Promotion Of General Merchandise Industry Wuhan Clothing Industry Gradually Ushers In A Glorious Period Of Development

Taihe, Yaqi, Hongren, Aidi, Hexiang, Yuantian... Maybe many people are no longer familiar with these brands, but in the 1990s, they were famous "Han School" clothing ”Typical representative of.

Relying on the geographical advantage of the thoroughfare of nine provinces, Wuhan garment industry led a generation of Chinese fashion consumption in the 1990s. "Building a fashion dam in Wuhan" was also the goal of Wuhan clothing industry planning and construction.

"In the 1990s, the clothing enterprises in the north had no awareness and ability to go south, while Shenzhen was just opening up, and there was no strong clothing cluster in the country. Wuhan rose rapidly in the national clothing industry by virtue of its geographical and commercial advantages." Clothes & Accessories Mao Lihui, president of the Fashion Federation, told reporters that it is with these advantages that Wuhan "intercepted" many consumers and dealers who went east and south to buy clothes.

Unfortunately, such brilliance did not last.

"From about 2002 and 2003, Han style clothing gradually began to decline." Wu Jianmin, chairman of Shulang Company, said that there may be few Han style clothing brands that consumers can say now, and many Wuhan clothing brands are gradually "mixing" in third and fourth tier cities and wholesale markets.

Indeed, in the "golden decade" of the development of China's clothing industry, Han style clothing has gone further and further on the downward path of the industry. For many young consumers, many people don't even know what "Han style clothing" really means?

Looking for "Han School"

"13 to 15 years ago, many Wuhan department stores, represented by Wushang Group, set up clothing departments one after another, and they began to look for and guide local powerful clothing brands to enter the stores. It is with the promotion of the department store industry that Wuhan clothing industry gradually ushered in a glorious period of development." Mao Lihui told reporters that the concept of "Han style clothing" was really put forward, Zhang Xiuying, former vice general manager of Wushang Group.

"In 1991 and 1994, Wuhan held two seminars on the development of the local clothing industry. As the head of the clothing category of Wushang Group, I also participated in these two seminars," said Zhang Xiuying.

In Zhang Xiuying's opinion, in addition to the government's attention, Wuhan had obvious advantages in developing the clothing industry at that time. "The industrial foundation of Wuhan is very good. At that time, there were more than 1500 local garment enterprises in Wuhan, and the garment production capacity was very strong. At the same time, Wuhan's clothing has four distinct seasons and strong compatibility, so it is easy to develop. With Wuhan's geographical and commercial advantages, the clothing industry will soon prosper."

In fact, it was not easy for garment enterprises to enter the shopping mall at the beginning. "At that time, in the view of many individual bosses, the sales of brands in Hanzheng Street and the wholesale market were fully able to meet the needs of business, and there was no need to enter the mall again." Zhang Xiuying told reporters that, in view of this situation, in order to ensure the supply of the mall, they spent a lot of energy to persuade the bosses in Hanzheng Street to enter the mall and go in the direction of high-end clothing.

As more and more clothing brands begin to enter the shopping malls, the influence of Wuhan clothing is gradually established in the national market. The "Han style clothing" really gained its fame in 1994.

"At that time, Wushang Group organized more than ten Wuhan garment enterprises to participate in the China International Clothing Expo under the banner of" Han style clothing ", and organized Han style clothing enterprises to go east to Shanghai, west to Xi'an, north to Shenyang, and south to Guangzhou for exhibition and marketing to expand the market, thus the name of" Han style clothing "was launched nationwide." Mao Lihui told reporters.

After making the brand influence, in order to enhance the added value of products and take the medium and high-end route, shopping malls have become the development choice of more and more Wuhan garment enterprises.

Zhang Xiuying told reporters that 95% of the clothes sold in Wuhan were local clothing brands. In order to stimulate the original spirit and brand awareness of local brands, Wushang Group also launched the selection of "Four Famous Danes". Taihe, Sino British, Yaqi and Longxiang have also become typical representatives of the famous Chinese clothing.

However, these efforts have not fundamentally changed the production and product formats of Han style clothing. "Serious plagiarism" and "cheap prices" have always been the "industry impression" that Han style clothing has not been able to shake off.

"The biggest feature of Han style clothing is that it has been well marketed. In the mid and late 1990s, Wuhan relied on its advantageous geographical location to closely follow the trend of Shenzhen and Hong Kong in fashion design. Relying on copy making, Han style clothing at that time became popular in the market." Wu Jianmin said.

Li Qunbao, Secretary General of Wuhan Garment Chamber of Commerce, also agreed. "Fast fashion, civilian style, good quality and low price were the biggest characteristics of Han style clothing at that time. In the Hanzheng Street at that time, the clothing could be copied in the morning, and sold in the afternoon." Li Qunbao told reporters that Wuhan clothing enterprises would do whatever was popular at that time, and the response speed of enterprises was very fast.

However, blindly following the market "turning the wheel" also eventually buried hidden dangers for the long-term development of Han style clothing.

"I think the marketization of Han style clothing is their advantage, but it is also their disadvantage. If they blindly follow the market trend, they will eventually be lost in the flood of the market due to the lack of core brand genes and culture." Wu Jianmin said.

After 2003, with the development of clothing industry in various regions, the influence of Han style clothing gradually weakened. However, the discussion on the reasons for the loss of voice of the Han School has never stopped.

