Clothing is a necessity of human life, a cultural feature of human beings, and also the most obvious external symbol of a nation, which is the external expression of a nation's material civilization and spirit. The types, styles and colors of clothing are intrinsically related to the historical and cultural system, social natural environment, economic life style, national psychology, aesthetic taste and many other aspects, and are the comprehensive products of various cultural factors. As Mr. Guo Moruo wrote in the inscription of 1956 Beijing Fashion Exhibition: "Clothing is the expression of culture, the expression of thought, the embodiment of scientific and technological level and the reflection of the nation. The times are the embodiment of the cultural quality of a country's people. " Therefore, it should be said that clothing is not a simple problem of protecting the body, but a reflection of the social consciousness and cultural mentality of a society, a nation and a region. Clothing is saturated with a nation's wisdom and sweat, recording the tireless spirit of exploration and the ability to cast life.
According to textual research, the Huayao Dai in Xinping can be divided into three branches: Dai Ya, Daijia and Daisa, but their clothing characteristics are basically the same, but they are different. This paper takes the most popular elegant clothing of the Dai people as the research object, and discusses it from three aspects: color, shape and state.
First, color.
On the whole, black is the keynote of Huayao Dai costumes. Generally, it is made of black from head to toe, and it is a self-woven homespun. Dyed black after processing (some people are cyan). From the perspective of texture and color, it is simple, gentle and introverted, giving people a kind feeling. The beauty of clothing with this texture and color lies in its deep and dignified, implicit implication; Make people feel the quiet, lofty, mysterious and hazy beauty of oriental style; People have endless associations. This kind of black has a sense of space and depth, giving people a feeling of natural color that can absorb and contain everything. Of course, only black is too dignified, too rigid and too lifeless. So on the whole, although we make full use of black on the one hand, we are also trying our best to break the situation that black dominates the world on the other. As a result, all kinds of bright and eye-catching decorative colors have sprung up like mushrooms after rain, dotted in the corners of black clothes, skirts and headdresses, among which red is eye-catching.
The whole dress is decorated in red from top to bottom and from front to back. There are three most striking places, one is on the head handkerchief, and a bright red tassel is hung on the first two sides; The other is that two cuffs are inlaid with red satin about three inches each, which is connected with black long sleeves; Another place is that the lower part of the skirt is inlaid with red satin slightly wider than the cuffs, which is connected with the black skirt. The embedding of these three red blocks has greatly changed the whole situation and added a lot of elegance and changes to the original simple and heavy tone.
It should be said that the collocation of red and black is not unique to Huayao Dai, but a long-standing inheritance. The choice and utilization of black and red tones is not only objectively because it was easy to make at that time, but also because of human experience in color selection, which also reflects the ancient people's concern for red. Black and white male chauvinism. Although the means and methods of making colors have made great progress in the future, many traditional national costumes are still dominated by black and red, which undoubtedly shows their strong social color selection concept. In Huayao Dai costumes, headdresses, coats (including underwear and coats), skirts, headdresses and other objects all have black as the background color, but they are more or less decorated with red. The color world displayed by these two colors is irreplaceable by other colors.
The colors decorated side by side with red include yellow in addition to red. Purple, blue, green, etc. These decorative colors are generally not used in a large area, but are connected by strips of lace, or embedded in cuffs and clothes, or embedded in skirts and aprons, so that the dignified and simple world, which was originally dominated by black, suddenly becomes a colorful world. Decorative colors such as red, purple, yellow, green and blue can make people feel and think of the sky, sun, rosy clouds, land, plants and even blood in nature. Combine man with nature, add elegance in simplicity and exquisiteness in massiness; Deep and light, see the flow in silence; Implicit reveals chic; Add nature to mystery. It is also because of the number of colored bars. Decorate the waist of Dai women in Xinping with colorful rings, which is why they have the beautiful name "Huayao Dai".
