Ancient costumes, jewelry and makeup are inextricably linked. If the original clothing is just a tool to keep out the cold, then clothes with ornaments and headdresses are the aesthetic embodiment of clothing civilization.
Women's wear in Shang and Zhou dynasties has begun to pay attention to color patterns and patterns. At that time, people often wore dresses made of black silk, which were decorated with colorful kingfisher-shaped old patterns made of thick silk. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, embroidery reached a very high level and became an important part of clothing. According to records, in Qi Xianggong, the harem is already "a hundred concubines and embroidered clothes". At that time, women in various vassal States embroidered patterns on clothes, which enhanced the aesthetic feeling of materials.
In the Han Dynasty, the application scope of embroidery in clothing was further expanded. Ban Gu's poem "Embroidery is a hundred collars" also reflects the popularity of embroidery in decoration. Wang Chong said in the Year of Mandarin that Linzi, the capital of Qi State, has a tradition of embroidery, and all women can embroider. No matter how poor a woman is, she can embroider a little color on her clothes.
In the Tang Dynasty, embroidery was still the first choice for clothing decoration. At that time, in addition to the traditional silk embroidery, people began to use pearl embroidery and gold and silver thread embroidery, which made the clothing materials have a sparkling effect and its style was more gorgeous. Among the poems of the Tang Dynasty, there are many embroidered poems, such as Luo Yin's poem "Flowers add spring colors with jade fingers, and birds grow feathers with gold needles"; There is a saying in Zhang Xiaobiao that "Bao Ji skillfully combs gold and jade, and pork skirts should be embroidered with mandarin ducks". These are vivid descriptions of women's embroidery.
In the Song Dynasty, bead embroidery reached a high level. Some clothes can be decorated with hundreds of small pearls, and even buttons are made of precious stones.
After talking about dress, hairstyle is also a very important decoration for ancient women. Hairstyle here refers to the shape of a bun, because in ancient times, women rarely kept short hair, but if they kept long hair, they should comb it into a bun, not unkempt, especially for dignified and stable families. At that time, women took long hair as beauty and combed it into various bun. Poets in the Tang Dynasty often describe women's hairstyles in their poems, such as "E-E Qin bun" and "double high comb bun", all of which praise the style of high bun.
Women in Song Dynasty preferred high bun, some of which were surprisingly high. For example, during the period of Song Lizong in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a kind of high bun called Bubu, also known as Sky Bun, which was very popular. At that time, many people liked steamed buns, which were big and flat. Because it doesn't interfere with sleep, there are many steamed buns. In the Song Dynasty, most unmarried girls wore a double bun. Double bun refers to two hollow, ring-shaped bun combed on the head or beside the forehead, which looks lively and lovely. However, not everyone has rich long hair, which is often not enough. At this time, fake buns came into being.
The makeup of ancient women is an inseparable foil to clothes, and with the development of the times, the form of makeup is constantly changing. In ancient times, the most common makeup was to adjust fat, set powder, thrush, point lips and so on.
From the famous folk song "Lun Heng" in the Han Dynasty, "Losing my Qilian Mountain makes my six animals not sweet; When I lost my mountain, I lost my woman's color. " The custom of painting rouge may have originated from Huns. Hun Khan's wife is called "E Shi", and "E Shi" means Yan Zhi.
During the Three Kingdoms period, rouge became popular among Han women. The ancient book Xiongnu Song records a story that a maid first entered Wei Palace. One night, Cao Pi was reading a book under the lamp. There is a crystal screen seven feet high in the room. The maid waited outside the screen. Unconsciously, the maid fell asleep and her face was scratched by the screen. At that time, Xiao Xia and other wounded soldiers dispersed. Unexpectedly, this maid is even more touching. From then on, women in the palace imitated painting with rouge and named it "Xiao Xia Makeup".
After the Three Kingdoms, rouge became popular in court and aristocratic families, and became a popular cosmetic for women. Many poems in the Tang Dynasty mentioned rouge, and some ladies often painted rouge on their faces and lips. After Song and Yuan Dynasties, rouge became the most popular red cosmetic for women. Rouge has been mentioned no less than ten times in this book.
According to the ancient book Cai Lan Magazine, there are varieties of rouge, such as pomegranate coke, big red roll, little red roll, tiger balm, and Danxinhong. It is precisely because of these various varieties of rouge that ancient women dressed more beautifully.