Clothing made of silk was initially used for decorative and ceremonial purposes. Each succeeding dynasty produced their own distinctive dress codes, reflecting the socio-cultural environment of the times. Hanfu comprises all traditional clothing classifications of the Han Chinese with a recorded history of more than three millennia. : 52 Silk remains a core element of Hanfu and Chinese traditional clothing. Up to a certain extent, hanfu has also influenced some elements in Western fashion, especially those influenced by Chinoiserie fashion, due to the popularity of Chinoiserie since the 17th century in Europe and in the United States.

: 3 Hanfu has influenced the traditional clothing of many neighbouring cultures, including the Korean hanbok, the Japanese kimono ( wafuku), the Ryukyuan ryusou, and the Vietnamese áo giao lĩnh ( việt phục). Īfter the Han dynasty, hanfu developed into a variety of styles using fabrics that encompassed a number of complex textile production techniques, particularly those used to produce silk. Nowadays, the hanfu is gaining recognition as the traditional clothing of the Han ethnic group, and has experienced a growing fashion revival among young Han Chinese people in China and in the overseas Chinese diaspora. In addition to clothing, hanfu also includes several forms of accessories, such as headwear, footwear, belts, jewellery, yupei and handheld fans. Traditionally, hanfu consists of a paofu robe, or a ru jacket worn as the upper garment with a qun skirt commonly worn as the lower garment. There are several representative styles of hanfu, such as the ruqun (an upper-body garment with a long outer skirt), the aoqun (an upper-body garment with a long underskirt), the beizi and the shenyi, and the shanku (an upper-body garment with ku trousers). Hanfu ( simplified Chinese: 汉服 traditional Chinese: 漢服 pinyin: Hànfú) are the traditional styles of clothing worn by the Han Chinese. Ming dynasty portrait of General Tang Tong (唐通) wearing Hanfu

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