In the land of North China, there is a county jokingly called the "center of the universe" by netizens - Cao County, Heze City, Shandong Province.
During this Spring Festival holiday, it has become the "centerpiece" again. With its New Year jersey and horse-face skirt, it has once again become a "top trend" and dominated the "hot searches" at home and abroad.
Caoxian horse-faced skirt New Year's wear.
Photo by Jiang Xiangen
"The horse-faced skirt has become a popular New Year's shirt" "Caoxian's horse-faced skirt has sold for 300 million yuan and is still in short supply" "The horse-faced skirt has entered the British Museum"... Caoxian's horse-faced skirt is leading a new round of fashion craze this spring .
Data shows that this year, the sales of Caoxian County’s Year of the Dragon New Year greeting clothes, mainly horse-faced skirts, have exceeded 300 million yuan, and the “Universe Center” has become popular again.
If we say that the ridicule of "the center of the universe" has brought Caoxian into the attention of netizens, the annual income of 7 billion yuan in 2023 from selling Hanfu has attracted netizens' continued attention to Caoxian.
Why did Caoxian receive the overwhelming wealth brought by this horse-faced skirt?
Horse-faced skirt with auspicious elements of dragon and phoenix.
Photo by Hao Zhaohong
Why is the horse-face skirt so popular?
Horse-faced skirt, as a type of Hanfu, consists of four skirt doors at the front and back, overlapped in pairs, pleated on the sides, and tied with ropes or buttons at the waist.
Its popularity may be related to the "collision" incident of a certain luxury brand in 2022.
A python skirt with gold and floral veils woven on a lush green background is on display at the Confucius Museum.
Photo by Li Mingrui
"I also started to learn about horse-faced skirts after that incident." Liu Shuyu, a "post-00s" Hanfu enthusiast, said that after the incident, the Hanfu bloggers she followed began to spontaneously popularize knowledge about horse-faced skirts.
"With the Chinese aesthetic craze sweeping across the country, the number of fans in the Hanfu circle is increasing day by day, and horse-faced skirts are also loved by more people."
Although the above-mentioned "transplantation" of luxury brands has contributed to the public's awareness of this skirt and made 2023 the "first year of the horse-faced skirt", in fact, the horse-faced skirt has always been around us.
The 1987 version of "Dream of Red Mansions" has been praised as the "ceiling" of TV dramas in terms of service. Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and Wang Xifeng all wore horse-faced skirts in the drama.
In recent years, in popular film and television dramas such as "The Story of Ancient Swords" and "A Thousand Bones of Flowers", many beauties in ancient costumes have also appeared in various improved horse-faced skirts.
When asked why horse-faced skirts are so popular today, the answer may be as "colorful" as the patterns of horse-faced skirts. People of different ages who wear horse-faced skirts will give different reasons.
Part of the "horse-faced skirt with dark floral gauze and tangled branches on the vermilion ground" from the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Photo by Mao Jianjun
But if you take a closer look, you will find out that apart from factors other than freshness and popularity, the popularity of horse-faced skirts mainly lies in the fact that it is both good-looking and easy to wear, has high cost-effectiveness, has obvious national style characteristics, is fashionable and versatile.
"Whether you wear it to an elegant hall or a street alley, the horse-faced skirt can give you a different taste." said Chen Zixuan, a loyal fan of the horse-faced skirt.
"The most fundamental reason for the popularity of the horse-faced skirt is the shape of the horse-faced skirt itself and the excellent traditional Chinese cultural genes it carries." Xu Xiaohui, associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Linyi University, believes that the horse-faced skirt is the crystallization of traditional Chinese creation wisdom, and its style design Rigorous and lawful, especially the typical horse-face skirt door, which is located in the human body. The pleats on both sides are symmetrically distributed. Together with the colors, decorations, patterns, etc., it presents the aesthetic characteristics of "upright elegance", achieving the goal of decoration, function and The perfect unity of culture.
Caoxian horse-faced skirt.
Photo by Liang Ben
In Xu Xiaohui’s view, the popularity of horse-faced skirts overseas provides an opportunity to reshape China’s fashion discourse.
"The beauty of the horse-faced skirt is never a moment of youthfulness, but a beauty that can transcend time and regions."
Why did Cao County become the "center" again?
In 2021, a blogger shouted "666 our baby in Cao County, Heze, Shandong" on a short video platform in a Shandong dialect accent, causing netizens to rush to imitate and ridicule him as the "center of the universe". Almost "overnight" it seemed ordinary. The unsurprising small county in southwestern Shandong has been completely popularized by the Internet memes.
Cao County, affiliated to Heze City, Shandong Province, was called Caozhou in ancient times. It is located in the southwest of Shandong Province, at the junction of eight counties in Shandong and Henan provinces.
Aerial photography of Caoxian County.
Photo courtesy of Cao County Party Committee Propaganda Department
In the past, transportation in southwestern Shandong was relatively backward. Like most rural counties in the north, farmers in Cao County mainly relied on agricultural production or going out to work as their main source of income.
In the 1990s, the "photo studio style" and "theatre style" spread to Caoxian County, and villagers began to produce photo studio costumes and costumes during the slack period.
The turning point came in 2010, when people in Caoxian County began to test e-commerce, and some even made their first pot of gold by opening online stores.
Since then, people in Caoxian County have jumped into this e-commerce wave.
Long before getting involved in Hanfu, Caoxian County was the largest performance costume processing base in China, contracting about 70% of the performance costumes on the e-commerce platform every year.
The anchor is selling horse-faced skirts in the live broadcast room.
