Wear a Beautiful Cheongsam for Chinese New Year High Latitude Style

My friend Rosalind Khan and the UAF Chinese Student Club used to organize a Chinese New Year party every year prior to COVID19. In honor of the New Lunar Year, this post presents the cheongsams and other traditional outfits modeled in the fashion show and what to wear for Chinese New Year.

Contents

Chinese New Year Festivities Organized by UAF Students had a Tradition
The Typical Program
What I Wore at the Party
- Why I Didn’t Wear the Dress to Model Right Away
- Modeling in Greasy Pants
- Dressing Lesson Learned
Great Cheongsam Dresses in the Traditional Ethnic Clothing Fashion Show
Which Shoes and Accessories Go with a Cheongsam?
The Food
The Special Guests
A Culturally Diverse Audience
What the Audience Wore: Red Clothes Are Key for Chinese New Year
Top of the World Style linkup No 194

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Chinese New Year Festivities Organized by UAF Students

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Chinese Student Association and their adviser Rosalind Khan have organized a Chinese New Year party every year. They always have invited the Fairbanks community to the party. They have been supported by many Chinese business owners in the Fairbanks metropolitan area (sounds big, but it is just Fairbanks population 32324, North Pole 2214 and Fox 417). These businesses have donated door prices and one Chinese restaurant has donated the food.

little red dress — Talk master announcing the next performance after the fashion show. She wanted to sell her cute red dress to get one of the traditional dresses. I like her look of flat booties with black tights and this short dress. If the dress were mine I would wear it with skinnies or black leather pants

woman in pink long formal attire with black lace — MC of the party announcing the special guests in a pink long attire with black lace

The Program

The program started out with the buffet dinner. Afterwards the kids performed two dances, and wished the adults a Happy New Year. In return, they got little red envelops with money and a fruit.

On the program, there have been Chinese martial arts performances, traditional dances performed by students taking Chinese as a foreign language joined by other women enjoying to dance, Chinese songs and music, little sketches presented in either Chinese or English, a fashion show presenting Chinese traditional clothing, educational pieces about the Chinese culture. The tickets for the event were $16 in the past couple of years or so. They used to be $15 since 2002.

Alaska students performing in self-made costumes — Students and Fairbanks women performing a Jasmine Dance

Next was a Jasmine Flower dance performed by the students of Chinese 102 and 202 in self-made costumes. They had cut the long sleeves of white Tees to 3/4 and sewed lace on the sleeves and bottom of the Tees as finish. The greenery maxi skirts had a flare cut. The hand pieces were self-made paper flowers.

kung fu demonstration in Alaska — Chinese and American champion in kung fu posing after his demonstration

The beautiful dance was followed by an extra-ordinary kung fu demonstration by the Chinese and American kung fu champion. His movements were so fast that the camera couldn’t catch them except at the end when he took the applause.

over 40 years old woman in red and black sheath dress — Fairbanks woman singing a Chinese opera song in a back and red sheath dress and black patent leather pumps

The woman in her beautiful red and black sheath dress sang a Chinese opera song as well as a contemporary Chinese hit. She also performed in some of the dances. There was also a man’s vocal solo and a choir singing a gospel.

The UAF students of Chinese 102 and 202 performed Little Apple – a hip hop from China. Between the various performances there was drawing of door prizes.

Chinese dance costumes — Chinese veil dance in traditional costumes at the Chinese New Year celebration in Fairbanks, AK

Chinese traditional dance clothes for a van dance — Van dance in Chinese traditional costumes

What I Wore at the Party

Of course, I could have worn one of my Chinese dresses. However, I had been asked whether they could be used for the fashion show. I also modeled in the fashion show, however, I was wearing someone else’s dress. Since my dresses were foreseen for the show, I wore my purple Sympli drama dress. It is easy to pull it on and off and it doesn’t wrinkle. See the link for a review. Non-wrinkle fabric is very important when there is not dressing room and you have to change in the restroom area. Typically, I wear the dress when going out for dancing.

