Will sustainable fashion be a new opportunity for domestic apparel brands?

In the Chinese market, it may be brands, not consumers, that are not prepared for sustainable fashion.

In recent years, sustainable fashion has become one of the major development trends that cannot be ignored in the global apparel industry. This concept originated from the proposal and prevalence of “sustainable development” in the discussion of global economic issues, and was introduced into the fashion discourse system, which began to stimulate people's discussion on the future development of clothing, a high-energy-consuming and labor-intensive industry. .

With the awakening of global consumer awareness, more and more brands are beginning to adapt to this trend. The luxury brand Gucci parent company Kaiyun has previously released the 2025 plan with sustainable development as the foothold of the world's largest luxury brand LouisVuitton parent company LVMH It is also carrying out sustainable development research with institutions such as Central Saint Martin, and has signed relevant commitment agreements on energy conservation and emission reduction. The fast fashion brands represented by H&M have begun to participate in sustainable fashion by recycling old clothes and releasing environmental protection series. practice.

In 2009, Copenhagen Fashion Summit, known as the “Davos Forum for Fashion”, was held for the first time, inviting key decision makers and opinion leaders from the global fashion industry to focus on fashion-related environmental, social and ethical issues, which have evoked more and more Multi-brand attention.

Since the initial direction of the discussion has focused on the industry's macro issues and major players in the market, the summit is considered to be the focus of authoritative opinions on sustainable fashion issues and the main driver of sustainable fashion in the past 10 years.

Also in 2009, eco-Age, a sustainable fashion agency founded by LiviaFirth, encouraged sustainable design by organizing the GreenCarpetAward Green Carpet Award. At the same time, the non-profit organization FashionRevolution, which was founded after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Rana, Bangladesh in 2013, has achieved considerable results in urging apparel brands to improve supply chain transparency and labor rights by issuing annual fashion transparency index reports.

However, in the process of promoting sustainable fashion concepts in the past 10 years, China, which is a key player in global fashion, is almost completely absent.

Over the past 20 years, China's role in the global fashion industry has completed a gradual shift from productivity to consumption. At first, China attracted garment manufacturing to the southeast coast with cheap labor and low cost. After the demographic dividend period, China changed from a clothing manufacturing power to a key market with strong consumption power.

According to a report released by Bain in January this year, China’s luxury fashion sales reached RMB 142 billion in 2017, which was approximately US$22.07 billion, a 20% increase from 2016, the largest increase since 2011 and more than Outbound tourism shopping grows. At present, Chinese consumers account for one-third of the global luxury goods market. With the development of China's economy, Chinese consumers consume nearly 46% of the world's luxury goods, of which overseas consumption dominates, accounting for about 77%. .

The domestic mainstream view holds that the Chinese apparel market is still in the prevalence of consumerism, and consumer spending will be strong, but consumer awareness is not mature enough. Since sustainable fashion is considered to be a reflection of “anti-consumerism” to a certain extent, it is still too early to promote sustainable fashion. Not only that, from the perspective of production, many domestic apparel brands are still in the stage of extensive operation, and the requirements for sustainable development are beyond their capabilities.

From the perspective of communication, Chinese fashion media is affected by the rapid changes in readers' reading habits due to its short development time. It lacks depth in its content, relies heavily on star culture, and lacks a media environment for in-depth coverage of sustainable fashion. And content soil. Therefore, China’s absence from international sustainable fashion discussions is also likely to be found.

However, the 2018 Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which just closed on May 16, seems to indicate some changes for China.

Ye Xiaowei, the editor-in-chief of China's most avant-garde fashion magazine, (the director of fashion editor of Hyundai Communications Group, the founder of yehyehyeh), hosted a panel discussion on sustainable fashion in China at the summit, inviting Esquel Pan Chuying, CEO of the Group's China Retail Department, Dai Tana, Executive Deputy General Manager of the Brand Business Unit of Ordos Group, and Robby Gu, Vice President of Investment and Innovation of Jiangnan Buyi Group, are the representatives of three major domestic apparel groups.

This is the third year that Ye Xiaowei was invited to speak. This year is not only the first time she has hosted a group discussion, but also the first time that domestic apparel brands have entered the international discussion platform for sustainable fashion. This means that domestic apparel brands are in some ways The continuing fashion aspect has sprouted consciousness and made initial practice.

The three domestic apparel groups represent three different types of apparel brand operating models in the Chinese market.

As one of the largest producers of high-grade cotton shirts in China, Esquel Group has factories in China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Mauritius and Sri Lanka, supplying shirt products for high-end brands such as HugoBoss and TommyHilfiger, as well as PYE and Shiruishi. The self-owned brand, the business field extends from cotton planting to the whole industrial chain of spinning, weaving, dyeing and finishing, garment, export and retail. It is a typical representative of the current supply chain status of China's apparel industry.

