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The history of the horse face skirt, also known as the "horse face pleated skirt", is one of the main skirt styles in Chinese hanfu. It consists of four front and back skirt doors that overlap each other, and the side presents the feature of pleating. In the middle part of the skirt, the skirt door overlaps to form a trapezoidal smooth surface, commonly known as the "horse face". The history of the horse face skirt can be traced back to the Song Dynasty. Its prototype originated from the spin skirt of the two-piece enclosed skirt in the Song Dynasty. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the central skirt door overlapping to form a smooth surface, which is flat and smooth, and with symmetrical skirt pleats on both sides, resembling the defensive building "horse face" in ancient city walls, it was therefore called the "horse face skirt". During the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, people in the capital all liked to wear the horse face skirt, from the empress of a country to the common people, everyone wore the horse face skirt, but for different classes, the texture, decoration, and color of the horse face skirt were strictly distinguished. At this time, the horse face skirt was relatively simple and not yet finalized, with large and sparse horse face pleats that were living pleats, and when it turned, it resembled the moonlight, so it was also called the "moonlight skirt". The horse face skirt in the Ming Dynasty often has a skirt lan, and the wide edges decorated at the bottom of the skirt and the knee position have various patterns, called "lan". There are diverse and rich patterns. In the animal pattern category, the dragon and phoenix represent good luck and a beautiful marriage; in the plant pattern category, the peony represents wealth and the chrysanthemum represents extended life. In the Qing Dynasty, women's clothing inherited the tradition of the Ming Dynasty. The horse face skirt gradually developed into the daily dress of the Han women in the Qing Dynasty through further evolution, and became the most typical style of dress for Han women in the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, the decorative meaning of the horse face skirt in the Qing Dynasty became increasingly strong. The side skirt width could be either a finely pleated hundred-pleated skirt or a lankan skirt decorated with a vertical lankan satin edge. The embroidery patterns on the skirt surface are rich, and the decorative satin edges are exquisite, all highlighting the exquisite craftsmanship of traditional Chinese female red work. The horse face skirt matured in the Qing Dynasty and continued to the Republic of China, and it was the most typical style of dress for Han women in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. With the change of dynasties, the style of the horse face skirt has also changed from the fresh and simple style of the Ming Dynasty to the gorgeous and luxurious style of the Qing Dynasty, and then to the dignified and simple style of the Republic of China, but its basic shape has basically been determined.