Hello, this is AvenueX with a very unusual setup.
If this is your first time clicking into my channel,
I am a Chinese drama reviewer.
I've been doing that on YouTube for over 5 years.
I'm making this video because of something that has recently happened
regarding a world renowned designer brand Dior.
And they're newly released.
Designer clothing, more specifically,
a skirt,
as I'm making this video,
they have taken the skirt down from the Chinese official website of Dior,
but not everywhere in this world.
It looks like an innocent black wool pleated skirt,
but is it really？
since this skirt went live online
It blew up on China's internet as it's been accused of
cultural appropriation
right now I do not have the skirt from Dior on my hand,
because uh honestly I can't afford buying
a skirt that will cost over U.S.$5,000 (should be Canadaian dollars, 4,200 in USD)
But i'll put a link in the description box which is a video
made by a Chinese content creator who is a Han Fu expert.
She spent her own hard earn money,
bought one of those skirt from Dior,
from their official website and then showed it on camera
structure or the skirt.
I would recommend you check out that very short video first, then come back.
and I'll show you what Chinese traditional Ma Mian Qun is like.
Before I show you the structure of this skirt,
let me quickly tell you what Ma Mian Qun is and its history.
Ma Mian Qun 马面裙
Literal translation would be horse face skirt
is a traditional Chinese Han skirt that
has been worn by Chinese women for centuries.
Although we cannot pinpoint exactly from which day
that this skirt came to be in this world,
we have a lot of historical artifacts,
paintings, text to support.
It is the most common type of skirt during Ming dynasty
and ever since has been worn by Chinese women,
it got passed down from Ming dynasty to Qing dynasty
when women weren't required as men
by the Manchurian government to change their dressing and hairstyle,
although its pattern,
the way to decorate it and how you line the
edges start to change during Qing dynasty,
its overall structure still didn't really change at all.
And even till today,
there are a group of people who would constantly wear this kind of skirt.
The Beijing opera singers
for most of the female roles
if you go and watch a proper Beijing opera performance
that's completely fully dressed.
The women's skirt is still based on Ma Mian Qun
when you look at Dior's website,
you'll see this photo of this skirt looking very normal
a pleated skirt
What's special about it?
Well,
it's a very unique structure that honestly I haven't seen anywhere else.
Apart from the Chinese Ma Mian Skirt
After i've shown that to you,
you can tell me if actually in your traditional culture,
wherever you come from in this world,
you have similar things
that will be really cool for me to know.
I'm dressed like this so that I can put this on to show you why it's so cool.
First, I'm gonna show you what is the structure
that's unique about Ma Mian Qun
This skirt is joined here on the waistband.
and It's made up with two big piece of fabrics.
And when I pull it open,
you'll see what's unique about it.
It's actually made up with 2 pieces of fabric,
thats overlap at the front,
they are themselves not joined together by any sewing.
They're only linked together by the waistband on top.
For this front piece,
it doesn't get any pleating.
And you look at these 2 piece of fabric,
their front flat face overlaps.
Then this side is also unpleated
That side is unpleated too
When you wear it around your back,
you overlap these 2 pieces.
This part will end up right on the side of your body.
And this part is pleated.
But the cool thing about the pleating that's very specific
with Ma Mian is,
it's not one directional pleat ing.
It's embracing pleading.
You have this line, which is the middle of the side of your body.
And then the first pair of pleats come this way,
second, this way.
So they are a pair and they're symmetrical.
Usually you have 4 to 6 pairs of those pleats.
And depending on how deep you pleat the skirt,
it will give you more or less fabric.
So when you dress up,
it looks bigger or smaller,
more normal, daily life or ceremonial.
So that's the unusual structure of this pleated skirt.
And you can tell me if you've ever seen any
in contemporary fashion of a pleated skirt,
that actually looks like this.
Not to my knowledge,
you know it'll be cool to know if other where
somewhere in this world that people do this,
traditionally,
the way you tie this has many different variations, really,
just according to your own preference.
But here because I'm showing you the skirt structure,
I'm gonna tie it on my back so that it doesn't obstruct your view.
Skirt is on
on the side, all the pleats,
the middle line,
and the embracing pleats
the same here.
And the front piece can be completely opened up
back as well.
They need to overlap.
And this size isn't perfect perfect,
perfect size would be completely overlapping.
And because it's the same structure
it opens up from back.
When you're in this skirt,
there's one thing I can do super conveniently.
Can you guess what it is?
is moving around
And riding horses
Chinese women, If they ride horses,
they wouldn't do the side saddle thing.
It's still as a guy.
It's easy for you to climb on the horse.
Once you sit down,
no problem.
Because these 2 pieces are completely free from each other.
You don't have one wrapping piece.
You wouldn't need to pull here and there.
It just naturally drapes over your leg.
and because of the pleating,
there's a lot of fabric here.
It wouldn't cause this to open up too much.
So not a problem of modesty.
Plus people would be actually wearing under skirt and underpant under this.
So there's no way you know you're gonna have any problem.
And when you come down from the horse,
naturally the skirt comes back.
Nice.
so the thing is had Dior just said on their website.
This skirt is inspired by Chinese traditional Ma Mian Qun
Nobody would have any problem with it.
Chinese Han Fu has received a wave of revitalization in the last decade,
making it very well known now in China,
particularly a couple of iconic classic
styles of Han Fu of a couple of dynasties.
Unfortunately, Ma Mian Qun is one of them.
It's in most shopped
most well known.
Han fu skirt among all different designs of different dynasties in China,
claiming it to Dior's own iconic silhouette.
Really?
You are a brand that's funded last century.
This skirt has been around for over 10 times your lifetime.
Come on.
I happen to be Chinese and also somebody who's very interested
in Chinese traditional culture and know quite a bit about it.
I also happen to just like dress up for
my videos of Chinese period drama reviews.
andI just cannot help I have to make this video,
although I know near to nothing about fashion
because I often make my own clothes.
so I don't care about what is sold out (side) there.
You can definitely call this video from AvenueX
an attempt from a tiny YouTuber
trying to rub of the whatever popularity of a topic on internet.
I couldn't careless.
So at the end of this,
I'll thank you for taking the time and watching this video.
Hopefully it has added some random facts and Information to your brain
about somethings you probably don't quite care about in this world.
and If you have come across such unfortunate
cultural appropriation thing in your life,
do you share that experience with everyone in the comment section
Thank you for watching AvenueX
I'll see you in my next video and that will
be about dramas or drama related stuff.