Pair of court shoes for a bride, red satin-weave silk; embroidery in silk and metallic thread, made by Sun Sun Shoes Factory, Hong Kong, 1940-1970

A pair of court shoes worn by the bride in Chinese weddings. The shoes are of red satin weave silk with an elaborate embroidered phoenix-and-dragon design in heavily-couched gold and coloured metal thread.

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Please refer to acquisition info for accession info.
Index card from Vallery Garrett states that the pair was purchased at Hollywood Road in Hong Kong and described as "Ladies court shoes embroidered with couched gold thread in dragon and phoenix design to be worn by bride. Mid-20th century." Though the pair may have been made by a shoe store called Sun Sun which is no longer located at its stated address "32 Lyndhurst Avenue, HK".

According to Garrett, in her book Chinese Clothing: An Illustrated Guide (p 131-138), brides traditionally had to embroider their own shoes, along with everything else to be placed in her future bedroom i.e. curtains, bed sheets, etc to demonstrate her embroidery skills. But over time, articles of ready-made wedding clothing were usually sent to the bride from the bridegroom's family, which were usually borrowed or rented for the occasion.

By the mid-20th century, wedding costume of the bride has changed from something more elaborate garments decorated with auspicious flowers and birds or sometimes of dragon and phoenix (dragon was said to represent the male and phoenix the female, having them side by side symbolises the perfect balance of yin and yang of the bride and the groom) into what is more popularly known as "hong gua" (sometimes "qun kwa") which is a set of matching red jacket and skirt whose design is still predominated by the dragon and phoenix, often with the metal couched threads covering the whole of the satin. Also, in place of the red bound-feet shoes the bride wore flat slippers embroidered with the dragon and phoenix.. It then became far more usual to hire these expensive outfits. Though Western white wedding dress are usually worn by brides of today, the hong gua is still worn for kowtowing to the ancestors and both sets of parents.

This heavily embroidered pair of heels maybe considered as a contemporary version to replace the traditionally flat embroidered wedding slippers.

Red is the primary colour for traditional Chinese wedding ceremonies. This pair of red court shoes would have been worn by the bride to complete an ensemble of a matching jacket and skirt, known as hong gua or ‘red gown.’ The uppers are richly embroidered with a dragon and a phoenix chasing a pearl, worked in highly padded metallic couching on red satin, so that the design stands out in relief. Today, white wedding dresses are popular, but traditional bridal ensembles are still worn for the performing of rituals in front of parents and ancestors, and during the wedding banquets.
These shoes were handmade by the Sun Sun Shoes Factory, located at 32 Lyndhurst Avenue, Hong Kong. The Hong Kong footwear industry began in the mid-1920s, producing mostly rubber and canvas shoes, and expanded rapidly in the 1930s to meet the growing demands of the export market. By the 1950s, it was thriving, making nearly every type of footwear - including leather shoes, casual and formal, bespoke and mass-produced - to cater to the latest fashions in the local and overseas markets.

FE.72:1, 2-1995