Similarly, the 30-year-old cashmere brand Erdos, which is well-known in China, is also a traditional cashmere vertical industrial chain group from pasture, sheep, cashmere, and finally to clothing. Currently, there are 4 brands for different customer segments, ERDOS. , Ordos 1980, 1436 and BLUEERDOS.

Jiangnan Buyi Group was established in Hangzhou in 1997. It mainly has 5 apparel brands, including women's JNBY, men's CROQUIS sketch, children's wear jnbybyJNBY and Pommedeterre, and high-end women's wear. The group also extended its reach to the home field and created JNBYHOME and public opinion. Set two home brands.

Relatively speaking, Esquel Textile has more experience in connecting the international fashion industry chain and luxury brands, and has accumulated more experience in the global supply chain. The challenge is from the global sustainable fashion to the supply chain production environment, transparency and efficiency. High requirements. Erdos represents the traditional Chinese mass brand and is branded with national sentiment. It focuses on local raw material supply and production technology. It has deep experience in domestic retail industry and channel construction. The current challenge is from the upgrading of traditional brands. Jiangnan Cloth represents more of a new generation of Chinese apparel brands. The designer brand matrix focuses on niche markets, with a focus on end-market strategies such as product design packaging, brand image shaping, and consumer interaction.

In China's diverse fashion apparel market, the differentiated stance of different brands clearly has a different interpretation of sustainable fashion.

According to Pan Chuying, “Esquel Group’s operation on sustainable development is based on improving climate warming and narrowing the wealth gap. Since 2005, Esquel’s water consumption and energy consumption have fallen by more than 50%, and average worker wages are close. Wages for employees in the medical industry in China."

The group's sustainable fashion practices are basically in line with the current international world's major expectations for large manufacturers. Although less influenced by the Chinese market, it is important for labor rights in addition to the current Chinese society's single understanding of sustainable fashion. The level is placed in a more prominent position. In addition to the production process, the new brand of Esquel Group, Shiru Shi, focuses on the production of white shirts of different individual sizes, focusing on the anti-blind trend and the over-consumption classic style.

The picture shows one of the stores of Esquel Group's own brand Shiru Shi

Erdos hopes to improve product tracking and forecasting by optimizing the vertical supply chain and ensuring more accurate control of inventory to reduce resource idleness and waste.

Daitana stressed, “One of the biggest challenges in the fashion industry is how to increase the sales rate of goods and reduce unnecessary stocks.” The online market is becoming the solution to this problem. With the continuous improvement of China's e-commerce market and logistics, Erdos can continuously improve product sales efficiency by mastering the online and offline sales of inventory.

Beyond the commercial dimension, Ordos, as the flagship national brand, is also trying to enhance product sustainability by emphasizing product durability and emotional value, such as providing product recycling and repair services in stores.

The picture shows the Erdos 1980 Cashmere Life Exhibition

It is worth noting that Esquel Group and Ordos, which have vertical supply chains, touch sustainable fashion in many aspects of the industry chain, from production to design, from emotional value to sales, not just a single level.

The practice of Jiangnan Cloth on sustainable fashion represents the demand of a new batch of domestic commercial brands. RobbyGu throws an important point at the summit. "Jiangnan Cloth's emphasis on sustainable fashion is not solely based on ethical requirements but on business considerations."

The traditional view is that sustainable development is often premised on sacrificing commercial interests. RobbyGu's point of view clearly provides a new perspective for Chinese apparel brands to understand sustainable fashion. He further explained that Jiangnan Cloth's initial choice to use natural environmentally friendly fabrics was to prevent competitors from copying. The higher-priced eco-friendly fabrics are separated from other products in terms of quality, which also guarantees the uniqueness of the brand.

Along with the rise of literary styles in China, including film and television and music in 2010, the artistic style of Jiangnan Cloth, which was first created, was very avant-garde at that time, and quickly attracted a group of consumers with independent aesthetic attitudes. Since then, with the proliferation of consumption upgrades in the Chinese market in recent years, consumers have increasingly valued brand values. These consumers who are more willing to pay for valuable brands have almost become the target of all mid- to high-end brands.

Of course, these consumers are also more sensitive to and more willing to accept sustainable fashion trends.

In fact, the rapport between sustainable fashion and business considerations is necessary for Jiangnan Cloth, which is experiencing one of the most rapid developments in business value in the brand journey. According to the fashion headline data, Jiangnan Cloth's net profit in the first half of the fiscal year soared 37%, and loyal fans contributed 1.1 billion in revenue. Since the beginning of this year, Jiangnan Buyi (3306.HK)'s share price has accumulated 100%, and the current market value is about 10 billion Hong Kong dollars. It is three times the market value at the time of listing in 2016.

