Man's Audience Robe (Chaofu)
Not on view
A chaofu, or audience robe, featuring a fully pleated skirt was the most formal type of men's court dress. Sumptuary regulations set in the mid-eighteenth century dictated that only the emperor and heir apparent could wear robes emblazoned with five-clawed dragons, but in the nineteenth century, these mandates were often overlooked. Blue-black audience robes were worn by Qing nobles, high-ranking civil and military officials, and imperial guards.
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