In the vast starry sky of the fashion industry, the women's clothing industry has always been the shining pilot star. However, the current global economic environment, the changing consumer preferences and the rapid change of scientific and technological innovation, together weaving a complex and changeable challenge network, so that women's clothing industry in leading the trend at the same time, but also have to embark on a breakthrough journey full of unknown and variables.

Beijing China International Fashion Week. Photo by Yu Haiyang, China News Service

Recently, the personal experience of a number of clothing companies has become a vivid footnote to the plight of this industry. In Beijing for many years, Wheat (a pseudonym), in the face of the cold offline stores and the closure of online stores, had to make a difficult decision, ending her eight-year entrepreneurial career in parallel with e-commerce and physical stores. Behind this, reflects the traditional clothing retail industry is generally facing difficulties: weak market demand, intensifying competition, rising costs and other multiple pressures interwoven, making even small and medium-sized businesses operating for many years are difficult to stay out of trouble.

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics provide strong evidence for this situation. In the first six months of this year, the growth rate of retail sales of clothing goods above quota in China was only 0.8%, a sharp slowdown of 14.7 percentage points compared with the same period last year. Behind the small growth of the entire industry, there are countless enterprises struggling to survive. Even internationally renowned brands such as Uniqlo have not been spared from the "deceleration" effect of the Chinese market, and Ken Okazaki, CFO of its parent company Fast Retailing Group, has bluntly pointed out the difficulties faced by brands such as sluggish consumer willingness and mismatched product composition.

In the face of the diversification of market demand, the dual pressure of cost and price war, and the requirements of environmental protection and sustainable development, women's brands how to maintain innovation and personality at the same time, to ensure product quality and texture, has become the focus of attention inside and outside the industry.

In this context, how to break through the women's clothing industry has become a topic of common exploration inside and outside the industry. In the face of the diversification of market demand, women's brands need to grasp the consumer psychology more accurately, and meet the unique needs of different consumers through innovative design and personalized customization. At the same time, under the double attack of cost and price war, brands also need to continuously optimize supply chain management and improve production efficiency to reduce costs and maintain competitiveness.

More importantly, the concept of environmental protection and sustainable development is gradually becoming an important factor affecting consumer choice. Women's clothing brands need to actively respond to this trend, adopt environmentally friendly materials, reduce resource waste, promote green production, practice corporate social responsibility with practical actions, and win the trust and respect of consumers.

The market shows the trend of diversification of demand

In the current society, consumers' quality of life and consumption concept have undergone profound and significant changes. Women's clothing market is no longer limited to meet the basic dress needs, but towards the personalized, diversified path. Today's consumers pay more and more attention to the style, fabric texture, color matching and cultural connotation of clothing when purchasing women's clothing, hoping to highlight their own unique taste and life attitude with the help of clothing.

This change in demand level has brought unprecedented challenges and higher requirements to women's brands. Brands not only need to have a keen market insight and be able to accurately capture the changing preferences and needs of consumers, but also have a strong design innovation ability to launch trend-setting products that meet the personalized expectations of consumers. In addition, the rapidly changing market trend also forces brands to build highly flexible production and supply chain management systems in order to quickly adjust product lines and production plans in order to respond to market dynamics.

The women's clothing business operated by Late Night (a pseudonym) has experienced such ups and downs. "I had planned to close the shop at the end of the year, but I am satisfied that I can still hold the edge like this." Late evening said with emotion, her business has finally improved, although not as prosperous as when she just opened the store, but it is the best state in the past four years. "In the past, the style of a shop is often fixed, and it is still familiar to look at it every few years." And now the store chase users, chase hot spots, chase traffic, style changes rapidly, and even drastic changes. March can be a pure sex girl and June can be a free spice girl."

