Study on restoring and designing repurposed children's cloaks in folk traditions
The thesis delves into the restoration and design aspects of traditionally repurposed children's cloaks,shedding light on the prevalent practice of transforming adults'attires into children's garments in folk traditions.From a design perspective,it distills the underlying design wisdom behind the campaign,seeing the big from small.The motivation for this study stems from three main perspectives.First,while scholarly research on traditional children's clothes is abundant based on history,folk culture,children's clothes collection ranging from clothes patterns,types to characteristics,there exists a relative dearth of focused studies on children's cloaks.Second,during the late Qing Dynasty to the early days of the People'Republic of China,"old clothes repurposing"was a common daily practice due to economic scarcity and material shortages.Some scholars have already used newspapers and periodicals as research materials to discuss the development,formation and practice process of the old clothes repurposing in the early years of the founding of the People's Republic of China,yet there is still a lack of in-depth research on the structure,process,craft and design considerations of altering old clothes.Third,15 samples have already apparently been altered among 64 samples of children's cloaks,signifying the widespread folk practice of repurposing old garments into new children's cloaks.The research employed literature review,field investigation,and material analysis methods to comprehensively analyze the reasons for its emergence,developing situation,sources of old clothes,repurposing behavior,and design characteristics.Leveraging the resources from the Folk Costume Museum of Jiangnan University and field surveys conducted by the authors,the thesis scrutinized repurposed children's cloaks to infer the sources of old clothes through an examination of the background,craft,and garments.The empirical case study focused on the restorative process of transforming horse-face skirts and women's coats into children's cloaks,culminating in the identification of design characteristics inherent in repurposed children's cloaks in folk traditions.Four major conclusions are drawn.First,against the backdrop of economic and material shortages,"old clothes repurposing"came about as a common choice grounded in traditional utilitarian values and societal opposition to wastefulness which showed the common choice of meeting clothes'needs both of the state and the public.Second,due to the basic form and decorative requirements of children's cloaks,folk tailors typically opted for materials with large fabric areas,delicate embroidery,and decorative features from traditional folk costumes for alteration.Furthermore,through the analysis of the repurposing traces,patterns and the process of its appearance,it is found that the cloaks were made mainly from horse-face skirts,followed by other skirt types,robes,shirts and other textiles.Third,the repurposing process was influenced by social customs in the Central Plains,the way cloaks used in life day scenes,and folk aesthetics,which is manifested in making color choices for the purpose of blessings,reorganizing pattern to meet presenting needs,and deciding detailed decorations based on the standard of tuning with the overall style.Fourth,garments repurposing adheresto thebasicprinciples of"turning adults'attires to children's cloaks","turning old ones into new ones",and"passing on the beauty heritage".The spontaneous campaign of garment repurposing is a part of folk traditional culture,reflecting a simple and pragmatic design ethos."Old clothes repurposing"has been inherited till nowadays,transitioning from the need for frugality during economic difficulties to the sustainability-oriented design need of economic development.Through the study,repurposing and utilization of adults'attires into children's cloaks,such a folk practice not only preserves Chinese traditional culture but also offers new insights for modern clothes design.
traditional folk costumechildren's cloaksold clothes repurposingrestorationdesign characteristicsfolk creative wisdom
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
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