Beijing
Even female celebrities can’t wear them
“What kind of pants can’t even be worn by Angelababy?”
On Youku In the popular variety show "Friends' Weekend", the female star Angelababy, who was once known as the "spike girl", tried on a pair of pants, but when she got to the fitting room, she found that the pants were too small to fit. Jin Jing, who was next to him, complained when he saw this. When he and Ouyang Nana were trying on clothes, they both said in unison that they wanted to get a pair of pants one size larger. "Are clothing brands now also creating anxiety for female celebrities?" Jin Jing asked.
This video of trying on clothes resonated with many women on the Internet. The topic of Hanfu sizes getting smaller and smaller once even hit the microblog. Bo hot search. There are many S size girls who weigh 100 pounds and say that they can only buy M size clothes now. Girls with larger sizes complained, "I used to wear XL but now I have to wear XXXL." "Going to a Hanfu store is like visiting a children's clothing store" and "Today's Hanfu is designed like a new era of foot bindings," some people commented sharply.
Ma Shanshan, who is 165cm tall and weighs 55kg, has been buying size M with her eyes closed all year round and feels this deeply. At first, she thought it was because she had gained weight that the size M she usually bought was quite tight. Later, she discovered that it was not that she had gained weight, but that the size of the Hanfu had become smaller. "The shoulders are getting narrower and the tops are getting smaller. Now I can only buy clothes in size L."
One or two occasional experiences may not be enough to attract Ma Shanshan's attention. It wasn't until she saw the overwhelming number of "hot girl clothes" in a clothing wholesale market in Tianhe District, Guangzhou that she realized that, This is not her illusion. "Even the source of purchase sells small-sized Hanfu. It can be seen that the current Hanfu is getting smaller and smaller."
According to her, one of the two friends traveling with her has a standard S-size figure, while the other has a pear-shaped figure that is not obese. The three of them visited more than a dozen Hanfu stores in one go, and found out that "my friend with size S kept trying on clothes, while my friend with a pear-shaped figure could only stand aside and watch. Because the fit was too thin, she couldn't find a suitable one." I can’t even put on any clothes.” In the end, my friend with a pear-shaped figure returned empty-handed after shopping for a long time.
In fact, even thin girls are now faced with the embarrassment of not being able to fit into Hanfu. Pumpkin, who weighs less than 100 kilograms, has experienced such embarrassing scenes. Some time ago, she discovered a Hanfu store called "chuu" in a shopping mall. "As soon as she entered, there were several rows of tight and short tops. I gestured. My fist can occupy a quarter of it," Pumpkin said. "I thought it was a children's clothing store."
Affected by the "dopamine outfit", Pumpkin decided to pick out a few brightly colored tops to try on. The clerk told her that the ones in the store The tops are all one-size-fits-all, so "average girls have no problem wearing them." As a result, when she entered the fitting room, Pumpkin found that these one-size-fits-all tops were very tight on her, and her shoulders and upper arms were so tight that she almost couldn't breathe. Ironically, she discovered that the slogan “size doesn’t matter” was posted on the wall of the fitting room.
"Before 2020, the sizes of Hanfu were relatively normal," a garment factory in Guangzhou told "City Jie", " After 2020, clothing factories have received more orders for small sizes. Although there are no specific statistics, they basically only made three sizes: S, M, and L. Now more and more merchants require XS sizes. ”
▲(Photo source/City)
The hot girl style that emphasizes "short, revealing, and tight" has also deeply influenced Uniqlo, which is famous for its comfortable wear. "City Circle" discovered that a "hot girl section" has appeared in Uniqlo stores today, with close-fitting suspenders and small-size Hanfu being placed in a prominent position. In stores of fast fashion brands such as Zara and Gap, small-size Hanfu also occupies half of the shelves, and some tops are even less than half the size of normal T-shirts.
Behind the dominance of small-size Hanfu“What’s the point of having only small-size clothes in the store? Isn’t this a code break?”
As early as a few years ago, talk show actor Yan Yiyanyue complained about the "BM style" that was popular at the time (a style derived from the niche brand Brandy Melville). kind of dressing style). In line with the BM trend, there are also body challenges such as backhand touching of the navel, A4 paper cartoon waist, and clavicle coins that emphasize thinness as beauty. This trend that arises under the white, thin and youthful aesthetic not only does not make women more confident, but also makes it worse. Body anxiety in women. Recently, China Women's Daily commented that making Hanfu smaller and smaller is essentially promoting the aesthetics of being extremely thin, "shrinking" the diverse freedom of dressing, and a form of invisible "body dominance" for girls. Ling".
