Empire of Style: Silk and Fashion in Tang China

I had a sudden serious need to find out about Tang Dynasty style, and was getting desperate when a friend (expert on the period) alerted me to this new book. Problem solved: this is an excellent introduction to the clothing of China's "cosmopolitan empire" (in the words of Mark Lewis). China was greatly influenced by west and central Asia, especially in clothing. Court ladies as well as entertainers loved to wear central Asian styles, especially for horseback activities, Chinese robes being unsuited to that purpose. The ladies clearly found it liberating to wear simple form-fitting dress and gallop across the fields. Chen's book explains not only the styles but the methods of production, which included clamp-dyeing, a new dyeing method invented at the time by a court lady.

This book has been shortlisted for the Textile Society of America’s R. L. Shep Award, given annually to the publication judged to be the best book of the year in the field of ethnic textile studies. The purpose of the award is to encourage the study and understanding of the world’s textile traditions by recognizing and rewarding exceptional scholarship in the field. A panel of three judges appointed by the board of directors of the Textile Society of America is tasked with selecting the book that most successfully combines such outstanding scholarship with broad popular appeal.