Without Cultural Foundation, Is There Potential For China's Ancient Market?

In 2016, in the old market of Shanghai, the famous market of Anxi was moved from Anxi road to the golden market of high tech West Road. Even though the geographical location is remote, there are still many sacred places in the hearts of the insiders who love the old. In this comprehensive wholesale and retail market, there are clothing stalls similar to those in Cheap Road, Shanghai, which also do second-hand home appliances, daily necessities, wholesale and retail trade. However, hundreds of pieces of large objects and interesting objects can be very attractive to many people, especially the student party. The ancient culture has also grown from the Anxi market to golden Huang, which has been barbarous for more than 10 years.

Vintage, as the name suggests, is the ancient dress. Japanese is the Old Clothes, Second Hand Clothing. The word "Vintage" was first used to describe the fine wines of the year. Later it extended the concept to clothing, home and other fields, and the antiquity culture spread from Europe and America to the unprecedented economic development in Japan after World War II, and the luxury goods and consumer goods market also rose during the same period. But Japan was hit by the oil crisis in 1973, the Asian financial crisis in 1997 and the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008. The high unemployment rate and the depressed market environment forced people to sell their idle goods to make a living, which deepened the prosperity of the ancient market in Japan. After that, the culture returned to Europe and the United States, and even affected the whole Asia. China is one of them.

According to the international definition, the ancient works should refer to the product of a single era at least 20 years after the 20s of last century and no longer produced. However, the development of modern fashion industry in China is short, and the ancient culture is mainly influenced by countries such as Japan, Britain and other countries. The fashion consciousness in Hongkong, China before the mainland has also become a bridge between Chinese and foreign ancient culture. Huang Huang Huang, the boss in the market, called "his goods came from Japan and Hongkong." But the sharp eyed enthusiasts can always tell the difference between old and second-hand clothes and even fake ones.

A month ago, Huang was told by the court that he was going out of business. At the same time, the ancient consumption in China has also gradually entered the right track, giving birth to a number of boutique shops.

At the end of 2017, Rui ball opened an old second-hand store in Shanghai, because the shop was not convenient to find in the alley, and there was not much stock. The sale of antique goods was made in the form of an appointment system, and the fame of the store became more and more prosperous. In February 2019, Rui ball moved into a bigger shop. Now it is doing business of old clothes, second-hand clothes and retro brand new clothes.

The stocking store's frequency of purchase is 1-2 months, and the shopkeeper "human flesh" takes the goods plus the goods, reduces the stock in the store, so that even if the old clothes are sold, there will be new ones. In the store of retro breath, a large handbag and suit such as Dior, Prada and Fendi are displayed, and also a brand single product such as Lssey Miyake, Jil Sander and Maison Margiela. Rui ball said: "at first I would fly to Thailand regularly to get the goods, but then Thailand's fakes slowly increased, so I chose to go to Japan to get the goods, and every month there will be Japanese suppliers to give me the list to pick."

There is no doubt that Japan has the best retro fashion in the world. The Louis Vuitton Keepalls handbag in the last century also has a well preserved Helmut Lang Astro Biker jacket. Actor Yang Mi has expressed hope that she can live in the medieval market in Japan - the coveted place of fans of the world.

Nowadays, a few western electric business enterprises turn their attention to the Japanese ancient market, hoping to provide a better consumption experience while building bridges between the international consumers and the high quality old second-hand clothing in the Japanese market. Farfetch began offering second-hand antiques products in 2010. The platform later added several key Japanese antique sellers, including Vintage Qoo, and the world's largest antique Chanel boutique Amore.

However, western fashion business is not always successful in Japan. In August 2013, The RealReal, a luxury consignment start-up company in San Francisco, set up a Japanese version of The RealReal Japan, which has been shut down for less than two years due to poor performance. Compared with Japan, China's ancient sellers rely on Taobao and WeChat to earn a lot of money.

Rui ball's WeChat is another part of the fortune store. She said, "sales on WeChat account for 40% of the total sales. Generally, they are old customers who have been shopping in the shop. They trust me and my taste more. These customers come from all over the country, and the farthest is Xinjiang guests." This has become an old and new social retail mode. In fact, many foreign students in Japan supplement their livelihood by purchasing, but unlike other overseas students, many of them help to purchase ancient books on WeChat.

