Wearing new clothes on the first day of the new year and welcoming the new year happily is a traditional custom of Chinese people during the New Year. This year’s Spring Festival outfits are fashionable and are inspired by the national style.
This Spring Festival, both young people from small towns returning to their hometowns and exquisite girls from first-tier cities have fallen in love with retro Chinese clothes. More and more young people are wearing Chinese-style clothes to pay New Year greetings: down jackets paired with horse-faced skirts, bubbles Cheongsam with sleeves, buttoned top and pleated skirt...the whole body is in retro style, celebrating the Year of the Dragon lively.
Qiqi, a post-00s generation whose hometown is in the countryside of Hunan, is a lover of Chinese-style clothing. During the Spring Festival this year, she prepared several sets of Chinese-style clothing to go home for the New Year.
"I used to just wear them when traveling or taking photos, and rarely wear them when I go home. But later I found that my family is more and more recognized for these clothes." Qiqi's parents are also from rural areas. In their opinion, Qiqi wears The horse-faced skirt is "very nice and formal," and Qiqi even plans to buy a horse-faced skirt for her mother.
"In addition to choosing national style clothes, you should also pay attention to various accessories." Wenwen, who was born in 1995, is also a lover of national style. Wenwen's daily wear is basically national style clothes. There are all kinds of national style clothes and accessories in her wardrobe. It’s also all-in-one, “headwear, bags, shoes, almost every outfit has a different match.” Wenwen will invest nearly 10,000 yuan in Chinese-style clothing in 2023.
On social platforms, Chinese-style clothing is becoming more and more popular among young people. Whether on Xiaohongshu or other short video platforms, various Chinese-style outfits can be seen everywhere.
Picture/Source of Chinese style outfits on social platforms/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu Handset Tech
With the popularity of consumers, businesses selling Chinese-style clothing are also selling out. Taobao data shows that the horse-faced skirt is the most popular Hanfu item in 2023. From the start of pre-sale to the end of Double 11, more than 730,000 items were sold on Taobao platform, which can fill 105 football fields. Since January 2024, the search volume of "New Chinese Style", "Song Brocade" and other content related to national style clothing on Taobao has increased significantly by 683% and 2058% month-on-month respectively.
However, young people who love Chinese-style clothing cannot escape being "stabbed". There are horse-faced skirts from Dior that cost 29,000 yuan each, and "high-end customized" models with prices starting at 1,000 yuan. Search for horse-faced skirts on Taobao. , there are many with price tags exceeding 10,000 yuan.
A consumer who likes Chinese-style clothing told "Handset Tech", "The prices on the platform for products that are a little bit particular about craftsmanship are quite high. You should keep your wallet tight. The current price is far from the public's daily wear consumption level." A bit far."
Of course, there are also affordable Chinese-style costumes, such as Hanfu for about 100 yuan, and horse-faced skirts for about 100 yuan. However, the quality of these clothes varies. "Some low-priced horse-faced skirts are of average quality and will be scrapped after one or two wears." Wenwen told "Handset Tech" that when buying Chinese-style clothes, in addition to considering the style, she pays more attention to them. Value for money.
"As consumers and enthusiasts, we hope that merchants can pay more attention to our needs and let Chinese style truly enter the daily life of mass consumption." This is Wenwen's suggestion, and it is also the voice of many Chinese style enthusiasts.
Horse-faced skirts conquer young peopleBefore the Spring Festival this year, Yuanyuan, born in the 1990s, bought a dark red horse-faced skirt.
"I first saw someone wearing a horse-faced skirt on a short video platform. After simple improvements, these horse-faced skirts are very suitable for modern people's daily wear. They also look more refined and better-looking than many popular ready-made clothes." Yuanyuan told "The Handset" Tech".
Yuanyuan has always paid attention to fashion trends. In the past two years, she has discovered that many fashionistas are also wearing horse-faced skirts in public. This makes Yuanyuan feel that horse-faced skirts will definitely become a new fashion trend.
Qiqi also pulled out a horse-faced skirt in 2023 and wore it during New Year greetings. It also received unanimous praise from relatives and friends.
"It is very popular. Many colleagues and classmates around me have bought it. Every time I wear this exquisite retro dress, I can feel the unique traditional ritual feeling of the Chinese people." Qiqi said with emotion.
Sister Wang, who was born in the 1970s in Beijing, also has a special liking for horse-face skirts and bought two sets during the Spring Festival. However, she also wanted to use them for collection. Sister Wang toldHe told "Handset Tech", "I feel like I'm a bit old, so I can't wear these two outfits during the Chinese New Year, but the design and workmanship of the horse-faced skirt are very special. I just like them. It's a good idea to buy them for collection."
