Fox Movietone News Story 2-249 Chinese fashion show (1929)
Runtime: 9 minutes
Country: China, USA
Language: Mandarin, English with subtitles
Rating: Exemptible

Synopsis
“The modern Chinese girl combines the fashions of the East and the West,” Miss Sze, niece of diplomat Alfred Sze, says repeatedly to the camera. In the midst of the tumultuous Nanjing Decade and rises of Westernization in East Asia during the 1920s, Fox Movietone News (1928-1963) ran an educational newsreel story on Chinese evening gowns and accessories, intended for Western audiences. Two surviving reels of unused outtakes: Fox Movietone News Story 2-248 Chinese hair styles and Fox Movietone News Story 2-249 Chinese fashion show give us a glimpse into the cross-cultural elements, diplomatic sentiments and luxurious apparel of the time.

Courtesy of the University of South Carolina, Moving Image Research Collections.

Mao’s New Suit (1997)
2K RESTORATION
Director: Sally Ingleton
Runtime: 51 minutes
Country: China, Australia
Language: Mandarin, English with subtitles
Rating: PG

Synopsis

For decades people in China modelled themselves on Chairman Mao who wore a simple worker’s outfit in blue or grey. It was known as the ‘Mao Suit’. To wear anything different was dangerous. But by the late 1980s, China’s doors had opened. A generation emerged believing ‘that to get rich was glorious’ and they pursued an individual identity separate from the State.

The 1997 documentary Mao’s New Suit charts the course of dynamic young Beijing fashion designers Guo Pei and Sun Jian as they navigated a rapidly changing China and staged their first designer collection in Shanghai’s annual ‘Fashion Week’. Thirty years on, this film presents a fascinating look back at the early career of the now famous haute couture designer Guo Pei.

Text adapted from 360 Degree Films.

Fox Movietone News Story 2-248 Chinese hair styles (2023)
Runtime: 4 minutes
Country: China, USA
Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, English with subtitles
Rating: G

Synopsis

“The modern Chinese girl combines the fashions of the East and the West,” Miss Sze, niece of diplomat Alfred Sze, says repeatedly to the camera. In the midst of the tumultuous Nanjing Decade and rises of Westernization in East Asia during the 1920s, Fox Movietone News (1928-1963) ran an educational newsreel story on Chinese evening gowns and accessories, intended for Western audiences. Two surviving reels of unused outtakes: Fox Movietone News Story 2-248 Chinese hair styles and Fox Movietone News Story 2-249 Chinese fashion show give us a glimpse into the cross-cultural elements, diplomatic sentiments and luxurious apparel of the time.

Courtesy of the University of South Carolina, Moving Image Research Collections.

This screening is part of the programme Styled & Sutured: Fashion on Screen. For more screenings, please click here.

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