Minority Commodities: Hanfu Industry Is Waiting For A Turning Point

Hanfu is quietly breaking through the circle and stepping into the life of ordinary people.

"Every Chinese will have a set of their own Hanfu", the huge imagination space makes the industry excited. The emerging "capital of Hanfu" and the sudden influx of capital and entrepreneurs are jointly triggering a new round of rivalry.

It is not the north, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, nor Hangzhou, Xi'an and Changsha, but Chengdu, which is located in the southwest. Not long ago, Yibang power went to Chengdu to investigate and interview brands, merchants and consumers in an attempt to reveal why Hanfu came into being. However, it found the worry behind the glory of Chengdu Hanfu.

It is not only Chengdu Hanfu, but also the whole Hanfu industry that has to re-examine itself?

　　 Chengdu said, how did you come?

In Beijing Olympic Forest Park this spring, Li Heng found that the spacious North Park Avenue was full of men and women in Hanfu, and the number was even more than that of the parents and children party that packed the subway on weekends. The old man in the park repeatedly scratched his head and said that he had never seen such a battle.

In the office, colleagues said that there was nothing strange about it. She also wanted to wear a Han suit to go to the park on weekends. She asked Li Heng, could you help me take a picture? She said that her best friend often wore Hanfu to go out to play. She showed her little red book to Li Heng. Any picture or video had hundreds or thousands of praises.

A few years ago, when Li Heng first saw Hanfu in the street, he looked at it for a long time. But now, once regarded as a strange dress, Han clothing is quietly breaking through the circle and stepping into the life of ordinary people.

According to the data released by AI media, the size of Hanfu market will exceed 10 billion in 2021. Sun Yi, the manager of the Han and Tang Dynasties, estimates that this scale is expected to grow tenfold in 5-8 years to reach 100 billion yuan.

As a young industry, Hanfu track is also concerned by capital.

In April this year, more than 130 million yuan of round a financing was obtained. Zhengxin Valley and station B jointly led the investment, and bubble Mart followed.

Returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties, it also revealed to Yibang that in the second half of 2020, Shaanxi cultural investment and Zhongnan POFU will obtain 10 million level financing.

In the same period, pan women's Square obtained round D financing, and the investor was Challenger capital.

The rise of Hanfu has something to do with the national trend and the consumer psychology of generation Z. the wearing scene of Hanfu gradually breaks through the circle and sneaks into life.

Offline cultural and creative activities of Hanfu continued to be popular. Flash, show, Han clothing is rarely absent. The major parks across the country, I do not know when to start, have launched "wear Hanfu into the park" free activities, to win popularity.

But if you ask a Chengdu person, they will say that these things are not uncommon in Chengdu, they have experienced it two or three years ago.

There is a saying that people in Chengdu wear Hanfu on the street, wear Hanfu in their life, and even eat hot pot.

In Chengdu, there have been more than 20 Hanfu original brand enterprises with an annual output value of more than 3 million yuan. According to the Research Report on current situation and consumption behavior data of China's Hanfu industry in 2021 by AI media consulting, the number of Hanfu physical stores in Chengdu will reach 270 in 2020, which will be more than the same hot city of Hanfu in Hangzhou.

"The first city of Hanfu".

There are many Hanfu cities, but only Chengdu has taken the honor of being the first city of Hanfu. How did Chengdu's Hanfu become popular?

　　 In 2002, young people "fell from the sky"

When it comes to Chengdu's Hanfu, people often refer to the "Hanfu Street" - the champaign square on Chunxi Road in Chengdu.

Champaign square, originally a prosperous area of Chengdu, was once thought to be going out of business because it was too old-fashioned. But now, it has been reborn as "Champaign square Hanfu Street". On the first floor of the shopping mall, there are nearly 40 Hanfu shops, as well as supporting photography and cultural shops.

In August 2018, Meng Ni, the fashion owner of Champaign Plaza, suddenly found that the Hanfu brand such as dream neon clothes opened a shop in the mall. Soon, some Hanfu "tongpao" began to wear Hanfu in shopping malls.

