No one can tell who started this trend first.
But in Caoxian County, there is a "myth" widely circulated among Hanfu merchants: last year, in a live broadcast room in Caoxian County, the sales of horse-faced skirts reached hundreds of thousands of yuan a day. Horse-faced skirts have become a hot money-making opportunity in Caoxian County, and Caoxian County has become the focus again because of horse-faced skirts.
In 2021, this county in southwestern Shandong was nicknamed the "center of the universe" on the Internet because of a netizen's "Shouting Mai". The traffic has passed, but Caoxian County is not as "short-lived" as imagined.
In the past few years, Sun Xiangyu, a post-95 Hanfu merchant in Caoxian County, has worked in logistics, tried e-commerce, and sold costumes. He has witnessed the return of the national trend blowing to the land of Caoxian through the Internet and constantly reshaping it. With this county.
His experience is the epitome of many Caoxian people. In Sun Xiangyu's view, behind Caoxian County's renewed popularity lies the vitality of this county, which will change at the right time and always follow the direction of the market. "There are no limits, opportunities come, let's see who is ready and able to catch them."
What happens after you take the opportunity? When the Internet reshaped the county, some people in the county also wanted to influence the Internet. Cao County Hanfu merchants who want to continue to move up are waiting for fission.
Ancailou Town.
Wait, wait, wait
Zhang Dandan can't wait.
In Cao CountyOn the street in Ancailou Town, she and her partner Zhang Guanghui had just rented a store, and the brand-new signboard had only been up for a few days. In their plan, this place will be both a warehouse and a display cabinet in the future. The shelves will be filled with packaged horse-faced skirts, and customers can pick up the goods directly when they come.
It was an empty shop, with only a few rolls of fabric just sent in the corner and on the shelves. Within half a day, more than a dozen people came to inquire about horse-faced skirts.
It was clear that these merchants, shopkeepers and tourists who came from all over the country were eager to see the finished product. Since there were no sample clothes, Zhang Dandan could only frequently take out the QR code on his mobile phone, exchange WeChat messages with potential customers, and watch them leave.
"You have to put your skirt out quickly." Zhang Dandan urged the companions on the side. After all, there are many shops on this street, and business can slip away at any time.
In Ancailou Town, more Hanfu merchants have chosen to rent a store of several hundred or even thousands of square meters, put their own Hanfu on models, and display them in sequence to merchants and individual customers entering the store.
After seeing off the guests, Zhang Dandan and Zhang Guanghui turned to discuss a horse-faced skirt designed for summer. She pointed to the pleated fabric on the table and said that considering the comfort in hot weather, they specially selected ice silk. Designers in Zhejiang select the fabrics and design the patterns, and then they make the final decision.
Zhang Dandan is discussing with his friends.
Just a year ago, these designers were styling curtains in factories. Zhang Dandan, a native of Caoxian County, has run a curtain factory in Zhejiang for more than ten years. Since the second half of last year, she has been receiving horse-faced skirt design drafts from merchants in her hometown on WeChat, asking if she can accept them.
In the past few months, the pain point for Hanfu merchants making horse-faced skirts in Caoxian County has been in the hands of manufacturers like Zhang Dandan. Caoxian County has many workshops and factories related to cutting, printing and garment making, but the supply of fabrics has always relied on factories in Zhejiang.
Zhang Dandan's factory continues to receive orders for horse-faced skirts. However, the production capacity of the machine is limited. Even if production is not stopped 24 hours a day, a jacquard loom can only weave 70-80 meters of cloth a day at most, and a horse-face skirt requires 3 meters of cloth. Anxious businessmenI rushed directly to Zhang Dandan’s Zhejiang factory to jump in line.
At the beginning of this year, Zhang Dandan handed over the factory in Shaoxing, Zhejiang to her husband, and returned to Caoxian County to cooperate with Zhang Guanghui, and also wanted to get a share of the horse-faced skirt business. In Caoxian County, there were only a hundred merchants who first made horse-faced skirts, and Zhang Guanghui was one of them. Just after the New Year this year, Zhang Guanghui asked around and heard that the number exceeded a thousand. According to official data, there are 2,282 Hanfu companies in Caoxian County, of which more than 90% are original Hanfu processing companies, 13,939 online stores, and nearly 100,000 Hanfu operators.
