From dopamine, Maillard to mint mambo and wind waves; from youth, socialized to maximalism, scenario-based; from city tours, daily routines to outdoor sports, national outfits; from camping, riding to concerts, music festivals, today’s textile brands not only delve deeply into marketing research but also begin to focus on the culture and echo emotions behind the products.

The report “Survey on Economic Development Status and Consumer Behavior of China’s National Wave 2024” showed that in 2023, China’s national wave market size reached 2.05 trillion yuan, increasing 9.44% yearly. It is predicted to exceed 3 trillion yuan in 2028. The “2023 National Wave Brand Young Consumer Insight Report” report showed that more than 78.5% of consumers prefer national brands. Mr. Sun Ruizhe, President of China Textile Industry Federation (hereinafter referred to as “CTIF”) pointed out that the apparel industry has stepped into the newly developed layout enhanced by culture and technology at the China Fashion Summit (CFS) held a few days ago.

Technology Resuming Fashion Layout

At present, the application of digital technologies and the creative integration of business models, product designs, cultural creations, and cross-border synergies in branding are powerfully reshaping the

the textile and apparel industry’s value chain, development limits, and competitive advantages.

The relevant statistics of the China Textile Federation show that by the end of 2023, the research, development, production, and operation of all textile industries will be 57.9% digitized, and the readiness of smart manufacturing will be 16.2%, which is 56.5% and 14.4% higher than the national industrial averages, respectively. The digitization rate of production equipment, the networking rate of digitized equipment, and the MES penetration rate reached 57.1%, 50.3%, and 30.3%, respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 1.5, 1.3, and 1.4 percentage points.

Chen Dapeng, Vice President of the China Textile Federation and President of China Garment Association said: “The emergence of next-generation artificial intelligence technologies has changed our creative ways at an unprecedented speed, scale, and scope to motivate strong development motivation.”

Not long ago, cross-border apparel e-commerce – Shein announced that it would cooperate with NTX, a global textile innovation and solution company, to utilize intelligence technologies to speed up the design and manufacturing process.

It’s known that by utilizing NTX AI’s demand-driven technologies and methods, Shein can introduce new fashion items to other e-commerce in 7 days and deliver the product within 5 days. In this way, the production efficiency is much higher than the traditional garment design and manufacturing. 

In Sun Ruizhe’s view, the introduction of innovative technologies such as AR dress, 3D printing, and product visualization, the introduction of algorithmic innovation in large artificial intelligence models to make the industry continue to realize category expansion, experience improvement, and service deepening.

Sun Ruizhe said that “the digital mindset is to capitalize on the key of the essence of development and the future trend”. Mr. Sun also said: “With the support of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the garment industry has carried out – “three tops and two pants smart production lines” (suit tops, casual suit tops, shirts, suit pants, and casual suit pants), which has made great progress.

Mr. Sun also said: “We are not only positively exploring the digital application of newly emerged technologies, such as intelligent artificial intelligence and cloud algorithms, to build an effective and open development system, production model, and service pattern.” Breaking through the last mile of digital-fashion integration still requires smart digital platforms, namely instant interactions, multi-reach, and content innovations to accurately understand consumer preferences and customized content, which can make a qualitative leap in resource allocation, value creation, and marketing models.

Culture Leads Fashion Consumption

At present, the textile garment industry draws inspiration from traditional culture, regional characteristics, local folk customs, and more. It also delves into cultural elements such as historical culture, folk art, and ethical totems to reinterpret them through modern designs and languages to create products with historical culture and fashion sense, showing multiple possibilities of traditional cultural resources in modern fashion.

“People’s dress codes range from basic dress to new consumption needs of comfort, health, personality and fashion.” Zheng Yan said.

Nowadays, more traditional Chinese and ethical elements have been integrated into clothing design, and the new national wave has updated our clothing fashion and cultural consumption level.

In May, HLA cooperated with Tsinghua University to establish the “Tsinghua HLA China Traditional Outfits and Color Research Center” and published the first academic monograph on horse-face dresses in China’s Most Beautiful Dress Series – Five-Color Colorful Horse-Face Skirt. Positively exploring the road of creative transformation and innovative development of Chinese excellent and traditional culture to make the beauty of Chinese clothes step into daily life and the whole world.

“In the current consumption, habits, and trends, brands have a deep segmentation which pours underlying new variables into consumption cultures.” Mr. Sun said. Cultural productivity as a core engine of innovation in the industry has pushed unprecedentedly the value of our national textile apparel to extend in a wider space.

According to Zhang Wei, chief strategy officer of WGSN China and chief brand officer of Coloro, pursuing fashion is not just a patent for young consumers. “Fashion is diversified, and companies need to focus on how to meet more fashion needs of more consumers.” Zhang Wei said. He also said that “youth should be defined as a common state of mind rather than a specific age. Therefore, when enterprises make their marketing strategies, they should have a much more open-minded state and attitude to provide products and services for their consumers without worrying about age.”

“Nowadays, with the emergence of new technological revolutions, new lifestyles, and new aesthetic styles of diversified symbiosis, we must break through the stereotyped mindset to change our views and deeply understand the new ways, new senses of artificial intelligence, and sensitively perceive the beauty of life and ecological beauty, and inject more opportunities for the innovative development of the industry.” Chen Dapeng said.

“Improving the soft power of fashion design ability in the garment industry still needs to rely on creative design peaks, special industrial groups, and research institutes to build eco-chains in the garment industry to promote conventional culture integration into modern fashion.” Zheng Yan said.

Brand Service Consumption Upgrade

Nowadays, with the upgrading of consumption and the exploration of the international view, the garment industry, how to create, break through traditional yokes, and reach high-level international waves is becoming the key issue that the garment industry and related enterprises face.

According to Zheng Yan, the garment industry should strengthen brand building and support enterprises to develop high-end garments with traditional culture and modern spirit, which can meet modern life, and enhance the popularization speed and influence of our national clothes. Zheng Yan also said that we need to strengthen brand building and nurture creative, novel products and brands to support enterprises to accelerate the iterative innovation of industries (products) in niche areas.

The famous brand strategy expert – Li Guangdou believes that rebuilding future brands should focus on products, in terms of fans, users, and IP as centers, to achieve from increasing to compound increase, brand personalized, customization, high-end, and even achieve fast fashion and art become mainstream.

“Apparel retail has entered a new era, and there are many opportunities for the future of apparel retail,” said You Wuyang, a renowned expert in new retail business model and strategy and president of Hangzhou Xijiang New Retail Institute. “High-quality and low-cost products can occupy 60% to 70% of the consumption market. Brands and consumers should create together, from products to brand promotion and reputation maintenance, all these should be built together to handle detailed marketing and build an integrated management system for goods and supply chain.”

“In terms of design, in the future, designers shouldn’t design clothes individually, and we should meet consumers’ inner heart needs. Brands should have a long-term plan, and Chinese garment designers should face the international market. The first step is to improve cultural confidence to step out of China and into the whole world. said Ji Wenbo, a designer who won the Golden Dome Award for China’s fashion design.

According to Chen Peng, owner of NCSPAC, a buyer center, he believes that consumers are more focused on the cost-effectiveness of products. Therefore, the design and development of products and their quality should have their advantages. “Domestic brands that want to achieve their high-end development must consider their situation, rather than learning directly from the experience of others. In the process of brand building, the most important thing is to dig out the product advantages,” said Chen Peng.