In the Spring Festival of 2019, from time to time, some people come to the store to ask about Hanfu. At this time, news of Hanfu in the champaign square spread widely on the Internet.

"Before, there was no one selling Hanfu in Xiangbin square. We businessmen are surprised to see Hanfu, but Rumeng came in and found that there were many people who bought their clothes. It was very lively. I thought, Han Fu has such a big business opportunity, so what else do I do in fashion? " Said munnie.

In March 2019, Mengni's Hanfu shop also opened“ I had 20 on the first day. Just hang a pole, just hang out for a while, be taken by somebody Meng said.

As brand stores continue to join the champaign Plaza, there are constantly shops that sell Hanfu on their own initiative, and many young people come to shop on the street. By July and August of 2019, the whole shopping mall has become a real Hanfu street.

The upsurge of Hanfu and the miraculous rise of Hanfu street in Champaign square are due to catching up with the era of ＂ short video.

Sun Yi recalled to Yibang that the popularity of Hanfu in China was extremely rapid from 2017 to 2019. In those two years, it was the outbreak period of the platforms of tuiyin, Kuaishou and xiaohongshu.

Li Ziqi always wears beautiful Hanfu in the program, which is very enviable. The life style represented by Hanfu and the elements of Hanfu in Xianxia drama are all spread all over the country with the help of Internet Celebrities and short videos.

As a city of network popularity, offline activities of Hanfu are very popular. Many beautiful little brothers and sisters wear Hanfu, while many photographers and photography institutions in Chengdu have a set of Hanfu, which forms an ecological chain with KOL and fans.

At the same time, in the champaign square, a group of young people after 90 or even 00 suddenly fell from the sky - in Chinese clothes, of course.

In the eyes of the old merchants in the champaign square, although young people are chatting about things they don't understand, they pay special attention to the publicity on wechat, shaking tone and little red books, which has attracted a large number of people and brought a lot of online celebrities.

The corridor on the first floor of the square was checked by them, and a paper umbrella was hung on the ceiling, which made it very atmosphere. But at the same time, they also brought about disputes about "Shanzheng" and "shape" of Hanfu.

"At first, they just publicized in places like wechat, and then they began to crack down on others, saying that which store sold" mountain "or that it was not authentic, so don't buy it. They specially found some students to do summer jobs, and they specially guarded the door of other stores and said to everyone." Meng Ni is very helpless to say, her home is also selling the original brand, but together "shot", "a lot of customers into the store are clearly talking about the price, suddenly left."

This group of young customers were not only enthusiastic but also demanding. At that time, the store opposite Meng Ni began to sell Hanfu on the way. They could not even make out the difference between "Shanzheng" and "Shanzheng", but could not fool them.

But in the outbreak of demand, excellent brands are hard to find.

Meng Ni found that most of the original Chinese clothing brands do not understand the physical stores, it is difficult to talk about agents. There is a good brand can act as an agent, "we are all scrambled, together with the goods of its home, and then quarrel with each other, fight price war, roll up."

At the same time, the business boom of Hanfu broke out. In 2019, Taobao Hanfu merchants increased by nearly 50%. Many people outside the inner circle of the Hanfu circle are eager to try, trying to make an original Hanfu brand.

Now, Meng Ni's assistant Sijun is also a Hanfu fan. At that time, she was still studying in Chengdu. She began to draw designs for Hanfu paintings and make custom-made Hanfu with friends. A suit can sell 5000 yuan.

　　 Is it because of culture, but it is defeated by industry chain?

In 2018, Wang Min founded the Hanfu brand "Sumeng Guiyun" in Chengdu. Five years ago, she worked as an antique photography brand. There were 200 chain stores in the whole country at the time of * *, but Wang Min could not feel the sense of mission of cultural heritage, so she resolutely put down the studio business and started his business.

"What we did at that time was to imitate movies and TV dramas. What we did was to create" Hanfu "out of imagination rather than historical facts. When I was training studios and studios all over the country, I began to think, if I taught them the wrong way to wear clothes, what should I do? " Wang Min said.

