#its component

[valtsv]

i just think it's important to understand that love is not the antithesis of horror in fact it's often the catalyst

[asfodeltide]

[redsugarx]

Hanfu in Components: Structure Conventions (pt2)

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Thanks for the love on the last post, I’ve been motivated to continue writing LOL Anyway: Construction/sewing pattern/structure is very important to hanfu!

There are a few important structure conventions when it comes to hanfu—almost all traditional-cut hanfu follow these rules; you could call them the defining characteristics of hanfu. There are exceptions to every rule of course (I will go over some caveats at the end of this post), but generally if a hanfu design ignores these rules we might consider it to be ‘incorrect.'

(There will be a longer follow-up pt. 3 post to this explaining the anatomy of a hanfu top/robe, where there will be more detailed in-context illustrations and descriptions. I just figured I should list these ‘rules’ somewhere separately.)

中縫/中缝/zhong1 feng4/Center Seam

Take a look at your shirts. Is there a shoulder seam between the front of the shirt and the back of the shirt? Western clothing tends to consist of a front piece + back piece sewn together to create a space for your body to sit in：

Hanfu doesn’t work like that. Traditionally, the garment isn’t separated into a front piece and back piece: it’s separated into a right piece and left piece, which are joined together at the vertical center seam. Why? Traditional fabric has a narrower width than the standard ~145cm that we have today, so a long, narrow piece is less wasteful to cut out from a bolt of silk than a wide one.

Therefore there is always a center seam, one running vertically down the front and one down the back. 中 = center, 縫 = seam, so 中縫 means center seam. There’ll be a front center seam （前中縫） and a back center seam （後中縫）.

不破肩/不破肩/bu2 po4 jian1/No Broken Shoulder

Kind of an addendum onto the previous point? Additionally since the body pieces are separated into left/right rather front/back, there’s no seam at the top of the shoulder here. The fabric is simply draped over the arm/shoulder to hang down, covering the torso on both sides.*

*Caveat: Some modified hanfu that vendors sell today will have a shoulder seam, especially thicker winter garments or short-sleeved garments. This is a design choice made to prevent the fabric from looking too stiff, known as 破肩/破肩/po4 jian1，literally “broken shoulder.” It can look great, lots of hanfu makers do it! But just to be clear, that is a MODIFICATION.

接袖/接袖/jie1 xiu4/Sleeve Connection

Western clothing patterns tend to have something where the fabric of the sleeve gets connected to the fabric of the garment’s body at the shoulder/armpit, often with a concave arm hole shape to help with the contours of the garment when it’s worn.

Hanfu sleeves, on the other hand, are never connected at the armpit—they are connected halfway down the arm. In other words, the piece of fabric that forms the body extends to also cover the upper arm part of the sleeve. The actual sleeve piece is connected to the body at the bicep/elbow area via a flat seam. (In the case of half- or no- sleeve garments there might just not be a separate sleeve piece.)

右衽/右衽/you4 ren4/"Right Over Left" Rule

Applies to cross-collar, some varieties of round collar, and some varieties of standing collar tops. In the case that the front of the garment crosses over itself, the flap coming from the wearer’s left goes OVER the flap coming from the wearer’s right. Easiest way to make sense of this is, if you’re looking at someone wearing a cross-collar hanfu top, the cross will look like a lowercase y.

Caveats

NO RULE EXISTS WITHOUT EXCEPTION!!! These rules exist because a majority of hanfu follow them and they are a standard that people agree on right now. However, there are ALWAYS cases—historically or otherwise—where these rules may be broken. For example, there are several Ming Dynasty cross collar robes that happen to be left over right, and the location of the sleeve seam can differ based on what garment you're looking at.

Also, many modern hanfu manufacturers will deliberately choose to break these 'rules' in favor of aesthetics. This is a purposeful design choice—not one that's done out of ignorance or disrespect. It's easy for common modifications to get mistaken for 'historically accurate.' To be clear, it is 100% okay and super common for modifications to exist! Just don't go around claiming that it was historically that way.

