Unisex Street Style Takes Over Chinese Fashion Market

Most industries have taken a huge hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, driven by growing local demand, Asia Pacific is more resilient to the impact of the pandemic than the U.S. and Europe, and some brands have returned to 80-100% of their pre-pandemic sales in stores across China. China now is the second largest apparel market in the world, eating up 18.4% of the total market worth of $1,773 billion USD. 

Also, under a variety of favorable policy environment, China’s apparel industry will usher in a good time for transformation and development. According to the Foresight Industry Research Institute’s “Analysis Report on Production and Sales Demand and Development Prospects of China’s Apparel Industry”, it is expected that by 2022, the operating income of China’s apparel retail industry will exceed 390 billion yuan ($60 billion).

In China today, what is the most popular fashion trend? The answer is undoubtedly the unisex street style.

Loose cut, comfortable fabrics, bold prints and colors are favored by young consumers. Unisex street style is not just a style of dressing, but an expression and interpretation of personality. Millennials are eager to break free from stereotypes and gender confinement. In the past few years, both designers and consumers are becoming more comfortable experimenting with gender boundaries in fashion.

Street fashion’s momentum is strong: on Tmall, streetwear growth was 60% higher than other fashion categories in 2018, with sneakers and hoodies as the most sought-after items. Besides apparel, other categories with street elements such as collectable items and digital accessories also experience strong growths. For the millennials, whose consumption preference is more personalized and diversified, have become the main consumer of the fashion market. Additionally, Chinese KOLs are a sign of this change. Influenced by social media, young consumers are used to refer to celebrities and KOLs’ dressing style.

For example, Wu Yifan, who was born in 1990 and has over 50 million followers on Weibo, is usually very fond of street style looks. In his rap variety show, almost all of the sneakers he wears go up in price like crazy after the show airs. Meanwhile, he is loved by major luxury brands and is not afraid of unisex style looks. His style is sought after by a large number of young consumers.