mature fashion blogger in trendy purple dramatic dress with hand painted scarf — Hanes tight, jade bangle, Salvatore Ferragamo snake pumps, three strings pearl necklace, jade earrings (all own), trendy purple drama dress c/o Sympli, hand painted silk scarf c/o Uno Alla Volta, Akoya pearl necklace c/o The Pearl Source Inc., and best girl friends bracelet c/o Chicos

Why I Didn’t Wear the Dress to Model Right Away

You are of course right that I could have worn the dress that I was assigned to model at the fashion show. The reason I didn’t is the following. A couple of years ago, I had to model my pink traditional suit (see photos from the fashion show below). I had worn it during the dinner part of the New Year celebration. Prior to the fashion show I wanted to enhance my makeup so it would show also from far. Therefore I wanted to go to the restrooms and went out. At that moment, a kid with dirty greasy fingers ran in and against my pants. To not fall the kid garbed my pants. I was fast enough to hold my pants up. They have a rubber waist band. Thus, I was lucky not standing there in underwear. However, my pants had these greasy dirty hand prints. I was about to cry.

#fashionover50 midlife woman looking posh chic in a dramatic dress — Side view of outfit with drama dress c/o Sympli, silk scarf c/o Uno Alla Volta with own Salvatore Ferragamo pumps, jade bangle, and Alaska jade earrings

Modeling in Greasy Pants

Guess what? It was too late to go home to switch into another Chinese dress and nobody had a spare that would fit me. Thus, I wore the pants back to front and made sure, I wouldn’t turn around when modeling.

style blogger in purple dress with light green pumps — Showing the tail of the drama dress c/o Sympli worn with oblong scarf c/o Uno Alla Volta, and own Hanes tight, jade bangle, Salvatore Ferragamo snake pumps, and Alaska jade earrings

Dressing Lesson Learned

From that event, I learned not to wear the piece to be presented ahead of time. Furthermore, this time, I was to present an item that wasn’t even mine. It’s better to be careful than sorry. Therefore, I wore an easy to wash dress.

Great Cheongsam Dresses in the Traditional Ethnic Clothing Fashion Show

fashion at any age Fairbanksans modeling authentic outfits — Group photo of all models in Chinese ethnic clothing

The clothing pageant presented various traditional Chinese clothes. Here are some close-ups of my favorite outfits.

White dress with a beauty printed on

fashion blogger over 50 donning an embroidered LBD

LBD with rose embroidery, multiple strands of pearls, van, and L.K. Bennett open toe pumps

Fairbanks high school student modeling a pink silk suit

Floral print top with black leggings and tall boots Traditional look of one of the many minorities with pleated decorated and embroidered skirt and top

Purple jacquard jacket with butterfly motives

style over 40 woman in embroidered sheath — Sitting on the stage in an embroidered dress prior to the show

Chinese traditional outfits for girls — These two young women present outfits that were traditionally worn by little girls. The left outfit is from cotton, the right one is from silk with embroidery on the front and at the bottom of the legs

Various Chinese traditional clothes — Various Chinese outfits presented in the fashion show of the 2015 Chinese New Year’s celebration in Fairbanks, Alaska

Chinese wedding dress — Silk brocade Chinese red traditional wedding dress

Modeling a Chinese dress — Royal blue Chinese traditional dress with turquois Salvatore Ferragamo pumps (all own) modeled by me in the fashion show

Front view of Chinese dress with Salvatore Ferragamo pumps (all own)

midlife woman in embroidered traditional dress for Chinese New Year's party — Traditional Chinese embroidered silk dress from someone else’s closet with own pearl necklace, velvet jacket, and yellow square toe Christian Louboutain pumps

group photo of models wearing Chinese clothes — Group photo of models on the catwalk featuring traditional Chinese clothing from Fairbanks’ closets

I love this red and black dress with little cropped jacket in the photo below. It’s sort a variation of my sheath with cropped boxy jacket or with cardigan style. Furthermore, it comes very close to the traditional dress for the occasion, which is a red cheongsam. What do you think about this beauty? Black is my favorite color closely followed by red. Red means happiness, passion and luck. Especially, when it’s your zodiac year.

