Zhen Huan in favor: Gorgeous but low key
Notice there is a change in her hairstyle from the previous picture. The more complex the hairstyle was, the higher the status. A fringe was added to her headdress, making it even more flamboyant. She was loved by the Empire but she kept a low key look with jewelries like ruby and pearls. Flowers were also used as decoration in her hair. The picture below shows one of the quintessence Chinese culture-diancui (Combining traditional metal and feather crafts, kingfisher feathers were inlayed in the gold or gold-painted pedestal to make various jewelry.). This technique is gradually dying nowadays.
Zhen Huan regained the love of the Empire
This fantastically delicate headdress is called dianzi. (It consists of two parts: a hat-shape container and its decorations.) Most women wore the liangbatou hairstyle ( the hair in a bun or coil with an upraising tail in the shape of a horizontal line) to control the hair and attach the dianzi. This dianzi Zhen Huan wears shows an asymmetrical beauty, with the left side higher than the right, and balanced with a pearl fringe. After regaining the love from the Empire, Zhen Huan had enormous power in the harem. However, she maintained a low key style. Her hair accessories came in a variety of diancui (Combining traditional metal and feather crafts, kingfisher feathers were inlayed in the gold or gold-painted pedestal to make various jewelry.), tourmaline, ruby, gold, silver and jade. The combination created a peacefulness that revealed Zhen Huan’s personality: good at checking and balancing all sorts of power and dealing with everything in peace.
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