Recently, deliberately wearing ugly clothes to work has become a new type of performance art for workers to fight against work. They wear cotton socks with high heels, down jackets with pajamas, and then go out without washing their hair or face.
25-year-old Fu Chen is one of those who wear ugly clothes to work. Since she clocks in at eight in the morning, when she opens her eyes every day, in order to save time, she will continue to pick up the clothes she wore the day before and put them on again. "My standard outfit is a black down jacket and light gray sports pants, which I usually wear for a week."
It wasn't until the Women's Day a few days ago that the company held a Hanfu-themed event, which stipulated that Hanfu must be worn to participate. Fu Chen hurriedly bought a popular horse-faced skirt and reluctantly took off the gray dress that almost stuck to his legs. Sweatpants.
Unexpectedly, this black horse-faced skirt made Fu Chen, who had always been unknown in the workplace, receive a lot of compliments. A colleague directly praised her for being "different" than usual, which made her feel a lot more energetic. Many people also encouraged her to wear horse-faced skirts to work more often in the future.
"My waist is straightened, my back is no longer hunched, and I feel like there is wind when I walk," Jia Jia, another migrant worker who tried horse-faced skirts for the first time, told City Circle. Jiajia's company also held a Hanfu-themed event on Women's Day. As the department's HR, she was responsible for purchasing department clothing. With the votes of her colleagues, the horse-faced skirt was elected with a high vote.
For Jiajia, who has never been exposed to Hanfu, wearing a horse-faced skirt can indeed be called an "explosive transformation" for herself. As a standard pear-shaped figure, she usually chooses loose tops to cover the fat on her waist and hips. Unexpectedly, after putting on the horse-faced skirt, she had a rare waist.
Horse-faced skirt, also known as "horse-faced pleated skirt" and commonly known as "horse-faced skirt", originated in the Song Dynasty. In the early days, it was designed to facilitate women riding horses. It has the characteristics of simplicity and convenience, and is easy to wear and match. By the Ming and Qing Dynasties, It gradually became popular during the period and became a fashionable way of wearing women's clothing. From the style point of view, the traditional horse-faced skirt has four skirt doors at the front and back, and the two skirts overlap each other. The smooth side is formed by the overlap of the middle skirt door.
Horse-faced skirts can be seen in many film and television works. In "The Legend of Zhen Huan", Zhen Huan, who was still a girl, wore a green dress before entering the palace, with a horse-faced skirt underneath; in the 1987 version of "A Dream of Red Mansions", In the famous scene where Bao Dai is jealous, Lin Daiyu also wears a light golden horse-faced skirt.
But now, this fashion style that is only popular on the screen has reached the current consumers. Many people have discovered that horse-faced skirts have become popular since last year, and the number of people wearing horse-faced skirts on the street has increased visibly. During the Spring Festival this year, shots of celebrities wearing horse-faced skirts at multiple parties only added to the fire.
Data from several major e-commerce platforms also confirm this. On Double 11 in 2023, Taobao sold more than 730,000 horse-faced skirts, which can fill 105 football fields; in January this year, the turnover of JD.com’s specialty clothing Hanfu category A year-on-year increase of 300%, among which horse-faced skirts are the most popular; the recently released "2024 Douyin E-commerce Women's Consumption Trend Data Report" shows that on Douyin e-commerce, women's orders for new Chinese-style clothing have doubled, among which, horse-faced skirts are the most popular. Face skirts are particularly eye-catching, with order volume increasing by 841% year-on-year.
Youhuang, a lesbian who has been involved in Hanfu for 8 years, told "City Circle" that the horse-faced skirt has had a very obvious breakthrough effect this year, and it has moved from a niche hobby to the public overnight. Especially when visiting temple fairs during the Spring Festival, I found that there were so many people wearing horse-faced skirts. Although not everyone is a fan of Hanfu, I was still happy to see that my favorite culture was recognized, "Look, the aesthetics of our ancestors" Timeless."
