China’s burgeoning fashion market: Trends and consumers (2024)

China’s love of fashion is nothing new: both abroad and at home, the world’s leading high street brands owe much of their revenue to their Chinese clientele. But this association we so commonly make is more than just expensive taste, it is a marker of the country’s unprecedented economic and social development. In the 1990s, luxury brands were inaccessible for a large portion of the population, while today, Chinese consumers can be thanked for nearly half of all luxury retail sales globally. China is also currently the second largest apparel market in the world, taking up 18.4% of the total market worth of $1,773 billion USD.

Evidently, these numbers are still in large part due to the elite, as they are in most countries. But more and more, younger and middle-class Chinese consumers are putting their yuan into luxury fashion, too, and they aren’t stopping there. Domestic designers are changing the status quo, turning the tables from purchasing to creating. One need only look at China’s three major cities–Shanghai, Beijing, and Hong Kong–to get a clue of the hotbed of creative expression now permeating the industry.

And with the multitude of changes happening all around them in fashion, technology, and society, consumers are the ones rewriting the script for brands, rather than the other way around.

New values borne of idealism are being concretised through fashion

Social media has become a platform for interconnectedness

Shopping has rapidly evolved over the last decade

Unlike those of decades past, the Chinese consumer is the decider of its own fashion fate. Genderless fashion is one movement that has taken by storm the streets and runways alike: in July 2020, Taobao’s top fashion keyword was mengmei style, meaning cross-gender style, or genderless fashion. This movement can be chalked up to Chinese superstar Wan Qian, who has become the de facto “face of mengmei style,” largely thanks to her signature style of oversized men’s suits.

Chinese sports commentary platform Hupu even conducted a survey this year titled “What Type of Girl Are You Most Likely To Date?” and the “The Wan Qian type of girl” took first place with 44.9% of the votes. This trend speaks volumes to the societal development among younger Chinese consumers who aren’t afraid to push boundaries and blur lines.

Additionally, Taobao’s reporting found that:

• Women’s searches for oversized blazers were up 317%
• Men’s searches for lace were up 119%
• Men's searches for sheer were up 107%

Logic follows, then, that leopard print is forecasted to rise 15% among men in Spring 2021. This exchange of masculine and feminine characteristics in clothing is what Beijing-based creative director of Kepler, Jerry Zhang, describes as a positive message for younger dressers: “It's not your gender [that] can distinguish you, but you as a human being with character."

Another progressive fashion movement making waves in China today is that of sustainability. The “Go Green” trend in China is being led primarily by domestic designers: for instance, Chinese brand ICICLE uses 100% organic or recycled materials to make its collections.

JNBY, another domestic brand, has put particular focus on linen, a fabric representative of eco-conscious fashion. It comes as no surprise, then, that linen is forecasted to grow in visibility by +32% for women in China in Spring 2021 compared to Spring 2020.

But consumers aren’t only drawn to local brands when it comes to sustainability: Snoozer Loser is an American apparel brand with a store in Shanghai. Their clothing and dyes are hand-made using organic cottons, and they endeavor to upcycle vintage materials in every collection.

These new fashion movements in China--from the aforementioned gender-blurring and eco-conscious movements to the unmentioned boom of streetwear--all have one commonality among them: pride. Pride in unbridled expression, in one’s own principles, and finally, in China itself. The term “Made in China” is being subverted from its less-than-flattering connotation to one of national pride for brands and consumers in China today.

Fashion and urban culture journalist and founder of The China Temper, Elsbeth van Paridon, asserts that the “Made in China” label is “undergoing the ultimate 21st century makeover,” and it’s high time. She adds that this movement owes a large part of its success to China’s younger generations, who are “on the prowl for … individual exclusivity, not disposing of their upbringing and heritage.” A report from McKinsey & Co backs her assertions, stating that 90% of young Chinese consumers have a positive perception of local brands.