While traditionally black and white are No-Nos, the young generation wear what they want. I’m not an Old Lady and I always wear what I want. According to my friend, it’s also a thing to wear something sentimental. Thus, the jade bangle which is a gift from a girl-friend who moved to the DC area seemed a good fit as an accessory. Jade is also the Alaska state gem. Why now wearing Alaska jewelry when you live there, right? You want the right accessories for great style.Here are the photos of the clothing pageant. Well there are also some cool looks from Fairbanks women wearing what is Fairbanks Formal. See the link for a definitions and further examples. Enjoy the fashion show of traditional looks.

Group photo of all models in the fashion show

All items on the catwalk stem from Fairbanks’ closets. People provide their items for the models to show off. Thus, the beautiful dress I am wearing in the photos below is not mine. 🙁

On the catwalk showing off the high slit of the chic sleek dress

Back view of the Chinese dress I presented at the fashion show. I love this tea length

Like these outfit inspirations? Please feel free to pin them to your own Pinterest board.
Which outfit is your favorite?

Which Shoes and Accessories Go with a Cheongsam?

Black, red or nude shoes with the cheongsam? Or maybe an animal print like my leopard print stilettoes with satin tango shoes?
Shoes make or break an outfit. - unknown #fashionquote #shoelove Click To Tweet
So I tried them all on. Trying things out is the fun part about dressing, isn’t it? What’s your favorite part about wearing something new?

To show off the Manadrin collar, I went with a ballerina-inspired updo. Here is how I styled the velvet floral print clothing.

fashion blogger in New Year outfit and high plateau heels — Cheongsam with cropped jacket (borrowed) styled with own Judith Leiber charm belt, pantyhose, jade bangle, L.K. Bennett plateau snake print heels (all own), best girlfriends bracelet c/o Chico’s, and designer clutch c/o Bellorita

Picking up a color of the cheongsam with patent leather pumps is also a chic option like in the left outfit below. Another option a nude patent leather pumps or gold.

Red and black dresses shown in the Chinese fashion show — Red and black Chinese dresses shown on the catwalk

The Food

As aforementioned, the event started with a delicious Chinese buffet prepared by AK Buffet Restaurant, a local restaurant in East Fairbanks in a mall on Third Street. There was Asian style cooked fish, various dishes with beef, pork or chicken, chicken kebab, vegetables delight, a variety of filled dumplings, flour dumplings, white rice, fried rice and fried noodles. There was American style strawberry and chocolate cream cake as a dessert.

fashion blogger over 40 traditional Chinese clothes — My friend Rosalind Khan wearing a raw silk Chinese style jacket over a white Tee and me. Rosalind coached the dancers and helped with the organization of this traditional Fairbanks community event. She also moderated the clothing pageant

In former years, there was the original New Year’s rice cake with raisins as dessert. To be honest, I prefer the rice cake over the cream cake, but I guess they tried something different as there were always large leftovers of rice cake. Looking at this event’s leftover desserts reveals that people were just full from the delicious dishes and hence skipped dessert.

I decided to forego taking a picture of my plate. Because of the long queue, the servers had put the various dishes onto the plate aiming at being fast. In other words, the arrangement of the food on the plate was not Instagram worthy. 😉 However, it smelled and tasted delicious. 🙂

The Special Guests

An employee from the Chinese embassy in San Francisco, the Chancellor and his wife, and the Chinese and American Kung Fu champion were among the special guests. I am not good at estimating how many people were there. According to the numbers on the tickets, there must have been over 400 people assuming the ticket numbers started with 1 and no number was left out.

Chinese New Year's guests in Fairbanks — View on the guests during dinner, the stage and decoration in the Wood Center

A Culturally Diverse Audience

Since there was no dress code on the tickets or event fliers, Fairbanksans did showed up in what ever they wanted. At the long tables with red table clothes, you could see the dressed-up woman in a cocktail dress sitting side-by-side with someone who was dressed as if they had mushed with their dog team to the event. Many women and little kids wore traditional outfits. Only few men did so.

The audience is culturally quite diverse. There were many immigrants from all over the world. Of course, people born in China or Taiwan, but also people born in Russia, the Philippines, Australia, India, Kenia, Cuba, and Germany, just to mention a few. There were many people who were former Peace Corps Volunteers, university officials, and long-term Fairbanksans including those born in Fairbanks. Faibanksans celebrate cultural diversity and they are interested in, respect for and curiosity about each other’s traditions and culture is a big thing for many Alaskans.

