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Chinese fashion and the history of the cloud collar

The cloud collar (云肩) has over 2,500 years of history in China. Yiling Zhang traces how having your head in the clouds went from cosmological symbol to fashion essential.

Words by Yiling Zhang

  • In pictures
A 19th century watercolour image of Zi Sunliang, a Chinese goddess. She is wearing a cloud collar over a yellow and red robe and a crown. On the robe, at her chest, there is a red pendant with writing on it. She is looking down. At her feet there is a wooden bath with two babies bathing in it, both holding towels over their shoulders. To the right hand side of the painting there is some vertical writing. The watercolour painting is resting on a grey background.
Zi Sunliang, a Chinese goddess, with two babies (?) bathing in front of her.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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When you looked at this image of a Chinese goddess, did you notice the white collar she wears? It is called the cloud collar 云肩 and reflects ancient cosmological wisdom. It has a circle at the centre, which represents heaven, and each of the four identical panels is in the shape of a ruyi 如意 cloud, meaning “as you wish”, symbolising the gates to heaven. As an accessory, the earliest cloud collar can be seen in the seventh-century Dunhuang 敦煌 cave paintings of buddhas, but from the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the cloud collar became a fashionable accessory for Chinese women.

A 19th century watercolour painting of Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi, wearing traditional costume, holding the 'Yin-yang' symbol. On the bottom right side of the painting there is an inscription in Chinese script.
Chinese Emperor Fu Hsi, wearing traditional costume, holding the 'Yin-yang' symbol. Watercolour, China, 18--.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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Although the cloud-collar motif reflects Chinese cosmological ideas, it appears on objects not necessarily related to cosmology. For example, you could find it on the neck of a blue-and-white vase, the interior of a bowl, or the back of a couch. If you closely look at the legs of the stool where Fu Hsi, the father of the Yin-Yang philosophy, rests his feet, you will find that they are in the shape of the ruyi cloud.

19th century painting of three Chinese women with swords. They are all wearing traditional dress. At the top of the painting and the bottom left there is an inscription in Chinese script.
Three Chinese women with swords. Painting by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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After the Tang Dynasty (618 CE–907 CE), the cloud collar appeared in paintings not only of buddhas but also of Tibetan women. Later, musicians and dancers wore the cloud collars when they performed. By the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368), cloud collars became part of both female and male official dress. This image illustrates three female heroes in the Song Dynasty (960–1279) from one of the most important Chinese novels, ‘All Men Are Brothers’, 水浒传.

19th century brush drawing of a Chinese ceremony. The drawing shows a large group of people dressed in ceremonial clothing, gathered outside a building adorned with lanterns and inscriptions in Chinese script. Several women on the left of the drawing are wearing cloud collars.
A Chinese ceremony. Brush drawing by Chinese artist, ca. 1850.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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In the Qing Dynasty, the cloud collar became a popular accessory among women and was a very fashionable item. The design became diversified in this period: there were cloud collars with tassels, and cloud collars with leaf-shaped panels. In this image, the two women on the left wear cloud collars with willow-leaf panels.

A black and white photograph of an old woman, in profile to right, resting her chin on her crooked right index finger. Her greying hair is gathered in a twist at the back. She wears large curly earrings and a garment of coarse woven material.
Canton, Kwangtung province, China. Photograph, 1981, from a negative by John Thomson, 1869., John Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
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The new hair style in this photograph explains the popularity of the cloud collar in the Qing Dynasty: women liked low bun hairstyles. The oil used to style their hair made clothes dirty. To protect their clothes, they started to wear cloud collars.

19th century painting of a Chinese lady sat on a chair with her attendant standing to the right. Both are dressed in colourful clothing, her attendant is wearing a cloud collar. Behind the women. there is a green painted screen.
A Chinese lady with attendant. Painting by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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Fashion does not necessarily trickle down from the highest points in society. The fashion of wearing a cloud collar started among the civilian women in the Qing Dynasty and, later, women from court circles followed the trend. In this image of two women in the court, the one standing wears a cloud collar.

A 1800s watercolour painting of a woman displaying good luck tassels for sale. The tassels are red and are hanging on a green stand. The woman is sat upon a gray stool, there is a green stool next to her. She is wearing a blue dress over red trousers.
A woman displaying good luck tassels for sale. Watercolour by a Chinese artist, ca. 1800.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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The cloud collar is usually made from silk and delicately embroidered. Making a cloud collar calls for great talents and skill, and it might take more than a half year to finish one. The cloud collar became an important part of a bride’s wedding dress in the Qing Dynasty. A bride would make her own cloud collar for the wedding, and it became a way to show off her talents.

19th century painting of a Chinese bridal ceremony. The painting shows a large group of people dressed in colourful traditional clothes, with a couple at the centre.
A Chinese bridal ceremony. Painting by a Chinese artist, ca. 1850.. Source: Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark.
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After the wedding, the bride would keep the cloud collar in a special box and wear it on major birthdays. Some cloud collars were even buried with their owners after death.

19th century illustration of a Chinese woman dressed in an opera costume of the early Peking opera. She is wearing colourful clothes and has elaborate hair and costume make-up. There is a small inscription in Chinese script at the top right of the illustration.
Office of Great Peace Album of Opera Faces (昇平署臉譜). Source: National Library of China (中国国家图书馆) via Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain Mark.
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Cloud collars fell out of fashion following significant changes in women’s dress in China after the Qing Dynasty’s collapse in the 1910s. They gradually disappeared from daily life and more often appeared in Chinese opera costumes. The first time I saw a cloud collar, I had no idea what it was, and nor did my Chinese classmates. However, more recently, the cloud collar has become a fashionable accessory for some young people in China.

Photograph of a form-fitting pale pink dress with a cloud collar and kawaii (or cute Japanese-style) design elements such as bows and smiling faces and flowers.
Cloud collar qipao dress. © Chuan Dai 川黛.
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Followers of the hanfu subculture (Han is the most common ethnic group in China, and fu means clothes in Chinese, so hanfu means the clothes of Han people) were the first to wear cloud collars in 21st-century daily life. Hanfu was born in 2001, aiming to revive Han people’s dress culture, which was considered lost after being dominated by Manchu style and Western fashion. Some hanfu subculturalists also follow other youth subcultures, such as Lolita fashion, and wear cloud collars with dresses featuring these fashion elements. The pink dress in the picture above exemplifies a bricolage of cloud collar, qipao and Japanese kawaii design. As this latest resurgence shows, the cloud collar is an example of a remarkably resilient fashion.

About the author

Yiling Zhang

Yiling Zhang is a doctoral student at the University of Minnesota with a specialisation in dress, history and culture. She received a Design Graduate Fellowship at the university to pursue her research interests in fashion in China and everyday dress. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art, after studying Design History and Material Culture at the college and the Victoria and Albert Museum.