People lived in poverty for the first twenty years after the founding of new China. In some rural areas, people even made trousers out of fertilizer bags. A piece of clothing could be worn for several years. Instead of beauty, the fashion at the time represented the construction of the country, revolution and idealism. The Chinese tunic suit and military-styled clothes were their first choice.

During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), there was a popular saying : Everyone in China was a soldier. Thus, the most fashionable style was a four-pockets military uniform without shoulder straps, a brown Sam Browne belt, a Mao Zedong badge on the chest, a grass-green canvas bag and a red sleeve emblem of the Red Guard. However, it also brought about an era of the fiercest change in Chinese clothing. The end of the Cultural Revolution revived the people’s desire and pursuit for beauty, resulting in a lot of turnarounds that happened toward the end of 1970s.

 

The Chinese tunic suit, designed and worn by Sun Yat-sen, was popular in the 1950s and 1960s.