Modern Applications Of Traditional Hmong Dress Patterns

Since it has developed its simple functions of keeping out cold and covering up one' s nakedness, etc. into the symbols of distinguishing race, identifying sex, revealing status as well as of suggesting rank, human being's dress begins to possess more and more cultural connotations, and ultimately evolve into the modern dress that unites forms and functions. This is a historical process of cultural integration, narrating the hard process of human being's civilization, and at the same time confirming again and again such a theme: the dress is the product of times , and is also the symbol of cultures. As the dress of China's minority nationalities is concerned, because of different economy, politics, cultural tradition of different nationalities, and in addition, because of different environments and climates, the dress becomes a piece of mirror which reflects respectively the distinct and unique cultural connotation of different nationalities.Therefore, in the term of this point, the dress fully deserves the racial emblem of a nationality.Among China's ethnic nationalities, Miao living in the provinces in the southern part of China has numerous branches, whose dress are really various and colorful. It is said there is a branch; there is a kind of dress. Besides , there still exists difference in each branch, that is, every village or stockade has its own style and form. According to sketchy statistics, today's Miao dress has been up to over 130, which can compare favorably with whichever race in the world.On the one hand, experts and scholars have gone deep into the studies on the model and design of Miao dress of numerous braches. On the other hand, more and more people begin to attach great importance to its design on dressing. In history Miao migrated from time to time, its economical model and cultural tradition, therefore, came to develop into a certain cultural model through long-time resistance, integration, and recognition in the process of the migration from one place to another and the protectionagainst natural environments. This kind of cultural model remains thoroughly their own languages, living habits, festivals, customs and the way of thinking and so on of Miao nationality. And conversely, their whole cultural awareness and the way of thinking also display more or less the trace of this migration. Thus some scholars call Miao culture as "the migratory culture1 . It is a pity, however, that this nationality with such a long history has no its written languages. So undoubtedly, the Miao dress has taken the place of written languages, making Miao finds its special characters in the cultural history book of dress, and making the dress design art become ' the history book without written languages' handed down f ron ancient times.This thesis is just based on the studies of the design on Miao dress, including geometric design, animal design, plants design, as well as the other design about myths and legends, etc. so as to understand the deep connotation of Miao culture. In the first place, this thesis tries to explore how historical culture of a race influences its dressculture, and conversely how this historical culture is inherited and developed in the dress culture. The abundant contents of Miao dress design just exactly confirm such a two-way ethnological proposition; secondly, the Miao dress design provides many cases, for example, how does a race find its beauty in real life, how does its aesthetic sense come into being, and how is this formation reflected and expressed in the material culture of the race; lastly, I expound my own opinions on the application of national technology in modern society, such as the inspiration and significance of Miao dress design for the modern design, the fresh approach to understanding its design on dressing and colors, and additionally, the comparison between the Eastern folk painting and the Western modern art. All the above are my academic basement for my reflection on how artistic theories should be applied to artistic creation.I believe the academic studies...