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The history of Chinese fashion industry covers arrangement of the most set colours with assorted varieties. At the same time, China's fashion has undergone a great change throughout different time periods over the past few decades. Different social classes in different periods of time display varied fashion trends.

In Chinese fashion, a wide number of clothes have Chinese artefacts, arts and photos symbolising their traditional culture, imprinted on them. Every era or historic period had a special style added to the existing ones. Each social class had its own fashion style attached to it on the basis of ones status in the society.

Three main dynastic periods were that of Regular citizens, Scholars and Civil or military officials. During the Pre-Qing Dynasty (also known as the Manchu Dynasty was the last ruling dynasty of China from 1644 to 1912.); the prevalent ancient Chinese clothing of regular citizens was broadly referred to as Hanfus (and Qipaos) with many variations such as traditional Chinese academic dress. Every individual stratum displayed a different fashion. In fact the military was totally distinctive in its appearance.

Scholars mainly referred to the Chinese academic class. While the Chinese civil or military officials had an assortment of motifs in order to mark a difference between their ranks and positions, the most renowned one being the Mandarin Square or rank badge. Use of colourful hat knobs on the top of the hats of the Chinese officials represented their ranking positions. In total, there were nine different types of hat knobs, denoting different ranks of the officials, while there are several other codes for Ming-styled and Qing-styled headwear.

The Chinese clothing known as the Hanfu (also referred to as guzhuang meaning "ancient clothing"), was the traditional dress of the Han Chinese folk. The term Hanfu has its organ in the Book of Han, which says, "then many came to the Court to pay homage and were delighted at the clothing style of the Han." It was fascinating for these visitors to see the characteristic outfit. As you can see, the Hanfu has a colorful history dating back 3000 years and more. In fact the dress was even worn by the legendary Yellow Emperor. It was popular since long before the Qing Dynasty came into power in the mid seventeenth century. Since the material of this ancient Chinese clothing was always silk, supposedly discovered by the Yellow Emperor's consort, Leizu, the Hanfu was also called 'silk robes'.
The Hanfu now is worn only at special occasions which are mostly historical reenactment, hobby, coming of age/rite of passage ceremonies, ceremonial clothing worn by religious priests, or cultural exercise. However, there are attempts on to try and make it a part of more day to day wear or at least during Chinese celebrations and festivals especially in China as well as among the non resident community.

Dragons on robes began as a purely informal fashion during the Ming dynasty, quickly became the highest form of official dress. Dragon robes were adopted by the rulers during the Qing dynasty and became part of the wardrobe of the imperial court. Their use declined with the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911, although members of the Imperial Family continued to wear them on formal occasions until departing the Forbidden City in 1924.

Robes sent to Tibet by rulers of the Ming dynasty five hundred years ago came to light when they were revealed in 1980. The display was critical to establishing the fact that silk robes can survive centuries proper care.

Between 1911 and 1949, the recent abolition of imperial China resulted into the introduction of new style for mens wear by Sun Yat-sen. This included introducing jackets and trousers in place of existing robes, and was later named as Zhongshan suit.

During the Peoples Republic of China period of 1950-1980, there appeared an extension to the existing Zhongshan suit by Mao Zedong, named as Mao suit. For females, Madame Sun introduced the Qipao as their standard dress.

In the era of Peoples Republic of China between 1990 till the present day, you may find tremendous development in Chinese fashion with contemporary urban clothing of different popular brands.

China attracts eyes of the world and finds favor in eyes of fashion circles. International brands add Chinese elements into their design one after another. In recently years, tradition Chinese elements like cotton weaving, embroider, DM splash ink, cloud-dragon totem and blue and white porceclain frequently appear in top apparel brands including Valentino, Dior, Kenzo and Prada. Chinese elements become hotter and hotter in global fashion circle.
Every fashion hit man will declare that he is always at the forefront of fashion. Self-awareness of designers launches attaches on people’s life in form of brand. In this sense, fashion is the battle for influence between brands. And then there were the myth of Versace and the legend of Chanel.

Fashion is the fight for influence between nations. Thinking back the past 100 years, the USA once took the fashion leading rule from the most fashionable cities in Europe. But a sudden America financial crisis triggered a fashion renaissance in Europe. Later the Europe financial crisis made the fashionable vane turn to New York…
In fact, Ancient China has much fashion power. The said Wei-Jin Manners were a kind of leisure and fashion wind that had no equal at that time. The popular white silk head dress, leather cloak and clogs were not formal dress but won hearts of the emperor and scholar-bureaucrats. This dress expressed a free and comfortable state and unrestrained manner.

Xie Gong clogs and large silk head dress formed the earliest and the most influential leisure dress in fashion circles. From the Painting Emperor Ming Plays Chuiwan Game and the Scroll of Figures of Ladies, the Chuiwan and Cuju depicted in the scrolls were the rudiments of modern golf and football respectively.
The track of fashion always kept an intimate relationship with the historical context of international relations in the past millennium. So we can predict the future fashion development from tracing history evolution. Chinese elements become one of the international popular elements. The Beijing Olympic Game, in particular, promotes Chinese elements to all corners of the world.