My advice is that if you're starting out with hanfu, try to stick to these rules in the back of your head as closely as possible. Once you've built your foundational knowledge, then you can start exploring the exceptions to the rules. These rules may not be foolproof, but they are a useful tool to help you understand the commonalities and trends within hanfu without overwhelming you.

Last note: it is generally more of a taboo for seams that should exist to not exist in a piece of clothing (i.e. no center back seam) than for extra seams to exist. If you go look in museums for the artifacts that hanfu is based off of, you'll notice that a lot of them—especially the ones from earlier dynasties—are a chaotic patchwork of a bunch of random piece of fabric sewn together to create the garment. Fabric is expensive, people don't want to waste it! So it's not all that weird to have seams in random places.

Happy 除夕 everyone! 有蛇有得 :>

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[qoppybirdie]

thats right everybody

[griancraft]

Are you an anthropologist with at least one news article/other coverage posted about your work? I have a project where I have to interview you about how the media covered your article. I was super sick for almost a month and now I am frantically emailing anthropologists to get an interview, but as many are very busy and I need it by Thursday I am resorting to this. We would have to primarily exchange emails unfortunately, but mutually assured destruction means I don't think either of us will dox each other lol

If you are not an anthropologist, please consider reblogging. I want to be able to pass in this assignment. I think this is still ethical as I'm not really giving anyone anything in exchange aside from someone's eyes on their work

[youve-always-had-me-cas]

On a semi related note the more I am subjected to Microsoft products the more I become convinced that the reason so many people these days believe themselves to be “bad with computers” is that the programs they are forced to use in their professional life are utterly incomprehensible to ANY rational human being and they are (rightfully enough) extrapolating out that this is just how computers are. They aren't!!! In their quest to remove all the “scary” details from their poor fragile end users Microsoft have created an ecosystem that behaves completely erratically and unpredictably and is by definition unknowable. Things just happen. Then they stop happening. Nothing ever announces why or how. Just a thousand vague and useless popups that may or may not be there tomorrow. I PROMISE computers are actually extremely simple and logical beasts.

[deathandnonexistentialdread]

This scene shows how Yami and Yuugi don't really see themselves as separate from each other. They both know that the other is an independent entity but they also are so entwined with each other, in spirit and flesh, that they just bleed into each other. The line where one stops and the other beings is at times blurred to the point where acknowledging them as a singular being is not out of the question.

[fatuismooches]

first of all, tysm for responding to my omega comfort ask, you delivered as always 🫶

I’ve been thinking abt a fragile reader who likes stealing parts of the segment’s outfits when they’re bored 🤩

Omega might struggle to find his mask one day, only to find you standing in front of a mirror, his mask on your face, proudly puffing out your chest and mocking his arrogant tone. He doesn’t interrupt, but watches, amused by your antics.

Maybe Beta will be scrounging around for his bow tie, muttering angrily, until he notices you sitting nearby, adjusting the fabric around your neck. You don’t see it, but he flashes an adoring smile your way 🥰

Also, could I be night anon? 🙏

All of your lovers had a great variety of clothes and stylistic choices spread across them. It would frequently send you into laughter when you saw someone like Beta standing next to Omega, but you truly did love them all the more for their eccentric choices. More importantly, there was no way you could pass up the opportunity to "borrow" such fashionable clothes! Seeing as Dottore and the segments were frequently busy, their clothes were a perfect source of comfort whenever you were bored or missing them, their warmth and lingering scent still remaining.

Omega's blue shirt, white coat, and gloves were the easiest articles to put on - if you spent time trying to put on all those other accessories, you'd tire yourself out before you even began. You had to hold the mask up to your face too, since it was too big to lock in behind your ears properly, and you couldn't even see, but it didn't matter since you had literally become the Doctor in that instance.

"I am first and foremost a scholar. As a scholar, I respect all possibilities." You quoted those lines that Omega loved to parrot and tried to match the level of his sassy scholarness, but unfortunately, you couldn't compare. Your evil laugh didn't even have that oomph to it either...

