Printed and painted floss silk padded gauze robe

Printed and painted floss silk padded gauze robe

Unearthed from Han Tomb 1 at Mawangdui, Changsha in 1972
This gauze robe is made of printed and colored gauze. The inner side, the sleeves, collars and fringes are made of tough silk. There is silk-floss padding inside. This type of robe was highly favored by women of Han dynasty and it was different from Shen Yi (another type of long ancient Chinese robe). This is a cross-collar robe with a straight lapel that opens at the right. The multi-color printing technique was employed to produce this robe. The colors include vermilion, white, dark, gray, cool grey and warm grey. The lines of the patterns are clearly printed in a smooth manner. With such superb craftsmanship, the silk fabric combining printing and color painting used as the outer material of the gown unearthed from Tomb 1 is the first of its kind found in China.