• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.48-66
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• 2019

The purpose of this thesis was to investigate the similarities between religious costumes and Kazakh and Tajik minority women's costumes in the Chinese northwestern minority population that believes in both Islam and Shamanism. The research was conducted by investigating the forms, colors, and patterns of 240 representative costume pieces and making quantitative comparisons between religious and traditional costumes. The results showed that the Kazakh and Tajik costumes were similarly formed, both intended to cover the human body. Both the Islamic and traditional headdresses were also similarly shaped. In terms of color, black, white, green, and blue were found frequently in the Islamic religious costumes, as were red and yellow. Red, white, and brown, ascribed to the colors of shamanism, signifying incantations, were also frequent, indicating that this was engrained in their lives. A review of the traditional costumes revealed the patterns of Islam. Plants, geometry, abstraction, and letter patterns were dominant, whereas the meaning of the Islamic patterns, rebirth, sun, life, and hope, influenced the traditional costume patterns. Patterns associated with incantations, like the animal horns shown in the shamanism religious costumes, were persistently observed even after the people were converted to Islam. This study on the similarities between religious and traditional costumes in the Chinese minority might help us understand the connection between religious and traditional costumes and elucidate the cultural costume transition process.