Little did you know that the segment himself was taking in the sight with amusement. Putting aside your questionable dialogue (which he would get you back for later), he admired how alluring you looked in his clothes. Ah, how wonderful it would be if he could return to you in only his clothes more often. Therefore, he was content to let you embarrass yourself for a while longer before he succumbed to his urge to touch you. You didn't even realize Omega was approaching until you felt a hand quickly turn your chin and guide your lips to his.

"While I find your problem-solving to be most entertaining, if you wanted to be closer to me, I have much better solutions in mind."

-

Beta's clothes, on the other hand, were much simpler to put on. The button-down white shirt was easy to toss on, and his coat was long and surprisingly soft. It would make a good blanket, you thought. Trying to make your eyes line up with the holes of Beta's mask was a chore, so you had discarded it to the side. But what really brought the whole thing together was the iconic pink bow tie, of course.

"He he ho ho." No, that just sounded wrong coming from you. "This bores me," you drawled, imagining the scurrying of some of his menials after the Harbinger lost interest in his latest project, all while perfecting your tug of the bow tie.

Beta's previous grumpiness is forgotten and replaced by his usual blank stare, where he takes in what he's watching while collecting his thoughts. It doesn't take long for him to break into laughter, which makes you practically jump in your seat. If anything, the segment would appreciate it if you could take control of his agents for a day. Perhaps you'd be more suited to the job than he is...

"If you really have nothing better to do, then come with me to my lab. ... No, I didn't say for you to take those off."

[show-tunes]

Scrybeswap

I have a lot of scatterbrained design notes for each of them but generally I wanted them to look similar to their original designs but with different themes. I also imagine that they have the same inscribing tools as their original counterparts but just use them differently (i.e. Magnificus paints animals, Leshy takes pictures of people as they're dying/about to die, I'm not sure what the magic equivalent for P03 would be besides maybe a spellbook that copies the essence of things, and Grimora's quill would either "write" code or write directly onto the hardware of robots).

[marzipanandminutiae]

I see what you're getting at in regards to the importance of breast support in fantasy fashion, but aren't there many non-western cultures that did not necessarily use clothes as breast support? Ranging from those that just let it swing to those which might just use a light, non-rigid undergarment? People with (larger) breasts continued to do labor and physical activities in those societies, so I don't think it's impossible to imagine a fashion that doesn't include this type of feature. By the same logic of "women aren't dumb and wouldn't have worn corsets and stays if they were torture devices" I think we have to accept that women wouldn't have skipped breast support if it was highly uncomfortable for them

there are some cultures in various places that currently or previously have forgone breast support garments, yes!

it's not a strict Western/Non-Western divide, I will say- for example, traditional Japanese clothing includes a bandage-like arrangement called sarashi (sarashi is the name of the cloth, but came to be synonymous with the breast-covering application in some cases) that supports and somewhat minimizes the bust without binding completely flat the way we think of it for gender-related purposes. or the angia in India, a garment that dates back at least to the 19th century and not further than the 13th and was sort of a cross between a blouse and a bra as I understand it. it's believed to have been brought to India by Muslim conquests, by some historians

there have also been moments in western history when breast support was either absent or is not currently well-understood by historians. in many parts of medieval Europe, for example, it wasn't addressed in contemporary sources. the Lengberg Castle "bra," dated c. 1440-1485, is one rare example of what equally rare primary sources sometimes call a "breastbag," but the evidence is pretty thin on the ground

and I do wonder about that! how is it not uncomfortable, speaking as someone of medium bust size who's experienced pain when wearing a bra with perished elastic for too long? I've tried looking into this online, and nobody seems to have asked women in modern societies where total toplessness is the norm

you see a lot of braless advocates from cultures where bras are the norm claiming that bras are the cause of the discomfort: they weaken the muscles and make it painful to go without. but photos of women from opless cultures show just as much sagging as any woman who's worn a bra may experience, so the muscles can't be THAT affected

so what's the deal? how are or were these women comfortable where many other women the world over would not be? no idea and nobody's researching it. argh

however, I should have been clearer that I was talking about fantasy/historical books in a western-inspired setting. I thought context and the prior posts about similar topics on this blog would do thatt for me, which was my mistake. this particular book was set in a world heavily inspired by early-mid 19th century Germany

books written by authors from Bra Cultures, about time periods and places where breast support was a commonplace thing. where it's just...not addressed. that's what annoys me

[silverjirachi]

So many adaptations of things like the backrooms and the poolrooms get it wrong. it’s not that there’s a monster in there. it’s that the monster is the rooms themselves.

