The earliest materials used in making clothes are kudzu cloth, ramie cloth, and hemp cloth. About 4,700 years ago, silk was invented, and it gradually became a very popular material, especially with the upper class. The invention of silk was, and remains, one of the great contributions the Chinese people have given to the world. It inspired the large-scale commercial communication, which is famously referred to as “The Silk Road”. By the time of the Yuan (1271 - 1368 AD) and Ming (1368 - 1644 AD) dynasties, one other material of worldwide significance was introduced from India; Cotton, which became widely used. The colours of traditional Chinese clothing are greatly influenced by Five-element Theory: cyan, red, black, white, and yellow, which represent the five elements. These are pure colours, while the others are secondary colours. Pure colours were mostly used by the upper class in most dynasties. They were also matching colours, as favoured by common people. Another popular colour among folk was blue, indigo calico, and batik fabrics. In colour matching, ancient Chinese people preferred bright ones in order to make the clothes grand and elegant.
Archaeological findings of 18,000 year-old artifacts such as bone sewing needles and stone beads and shells with holes bored in them attest to the existence of decoration and of sewing extremely early in Chinese civilization.
A moth lays 500 or so eggs and then dies
, baby worms hatch from the eggs are fed mulberry leaves for one month until they are fat, the worms spin cocoons, the cocoons are steamed to kill the growing moth inside
,the cocoons are rinsed in hot water to loosen the threads
,women would unwind the cocoons and then combine six or so fibers into silk threads
,the threads are woven into cloth,the cloth is then pounded to make it softer and is ready to weave.
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