Imperial Festival Costume Patterns Of Ming Dynasty And Its Application In Children’s Wear

Festival culture has a long history since ancient China that a completed festival system was formed Han Dynasty and even lasts till now. The diversity of festivals is affected in everywhere in basic necessities of life, which is apparently shown in the changing of costume according to the alternation of seasons. As a cultural symbol of the festival, the imperial festival costume patterns of Ming dynasty represent a colorful festival life during that era,which is thought to be a heritage and creation of festival culture. Patterns with different themes are widely used in clothing and accessories as festivals changing.Imperial festival costume patterns of Ming Dynasty are created based on the activities,mythical stories and substance symbolizations of festivals, which are used in clothing and accessories according to the alternation of festivals. They have particular features in subject,structure, color and handcraft and contain profound cultural essence. Meanwhile, they reflect the features of the Ming Dynasty, which are affected by factors of politics, economy, culture,science, system, etc.The author Liu Ruoyu who was born in Ming Dynasty mentioned the system, folk and costume of festivals specifically in his book Zhuo Zhongzhi, which also introduced the details of imperial festival costume patterns. In addition, unearthed relics and portraits of the Ming Dynasty also support Liu’s statement. This dissertation combines historical references i.e. Zhuo Zhongzhi and The history of the Ming palace and unearthed relics and analyses the structure, category, artic features, cultural meaning and influential factors of imperial festival costume patterns from the image aspect. It provides a theoretic support to the application of these patterns in children’s wear.Firstly, this dissertation refers to relative knowledge from history, folk and art and concludes the origin and cultural meaning of imperial festival costume patterns. After giving a primary concept of imperial festival costume patterns, it combs the style, utilization and classifies of these patterns, which set a basic theory for design.Secondly, the study focuses on the social circumstance of imperial festival costume patterns by referring to the relative references from politic, economy, culture, science and novel in that era and analyzing the cultural meaning and influential factors of the patterns.Finally, the research synthesizes combines the theoretic analysis of imperial festival costume patterns and market investigation of children’s wear, proposing the thinking that applies imperial festival costume patterns to children’s wear design, which according to Chinese traditional children’s wear style and fashion trend. Design aims to promote Chinese festival culture and create the functional, emotional and aesthetic children’s wear.