The History of Clothing

Medieval · East Asia · 500 - 1500 CE

Medieval East Asian Clothing

What people wore in medieval China, Japan, and Korea — from the cosmopolitan silk robes of the Tang and Song dynasties to the origins of the Japanese kimono and the development of the Korean hanbok.

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Tang and Song Dynasty China (618–1279 CE)

Tang dynasty court ladies in high-waisted skirts and draped shawls, tomb mural of Princess Yongtai, 706 CE Tomb of Princess Yongtai, Qianling Mausoleum, near Xi'an, 706 CE. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

The Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) represented a golden age of Chinese fashion, marked by cosmopolitan openness and extravagant court dress. Women of the Tang court wore ruqun — a blouse tucked into a high-waisted skirt — often paired with sheer silk shawls called pibo that draped over the shoulders. Fabrics ranged from lightweight gauze to richly patterned brocades, and bold colors like vermilion, emerald, and gold were favored. Foreign influences from Central Asia introduced narrow-sleeved robes, riding outfits, and new textile patterns featuring Persian and Sogdian motifs.

The Song dynasty (960–1279 CE) shifted toward a more restrained aesthetic. Court and scholarly dress emphasized elegance through simplicity, with muted colors and refined tailoring replacing Tang exuberance. The beizi, a long open-fronted coat, became a defining garment for both men and women. Song-era advances in silk weaving — particularly kesi (cut silk tapestry) — produced textiles of extraordinary intricacy, with pictorial designs that blurred the line between fabric and painting.

The Kimono and the Hanbok

Warriors and townspeople in hitatare and kosode at a market, from the Ippen Hijiri-e handscroll, 1299 En'i, Illustrated Biography of the Monk Ippen (Ippen Hijiri-e), scroll 4, Fukuoka market scene, 1299. Shōjōkō-ji. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

Japanese clothing underwent a profound transformation during the medieval period. The layered court robes of the Heian era gradually gave way to the kosode, a smaller-sleeved garment that had originally served as an undergarment. From roughly the Kamakura period (1185–1333), the kosode was increasingly worn as outerwear by commoners and warriors, forming the foundation of what would eventually be called the kimono. Samurai dress introduced practical innovations such as the hitatare, a two-piece outfit with a wide-sleeved jacket and trousers, suitable for both formal occasions and movement.

In Korea, the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) developed a distinctive dress tradition that balanced Chinese influence with indigenous style. The hanbok — comprising a short jacket called a jeogori and a high-waisted wraparound skirt (chima) for women, or wide trousers (baji) for men — continued to develop as the defining Korean silhouette during this era, while contact with the Mongol Yuan court brought new garments such as the short-sleeved dapho. Goryeo textiles were valued for their quality; the kingdom's ramie and fine linen were prized abroad and regularly sent as royal tribute, and its weavers also produced damask silks.

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