08:10"On average, more than 500 sets can be sold a day" "We opened the business on the second day of the new year, so busy that we have no time to eat" "All the models have been sold" "We still owe 30,000 pieces that have not been shipped" ...During the Spring Festival, sales of Hanfu in Caoxian County were booming. Data show that in January this year, sales of Hanfu in Caoxian County reached 920 million yuan, of which sales of New Year-themed horse-faced skirts reached 400 million yuan, setting a new record.
Pinduoduo data shows that among the top 2,000 online stores selling Hanfu in the country on the platform, 1,200 are from Cao County. Many people’s “first Hanfu” mostly come from this small town. So, what’s so good about Caoxian Hanfu? Why is it so popular?
Started from performance costumes
Several larger Hanfu production and sales companies in Cao County did not produce Hanfu from the beginning, but started out by producing performance costumes. Data shows that 70% of the performance costumes sold online in 2021 will come from Cao County.
Meng Xiaoxia, chief designer of Caoxian Chenfei Clothing Co., Ltd., came to Caoxian County at the end of 2014 and sold performance clothes on the e-commerce platform. "Performance costumes include many categories, including costumes from ancient film and television dramas. At first we imitated the costumes in some popular film and television dramas, and found that many young people liked them," Meng Xiaoxia said.
In 2017, Meng Xiaoxia discovered that the sales of Hanfu on the market were getting better and better, which gave Meng Xiaoxia the idea of making Hanfu professionally. Her experience in designing and processing performance costumes made her handy in the transformation. In 2019, the company's Hanfu sales reached several million.
Having a similar experience is Liu Shenfeng, general manager of Caoxian Travel Datang Hanfu Yuncang. At the beginning, Liu Shenfeng has been engaged in foreign trade of clothing. In 2015, he started making performance clothes, mainly outdoor training clothes, military training clothes, and stage clothes. "With the rise of study craze, the demand for Chinese classics and traditional clothing is increasing, and Hanfu is used in more and more applications. I realize that maybe Hanfu will become daily clothing in the future." Liu Shenfeng felt it keenly.
Yao Chixing, general manager of Caoxian Luo Ruyan Original Hanfu, has been involved in the wood carving industry for many years. "I have been wearing Chinese tops and cheongsams more than ten years ago, and I have followed many Chinese style designers." Yao Chixing said that her love for traditional culture made her hope to establish a brand dedicated to Hanfu. She found that micro-drama was effective and low-cost in increasing brand awareness, so the "Luo Ruyan" series of micro-drama was launched. "Luo Ruyan", as the heroine in the drama, becomes the Hanfu designer in the time-travel drama. "Now we treat 'Luo Ruyan' as our own child and give it culture." Yao Chixing said.
It is necessary to cultivate culture deeply
In order to quickly occupy the market, in the early days, Caoxian Hanfu mainly focused on mid-to-low-end products. At that time, when talking about Caoxian Hanfu, many people associated it with low quality, knock-off products, and poor quality.
At the same time, practitioners are also facing confusion. "At first I thought I was just a seller of clothing, selling whatever I could to make money. But gradually I realized that originalityOnly then can we gain a firm foothold in the market. Meng Xiaoxia said.
Meng Xiaoxia, who has a background in art design, decided to take matters into her own hands. "I was the only one in the initial design team. Although it was difficult at the beginning, I understand that there will be a lot of room for development of original content in the future, no matter what. All have to overcome difficulties. "Meng Xiaoxia began to read ancient books, visit museums, develop new products, and try to print her own designs on styles and sell them on Taobao.
Unexpectedly, the products were quickly recognized by the market. "At that time, there were some Candidates for catwalks and art exams need uniquely designed clothes. They found me on Taobao and said that our clothes are different. When they learned that I designed them myself, they hoped that I could help them customize their own designs. "This gave Meng Xiaoxia a lot of encouragement and made her insist on making original products.
"Currently, our Caoxian products are as good as international brands at the Hangzhou exhibition. Our products can be sold for thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan. "Meng Xiaoxia said that more than 2,000 Hanfu companies in Caoxian County have been continuously improving in quality, workmanship, and design concepts, and everyone has worked together to tear off the once bad labels.
The "00" of Caoxian Luo Ruyan's original Hanfu "Later" designer Zhang Zichen decided to return to his hometown after graduating from college and joined the ranks of original Hanfu. "Many of my classmates are also engaged in the design of Hanfu, but their hometowns do not have such a complete industry, so many people choose to come to Caoxian County Work. "Zhang Zichen said.
Zhang Zichen is making plans
During the Spring Festival, Zhang Zichen, as a "new" designer, was really busy. "A year ago, we had to design three or four New Year's greeting clothes. Not only did we produce a lot of drawings, but we also had to decide on styles, look at samples, and communicate with manufacturers. We worked overtime until after nine o'clock every night." Zhang Zichen said that as a new generation of designers, You must be on the path of originality, so that you can go further and further.
Zhang Zichen and his colleagues are discussing color matching
"Originality is the foundation, and culture is what we need to cultivate deeply." Yao Chixing believes that originality is not the end point, and how to integrate culture into originality is a requirement for upgrading. . On Yao Chixing's desk, there are thick books listed, "These are books about traditional colors, books about traditional culture, books about traditional crafts... These are all what I want to learn." Yao Chixing believes that constantly Learning new things can eliminate creative bottlenecks.
