Patterns woven and embroidered with gold and silver threads are embellished on the skirt material, and the hem of the skirt sways gently with the steps, like a flowing ink painting. Amidst the huge crowds, girls wearing horse-faced skirts walked in the Louvre Museum. Overseas people watched frequently. The elegant European-style architecture and the bright and elegant horse-faced skirts complemented each other, filling the aura.
During the Spring Festival, horse-faced skirts have become one of the hottest items at home and abroad. In major social media, tags such as “bringing oriental aesthetics abroad”, “giving foreigners some shock”, and “challenge to wear horse-faced skirts abroad” have appeared, and horse-faced skirts have become a hot trend. "Traffic password".
01 Sales surge! Tens of thousands of items were sold on TEMU
Ten years ago, wearing ancient costumes and taking to the streets might have attracted the attention of passers-by. Ten years later, seeing someone wearing a horse-faced skirt every ten steps has become indifferent. During the Spring Festival of 2024, many beautiful scenes of people wearing pleated half-length skirts appeared in major popular scenic spots and historical sites. Hanfu, represented by horse-faced skirts, has become a hot trend in Chinese style wear.
Horse-faced skirt, also known as "horse-faced pleated skirt", is one of the main skirt styles for women in ancient China. There are four skirt doors at the front, back, inside and outside, two of which overlap. The outer skirt door is decorated, and the inner skirt door has less or no decoration. The horse-faced skirt is pleated on the sides, and the waist of the skirt is mostly made of white cloth, which means growing old together, and is tied with ropes or buttons. The horse-faced skirt was the most typical style of women's clothing during the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Its style has gone through a series of changes from the freshness and elegance of the Ming Dynasty to the gorgeousness and wealth of the Qing Dynasty, to the beauty and simplicity of the Republic of China, but its "horse-faced" structure has always been deeply rooted.
In recent years, driven by the craze for Hanfu, horse-faced skirts have become increasingly popular, and during this year’s Spring Festival, they became many people’s “New Year’s shirt.” Data shows that when searching for horse-faced skirts on Douyin, the views of related topics and short videos exceeded 19.8 billion, and 980,000+ notes on Xiaohongshu were read with over 100 million views. On JD.com and Taobao, the transaction volume of new Chinese-style clothing increased by 215% year-on-year. On Double 11 last year, more than 730,000 horse-faced skirts were sold on Taobao Clothing. Recently, the UV sales of horse-faced skirts on e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Taobao have increased by more than 1,600% year-on-year.
The east is red, the west is red,The trend of horse-faced skirts not only swept the north and south, but also spread overseas, attracting countless fans overseas.
A report released by a well-known short video platform shows that in 2023, users of the platform posted content related to horse-faced skirts in more than 90 overseas countries and regions. The horse-faced skirt has become a typical example of Chinese culture going overseas.
Many well-known bloggers, influencers, Internet celebrities, etc. actively show off their horse-faced skirts overseas, attracting the attention of foreigners. Video titles and tags such as "Bringing Oriental Aesthetics to Europe" and "When I Weared a Horse-faced Skirt and Walked on the Streets of Japan on New Year's Day" all demonstrate the confidence of Chinese-style dressing.
On the Douyin platform, a well-known fashion blogger posted a video "Walking in France in a horse-faced skirt". The blogger wore a horse-faced skirt and walked in various famous attractions in France. Along the way, he received praises from many French people, and even Some French people took the initiative to take photos. On TikTok, I searched for horse-face skirt videos and found that although there are only more than 400 videos with the #horse-face skirt tag, their cumulative views have reached nearly 800,000.
The Chinese people have demonstrated the charm of horse-faced skirts overseas, which has also attracted the shopping desire of overseas consumers. On overseas e-commerce platforms, the sales of horse-faced skirts have experienced great growth.
According to media reports, Haining Senao Textile Co., Ltd. received 600,000 meters of jacquard fabric orders from the Southeast Asian market before the Spring Festival to make horse-faced skirts. Some Southeast Asian companies are also making plans to introduce horse-faced skirts to the local Chinese market.
Qu Jing, vice president of Huimei Fashion Group (Yinman), told Hugo Cross-Border that dress-type horse-faced skirts are selling well in the Chinese market in North America. "I have many friends studying abroad, and they have many parties to attend. At this time, if you wear a small suit or fragrance from Dior or Chanel, you won't be able to tell that you are Chinese or represent oriental culture. They used to wear cheongsam, especially It is the overseas Chinese of the previous generation who went abroad. Now they will choose horse-faced skirts and dresses that are improved by Chinese traditional culture. Our different categories sell well among this group of people."
