Original Hanfu worth ten thousand yuan is hard to find, how long will it remain popular?

“What is it like to wear Hanfu to travel?” “May Day, wearing Hanfu out for the first time” “Being Hanfu has become a ‘national trend'”, at Station B, Xiaohongshu, etc. On the platform, more and more users are beginning to share their experiences wearing Hanfu. During the May Day period, elegantly dressed Hanfu enthusiasts can be seen everywhere in the Forbidden City, Phoenix Ancient City, West Lake and other places, and “Hanfu + scenic spots” has become a new way of playing for young people.

Wearing Hanfu out in the street is very popular among young people. According to a report by iiMedia Research, the number and market size of Chinese Hanfu fans are growing rapidly. It is predicted that the number of Hanfu fans in 2021 is expected to reach 6.894 million, and the market sales will reach 10.16 billion yuan. On the official website of a certain Hanfu brand, a set of Hanfu sells for tens of thousands of yuan, and the construction period of the clothing is scheduled until March next year.

The Hanfu market has huge potential, and capital is rushing to enter the market. In April this year, well-known institutions such as Tencent, Sequoia, and Bubble Mart successively invested in Hanfu companies. Hanfu is becoming more and more popular, and plagiarism and copycats, malicious hype and other chaos are also emerging one after another. Can the Hanfu craze continue? How can the industry develop healthily?

　”It’s hard to find a piece of clothing”

“It used to take some courage to wear Hanfu to go out,” said some Hanfu enthusiasts. Now they wear Hanfu whenever they have time, attend gatherings of peers (the name among Hanfu enthusiasts), and can also wear Hanfu to visit scenic spots. It looks good when taking photos, and you don’t have to worry about strange looks.

With the revival of the national trend in recent years, Hanfu has gradually moved from a niche aesthetic more than ten years ago to a popular one. The “2020 Hanfu Consumption Trend Insight Report” released by Tmall previously showed that as of the end of 2020, 18 million consumers had purchased Hanfu on Tmall, and the number of potential consumers of Hanfu reached 415 million.

How popular is Hanfu?

Caoxian County, Shandong Province, has more than 3,000 enterprises related to the industry chain such as Hanfu and performance clothes, and sales of original Hanfu account for one-third of the same market in the country. Since the beginning of the year, in order to cope with the surge in market demand, many local Hanfu factories have been working overtime to produce, and the supply is still in short supply.

“Orders suddenly came in, and there was no preparation time at all.” Meng Xiaoxia, a Hanfu manufacturer in Daji Town, Cao County, told China News Weekly that due to the impact of the epidemic last year, many goods were overwhelmed and they did not dare to buy goods. Now With the domestic epidemic under control, all tourist attractions have been opened up, people are enthusiastic about visiting, and orders are pouring in all at once. A scenic spot can be fully ordered, and even hundreds of thousands of sets of clothes have to be sold out in three days.

“It can’t be produced at all.” Meng Xiaoxia looked embarrassed. Normally, the production cycle of 5,000-10,000 sets of Hanfu is 20 to 40 days. Now it takes a few days to produce it, which is impossible.

Meng Xiaoxia and her lover Hu Chunqing joined the e-commerce trend in Daji Town in 2015 and became one of more than 3,000 performance clothing merchants. In 2019, they launched Tmall Store sales are nearly 10 million. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, large-scale performances were canceled one after another, and the performance costume industry in Daji Town suddenly fell into a trough. At this time, the couple discovered new business opportunities and switched to the production and sales of Hanfu. Now, they have sold more than 100,000 Hanfu online and offline.

With the popularity of Hanfu, this year is both an opportunity and a challenge for them. Meng Xiaoxia said that stores can make money by just clicking on a link and as long as the goods are available, but the inability to keep up with production capacity is a big problem.

Insufficient production capacity and out-of-stock fabric sellers have also encountered the same problem. A fabric sales boss in Daji Town said that now Hanfu manufacturers do not even talk about the price when they come to visit, but directly ask if the fabric is in stock and when it will arrive.

In addition to the representative Daji Town of Caoxian County, China News Weekly noticed that Hanfu manufacturers in other places are also selling very well, and there is a phenomenon of “hard to find”.

Zhuohuatang (Minghuatang), as a recognized brand of customized Hanfu in the industry, has a set of Feiyu cloud shoulders, full sleeves, floral woven gold yarn suit, the price is up to 11,000 yuan, and single items such as short jackets also sell for more than Thousand dollars. Even so, there is no shortage of orders. Its official website shows that the clothing construction period is scheduled to mid-March 2022.

