From niche hobbies to popular trends, the sustainable development of the national style fashion industry is thought-provoking
The new Chinese style is on the rise, where will the "flooding traffic" lead?
Wearing a horse-faced skirt to attend the graduation ceremony, wearing Hanfu while walking in the cherry blossom forest, and matching an embroidered mandarin jacket with a white T-shirt—casual with a touch of elegance, has become the daily wear of many young people. The new Chinese style is on the rise, and horse-faced skirts have taken the lead this year and become girls’ New Year uniforms. With embroidery, buttons and brocade, ancient styles and modern styles are seamlessly connected.
It seems that not long ago, we were discussing "how to inherit and protect traditional culture." In the blink of an eye, the new Chinese style swept over like a whirlwind, becoming popular all the way out of the circle. From a niche hobby to a mass trend. Why is New Chinese Style so popular? Can this "tremendous traffic" continue? Amid the heat, we also need to think calmly: What is the competitiveness of New Chinese Style’s sustainable development? How can new Chinese style go abroad and become a new highlight of global fashion?
Good-looking and wearable, it enters the public’s wardrobe
Ingenious thoughts become "patterns", and flowers "decoration" are renovated. On the stage of the 2024 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, the traditional Chinese pattern creation show "Nian Brocade" amazed everyone. This gorgeous Chinese-style fashion show not only received praise from the audience in front of the TV, but also excited thousands of Hanfu lovers: "This is the 42nd year of the Spring Festival Gala, but it is the first time that Hanfu has been shown on this stage. Large scale display!”
Behind the appearance of girls in Hanfu on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala is good news for the modern spread of Chinese culture. The "2023 Chinese Brand Development Trend Report" shows that from 2019 to 2022, the number of Chinese consumers purchasing domestic products and trend-related products increased by 74%, and the transaction value increased by 355%. At the just-concluded 2024 Autumn and Winter MODE Shanghai Clothing and Accessories Exhibition, brands related to national style and trend accounted for 25% of the independent participating brands this season.
It’s a good time to travel, and the new Chinese style is the spring travel outfit that many people like. Whether it is the pavilions and pavilions of classical gardens, the natural environment of green waters and green mountains, or the busy urban street scenes, citizen tourists wearing new Chinese clothing are indispensable when traveling.
"During the Spring Festival this year, I was attracted to horse-faced skirts, but I was still a little shy at the time. I felt that wearing this kind of traditional clothing would look a bit 'grand' and others might look at me strangely." Ms. Liu She told reporters that she did not expect to find that several colleagues were wearing them when she entered the company later this year, which immediately dispelled her concerns. "In order to travel during the Qingming Festival holiday, I bought two sets of parent-child Hanfu last month. I wore them with my son to Lishui and took several photos. In daily life, some items can be worn together."
Nowadays, new Chinese-style clothing that is both beautiful and practical has occupied a place in the wardrobes of more and more consumers. During the Spring Festival, topics such as "Caoxian sold 300 million horse-faced skirts but still in short supply" became hot searches, and the transaction volume of the Hanfu category on an e-commerce platform increased by 325% year-on-year. The topic "New Chinese Style Outfits" has received hundreds of millions of views on social platforms, and there have been more than 3 million related notes.
Cultivate and develop cultural confidence
The new Chinese style has ushered in unprecedented popularity. It is not a sudden rise from the ground, but a long-term development.
As one of the theme IP activities of Shanghai Fashion Week, the "Garden Tour Dream" - Oriental New Chinese Fashion Exhibition hosted by Shanghai Textile Fashion Industry Development Co., Ltd. was recently held at the Shanghai Theater in Shanghai, with the theme of "the internal drive and internationalization of new Chinese style" "The new Chinese clothing seminar with the theme of "New Chinese Clothing" was held at the same time. In interviews, industry insiders generally believe that from the first year of the national trend in 2018 to the rising popularity of New Chinese style last year, it is not only supported by the historical heritage of Chinese traditional culture, but also the innate cultural confidence and national identity of the younger generation. feel.
"Fashion is inseparable from the foundation of culture, and new Chinese style is the combination of cultural heritage and fashion innovation. When we use design aesthetics to express it and become a lifestyle suitable for the current moment, young people will feel that this is our true nation Style, Chinese style." Xiong Ying, a famous designer, clothing art director and founder of "Legend of Gaia", said that the Chinese lifestyle driven by clothing is also being recognized by the world, "Because beauty and art have no borders, the world Chinese clothing is also needed”.
Lan Yu, a famous designer and founder of the "LANYU" brand, believes that the absorption and innovation of traditional culture in China's fashion field is a manifestation of cultural confidence. "The enthusiastic pursuit of young people is an important factor in the development of new Chinese style fashion. Coupled with the rapid response of the domestic production supply chain and online channels, new Chinese style can become popular."