On the TEMU platform, horse-faced skirts have become a hot category. Hugo searched for horse-faced skirts on the cross-border platform and found that the price of horse-faced skirts is about 20 US dollars. Some links have sold more than 10,000 yuan, which is very popular. Among them, the sales volume of a certain children's style horse-face skirt is as high as 30,000 to 40,000 yuan, which is enough to show that overseas consumers love the horse-face skirt as a single product.
It is worth noting that several links to horse-faced skirts from a certain merchant are selling very well, and the store as a whole ranks among the top ten in the category. Most of its store products are Chinese-style clothing and horse-faced skirts.
(Screenshot from TEMU platform)
Horse-faced skirts stand out in the hot Hanfu circle, and the craze of wearing horse-faced skirts has spread all over the country and abroad. But why is it that the one standing in the C position this time is a horse-faced skirt?
02 The national trend is confident, and Caoxian County has become the "center of the universe"
In July 2022, the internationally renowned fashion brand Dior released a mid-length skirt priced at 29,000 yuan. Some Chinese netizens discovered that this skirt is almost identical to the traditional Chinese dress "Horse Face Skirt". According to a previous screenshot of the official website, the skirt is made of black wool and mohair blended fabric, priced at 29,000 yuan. Its website description reads, "This skirt adopts the iconic Dior silhouette and is a new elegant and fashionable style." Single product."
This attracted the attention of a large number of netizens. Some netizens questioned this as a kind of "cultural appropriation", but Dior officials did not respond directly and only removed the product from the Chinese official website. At that time, on the streets abroad, many Chinese and international students wore Hanfu and held placards to protest, calling on the international brand to stop cultural appropriation.
After the "Dior horse-faced skirt" incident, horse-faced skirts continue to appear in the public eye, demonstrating the confidence of the national trend. Many domestic celebrities and well-known bloggers have worn horse-faced skirts in public or on social media to convey Chinese culture and further increase the exposure of horse-faced skirts in the public eye. "The best way to protect it is to wear it out" has become the revival slogan of horse-faced skirts. People's awareness of horse-faced skirts has also changed from consciously protecting traditional culture to unconsciously integrating them into daily wear.
Driven by the national trend culture, the horse-faced skirt has gained new vitality. Many people regard it as a symbol of traditional culture and art, and redesign and create it to make it more in line with the aesthetics and needs of modern people. Compared with traditional Hanfu, the horse-face skirt is very simple and versatile to wear, and is easier to integrate into modern life. It is not only compatible with various body shapes, but can even be worn with daily T-shirts, shirts, cardigans, sweatshirts, etc. Matching skirt.
At present, the more famous Hanfu brands on the market mainly include Shisanyu, Cardamom, Weaving Division, etc. Looking at the single product of the horse-faced skirt, Magic Mirror data shows that in January 2024, the top two sales on Taobao Tmall were Xinghe Hange and Weaving Division. The prices of the horse-faced skirts of both were between 100 yuan and - Between 300 yuan, it is very cost-effective.
It is worth noting that compared with traditional Hanfu, these brands have made certain improvements in design and fabrics. For example, a horse-faced skirtPleated skirts were sewn to prevent exposure; lazy horse-face skirts using belts were introduced, and sheer horse-face skirts were introduced. In this way, it can not only give full play to the national style advantages of horse-faced skirts, but also accelerate the daily use of horse-faced skirts, making horse-faced skirts enter "ordinary people's homes".
Horse-faced skirts, as a representative of oriental beauty, can be seen on all major social media at home and abroad. On social media such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu, many people wear horse-faced skirts and go out to show off their outfits. Horse-faced skirts have gradually become a common clothing choice. On TikTok, a Chinese living in New York posted a video of "letting foreign husbands wear horse-faced skirts" and went viral, allowing overseas people to see the charm of horse-faced skirts.
After it exploded in popularity, it was able to keep up with sales in a timely manner and continue to maintain this popularity. Cao Xian of "Cosmic Center" played a major role in this. Here, "all aspects of a skirt from production to sales can be completed within 5 kilometers" is not a lie. According to statistics from the Cao County E-commerce Service Center, in January 2024, the sales of Hanfu in Cao County reached 920 million yuan, and the sales of horse-faced skirts accounted for about 400 million yuan.
Before the horse-faced skirt became popular, Caoxian County had been preparing for many years. Cao County is located in Heze City, Shandong Province, at the junction of the four provinces of Shandong, Suzhou, Henan and Anhui. It is one of the main production and sales bases for Hanfu and performance costumes in China, accounting for about 40% of the national Hanfu market.
It is reported that in 2018, in order to adapt to the rise of national fashion, Caoxian e-commerce companies began to sporadically produce Hanfu and sell it online. In less than 10 years, Caoxian County has 2,282 Hanfu upstream and downstream enterprises, with nearly 100,000 Hanfu practitioners, forming a full industrial chain from design, cutting, embroidery, printing to ready-made garments.