When it comes to the popularity of horse-faced skirts, merchants in Caoxian County can't avoid the Dior cultural appropriation incident. After sighing a few words, "This is China's traditional culture" and "We must have cultural confidence," they bluntly said that compared with other The shape of Hanfu and horse-faced skirt are more suitable for ordinary people's daily wear, and they are easier to sell in the live broadcast room.
Under the temptation of huge money, more and more people flocked to this track, and even the people who originally raised pigs in Cao County came to inquire about it. Qin Shuo, who has been working in Hanfu in Caoxian County for five years, sees several new Hanfu shops popping up every day. The IP shows that most of them are selling horse-faced skirts in Heze, Shandong. Offline changes may be more intuitive. In the printing factory he cooperates with, more and more new faces appear, and a room full of people waiting in line for color mixing.
Last year, Qin Shuo received business cards from five or six fabric factory owners in Zhejiang who came to Cao County to seek customers. Now, their positions are reversed. He was eager to ship goods before the Spring Festival, so he could only call the owner of the fabric factory he cooperated with every day, but the reply he got was "wait, wait, wait." He was afraid that his order would be interrupted by others. There were too many merchants in Caoxian County competing with him for machines. In the end, he could only add an extra two yuan per meter of cloth to the original price.
There was some regret in Qin Shuo's words, not catching up with the popularity of horse-faced skirts. The consumers in his store are mostly young women aged 18-24, who are also more serious Hanfu enthusiasts. “They are not very interested in horse-faced skirts.” Qin Shuo has also tried several horse-faced skirts. The sales volume of skirts was average. He thought about opening another store specializing in horse-faced skirts, but he really didn't have more energy, so he gave up.
But he still "got some soup." During the Spring Festival this year, Qin Shuo's store sold out a New Year's greeting suit paired with a horse-faced skirt, with online and offline sales approaching 20,000 pieces. He thought that if the production capacity had not kept up, the sales of this product might have doubled.
Hanfu growing up in Caoxian County
In the center of this county, where the words Hanfu and horse-faced skirts are frequently searched for, it is difficult to find any traces related to Hanfu. The enthusiastic taxi driver talked about how many outsiders have recently been brought to the town to see the goods, but When asked if he had worn Hanfu, he shook his head and said, "No one wears it in our county."
Caoxian County, which has become the "center of the universe" on the Internet, looks just like other northern counties, but it is a land that cannot be framed by a specific label.
It is famous for exporting coffins and is also the "Hometown of Chinese Asparagus". In the atmosphere of grassroots self-development, one person drives a village, and a village drives a town. People in Caoxian County began to deal with e-commerce, and performances also emerged together. Services production and logistics.
Wherever there is an opportunity, run to it. Taking advantage of the trend, taking advantage of performance costume production and e-commerce, Caoxian people have jumped on the Hanfu business again. In the eyes of the people of Caoxian County, the popularity of the horse-faced skirt this time is just another accumulation of accumulation.
In Ancailou Town, Daji Town and Yandianlou Town in Cao County, the three towns where the Hanfu industry is most concentrated, three or four fabric shops stand next to each other on one street. Signs for plate making, embroidery and pleating can be seen everywhere. Going deeper, Walking around the streets and alleys, you can see the roar of machines in the two- and three-story buildings, and elements related to Hanfu are everywhere.
In Ancailou Town, shops related to the Hanfu industry can be seen everywhere.
A few years ago, Sun Xiangyu, who had just graduated and returned to Caoxian County, ran an express delivery station in the town. At that time, the e-commerce industry in Cao County was booming, and many villagers sold their performance clothes on Taobao. Sun Xiangyu traveled to various villages and realized that there were so many ways to make money hidden in those humble workshops in farmyards. At first, he could have more than 20 express delivery items on hand a day. By the time he sold the station, the daily delivery volume had reached more than 300.
He captured the latest trends in Caoxian County while sending and receiving express delivery every day. Under the guidance of friends, Sun Xiangyu and his wife also started to buy goods from manufacturers, and opened a Taobao costume store, specializing in Monkey King costumes, with annual sales of two to three million yuan.
When the Taobao business was in full swing, Sun Xiangyu discovered that sporadic performance costume merchants around him began to switch to Hanfu. Many embroidery factories in the town gradually started the Hanfu processing business.
In 2019, Sun Xiangyu and his wife decided to invest in Hanfu business. This year, with the rise of "national fashion", the market size of Hanfu in China reached 2 billion yuan. In the following years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the performance costume processing industry in Caoxian County accelerated its transformation into the Hanfu industry.