The "Han School" lost its voice

"The development of the Han style clothing has its historical opportunities. The glorious period of the Han style clothing was in the 1990s, when the industrial structure of various regions was not perfect, and the clothing industry of various regions had not really developed, while Wuhan's clothing industry ushered in a prosperous period of development by virtue of its early start of private enterprises and geographical and commercial advantages." Li Qunbao said, Later, with the rapid development of various industrial clusters, the advantages of Han style clothing are no longer obvious.

But in Mao Lihui's view, this is not the main reason why the Han School lost its voice.

"Many of the bosses of Hanpai Clothing started from setting up stalls in Hanzheng Street. Compared with the current education background of the bosses of Shenzhen clothing enterprises, the quality of the bosses of Wuhan enterprises is obviously insufficient." Mao Lihui said that the quality of the bosses has a direct guiding role in the business development of an enterprise, which is also an important reason for the sluggish development of Hanpai Clothing in recent years.

Mao Lihui told reporters that many bosses of Hanpai enterprises lack long-term plans for brand development, and years of copying experience makes them more inclined to earn "fast money". "Especially in recent years, with the difficult development environment of the manufacturing industry, many business owners have turned to investing in real estate, finance and other industries."

Inadequate focus has also become an important bottleneck in the development of Han style clothing, and this mode of operation has directly led to the impetuous atmosphere of Wuhan clothing industry.

"Many garment entrepreneurs in Wuhan are not practical enough and are too impetuous. In this industry atmosphere, it is difficult to make a good brand." China spin Zhang Li, vice president of the Industry Federation, told reporters that Wuhan has a good industrial foundation, but many enterprises just blindly imitate and plagiarize, and are not focused on their own industry. This industrial environment also led some enterprises to leave Wuhan. For example, Otif moved its company to Shanghai.

At the same time, Mao Lihui believes that the support and guidance of Wuhan Municipal Government and industry associations for the development of Han style clothing is not enough.

"Although it has been proposed for a long time to revitalize Han style clothing, and the government has also invested heavily in fashion weeks, overall, there is still a lack of clear planning and strong policy support from the government for the development of the clothing industry, and at the same time, the role of Wuhan Garment Industry Association has not really played out," Mao Lihui told reporters, At present, many local governments have given strong support to the clothing industry, such as Fujian's annual top ten industry awards designer A reward of 100000 yuan is given, but Wuhan has no corresponding policy. "Maybe the government will put too much experience on the development of commerce, and Wuhan's commercial complex even has a trend of surplus."

But in Wu Jianmin's view, although the government's support has a certain impact on the development of the industry, the key to the development of an industry lies in its own control and adjustment of the external environment.

"Hanpai garment enterprises generally have a weak sense of brand making, and many of them only seek to make blockbusters, which also leads to their lack of self brand culture. At the beginning of the development of the garment industry, this model is still feasible, but with the rise of the local industry cluster and the change of the market environment, the failure of Hanpai garment to transform in time is the fundamental reason for its decline." Wu Jianmin said.

In this regard, is it possible to reconstruct the Han style clothing?

Can it be rebuilt?

"In fact, Wuhan still has many industrial advantages in developing clothing." Mao Lihui told reporters that Hubei, as a major cotton producing province in China, is also rich in ramie, which has obvious advantages in textile and clothing resources; At the same time, Wuhan is also the market commanding height of the central and southern regions, with obvious commercial advantages; And there are many universities and talents in Wuhan.

However, how to make good use of these advantages has become the first problem faced by Wuhan garment industry.

"Although Hubei is a major cotton producing province, local enterprises mainly produce cotton yarn and cotton cloth, and are still in the rough processing stage of raw materials. At the same time, how to retain college talents is also a problem Wuhan has to face," Mao Lihui said.

In this regard, Li Qunbao also deeply agreed: "Although there are many colleges and universities in Wuhan, less than 10% of college graduates finally choose to work in Wuhan."

However, Li Qunbao is still full of confidence in the future of Han style clothing. He told reporters that although many of the founders of Han style clothing were not qualified enough, with more and more "second generation" successors returning from overseas studies, Wuhan's clothing industry was not without hope of revitalization.

"The revitalization of Han style clothing depends on these overseas returnees. At present, there are about 14 second generation entrepreneurs who have come back to take over. We call these second generation entrepreneurs" Chuang Er Generation ". Li Qunbao said.

However, it is obviously unrealistic to rely on the power of the second generation of enterprises to revitalize the Han style clothing. In Zhang Li's opinion, the role of the government is crucial to the future development of Wuhan's clothing industry.

"In recent years, although Wuhan has been advocating to revitalize the clothing industry, the government has not issued specific measures, and the departments in charge of the development of the clothing industry are often changing." In this regard, Zhang Li believes that in order to revitalize the Han style clothing industry, the government should first incorporate the clothing industry into the pillar industries that are supported, integrate industry resources, support leading enterprises, and play the role of colleges and experts.

On September 17, Wuhan held a symposium on "Building the Fashion Industry and Revitalizing the Han Style Clothing", proposing that the Han Style should be a "100 billion industry". However, this did not make Mao Lihui's future of the Han school clear. "I hope the government will not stop shouting slogans in the future, but will introduce some specific plans and measures to revitalize the Han school clothing."