[Yibang Power News]
Hanfu is really popular.
Unconsciously, boys and girls wearing Hanfu no longer arouse comments when they appear on buses and subways in big cities.
On the way outing in spring, girls in ancient costumes and martial arts boys who look like they came out of TV series can be seen everywhere. In fashionable cultural and creative activities, the ancient Hanfu catwalk has become a reserved item.
Hanfu joins hands with Generation Z to rise together with the national trend. The wind picked up and a track was forming. There is a brand name in the spotlight that is difficult to ignore - "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties".
In the exchange with Sun Yi, the co-founder of Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties, these four keywords left the impression of Yibang Dynamics - "sentiment, tenacity, concentration and caution".
(Returning to the founders of the Han and Tang Dynasties, Lu Xiaowei and Sun Yi)
1] In the past, we relied on feelings, but in the future we must also respect business laws
In 2006, due to the With a passion for Hanfu, singer Sun Yi and Lu Xiaowei, who were originally engaged in the media industry, jointly founded the country's first Hanfu physical store - Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties. To the outside world, Lu Xiaowei pays more attention to external relations and publicity, while Sun Yi holds the title of chairman and general manager and is responsible for the overall operation and management.
"You can also ask me to return to the shopkeeper of the Han and Tang Dynasties." Sun Yi said with a smile.
As an early participant in the Hanfu revival movement, Sun Yi is firmly optimistic about the future of Hanfu.
"China has a population of more than one billion, so the proportion of people who have worn Hanfu or regularly consume Hanfu accounts for a very small proportion. The penetration rate is very low. In the future, the Hanfu market will be ten to several times larger There is room for growth between ten times. It just takes time to develop consumption habits. We merchants and consumers should work together to expand this market." In the second half of 2020, Hantang accepted it. Strategic investment in the tens of millions.
In the seemingly hot Hanfu track, in fact, large-scale financing actions are still rare and the capital is calm. There are good reasons for them to choose to return.
Having returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties for many years, it has been considered by the industry as the "most suitable Hanfu brand for newcomers to enter". Whether it’s word of mouth or salesIn terms of quality, Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties has always been firmly locked in the top three in various Hanfu brand rankings.
"Return to the Han and Tang dynasties' e-commerce sales are generally at the forefront in the industry. From 2016 to 2019, online sales have doubled every year. Before the epidemic, we had The size of the company has grown from several million to hundreds of millions. "
"In the past, we relied on emotions to do business. In the future, we must also respect the laws of business, and we need capital for our next development. "Sun Yi said to Yibang Dynamics.
“Because the media’s previous reports on our financing situation were biased, we also hope to use Yibang to disclose the specific situation of previous financing. Our financing contacts with investors began in 2019, and finally we selected It is Shaanxi Cultural Investment Group and Bofu Capital, a subsidiary of Zhongnan Media, who have accepted their strategic investment. The two institutions are local state-owned enterprises and are culturally compatible with us, even after last year's epidemic. We are very grateful for your firm investment in us.”
The Hanfu track is slowly moving forward, and capital is stepping in to change this industry. But when it comes to looking forward to the future, Sun Yi can be said to be filled with excitement and entanglement, and his mood is very complicated.
“The Hanfu industry is facing a turning point. In addition to us and Shisanyu, there are also some Hanfu related companies that are getting access to capital, and some people have also received money. The entire industry has gradually grown from free and barbaric growth in the past to capital intervention. , the stage of promoting this industry.”
“We first have our own principles when it comes to capital, that is, the direction of development is determined by ourselves, and capital only serves as a subordinate and support. Many people think that our acceptance of capital is a change in our original intention. ? That’s absolutely not the case. ”
(Returning to a scene in the Han and Tang Dynasty stores)
2] Putting on a set of Hanfu is the most important thing in life
As for the weight of the word "original intention", Returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties may give you a deeper understanding than any other brand.
The jianjia is pale and dewy as frost
Where are the fluttering sleeves now?