The horse-faced skirt can be said to have a long history, dating back to the Ming Dynasty. Public information shows that the horse-faced skirt, also known as the "horse-faced pleated skirt", was the most typical style of women's clothing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. There were four skirt doors at the front, back and outside, two of which overlapped. The outer skirt door was decorated, and the inner skirt door There is little or no decoration; and the waistband of the skirt is mostly made of white cloth, which means growing old together.
The style of the horse-faced skirt has evolved from the fresh and elegant style of the Ming Dynasty to the gorgeousness and wealth of the Qing Dynasty, and then to the beautiful and simple style of the Republic of China. Although it has undergone a series of changes, its classic "horse-faced" structure has always been deeply rooted and exists. It has been passed down to this day.
The unexpected popularity of the horse-faced skirt was in 2022. Especially in 2023, the horse-faced skirt began to focus on the spotlight of social media, becoming an increasingly popular representative of national style and a hot topic that people talked about.
In addition, the big star Yang Mi wore a horse-faced skirt for street photos. Celebrities such as Ni Ni, Xu Jiao, and Yang Zi also demonstrated Chinese style dressing. Some fashion bloggers also continued to push content about horse-faced skirts and jointly promoted them. The popularity of the topic has increased to the point that topics such as "Horse Face Dress and Year of the Dragon Jersey" and "New Year's Greeting Clothes" continue to dominate the social circles of young people.
So far, the search for #马面skirt on Douyin has generated over 17.6 billion views of related topics and short videos, while the search for "马面skirt" on Xiaohongshu has yielded 880,000+ notes.
The emergence of the horse-faced skirt is due to its design style that combines classical and modern simplicity, which can match the popular wearing needs of contemporary young people. At the same time, the design meaning of the horse-faced skirt also places people's pursuit of beautiful feelings on it.
Some people in the industry said that nowadays, there are so many fast fashion brands that “look alike” that young people are a little tired of aesthetics and are tired of being “Uniqlo girls” and “Hongxing Erke boys” and are starting to look for fashionable and simple outfits with unique designs. The elegant horse-faced skirt has therefore entered the field of vision of young people.
Yuanyuan told "Handset Tech" that she has a certain pursuit of aesthetics and is no longer interested in cookie-cutter ready-to-wear, nor does she pursue popular Internet celebrity brands. "Friends who wear horse-faced skirts around us are all I believe that horse-faced skirts are not only unique, beautiful, and simple, but also continue Chinese classical dressing culture. Wearing horse-faced skirts is a very meaningful thing."
Merchants "lying down and counting money"The popularity of horse-faced skirts has also allowed many Chinese-style merchants to see opportunities and make a lot of money.
As the growth in consumer demand has brought huge changes to the upstream supply side, many Chinese-style fabric manufacturers have seen a surge in orders.
In January 2024, the person in charge of a horse skirt fabric production company in Haining, Zhejiang, said in an interview with the media that their jacquard machine originally produced sofa fabrics of various colors., curtain cloth, are now used to produce horse skirt fabrics. The newly developed dragon pattern fabric will also be put on the market next month.
According to this person, there are more than 100 manufacturers engaged in national style-related industries in Xucun, Haining, Zhejiang, with a daily production of 30,000 meters of fabric.
The popularity of horse-faced skirts has also boosted the business of Chinese-style clothing stores. For example, the Taobao store of Xinghe Hange, an original Hanfu brand that was established less than a year ago, has sold more than 6,000 pieces of the most popular Penglai Wonderland horse-faced skirt per month, and the cumulative sales have exceeded 30,000 orders. In the winter of 2023, all-electric The single-day sales of the business platform reached 1.5 million yuan.
The monthly sales of Jiyang Zhizhi horse-faced skirts from the Weaving Department of Taobao stores also exceed 6,000 pieces. These merchants can be said to be "counting money while lying down."
Picture/Source of Guofeng store on e-commerce platform/Screenshot of Taobao Handset Tech
Ah Wei, the person in charge of store promotion of Xinghe Hange, revealed in an interview with the media that at the height of its popularity, sales on a single platform reached 200,000 yuan a day.
Before the Spring Festival, horse-faced skirts ushered in another sales peak. Ah Wei also revealed that sales increased significantly in the early days of the Spring Festival and the supply of goods exceeded demand.
