Abstract: From the perspective of graphic characteristics of traditional Chinese costumes, the paper discusses designing new clothing shape based on traditional plane structure concept. By translocating or modifying the lines in traditional clothing structure, a new plane structure is designed. In traditional structure, the angle between the left cuff-right cuff line and the front and back center lines is 90 degrees, while in the new design the angle is altered to obtain a new profile. Meanwhile, the shape of clothing can also be obtained by changing the ease design. For instance, the traditional “7” shape can be changed into various new shapes such as “rectangle”, “square”, “triangle” and “round” shapes, thus modifying the overall silhouette of the clothing.

Key words: Chinese-style structure; plane; structural line translocation; ease design; three-dimensional silhouette