In Huayao Dai's clothing, there is another unusual eye-catching thing, that is, silver bubbles all over. Both children's wear and old man put like to decorate with silver bubbles and silver spikes. The front chest and neckline of underwear, the left and right sides of the coat, the neck and the back decoration hanging around the hips are all dotted with silver bubbles. Thousands of rows of silver bubbles and spikes on clothes, coupled with a set of silver jewelry, shine in the sun and make a crisp and pleasant sound when walking. Silver bubbles soaked its bright hue, making the clothing grow endless elegance and luxury. The gorgeous silver is unified with the original clothing, which makes the clothing color of Huayao Dai have a unique charm. Coupled with the time-consuming and laborious production and wearing of clothing, it is no wonder that some people speculate that Huayao Dai clothing is not the clothing of ordinary people and others, but the clothing of ancient court nobles.
Second, the shape ②
The dress of Huayao Dai is generally composed of three parts: the main body of the dress includes coat, trousers and skirt. Jewelry includes headdress, back decoration, waist decoration and hand decoration; Body decoration includes tattoos and teeth decoration.
Like most ethnic groups, the characteristics of Huayao Dai costumes are mainly reflected in women's costumes. Traditionally, men's clothing is relatively simple, the top is a double-breasted shirt with a black round neck, the pants are black discount pants, the hat is a black hat, and some people use black buns. Nowadays, except for some elderly people who still wear black double-breasted shirts, young and middle-aged men have generally changed into modern clothes.
In women's wear, the coat is short, usually two pieces, one is underwear and the other is no coat. The underwear has a small round collar, and the left hand is sleeveless, only to the abdomen. The collar edge and hem edge are decorated with a row of sparkling silver bubbles with different widths, and silver nails are also decorated in the middle of the silver bubbles. The coat has no collar and buttons, shorter than underwear, and only covers the chest. The lapels and hem are inlaid with colored stripes or embroidery, and some lapels are also inlaid with exquisite silver bubbles and nails. Sleeves are slender and wrist-length, and the lower half of the sleeves are inlaid with red, yellow, green and white cloth or embroidered with colored silk thread. Because the coat is short and often shows the waist, a wide ribbon is used to tie the skirt and waist. The name "Huayao Dai" came from this.
From small to large, women only wear skirts. There are usually about three skirts, at most one to five. The skirt is a tube skirt, which is used to cover it from top to bottom. The skirt is embroidered with colorful lace, and several skirts overlap, one of which is slightly higher than the other, just revealing the lace of each skirt. The skirt is lifted from left to top, making the skirt form a slope and making the colorful lace look like a rolling river. Legend is a symbol of thousands of streams and rivers in Dai township. There are several green aprons wrapped above the skirt, one higher than the other, just revealing the three-dimensional edge embroidered with garlands of various colors, which is very delicate and pretty.
Leggings are a costume custom used by many ethnic groups in southwest China. Because most ethnic groups in southwest China live by the mountain, there are trees and thorns everywhere, women who work in the mountain, especially those who wear short skirts, are easily scratched on their legs, bitten by insects and snakes, and wrapped in leggings for protection, which has the function of preventing cold and keeping warm in winter. This is the case with Huayao Dai women.
Huayao Dai's hat is very unique. It is not conical or straw hat-shaped, unlike hats of other regions or ethnic groups, but the edge is upturned and disc-shaped. When wearing it, it is not straight, but inclined to the front.
Jewelry, especially headdress, is the most important, rich and distinctive part of many ethnic groups in China. The headdress of Huayao Dai women is to put the hair bundle on the top of the head, wrap the hair layer by layer with a green cloth about two inches wide, then hang it from the top of the head to the ears on both sides with a green cloth with embroidery at both ends, then wrap it from the forehead to the back of the head with a red striped cloth about half a foot wide and one foot long, and then tie it tightly with a green cloth with embroidery at both ends, and then put it on the forehead and head. This headdress stands tall, just like a literati hat in the ancient Central Plains. It takes a lot of work to make such a headdress. It is said that it takes more than two hours for a woman with skillful hands to make such a headdress.
Earrings are also an important part of Huayao Dai headdress. Girls have to get their ears pierced on the third day of birth. I have been wearing silver earrings since I was fourteen or fifteen. This means that girls have reached the age of falling in love and getting married. The earrings you wear when you get married are relatively large, generally as thick as chopsticks.
