Cheongsam: Classical Shanghai Style

Originally the cheongsam was a kind of broad-sleeved and baggy robe worn by Manchurian women. This style went on for about 300 years without any change. But it wasn't until the 1920s that the cheongsam began to be popular among people all over the country, due to the influence of Occidental fashion, which changed the cheongsam's style in ways such as reducing the length and tightening the waistline.

The style of the cheongsam in the 1930s, absorbing the peculiarity of western dress into the traditional Chinese dress, became a combination of Chinese and Western dresses, which brought forth new ideas and changed continuously, led by Shanghai.

During the 1930s and 1940s, Chinese modern couture (fashion) reached its peak, with the 1930s in particular being the gorgeous pinnacle. At that time, the cheongsam became the representative and typical attire. Overnight, the cheongsam, formed in the Shanghai style that is modern in touch and Chinese in feel, came into fashion all over the country and even the world.

The lifestyle of Shanghai's swelldom (people of rank and fashion) and gentlefolk (prominent families) followed the fashion and enjoyed luxury, enjoying Western leisures such as swimming, promenades, dance and golf. Influenced by the Occidental fashion, the cheongsam became more slender, slinky, and skintight with a high kick pleat (allowing the wearer to walk easily) so as to match the delicate and lively figure of the Shanghai women in the 1930s.

The cheongsam of that time had two traits: combining Chinese with Western style and varying a lot.

Elegant ladies, including movie starts and noblewomen, had many different ways to wear the cheongsam: a partial Western style with a matching surcoat (an outside coat of rich material). Partial western style meant that the collar and sleeves were tailored according to the western-style fashion's craft such as the lapel, lotus-leaf-like sleeves, flouncing lap and so on.

However, the majority of women preferred to wear the cheongsam with a western-style costume, such as, for example, wearing a cheongsam with a western-style coat, fur coat, or woolen coat and vest outside. Or the women would tie a scarf around the cheongsam or attach fancy decorations to the dress. All of these styles could show the women's brilliant and charming figure.

Neatness was a new trend of the cheongsam in the 1940s, reflected most progressively in summer, when the cheongsam generally was sleeveless, shorter in both length and collar height, and not over-laden with decorations, which made it lighter and more suitable for the body.

At the same time, the slender cheongsam, with a woman's marcel (deep wavy hair), silk stockings, high-heeled shoes, necklaces, earbobs (earrings) and handbags, was the most fashionable attire for women. Later, a kind of improved cheongsam with western tailoring craft developed, which made the cheongsam more fitted and applicable. The cheongsam, then, turned into a Chinese national dress with a unique style.

It can be said that without modern Shanghai's opening to the world or the combination of the Chinese and Occidental cultures, there would be neither the Western-style cheongsam nor the Shanghai-style cheongsam.

An International Fashion Center in Modern Times

In the 1950s and early 1960s, people wore simple dresses, usually blue ot gray, and no make-up. Men wore Zhongshan, Lenin, and student dresses as the main attire, while women mostly wore short Chinese-style coats and skirts with the buttons down the front and narrow sleeves.

In the mid 1960s, the grass-green-color military uniform was very popular among the people, no matter male or female.

Since the reform and opening-up in the 1980s, the national economy has been developing rapidly, enabling people to pay increasingly more attention to their attire and make-up, according to the trend of individualism and fashionableness. Accordingly, Shanghai has again gradually become one of the international fashion centers just like Paris in France and Milan in Italy.