Aiming at business opportunities, many young people in Caoxian County who started from scratch have also begun to join the game. In Cao County, doOriginal young Hanfu merchants, like other Hanfu brands, usually give their Hanfu stores an antique name. Next, on the Internet, their persona is that of the "shopkeeper" of this store.
Wan Guoqiang, born in 2000, is known as "Shopkeeper Wan" on the Internet. In the winter of 2020, he was taking online classes at home and planning his future after graduation. "Here we go door to door. Whoever makes money will also want to try it next door." Equivalent to starting from scratch, Wan Guoqiang started his Hanfu business with 30,000 to 40,000 yuan supported by his parents.
Since the development of e-commerce, this has been a county deeply connected to the Internet. If you don’t know Hanfu, you can’t expect to find a designer from Caoxian County. Like other businesses around him, Wan Guoqiang bought the design draft of his first Hanfu from a designer in the Hanfu circle that he found on Tieba and Weibo for 1,000 Yuan comes forward. Over the past few years, the price has also increased. A better designer's manuscript will cost two to three thousand yuan, and more heavy-duty work may cost tens of thousands of yuan. The rules have also changed. The purchased design draft can only be authorized by the designer. If you want to buy it out, it means you have to pay a higher price.
After the sample clothes are ready, they have to be sent to photographers in other places; after taking the pictures, the merchants have to go online to find the Hanfu "Changcao Ji" to help promote them. But these girls can post promotions for several stores a day. In each video, the Hanfu sent by merchants is shown in a circle like a formula. No one knows whether the skirts from their own store can be transferred into the hearts of consumers. In Caoxian County, most businesses rely on push traffic. They invest a lot of money in an attempt to get their Hanfu to be seen by more people.
From the drawing of a Hanfu to the time it is put on the shelves, every step involves money. Even before sales begin, Wan Guoqiang has invested at least 10,000 yuan. His first Hanfu didn't sell much. He begged the processing factory to ship the goods, but soon he had his first hit. In the following years, Wan Guoqiang often lamented that every time he felt that his Hanfu career could not continue, it seemed that "God could help me again." Hot sales are like elusive metaphysics, no one knows when they will happen to them. The Hanfu industry in Caoxian County is also changing rapidly under the influence of the Internet.
Follow the trend? Make a brand?
The opportunity has come.
This time, Wan Guoqiang caught up with the popularity of horse-faced skirts. After it became popular, the best-selling model in his store sold tens of thousands.
Last year, he started live broadcasting seriously and hired two anchors to live broadcast for about three hours every night. In the Hanfu base where he rented a live broadcast room, several businesses started broadcasting at the same time. For a period of time, Wan Guoqiang felt that the craze had remained high, and he could start broadcasting casually and earn 10,000 to 20,000 yuan a night.
But he was much more tired than before. “The traffic is unpredictable.” Wan Guoqiang spent a lot of time on the live broadcast, but he didn’t seem to get corresponding returns. “It seems that he can sell a lot in a day, but when I last looked at the account, , I didn’t make much money, it seemed like I was just makingGot some inventory. ”
Hanfu merchants in Cao County have started live broadcasts one after another.
The threshold for making a horse-faced skirt is too low. The entire industrial chain in Caoxian County is already quite complete. Merchants with low requirements don't even need to select fabrics themselves. They can just hand over the purchased design drawings directly to the processing factory to make finished products.
A price war has also begun. "Some merchants' horse-faced skirts cost about 70 yuan, but he sells them for 90 yuan. If you take into account the freight insurance and return issues, you may still lose money in the end." Wan Guoqiang felt puzzled, "Many merchants will be involved." This year, he plans to temporarily Put aside the horse-faced skirt and return to the original design and development cycle of Hanfu.
Amid the craze for horse-faced skirts, Wang Meng seems to be as calm as an outsider. In 2019, Wang Meng, who likes Hanfu, started his own business and was one of the first people in Cao County to start making original Hanfu. Today, her store account has accumulated hundreds of thousands of fans.
Wang Meng also makes horse-face skirts, but unlike the popular gold and silver weaving techniques in Caoxian County, her skirts are mostly solid colors, focusing on fabrics and not having so many complicated patterns. Most of the fans of Wang Meng’s store are no longer “new” in the Hanfu circle. These young women from first-tier and new first-tier cities told Wang Meng that they hope to have more everyday Hanfu.