There are ten ancient sellers in the WeChat friends list of Ren Zijie, a senior Vintage buyer. "When you first bought ancient books, you searched Taobao for Vintage on high school, jumped out of many old shops, bought 10 or 20 pieces of old clothes, and held them in the palm of your hand as an old treasure." But later I bought more, and I also know the skills of discrimination. In order to love Vivienne Westwood, Ren Zai ran through the ancient market in Japan, Milan, Paris and London. She thinks buying ancient books is a feeling.

In her mind: old is secondhand clothing, but secondhand clothes are not ancient.

After the ancient culture has been immersed in this land, consumers in China generally do not understand the difference. Sellers will even earn black money, which constantly reflect the ancient Chinese sales.

Rui has revealed to BoF some of China's ancient and second-hand clothing market. In Jieshi Town, Lufeng, Guangdong, there is a large economy and a large number of people participating in the business. That is to sell second-hand waste clothes imported from abroad. Most of these clothes come from garbage dumps in Japan and Korea. Some of these clothes have become new "foreign trade orders", while others have gone to Taobao's ancient shops, and they will also conceal the second-hand market in all parts of the country, such as Jin Huang Huang.

In August this year, the General Administration of Customs of China launched a second round of centralized action against foreign garbage smuggling "blue sky 2019". The smuggling sub Bureau of Wenzhou customs destroyed a smuggling gang in Ruian. This is also the second case of smuggling solid waste seized by the sub bureau this year.

While the government is cracking down on the smuggling of solid waste, some media have described these transoceanic waste clothes as "from the morgue". They also put the terrible hat at the same time in the old and second-hand clothes circulated in normal channels, blurred the boundaries of these clothing categories, and brought a shadow to some consumers.

Besides, counterfeit goods are also a big problem in the global market. Rui ball believes that Chatuchak, once famous in Thailand, has been flooded with fake commodities, and even has a tendency to circulate to the Japanese market. Perhaps it is the carelessness of the ancient buyers when they receive goods, or the deliberate action of the black hearted merchants. If they are not careful, they will be taken home by consumers. American supermodel Kendall Jenner had been such a time. In 2017, the Jenner Vintage Louis Vuitton waist bag, which was often returned from the street, was stolen by fashion website Purseblog. It was fake. Jenner stylist Monica Rose said the bag was found in the ancient shop.

How to distinguish true from false is really a problem for ancient shopkeepers. Apart from a reliable supplier, Rui ball has personally passed every item of clothing, and the details of labels, cloth and so on have been prevented from making mistakes. Ren Zijie, an old lover, thinks that distinguishing truth from false has become an interesting part of "scouring cargo", but never covet cheap things.

For cleaning and epidemic prevention, Rebecca Han, owner of Abandon, an old second-hand shop in Shanghai, will once again sterilize and clean clothes to relieve buyers' concerns after taking the goods, but she believes that breakage on clothes is not a problem. This is exactly what clothes are worth and represents the story of clothes. When Rebecca opened the store, he embraced the concept of sustainability of secondhand clothing instead of making money simply. As her shop name is "Abandon" (discarded clothes), there should be a good end result, maybe after 234 hands, but some people need it.

Abandon also regularly organizes a series of activities such as flea market every month, so that young people with second-hand ideas can exchange and sell unused items, and at the same time, they will get acquainted with like-minded friends while shops will become a platform for buyers and sellers.

In Abandon, Rebecca will choose clothes that sell more strongly and help others to sell. She believes that blindly pursuing the fashion will lose the essence of fashion style. Ancient books are out of season and happen to give consumers an opportunity to examine their own styles. Originally a stylist, she brought old and second-hand clothes into her own commercial works.

Rui hope that in the future, you can develop your shop into a small collection of retro stores, which will style the concept of ancient, not emphasize the year and brand, impart clothing maintenance skills, and convey the charm of second-hand clothing.

Ancient culture came to China for a long time, but it also ushered in a breakthrough in China's second-hand economy at this time. After China gradually began to implement compulsory garbage classification, the enthusiasm of national environmental protection will also increase the scale of the ancient market. The ancient market in China may be different from Japan, the United States and Britain.