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DUTIES, SHIPPING AND RETURNS, CALCULATED BEFORE YOU ORDER · 联袂ISSUE 001 · SPRING 2026

Qipao and cheongsam: one garment, two names, and a disputed origin

A close-fitting one-piece dress with a standing collar and a front that fastens under the right arm. Which word you use depends on which language English borrowed from — and where the garment came from before 1920s Shanghai is genuinely unsettled.

BY MEI 袂
01

Which word is right

Qipao and cheongsam are two names for one garment: a close-fitting one-piece dress with a standing collar, a front panel that crosses the chest and fastens under the right arm, and slits at the sides of the skirt.

Qipao (旗袍, “banner gown”) is the Mandarin name, after the Eight Banners of the Qing. Cheongsam comes from Cantonese 長衫 (cheung saam, “long shirt”) and reached English through Hong Kong and Shanghai. Neither is more correct than the other — the difference is which language English borrowed from. Mainland China says qipao; Hong Kong and most English-language shops say cheongsam.

The garment took its modern form in 1920s Shanghai. Where it came from before that is genuinely disputed.

Short answer · sizeSellers put “M” on anything from an 84cm bust to 93cm. Ignore the letter, use your measurements. →Short answer · partsCollar, closure, slit, piping — the things to look at, named in both languages. →Short answer · wearing itThere is more than one view, including from Chinese commentators. We report them. →
02

The disagreement

Encyclopaedias give the qipao one origin. The specialist literature gives it two, and they are incompatible. Both readings work from the same handful of dated facts. Neither can account for everything.
Not in dispute — both positions accept these
The garment recognised today took its modern form in1920s Shanghai.
Its defining features are the standing collar, the right-side asymmetric closure, the one-piece cut and the side slits.
The word 旗袍 refers to the Eight Banners, the Manchu social and military units of the Qing.
Under Qing dress regulation, Han and Manchu women's dress were kept distinct for most of the dynasty.
Position ADescent
IT COMES FROM THE MANCHU ROBE
旗人之袍
The 1920s dress is a narrowed, modernised version of the one-piece robe worn by Manchu women under the Qing. The line runs straight from the banner robe to the Shanghai dress.
Rests on
The name itself, which points at the banners and nowhere else. The construction logic is shared and unusual: one piece, standing collar, closure to the right — a combination with no precedent in Han women's dress of the period.
Cannot account for
Why young, modernising, mostly Han women would adopt a garment associated with the dynasty they had just helped depose — and do it a decade after the fall, at the height of anti-Qing feeling.
Position BAdoption
IT COMES FROM MEN'S DRESS
女穿男袍
Han women had not worn Manchu robes for most of the dynasty. The 1920s dress is women taking up the men's long gown — the changshan — during the May Fourth years, as a claim on equality rather than an inheritance.
Rests on
Qing dress regulation kept Han and Manchu women's dress apart, so there was no living Han tradition of the banner robe to modernise. Hong Kong tailoring and its cultural record have called the garment長衫 — “long shirt”, a men's word — throughout.
Cannot account for
Why the name that stuck in Mandarin is the one pointing at the banners — and why it stuck immediately, among the people wearing it, rather than being applied later by historians.
Why it stays open
THE TWO SIDES DESCRIBE DIFFERENT GARMENTS
The 1920s dress is loose and straight. The fitted shape everyone pictures arrives in the 1930s. An argument about “the qipao” often turns out to be an argument about which decade.
BOTH READINGS CARRY POLITICS
One account makes the dress national continuity; the other makes it a feminist break. Much of the source material on each side was written by people to whom that difference mattered.
THE EVIDENCE IS THIN IN THE SAME PLACE
Both readings lean on a small number of dated garments and photographs. Neither has the run of everyday clothing that would settle it.
03

Anatomy — learn to see one

Six parts. Once you can name them you can tell a considered garment from a costume across a room, and you can read a seller's description properly.

立领lì lǐng
STANDING COLLAR“stand collar”
A stiffened band fastened at the throat. Its height sets the formality of the whole garment, and a collar that buckles rather than stands is the first sign of cheap interfacing.
大襟dà jīn
ASYMMETRIC FRONT“large lapel”
The front panel that crosses the chest and closes under the right arm. On a patterned cloth, whether the print matches across this seam tells you what the maker cared about.
盘扣pán kòu
KNOTTED CLOSURE“coiled button”
Cord knotted into a ball and a loop. Elaborate floral versions are盘花扣 pánhuākòu. Hand-knotted from the garment's own cloth is the mark; sewn-on frog appliqué over a hidden zip is the substitute.
开衩kāi chà
SIDE SLIT“open slit”
Opening at the side seam that lets the wearer walk in a narrow skirt. Its height has been the most argued-over detail of the garment for a century. Look for a bound edge and a reinforced stop at the top.
滚边gǔn biān
PIPING“rolled edge”
A narrow bound edge running the collar, the lapel line, the slits and the hem. Even width around a curve is slow handwork and hard to fake.
收腰shōu yāo
WAIST SUPPRESSION“gather the waist”
The shaping through the waist. The 1920s cut is straight; the fitted shape most people picture is a 1930s development, and how it is achieved — darts, or a cut-and-shaped side seam — separates a made garment from a bought pattern.

