Chinese Consumers’ Demand for Hanfu, JK Uniforms and Lolita Costumes Has Created a 10 Billion RMB Market
Dressing up in hanfu, JK uniforms and Lolita costumes used to be considered a niche hobby, but now, young Chinese consumers have embraced these trends. So much so that these three types of clothing are now a 10 billion RMB market.
On Taobao, the search volume for “hanfu” has surpassed the search volume for “shirts”. And recently, just a few days after a new JK skirt was listed, more than 300k pieces were sold.
People who like dressing up in one of these three styles tend to be rabid fans. If they like it, they love it, and they are very willing to open up their wallets to buy those clothes. Thus, these three types of clothes are nicknamed the “Three Broke Sisters” among Chinese consumers.
What is Hanfu and Why do Young Chinese Consumers Love it?
What is Hanfu? In Chinese “fu” means clothing, so many people would think that Hanfu is clothing originating from the Han Dynasty, but actually, it’s not. Han is not only the name of a dynasty, but of an ethnicity. In fact, the majority of Chinese people are ethnically Han Chinese. So Hanfu means any traditional clothing of the Han ethnicity.
Hanfu’s history can be traced back to Huang Di (黄帝), the first emperor of China. It covers many dynasties, until the 17th century, at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
The majority of Hanfu consumers are post-95s and post-00s. The average price of a top or a dress costs around 300 – 500 RMB, which is affordable for students or people who just start their careers. In 2019, the transaction volume of Hanfu clothing on Taobao reached 2 billion RMB.
When Did the Hanfu Trend Start to Grow
For a very long time, dressing up in Hanfu remained a niche hobby. The turning point was the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in China in 2014. It is set rule of the forum that leaders from different countries must wear the host country’s traditional dress. And this is when Hanfu showed up after a long time of being silent in public.
The development and maturation of Chinese social media channels has also helped the trend go mainstream. There are many forums and groups for Hanfu lovers from all across the country to connect. They have strong sense of community since not everyone is interested in this dressing style and they have a strong a sense of belonging finding someone who shares the same interest. Now there are over 600K posts about Hanfu on Xiaohongshu.
Back in 2013 and 2014, students at Chinese universities started to build Hanfu clubs. This also helped Hanfu to become known by more people.
Taobao is the Biggest Driver of Hanfu’s Growth
But what has been the biggest driver of Hanfu’s current popularity? It’s Taobao. Unlike our everyday clothes which we can pick them up in offline stores, you don’t find Hanfu stores easily, even now. Taobao provides a platform for Hanfu sellers to present their designs and for Hanfu lovers to browse.
Chen Chen (辰辰), manager of a Taobao Hanfu store called Rumeng Nishang (如梦霓裳) said they founded the store in 2007. But Hanfu was not popular back then and they sold around 10 pieces every month. Now, their sales volume reaches over 10k a month. Good thing they were persistent!
Jk Uniforms
JK uniforms are essentially Japanese style high school uniforms for girls. The uniform became extremely popular in recent years. On Douyin, the topic JK uniform (#jk制服) has over 24.6 billion views. On Xiaohongshu, a recent hot topic about people wearing JK uniforms to see Sakura blossoms in March is very popular with 1.38 million views.
Chinese Gen Z’s Love of ACG
A key reason for the growing popularity of JK uniforms is that, those people who liked ACG (anime, comics, games) as kids have now grown up and they are wearing clothes that represent their interests. According to a ACG report published by IT Juzi (IT桔子) in March 2020, the scale of ACG clothing wearers is expanding quickly. In 2019, the amount of people who bought ACG clothes reached 340 million and in 2020, it is expected that the number would grow to 387 million.
Along with this key factor, there is also the fact that many popular TV series and reality shows are filming celebrities wearing JK uniforms, especially those campus love TV shows.
Lolita Costumes
The word “Lolita” came from a novel in 1955 by Vladimir Nabokov. The story tells a love story between a 12-year-old girl and a middle-aged professor. The story was filmed as a movie and in 1997, the movie was re-filmed in Japan and the style started becoming known and popular.
Currently, there are over 90K posts about Lolita clothing on Xiaohongshu and the hashtag Lolita on Douyin has over 1.4 billion views.
A full Lolita style outfit is not cheap. Take the example of a Japanese classic Lolita brand Angelic Pretty. The dress costs around 1,000 to 2,500 RMB, accessories cost 150 RMB, so in total, the set costs around 2,000 RMB.
In addition to the price, customers usually need to wait a long time for their beloved dress. It takes two months to two years, depending on the number of people waiting in line and the manufacturing process that a dress needs.
Our Take
It used to be very strange seeing someone wearing these types of clothes on the street. But now, it’s a very common to see this type of thing, especially I now that I have moved to Shanghai, a city that is open to every culture and communities.
As I am doing research for this article, I actually kind of want to buy a JK uniform and wait until next year’s cherry blossom season to take photos like users did on Xiaohongshu. Maybe I will contribute to the growth of this market too!
Read more: 淘宝新诞生百亿级市场系列第一期：汉服、 JK、Lolita组成的“三坑”