When visiting relatives and friends or gathering in the street, Huayao Dai women always wear a triangle cloth on their hips. The whole cloth was covered with silver bubbles and various velvet flowers, and the lower end was covered with red tassels. This cloth sets off the Huayao Dai girl more beautifully. Women are also willing to hang a delicate "seedling basket" in their usual productive labor and going out. The seedling basket is made of thin bamboo, about 20 cm high, with a slightly round mouth, about 12, 3 cm, slightly thinner in the middle and slightly wider at the lower end. The seedling basket is not only a device for them to carry things with them, but also a very beautiful waist ornament.
The upper sleeve is only as long as the wrist, leaving a lot of room for wearing jewelry on the hand. Women usually wear silver bracelets and rings on their hands.
Although there are no separate ornaments on the neck and chest, the silver bubbles and nails embedded in the underwear stand collar and chest also play a sufficient decorative role. Some old people's clothes are inlaid with a little silver bubbles, but most of them are decorated with embroidery to show their ingenuity. Some old people prefer to hang a small silver box on their chests, for decoration, and for putting some lime for them to chew.
Tattooing teeth is a special human body decoration in the costume culture of ethnic minorities in China. This ancient custom is still circulating among the Dai people in Xinping. But among Dai Ya, Dai family and Dai Sa, only Dai Sa has tattoo custom. The location and pattern of tattoos are different from those of Dai people in other areas. Dai people in Dehong and Xishuangbanna usually get tattoos on their chest, abdomen, back and four branches. The patterns are mainly dragons, snakes, tigers and leopards, which are mainly popular among some Dai men. Because tattoos have to endure great pain, people in these areas often take tattoos as the standard to measure whether men are brave or not. If you dare not tattoo, you will be regarded as a coward, looked down upon by everyone, and girls will not love him. People also say that after death, only wild ghosts can be seen, not ancestors. Xinping Huayao Dai is different, generally female tattoos. Locals think that women are timid and ghosts are afraid to get close to them after tattooing. They also say that tattoos can exorcise ghosts. The tattooed parts here are on fingers and wrists, and no tattoos are found in other parts. The early patterns were irregular, with △, ○, = and "meter" as the main patterns. Nowadays, young people use more Chinese characters or pinyin, and the content is mainly emotional language, such as "love", "miss you" and "forbearance", and some people use English "I love you" and so on.
Tooth decoration, like tattoos, is also one of the ancient customs. The decorative teeth of Huayao Dai are mainly dyed. Many women have stained their teeth. When the girl was thirteen or fourteen, after her teeth were changed, she dyed her teeth black with a special dye. They think that the darker the teeth, the more beautiful they are, and the darker they are, the more pleasing they are. Some people chew betel nut and lime in their mouths. After a long time, their teeth will gradually turn black and will not fade for a long time.
Third, the country.
The dress beauty of Huayao Dai. This kind of beauty comes not only from the color and shape of clothing, but also from the "state" formed by the combination of color and shape. This "state" is not directly felt by the senses, but the individual characteristics, infinite artistic appeal and aesthetic vitality of clothes that people can appreciate through their hearts.
Although the style, collocation and wearing method of clothing can be flexible, there are certain "rules" to follow. Just like the relationship between vocabulary and syntax in a language, there are different ways to choose words and make sentences, but they all follow fixed grammatical rules. Although they are flexible and free, they are bound by the agreement and must be combined into sentences according to certain rules. The same is true of clothes. Of course, if the structure and collocation of clothing are completely regulated, as strict as following mathematical formulas, then clothing will lose its characteristics and appear rigid and lifeless. Therefore, many clothes deviate from and surpass the so-called cliche, which not only comes from the limit of reality, but also transcends reality. Huayao Dai costume is such a costume art that gives people a visual intuition and creates a deformed image to reflect life, and its form also comes from this.
Its deviation and transcendence are realized through two aspects: one is the deviation of its own "shape" structure; The second is the transcendence of wearing methods. Now let's take a look at its top-down deviation and transcendence, and the resulting characteristic "Tai".
