love how this explains why East Asian traditional clothes (& also Southeast Asian & South Asian) have boxy silhouettes or just wrap fabric around our body. We display status/wealth through the quality of our textiles, so making tailored clothing will waste a lot expensive fabric

like in the Malay archipelago, highly ornate woven fabric like songket or ornate hand painted batik are usually just used as wraps or shawls. Back then, if clothes are made of songket or batik they are always very simple in design

I would think the East Asian design would be a lot more forgiving of weight changes, too. So a really fine piece could be worn through a longer period of one's life, or shared with others who might not be the same size.

What is the original account's name? I couldn't make it out from the ending graphic. Thanks!

by that logic, making clothes in a way that doesn't use up every inch of fabric is also a way of displaying wealth. you have beautiful, expensive fabric that took hundreds of hours to make, but you can afford to waste some of it and not have everything go into the final garment

i love when i learn some genuinely new information on this app sometimes

This is super interesting. When did knit garments arrive in East Asia? Because I wonder if the negative ease possible with knits vs weaves is a factor. I think handknit garments were widespread in Europe by the 1400s. I imagine it's also a matter of the source of the fiber. Wool and other mammal fiber has way more stretch than plant fiber or silk does.

You're correct! knit fabric wasn't present in East & South Asia as we don't have sheep or easy access to wool. Our main source of fabric came from cotton, ramie & silk. The earliest knitted items in Europe were made by North African Muslim knitters employed by Spanish royals

I feel a clever piece of clothing is the sarong/ pelikat/pulicat. One piece of material, one seam, basically one size. But it could accommodate a wearer of any size and gender. And airy, suitable for d south Asian climate. There's wisdom there.

Thank you for sharing this. I just learned yesterday about kimonos have no shoulder seams. I'm now trying to figure out how to use that for my non-kimono coat project.

u're welcome. u can also check out Billy Matsunaga's youtube videos. She showed how to make both kimono (the easy way & traditional way) & haori

Thank you!

明清时期服装，设计和审美严重退化，衣服上的绣的花纹可能更复杂了，但是整体美观不足， 就是裹着一个花花绿绿的大床单。

I believe the Chinese version also gives more freedom of movement.

This is so interesting

I don't like the seam, personally, and the way the sides lift with the arms makes me think there should be more material under the arm.

Wouldn't "wasting" expensive fabric be a display of wealth / status in itself?

@dieworkwear have you made comparative tailoring traits across cultures already?

Does the bulking under armpits feel uncomfortable I wonder?

Wow I just never looked at this way I’m ashamed by my attitude toward non western standards of garment construction just recently I was moaning about the beautiful kente fabric I was working with instead of appreciating it’s beauty I complained about it fraying when cutting 😔

No worries haha. Climate is also a factor. European climate is very cold & not as humid compared to Asia & Africa. So creating clothes close to the body to stay warm lead to their appreciation for tailoring as a craft vs Asian/African appreciation of textiles/weaving as craft.

Very insightful

Ohh that’s so insightful

This is so interesting.

Very interesting

Ever since I was a little girl in China, I always thought the clothes we wore were super ugly, and the western women's fashion in the 50, 60 or before that time movies were stylish and elegant. The costumes in the Chinese opera were fancy but not for the everyday wear.

A saree takes it to its logical extent!

Interesting!

this is completely untrue for south asian fashion.

So I'm a bit of a Western fashion history nerd and we also had the same principles (the more fabric the better, try to maintain entire panels so that the expensive ornate fabric can be potentially reworked into something else)