On the other hand, Jiangnan Cloth's interpretation of sustainable fashion is also a return to the product, that is, the product is polished to be more unique and attractive. This coincides with Pan Chuying’s point of view, she pointed out, “I don’t think consumers are willing to spend more money simply because they are sustainable, nor do they think consumers will refuse because a product does not meet sustainability standards. Buying. Ultimately, the mission of apparel companies is to produce attractive products."

This also reveals the fundamentals of sustainable fashion, that is, the design capabilities of products and apparel brands. Going back to the original question, it is too early to talk about sustainable fashion in China. From the consumer level, consumption upgrades make middle-class consumers willing to accept attractive sustainable products.

Even the sinking channel consumers in the third- and fourth-tier cities, the current emerging consumer downgrade trend also brings opportunities for sustainable fashion, because this group of consumers pursues faster and cheaper, and forced a large number of physical stores. Apparel companies are heading to the online market for more sophisticated product tracking and forecasting. This means that the degree of mechanization of the supply chain and the increase in the level of labor also means higher commercial efficiency, which is sustainable for a business.

RobbyGu bluntly said, “For sustainable fashion, not Chinese consumers are not ready, Chinese consumers can cater to new trends faster than anyone. On the contrary, in terms of brand supply, we need to know exactly what the brand needs to do. However, sustainable fashion is no longer ahead of Chinese brands. At present, the Chinese apparel market, whether it is a commercial brand or a designer brand, has gradually reflected the concern for sustainable fashion.

Edition draws on commercial philosophical reflections from Eastern philosophies, such as sustainability, anti-overproduction and practicality

In addition to the above three brands, the edition of MO&Co.'s parent company EPO Group has specifically explored sustainable fashion in the latest series. The series draws on commercial reflections from Eastern philosophies, including concerns about sustainability, opposition to overproduction and practicality. The brand said that it will continue to focus on and participate in global issues such as eco-environment and women's rights, and cooperate with a number of international sustainable development agencies.

Founded in 1997, ICICLE has been committed to becoming a representative high-end environmental brand in China, mainly providing middle-class women with high-quality and easy-care pure natural commuter. It is worth noting that ICICLE also has the first eco-friendly baby brand ECOBBE in China.

The niche designer brand that emphasizes the concept has also emerged a number of brands that reflect sustainability, such as the “re-making bank” founded by designer Zhang Na and reclaiming old clothes as the brand theme. Wang Tianmo, a graduate of Central Saint Martin. Founded and formed the MuseumofFriendship of the designer's hometown Jinzhou artisan team, MSMIN started from Taobao business but created a sustainable brand concept in Xiamen's slow-paced life. The studio was placed at the foot of Shenzhen Wutong Mountain and won the Italian YES Green Fashion Award. FFIXXEDSTUDIOS and so on.

In addition, with the further popularization of the Internet and changes in young people's consumption habits, the Chinese market has also appeared in the rental wardrobe APP, which is based on the sustainable business model. The appearance of Yi Ersan can not only provide more clothing styles. And it is a fashionable and environmentally friendly lifestyle.

In general, Chinese companies still lag behind in product innovation for sustainable fashion. As a result, more and more third-party organizations have emerged, hoping to help them develop from the perspective of communication and channel distribution. Last year, Kaiyun Group and Shanghai Fashion Week reached a cooperation. The former opened the “Kaiyun Innovation Luxury Laboratory” during the Shanghai Fashion Week and released the WeChat applet of the environmental profit and loss calculation tool MyEP&L.

This means that Western luxury goods groups are also beginning to pay attention to the sustainable fashion opportunities in the Chinese market. The latter, as a luxury brand, is now attaching great importance to the policy formulation of luxury goods groups.

In response to the current lack of sustainable design and the lack of innovation in China, Ye Xiaowei also established the first creative cultural consultancy yehyehyeh in China with sustainable development as the core, trying to provide creative and value-solving solutions for domestic brands. Program. Earlier, she also held a CelebrateFashionSustainability dinner with the support of Kaiyun Group to help Chinese independent designers integrate into international sustainable fashion issues and drive more responsible design through creativity.

Obviously, whether it is from the perspective of production, consumption or communication, China's sustainable fashion has already started. Once people have opened up the bridge between sustainable fashion and business logic, this concept may be a new opportunity for domestic apparel brands. .

Especially in the current economically active Chinese market, what is lacking in sustainable fashion is not mature market conditions, but innovative business models and truly attractive products.

Editor in charge: Gao Wei