In addition to colors, patterns, and styles, Yao Chixing believes that wearing and matching Hanfu is also culture, and cultural services related to Hanfu will help the development of the entire cultural industry. "There are particularities in how to match accessories with Hanfu, how to match hairstyle and makeup." Yao Chixing has close cooperation with makeup training institutions. In the future, she will focus on series research on Hanfu and etiquette research. She said she hopes that Caoxian County Not only is it a leader in the production and manufacturing of original Hanfu, it is also far ahead in the research of Hanfu culture.
As for how Hanfu, such as the horse-faced skirt, went from being "popular" to "constantly popular", Li Jie, dean of the School of Fashion at Shandong University of Arts and Crafts, believes that traditional clothing should be popularized and people should pay attention to it. Only by combining it with your daily attire can the commercial operation of the product be realized.
National style woolen coats already on the shelves
Pay equal attention to online and offline sales
The combination of online sales and offline stores has become a major brand in Caoxian County The development path of some Hanfu merchants.
Liu Shenfeng’s Time Travel Datang Hanfu Cloud Warehouse mainly targets offline customization and wholesale. Currently, the annual offline wholesale volume is 500,000 pieces, and offline customized sales account for more than 90% of the total sales.
Nowadays, many scenic spots have begun to promote Hanfu culture and have become one of the main wearing scenes of Hanfu. “Almost all scenic spots across the country have cooperated with us,” Liu Shenfeng said.
“Many offline orders are based on historical background.Customized according to the scenery and regional characteristics. "Liu Shenfeng introduced that Heze is famous for its peonies. Many scenic spots in Heze will customize Hanfu with peony elements. Orders from Xi'an are mainly in Tang Dynasty style, Beijing's orders are mostly for Ming and Qing style clothes, and Shanxi's orders are mainly for Shanxi merchants' young ladies' clothes. . In addition, there are many suddenly popular film and television dramas, which will also attract a large number of orders. "Some time ago, the new song "Rakshasa Sea" became popular in Zibo, and many scenic spots in Zibo came to customize Pu Songling's series of clothing. , elements such as fox fairy and scholar became popular. ”
The designer introduces the pattern of Heze peony and blue and white porcelain on the new horse-faced skirt
“In the past, Hanfu was a niche hobby, but now Hanfu is becoming more and more daily wear, and more people are willing to try it. "The consumer groups of Hanfu are also changing, which made Liu Shenfeng realize that only doing offline wholesale was very limited, so he began to try to sell online through live broadcasts. "When I first started live streaming, the sales were pretty good, but the technology was not mature enough, so I had to learn while doing it." Liu Shenfeng said that currently, the Tang Dynasty Hanfu Douyin account is live broadcasting twice a day.
In contrast, Luo Ruyan’s original Hanfu’s current live broadcast technology is very mature, with more than a dozen live broadcast accounts, and each account’s daily sales are around 100,000. "The live broadcast sells very well. Many times the anchor runs out of goods within two hours of starting the broadcast and has to download it," Yao Chixing said.
Anchor broadcast live in Luo Ruyan’s original Hanfu showroom
“Because of different body shapes, many people will return or exchange goods after purchasing online.It seems that offline stores are very necessary. "Yao Chixing said that the next step is to open stores across the country.
In addition to the company's official live broadcast, Caoxian Chenfei Clothing Co., Ltd. also offers public welfare live broadcast courses. "It has trained at least 400 anchors, most of whom are college students and treasurers. Mom, they are all carrying our company's products now. "Meng Xiaoxia introduced that anchors who "graduated" here can get goods from the company. They only need a mobile phone at home and can earn income by live broadcasting for two or three hours a day.
Government and enterprises work together to promote development
In the process of development, Caoxian Hanfu Enterprises also faced many difficulties. For Liu Shenfeng, the biggest difficulty was the lack of design talents.
“We did not have design talents at the beginning. For talents, you can only find materials on platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Weibo, and contact designers through private messages. Liu Shenfeng said that this model is not only time-consuming, but also cannot form the style of his own brand.
In order to help the development of enterprises, Caoxian County actively promotes the branding, internationalization and high-endization of Hanfu, and has successively cooperated with Shandong Provincial Clothing Co., Ltd. Design Association, Zhejiang Sci-Tech University School of Fashion, Shandong University of Arts and Crafts, etc. signed cooperation agreements.
In June 2023, Liu Shenfeng successfully signed a contract with a professional team in Hangzhou to jointly develop a series of original products. Very popular in the market. ”
“As the demand increases, the original warehouses and workshops can no longer meet the current demand. "Liu Shenfeng said that there are still many Hanfu workshops based on families, which need more modern production workshops and more spacious and bright Hanfu exhibition halls.
Liu Shenfeng’s current spacious exhibition hall
Currently, Cao County has planned to build an e-dressing town with a total investment of 1.98 billion yuan and a total area of 842 acres. Among them, the second phase of E-Shang Town - Caoxian Digital Economy Industrial Park, with an investment of 1.03 billion yuan, covers an area of 214.1 acres and a construction area of 163,200 square meters. It is the largest digital economy industrial park in a county in the country.
(Dazhong Daily·Dazhong News Client Reporter Jia Hanyu Lu Le)