Xiaoxiao, a Xiaohongshu blogger who bought a horse-faced skirt in 2018, believes that the popularity of horse-faced skirts is no accident. According to her observation, the first time the horse-faced skirt broke the circle was because of the "plagiarism incident" of the horse-faced skirt by the luxury brand Dior. In July 2022, Dior released a mid-length skirt priced as high as 29,000 yuan. Netizens discovered that it was almost identical to the horse-faced skirt, which sparked heated discussions. Since then, as female stars such as Yang Mi and Xu Jiao have sold private clothing, horse-faced skirts have become popular and have become a garment that almost every young woman owns.
Indeed, not long ago, the two major topics were "Dior horse-faced skirt incident" and "horse-faced skirts sold like crazy after the Dior incident".It has been trending on Weibo. Nowadays, horse-faced skirt has become a traffic password. Searching for horse-faced skirt on Xiaohongshu has 1.14 million notes. On the short video platform, horse-faced skirt has even been played over 100 million times. Hot searches on Weibo are even more frequent. Face skirt dominates the list.
02. “Center of the Universe” Caoxian is popular againAfter the horse-faced skirt became popular, it nourished the prosperity of the entire industry chain from bottom to top. Behind this carnival where everyone wears horse-faced skirts, Caoxian County, the "center of the universe" located in Heze, Shandong Province, which has been a hit in the past few years, has gained another wave of fame and wealth.
According to CCTV Finance, in the first two months of this year alone, sales of horse-faced skirts in Caoxian County were close to 550 million yuan. The person in charge of a Caoxian live broadcast room said that during the Spring Festival, more than 200,000 orders were sold through live broadcasts, and it would take half a month to a month to complete all orders.
Some merchants couldn't help but sigh: "There is no need to advertise at all. The orders are all booked. As soon as the horse-face skirt is made, it has to be packaged and sent out immediately, and there is no time to put it on the shelves."
During the Spring Festival, when horse-faced skirts become extremely popular, merchants who sell Hanfu in Cao County are all in a state of nervous preparation. "The business in the store is so busy that I don't even have time to take a sip of water all day long," Chen Li, a local Hanfu merchant in Caoxian County, told City Circle. In his store, he sells clothes such as Warring States robes and horse-faced skirts. More than half of the categories are horse-faced skirts.
A flurry of orders started coming in at the end of last year. In order to fulfill the steady flow of orders, Chen Li's store almost never closed during the Spring Festival. There were not enough customer service staff and there was no time to recruit people. Chen Li had to work in person, and he also had to work part-time in packaging, express delivery and other tasks.
Qian Xian, who lives in Jining, Shandong Province, was shocked this year by the business of making Hanfu in every household in Cao County. At the end of last year, she often saw videos related to horse-faced skirts on short video platforms, and she became interested. Her home happened to be not far from Cao County, so she and her family drove to Ancailou Town, Cao County during the Spring Festival. One of the gathering places for Hanfu production.
Qian Xian saw in Ancai Tower that the entire area was dotted with factories producing Hanfu. In order to better demonstrate the effect of Hanfu, many stores will also put up a row of mannequins for display in the store, and more businesses will set up mobile phone stands to bring goods in the live broadcast room.
Among the many horse-faced skirts, Qian Xian was dazzled and finally selected two for a total cost of less than 300 yuan. Lower prices than peers are one reason why Caoxian County can maintain an advantage when competing with southern regions where the garment industry is developed. According to a local businessman, the development of the Hanfu industry in Cao County is closely related to another industry.
Before the e-commerce trend hit Caoxian County, one of Caoxian County’s major industries was the export of coffins. Later, a series of services such as customized shrouds were derived, and garment factories began to appear. Later, the categories of garment factories gradually became more diversified, from costumes for costumes to performance costumes to Hanfu, and only then did the current industrial chain come into being.
However, in the early days, Caoxian still lacked the concept of original design. Many factories made a living by making patterns, which became the low-price gene of Caoxian Hanfu. However, in recent years, with the gradual improvement of the entire industry chain, Caoxian County's copyright awareness has also been strengthened. "In the past, they dared to make copies, but now the control is strict, and almost no one dares to plagiarize," said a merchant.
More and more young people who do not want to be involved in big cities choose to return to their hometown of Cao County to start a Hanfu business. In Xiaohongshu, some college students said that they will return to their hometown to start a business after graduation in July and establish their own Hanfu brand.
