A Study On The Structure Of Ethnic Costume In South China

As a'living fossil'of civilization, costume is considered as an embodiment of human culture. A study on the original ethnic costume is therefore an important approach to preserve and learn from the ethnic culture. Ethnic minorities in south China are the important constituent groups of Chinese and are renowned for their abundance in clothing shapes, styles and structures. Therefore, it is of both cultural and technical significance to study the structure of their ethnic costume.This thesis is dedicated to ethnic costume in south China. With reference to relevant literature in clothing, original clothes from these ethnic minorities were measured and replicated thereafter. Two-dimensional structure and considerations for three-dimensional shapes delivered by the planar structure, as well as accessories, were analyzed and sorted out . On one side, ethnic costume structure was systematically studied according to clothing shapes and styles. On the other hand, a new perspective that combines both two dimensional structure and three dimensional shapes is developed to study the special shape-forming techniques used by those ethnic minorities. The intrinsic structure relations in the ethnic costume were probed by an emphasized analysis on the specific structures in collar, shoulder, sleeves, fronts and crotch.To summarize, this thesis has carried out a systematic study on the cutting structure of ethnic costume in south China through comparison of similarity and difference between different groups, and it will definitely contribute to a thorough understanding of the characteristics of the original and traditional ethnic costume.