To me the horror of things like the poolrooms is because something should be there, and isn’t. This is actually what liminality is at its core. From a theoretical perspective, it is a space between two places. It is not a place where people go and remain. Motels. Train stations. Rest stops. Stairwells. Office buildings. Community pools. All places people are, but don’t stay.

Putting a monster in the poolrooms always feels so cheap because there are a million other horror experiences where a thing is chasing you or lurking somewhere. Avoiding a monster in the poolrooms is the same as avoiding a monster in a forest or a pizza restaurant or a house or a hospital or or or or etc. it’s a coat of paint at that point. It undermines the very unique liminal aspects of these locations by not engaging with its core components of time, space, solitude, and even identity that do not exist elsewhere. It just makes it Avoid The Monster Game number fourteen thousand and three.

When really, there is a horror of a place that is ever-expansive. A horror of a beast that is a location, a place that you cannot escape from, where you cannot die, and the only living thing is you.

[radiantmists]

the whole "it would be kinder to kill them" exchange re-contextualizes murderbot's initial willingness-- even eagerness-- to kill other SecUnits in an interesting way, doesn't it.

[variksel]

im a fan of dnd In the sense that i cant min-max for shit, i hate spell components, i still dont know how to make subclasses work and when i dm i go "yeah thats funny you can just do that or whatever." im a fan of dnd in the sense that i listen to dungeons and daddies and the adventure zone and legends of avantris

[the-hexcore]

Are you planning on making Viktor Mr. Arcane before he ends up as Mr. Talis anytime soon? 😏

ĺ̶̰ḭ̴̎s̴̨̿ṯ̴̇e̶̓ͅn̸̖̈́ i̶͇͌f̴̦̃ ̵̦̆I c̵̲̉ŏ̵̙u̶̫̿l̵̫͌d̵͙̐ ̴̝̀g̵̟̅e̶͚̅t̶͔́ ̴̻̄a̵̜̓ǹ̶̲ ̶͚̕ó̶͕f̵͎͋f̵̖̄ḯ̵͇c̶͈̀ȉ̸̯a̷̳͗n̴̪̊ṯ̶͐ t̶̟͘ō̸͉ ̶͔̊s̵̥̆ĩ̸̹g̵̼͆n̸̨͠ ̴͍͌ỏ̶͔f̸̦̅f̸̧͌ ̴̠̽ǫ̶́n̴̟̂ ̸̞̄p̴͂ͅȃ̴̬p̵̢̓ë̴̢́r̷͓̎s̸̤̔ ẃ̴̬ǐ̸̧t̷̻̑h̴̳̋ŏ̸͎u̵͜͠t̴̺̓ ̴̧̇t̶̨̾h̴̢̓e̸̋ͅm̷̞̊ ̵͓̊p̸̲̏ȉ̵͖s̵̙̅ṣ̴͝ǐ̶͎n̷̩͌g̷̹̈́ t̴̠̿h̴̘̿ẽ̸̱i̵͕̅r̸͕̒ l̶̻̈́i̷̺̽t̷̖̍ṫ̸̝l̸̢̈ȩ̵̂ ̸͎̀p̶͉͆a̵̦̍n̸̲̅ṯ̸͠s̵̩̋ ̵͍̈́b̶̰̓e̸̱͂c̷̖̅ą̴̎u̵͇̕s̶̜̃ë̶̪ ̶̲͛Í̷̺'̸́͜m̶̪̈́ ̸̜̽a̵͎͝ ̶̳͌s̵̞̎e̵̫͝n̸͙̓t̸̥̓i̸̦̔e̸̹̕ņ̸̆t̷̺̾ ỏ̴̱r̴͖͒b̴̖̈́ ̵͙̏a̴̮͗n̶̺͛d̸͍̈́ ă̵͍p̷̣̓p̴̮̃a̵̧͐ŗ̷͋ë̷̹́n̸͙͝ṯ̷͐l̸̗͘y̷̼̽ t̶͇̑h̶͍̔o̶͚̾s̸͎͝e̶͉̽ ̸̯̐ḁ̶̾r̷̥̊e̴̯̅ ̶̱̾u̶̼̚n̷͚̊c̴͚̕ò̴̞m̴̨̅m̷͙̆ȍ̴̡ń̴̥ ̵̘͛ŵ̷̦h̵̗̀e̴͎̾ṟ̵̽é̵̝ ̸͎̀t̵̨̔h̶͇̋e̵̦̅ŷ̴͜'̶͈͆ř̵̥e̵̞͝ ̶͖͐f̷͇͗ŕ̴̯ȯ̶͚m̷͇̾,̴̞̍ Ḯ̵͜ ̸̬͘w̸̮̾ô̸̰u̴̢̅l̴̯̈́d̶͎̚'̶͉̀v̵̺̊ȅ̵͜ ̴̳͑ā̴̻l̴̩̆r̷̠̈́ẽ̶̡a̸͖͛d̵̥̀ÿ̵̰́ ̵͍̅ḏ̸̓ó̴͈ṇ̸́e̴̦͝ ̷͍͐i̴̙͌t̶̯̂ ̷̜͑

