Blog Post #10

Tuesday, April 1 in Wuhan

I have been watching the way women dress here and have formed some ideas that I’ll share. I’ll describe the general way women dress first, and then share my observations. It has been fun thinking about this.

Almost without exception, women young, middle aged and older wear leotards or tights with tops and high heels.  The leotards are usually black, though they may have patterns or lace or stripes. But there is a huge variety of color and pattern, much more than in the US. One cute pair worn by a teenager was pink with cats’ faces at the knees.

When you look at the shirts or tops they are wearing, you can also see wide variety. Many of them are styles like a dress, but go only about 10 inches below the waist. Often tailored, they zip up the back, and have pleats or gathers around the bottom. Sometimes they are like a suit coat. Lace and sequins are also very popular, and in ways we don’t see in the States. Lace insets in wool or cotton or knit, either for the sleeves or around the neck or sides.  I wish I could just walk up to people and take their photos to illustrate, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that. I often see longer tunics, shorter than dresses with these leotards, again in tailored styles like a dress. Either top and tights and shoes are black, or the top is a bright color. Yellow, hot pink and royal blue are very popular.  Among the young, hair is often colored a bright garnet or fuchsia. Ponytails abound. Seldom do you see a Mao jacket, or a quilted garment like we saw photos of 20-40 years ago.

People are much more style conscious now. But it is not a western style. I think Chinese women have found their own.  I saw a mannequin in a shop window today that illustrated this. She was dressed in bright pink leotards with a flowered blouse of blue and green with splotches of coral. We westerners would not put these colors together, and in my eye, they didn’t look right. But it was a stylish shop and to the eye here, it must be lovely.

Someone told me that Chinese women usually want to be taller, and that is why they wear heels. Whether boots or shoes, the heels are 4 inches or more, and are usually very narrow, even stiletto. And often they are set on platform shoes, to get even higher. Shoes also are very fancy, with zippers or buttons or bows. The fad now seems to be two pastel colors; I have seen a lot of robins’ egg blue and yellow combined in a shoe, one color on the bottom and a bow, the other for the rest of the shoe.  Pink and mint green is another common combination.

Often at home I react against leotards or tight pants, but I have to say that here, by and large, they look great. These lean bodies make all the difference.

So my general ideas are that, 1. Women dress very young and vibrant here, and 2. Women dress in a very feminine way. There is nothing androgynous about the dress here, for sure. Nor is there anything of the western fashion models’ surliness. It doesn’t seem to matter if someone is 18 or 28 or 58, they wear leotards, a short sassy top and high heels, often with their ponytail flopping behind them. Even many of the grandmas tending their toddler grandchildren are dressed like this.

They often hold hands or arms and walk down the street talking away and laughing. They seem very much at ease. Frequently we hear someone singing or humming a melody, or yelling out a greeting to a shopkeeper or friend.

Last year in Shanghai we noted how stylish women were. I thought it was the influence of the west in Shanghai, and perhaps it was. Here an interior city, but large, with fewer foreign influences, I think they have found their own style, and it fits them well.

Mind you, I don’t think I’ll change my style to match!