Descriptions of the Tang dresses were found in a vast array of poems, both in terms of style and color. A vast array of colors was found in the poems, because there was no official decree on what color was or was not appropriate. Personal preference was all that mattered, be it deep red, apricot yellow, deep violet, ultramarine, sap green or turmeric. Pomegranate red was popular for the longest time. In poems by Li Bai, Du Fu and Bai Juyi, the most outstanding poets of the time, lady in pomegranate skirt was an enduring image of beauty. Song of May in Yanjing had an interesting account of the pomegranate red skirt. It was so popular that in the season when megranate blossoms colored the city in red, every household was buying the flower to dye tile dresses of their girls. Turmeric skirt was also colored with vegetable dye. The skirt had the beauty of the turmeric color as well as the fragrance that stayed in the skirt, A feather skirt worn by a princess in the mid Tang Dynasty was woven with feathers from a hundred birds. An outstanding piece of work in the history of Chinese costume and textiles, the skirt had varying colors in daytime and at night, under sunlight and under night light, held upright and upside-down. Moreover, images of birds were woven all over the skirt, coming to life in the play of light.There is more to the woman's ruqunthan the upper and lower garment. The dress had many matching accessories and ornaments to go with it, including a short sleeve shirt called banbi or half-arm, worn outside of the long sleeve jacket, unlike what we do now in summertime. Named a half-arm because the length of the sleeve was somewhere between the vest and the long sleeve, it functioned just like a vest.
The Tang women favored the pizi or cape, or as analternative, a large piece of silk draped over the arms. The difference is that the cape was wide and shorb draped over one shoulder of the wearer. The cape is seen on many clay burial figurines unearthed from Tang tombs. There was a story that the Imperial Concubine Yang Yuhuan had her cape blown away onto someone's hat during a royal banquet. Judging from this story the cape must have been light and thin, although we cannot exclude the possibility that heavier capes made from wool were used in winter to shield the body from the cold wind. The pibo, however, is much longer and narrower. Draped over the shoulder from back to front, it is what we normally call the "ribbon" a beautiful piece rarely forgotten in classic Chinese paintings.
Footwear to go with ruqun includes brocade shoes with tipped-up "phoenix head" toes, and shoes made with flax or cattail stems, all very light and delicate. In addition to images in classic paintings, we are able to see real pieces unearthed in Xinjiang and other places.
When wearing the ruqun, the Tang women rarely wore hats. Sometimes they wore decorative flower crowns, but when out, they often covered their faces
with a veil. This kind of veil hat became the trend in the early Tang Dynasty, but by mid-Tang Dynasty many no longer bothered to wear it, but chose to show
their hair buns when they were out riding. There was a large variety of hairstyles at that time, all competing for opulence and extravagance, including over 30 kinds of tall buns, double buns, and downward buns, most of which named after their shapes. Some of these hairstyles came from ethnic minority groups. A full
range of ornamental objects was used on the buns, including gold hairpins, jade ornaments, as well as fresh or silk flowers. This is often seen in Tang
paintings, as well as in artifacts unearthed in ancient tombs.