J̵̧̐a̷̪͠y̵̻̋c̷̬̑e̵̜̽ ̵̲͋h̵͇̅a̴̺͘s̵͕͘ ̶̩́h̶̎ͅa̶̝̎d̵̰̋ ̵̼̔s̵̞͝e̴̫̍v̷͖͂e̸̥̓ǹ̷̗ ̶̺̔ỵ̶͋ē̵̩a̴͈͌r̷͖̓ś̷̤ ̷̠́ṯ̵̑o̴͙̍ ̴͔̑m̴͈̂a̴͚̚k̶̙͒e̵͎͘ ̴̤͆V̴̹̓ỉ̴̭k̶͚̊t̸̹͘ó̵ͅr̵̼͊ ̷͙̓M̵̺̄r̸̞̈́.̵͉̀T̴͇̽ā̸̠l̵͈̿i̵̩͛s̶̄͜ b̷̠̿u̸̪͗t̷̮̋ ̴̝̑a̵̪̓l̴̬̾l̵̘̿ h̵̻̅e̶̞͌ ̴̀͜d̶̰̀ơ̸̰e̴̫̚s̶̗̔ ̸̺́i̶̫͊ṣ̸̓ ̶̼̍ḅ̵͛l̵͈̂i̴̥̋n̴̩̋ḱ̴̭ ̵̨͂h̶̟̒i̶͈̽s̴͉͌ ̸̯̈́b̷̳͠i̷̥̿g̴͚͂ ̸͚͊w̷̫̒ė̸̙ţ̷͂ ̴̹͌p̸̥̊u̸̲͘p̸̥̍p̴̢̐y̶͉̚ ̷͎̋e̷͜͠y̴̻̅e̶̥̅s̵̩̉ ̸͓̑ȃ̷͔ṅ̴̳d̴̮͐ y̷̩̽e̸̗͘ä̷̢r̵͉͒ṋ̸͂ só̵̵͕͘ͅ Ḭ̸̔ ̵̠̕t̷̩̾h̸̞͆ì̶͇n̵̰̄ḵ̷͝ ̷̖̈́Ị̴̐'̵̟̂v̷̭̑ȅ̷̢ ̷̳͗g̶͓̿ọ̸͂t̵̟͆ ̵̠̊p̵̻̿l̸̲̈́ê̴̹ň̸̺ẗ̴̠́y̸̫͑ ̸̭̌o̵̻̚f̸͚͋ ̸̛̼t̸̹͠i̵̭̔m̵͉͂e̸͈͒

[vbrosclips]

s4e15 The Silent Partners