Asian quilted pants

[thedecorouscat]

Hi everyone. I’m hoping someone out there can help me with a pair of handmade quilted pants I recently acquired. I’m trying to figure out both the country of origin, as well as a rough date for them.

The interior and waistband appears to be a rough cotton or linen but the exterior is what’s confusing me. Silk?Rayon? I’ve shown them to a few people and none of us can agree. The quilting material is some type of natural fiber but doesn’t feel like wool... definitely some type of natural fiber though. I did do a burn test on it through a little hole in one leg and the stuff went up like I’d doused it in kerosene- it was gone before I could even register the flame was really lit. I wasn’t able to get enough of the black material to get a conclusive test but it didn’t melt on burning so I’m ruling any weird plastic blends out.

I guess I’m just thrown by the rough interior vs the fancy exterior but maybe that’s normal for this thing? I’m leaning towards Chinese but I’ve also been proposed Japanese or Indian in design. I’m also just wondering if they’re a weird diy project. Any ideas?

thanks in advance for any help!

 

[Midge]

I admit this is outside of my expertise, but I am intrigued . Is it all handsewn?

 

[thedecorouscat]

Yes they are. The thread is a pretty hefty cotton or it’s like.

 

[Midge]

That would point to something older, possibly - and from somewhere where it gets cold enough to warrant this kind of garment.

 

[thedecorouscat]

I concur. I was able to find notes of padded and quilted breeches dating all that way back to the Han Dynasty but it seems just about everyone wore them in various styles (even the cavalry) and they stuck around all the way up to the Mao era soooo... bit of a broad time span if that actually is what I’m looking at. Sigh.

 

[Linn]

Do you live anywhere near a museum that has an Asian Costume department or a broad textile department? It might be not be possible to show them to a curator in person at this time, but if it is, that might solve the mystery. If not in person, maybe you could send an email to
either a museum near you or one of the larger Asian Art Museums - San Francisco comes to mind.

Very interesting find!

 

[thedecorouscat]

Update... sorta.
I was able to find a seller on Instagram who has a pair very similar in style (same colors and everything) although her’s aren’t quilted. She had dated hers to the “Qing dynasty”, more specifically the Victorian era. She stated she didn’t really know much about them though and had gotten the date just from the age of the fabric more than anything. Soooo.... I feel pretty solid about the assumption that they’re Chinese (that and I checked my copy of “History of World Costume and Fashion” and couldn’t find anything else close). Dating still is inconclusive.

...now I’ve become obsessed and must know.