Cultural Cheongsams Unveiled
LACMA Exhibit Showcases Rare Chinese Cheongsams, Bridging 20th-Century American Style and Culture
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A collection of more than 70 Chinese cheongsams — form-fitting dresses also called qipao — is now on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The exhibition, titled *Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity*, opened June 14, 2026, and tells the story of how Chinese and Chinese American women used clothing to shape their own identities across a century of upheaval. CNN reports the show centers on the wardrobe of Susan Mah, a first-generation Chinese American mother of 12 who designed bold, one-of-a-kind dresses in Fresno, California, in the 1940s and '50s.
The collection was donated to LACMA in 2022 by Chere Lai Mah, Susan's daughter-in-law, after nearly 45 years of preserving and researching the garments. Fashion designer Jason Wu designed custom 3D-printed mannequins with faces and hairstyles modeled on Chinese women from the 1890s through the 1960s — a deliberate move to center the women who actually wore these clothes.
Susan Mah Stitched Hollywood Glamour Into Chinese Tradition
Susan Mah was a bookkeeper for her family's record business and a mother of 12. In her spare time, she designed cheongsams unlike anything seen before. She kept the sleek, high-collared silhouette of the traditional Chinese dress but swapped out silk for California rayon and American novelty fabrics. CNN reported her prints featured Mayan-inspired symbols, French aristocrats, and polka dots — fabrics she chose partly as a nod to Hollywood stars Irene Dunne and Barbara Stanwyck.
Guest curator Michaela Hansen called the results "humorous and dashing." Rather than seeing these hybrid dresses as a loss of Chinese culture, Hansen frames them as an act of creative negotiation. Susan Mah was building a new American identity — stitch by stitch — without letting go of where she came from.
A 45-Year Family Mission to Save These Dresses
Chere Lai Mah spent four decades tracking down, documenting, and preserving two family wardrobes. One belonged to her mother, Li Zhang Huifang. The other belonged to her mother-in-law, Susan Mah. She approached LACMA curators around early 2020, looking for a permanent home for the collection. The donation was finalized in 2022, CNN reported.
The gift "transformed the museum's holdings of Chinese fashion," which had been thin before the donation. The collection now sits inside LACMA's Costume and Textiles department — a department that holds over 150,000 items. These 70 pieces are now among its most significant.
From Imperial Robes to Modern Silhouettes: 50 Years of Change
The exhibition spans the late 19th century to the mid-1960s. It captures a massive shift in Chinese women's dress. After the fall of China's Qing Dynasty in 1912, women moved away from loose, heavily embroidered imperial robes. The sleek, body-hugging qipao became the symbol of the "New Woman" in 1930s Shanghai. CNN noted the show is the first 21st-century study by an American museum to focus on the women themselves — not on how their fashion influenced the West.
Hansen said: "Until now, curatorial examinations of Chinese women's fashion have largely been framed in terms of its influence on Western design." The exhibition pushes back on that. It treats these women as designers and consumers of their own image — not as subjects of Western curiosity. A 144-page scholarly catalogue accompanies the show, published by DelMonico Books and LACMA.
The Exhibition Runs Through October at LACMA
*Fashioning Chinese Women: Empire to Modernity* is open now at LACMA's BCAM building, Level 2, and runs through October 12, 2026. The show is supported by grants from The Asian American Foundation and East West Bank. KRDO reported the show draws on pieces from Susan Mah's personal wardrobe and some from Li Zhang Huifang, her mother's collection.
A symposium tied to the exhibition — the Ninth R.L. Shep Triennial Symposium on Textiles and Dress — is scheduled for September 20, 2026. Both Chere Lai Mah and curator Michaela Hansen are set to appear. The exhibition marks a rare moment: a major American museum placing Chinese American women's personal style at the center of the story, not the margins.
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