Now, after more than three years of its establishment, Sumeng Guiyun has eight franchise stores and two direct stores. Wang Min is very proud that her business can also contribute to the inheritance of traditional culture.

Yibang found that business people who do business in Hanfu, more or less, shoulder a certain sense of cultural responsibility. In Chengdu, a city with the largest number of Hanfu enthusiasts and Hanfu community atmosphere, entrepreneurs like Wang Min emerge in large numbers.

In the upsurge of Hanfu, Chengdu can nourish a number of excellent Hanfu brands, which lies in "people" and "circle".

In 2006, there were some real stores of Hanfu in Chengdu. At that time, there were very few people in Chengdu who loved and wore Hanfu, and only a dozen "tongpao" were there. There is no wearing scene in life, and the production side is even more difficult. Back to the Han and Tang Dynasties, the founder of green pearl Er did nearly four years to achieve balance of payments.

The first batch of pioneers of Chengdu Hanfu brand, almost all of them are those who love Hanfu culture in person. They make clothes with a sense of mission of cultural communication, and have the temperament of idealist.

Businesses sell clothes while promoting Hanfu culture. They help each other as a close community with clubs and lovers.

According to Mo Li, executive director of Sichuan Hanfu Association, returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties played the role of "Huangpu Military Academy" of Chengdu Hanfu. As a pioneer, it exported many Hanfu practitioners and also led to the formation of Chengdu Hanfu industry chain.

On the other hand, all the Hanfu brands contacted by Yibang also mentioned the unique historical details of Chengdu. Hanfu is a kind of category which attaches great importance to culture and design. Cultural people and designers like to gather together.

As a famous city of Sichuan, Chengdu people have grown up in Wuhou Temple and Dufu thatched cottage since ancient times, with unique cultural atmosphere. According to an interview, many merchants in Shandong, Hubei and Shanxi have transferred their design teams to Chengdu.

Back to the Han and Tang Dynasties, the founders of Lu Zhu Er and Sun Yi, however, when Han clothing gradually developed into an industry, the reality became cruel and was no longer controlled by feelings and culture.

Chengdu is the first city of Hanfu, but it is not necessarily the first city of Hanfu industry, which is an embarrassing reality.

Whether the material of Hanfu is good or not is not the advantage of Chengdu textile industry. Most of the fabrics of Chinese clothing in China are from Keqiao, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. The dyes can't bypass Guangzhou. In order to obtain a fabric with accurate color difference, green pearl needs to communicate with Keqiao by express.

Hangzhou is adjacent to Keqiao and coastal factories. It has unique advantages in developing e-commerce of Hanfu and doing live broadcasting. With cheap Hanfu, Caoxian Hanfu has made Chengdu merchants complain incessantly, both of which have the potential to catch up.

According to the survey of industry observation before rain, most small textile mills in Chengdu are simple, primitive and lack of competitiveness compared with coastal automation and intelligent textile enterprises, which is difficult to meet the customized requirements of Hanfu brand owners.

Growing up in Chengdu, looking at the face dyes of Hangzhou and Guangzhou, admiring the factory capacity of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, headache of the bloody competition of Hanfu in Caoxian village, it can be said that it is the daily routine of Chengdu Hanfu merchants.

　　 Should we go to chishangjin or Caoxian

Hangzhou, Xi'an, Guangzhou, Caoxian and other big cities of Hanfu industry are setting off an industrial competition among cities. Naturally, Chengdu is not willing to give up "the first city of Hanfu".

In the second half of 2020, chishangjin Hanfu Industrial Cultural District will be settled in Hehuachi, Jinniu District, Chengdu. FDC fabric library and a fashion industry incubation platform covering an area of more than 7000 square meters are also introduced.

Different from the Xiangbin square created by businessmen spontaneously, chishangjin has become a move of Chengdu to build "the first city of Chinese Han clothing", which is in the height of urban strategy and industrial planning.