The other Chinese garment Westerners confuse this one with is hanfu 汉服 — a different tradition with a different front, and the collar is what separates them.

More of the vocabulary — 腋下包,国潮, 松弛感 — is in the Chinese fashion glossary.

Pending — three of these terms (大襟, 收腰, and whether the piping is written 滚边 or绲边) are in use among tailors but are not yet traced to a primary source. Listed in the open questions below.

04

Cloth and making — learn to judge one

Two cloths worth knowing by name, because a seller who has them will say so and a seller who does not will imitate the words.

Both cloths turn up again in neo-Chinese fashion, where they are cut into contemporary shapes rather than traditional ones.

Cloth 01Guangdong
香云纱xiāng yún shā
GAMBIER-DYED SILK “fragrant cloud gauze”
How it is made

Silk is coated repeatedly with juice pressed from the root of 薯莨 shǔliáng, dried in the sun between coats, then spread on a riverbank and covered in iron-rich mud. The mud reacts with the dye: the buried face turns black, the upper face stays a red-brown tan. It is a seasonal craft — it needs sun, and it needs that particular mud.

How you recognise it

Two different colours on the two faces of one cloth. A dry, papery rustle. A faint mineral smell when new. Fine surface crazing that softens with wear rather than wearing out.

What it costs — pendingObserved prices with dates are in verification.
Cloth 02Jiangsu · Suzhou
宋锦sòng jǐn
SUZHOU BROCADE “Song brocade”
How it is made

A compound-weave silk named for the dynasty whose patterns it carries, woven in and around Suzhou. The pattern is built into the structure of the cloth on the loom — extra weft threads floating and binding to draw the figure — rather than printed on top or embroidered afterwards.

How you recognise it

Turn it over. A woven figure has a reverse; a printed one does not. It holds a crisp shape rather than draping softly, which is why it is cut for structured garments.

What it costs — pendingObserved prices with dates are in verification.
05

Sizing — “M” is not a measurement

9 cm apart

MEI read the published size charts of eight sellers of this garment. Their “M” runs from an 84 cm bust to a 93 cm one. That is not a Chinese-versus- Western gap — the sellers at both ends face the same market — it is sellers disagreeing with each other, and it means the letter on the label carries nothing you can act on.

Where sellers put “M”Bust, in centimetres, as each seller publishes it

9 cm apart

Between The Hanfu Story at 84 cm and Hey Cheongsam at 93 cm — both selling a garment labelled “M”.

80
85
90
95
100
105
110
The Hanfu Story
84
Beth & Brian
86
imallure
86
Dragon Seed
86
Luxe Orienta
86
MyCheongsam
92
Oriental Me
92
Hey Cheongsam
93
Garment measurementBody measurement

Eight sellers, read on 23 August 2026. Every figure is the one that seller publishes for M — MEI has converted nothing. Note the two kinds: most quote the garment's own measurement, one quotes the body it is cut to fit, and those are different claims. A verified sample, not a survey of the market.

Measure instead
  1. 01Bust. Fullest point, tape level, not pulled tight.
  2. 02Waist. Narrowest point, usually just above the navel.
  3. 03Hip. Fullest point, standing with feet together.

Compare those three numbers to the garment's stated centimetres, not to the letter. Then check what the seller measured — the garment, or the body it is cut for. Both get published as “bust”, and they are not the same number. If a listing gives no measurements at all, that is the answer to your question.

A qipao is cut close, so a garment measuring the same as your body will fit like a second skin. If you want to sit down in it comfortably, look for a few centimetres more at the waist and hip.

What it costs to get one to you — duty, import VAT and the carrier's handling fee — is worked out per territory in where to buy Chinese fashion.

06

What the shops claim

Claims we see repeatedly, paraphrased and sorted by one question only: can you check it before you pay? We do not name sites. The point is what a buyer can verify, not who said what.

