Folk Costumes (Possessed by Gifu Historical Museum)

―Regarding the Manufacture of Asian Clothing―

Abstract

  Almost all people living on the Earth wear some kind of clothing as part of their daily life, and their clothing's appearance is reflected and affected by the natural environment they live in and the lifestyle they maintain. A permanent collection of traditional clothing from all over Asia is housed in the Gifu Prefectural Museum (the exhibit was put together by the former president of the defunct Columbia Fashion College [GHFC], Ms. Tazuko Ogawa). A careful inspection was performed on these real life traditional, national costumes and several photos were taken and analyzed. The following results were obtained : 1.) How the clothes are worn and the weight of the fabric was directly affected by the temperature in the local environment ; 2.) While Asian clothing is primarily manufactured using a one-dimensional straight line method, because of European contact and cultural exchanges, it was found that some Asian clothing manufacturing was performed using the Western three-dimensional method ; and, 3.) Asian stitching techniques were found to be simpler compared to modern etc., were fashioned using traditional techniques, while clothes worn for everyday occasions has a tendency to exhibit European manufacturing influences.