Let's talk about hats first. According to the Modern Chinese Dictionary, "hats" are "things worn on the head to keep warm, rain-proof, shade and so on. Still for decoration. " Huayao Dai women always wear a distinctive hat when they go out, whether they are going to the market or working. Because of its special shape, it has no hat body and brim, and is disc-shaped and upturned, so it cannot be "worn". Specifically, it is not a "top", but seems to be an oblique "frame" on the head. Although Huayao Dai's hat also plays its practical role-shading, it is more decorative because the place where they live is hot. Although it is a small hat, due to the change of shape and wearing method, the function of the hat has changed qualitatively, which magically produces endless amorous feelings. Coupled with the unique small seedling basket slung across the waist, it echoes up and down skillfully, seamlessly and without affectation, and also achieves a natural artistic effect. Both of them are elegant with the fragrance and mellow beauty brought by labor. The indescribable shape of beauty.
Huayao Dai's coat is divided into two parts, namely underwear and coat. Generally speaking, underwear is shorter than coat, and decorations should be on coat, but Huayao Dai completely broke through this convention. Underwear sleeveless round neck, left neck, from chest to the edge of clothes are covered with silver bubbles, covered with silver ears. The coat is buttonless, shorter than the underwear, and only covers the chest. The decoration on the underwear is clear at a glance. Only the hem and hem of the coat are inlaid with silver bubbles and nails, and some are simply decorated with embroidery patterns. Shiny and exquisite ornaments reflect each other with quiet black and dazzling red, yellow and orange. The whole coat seems to be an artistic spirit, gorgeous but not vulgar, colorful. Needless to say, it tells the story of the gentleness and elegance of Huayao Dai women and the prosperity of the ancient nation.
Although Huayao Dai's coat is divided inside and outside, it can be worn with the skirt. Sleeveless, stand-up collar, left-hand top with skirt will show the enchanting of women. Coupled with the coat, the sexy inside the secret show can be fully reflected. Therefore, people think that sexy is not topless, and the curvy beauty of women's body is attached to special charm and endoplasm to show its "state", and it is the most glorious to have real beauty.
The combination of forms includes a series of old rules, such as neatness, symmetry, balance, hierarchy, order and unity. It is not well reflected in the costumes of Huayao Dai. The characteristics of Huayao Dai coat, in addition to the above-mentioned characteristics of internal and external contrast, also have a major feature, that is, left and right asymmetry, which is also rare in clothing. In terms of modeling, the left side of the coat is short and the right side is long, forming a feeling of height difference. In terms of pattern decoration, the left side is inlaid with colored right side. A skirt is a tube skirt, which is traditionally covered from top to bottom. The skirt is embroidered with colorful lace, and several skirts overlap, one of which is slightly higher than the other, just revealing the lace of each skirt. The skirt is lifted from left to top, making the skirt form a slope and making the colorful lace look like a rolling river. Legend is a symbol of thousands of streams and rivers in Dai township. There are several green aprons wrapped above the skirt, one higher than the other, just showing the edge embroidered with garlands of various colors, which is very delicate and pretty.
Leggings are a costume custom used by many ethnic groups in southwest China. Because most ethnic groups in southwest China live by the mountain, there are trees and thorns everywhere, women who work in K Mountain, especially those who wear short skirts, are easily scratched on their legs and bitten by insects and snakes, and wrapped in leggings to protect them from cold and warmth in winter. This is the case with Huayao Dai women.
Huayao Dai's hat is very unique. It is not conical or straw hat-shaped, unlike hats of other regions or ethnic groups, but the edge is upturned and disc-shaped. When wearing it, it is not straight, but inclined to the front.
Jewelry, especially headdress, is the most important, rich and distinctive part of many ethnic groups in China. The method of making the headdress of Huayao Dai women is to put the hair on the top of the head, wrap it layer by layer with a green cloth handkerchief about two inches wide, add a red tassel with green strips embroidered at both ends, hang it from the top of the head to the ears on both sides, and use a red striped cloth about half a foot wide and one foot long from the forehead to the back of the head. After being fastened with two embroidered green strips, it will be tied on the forehead and the back of the head. This headdress stands tall, just like a literati hat in the ancient Central Plains. It takes a lot of work to make such a headdress. It is said that even handy women wear such headdresses.
Earrings are also an important part of Huayao Dai headdress. Girls have to get their ears pierced on the third day of birth. I have been wearing silver earrings since I was fourteen or fifteen. This means that girls have reached the age of falling in love and getting married. The earrings you wear when you get married are relatively large, generally as thick as chopsticks.