"Today's popular small-size Hanfu is related to the return of the Millennial trend." Bai Bing, a fashion designer who has served many first-line brands Said, "When I took a training course four or five years ago, the teacher at the time predicted that the millennium style will become a trend in the next few years." The 2023 consumer forecast from Pinterest also shows that female consumers have a strong interest in the 2000s. The number of searches for era girl aesthetics increased by 235%, which also led to an increase in the number of searches for suspenders, tube tops, overalls, etc.
Millennium style, also known as Y2K style, is the abbreviation of "Year 2000 Kilo". "Y2K" was originally used to indicate that computer programs are Dealing with the "millennium bug" problem caused by the cross-century date, people at the time believed that this problem would paralyze the world's infrastructure, thus triggering people's panic about the future. Specifically in terms of clothing expression, the millennium style has color. High saturation, tight at the top and wide at the bottom, short at the top and long at the bottom, the basic vest and high-waisted overalls once became a trend pursued by celebrities at that time.
In addition, increasingly fierce market competition is also the reason why clothing brands have to pay attention to the "millennial hottie style"
"FullThe competition in the clothing market for brands, all categories, all ages, and all sizes has become fierce, and the price game of multi-channel sales methods has made the operating income of clothing companies thinner," said Brand Management Expert in the Footwear and Clothing Industry and Founder of Shanghai Liangqi Brand Management Co., Ltd. Cheng Weixiong said
In the entire clothing retail market, Hanfu has always accounted for more than 50%, but at the same time, the concentration of the Hanfu industry is low and there is a single brand market. The low share is an indisputable fact. According to institutional statistics, Uniqlo, Bosideng, and Adidas are the top three brands of Hanfu. Uniqlo, which ranks first, only occupies 1.7% of the market share. “The Hanfu industry is the most active in my country’s clothing industry. "The sub-sector with the most complex needs and the largest capacity", a research report pointed out.
In this context, "brands launch small-size Hanfu "They can quickly differentiate themselves among the many Hanfu brands in the market," Cheng Weixiong said. "They can be the first to be noticed and tried by some female users, which brings attention and popularity, thus promoting brand performance and repurchase rates." ”
Clothing shop owner Yan Ruyu runs a shop with more than 100,000 fans on Taobao. She told “City Circle” that based on market feedback, Look, clothes in small sizes do shine best. After a batch of new products were launched, the most popular ones in terms of number of visitors and additional purchases were the popular hottie-style clothing. "Generally speaking, the S size moves faster, while the L size moves slower."
Li Mo, a post-80s white-collar worker I went to Uniqlo some time ago and found that all the items on sale were large-size Hanfu (size L and above), and there were almost no discounts for sizes below M. "This shows to some extent that large-size clothing is indeed difficult to sell, and Uniqlo has to clear its inventory through discounts."
With the The increasing demand of female consumers for personalized and differentiated aesthetics of clothing has caused domestic fast fashion brands to experience a big wave in the past few years. Just as fast fashion brands represented by H&M are closing down stores one after another, small-size Hanfu brands represented by Brandy Melville and Chuu are bucking the trend and expanding their stores.
▲ (Photo source/Visual China)
From 2020 to 2022, H&M’s stores in China decreased from 479 to 360. According to the 2022 fiscal year annual report disclosed by H&M Group, the number of H&M Group stores closed worldwide reached 336, and net profits also plummeted. On the other hand, Chuu opened its first store in Hangzhou in 2021. A year later, the number of stores soared to 73. As of April this year, the number of stores has reached 156, nearly double the same period last year.
"The current styles of Hanfu are changing too fast. The ordering system of H&M and the new launch mechanism based on spring, summer, autumn and winter are different from the current ones. Compared with small and medium-sized brands that focus on style and style and quickly introduce new products, they have no advantage," Cheng Weixiong analyzed.
It is worth mentioning that in June this year, H&M sadly closed its store in Sanlitun, Beijing. This store was once a landmark in Sanlitun. Architecture has existed for almost ten years. Just half a year before H&M closed its store, Chuu announced its opening with great excitement not far away. The store manager also told the media, “The revenue on weekdays is around hundreds of thousands, and the store’s revenue on New Year’s Eve alone is It sold for more than 200,000 yuan. ”
Uniqlo was forced to the edge of the cliffFor sellers, small-size Hanfu is indeed very fragrant. .
Some clothing stores said that the repurchase rate of small-size Hanfu is very high and the return rate is relatively low. According to "City Circle", under normal circumstances, the return rate of Hanfu, an e-commerce platform, is around 40%. After the rise of the live streaming model of goods delivery, the return rate of Hanfu can even be as high as over 50%. "Most of the reasons why consumers return clothes are that they feel that the fit is not slim and cannot make them look slimmer. After small-size Hanfu became popular, the fit of clothes became tighter and fewer returns were made," said a store owner.