There is no doubt that national style clothing such as horse-faced skirts are on a track that continues to grow and has huge potential. The iResearch report shows that in 2020 and 2021, the market size of my country's new Hanfu (modern Hanfu) will grow at 3.1% and 6.4% respectively. In addition, my country's "national style" clothing market will also have a scale of 1 billion yuan in 2023.
Because the market situation of national style clothing is so good, many companies are eager to try it and rush to the feast of national style.
According to data from Qichacha, there are currently nearly 6,300 Hanfu-related companies operating and existing in my country, and more than 2,800 companies have been established within one year.
In other words, over the past year, there have been many new entrants, new forces are rising rapidly, old cards are being replaced and new ones are emerging, and the market remains highly active.
It is worth mentioning that although the Guofeng market is booming and the brand has gradually differentiated its positioning, so far, no one has been born.A popular national brand.
This may seem like a pity, but for Guofeng merchants, it is precisely a rare opportunity. Whoever can seize this opportunity to make their own brand bigger and stronger will be the brand leader of Guofeng.
National customs cannot escape assassinsMore and more people are buying horse-faced skirts, but it is inevitable that they will be "stabbed".
The sky-high-priced horse-face dress belongs to none other than Dior.
In July 2022, some netizens discovered that a Dior skirt worth 29,000 yuan was very similar to the traditional Chinese "horse face skirt", but Dior's official website claimed that it belonged to the "iconic Dior silhouette."
Judging from the pictures released on Dior's official website and the details of the model's catwalk, the characteristics of this Dior skirt are an encircled skirt, two-piece style, four skirt doors, and pleats on both sides, each of which accurately fits the characteristics of a horse-faced skirt.
In fact, encircled skirts rarely appear in Western fashion skirts, and it is difficult to find similar structures in other countries with the structure of a spiral skirt with four horse faces overlapping each other.
In other words, this Dior skirt is suspected of plagiarizing China's horse noodles. According to CCTV, the product can no longer be found on Dior's official website in China, but the product is still on sale on foreign official websites.
The price of horse-faced skirts launched by some domestic clothing brands is not low.
A search on Taobao found that there are more than 4,000 horse-faced skirt products in the 500-1,000 yuan range; nearly 2,900 horse-faced skirt products in the 1,000-2,000 yuan range; and on the Xiaohongshu platform, products such as HECO, Qingfengji, and Licheng are priced at thousands of yuan. There are also many brands worth more than RMB 10,000.
Picture/Price source of national style clothing/Screenshot of Xiaohongshu Handset Tech
Some consumers said bluntly on social platforms, "I don't understand, but I am shocked. Is it so easy to make money outside the Hanfu circle? It feels like I am specifically trying to defraud people who don't understand the Hanfu circle."
Some people also lamented, "The horse-faced skirts in 2023 are really expensive. I bought them for less than 200 yuan the year before last. The quality is not good. Now not only the price is rising, but the quality is also declining."
There are also many netizens who suggested on Xiaohongshu that "it is necessary to buy expensive horse-faced skirts."Topics such as "" and "How to avoid being stabbed" also received responses from many people.
Picture/Source of discussions about horse-faced skirts on social platforms/Screenshots of Xiaohongshu Handset Tech
Regarding the high price of the horse-faced skirt, some insiders believe that the production of the horse-faced skirt is different from other Hanfu. The construction period of the horse-faced skirt is longer than that of any other Hanfu, and the fabric of the horseface skirt is also It requires the use of good fabrics and the workmanship is relatively complicated.
The analyst believes that there are very few businesses that can independently complete a horse-faced skirt. "Things are rare and expensive, so most horse-faced skirts are sold very expensive."
Despite this, if we want the national style of clothing represented by horse-faced skirts to reach the masses and common people, the price must be lowered and the people's line must be adopted.
Especially at a time when consumption has just picked up and many young consumers "refuse to spend too much" and "don't buy unless necessary", only down-to-earth brand pricing can attract young people, and only the ultimate price-performance ratio can continue to capture young people.
Of course, there are also many Chinese-style clothing that have begun to take the affordable price route, but it is still difficult to take into account the cost-effectiveness.
Wenwen has encountered many pitfalls. "Some horse-faced skirts costing around 100 yuan are not of good quality, and some are even 'disposable clothes' with poor styles and fabrics."
In Wenwen's view, this kind of business is a "one-shot deal". As long as users suffer a loss once, they will not be fooled again.
On the one hand, national style clothing is a big hit, on the other hand, the price is high, and brands and businesses are also mixed. So the question is: How long can national style be popular?
