Naturalistic chrysanthemum blossoms, handcrafted from pink floss silk twisted around copper wires, adorn this pair of kitten-heeled mules. Artificial flowers such as these would have been worn by both men and women as hair ornaments, with different flowers according to the seasons.
For this pair of mules, Shanghai-born designer Denise Huang (b. 1973) took inspiration from a hugely popular Chinese period drama, Story of the Yanxi Palace (2018), which recounts the struggle of a palace maid in the court of the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-95). The costume designs are based on imperial collections held at the Palace Museum in Beijing, and many of the female characters wear floss silk flowers known as rong hua, a homophone for ‘honour and splendour.’
Streaming of the popular drama helped to raise awareness of the traditional craft of making artificial flowers, which is said to date back to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), with Nanjing and Yangzhou as two major production centres. Huang used such elements from historic Chinese culture in her designs, but in unexpected ways that are often infused with humour and imagination.