“100% mulberry silk”
Ask for the fibre-content label before ordering, and check the garment against it on arrival. Silk burns to a brittle ash and smells of hair; polyester melts to a hard bead.
You can check
“Ships from the US / EU”
Take it to checkout without paying. The shipping option, the delivery window and any duty line will tell you where it is coming from.
You can check
“Hand-finished” / “handmade”
Ask which steps. No standard defines the words, and almost every garment involves some hand work. Photographs of the closures and the inside seams answer it faster than the seller will.
Partly
“Genuine 香云纱 xiangyunsha”
Two faces, two colours — that you can check yourself. Provenance of the specific cloth is another matter; ask where it was dyed and whether the workshop is named. MEI is still establishing what documentation exists.
MEI verifying
“Tang dynasty design” / “worn for a thousand years”
Nothing to check — it is not a claim about the garment you are buying. The dress in this shape dates to the 1920s, and both accounts of its origin place it there.
Not a checkable claim
“Made by village artisans” / “our family workshop”
Ask for the name of the workshop and where it is. A seller who has one will answer; the words on their own carry no information.
Partly
07

Wearing it now

In research · v0.1

Where the garment turns up in Britain and America now, and the argument about who gets to wear it. We set out the positions and stop there.

Where it is worn

At weddings — by the couple and by guests, and in the tea ceremony in particular, where it is standard rather than a choice. At Lunar New Year. At graduations, increasingly. Those three occasions cover most of what a Western buyer is shopping for, and they are not the same brief: a tea-ceremony garment is formal and usually red, a New Year one is not.

Who has borrowed from it

Western designers have taken the collar, the closure and the silhouette repeatedly since the 1990s. MEI does not publish names or collections until each is dated and sourced.

Names and dates pending verification

The appropriation argument — positions, not a verdict
MEI does not adjudicate
Position 01
CONTEXT IS THE WHOLE QUESTION

The objection most often raised in English-language coverage is not to the garment but to the costume: worn as a theme, with unrelated borrowed accessories, at a party. An invited guest at a Chinese wedding is a different case, and most people arguing this say so.

Attribution pending

Position 02
CHINESE COMMENTARY OFTEN GOES THE OTHER WAY

A position argued widely on Chinese-language platforms, and largely absent from English coverage: Chinese dress being worn abroad is welcome, and objections raised on China's behalf by people who do not live there are not speaking for anyone who does.

Attribution pending

Commerce — this is the only part of the page that sells anything

08

Where to buy

Every seller listed here carries its mode, the price MEI observed, the date MEI observed it, and where it ships. Nothing appears until all four fields are filled.

Mode 01 · Authorized
Image pending
Seller
Pending
Relationship
Pending
Price observed
Pending
Date observed
Pending
Ships to
Pending
Mode 02 · Curated
Image pending
Maker
Pending
Relationship
Pending
Price observed
Pending
Date observed
Pending
Ships to
Pending
Mode 03 · MEI object
NONE IN THIS CATEGORY

MEI does not make a qipao. If we ever do, it will appear here with its factory, its materials and its margins disclosed — and it will not sit next to these two without saying which it is.

Three seller records are in verification. They publish when the relationship, the price and the date are all confirmed — not before. Until they do, where to buy Chinese fashion covers the routes, the duty arithmetic and the carrier fees. Checked 2026-08-23.

What remains unverified

  • Which origin account the surviving garments support. MEI has worked from photographs and published scholarship, not from dated garments examined in person. This may not be answerable from published sources.
  • Resolved 23 August 2026 — block 05 now names its sample. Eight sellers of this garment, each figure read from that seller's own published chart on that date, and the earlier claim that Chinese sizing runs 1.5–2 sizes small has been withdrawn: the spread is between individual sellers rather than between Chinese and Western ones. What remains open is the market beyond this sample, and whether sellers publishing a body measurement rather than a garment one are a minority or a third of the field.
  • What documentation exists for 香云纱 provenance, and whether a buyer can obtain it from a seller.
  • Observed prices, for both cloths and for finished garments, each with the date and the seller. None are published on this page yet.
  • Named attribution for the two positions in block 07, and dated examples of Western designers borrowing from the garment.
  • Sources for three construction terms — 大襟, 收腰, and whether the piping is written 滚边 or 绲边. The terms are in use; MEI has not yet traced each to a primary source.

Sources

  1. Primary · officialHong Kong Memory — the cheongsam and its cultural traits ↗4 August 2026
  2. Primary · interviewGuangming Daily — Qing records of 旗装 and Manchu dress terms ↗28 July 2017
  3. Independent reportingChinese Cultural Club — the qipao ↗
  4. Primary · officialThe Hanfu Story — First Spring cheongsam, published size chart. Carries the row "M 84 68 88 37 120", read 23 August 2026 ↗
  5. Primary · officialMyCheongsam — embroidered cheongsam, published size chart. Carries M（160）at bust 92 cm, waist 74 cm, shoulder 34.5 cm, read 23 August 2026 ↗
  6. Independent reportingPeople's Daily app — xiangyunsha dyeing and finishing ↗
  7. Independent reportingEbrun — Songjin among China's three famous brocades ↗22 August 2025

A source being official establishes what the brand says. It does not independently establish sales, sourcing, manufacturing quality, awards or social impact — those remain attributed until MEI obtains records, institutional confirmation or firsthand product testing.