---
node: fashion_xia
type: fashion
slug: xia_dynasty_fashion
title: "Fashion in the Xia dynasty"
lead: "The semi-legendary Xia is known mainly from later texts and tentatively linked to the Erlitou culture, so its dress is reconstructed from Neolithic and early Bronze Age finds rather than direct records."
published: 2026-07-28
updated: 2026-07-28
change: "Published as a fashion sub-page under the history section"
requester: internal
reason: "Per the owner's decision, fashion is no longer a standalone section but lives under each history era"
---

## Overview

No garments or images survive that can be firmly tied to a Xia state. The picture comes from earlier and contemporary sites, where China had already domesticated silk — sericulture reaches back into the Neolithic — alongside hemp cloth.

## Key garments and style

People wore a two-part costume of upper garment and lower skirt (the yi-shang idea), wrapped and sashed, and jade ornaments already marked rank, as the earlier Liangzhu culture shows.

## Transition

The Shang that followed left oracle bones, bronzes and jade figures that give the first firm picture of ranked dress.