Late night said, "You copy me, I copy you, does not reflect the originality of women's wear." In particular, we do this kind of "independent design" store, just passively apply the user may like the style, rather than take the initiative to conceive the design, in the final analysis is irresponsible. When I first entered the industry 10 years ago, everyone's dressing information was led by fixed groups, such as the style output of magazines, the airport street photos of actresses, and the stunning beauty of Internet celebrities. Aesthetic changes were slow and varied. Today, women's clothing stores refer to online celebrities and evaluation bloggers, which do not systematically output aesthetics, and ultimately contribute to the formation of a 'fake' trend."

Cost pressure becomes a brand survival test

In the current global economic environment, the women's clothing industry is experiencing an unprecedented cost storm. As raw material costs, labor costs and logistics costs continue to rise, women's brands are facing an unprecedented test of survival. These increasing cost pressures, like heavy shackles, constrain the pace of brand expansion, but also test their wisdom and resilience.

Women's clothing exhibitor (left) talks with buyer. Photo by Chen Jimin, China News Service

A well-known women's wear brand in China once faced fierce market competition, and once adopted a price war strategy to expand market share. At first, this strategy did attract many consumers to flock to it in the short term. However, it is accompanied by a series of serious negative effects. Profit margins have been greatly compressed, in order to reduce costs, brands have to find new ways to cost control, which inevitably affects the quality of products to a certain extent. In the wake of this, complaints about the quality of the brand's products have been repeated in the market, and its long-carefully crafted brand image has been damaged as a result. This typical case profoundly explains that the price war for women's brands is like a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it can quickly seize the market in a short period of time, on the other hand, it may shake the foundation of the brand because of the sacrifice of quality.

Faced with the siege of cost pressure, women's brands have taken the initiative to attack and actively explore ways to break the game. On the one hand, they spare no effort to optimize the production process, boldly introduce cutting-edge technology and advanced equipment, strive to improve production efficiency, vigorously reduce energy consumption and waste emissions, and strive to achieve effective cost control from the source. On the other hand, strengthening supply chain management has become another important measure for women's brands to cope with cost pressure. Brands know that a stable supply of raw materials is the key to ensuring product quality and cost control. To this end, they actively establish long-term and stable cooperative relations with suppliers, through joint research and development of new products, timely sharing of market information and other diversified ways to ensure the quality of raw materials and stable and reliable supply. This deep cooperation model not only effectively helps brands control costs, but also greatly improves the competitive strength of products in the market.

In addition, the differentiated competitive strategy has also become an important tool for women's brands to avoid the negative impact of the price war. Brands are committed to enhancing the added value of products and brand image, and carefully create unique market positioning, so as to attract consumers who have a higher pursuit of quality and personality. Some brands have cleverly launched high-end product lines such as limited editions and customized models, accurately meeting consumers' urgent needs for uniqueness and exclusivity, and then emerging in a highly competitive market.

Green consumption trend of women's clothing industry

With the growing popularity of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) concepts worldwide, the womenswear industry is undergoing a profound green consumer revolution. This wave of change has not only swept the fashion industry, but also profoundly affected consumers' purchasing behavior and brand value orientation. From the research and development and application of environmentally friendly materials, to the innovative exploration of recycling processes, and then to the landing practice of zero-carbon concept stores, women's brands are taking practical actions to practice the core value of "sustainable", leading the fashion industry to a more environmentally friendly and healthy future.

Workers process women's clothing at a garment factory in Loudi, Hunan province. Photo by Nai Jihui, China News Service

The fashion industry, especially the textile industry, as a resource-intensive and environmentally significant field, has long been saddled with multiple challenges such as environmental pollution, resource waste and labor rights protection while creating beauty and fashion. In the face of these problems, the emergence of ESG concept provides the industry with a way to break the situation, which requires enterprises to take into account environmental protection, social responsibility and good governance while pursuing economic benefits. On a global scale, although the exploration and practice of ESG is still in its initial stage, its great potential and value can not be ignored, and it is gradually becoming an important driving force to promote the transformation and upgrading of the fashion industry.