"They have seen more of the world and value quality more." Wang Meng said that in order to ensure the brand's tone and reputation, it is impossible for her to wholesale in large quantities. After receiving feedback from fans, Wang Meng retained the style of Hanfu and began to make more everyday Hanfu. Relying on the huge and sticky fans, Wang Meng made several hits on the Internet.
But as long as you are in the game, you will inevitably be forced to get involved. When Wang Meng first started his business, he also encountered local merchants in Caoxian County who imitated his own. At that time, a two-piece set of Hanfu Wang Meng priced at 199 yuan, and the imitation merchant sold it for 58 yuan. Yuan, "One model can sell thousands of pieces."
Not long ago, Wang Meng learned from others that this store had collapsed. When the price is driven so cheap, imitation merchants will choose cheaper fabrics and simpler craftsmanship, and the details will be rough. "If you can do it at this price, others can do it at a lower price than you. A vicious cycle will not only lead to a bad reputation." , I can’t make any money yet.”
Wang Meng once wanted to defend her rights, but the cost and energy were too high, so she had to give up in the end. In the Hanfu circle, "copycat" and "genuine" have always been a topic of endless debate. Many Caoxian merchants who followed the trend in the early days chose to imitate popular models that have been tested by the market and quickly sell their Hanfu at lower prices. To the market, at the same time, the reputation also deteriorated.
Not only can Caoxian respond quickly, all aspects of plate making, printing, embroidery, processing, and ironing can even be handled in one street. "Under the same circumstances, less energy, time, and cost can be spent in Caoxian." In Caoxian. According to Sun Xiangyu, merchants who choose to do business in Caoxian County do not have a brand. To some extent, this is their advantage, but the disadvantage is that they do not have a brand. "Follow others, the cheaper you are, the faster the market will eliminate you."
Sun Xiangyu feels that in the past two years, surrounding businesses have gradually moved towards standardization, begun to pay attention to brands, and want to develop in a refined way. "If you want to stay in the market for a long time, you have to improve your production technology and maintain your brand reputation."
He believes that one of the most correct things he insisted on was to have brand awareness from the beginning. But in the past two years, both Sun Xiangyu and Wang Meng felt that they had reached a bottleneck. Relying on his deep cultivation in the men's clothing track, Sun Xiangyu has built his brand into one of the famous Hanfu men's clothing brands. However, most of the time he relies on his own creativity and emphasis on fabrics. Design is still his shortcoming. .
Businesses in Caoxian County now rely more on designers and painters on the Internet. However, many design drafts on the Internet are actually not suitable for the shape of Hanfu and cannot be truly implemented. The reality is that in a small county like Caoxian, it is difficult to find designers who truly understand Hanfu and have experience.
"There are too many people making Hanfu in Caoxian County, but the current level of design, machinery, and craftsmanship can no longer open up the market." Wang Meng has a constant sense of crisis. This may be a common dilemma faced by original Hanfu merchants in Caoxian County who want to be more sophisticated. After the horse-faced skirt breaks out of the circle, it may provide a possibility for the local Hanfu industry to upgrade, but what about the horse-faced skirt?
Wang Meng often discusses her confusion with her Hanfu brand friends in the south. Outside of Caoxian County, Guangdong, Zhejiang, and SichuanIt is also a famous Hanfu production place, gathering Hanfu production chains and brands. Among the people of Caoxian County, they are the southern merchants who started early and have more experience. A few days ago, when Wang Meng was making a piece of Hanfu, the shape was unclear. A friend from the south who was researching the restoration of Hanfu immediately sent her a folder containing information on unearthed cultural relics and various documents. When Caoxian Hanfu wants to move towards a higher-end path, it lacks the talent and experience required in all aspects to advance, and is bound to face constraints.
This year, Wang dreamed of going out for a visit. She came to Zhejiang for the first time. She visited the stalls and brought back many of the latest fabrics, which had not yet appeared in the Caoxian market. She felt that the Hanfu in Caoxian County was in the design In terms of workmanship and fineness, there is still a big gap between Hanfu and many experienced big brands in the south.
Wang Meng got a lot of inspiration. She wanted to try something and compete with southern brands. "Since we are doing original work, we should be at the forefront. We can't wait for others to finish eating the crabs before starting."