Audience of Chinese New Year's celebration in Fairbanks, Alaska — View into the audience after the delicious traditional Chinese New Year’s dinner to illustrate the diverse audience

The photos in this posts are snap shots from the event illustrating the diversity and capturing some high lights of the show. You can find other posts on Fairbanks’ cultural diversity at the post at the link: Star Trek artificial intelligence – whom do you talk to.

The Fairbanksans wore Fairbanks formal dress code. In this post, I want to show you my favorite looks from the party as well as some looks from the fashion show. Thus, expect a great mix of ethnic clothes, and cool street chic.

Do you know what is Fairbanks Formal? Find out here. #trivia Click To Tweet

What the Audience Wore: Red Clothes Are Key for Chinese New Year

Keeping with the Chinese tradition of red for New Year, this woman wears a little red dress. However, she goes modern and trendy by choosing her LRD in lace in a fit-and-flare style. She goes classic by adding black ballet flats.

Happy Chinese New Year. #ChineseNewYear Click To Tweet

woman wearing a red lace fit-and-flare dress for Chinese New Year — Fairbanks woman in a chic red fit-and-flare lace dress filling her plate at the buffet at the Chinese New Year party

The Fairbanks woman in the photo below went for a modern version of the traditional cut. The slits are not up to the lower hip bone (see photos of me modeling a traditional cut), the length is just above the knee and the piece has a modern abstract print with lots of traditional red. This modern version asks for flats and not for heels like the tea-length traditional cut.

ethnic style abstract print dress in cheongsam cut with embellished flats — Young woman in modern cheongsam dress with abstract print and embellished flats

The woman in the photo dons great personal style. I love her eclectic mix of punk, and romantic. She dyed her hair in various shades of purple and is wearing a romantic inspired LBD with Victorian inspired embroidered and embellished pumps. Her look fits the Fairbanks Formal dress code. She is wearing a cocktail dress and clean shoes.

#hairover50 mature woman with purple hair — Mature Fairbanks woman with unique personal style donning purple hair, LBD, and embroidered pumps at the party

When there is a celebration or festive event, many Fairbanksans dress up or at least go with the vibe, while trying to protect themselves from the cold. This compromise and/or balancing act between dressing up and staying warm makes for a unique streetstyle as is documented in the following photos.

two Fairbanks women in Alaska street style

Examples of Fairbanks street style. Left: Many fashionistas like this young lady wear summer outfits year-round except for the footwear. Her legs are naked. Lady on the right: Wearing a thermal sweater with a denim skirt, woolen tights and heavy boots. Her bag adds pops of color

Fairbanks street style interpretation of the black and white trend. The young Fairbanks fashionista paired black tights with white pumps

Uggs with bare legs means this fashionista dressed up and will probably throw some down pants over when going home. It is a custom to check your down or thermal pants and coats, and even boots at the coat clerks’.

posh midlife woman in Alaska street style outfits at the Chinese New Year's party — Two women in Fairbanks street style going with the theme of the event with their tops, but staying warm on the bottom with wool clothing

Wearing nearly all red (left) or just adding a red item (right), but holding on to all warm, comfortable clothes are typical examples of going with the vibe, without compromising for thermal comfort.

two Fairbanks women in street style looks

Fairbanks street style examples of going with the red vibe of the festivities in warm clothes (foreground), and wearing fancy shoes and a summer skirt (background). Note that summer is associated with light, warmth and positive

mature women in Alaska street style outfit

Fairbanks street style example of thermal clothes, but going with the red vibe of Chinese New Year

This young fashionista in the photo below just dressed up, but used Fairbanks layering techniques in all black and white.

Fairbanks street style: mixing pattern and prints when layering — Fairbanks street style example for layering using a posh classic color combination of black and white with gray

Which of the street style outfits is your favorite? Would you wear these outfits in your town? Which of the Chinese clothes shown in the fashion show do you like the best? Let me know, I am curious.

If you liked this post tweet your friends See the awesome Fairbanks street style impressions. #Alaska Click To Tweet

Learn more about how to have iconic street style.

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