“Another significant fact is that girls who can wear small sizes will have better body proportions and are more willing to show themselves, and They prefer to chase fashionable clothes," Yan Ruyu said. "In order to optimize costs and improve efficiency, we choose to focus more on serving small girls. Only by focusing can we be professional." She mentioned that small-size people account for the main audience in the store and sell quickly. , improve turnover efficiency, thereby reducing cost pressure from the supply chain and warehouse.
Compared with women with good figures who love to buy clothes, women with bad figures really don’t like to buy them.
Li Mo claims that she has not bought clothes for several years. One reason is that her figure has gained weight in recent years, and her belly The fat makes her feel uncomfortableConfidence, every time I look at the clothes on the shelf, I give up the idea of buying them after trying them on, so I always want to wait until I lose weight before buying new clothes.
In the new track of small-code Hanfu, capital hot money is also pouring in rapidly. BASEMENTFG (BF), a Hanfu brand established in 2020, is known as the Chinese version of BM. Tianyancha data shows that BF has received two rounds of financing from Tianshan Capital and Lehua Entertainment. The company's official website also stated that the brand plans to set up physical stores of more than 2,000 square meters in first- and second-tier cities and major provincial capitals across the country in 3-5 years, and will set up an e-commerce platform this year.
▲ (Photo source/Visual China)
Another similar-style Hanfu brand BETTERSAY is even more radical. According to Jiemian Fashion, as of May 2023, BETTERSAY has about 50 stores across the country - which is half of the goal of exceeding 100 stores in 2023. Wei Chao, the current general manager of the brand, also said that if it is completed this year The goal is to open 300 stores next year. Wei Chao also revealed that the monthly performance of BETTERSAY Hubin Yintai store can reach 700,000-1 million yuan, and the proportion of the brand's profitable stores is as high as 70-80%.
On the other hand, Uniqlo, which has the largest market share of Hanfu, is not doing well in the Chinese market. In fiscal year 2022, Uniqlo's revenue in Greater China increased slightly by 1.2%, operating profit fell by 16.8% year-on-year, and its revenue share fell from 25% to 23.4%. Moving to the first half of fiscal year 2023, its revenue share continued to decline to 21.9%. In the context of continued sluggish performance, the launch of hot girl style clothes is also seen as an attempt by Uniqlo to pursue sales.
Domestic Hanfu brands have also entered a stalling reshuffle stage in recent years. At the end of 2021, La Chapelle, known as "China's No. 1 Hanfu", entered bankruptcy and liquidation. In 2020, La Chapelle's net loss reached 1.84 billion yuan, and the asset-liability ratio was as high as 119.7%. As a reference for the fast-moving consumer clothing model, La Chapelle was once called "Chinese"Chinese version of ZARA", but was trapped in various problems such as e-commerce transformation, and collapsed in the winter of 2021.
La Chapelle collapsed After the fall, Peacebird caught up. In 2020, when La Chapelle was still heavily in debt, Peacebird had already reaped the highest net profit of 713 million yuan. However, the good times did not last long. In 2022, Peacebird’s net profit shrank to 185 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease. 72.73%, net profit after excluding non-recurring gains and losses was -26.8409 million, a year-on-year decrease of 105.16%. In 2021, Peacebird's inventory reached the highest level of 2.54 billion yuan.
The strategy for hot-selling single products failed, thus prolonging the turnover days, and finally being overwhelmed by high inventory became the only way for frustrated clothing brands. “Traditional strategies are now ineffective, and consumers are in trouble. , consumer preferences, media environment, and channel structure are all undergoing tremendous changes," an industry insider once pointed out. In this context, catering to market demand and paying attention to consumer demand has become the safest way. Yan Ruyu said, "In the e-commerce industry, Time equals money, and it is easier to follow market trends than to go against them. ”
However, if you blindly follow the trend, all in small-size Hanfu, it is not a foolproof strategy. Since the BM style became popular, around its design concept The criticism has not stopped. On social platforms, many consumers are already consciously boycotting this brand that symbolizes "body shaming". "The first step to get rid of the beauty service is to join the beauty service." Plus-size Hanfu. Brand founder Kek said, “Consumers who have been disciplined about their body shape for a long time will one day reach the bottom and rebound. ”
(Except for Cheng Weixiong, all interviewees have pseudonyms)
Author | Editor Zhang Jikang | Chen Fang
Operation | Liu Shan
