“New Chinese Style” designs are off to a strong start in 2024, after a difficult time for fashion last year. Despite the various challenges China faces, New Chinese Style fashion is on the rise, with orders at factories across the country rising rapidly.
A major driver of this trend was the latest Chinese New Year, the most important festival in China and an opportunity for many to connect with traditional Chinese culture. Since Central Television’s Spring Festival Gala, sales of new Chinese style designs on JD.com have increased by 215 percent year on year, and sales of Hanfu (Han style clothing) have increased by 325 percent year on year.
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In Little Red Book, the number of messages related to “New Chinese Style” reached more than 2.6 million. New Chinese style outfits are considered one of the “three must-haves” of the Chinese New Year. Videos tagged “New Chinese Style” were viewed more than 1.02 billion times on TikTok, while sales of “New Chinese Style” fashion on Tmall increased more than 50 percent year-on-year last year, expanding the size of the market would 1 billion consumers.
This market data shows that the “New Chinese Style”, which was once jokingly called “Chinese Old Money Style”, is attracting more and more consumers, causing more brands to produce Chinese-style clothing. Along with major promotions of this trend on various e-commerce platforms, it has also attracted investments.
Earlier this year, Chinamind Next Interculture Group, the parent company of WWD China, launched a special issue that delved deeper into this new trend. The publication, entitled “New Chinez Style Enlightenment,” including interviews with brands, designers, industry representatives, academia, researchers and other players on the latest developments and prospects for the category, including the latest market trends, cultural and social trends and the supply chain.
There is no doubt that New Chinese Style has become a guarantee of social media traffic in the generally flat market, and is a quick way for many designers and brands to generate revenue. However, it is still too early to determine how sustainable the trend is. Does it have the potential to grow further and even become global? Or will it meet a similar fate like the hyped one Guochao (Chinese-style streetwear), which suffered from overexploitation and stalled before it could become a lasting trend?
Young generations look for cultural and spiritual identity in their choice of clothing
Over the past century, international brands have incorporated Asian elements into their designs to open the door to the Chinese market, using ‘Chinese style’ to develop a localized marketing story. In the early 2000s, the trend of “traditional Chinese clothing” emerged, with a number of domestic brands putting Chinese elements at the center of their new products to develop new incremental markets, contributing to the popularity of Chinese design and a craze for Hanfu. .
However, New Chinese Style differs from the previous design trends because it represents a new set of social values.
These values are not just an awakening of cultural confidence that dominated market sentiment during the Guochao period. Behind the New Chinese Style lies a deeper connection with national culture and heritage, a conscious expression of cultural identity. From traditional statues to ornaments and the traditional color schemes of China, these clothes are not just fashion for those who wear them; they are cultural codes that create a new identity rooted in tradition.
In ancient China, the imperial family was not the only group to adopt the motif of the dragon – the mythological symbol of prosperity – as the main brocade pattern, expressing their desire for longevity – commoners also used the figure in jewelry, so she wear something that would potentially bring good luck. Throughout China’s 5,000-year history, the popular patterns of each era not only represent the aesthetics of that period, but also express the desires of people of that era and reflect a social philosophy.
Today, these patterns are deeply studied by designers and redesigned into fashion. These designs aim to meet the aspirations of a new generation of consumers looking for emotional and spiritual fulfillment and the latest fashion trend.
Spiritual fulfillment is also reflected in data from China’s largest travel platform Ctrip, which shows that ticket prices for tourist destinations with famous temples have increased 310 percent year-on-year since 2023, while online searches using the keyword “temple” increased 310 percent have risen. 600 percent on an annual basis. The post-90s and 2000s generations accounted for almost 50 percent of bookings for these destinations. The index is further reflected in younger generations’ search for spiritual fulfillment and traditional Chinese wisdom and values. To some extent, their growing demand for New Chinese Style outfits follows similar motifs: a better, more fulfilled life through promising patterns and colors and other aesthetic elements.
Is the new Chinese style here to stay?
In early 2024, a large number of enterprises in Zhejiang were in full swing thanks to the popularity of New Chinese Style.
At the Evergreen Garment Wholesale Market in Hangzhou, new Chinese style clothing accounted for 80 percent of sales. According to sources, “Some orders have been queued for ten days to half a month.” Orders from factories and companies upstream of the supply chain also surged, with demand exceeding supply. In Haining, Zhejiang province, some textile factories had to refuse orders due to insufficient capacity. Other factories are shifting production to make more new Chinese style fabrics to meet market demand.
In Haining – an industry cluster known for its leather products – there are now more than 100 manufacturers producing new Chinese style fabrics with a daily output of up to 30,000 meters.
But it’s not just fashion where demand for New Chinese Style is growing: the trend has also taken hold in the areas of beauty, food and nutrition. In late February, Juztlab, a New Chinese Style health brand, received an investment of 10 million renminbi, or about $1.4 million, from brand management company RYC.
Beyond these sectors, Chinese contemporary architecture and interior design has been searching for an aesthetic form that combines tradition and contemporary design. This can be found, among other things, in Ma Yansong’s works and his concept of the ‘landscape city’, which draws inspiration from Chinese traditional gardens.
Renowned Chinese designer Wu Bin, winner of the global Anderson Martin International Interior Design Award, has also created works influenced by traditional Chinese style. His creation of the “Modern Oriental Design Language” has become a unique label in the interior design industry. Recently, his installation ‘A Journey to the Mountains’ was shown at M&O 2024 in Paris, using traditional forms of Chinese landscape painting and poetry and its spiritual core to respond to technology and the future while promoting traditional Chinese culture abroad to promote. Whether it is Wu Bin’s Modern Oriental or Kelly Hoppen, the British designer who advocates the unity of heaven and humanity, both have shown that New Chinese Style has a place on the international stage.
However, fashion is different from architecture and interior design, and whether the trend will be adopted by markets outside China remains to be seen. But for now, it offers China’s fashion sector a new growth opportunity as local demand is likely to continue to increase.
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