Horse-faced skirts will become popular, and everything is as expected by practitioners of horse-faced skirts in Caoxian County. "Since last year, the sales of horse-faced skirts have continued to increase, and the number of local horse-faced skirt companies and employees in Cao County has continued to rise. At that time, I expected that the craze of horse-faced skirts was coming." A veteran of horse-faced skirts in Cao County Liu said.
In order to capture this overwhelming wealth, practitioners of horse-faced skirts in Cao County have been in business since the first day of the Lunar New Year. Amidst the roar of the laser cutting machine and the fireworks of the Year of the Dragon, workers in the production workshop are working overtime every day to produce and work non-stop.
"The supply exceeds demand and the production capacity is insufficient, so the factory has added several more machines. Starting from the cutting, joining, waistbanding, pleating, ironing and other processing processes, the profits of the horse skirt can be covered from the factory to the home, so now Many enterprises or factories in Cao County have transformed and specialized in making horse-faced skirts," Lao Liu said.
Data shows that this year’s sales of Year of the Dragon New Year greetings clothing, mainly horse-faced skirts, have exceeded 300 million yuan in Caoxian County. Currently, the national trend is sweeping the world, and many foreign friends are also trying to wear horse-faced skirts. It is reported that some Caoxian Hanfu companies have begun to get involved in overseas business, exporting Hanfu such as horse-faced skirts to European countries such as Italy, France and Spain.
The feeling of cultural confidence, the promotion of social media,Driven by the rapid response of the supply side and other factors, the horse-faced skirt finally jumped to the C position in the spring of 2024.
03 Hot and spicy, using oriental culture to shape clothing IP
Horse-faced skirts are in the spotlight, and businesses are facing an era of huge opportunities for imagination. At the same time, can the horse-faced skirt, a super item, maintain its popularity for a long time?
Qu Jing, vice president of Huimei Fashion Group (Yinman), said that the export of national fashion clothing overseas is not only the output of products, but also the spread of culture. "In fact, the popularity of horse-faced skirts overseas is a manifestation of the export of Chinese culture. Since ancient times, China's national culture has had a profound influence on the world, and I believe that the popularity of horse-faced skirts will be a great success. It has a lasting cultural influence. But if you want to continue to break out of the circle, or even gain a foothold in overseas markets, the problems to be solved are still more difficult."
Qu Jing said that the horse-faced skirt is a product of the spread of Chinese culture. From the perspective of overseas audiences, the audience of the horse-faced skirt is still mainly overseas Chinese. This group of people have recognition and integration of Chinese culture, and overseas consumers are willing to go There are still fewer attempts.
Another industry insider told Hugo Cross-Border that new Chinese-style Hanfu, represented by horse-faced skirts, is capturing the young people's market, but this popularity must be treated rationally. If you want to become a representative piece of clothing and gain a foothold in the world, you need to be recognized by yourself and others at the same time.
As a hot-selling item, the horse-faced skirt has brought new opportunities to the Hanfu industry. However, in order to conquer overseas markets, process technology, inconsistent quality and copyright issues are still major problems in the industry.
The traditional horse-faced skirt was once all the rage with its unique shape and gorgeous embroidery. With the development of modern production technology, traditional hand-made embroidery skills have gradually been lost, which has caused the embroidery quality of horse-faced skirts to decline and lose their original delicacy and uniqueness. Moreover, the use of hand embroidery and other processes is more complicated, the production cycle is longer, the production cost is relatively higher, and the overall profit margin of the manufacturer is smaller, so few brands are willing to spend such a big effort to try.
Design is an important factor in clothing, and it is also the soul of horse-faced skirts. Judging from the current market, except for a few leading brands with strong design capabilities, most brands have problems such as high degree of product homogeneity and plagiarism. Moreover, there are certain differences in overseas cultures, and the pattern design on the horse-faced skirt also needs to be very particular.
Industry insiders bluntly said that there are currently many printed horse-faced skirts on the market, with low barriers to entry and a large gap in quality. This will easily affect those who are still waiting to experience horse-faced skirts. If you want to go overseas, you should go overseas. The fabric of the top skirt definitely needs some work.
"There is a market for horse-faced skirts, but there is no brand yet. Everyone knows about this skirt, but there is no idea which company's horse-faced skirts are good. This is a way for us to differentiate. For overseas markets, we must talk about our story, shaped by oriental cultureClothing IP. Let’s introduce the improved horse-faced skirt and tell the story of China’s traditional clothing culture. After clarifying the target customer group, start from overseas Chinese circles to attract fans, and transform it while inheriting it. The inheritance is not to be placed in a museum, but consumers must pay for it and commercialize it, which is called inheritance. " said Qu Jing, vice president of Huimei Fashion Group (Yinman).
On the trend, the horse-faced skirt will not be the last hot product. Under the "national craze", the next super single product is likely to be born.
