by “New Chinese Style” designs are off to a strong start in 2024 after a tough time for fashion last year. Despite the various challenges facing China, Chinese New Style fashion is on the rise, with orders at factories across the country rising rapidly.
One of the main reasons for the trend was the recent Chinese New Year, the most important festival in China and many occasions to connect with traditional Chinese culture. Since Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala, sales of Chinese New Style designs on JD.com have increased by 215 percent year-on-year, while those of Hanfu (Han-style clothing) have increased by 325 percent year-on-year.
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In the Little Red Book, the number of posts related to “New Chinese Style” reached more than 2.6 million. The new Chinese Style outfits are considered one of the three “must-haves” of the Chinese New Year. Videos tagged with “Chinese New Style” have been viewed more than 1.02 billion times on TikTok and “Chinese New Style” fashion sales on Tmall last year rose more than 50 percent year-on-year, and are said to reach market size 1 billion consumers.
These market data show that the “Chinese New Style,” also known as “Chinese old money style,” is attracting more and more consumers, driving more brands to produce Chinese-style clothing. Along with the huge promotion of this trend on various e-commerce platforms, it also attracted investment.
Earlier this year, Chinamind Next Interculture Group, WWD China’s parent company, launched a special issue looking deeper into this new trend. The question, titled “New Chinahe Enlightenment style,” including interviews with brands, designers, industry representatives, academia, researchers and other players on the latest developments and outlook for the category, including the latest market trends, cultural and social trends and the chain supply.
There is no question that New China Style has become a guarantor of social media traffic in the entire flat market, and for many designers and brands a quick way to generate income. However, it is still too early to determine how sustainable the trend is. Does it have the potential to grow further and even go global? Or will his counterpart be destined for him, like the hyped Guochao (Chinese-style streetwear), which suffered from over-exploitation and stopped before it could turn into a lasting trend?
The younger generations are looking for cultural and spiritual identity when choosing clothes
During the last century, international brands incorporated Asian elements into their designs to open the door to the Chinese market, and used “Chinese style” to develop a local marketing story. At the beginning of this century, the “traditional Chinese clothing” trend emerged, with some domestic brands making Chinese elements the focus of their new products to develop new incremental markets, increasing the popularity of Chinese design and the craze for Hanfu . .
However, the New Chinese Style is different from previous design trends because it reflects a new set of social values.
These values are not only an awakening of cultural confidence that dominated the market mind during the Guochao period. Behind the New Chinese Style is a deeper connection with national culture and heritage, a conscious expression of cultural identity. From traditional imagery to traditional Chinese ornaments and color schemes, these clothes are not just fashions for their wearers – they are cultural codes that create a new identity rooted in tradition.
In ancient China, the imperial family was not the only group to adopt the dragon motif — a mythological symbol of antiquity — as the main brocade pattern, expressing a wish for longevity — commoners also used the figure in jersey so that they can. wear something that could bring good luck. During China’s 5,000-year history, the popular patterns of each era not only reflect the aesthetics of that period but express the longings of people at that time and reflect social philosophy.
Today, designers are studying these patterns in depth and redesigning them into fashion. These designs aim to appeal to the desires of a new generation of consumers who seek emotional and spiritual fulfillment as well as the latest fashion trend.
Spiritual fulfillment is also reflected in data from China’s largest travel platform Ctrip, which shows that ticket prices for tourist destinations with famous temples have increased by 310 percent year-on-year from 2023, and online searches using from the keyword “temple”. 600 percent year on year. The job generations of the ’90s and 2000s accounted for almost 50 percent of the bookings for these destinations. The index also shows that younger generations are searching for spiritual fulfillment and traditional Chinese wisdom and values. Their growing demand for Chinese New Style furnishings follows to some extent similar reasons: a better and fuller life through desirable patterns and colors and other aesthetic features.
Is the New Chinese Style here to stay?
At the beginning of the year 2024, a large number of enterprises in Zhejiang were in full swing thanks to the popularity of the Chinese New Style.
In the Evergreen Clothing Wholesale Market in Hangzhou, Chinese New Style clothing accounted for 80 percent of the business. According to sources, “Some orders have been put together for ten days to half a month.” The orders of the factories and enterprises upstream of the supply chain also increased, and the supply was more demanding. In Haining Zhejiang Province, several fabric factories had to refuse orders due to insufficient capacity. Other factories are shifting their production to make more Chinese New Style fabrics to keep up with market demand.
In Haining – an industrial cluster famous for its leather products – there are now more than 100 manufacturers producing Chinese New Style fabrics with a daily output of up to 30,000 meters.
But the demand for New Chinese Style is not only growing in fashion: the trend is also prevalent in beauty, food and nutrition. At the end of February, the Juztlab, a Chinese New Style health brand, received an investment of 10 million renminbi, or about $1.4 million, from the brand management company RYC.
Beyond these sectors, contemporary Chinese architecture and interior design are seeking an aesthetic form that combines tradition and contemporary design. Among many others, this can be found in the works of Ma Yansong and his concept of the “landscape city” which takes its inspiration from traditional Chinese gardens.
Renowned Chinese designer Wu Bin, winner of the Anderson Martin International Interior Design Award, has also created works influenced by traditional Chinese style. The creation of the “Modern Oriental Design Language” is a unique label in the interior design industry. Recently, his installation “A Journey to the Mountains” was shown at M&O 2024 in Paris, using traditional forms of Chinese landscape painting and poetry and its spiritual core to respond to technology and the future and to evoke traditional Chinese culture. overseas ones. Whether the Modern Oriental Wu Bin or Kelly Hoppen, the British designer who advocates the unity of heaven and humanity, both of them have shown that New Chinese Style has a place on the international stage.
However, fashion is different from architecture and interior design, and it remains to be seen whether markets outside of China will adopt the trend. For now, however, it offers a new avenue of growth for China’s fashion sector as local demand is likely to increase.
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