On the land of North China, there is a county town that is nicknamed the "center of the universe" by netizens - Cao County, Heze City, Shandong Province. During this Spring Festival holiday, it became the "center" again, and once again became the "top stream" with the New Year robe and horse-faced skirt, occupying the "hot search" at home and abroad.
Cao County horse face skirt New Year's dress. Photo by Jiang Xiangen.
The horse-faced skirt has become a popular New Year's robe", "The horse-faced skirt that Cao County has sold for 300 million is still not sought", "The horse-faced skirt enters the British Museum", ......Caoxian horse face skirt is leading a new round of fashion boom this spring.
The data shows that this year, the sales of New Year's clothes in the Year of the Dragon, which are mainly horse-faced skirts, have exceeded 300 million yuan, and the "Center of the Universe" has exploded again.
If it is said that the ridicule of "the center of the universe" made Cao County break into the sight of netizens, and in 2023, it will earn 7 billion yuan a year by selling Hanfu, which has attracted the continuous attention of netizens to Cao County. The wealth brought by this horse-faced skirt, how did Cao County catch it?
The horse-faced skirt with auspicious elements of the dragon and phoenix. Photo by Hao Zhaohong.
Why is it a horse face skirt that is popular?
The horse-faced skirt, as a kind of Hanfu, consists of 4 skirt doors at the front and back, which coincide in pairs, pleated on the sides, and consolidated with ropes or buttons around the waist. Its popularity may be related to the "collision" incident of a luxury brand in 2022.
The Confucius Museum exhibits a green green woven gold makeup gauze python skirt. Photo by Li Mingrui.
It was also after that incident that I began to learn about horse face skirts. Liu Shuyu, a "post-00s" Hanfu enthusiast, said that after the turmoil, the Hanfu bloggers she followed began to spontaneously popularize the relevant knowledge of horse face skirts. "With the sweep of the Chinese aesthetic craze, the fans of the Hanfu circle are increasing day by day, and the horse-faced skirt is also loved by more people. ”
Although the "transplantation" of the above-mentioned luxury brands has contributed to the public's cognitive awakening of this skirt, making 2023 the "first year of the horse-faced skirt", in fact, the horse-faced skirt has always existed around us.
The 87 version of "Dream of Red Mansions" was praised as the "ceiling" of the TV series, and Lin Daiyu, Xue Baochai, and Wang Xifeng all wore horse-faced skirts in the play.
In recent years, in film and television dramas such as "The Legend of the Ancient Sword" and "Flower Thousand Bone", which are quite popular with the audience, a number of beauties in ancient costumes have also appeared in various improved horse-faced skirts.
And ask how the horse face skirt is "favored" today, the answer may be as "colorful" as the pattern of the horse face skirt, and people of different ages will give different reasons for wearing horse face skirts.
Part of the "vermilion ground entwined branch pattern dark flower gauze horse-faced skirt" in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Photo by Mao Jianjun.
But savor it carefully, in the final analysis, in addition to the factors other than freshness and popularity, the popularity of the horse-faced skirt mainly lies in the fact that it is both good-looking and easy to wear, cost-effective, with obvious national style characteristics, fashionable and versatile. "Whether you wear it to the elegant hall or the alley, the horse-faced skirt can taste different tastes. Chen Zixuan, a loyal fan of horse face skirts, said.
The most fundamental reason for the popularity of the horse-faced skirt lies in the shape of the horse-faced skirt itself and the excellent traditional Chinese cultural genes it carries. Xu Xiaohui, an associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts of Linyi University, believes that the horse-faced skirt is the crystallization of the wisdom of traditional Chinese creation, and the style design is rigorous and legal, especially the typical horse-faced skirt door, which lives in the human body, and the pleats on both sides are symmetrically distributed, and the color, decoration, and patterns together present the aesthetic characteristics of "Zhongzheng and elegant", and achieve the perfect unity of decoration, function and culture.
Cao County horse face skirt. Photo by Liang Ben.
In Xu Xiaohui's view, the popularity of horse-faced skirts overseas provides an opportunity to reshape China's fashion discourse. "The beauty of the horse-faced skirt is never a momentary beauty, it is a beauty that can transcend time and place. ”
Why did Cao County become the "center" again?
In 2021, a blogger shouted "Shandong Heze Cao County 666 We Le Baby" in a Shanfang dialect accent on the short ** platform, causing netizens to follow suit and ridicule it as "the center of the universe." Almost "overnight", the seemingly ordinary small county in southwest Lu was completely brought out of the circle by Internet hot stalks.
Cao County, belonging to Heze City, Shandong Province, formerly known as Caozhou, is located in the southwest of Shandong Province, at the junction of eight counties in Shandong and Henan provinces.
Aerial photography of Cao County. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of the Cao County Party Committee.
In the past, transportation in southwest Shandong was relatively backward, and like most rural counties in the north, farmers in Cao County mainly relied on agricultural production or went out to work as their main income**.
In the 90s of the last century, the "studio wind" and "drama wind" blew to Cao County, and the villagers began to produce studio costumes and costumes during the slack time.
The turnaround came in 2010, when the people of Cao County began to test the water of e-commerce, and some people even made their first pot of gold by opening **. Since then, Cao County people have invested in this wave of e-commerce.
As early as before setting foot in Hanfu, Cao County was the largest performance costume processing base in China, contracting about 70% of the performance costumes on the e-commerce platform every year.
