Fashion Research | Traditional Chinese and Mongolian Dress

Research/findings of note from: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/clothing/

• In addition to the basic features and patterns, traditional Chinese attires have many other features like appearance, cutting, decoration, color and design, etc, all of which changed over the various dynasties. For example, black is the most dignified color in the Xia Dynasty (21st - 17th century BC), white in the Shang Dynasty and red in the Zhou Dynasty. They also vary based on one’s political position, social status, occupation and gender, etc. For instance, dragon embroideries and bright yellow can only be used by emperors most of the time; in the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907 AD), purple official costumes are for the fifth or higher rank officials; in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911 AD), the higher a person’s social rank or the richer one was, the more embroideries and borders there were on his attires.
•  Dragon Robe: It is so named because of the embroidered dragons on it.  It can only be worn by the emperor, who was considered a dragon from heaven in the ancient times. Other characteristics of a dragon robe are round collar, buttons on the right and most of the time in bright yellow. 
•  Officials’ Uniform: Unlike modern China, almost all kinds of officials in ancient times had uniforms. They are strictly distinguished by colors, embroidered patterns and hats, etc. For instance, in the Ming Dynasty, the embroidered pattern on a first rank civil officer’s uniform was a crane, second rank a golden pheasant, third rank a peacock, fourth rank a wild goose, fifth rank a silver pheasant, sixth rank an egret, seventh rank a “purple mandarin duck”, eighth rank an oriole and ninth rank a quail. 

Turns out symbolism of shape/colour/design is/was very prevalent in ancient china and I think this would be really cool to add to my own designs to give ideas of status/environment/wealth/power/influence/background.

Similarly in mongolia:

The Mongolian head dresses differed in shape and purpose; there were hats for the young and old, summer and winter & men & women, holidays and ceremonies & fashionable and everyday hats. Their fashion and trimmings & colors were amazing varied depending on the sex of the person wearing it his or her social position or to who's tribe or nationality they belonged.
and on the subject of shoes:
Boots: The toes of boots are upturned, and several explanations have been offered for this unconventional style. If boots had upturned toes pre 1578 when Buddhism introduced to Mongolia , then this would be an example of religion using indigenous customs, beliefs etc. to support advance their own religion. Another explanation is that the upturned tip prevents a rider's feet from slipping out of the stirrups. However it's also true that boots are so thick and rigid that if they were flat, they would be almost impossible to walk in. 

Whilst clothe are very decorative in these cultures they are also fit for purpose, even the decoration serves the purpose of defining rank.