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Chinese Americans Sherman Daily Register Saturday, April 23, 1887 pg. 3 CHINESE HOLIDAY COSTUMES Exquisite Embellishments of Mongol Maidens During the celebration of the New Year now going on in the Chinese quarter, there are many rich and beautiful costumes to be seen worn by the almon-eyed damsels of the city. The love of bright colors is not more marked among the Negroes than among the Orientals, and richness of apparel ranks with them above dainty food and domestic cleanliness. The blending and association of colors exhibited in their dresses is very interesting and not a little peculiar to the gentile eye. No contrast to the to the Mongol eye is too striking; no mass of colors too glaring and no single shade too vivid. Nor are the women alone in their desire for showy dress. The men also delight in brilliant hues, delicate lavenders, golden yellows, and verdant greens. The young Chinese girls are particularly gay in their dress. Their love of bright colors is not limited to the clothes the put on, for their faces are always highly crimsoned with Chinese red and their hair plastered and ornamented with flowers, jewelry, beads, laces and gaudy ribbons. Some of their costumes are picturesque enough and the bold contrasts of glowing colors are worthy of note. One Oriental damsel who was airing herself and her finery simultaneously yesterday afternoon on Dupont street wore a pale blue silk coat with huge funnel-like sleeves trimmed with black and pale yellow silk braid. Her trousers were of black silk, also bordered with pale yellow; her boatlike sabots were embroidered with blue silk and the deep white soles provide an area of about three square inches for the maid to stand erect upon.. Another Celestial maiden was simply dressed, except that garment which among Christians is peculiar to males was a gorgeous orange silk, and her stockings, evidently of American make, were of red silk with clocks up the side. A third girl wore an azure blue skirt, a crimson coat, and bright green trousers. Still another wore a pale violet cloak over a dark blue blouse, her trousers also being green. A very brilliant costume was a crimson silk coat with a broad band of green and red embroidery running all around the skirt, neck, and sleeves; the trousers were bright blue and the shoes prettily embroidered in pink and gold. A pale blue cloak, violet trousers with yellow trimmings, pearl-beaded headdress, and finely-worked silver bangles on wrists and ankles formed the principal features of the costume of a small Mongol maiden, who held in her hand the diminutive cue of her small brother who trotted before her. The boy was hardly less attractively dressed, and his pale pink silk round hat was decorated with a bright-red silk knob and huge tassel of the same material and color. Some of the smaller girls wore sleeveless jackets over their under-garments, very much like the men. One wore a slate-colored silken under-garment with a white satin, sleeveless jacket and trousers also of the same soft-shaded material as the under-garment. One of the strangest dresses of all was a salmon-colored silk coat with lengthy skirts, from under which peeped out a pair of bright-green trousers, embroidered with black and pink silk. The older women are much more quietly dressed, generally wearing but one color, and that of a dark shade, such as violet, dark blue, or purple - San Francisco Chronicle Chinese Americans Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson County TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |