappy sandals with heels, or covered shoes. Basically Western fashion of that period works really well, since Chinese women only had the lotus shoes for a good few hundred years, so there’s not much to contest there since the Western shoes would be the only ones that they could fit in with their unbound feet. If you are dedicating your life to being period accurate, then you could have a look at a few of the examples below:

ACCESSORIES

Pearls and large dangling earrings are hot favourites and would instantly add some period to your look. Also flowers, fabric/silk flowers on your hair and on your neck scarf, or even a long neck sash would be really efficient in nailing that look and feel.

If you are our VIP lounge guests, we could even help to style you a little further if you arrive early enough (30 mins before!).

GENTLEMEN

Men in white

Difficulty level: ★

Don’t worry, while male fashion isn’t as exciting as the women’s, it’s still pretty diverse. 

The easiest, and most achievable one would be a white shirt with white pants with leather belt. Just like the Raffles Institution students, or, the PAP. Although, by doing so, you might be judged by fellow Speakeasy Yaji attendees for your casual look. But in a world of make-beliefs, we can make-belief that this is speakeasy-worthy.

The old gentlemanly look

Difficulty level: ★★★

If you want to look a little bit more formal, you could just get that suit from your wardrobe and pair it with a vest and tie (pocket watch is a bonus), or you could have a long robe (outer vest optional). You would be the de-facto attendee of our Speakeasy Yaji, and would not look out of place at all!

The student look

Difficulty level: ★★★☆

Or, you could always wear the Japanese or Korean male uniform. Slightly harder to find, but definitely very attractive and smart-looking! It is likely that you would be the trust-fund son of a well-to-do family who have sent their child to Japan for overseas studies, and came along with your parents to this Speakeasy Yaji. Because, how else are students going to be invited to such an event otherwise?!

The Revolutionist look

Difficulty level: ★★★★★

Your last resort, is the Zhong Shan Suit, or the Mao Suit which is often confusedu with the Japanese/Korean male uniform. You must be wondering about the history behind them all…That’s another story for another time! But I think it would be highly unlikely that someone dressed in this would come to our Speakeasy Yaji.

We’re too bourgeois for them!

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CROSS DRESSERS

Cross dressing is really not that big deal in our culture, then and now.

You could be a Peking Opera performer, or a courtesan who dresses up as the opposite gender for fun, or for performance. Like Meng Xiaodong, a famous female Peking opera performer who performed male roles on stage, and dressed like a man below. Or, like Mei Lanfang, one of the many male Peking opera performers who acted out female roles on stage (but they do not dress like women outside of their performance)—something quite different from the women.

GETTING INTO THE MOOD

Because music is life, and there can be no great party without good music, we have acquired a simple turntable for the event. If you have any vinyl record you would like to bring, we definitely welcome that! Make yourself at home, in this unique time and space.

Otherwise, you can count on us for some interesting music of the different periods!

If you are interested to find out more about Yaji and the related activities, you can read them and get your tickets HERE.

TL;DR, Essentially, it is a site-specific, themed afternoon event that commences with a lecture for an overview and setting the context, before bringing you into an interactive human-library of the past with immersive elements for you to experience some of the past (because I’m a kineasthetic learner, and I’m sure many of you are too!), and finally if you wish to engage further, there are masterclasses of specific themes and topics to delve deeper in.