After many vicissitudes of life, many times of hesitation
The train of clothes is finally completed. Absolute sound
I would like to return to the Han and Tang Dynasties to play the role again to conquer the palace merchants
Wear the clothes of my Han family to revive my country of etiquette
2004In 2008, young singer Sun Yi condensed his nostalgia for his motherland and his enthusiasm for Han culture in his creation, and composed the song "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties". Two years later, Sun Yi and his wife Lu Xiaowei opened the first physical Hanfu store in China in Wenshufang, Chengdu. The name of the store "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties" was taken from this place.
Since then, Sun Yi has appeared on CCTV singing "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties". "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties" has been sung many times in various large-scale occasions involving traditional culture. Unknowingly, "Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties" seemed to be the theme song in the background of a silent revival movement of Hanfu.
“When we opened a physical store offline, I would always sing this song when I went to the scene. Many colleagues would also come to attend our opening ceremony. Many of the colleagues at the scene People can also sing this song, so they naturally join in and sing along with me," Sun Yi said.
Hanfu enthusiasts call themselves "Tongpao". "How can I say that I have no clothes, but I wear the same robe as my son." They are not only parents who returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties for food and clothing, but also comrades who are also walking on the long road to the revival of Hanfu. Whenever he recalled his colleagues' support for returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties, Sun Yi was filled with emotion.
Hanfu is a business started from scratch. In the beginning, there was no daily wearing scene of Hanfu, and ordinary people were skeptical. When Lu Xiaowei was walking on the bus wearing Hanfu, she was called Japanese, so she had to refute angrily.
The production of Hanfu was a big problem from the beginning, because the order quantity was small and the production process was complicated. When he returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties, he only dared to take orders of 100-200 pieces to the clothing factory at first, and Lu Xiaowei was often dismissed.
Lv Xiaowei searched for ancient calligraphy and painting drawings without designing. If the factory didn't accept the order, she risked it all in her own hands, gritting her teeth and spending money to place a big order. When the store first opened in 2006, Lu Xiaowei often rode a battery car to carry fabrics for tailors every day and did manual labor. Now when talking about this matter, Sun Yi also showed his heartache for his wife. "I was singing in Beijing at that time and couldn't help her. Every time I think about it, I feel that it was very difficult for her."
Many business talks are just to harvest fans' wallets. But only Hanfu is a business about emotions from the beginning. Without sentiment, the original batch of Hanfu entrepreneurs who returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties would not have survived. Without the emotional resonance and maintenance with his colleagues, it would be impossible to last fifteen years after returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties.
With the efforts of colleagues to popularize and purchase Hanfu day after day, young people in Chengdu now not only wear Hanfu on the streets, but also wear Hanfu when visiting parks, and even go to work and eat hot pot. Wear Hanfu. "When you walk on the street wearing Hanfu, almost no one will stare at you or show weird expressions. Everyone thinks, 'Young man, that's pretty good!'" Sun Yi said with a smile.
According to statistics, as the "No. 1 city of Hanfu", Chengdu has nearly 70,000 die-hard Hanfu enthusiasts, ranking first in the country. Sun Yi told Ebrun that Chengdu has formed a high concentration of people in the Hanfu industry. The matrix of Hanfu merchants, Internet celebrity MCNs, and the vigorous development of brotherhood groups have also givenReturning to the Han and Tang Dynasties with Chengdu as the base camp was a great help.
Sun Yi also told Yibang Power a hidden memory in his heart.
“Last year we met a special customer in our store in Xi’an. She was a little girl who got terminally ill in her teens. When she was about to die, she asked her friend that she wanted to buy a It was a piece of clothing that was brought back to the Han and Tang dynasties. We needed it urgently, and after contacting us, the store clerk took a taxi and sent the clothes over, so that she could wear the Hanfu that she wanted to wear at the end of her life. This incident made my nose sore. ”
“Later, we were afraid of giving the impression that we were consuming the deceased, so we didn’t say anything about it to the public. We just commended the staff member privately. Some colleagues would regard a piece of Hanfu as very precious. Even at the last moment of her life, the last thing she would think about was to put on Hanfu. The sense of solemnity and ritual is difficult to describe in words. ”
There are only two things that Returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties can do to repay the support of colleagues. One is to persist in "Returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties", and the other is not to let down the trust of colleagues and strive to maintain their own reputation for the design and quality of Hanfu. Persistence, and this is the biggest challenge for all Hanfu merchants.
