Textiles & Costume
Sleeveless garment
Costume
Details
- Author / creator
- China, Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
- Object type
- Costume
- Date or period
- 1800s
- Dimensions summary
- Overall: 56.5 × 56.5 cm
- Place of origin
- China
- Acquisition method
- Purchase
- Credit line
- Purchased with the Hartley Bequest Fund, 1915
- Fibres
- Cotton
- Plant fibre
- Beads
- Structure
- Plain weave
- Image rights
- Public domain (CC0)
About this object
This loose-fitting bamboo vest is a summer undershirt, made of an estimated 3,490 fine bamboo tubes. The overall structure of the vest is held together with cotton thread. Such vests were worn under an outer garment to allow the air to circulate and protect the outer garment from soilage, especially in the hot and humid climate of southern China. Textual evidence indicates that officials during the 1500s in Jiangnan wore bamboo vests from Jiangsu province, one of the production centers.
Materials and technique
Bamboo beads strung together in diamond and hexagon patterns; edges in plain weave cotton