When visiting relatives and friends or gathering in the street, Huayao Dai women always wear a triangle cloth on their hips. The whole cloth was covered with silver bubbles and various velvet flowers, and the lower end was covered with red tassels. This cloth sets off the Huayao Dai girl more beautifully. Women are also willing to hang a delicate "seedling basket" in their usual productive labor and going out. The seedling basket is made of thin bamboo, about 20 cm high, with a slightly round mouth, about 12, 3 cm, slightly thinner in the middle and slightly wider at the lower end. The seedling basket is not only a device for them to carry things with them, but also a very beautiful waist ornament.
The upper sleeve is only as long as the wrist, leaving a lot of room for wearing jewelry on the hand. Women usually wear silver bracelets and rings on their hands.
Although there are no separate ornaments for the neck and chest, the silver bubbles and nails embedded in the underwear stand collar and chest also play a sufficient decorative role. Some old people's clothes are inlaid with a little silver bubbles, but most of them are decorated with embroidery to show their ingenuity. Some old people prefer to hang a small silver box on their chests as decoration, and they can also put some lime for them to use when chewing betel nuts.
Tattooing teeth is a special human body decoration in the costume culture of ethnic minorities in China. This ancient custom is still circulating among the Dai people in Xinping. But among Dai Ya, Dai family and Dai Sa, only Dai Sa has tattoo custom. The location and pattern of tattoos are different from those of Dai people in other areas. Dai people in Dehong and Xishuangbanna usually get tattoos on their chest, abdomen, back and four branches. The patterns are mainly dragons, snakes, tigers and leopards, which are mainly popular among some Dai men. Because tattoos have to endure great pain, people in these areas often take tattoos as a criterion to measure whether men are brave or not. If you dare not tattoo, you will be regarded as a coward, looked down upon by everyone, and girls will not love him. People also say that after death, only wild ghosts can be seen, not ancestors. Xinping Huayao Dai is different, generally female tattoos. The local people think that women are timid, and ghosts are afraid to go near after tattooing. They also say that tattoos can exorcise ghosts. The tattooed parts here are on fingers and wrists, and no tattoos are found in other parts. The early patterns were irregular, with △, ○, = and "meter" as the main patterns. Nowadays, young people use more Chinese characters or pinyin, and the content is mainly emotional language, such as "love", "miss you" and "forbearance", and some people use English "I love you" and so on.
Tooth decoration, like tattoos, is also one of the ancient customs. The decorative teeth of Huayao Dai are mainly dyed. Many women have stained their teeth. A horizontal bar with a vertical line on the right. As far as the width of color bars is concerned, there are also obvious differences, horizontal width and vertical width. The color is even more uncertain. As a result of this disorderly change, the original static clothing has a sense of movement.
This dynamic effect comes not only from the top coat, but also from the bottom coat. The top is asymmetrical, while the bottom knitting is completely symmetrical, but it still breaks the original orderly symmetry in wearing, and makes a pleat on the left to make the skirt slightly rise, so it is a straight skirt, which has a three-dimensional effect and is relaxed and casual. What's more, because the bottom of the skirt is embroidered with colored stripes, like waves, it has become a river symbol closely related to the life of rice-growing ethnic groups in the eyes of Huayao Dai.
The color application of Huayao Dai costumes is not conservative and very bold. Look at the color of the waist and the silver ornaments at the top, which have a strong visual impact on black. The ever-changing patterns emerge one after another, which makes people feel that even well-behaved patterns can become bold and lively, and a perfect colorful dream scene can be deduced. Draw a picture of the graceful figure of Huayao Dai women. Wrist bracelets and earrings with rich atmosphere, coats with different shades and embellishments, reserved and passionate tube skirts, hats and rank reeds exude infinite amorous feelings, which blend with each other and hide, and become wonderful body language when moving. Casual and decent, it is intoxicating to watch.
The "country" of Huayao Dai costumes should be said to be an inexhaustible source of their costumes. It is unique and has irreplaceable value. It is not a "clone" of any clothing. Even today in the 2 1 century, it is still a precipitated fashion. It is a long rhyme "folk song" floating on the beautiful Ailao Mountain.