As the wholesale market gateway of Sichuan Province and the north of Chengdu City, lotus pond has been for decades. In the past, under the background of "poor in the East, expensive in the west, rich in the south, and chaotic in the north", Chengdu hopes that chishangjin will become a "catfish" to promote the upgrading of lotus pond industry and the development of Chengdu's clothing industry.

For Hanfu merchants, they can turn to FDC fabric library, the global fabric trading and data service platform, when they have encountered fabric selection and supply problems.

At the beginning of 2021, Sumeng Guiyun's second direct store was launched into chishangjin. Wang Min said that Chi Shangjin has provided the merchants with preferential treatment and various subsidies, as well as the gathering of merchants and offline ecology, all of which attract her.

Wang Min is optimistic. She thinks that after the outbreak of Hanfu merchants in Chengdu in recent two years, factories in Chengdu are gradually adapting to the production of Hanfu.

However, Sun Yi thinks that it will take time to see the effect of chishang brocade and FDC fabric library on the industrial chain of Chengdu Hanfu. From the feedback of many Chengdu businesses, this project has not had a great impact in the short term.

Others, such as Caoxian, have put their hopes beyond Chengdu.

"If you walk a hundred meters in Caoxian street, you can buy all the fabrics, accessories, embroidery and embroidery needed by the Hanfu. There is no such highly concentrated industrial chain in other places. "

Huang Haibo, who was the director of Chengdu FDC fabric library at that time, after helping many Hanfu merchants, finally chose to resign and start his own business, and was responsible for creating a supply chain for an original Hanfu brand in Chengdu.

The first thing I did in office was to go to the whole country to investigate the Hanfu industry chain. The most important stop is Cao county.

"The gathering of industries makes the production and processing speed in Caoxian very fast. Half a month has passed since I made a garment in other places, communicated back and forth, reworked and tossed over several processes. But in Cao County, it may only take two or three days. " Huang Haibo said.

Cao county not only has a rapid response to the industrial chain, but also can achieve one sixth of Chengdu's labor cost. The gross profit of the Hanfu industry is only 30%. Compared with traditional clothing, the space is too small. Huang Haibo thinks that it is very precious to save so much gross profit on labor.

"Chengdu Hanfu merchants are good brands, but lack a national vision. On the contrary, although the quality of merchants in Caoxian county is often criticized, the industrial chain has its merits. They just need to be properly guided. " Huang Haibo said.

Huang Haibo is more willing to go to other places to run factories and stay in factories for long-term running in and communication. He told Yibang that the utilization of foreign supply chain will become one of the core advantages of his own brand.

　　 Hanfu, the eve of transformation?

Since the beginning of 2020, the continuous twists and turns of the epidemic situation will bring down the outbreak of the Hanfu industry from the climax, and from then on, it will be quiet. The tide rises and falls behind, leaving only the fish and shrimps on the beach that can't swim.

In the spring of 2021, when Yibang comes to the champaign Plaza, the Hanfu street is no longer the event of 2019. Opposite Meng Ni, a former Hanfu shop has just been redecorated and changed into JK and DK stores. Another shop with "Hanfu" on its signboard is only JK and Lolita.

Although the epidemic situation improved in the same period, many offline activities were lifted. When Yibang visited many Hanfu stores in Beijing and Chengdu in April, such as returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties and Rumeng nishang, it was found that the passenger flow did not return significantly.

In the whole year of 2020, the Hanfu shops in the champaign square will also rapidly shuffle. Meng Ni's shop was able to carry it, but 600000 goods were in her hands. In 2020, her own original Hanfu brand will be in the middle of the epidemic when it is processed in the factory. By the time they returned to work and left the factory, the clothes could not be sold.

Since many young people who came to Champaign square at the beginning borrowed money to buy the shops, they had to close the shops and leave during the epidemic. Wang Min said that in fact, many young people start their own businesses with a sum of money from home, but they have little knowledge of the industrial chain, inventory, store display, etc. of Hanfu. Later, she opened up her own franchise, including a package of programs and training. She felt that this way was much more realistic for young people who wanted to make Hanfu.