Walk ahead of others
It is difficult to say how much impact Made in Caoxian has had on the popular culture of Hanfu, but it is obvious that the current Hanfu market cannot do without Caoxian.
In the Hanfu base in Ancailou Town, there were several teams of people making selections at the same time. The customer service staff responsible for the reception told reporters that there are usually individual customers, but most of the orders are wholesale from online and offline stores, and cost several thousand yuan. Orders can only be considered small orders to them.
In another Hanfu base, a publicity board related to intellectual property rights was placed in the most conspicuous place. Several anchors held mobile phones at the same time and shuttled in front of rows of models for live broadcast. Huge fill lights were placed in front of the models, illuminating them. Sparkling on the gold-woven horse-faced skirt. They repeatedly emphasized to netizens, "We are an original Hanfu merchant."
Qin Shuo's New Year's greeting clothes, which sold out very well during the Chinese New Year, frequently received requests from owners of cosmetics shops in tourist attractions such as Luoyang and Xi'an. The owner of a store asked him directly for 30 sets. They told Qin Shuo that during the Spring Festival, this New Year's greeting suit was placed in the most conspicuous position of the photo studio and was used as a sign to attract customers. Many tourists requested photos taken on social platforms.
Compared with the price of 500 to 600 yuan or even thousands of yuan in the south, the cabbage-price Hanfu available for wholesale in Caoxian County is undoubtedly the most cost-effective choice for these bosses. It can also be spread in the market more quickly, becoming the first choice for many people. A choice of Hanfu.
Qin Shuo established his own processing plant last year.
But the young Hanfu merchants in Caoxian County don’t seem to be satisfied with this. Qin Shuo admitted that to this day, his business is still shackled by Caoxian's past reputation. Sometimes when seeing comments on the Internet, Qin Shuo feels uncomfortable, "It feels like being beaten to death with a stick." On social platforms, many Hanfu enthusiasts will actively choose to avoid when they see that the shipping location is Heze, Shandong.
Qin Shuo also suffered losses due to shoddy manufacturing by the processing factory. "The goods received from the processing factory were defective and there was no way to make them again." Last year, in order to better control the quality, Qin Shuo bought 15 sewing machines. He rented a house and hired female workers to set up a processing factory.
He remembered that in the comments on his account, a fan posted photos of tourists wearing Hanfu in his store in Paris. "When a Hanfu has sold tens of thousands, it must have spread to outside the circle." Qin Shuo was very happy, What you own is recognized.
But he feels that to change the stereotype of Caoxian Hanfu on the Internet, more people still need to work together, and "it also takes time."
Last year, Sun Xiangyu’s Hanfu brand became the first merchant in Cao County to be invited to catwalk at the National Style Ceremony. Sun Xiangyu spent tens of thousands of yuan to invite models and prepare makeup and photography. For him, this was the perfect moment to elevate the brand’s tone.
The local government also wants to make Caoxian Hanfu more brandable and high-end. In November last year, the local government took the lead in launching a series of Hanfu-related activities with the intention of promoting Hanfu in Caoxian County. The Cao County People's Government has also signed cooperation agreements with garment associations and universities to carry out in-depth cooperation. On the outskirts of Caoxian County, the local area has also built parks such as the E-Shang Town Digital Economic Industrial Park. In their planning, leading companies should be guided to eliminate backward production capacity and upgrade equipment first.
In Caoxian E-Shang Town, there are products from various Hanfu merchants.
Sun Xiangyu’s studio this yearRecruiting a dedicated designer is rare for Hanfu merchants in Cao County. But young designers who have never been exposed to Hanfu before have to learn it from scratch.
Wan Guoqiang remembers that the town staff came to his house to do statistics the year he started his business. He later learned that he was the only graduate in the town who had returned to his hometown to start a business. But according to local official reports, more than 400 college students returned to their hometowns this year to start their own business making horse-faced skirts. As the post-90s and post-00s generations continue to pour into the industry, the Hanfu industry in Caoxian County is also quietly undergoing changes.
Sun Xiangyu's studio is preparing to incubate a new sub-brand. It is not only satisfied with making men's clothing, but also wants to open up the women's clothing market.
But they can’t predict where the next trend for Hanfu to break out of the industry will be after the horse-faced skirt. But one thing is certain, since you want to be original, you have to be ahead of others every step of the way.
Column Editor: Wang Xiao Copy Editor: Wang Xiao