The concept of environmental protection, green and sustainable is increasingly popular, and consumers' expectations for fashion brands are no longer just staying in the pursuit of product design innovation and fashion, but paying more attention to the brand's environmental action, social responsibility and corporate image building. Therefore, ESG has become a new bridge for brand value reconstruction and consumer emotional connection.

In this context, the problem of rapid consumption and resource waste brought by the "fast fashion" model has become increasingly prominent, and its market position is gradually being replaced by "slow fashion". Consumers began to return to rational consumption, more cherish the quality and sustainability of products, classic design and environmental protection products have become the new darling of the market. This change not only reflects the maturity and upgrading of consumer concepts, but also points out the development direction of the women's clothing industry - that is, to pay more attention to product connotation and emphasize the direction of sustainability.

In order to comply with this trend, many women's brands have increased their ESG practice, starting from the source, by using sustainable materials, improving production processes, promoting circular economy and other ways to improve the environmental performance and sustainability of products. As a leader in domestic women's clothing brands, Jiangnan Fabrics is at the forefront of the industry in ESG practice, not only actively participates in various ESG themed activities and exhibitions, but also promotes sustainable development by deeply tapping the potential of traditional Chinese crafts and materials. Its sustainable living brand converts stock fabrics into creative products, maximizing resource utilization and value regeneration.

The perfect fusion of detail and culture

In the context of the increasingly diversified and competitive women's wear market today, the concept of "quality to micro" has become a beacon to lead the industry. This concept not only emphasizes the fineness and high quality of the product itself, but also requires women's clothing brands to pursue the deep integration of details and culture in design, and meet consumers' yearning for a better life with unique cultural perspectives and innovative design concepts.

Photo by Li Jiaxian, China News Service

Designers know that every dress is a dialogue between art and life. They go deep into the market, carefully observe the needs and preferences of consumers, while keeping up with the pace of fashion trends, but not forgetting to root in the brand's own cultural soil. In the design, they pay attention to the smooth lines and exquisite tailoring, the choice of colors and patterns strive to be unique and rich in meaning, every detail is carefully carved, aiming to convey the brand's cultural concept and aesthetic pursuit. This extreme attention to detail not only enhances the added value of the product, but also gives women's wear a soul, making it unique in the market.

This trend was on full display at the just-concluded China International Fashion Week. With the theme of "Sheng", the Fashion Week brought together many outstanding brands and designers at home and abroad, who dug deep into the essence of Chinese aesthetics, intangible cultural heritage skills and traditional culture, skillfully integrated them with modern lifestyles, and launched a series of women's wear with profound cultural heritage and fashion sense. These works not only lead the new trend of the national tide, but also stimulate consumers' love for traditional culture and inheritance consciousness.

Craftsmanship, as the cornerstone of women's quality, has also received unprecedented attention under the concept of "quality to micro". Women's clothing brands have introduced advanced production equipment and technology, strengthen the training of production workers and improve their skills, and strive to achieve a dual combination of excellence and innovation in all aspects of sewing, ironing, finishing and so on. This ultimate pursuit of craftsmanship not only ensures the excellent quality of the product, but also makes every piece of women's clothing a work of art, worthy of careful taste and collection.

In the face of changes and challenges in the women's clothing industry, it is particularly important to adhere to the concept of "quality to micro". This not only requires the brand to pay attention to the integration of details and culture in design, but also needs to strive for excellence in all aspects of material selection, process, packaging and so on. Selection of high-quality and environmentally friendly materials, the pursuit of exquisite and innovative technology, pay attention to environmental protection and aesthetic packaging aesthetics...... These measures not only help to enhance the market competitiveness of the product, but also the key to achieve sustainable brand development.

Looking forward to the future, the women's clothing industry will continue to explore and innovate under the guidance of the concept of "quality to micro". Through the perfect integration of details and culture, we look forward to seeing more women's works with unique charm and market competitiveness emerge, bringing consumers a better wearing experience and life enjoyment.