"2021 China Contemporary Youth Fashion Life Trend White Paper" Released

In order to focus on youth fashion lifestyle and consumption trend, China clothing association and taipingbird Clothing Co., Ltd. jointly build China contemporary youth fashion research center, focusing on the cutting-edge aesthetic concept, lifestyle and self-expression of contemporary Chinese youth, deeply insight into youth consumption trend, and launched the 2021 white paper on Chinese contemporary youth fashion life trend.

From 2021, the population of generation Z (born in 1995-2009) will exceed 260 million, accounting for 18.5% of China's total population. Generation Z, in the exploratory period of life, shows strong consumption power, and is regarded as the object of competition in the business world.

However, generation Z is a generation growing up with mobile Internet, mobile games and animation. Their information and choices are not only open, but also fragmented and exponentially growing at any time and anywhere. The Z generation, who has been used to thinking about "what do you want" since childhood, is more personalized and more independent in consumption.

This group of consumers has put forward objective challenges to the development of various industries in the next 5-10 years. Especially for the fashion industry, the trend of fashion has always been fleeting, but it may not meet the real demands of the new generation of consumers. Brands need to realize that the essence of trend change is that the fashion concepts and demands of young consumers are changing, not just chasing the latest styles and styles“ The era of "immersing oneself in making goods" has passed, and the era of "understanding the whole person" is worth embracing. Only by understanding the new trend of generation Z, can fashion brands advance innovation and seize business opportunities.

Based on the insight into the consumption concept of generation Z, China clothing association and taipingniao jointly established the "China contemporary youth fashion research center". With the mission of serving the industry, it focuses on youth fashion lifestyle and consumption trend, incubates fashion creativity, fashion design and fashion brand, enabling China's fashion clothing industry to transform into a younger one.

"China contemporary youth fashion research center" debuted for the first time. It has carried out in-depth and forward-looking research on the business research and consulting agency youth chronicle, which is the most familiar with young groups in China, and outputs authoritative views and trend insights on the fashion consumption of generation Z.

Four new values:

Think "fashion = new product matching"? Young people have something to say

For generation Z, fashion has a new value different from the previous generation.

The fashion in the 1980s is the liberation of the nature of collectivism blue and white uniforms. The fashion of the 1990s is a standardized imitation of the Western paradigm after the rise of the manufacturing industry. The fashion of the millennium is the expression of luxury and quality after the rapid economic development. Now, what is the significance of fashion for young people《 The white paper on the trend of contemporary youth fashion life points out four new values of fashion to generation Z

Re examine the practical significance that fashion brings to itself and endow it with new meanings. These changes in concepts are closely related to the era and social background of generation Z.

If we say that generation Y (born in 1980-1995) is a generation that has jumped out of the collective thinking and individual consciousness, then generation Z is even more a generation with full rise of individuation. In Douban, the "don't follow the social clock" and the topic group has 5.512 million views. "The society has told us a lot of information, but we can not abide by it and live our own life." The old paradigm is completely destroyed in front of the new generation of young people, and the awareness of multiple identities is strengthened. Young individuals attach importance to the stimulation of individual multiple possibilities. On this basis, the development of Internet tools enables people to use various contents more freely, which further stimulates young people's more independent, diversified and disorderly creation and aesthetics.

The full individual development and the germination of Internet Ecology also spawned more and more subdivided youth cultural circles. Cultural circle consumption is an important means for Z generation to enrich social contact and expand its social influence, and it is also constantly strengthening the belonging and label of its circle. Naturally, the fashion industry must also participate in it to help young people identify and connect with each other through the culture in fashion.

In recent years, the social environment is also quietly driving the change of young people's concept: the macro environment is highly uncertain, and the emergence of "black swan" affects young people's consumption at all times. The comprehensive invasion of consumerism, the impact of epidemic situation and economic downturn make young people think more about consumption and pay attention to the story and cultural connotation of commodities.

Four new needs:

Big data insight, real demand, "diversity" × "Connotation" is the key

Through qualitative and quantitative research on 1000 fashion consumers aged 18-35 from China's first tier, new first tier, second tier and third tier cities, the white paper on contemporary youth fashion life trends has obtained the true voice of generation Z young people in terms of clothing preference, purchase habits, personal style and fashion thinking.

From a regional perspective, although the center of fashion trend is still in the cities with more advanced economic and cultural development, and its influence gradually radiates from the first tier cities to the second tier and third tier cities, the white paper finds that the level of young people's involvement in new fashion in new first tier cities is slowly catching up with that of first tier cities, with unlimited potential.

Based on the field investigation and questionnaire data, the white paper summarizes four new needs of young people for fashion clothing

Breaking the paradigm: subverting the tradition and unlimited fashion boundary

"Low price brands can still be fashionable", "second-hand Vintage out of print is more rare", "football socks mixed with high-heeled shoes"... The fashion collocation of the new generation of young people seems to break away from the limitations of class, space-time and style routines, and is breaking the boundaries of fashion style. The survey results show that: up to 92% of the respondents prefer Chinese local brands, and the local Guochao brand is the top one with absolute advantage; In terms of fashion collocation, all respondents have tried 3.5 different styles and used 3.6 different elements.