The mayor of Daji Town in Cao County even told the media that there are now 400 college students in horse-faced skirts who have returned to their hometowns to start businesses. Everyone is so busy that during the busiest time before the Spring Festival, some shops have to pack 2,000 items a day. Horse skirt. A few days ago, Caoxian County also held an exchange meeting for college students returning home to start their own businesses. The purpose is to allow college students to get started as soon as possible and make Hanfu bigger and stronger.
According to multiple media reports, as of now, there are 2,282 Hanfu companies in Cao County with nearly 100,000 Hanfu practitioners. Among them, there are about 1,500 horse-face skirt manufacturers, employing about 60,000 people. Locals joke that now even some manufacturers of headphones have switched to making horse-faced skirts.
03. Who made the money for the horse-faced skirt?Compared with traditional Hanfu, the production cost of horse-face skirt is not high.
“The production process of horse-faced skirts is somewhat different from that of traditional Hanfu,” businessman Nectarine told “City Circle.” “The conventional Hanfu production process is more complicated. In terms of processing, it may take three days to complete one Hanfu. One machine can cut three lines at the same time, while a horse-faced skirt only needs one machine to cut one line."
From the fabric point of view, most affordable horse skirts are made of polyester fiber. This fabric is affordable and can well maintain the three-dimensional sense of the pleats on the skirt.
"As long as the horse-faced skirts on the market are priced at 150-600 yuan, as long as they are made of polyester fiber, the cost difference per meter will never exceed 10 yuan," a merchant said.
The cost of raw materials is low, the production speed is fast, and the barriers to original design are not very strong. Entrepreneurs who are aware of the trend have also flocked to this track in recent years. Qichacha data shows that just fromLooking at Hanfu companies, there are 5,853 Hanfu-related companies in China, and 2,686 new companies will be added in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 355.25%, becoming the fastest growth rate in the past decade.
Judging from the horse-faced skirt segment alone, there is no top player yet. Emerging brands such as Weaving Division, Shisanyu, Hanfu Master, and Cardamom are fiercely competing for the market.
Take the Weaving Division as an example. The company was only established in 2020. In just three years, its annual sales have increased from one million to 100 million yuan. In Taobao's official flagship store, Weaving Division's store is the number one Hanfu store for daily commuting. A horse-faced skirt priced at 172 yuan has monthly sales of more than 40,000 pieces.
Another new brand, Galaxy Hange, has been established for only ten months. Its GMV (gross merchandise transaction) has reached 70 million yuan. At its peak, daily sales across all platforms could reach 1.5 million yuan.
Not only that, the horse-faced skirt has also spread to cross-border e-commerce. Some merchants on Amazon discovered the business opportunity of horse-faced skirts in 2022, so they began to purchase goods from China and sell them abroad. They can earn nearly 250,000 yuan a month by selling horse-faced skirts.
He said that if you buy a horse-faced skirt in China for 52 yuan a piece and sell it to the United States through the Amazon platform, the price will be 46 US dollars, which is equivalent to about 300 yuan. Excluding factors such as cost, you can just rely on a horse-faced skirt. A face skirt can net you more than 100 yuan.
There are also some traditional foreign trade companies that have also started the horse-faced skirt business. In Xucun Town, Haining, Zhejiang Province, the largest jacquard fabric production base in the country, the person in charge of a textile company told the media that in the first half of last year, they were still mainly making curtain fabrics and sofas. In the second half of the year, they received a 300,000-meter horse skirt fabric. Order.
Cross-border e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN and Temu have also introduced new Hanfu categories in recent years. Many foreign consumers said that they can solve the trouble of shipping and directly buy a Chinese-style horse-faced skirt for 50-100 US dollars. However, many people complain that the quality of horse-faced skirts on cross-border e-commerce platforms is uneven, and some even directly copy domestic brands.
Now that the trend is on the rise, not everyone who joins the game can make a lot of money. Not long ago, a brand released a horse-faced skirt called "Shexiang Girl", and consumers complained, "Shexiang is a female politician of the Yi people in Sichuan in ancient times. Why should she use the name of a Yi person for Hanfu?" Name it?"
Just like the previous Dior horse-faced skirt incident, if a brand only sees business opportunities and neglects to do its homework on Hanfu culture, it will be difficult to be taken away even if it stands in the spotlight.
