Nicole’s Reviews > Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China > Status Update

“Cixi praised European fashions for their ‘pretty colors’, but said that while the foreign costume was very becoming to well-made and well-proportioned people’, it was unfortunate for any one who was not so blessed. The Manchu costume, on the other hand, falling in straight lines from the shoulder, was more becoming to stout people for it hid many defects”.