Why is Hanfu so popular?

Zhang Yi, CEO and chief analyst of iiMedia Consulting, believes that Hanfu is a typical representative of the development of traditional Chinese quintessence combined with trendy elements. As the post-95s and post-00s gradually enter the economic stage, young people have a growing sense of identity with the country and nation. People are more willing to accept new things, have strong demands for self-expression, and pursue individuality. These have boosted the development of the national trend economy and played an important role in the formation and spread of Hanfu wearing and consumption trends.

Capital influx

Hanfu is popular! iiMedia Research predicts that the number of Hanfu fans will reach 6.894 million in 2021, and the market sales will reach 10.16 billion yuan. Hanfu has become a tens of billions market.

Li Tao, Secretary of the Party Committee of Daji Town, Cao County, said that not only children and little girls like to wear Hanfu, but more and more middle-aged people also like to wear Hanfu, especially the improved Hanfu, which is more daily and suitable for a wider range of occasions.

In this case, all kinds of capital rushed to enter the market.Sue plagiarism. Afterwards, the store explained to the artist that it was not plagiarism, but only borrowed from the artist’s imagination and ideas.

There is still some controversy over the definition of plagiarism or borrowing within the Hanfu circle. Some people think that plagiarism only counts if it is completely copied from the original version. Some people also said that some original design elements such as style and embroidery, and even the overall design ideas are similar. Such “edge ball” behavior will also be defined as plagiarism.

The industry is in chaos, how long can Hanfu remain popular?

How long will it last?

“Although the consumer base of Hanfu is currently expanding rapidly, compared with other ordinary clothing industries, the industrial chain of Hanfu is still at a relatively early stage.” Zhang Yi believes that at present, the public’s understanding of Hanfu is mostly limited. Based on online information, most of the sales of Hanfu reach terminals through online channels. The Hanfu brand is limited to self-production and self-sales. It lacks professional market operations to promote the brand on a large scale, and it is difficult to expand new users.

In addition, due to the small market audience, Hanfu production has not yet formed economies of scale. Hanfu merchants usually adopt a “pre-sale + final payment” sales model, with sales volume determining production volume, and they rarely engage in mass production or inventory. Various factors may limit the development of Hanfu.

More importantly, although Hanfu has gradually moved from niche to mass, it has not become a daily choice for consumers. iiMedia Research data shows that 55.9% of Hanfu consumers surveyed said they would not wear Hanfu in daily scenes.

Zhang Yi pointed out that although Hanfu has a certain mass base and favorability among the masses, its wearing scenarios are highly limited due to limitations in form and concepts. In the future, to further expand the use scenarios of Hanfu, more consideration should be given to combining modern factors, or by integrating Hanfu elements into modern clothing to expand its consumer market.

In his opinion, most Hanfu consumers pay more attention to the form, inheritance and development of Hanfu, while a considerable number of consumers also tend to pay attention to the visual beauty of Hanfu. Although the research and restoration of Hanfu shapes is an important factor in the development of the Hanfu industry, the integration of Hanfu clothing elements with modern clothing elements can stimulate vigorous business opportunities and is more conducive to the development of the Hanfu industry.

In addition, Zhang Yi believes that as an investor in the Hanfu market, you must have a long-term development perspective. While seeing the “Hanfu craze”, you must also clearly see the problems behind it and the bubbles that may arise. Don’t Follow blindly.

In short, the current Hanfu industry is still in the early stages of market development. Merchants mostly adopt small-scale self-production and sales, small workshops and other models, lacking pricing standards and industry standards. Intellectual Property RightsLower awareness of protection. The industry needs to carry out standardized restructuring, promote large-scale brand promotion through professional market operations, and promote the branding and industrialization of the Hanfu industry.

Pan Helin, executive director and professor of the Institute of Digital Economy at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, also told China News Weekly that Hanfu culture is expanding and the industry may lack standards and systems, especially in terms of quality, materials, pricing, etc. Still missing are some standards movers. He believes that people in the industry should promote the establishment of standards, and consumer rights organizations should promote quality supervision to prevent chaos such as shoddy fabrics and copycat plagiarism, and promote the healthy development of the industry.

AAA

Disclaimer:

Disclaimer: Some of the texts, pictures, audios, and videos of some articles published on this site are from the Internet and do not represent the views of this site. The copyrights belong to the original authors. If you find that the information reproduced on this website infringes upon your rights and interests, please contact us and we will change or delete it as soon as possible.