woman's vest

woman's vest , 1800s, Qing dynasty (1644–1911)

Where object was made: China

Material/technique: silk; seed stitch; metal; possibly French knot; chain stitch; gold thread; embroidering; couching; possibly Peking knot; satin stitch; silver thread

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 89.5 x 63.5 cm
Object Length/Width (Length x Width): 25 x 35 1/4 in

Credit line: William Bridges Thayer Memorial

Accession number: 0000.1033

Not on display

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Label texts

Civic Leader and Art Collector: Sallie Casey Thayer and an Art Museum for KU

This long embroidered vest (xiabei) was the outermost garment of a Han Chinese woman’s formal costume. With the addition of a headdress and long beads, it formed the assemblage that appears most often in Qing dynasty portraits of women. It was worn over a long skirt and wide-sleeved robe that also fell to mid-calf. A cloud collar typically embellished the neck and shoulder areas of the vest, and a phoenix coronet of delicate metal filigree and beads completed the ensemble.
This vest uses the same iconography—dragons and other auspicious symbols in a cosmic landscape—as other formal costumes. The badge at the woman’s chest indicates the rank of her husband. In this case it appears to be a crane, symbolizing a first-rank official, although it could represent a sixth-rank egret manipulated to look like a crane. It was common practice to depict a lower-ranking bird in an ambiguous manner to suggest one indicating a higher rank. An edict of 1697 warns officials not to wear rank badges with obscure patterns.
The bird looks to the viewer’s right. It would face the left-facing bird on the man’s badge when husband and wife sat side by side in a formal setting.

Exhibition Label:
“Flowers, Dragons and Pine Trees: Asian Textiles in the Spencer Museum of Art,” Nov-2005, Mary Dusenbury
This long embroidered vest was worn as the outermost garment of a woman’s formal costume. With the addition of a headdress and long beads, it formed the assemblage that appears most often in Qing dynasty portraits of women. This is a Han-style woman’s vest called a xiabei. It was worn over a long skirt and wide-sleeved robe. The Manchu-style vest, the chaogua, was longer and had straight hems with no embellishment. It generally was worn over a long pao (dragon robe).

Exhibition Label:
"Pop Goes Godzilla," Sep-2004, Kyungwon Choe
This long embroidered vest was designed to be the outermost garment of a woman’s formal costume. With the addition of a headdress and long beads, it was the assemblage that appears most often in Qing dynasty portraits of women. The animal depicted on the square badge on the front of the garment indicates the wearer’s official civil rank.

Arranged symmetrically on the bottom half of the robe are two five-clawed dragons embroidered with gold thread, twisting and writhing as they try to grasp the flaming pearl suspended in the air between them. They are depicted in a cosmic landscape of stylized clouds, roiling waves and abstracted mountain forms. Their scaly bodies are embroidered in such a way that their skin takes on a lustrous appearance, while their gaping mouths and sharp claws convey a sense of fear.

Dragons have long been considered auspicious symbols in East Asia. Commonly associated with rain and good fortune, they are often depicted with cloud and water imagery. Considering the prevalence of such imagery and the dragon’s importance in East Asian symbolism, these animals may have influenced the form of the monsters in popular films such as Godzilla.