3] "It is decorated with pearls and decorated with red hair, with different shapes."
The second difficulty in starting a business in Hanfu lies in the design and restoration of the shape of the costume. The design of Hanfu is far more difficult than fashionable clothing.
Today, Hanfu is generally divided into systems according to the Qin and Han, Tang, Wei, Jin, Song and Ming dynasties. To search in classics and research lost inheritance, what Hanfu designers are doing is equivalent to trying to reconstruct people's dressing habits on the ruins of an abandoned traditional culture.
"Sui Shu·Dongyi Zhuan·Liu Qiuguo" says, "The men use bird feathers as crowns, decorated with pearls and red hair, with different shapes." The word "Xingzhi" is used in Hanfu circles It specifically refers to the style of Hanfu, and unlike general clothing "styles", the shape of Hanfu has been passed down to modern times and has been seriously lost. Businessmen often need to go back to ancient books for research to seek inspiration.
The Hanfu circle is famous for its emphasis on form. If the clothes you wear do not conform to the design of the form, it will inevitably lead to controversy about "not being Hanfu enough" or "not pure enough", and may even be looked down upon by people in the circle. They are called "fairy clothes" and "costumes".
“The mainstream view is that some basic things such as the cutting and shape of Hanfu, such as the component structure, cannot be easily changed. However, the material and color matching of the clothing, as well as the patterns and craftsmanship, can be modified. Adjusted." Sun Yi said.
As one of the earliest merchants of Hanfu, Return to Han and Tang Dynasties attaches great importance to cultural inheritance and has its own insistence on form design. Sun Yi admitted that there are many styles that merchants can make, but when he returns to the Han and Tang Dynasties to make them, he will bear greater psychological pressure. "When we discuss style design internally, there will be such an invisible restriction. You can say it is a shackles, or it can be said to be our principle."
But this is not the case. not easy. Paying attention to shape is a mustA hard thing to do. Because standards can always be higher, and different consumers have different standards. "We made a white wedding dress last year. This was a style developed at the request of a photography agency. At that time, there were some attacks on us." Sun Yi sounded helpless.
“White wedding clothes were not a mainstream in ancient times, but they did appear. However, in our traditional customs, white gives the impression that it is used for funerals, and everyone is accustomed to using red for it. Wedding clothes. So people in the industry feel disgusted.”
“I understand the objections, but we are not doing this to challenge folk customs and traditions. He came up with a design idea, and our partners also took the initiative to make such an attempt. After all, we did have such a thing in certain times and at certain times in ancient times. Let everyone understand that customs are not static. Every era has its own characteristics."
4] "Does paying attention to form mean being conservative?"
Even in the Hanfu circle. Internally, the views on form and design are far from unified.
“Nowadays, people don’t really value shape so much. To be honest, it’s all about who makes better designs.” A Hanfu enthusiast who works in an offline Hanfu store in Chengdu said to Yibang explain. Another Hanfu shop owner, who did not want to be named, told Yibang that she believes that change and innovation in the form is the future direction of Hanfu.
But does it mean to be conservative if you pay attention to form and make no changes as much as possible? This is not the case when returning to the Han and Tang dynasties.
"The shape cannot be changed easily, but the innovation of Hanfu lies in the color and pattern, as well as some craftsmanship. We have been trying some new craftsmanship." Sun Yi said.
“For example, in the early days, people would sell embroidery at a very high price. By default, consumers would think that embroidery is expensive. But when everyone starts doing embroidery, customers will start to look at who they are. The embroidery at home is more beautiful, the design is better, and everyone has higher requirements. Nowadays, customers want clothes that are both exquisite and beautiful, and preferably very cheap. The profits are getting thinner and thinner. With relatively thin profits, everyone wants to do better, so a threshold for entering the industry gradually forms."
Innovation is not just about putting on clothes. This step also includes the display after wearing. "We also need to innovate shooting techniques. For example, we explore how to wear Hanfu in different scenes, and try various combinations. For example, different Hanfu need different hairstyles, makeup, hats and shoes, and we can make some different ones. Innovation."
