Wu Zetian (624-705) was the only woman to ever rule as Empress of China. We show three depictions of her above: on the left is an antique portrait, on the right is a photo of an actress in a historical pantomime, and the center sketch shows Wu Zetian in the typical dress of the period. That’s the look we’re going for—Tang Dynasty style, strapless underdress, flowing transparent robe with huge sleeves. A company called Shanghai Tone makes an outfit that looks just right; link below. All you really need to do is add a crown.
The costume pieces, from left to right:
1. Royal Queen Dress from Shanghai Tone. This is a wonderful Tang Dynasty-style dress, with a flowing transparent robe. Notice that the inner gown is very small; if you need larger than that, you can wear any strapless gown that doesn’t clash (see #2 for an example).
2. Black satin strapless gown from PacificPlex. In case the gown that comes with #1 is too small, you can get a black strapless from PacificPlex in pretty much any size.
3. Phoenix crown. A traditional bridal phoenix crown works great for dressing up as an empress. In addition to this one, China Cart carries a variety of crowns in all price ranges.
4. Optional wig. Tang Dynasty hairstyles tended to be big and poufy, so if you can’t do that with your own hair, you may want to try this wig. (Note: There’s apparently an unwritten rule that any remotely Asian-looking wig has to be labeled a “geisha wig.” Drives us nuts. Actually this is just the bouffant upsweep hairdo that women in China, Japan, and Korea have worn at various times over the past two thousand years.)
Makeup: Tang Dynasty ladies had some serious eyebrow action going on. This is how Carina Lau was made up to play Empress Wu Zetian in a recent movie:
Doesn’t she look awesome?
Wu Zetian was said to be ruthless, but there’s probably a lot of lurid male hysteria in the stories about her. She was definitely a very, very effective ruler, and China prospered under her reign. She—well, hang on, let her tell you herself:
That’s her character in Civilization 5. Don’t know about that cleavage, but the costume is right.