China’s fashion industry is conceived and developed with the reform and opening up and economic growth. In the 1980s, China’s apparel processing industry gradually formed. In the early 1990s, Chinese industry has generated brand awareness, which can only be regarded as the gestation period of China’s fashion industry.
In the mid-1990s, Chinese people entered the stage of building a moderately prosperous society. People do not only want to dress warm, they also want to wear well and wear beautifully. China has developed into the world’s largest garment producer and exporter. The processing capacity and technical level of the Chinese clothing industry have been greatly improved.
The product quality and design level can also meet the demands of the domestic mass consumption. During this period, the Chinese clothing enterprises, whether started by processing the mass production of single product brand or producing high-end brands have started to realize the importance of brand building. They started to focus on product design and development and brand image promotion. In the late 1990s, China’s apparel industry can be said to start the season.
In the 21st century, the Chinese economy entered into the phase of rapid development. China’s apparel industry ushered in a wide range of major development. At the same time, China’s fashion market is also accelerating the process of globalization. The big international brands have entered China. They began to develop commercial activities in depth from Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities.
The Chinese apparel industry has experienced three decades of growth. But precisely, the Chinese fashion industry has only ten years of development history and is still in immature adolescence. The development process of China’s fashion industry is not like France, Italy and other developed countries. These countries take a top-down process of fashion democratization. China takes the bottom-up transformation and upgrading adjustment. China first had processing industry, and then the seeds of brand awareness and brand development and construction.
At this stage, the garment industry is the main force of China’s fashion industry. In the last two years, despite the global financial crisis, Chinese high-end clothing consumption remained a rapid growth. The sales of many men, women, children clothing brand this year have increased at a double-digit growth. The mass young fashion brands have been very active.
Looking ahead into the next five to ten years, China’s economy will continue to have a smooth development. China’s fashion industry in the domestic market will have more room for development. It will also cultivate high value-added brands to serve the international fashion market.