"Indeed, the field of "Han elements" will also be derived from Han clothing design. Han elements do not have many formal requirements. So if it is a combination of Han clothing and fashion. If you really want to change the design a lot, you can do something with Chinese elements, but don’t think of Han elements as Hanfu, because when you make Hanfu, you canIt must be based on something tangible, it must be inherited from the past, and it cannot be changed at will. ”
(Hanfu adapted to daily life: Return to the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the short cardigan and short horse-faced skirt made by water girls)
Some people believe that if Hanfu, which is troublesome to wear, is to be popularized, it must be adapted to everyday life. , become fashionable, become more convenient and free, such requirements can only be fulfilled by Han elements. But Sun Yi said that Hanfu itself has a lot of potential worth developing, and it can be adapted to daily life without the help of Han elements.
“I think the Han element can only be a subordinate position to Hanfu, and can only be a supplement. Because in fact, there are some very convenient clothes in the Hanfu system. In addition to formal clothes, Hanfu also has convenient daily clothes. For example, there are many "small sleeves" and "narrow sleeves" in Hanfu, which are quite suitable for daily wear, such as "Tang style chest-length shirts and skirts" and "Song Dynasty jackets" and "Ming Dynasty short coats", which all meet this requirement.
5] If you return to Hantang’s clothes, you will know if you come to the store and touch them.
Offline, offline!
For the Hanfu industry He said that the word "offline" is a curse full of temptations, and it is also full of pits. Many entrepreneurs fall into it and cannot get out.
Sun Yi told Yibang that on the one hand, Hanfu's. Publicity and clothing are highly dependent on offline. On the other hand, Hanfu also needs physical store display and shopping guides more than ordinary clothing stores. In the industry, Huitang is one of the brands with the strongest offline physical strength, including all. Including first-tier cities, we have 27 direct-operated physical stores in major and medium-sized cities, the most in the country.
“Our mission is to open Hanfu physical stores everywhere” - this sentence reads directly. On the official homepage of Taobao back in the Han and Tang Dynasties
(Returning to a scene in the Han and Tang offline stores)
However, Hanfu’s offline business formats, including physical stores, have been particularly severely affected by the epidemic in the past year. According to Yibang's research on Return to Hantang and many Hanfu merchants, from 2018 to 2019, the Hanfu industry ushered in an unprecedented boom in sales and entrepreneurship, and various companies also expanded and stocked up. However, they were all severely hit by the epidemic. Returning to the Han and Tang dynasties, the pace of opening stores also had to slow down.
“Our industry is facing a difficult situation now. Except for individual merchants, most merchants’ sales this year are lower than in 2019 or even lower than in 2020. This may be due to the intensive media coverage The report feels different. There are two reasons for this. One is that the boom in the Hanfu industry in 2018-2019 led to the influx of a large number of competitors, including Caoxian Hanfu. The other direct reason is the arrival of the epidemic, which caused the Hanfu wearing scene to change. Decrease. Under normal circumstances, many consumers would wear Hanfu when traveling. There would have been a demand for Hanfu at large gatherings, but the frequency of various activities has been significantly reduced due to the epidemic. ” p>
Sun Yi said that part of the reason for previous financing was to expand the scale of offline stores. However, due to the epidemic, Huihantang had to slow down the opening of new stores in 2020-2021, and instead optimized and upgraded existing stores. , and even closed some stores. However, Sun Yi emphasized that the general direction of returning to Han and Tang offline stores has not changed. "We don't dare to make big moves now. It depends on the epidemic situation. Once it improves, we will open a store quickly."
When Yibang asked, whether opening a physical store is a return to the Han and Tang Dynasty complex At this time, Sun Yi smiled and said that this was not necessarily the case.
“After all, you need to be able to see and touch your clothes. Especially for newcomers who have just entered Hanfu, wearing Hanfu is different from ordinary clothes, and someone needs to tell them how to wear it. How to wear, how to care for, how to iron and fold. These advantages of physical stores cannot be replaced by online stores. Therefore, although it is difficult to open a store for Hanfu, I never stopped opening a store after returning to the Han Dynasty. ”
"What is the difference between offline Hanfu and e-commerce? You can't make a strong filter to beautify the clothes offline like you can in e-commerce. What you see is what you get, whether the clothes are good or not, you You can touch and see it, you can try it on, identify it, and you can find a suit of clothes that suits your style."