Huang Haibo revealed to Yibang that the epidemic situation has made some Hanfu head merchants sell tens of millions of yuan annually in 2019 and only a few million in 2020. Sun Yi said that despite the introduction of strategic investment back to the Han and Tang Dynasties, they have basically no new physical stores since the outbreak of the epidemic, and have turned to optimize existing stores.

Huang Haibo is a dyestuff expert, a platform, and a Hanfu entrepreneur. He has met many Hanfu entrepreneurs. He thinks that Hanfu entrepreneurship seems simple, but it is deceptive.

For the first time, it seems that the threshold is very low. Because compared with fashion, the investment in making Hanfu is very small, and there is no need for professional background, and there is no need to contact shopping malls and distribution. It directly enters into a production mode of large goods.

"In fashion, you can only do one part of the industry, but there are too many things for entrepreneurs of Hanfu to consider when they enter the industry." Huang Haibo said, "Hanfu entrepreneurs have always been" the whole industry chain thinking ". From design to fabric to inventory marketing, every link has to be fixed on their own, and each link has to be packaged by themselves, which makes the initial stage very difficult."

Huang Haibo believes that the future industry should be further explored. Like the traditional fashion industry, perhaps the whole industry chain will be gradually divided into smaller divisions.

"Division of labor is an inevitable trend in all walks of life, whether in terms of specialization or resolution. From the perspective of the time line of the rise of the industry, Hanfu is a kind of clothing that has just started, but its essence is clothing industry He said.

Sun Yi suggests that new entrepreneurs in Hanfu should take a good look at themselves and not open a big market. They should ask themselves whether they can find a new way to do what others have not done? Do you have the ability to raise funds? You can even wait and see for two years.

The whole Hanfu industry is looking forward to the second half of the year, waiting for a turnaround.

However, the Hanfu industry may not only need a turnaround, but also a transformation.

From 2020, "neijuan" has become the key word of Hanfu industry. When Hanfu merchants mention the Shanzhai in Caoxian County, they often regard the originator as a monster.

But even if there is no problem of Shanzhai, low-cost, cabbage Hanfu has also opened the "involution era" of Hanfu. Without the Hanfu of Caoxian, LAN ruotang has already started the battle of low-cost Hanfu.

Sun Yi believes that the existence of Chinese cabbage clothing has practical significance, but it is too rampant, which is not conducive to the development of the industry. Hanfu is originally a kind of national traditional clothing, and can not always give people the impression of low-end cheap.

As one of the core Hanfu brands in Chengdu, such as returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties and zhonglingji, LAN ruotang's production mode was once considered as an innovation in the industry. The 198 yuan set of Chinese cabbage Hanfu is the predecessor of today's Caoxian Hanfu, knocking down the Hanfu with high price at that time.

However, in July 2021, Xiao Qi, a Hanfu colleague, suddenly saw LAN ruoting's announcement of "clearance and reorganization" on his micro blog: "the whole venue is 50% off, with a minimum of 9.9 yuan.".

"What's the matter. LAN ruotang, won't you close the store? " He immediately thought of the sudden clearance and then closure of the Hanfu brand store "lihuadu" some time ago, and his heart sank. Because they look very similar.

After opening station B, many of my classmates left messages under the related discussion video of LAN ruoting to express their concern and perplexity, "Why have many well-known Chinese clothing stores closed and cleared recently? Is it not profitable to make Hanfu? "

Since 2020, with the arrival of a large number of Hanfu merchants, the degree of competition has increased sharply. However, the price of Hanfu has been declining“ It has been done for a long time and sold a lot, but in the end I found that I didn't make any money Huang Haibo thinks that even if it is a brand like LAN ruoting, it is not surprising that there is a financial problem.

Huang Haibo's deepest feeling for the Hanfu industry is that the industry is growing too fast, but it is still very immature. In particular, the quality of Hanfu is unstable, and the average price and gross profit are difficult to improve, which further leads to the lack of funds for brand research and development, and there is no pricing space for the physical distributors, resulting in a vicious circle.