Photo by Liang Ben
However, the goals of Caoxian people do not stop there. Starting from 2019, with the promotion of Hanfu culture in film and television costume dramas and short videos, some businesses operating performance costumes in Caoxian saw the opportunity, quickly transformed, and began to mass-produce Hanfu. , with Hanfu, Caoxian once again successfully broke out of the circle.
Nowadays, with the popularity of "new Chinese style dressing", Hanfu dressing and horse face skirt dressing are gradually integrated into daily life.
Because of its low price and wide variety of styles, Caoxian Hanfu has become the choice of many young people and is known as "young people's first Hanfu". Shandong has also become "the largest source of popular Hanfu items on Taobao".
People dressed in colorful clothes and trimmed their hair.
Photo by Liang Ben
Caoxian Chenfei Clothing Co., Ltd., a Hanfu enterprise that integrates online and offline sales, sold approximately 16,000 horse-faced skirts before the holiday, which is three to four times that of last year.
According to the company's general manager Meng Xiaoxia, during the Spring Festival, customers buy New Year's New Year clothes for the Year of the Dragon basically every day, with about 200 to 300 customers a day. "The original red horse-faced skirts printed with patterns such as dragons and phoenixes are particularly popular. .”
Consumers choose to buy Caoxian horse-faced skirts.
Photo by Liang Ben
Hu Chunqing, president of the Cao County Hanfu Association, said that currently, there are 2,282 companies producing Hanfu in Cao County, and it is expected that sales of New Year's clothing in Cao County will exceed 400 million yuan during the entire Spring Festival.
In Hu Chunqing’s view, the supply chain is a key advantage for Caoxian horse-faced skirt and Hanfu merchants to compete. “Especially when live streaming e-commerce becomes an important online channel, this puts higher requirements on the supply chain’s response speed.”
Now, when you walk into Caoxian County, you will see large and small Hanfu companies and e-commerce companies, including raw materials, design, processing, and sales. Here is a complete Hanfu industry chain.
"You can make a Hanfu by walking no more than 5 kilometers here with bare hands." Netizens commented.
The picture shows customers selecting and trying on horse-faced skirts.
Photo by Liang Ben
Where will the development of Hanfu in Cao County go?
Although Hanfu in Caoxian County is a refined segment based on the performance costume processing industry, and the transformation is not difficult, the development path of the Hanfu industry in Caoxian County is not smooth.
Caoxian Hanfu was initially called "copycat goods" in the industry, but now more and more Hanfu merchants are gradually beginning to create original products, build brands, and develop in the direction of refinement and design.
Picture: The original designer of Hanfu in Caoxian County designs a horse-faced skirt.
Photo by Liang Ben
"Thanks to the huge production scale, the quality of the development of Hanfu industry in Caoxian County, including the original design capabilities and production technology of employees, is improving." Hu Chunqing said.
Caoxian Hanfu designer Liu Xingyue has been trying to put "new wine" in the "old bottle" of Hanfu.
She took horse-faced skirts as an example. The horse-faced skirts of the Ming Dynasty were simple and elegant, while the horse-faced skirts of the Qing Dynasty were luxurious. The horse-faced skirts of each era have different characteristics and expressions.
"Our design will be improved according to consumers' fashion needs, and the skirt waist will be made into a plain color, which is more daily, convenient and modern."
Workers sew the cut fabrics together.
Photo by Liang Ben
Currently, Hanfu is becoming popular all over the world, and many foreign friends are also trying to wear Hanfu. In addition to offline and online sales, Caoxian Hanfu companies have begun to get involved in overseas business, and Hanfu is exported to European countries such as Italy, France, and Spain.
In August 2023, Zheng Xiaohui, an international student from Weifang, Shandong Province, wore a horse-faced skirt and played erhu on the streets of Milan, Italy.
(Photo courtesy of Zheng Xiaohui)
What will be the next "horse face skirt"?
China has always attached great importance to correct clothing and hats. It is said that "the world is governed by hanging down the clothes."
In fact, in the long historical development, horse-faced skirts are not the only Chinese costumes worthy of being passed down and "revived".
Take women's clothing as an example. Not to mention styles such as curved skirts and cloud-shouldered skirts. Simply being named after a skirt is enough to "organize an attack". Liuxian skirt, Huajian skirt, Yuehua skirt, etc. have all been popular. Women are sought after.
The fifth "China Chinese Clothing Day" Shandong branch venue "Splendid Huaxia Haidai Huashang" was held at Chaoran Building in Daming Lake.
The picture shows the Chinese clothing catwalk.
Photo by Liang Ben
In recent years, with the increasing rise of "national fashion" and "new Chinese style", the categories of Hanfu produced in Caoxian County have also been expanding, with various styles such as underskirts and curved trains available in Caoxian County.
Due to the influence of market trends, consumer preferences and other factors, the next "out of the circle" category may be unpredictable.
However, some possible directions can be speculated based on existing market conditions and consumer demand.
People dressed in Chinese costumes took photos at the Quehua Bridge on Daming Lake.
Photo by Liang Ben
Judging from market trends and consumer preferences, the scale of the Hanfu market continues to increase and expand, and there is still considerable room for upside in the future.
The "2024-2025 China Hanfu Industry Status and Consumer Behavior Research Report" released by iiMedia Consulting shows that 43.8% of Chinese consumers think that improving Hanfu for daily wear is still a bit cumbersome.
It can be seen from this that lightweight and everyday Hanfu styles may be more popular among consumers in the future.
From the perspective of consumer preferences, more and more consumers are willing to wear Hanfu in various scenes of life, especially young people who are increasingly accepting Hanfu.
Therefore, more fashionable and trendy Hanfu categories, such as chest-length skirts and double-breasted skirts, may be favored by consumers.
What do you think the next "horse face skirt" will be?
(Source: China News Service WeChat Official Account Author: Li Mingrui)