Chinese Nuptial Gowns and their Making Process

For traditional Chinese wedding attire, nuptial gowns in red, pink and black are worn by women of different status involved in the ceremony. Only the bride that would be the legitimate wife of a man is entitled to wear a red nuptial gown by Chinese marriage customs. For a woman who marries a man to be his second wife or official concubine, she can only wear a pink one. As for the mother and senior female family members of the bridegroom, they would put on black and dark red gowns for the wedding.

The making of nuptial gowns is a traditional craft requiring consummate skills. Apprentice tailors usually go through three years of training to learn how to embroider simple floral and cloud-like patterns onto the bridal fabric before moving on to dragon and phoenix motifs. It actually takes over three months to make a nuptial gown of traditional style. Firstly, the piece of selected fabric is embroidered with an array of patterns before it is cut to the measurement of the client. Then the different cut parts are sewn together and ready for fitting, during which necessary alterations and adjustments are made.