"We also want to prove ourselves when we open a Hanfu store. There are different opinions about the quality of Han and Tang clothes. But we can go to offline stores to see if the clothes are good. We can open so many physical stores across the country. Is it worth the price? The physical store is Hanfupin.The best touchstone for brands. "
Sun Yi said that he suggested that his colleagues also try more physical stores within their capabilities. "Through feedback from physical stores, we can get a lot of information and know what our consumers want. Things, what are our shortcomings? These stores are excellent windows. ”
(Returning to the interior of the Hanfu store in Han and Tang Dynasties)
6] "We hope that Caoxian Hanfu will not be too involved"
As the epidemic gradually improves, domestic offline activities have recovered , the industry believes that Hanfu entrepreneurs, cross-industry merchants, and investors are pouring into the Hanfu industry. But as a senior entrepreneur, Sun Yi poured cold water on it.
“Many people don’t know what has happened in the Hanfu industry in the past two years. This industry is now in a state of involution. If new people enter the Hanfu industry now, I am afraid they will encounter great difficulties. For newcomers to the industry My suggestion is that you must have something unique of your own, and it is best to enter a niche that no one has noticed, and you must have certain connections and financing capabilities.”
Sun Yi. The caution stems from its own positioning and the current cruel competition reality in the Hanfu industry.
“We position ourselves as mid-range Hanfu. Although some people still think we are expensive, that is because they see it from the perspective of comparison with “Baicai Hanfu”. But our cost and quality are relatively high. "Yibang has seen that most of the new products released by Hantang in June this year are priced between 100 and 300 yuan.
The so-called Baicai Hanfu refers to the Hanfu that has emerged in the past two years for 100 yuan or even less than 100 yuan. In the past, the price of Hanfu was 300 to 400 yuan or more, which made ordinary students daunted. Then the brand "Lan Ruoting" set off a storm of 199 yuan Hanfu. Then Caoxian Hanfu entered the game, with free shipping for dozens of yuan. In the Hanfu circle, The price war is becoming increasingly bloody. "Baicai Hanfu, it must be valuable. After all, some students are not that rich, and there is nothing wrong with using Baicai Hanfu to get into the trap." Sun Yi said.
“For Caoxian Hanfu, I think we need to look at it from two sides. What’s good for the market is that Caoxian’s supply chain is flexible and fast, and its low price allows more people to buy it at a lower price. I bought Hanfu at a reasonable cost, but overall, the quality there is not very good.After all, the cost is there. You can't buy a good Hanfu for tens of dollars or a hundred dollars. The other side is the bad side. It’s just a copycat, and indeed there are many Caoxian businesses doing copycats. ”
“In fact, we welcome businesses in Caoxian County to make Hanfu, but I hope they can avoid making copycats.” This is a great harm to the original merchants and very unfair. Because they simply copy other brands’ popular products, the cost is very low. In the competition with copycats, it is very difficult and painful to be original. ”
“Also, I hope that the overall quality of Hanfu in Caoxian County can be gradually improved to a certain extent, and not be so involuted. It is true that we can have some Hanfu of Baicai, but Hanfu is a national costume. We cannot say that we should all make Hanfu of Baicai, because Hanfu will look like low-quality and low-priced things. This is harmful to the long-term development of an industry. "
So, how did you deal with copycats when you returned to the Han and Tang Dynasties? Sun Yi said with a helpless smile, "The only way is to innovate and keep innovating. If this doesn't help, then we have to use a recently popular word, we can only "lie down". ”
“Every year, we make hundreds of new models. This model is to prevent plagiarism to some extent. Because if you only rely on a few popular products, you will definitely be hit by copycats and suffer heavy losses. After all, it is still very difficult to protect intellectual property rights at present. Taobao is better, but we basically don’t look at Pinduoduo now, because we have looked and complained, but it is of no use. ”
“Since it’s useless, let’s just do our best. "Sun Yi told Yibang Dynamics.
