New Chinese Style: Wearing colors of Chinese painting

The 2024 Spring Festival Gala's segment "Nian Jin" showcased 20 traditional patterns spanning the Han, Tang, Song, and Ming dynasties through costumes, featuring classic designs like butterfly motifs, orchid motifs, and gourd motifs.

This program not only captivated the audience but also ignited a new wave of interest in modern Chinese-style clothing, which is called Xinzhongshi, or New Chinese Style. Data from JD.com reveals that as the Spring Festival Gala live broadcast commenced, transactions for modern Chinese-style clothing on the platform surged by 215% year-on-year, with hanfu (traditional Chinese dress) categories experiencing a 325% increase.

Numerous celebrities donning the style of modern Chinese attire at prominent events and in public have propelled the new Chinese style to the forefront of the 2024 fashion trend.

In early February this year, the Xiaohongshu social media platform featured over 2.6 million posts under the hashtag "New Chinese Style dressing," with the same topic garnered 10.2 billion views on Douyin, a popular short-video sharing platform.

The New Chinese Style transcends the intricacies of ancient attire, seamlessly blending traditional Chinese patterns into contemporary fashion, and defining its unique charm. These garments often refine the forms and structural elements of ancient clothing, incorporating traditional pattern symbols.

Featuring standing collars, crossed collars, symmetrical fronts and pleats, these outfits utilize organic fabrics like silk, linen, and cotton, adorned with decorations that accentuate traditional auspicious meanings through clasps, knots, embroidery, and printing. Such fusion of traditional elements with new materials, techniques, and modern technology showcases the beauty of Eastern traditional aesthetics and rich cultural heritage.

Social media platform data indicates the rising popularity of "New Chinese Style outfits" that emerged earlier.

The Chinese Brand Consumption Trend Report from the JD Research Institute for Consumption and Industrial Development, published last year, highlighted a significant increase in the purchase of Guochao products, also known as "National tide" or "China chic".

Between 2019 and 2022, Chinese consumers buying products with Chinese cultural elements surged by 74%, with sales experiencing a remarkable 355% growth.

Data from the China National Textile and Apparel Council reveals that the Xinzhongshi clothing market in China reached an impressive 1 billion yuan in 2023, with related products experiencing a growth rate exceeding 100% over the past three years.

The 2024 government work report proposed actively cultivating new consumption growth points, including popular domestic products, to drive the development of the new Chinese style.

A New Chinese Style dress and ancient Chinese painting. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A New Chinese Style dress and ancient Chinese painting. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A New Chinese Style brand-Miss Min’s 2024 Spring and Summer collections. [Photo/msmin.com]