Manchu Woman’s Wedding Robe

The ground fabric of wedding robes worn in Qing China was typically a vibrant red, a color that symbolized happiness, growth, and the prime of life. For the ornament of wedding robes such as this, dragons flying in the cloudy heavens above an iconiclandscape of mountains and oceans present a diagram of the Chinese social and cosmological order associated with imperial costume. The dragons are couched with gold wrapped threads, while the auspicious motifs scattered through the clouds are embroidered with silk floss in straight satin as well as long and short stitches.