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Current trends in the apparel industry
1. Overall stability of supply
From the perspective of clothing production, China’s clothing industry carried heavy pressure, met difficulties and move forward, adhered to the supply-side structural reform as the main line, actively promoted transformation and upgrading and generally maintained a basically stable development trend under the increasing pressure of production and operation in 2020. After 2020, China’s clothing supply is relatively stable. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to December in 2022, enterprises above designated size in the garment industry completed 23.242 billion pieces of clothing production, down 3.36% year-on-year. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to May in 2023, the industrial added value of enterprises above designated size in China’s garment industry fell by 8.6% year-on-year, which was 0.6% narrower than that in January to April. In May, the industrial added value of enterprises above designated size fell by 6.3% year-on-year, which was 4.3% narrower than that in April. Enterprises above designated size completed 8.453 billion pieces of clothing production, down 1.91% year-on-year and 5.31% narrower than that from January to April.
2. Diverse clothes types
From the perspective of clothes category, clothes can be divided into top, bottom, suits, functional or professional wear. Just top wears can be divided into jackets, coats, trench coats, coats, cotton-padded jackets, down jackets, shirts, vests, capes, military clothes, Chinese shirts, hunting clothes, T-shirts, polo shirts, sweaters, hoodies, underwear. Just coats can be divided into hoodie coat, baseball coat, denim coat, cargo coat, fleece coat, motorcycle suit, fur one, storm jacket, pie overcome and so on. Clothing styles became more diverse and manufacturing processes become more complex.
3. The rise of Chinese elements
We are glad to see that traditional Chinese clothes are becoming more and more popular among young people. They wore horse-faced skirts, capes and traditional leather boots to walk in the streets and alleys, promoting the majestic atmosphere of traditional Chinese clothing to the world. Especially in tourist cities, the clothes worn by the women in the courtyard of northern Shaanxi, the princess of the Western regions, the princess in Qing dynasty, and the girls in southern areas are all in full bloom. They are loved by more and more people, and everyone is competing to take photos. Chinese traditional clothing manufacturing steadily increased. With a substantial increase in demand, more and more manufacturers smell business opportunities to join the Chinese traditional clothing manufacturing army. However, Chinese traditional clothing manufacturing often requires a lot of time. Under such a large demand, Chinese clothing manufacturing began to turn to machine manufacturing. The efficiency of machine manufacturing has been greatly improved, but the quality of clothing has inevitably declined. In addition, due to the high cost of artificial manufacturing and the required fabric, the choice of materials is relatively economical in order to meet the price needs of the majority of consumers. That also causes the decreasing quality of clothing.
4. Generally stable clothing market demand
In recent years, China’s clothing market has steadily expanded, and has maintained stable growth under the overall environment of slowing consumption growth. China’s garment industry has a certain scale and the formation of a unique industrial cluster. The clothing technology has been greatly improved and more diversified business operations, professional, international degree has been significantly improved. In 2020, affected by the new coronavirus epidemic, the downstream demand of the industry has plummeted, and the market has shrunk to a certain extent. After 2020, the size of the clothing market fluctuates and the demand is generally stable.
Future directions in the apparel industry
1. Further strengthening of local brands
With the increase of per capita consumption power in our country, Chinese style clothing has gradually become the mainstream. In the modern period of economic development, people are also paying more and more attention to the combination of fashion and taste, and began to pursue high-end international brands. Personalization is the inevitable trend of consumption upgrading, the current consumer preferences are diverse and rapidly changing, the competition risk of a single brand is increasing, the multi-brand collection strategy has become the future direction, and cost-effective clothing can usher in rapid development.
2. Globalization of competition
China is a big country of garment consumption and manufacturing. With the growth of China’s economy, foreign garment enterprises are optimistic about the Chinese market and increase their business layout in China. China’s clothing market is becoming more and more international, and international brands are also stepping up time to seize the Chinese market. At the same time, local clothing enterprises, driven by the national export policy, have also accelerated the pace of development in the international market. Therefore, the international trend of competition in the clothing industry will become increasingly obvious in the future.
3. Digital transformation
The development and industrial application of new information technologies such as 5G, big data, artificial intelligence, and XR have provided a good technical foundation for the digital transformation, optimization and upgrading of the clothing manufacturing industry. On this basis, production technologies such as intelligent customization, intelligent warehousing, intelligent interaction, and flexible production are rapidly developing, producing, and selling clothing in every link.
