She Clothes

Costume of the She women features embroidery, collar, buttons on the right side, embroidered patterns of flowers, birds, dragons and phoenixes on the pockets or even the cuffs. The Phoenix Dress is the typical costume for women. It is distinctive for the hair tied in a bun on top of the head and decorated with strands of red knitting wool. Married women usually wear a "phoenix crown", which is delicately made of thin bamboo strips wrapped by red handkerchiefs and with a drooping damask silk band of over 30 cm long and 3 cm wide. 

Legend has it that the Third Princess, a lady of high rank, married Panhu, who was considered below her. On the day of her wedding, the empress dressed the Third Princess in a phoenix crown and phoenix dress, wishing her a blessed life like the phoenix. Later all her three sons married princesses. Naturally, in view of this, women are held in great esteem, and have come to be known as "phoenixes". Perhaps because of this, a bride is given the honorable title of "phoenix" on her wedding day. The "phoenix dress" and "phoenix hair-do" mark the end of her girlhood. Ever since then, She women have begun to wear the Phoenix Dress, which is considered auspicious.