For Generation Z, national style has become their “popular culture”. Zhang Wenkang, a post-95s entrepreneur, is a "three-hole girl" (an Internet buzzword that refers to a girl who likes Hanfu, lolita clothing, and JK uniforms at the same time and is willing to spend money on them). After graduating from college, she will Combining interests and careers, integrating traditional culture to create a popular national trend. "How can I say that I have no clothes? I wear the same robe as my son." In the eyes of this generation of young people, from "pan buckles" to "cloud shoulders", from "flowers and birds" to "landscapes", the new Chinese styles worn on the body are not only beautiful Clothes are also cultural confidence and national pride.
Create national style culture based on the present
From niche to out of the circle, new Chinese clothing has become a new highlight on the fashion stage. At the 2024 Autumn and Winter Shanghai Fashion Week, velvet, Chinese satin "meet" bows, ostrich feathers, and sequins. This is the opening show presented by Le Fame, which conveys the "goodness" of Chinese fashion design in Shanghai-style new Chinese style. sound". Entering the Shanghai-style house of Shanghai Theater, a "Garden Tour Dream" brings new Chinese-style performances and fashion shows. The designer skillfully seeks balance and iteration between the new and the old, originality and innovation.
"Traditional Chinese culture is the 'treasure house of wisdom' for future fashion craftsmanship." Xihua, chief designer and founder of "Wuyunjian", brought a carefully crafted new Chinese-style garment to the Oriental New Chinese Fashion Exhibition, which was inspired by Two designers and two embroiderers spent thousands of hours using sixteen embroidery methods to reproduce the patterns in the scroll and integrate it into fashion pieces. It turned out to be a wonderful piece of work.
There are high-end customizations that inherit ancient techniques, as well as fashionable new ideas suitable for the public. Founded in 2008, Yihongyan is the first cheongsam brand on the e-commerce platform, positioning cheongsam as a casual wear and entering thousands of households. Brand founder Ma Junyu said that new Chinese-style clothing needs to find a balance between charm and fashion. While absorbing traditional culture, it must also create a national culture that conforms to the current social situation. Let the national style not only sweep across China, but also help us establish a new cultural image in the world.
“Only national products are international products” seems to be the consensus in the fashion industry. However, Wu Haiyan, vice chairman of the China Fashion Designers Association and professor at the China Academy of Art, believes that Chinese fashion designers appear on the international stage not to satisfy Western society’s curiosity about mysterious oriental art, but to use their unique insights in the context of globalization. Form a unique "one yuan" and promote the diverse interaction of world cultures.
Based on her own experience, Wu Haiyan believes that Chinese designers must have two abilities. One is the ability to use international popular language to express the nation's unique aesthetic taste, and the other is the ability to use traditional national elements to demonstrate common international aesthetic trends. "China has a splendid and long-standing clothing culture, and it should also have a say in the international fashion industry. This requires Chinese designers to continue to create persuasive works and rely on 'action' to gain 'status.'"
She said that Shanghai, as China's fashion highland, should first establish and improve a sustainable fashion ecosystem, including financial capital, news media, university talents, industrial processing, designer talents, fashion life, etc.
Innovative solutions lead industry change
Shanghai Textile Fashion Industry Development Co., Ltd., which is affiliated to Oriental International (Group), has been committed to supporting global "New Chinese" brands, institutions and designers, actively looking for New Chinese innovative solutions and business opportunities, and advocating the promotion of new Chinese style in the context of the renaissance of Chinese culture. Industrial brand development.
How to lead this change in the apparel industry? Tong Jisheng, chairman of Oriental International Group and director of the Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee, believes: "The development of the new Chinese style requires designers to come up with innovative works to lead fashion, and to make products accessible to ordinary consumers. At the same time, new consumption must be formed and will Chinese philosophy is being promoted to the world." Industrial development requires not only state-owned enterprises in the textile industry like Oriental International as the foundation, but also more policy support. Specifically, in terms of technology, we achieve "artificial intelligence + intelligence, tradition + subversion, linear + three-dimensional, fabric + equipment"; in business, we break the two walls, that is, the wall between shopping malls and factories, consumers and suppliers; In terms of communication, we have the awareness and approach of event marketing, packaging several designers and launching several brands every season; in theory, in addition to digging into traditional culture, we also need to work in subjects such as craftsmanship, color, fabrics, and ergonomics. Dig deeper.
"New Chinese style requires fashion capital and will eventually form the redevelopment of the fashion economy. Only by transforming it into industry and economy and interconnecting primary, secondary and tertiary industries can the new Chinese style ecosystem be finally formed and the new Chinese style gain a foothold in the world's fashion industry."
Generally speaking, new Chinese-style clothing, as a direction of Chinese cultural innovation, still has a lot of room for imagination. It requires designers' creativity, commercial operations, awareness of the times, and passion for local culture. It is hoped that cultural workers, designers, business operators, etc., will work together to find a balance in inheritance and innovation, so that New Chinese Style can become an important part of China’s cultural soft power.
Reporter Zhang Yuyun
(Xinmin Evening News)