Multiple flow: breaking through self, opening up and accepting more diversity

"Asexual brand is more in line with my mobile temperament", "always go pure style can be pure and lustful", 83% of the respondents agreed that "girls can be handsome, boys can be delicate", 88% of the respondents agreed that "aesthetic should be diversified, not rigid". Generation Z is boldly trying his own style, organically integrating his personal experience, life scene and current mood into his daily collocation. He draws inspiration from cross-border areas and makes dynamic flow of people, so that one person can have thousands of faces.

Cultural concentration: from the outside to the inside, injecting new cultural connotation

Joint brands that can play with cultural circles have become the focus. For example, LVX King glory skin co branding has created luxury brands, popular culture and new forms of cooperation; The brand with cultural elements in details is well received. Chinese tradition, Japanese style and Bohemia are all popular among young people; And those brands focusing on gender, sustainability, figure and other topics are also favored, such as bosie, a new fashion brand without gender concept.

Basic products: return to essence and restore new functions of clothing

"Fashion people are also afraid of no clothes to wear". Young people who pursue personality expression also pay attention to the extensibility of fashion items. They expect to wear more than one garment and mix and match them in a variety of styles and occasions. Another discovery that breaks cognition is that young people no longer pursue uncomfortable "fashion", but return to the important factors of clothing selection from the perspective of practicality. Among them, wearing comfort and fabric material rank top 2 and top 3 of respondents' shopping factors.

Five new groups:

There are more possibilities between avant-garde and classic, minimalism and hybridity

In the fully individualized generation Z, fashion demands are also thousands of people, which has become an important problem for the brand to capture the characteristics of the crowd: it is impossible to enumerate the portraits, but can only be roughly classified according to the style and genre. After a survey of 1000 fashion consumers aged 18-35, the white paper creatively introduces a four quadrant crowd understanding framework to better define and understand fashion consumers

No matter what style is changed, no matter how diverse the temperament is, the fashion demands of different groups can not escape from the two major trends of fashion: one is to pay more attention to the past and pay homage to cultural classics; Or look forward to the future and explore avant-garde art. This constitutes the first axis for positioning different groups of people - the fashion flow axis (vertical axis).

Back to the behavior of each group of people, similarly, no matter how they change, the choice of consumers will only be between the relatively stable style and the more mixed style. This leads to the second axis of interpretation of crowd behavior, namely, the change axis of crowd style (horizontal axis).

The four quadrants drawn by the two axes inspire the white paper to discover the five most representative and trend leading fashion groups among contemporary youth

Four new inspirations:

From being immersed in doing goods to leading, brands can start from these four things

What is the direct enlightenment to the fashion industry by understanding the fashion consumption trend of young people《 The white paper gives four action guides for brand innovation.

The reconstruction of tradition: brand should be the "promoter of the revival of tradition"

With the conflict between eastern and Western cultures, China's fashion industry is also facing unprecedented challenges. Consumers are looking forward to the rise of independent aesthetics and the establishment of independent standards. Localized narration is absolutely an unavoidable topic for Chinese brands. However, in order to impress the Z generation, which witnessed the rise of China's economy and culture since childhood, it is not enough to simply misappropriate and pile up the "cultural symbols of great powers". If a brand wants to promote the trend of the country, it must absorb elements from multiple angles, mix and mix, deeply explore the cultural significance and reflect the cultural depth.

Attitude voice: brand should become "social action leader"

Generation Z is a generation that not only cares about their own life, but also looks around and cares about the surrounding environment. All kinds of Internet equal rights issues and discussions have fully reflected this point. As a pioneer of ideas and consciousness, fashion brands should use clear attitudes and propositions to give meaning to products and brands, and establish resonance with young people. Instead of shouting slogans at the level of consciousness, fashion brands should show their concern for social issues through practical business actions. Or at least, we should not be the perverse and perverse of the generation's voice.

Cultural curators: brands should be "multi cultural curators"

Looking for cross-border opportunities is not only to attract gold joint names, but also to create new collisions between symbols and meanings. The well-informed generation Z can identify at a glance what kind of cross-border is "encircling money" and what kind of joint name is worth "faith recharging". Continuous empathy with the cultural circle is a necessary action for fashion brands. It not only needs to build up full empathy over time, but also aims at the opportunity to cultivate support and empowerment to occupy the cooperation highland.

Orthodoxy Disenchantment: brand should become "flexible and changeable new player"

The temple of fashion is no longer high, and the way for contemporary young people to obtain fashion information has broken through the traditional channels; Fashion is no longer far away from the world. The rapid dimensionality reduction has broken the top-down communication process. Today's young people embrace change, are open-minded and eager for fast and concentrated new knowledge. They expect brand diversity, embrace publicity channels, open up publicity ideas, put down airs and play with young people. Brands should be sensitive to popular culture and maintain high-frequency dialogue and interaction with young people.

China's view of the world has unconsciously evolved into the world's view of China. China's fashion industry has unlimited potential and great potential; The strong demand of young people in China is the future of China. I believe that this insight into the fashion consumption trend of generation Z is worthy of continuous attention and in-depth understanding of fashion brands.

"With the development of science and technology, society and culture, people's lifestyle and consumption concept are changing. In the future, consumers' fashion needs will be more personalized and subdivided."—— Chen Dapeng, vice president of China Textile Industry Federation and President of China Garment Association, talked about it when writing the white paper. In 2021, which is full of risks and opportunities, China contemporary youth fashion research center and youth chronicle will continue to focus on attention and explore with more partners, so as to help China's fashion youth resonate with the industry and make mutual achievements.