In his opinion, Hanfu will have a future only if its quality and rate are improved.

At present, the vast majority of popular Hanfu brands, including hanshang Hualian and returning to the Han and Tang Dynasties, have arranged low, medium and high-level Hanfu categories. And the high-end Hanfu brands such as minghuatang are also doing well.

06 in Chengdu offline, see the new possibility of Hanfu?

At the beginning of Hanfu's start-up, low brand awareness is also a problem. It is normal to place orders with only ten to hundreds of pieces. Reaching a batch of 2000 pieces is already a big hit. Only the super popular model of the head brand can achieve more than 10000 pieces.

It is because of the huge number of physical stores, the lack of experience of Hanfu entrepreneurs, and the lack of experience of the entrepreneurs of Hanfu, which makes it difficult for them to sell goods and turn inventory through the stores, they generally rely on e-commerce to start their businesses, paying more attention to online business than offline business.

However, offline is not just for distribution, there are too many Hanfu businesses can not give up. For example, word-of-mouth, such as the possibility of ＂ in direct contact with consumers.

Hanfu business is born with offline social genes. Nowadays, the rising national style show, flash show and cultural and creative propaganda activities need the participation of Hanfu. And Hanfu shop is also a social space for three pit girls and Hanfu comrades. But for a long time, the offline demand of Hanfu and the exuberant online ecology have been seriously misplaced.

In Chengdu, there are many Hanfu merchants who are crazy about opening stores. Whether it is the old brand back to the Han and Tang Dynasty, or the young dream of returning to the cloud, the first stop of starting a business is the same, choosing to open a store in the center of Chengdu where there are a lot of people. Even after the outbreak, the two families still have their original intention.

"To show a dress online is a test of the store's scene design, photography, make-up, scenery and models. But in the physical store, everything is real. You can experience the material and workmanship of clothes by touching them. " Sun Yi said.

As a successful entrepreneur who has built a famous brand from scratch in the past two years, Wang Min believes that the solution to low brand awareness is to open stores as much as possible. At the same time, it can also directly contact their own customers.

Because of his understanding of customers' needs, Wang Min noticed that the parent-child Hanfu would be a major direction in the future.

"Many schools in Chengdu now advocate wearing Hanfu on traditional solar terms, and many parents will come to the store to look for it." When communicating with customers, Wang Min also found that children and parents like different Hanfu, "parents like embroidery and color matching more uniform, wearing more convenient narrow sleeves, while children like big sleeves with tender color and more Fairy Spirit."

"Why are parent-child Hanfu so potential? In the first place, children will look cute when they wear Hanfu. There will be a lot of demands in the future for many commemorative and ceremonial occasions, such as birthdays and adult ceremonies. For parents, children are like a piece of white paper. To let them learn to wear Hanfu from childhood is also the root of culture. " Wang Min said.

The "Buer Yinlu" team, which founded the "huiwaihanfu" brand, is exploring another direction - not only Hanfu, but also providing a whole set of life style with artistic conception.

Among its founder team, there are Hanfu designers and space designers to carefully construct the courtyard, and the chef designs the ancient Sichuan cuisine style, aiming to combine the Hanfu of huiwai with a series of derivative brands. "We re create based on literature and books, through the understanding of a series of contemporary artists such as space, clothing, utensils, food and music, It can be condensed into a new life form that can be seen, heard, smelled and eaten. " Co founder fan Xue explained.

In 2015, bueryinlu rented its first courtyard in Chengdu. Now it has ten chain stores in Chengdu, and plans to open new stores to Chongqing, Xi'an and other cities.

Before leaving Chengdu, Yibang took a bus through the woods, lakes and narrow roads to the Sansheng village of bueryinlu in the southern suburb of Chengdu. Just from afar, I can see a quiet courtyard. On the cobblestone road, the women in Han Dynasty's clothes are walking to the deep place, sitting in front of the pavilion table in the deep, talking and laughing, just like an attractive painting scroll.

Start offline and go offline. Chengdu's Hanfu story may have just opened a corner.