The anchor is selling horse-faced skirts in the live broadcast room. Photo by Liang Ben.
However, the goal of Cao County people did not stop there, starting from 2019, with the promotion of film and television costume dramas and short ** on Hanfu culture, some businesses in Cao County who operate performance costumes saw the opportunity and quickly transformed and began to mass-produce Hanfu.
Nowadays, with the popularity of "new Chinese dressing", Hanfu wear and horse face skirt wear are gradually integrated into daily life. Because of its low and many styles, Caoxian Hanfu has become the choice of many young people, known as "the first Hanfu for young people", and Shandong has also become the "first province of Hanfu popularity".
People dress up their hair in fancy clothes. Photo by Liang Ben.
As a Hanfu enterprise integrating online and offline sales, Caoxian Chenfei Clothing *** sold about 160,000 horse-faced dresses, three to four times more than last year. According to Meng Xiaoxia, general manager of the company, during the Spring Festival, customers basically buy New Year's clothes for the Year of the Dragon every day, with a daily passenger flow of about 200 to 300 people. ”
Those who choose to buy Cao County horse face skirts. Photo by Liang Ben.
Hu Chunqing, president of the Cao County Hanfu Association, said that at present, there are 2,282 enterprises producing Hanfu in Cao County, and it is expected that the sales of Cao County's New Year's clothing will exceed 400 million yuan during the Spring Festival.
In Hu Chunqing's view, the ** chain is the key advantage of Cao County's horse skirt and Hanfu merchants to participate in the competition, "especially when live e-commerce becomes an important online channel, which puts forward higher requirements for the response speed of the ** chain." ”
Now, walking into Cao County, you will see large and small Hanfu enterprises and e-commerce companies, raw materials, design, processing, and sales, bringing together a complete Hanfu industry chain. "If you don't walk more than 5 kilometers here empty-handed, you can make a hanfu. Netizens commented.
The picture shows a customer choosing and trying on a horse-faced dress. Photo by Liang Ben.
Where is the development of Hanfu in Cao County?
Although Caoxian Hanfu is a subdivision refined on the basis of the performance costume processing industry, and the transformation is not difficult, the development of Caoxian's Hanfu industry is not smooth.
Caoxian Hanfu was originally called "copycats" in the industry, but now, more and more Hanfu merchants have gradually begun to make originals and brands, and develop in the direction of refinement and design.
* Cao County Hanfu original designer design horse face skirt. Photo by Liang Ben.
Thanks to the huge production scale, the quality of the development of the Hanfu industry in Cao County, including the original design ability and production process of the employees, is improving. Hu Chunqing said.
Liu Xingyue, a designer of Hanfu in Cao County, has been trying to fill "new wine" in the "old bottle" of Hanfu. She took the horse-faced skirt as an example, saying that the horse-faced skirt of the Ming Dynasty was simple and elegant, and the horse-faced skirt of the Qing Dynasty was luxurious, and the horse-faced skirt of each era had different characteristics and expressions. "Our design will be improved according to the fashion needs of consumers, and the skirt waist will be made plain, more everyday, convenient and modern. ”
Workers stitch and sew the cut fabric. Photo by Liang Ben.
In addition to offline and online sales, Caoxian Hanfu enterprises have begun to set foot in overseas business, and Hanfu is exported to European countries such as Italy, France and Spain.
In August 2023, Zheng Xiaohui, an international student from Weifang, Shandong Province, wore a horse-faced skirt and played erhu on the streets of Milan, Italy. (Photo courtesy of Zheng Xiaohui).
What will be the next "horse-faced skirt"?
China has always attached great importance to proper dress, the so-called "hanging clothes and ruling the world". In fact, in the long historical development, it is worth inheriting the "repet" costumes, not only horse-faced skirts.
Taking women's clothing as an example, not to mention styles such as curly skirts and cloud shoulder skirts, it is enough to "attack in a group" just by clearly taking the skirt as the name.
The 5th "China Chinese Costume Day" Shandong Branch "Splendid Huaxia Haidai Huashang" was held in Daming Lake Chaoran Building. The picture shows the catwalk in Chinese costumes. Photo by Liang Ben.
In recent years, with the rise of "national tide style" and "new Chinese style", the category of Hanfu produced in Cao County has also expanded, and there are all kinds of styles such as skirts and curls in Cao County. Due to the influence of market trends, consumer preferences and other factors, the next "out of the circle" category may not be able to**. However, some possible directions can be speculated based on existing market conditions and consumer demand.
People dressed in Chinese costumes took pictures at the Quehua Bridge in Daming Lake. Photo by Liang Ben.
From the perspective of market trends and consumer preferences, the scale of the Hanfu market continues to rise and expand, and there is still a lot of room for upside in the future. According to the "2024-2025 Research Report on the Status and Consumer Behavior of China's Hanfu Industry" released by iiMedia Consulting, Chinese consumers think that improving Hanfu daily wear is still a bit cumbersome, accounting for 438%。It can be seen that in the future, lightweight, daily hanfu styles may be more popular with consumers.
From the perspective of consumer preferences, more and more consumers are willing to wear Hanfu in various scenes of life, especially young people's acceptance of Hanfu is getting higher and higher. Therefore, more fashionable and trendy Hanfu categories, such as full-breasted skirts and cardigan skirts, may be favored by consumers.
What do you think the next "horse face dress" will be? (ENDS).
Written by Lee Ming-rui.
*: China News Service WeChat***