Shandong Caoxian Horse Face Skirt: "One Prosperity, One Prosperity" Aims At The World

In a Han clothing production base in Cao County, Shandong Province, workers splice and sew the cut fabrics. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

China News Network, Cao County, Shandong, March 8 (Reporter Sha Jianlong) - Increase the purchase of cloth, step up production to fill vacancies, introduce textile equipment, and attract brocade projects... At present, the production enterprises and government departments of Cao County, Shandong are responding to the explosion of orders for horse dress at home and abroad through a variety of ways.

Recently, a reporter from chinanews. com went deep into Cao County, Shandong Province, and learned about the "skills" behind this county town in southwest Shandong, which has an annual sales volume of more than 7 billion yuan (RMB, the same below).

In a Hanfu production base in Caoxian County, Shandong Province, Yao Chixing (first from the right), the person in charge, explained the cultural elements on the horse dress to customers. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

Caoxian is one of the production and sales bases of Hanfu in China, and also the largest production base of horse face skirt in China. In January this year, the sales of "New Year's greetings" in Caoxian County reached 920 million yuan, up 68.19% year on year. Among them, horse face skirt accounted for 400 million yuan, becoming a "super item" that attracts attention at home and abroad.

Caoxian has a complete design, production and sales system of horse face skirt, but the cloth needs to be "sourced from other places" such as Zhejiang. The textile industry has a large investment, high investment in the introduction of technical personnel and environmental protection, and slow cost recovery. Therefore, for a long time, most of the Han clothing enterprises in Caoxian County have preferred "long-distance cooperation" as their source of fabric. In the face of the sudden increase in market demand around the Spring Festival this year, the insufficient supply of cloth inevitably makes the production of Caoxian horse dress difficult.

Caoxian e-commerce practitioners are conducting live broadcast sales of horse face skirts. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

In 2023, Ren Yafeng, 36, will be among the top three in the network in terms of the level of online broadcast of horse dress. Three cloth factories in Xucun Town, Haining, Zhejiang, Shengzhou City, Shaoxing and other places provide cloth sources. In the face of strong market demand, he, like many Caoxian horse face skirt business owners, is difficult to make bricks without straw due to the lack of fabric. To his delight, "the cooperative fabric factory is adding new equipment and attracting workers to expand production capacity".

The hot sale of horse face skirt has doubled the fabric price and enterprise cost. For long-term consideration, Liu Shenfeng, the owner of Caoxian horse dress, has launched the plan of "spending about 40 million yuan to purchase 60 weaving machines".

The picture shows Yao Chixing, head of Cao County Luoruyan Original Hanfu Company, rushing to make high-end customized horse face skirts for customers. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

Similarly, in the southeast suburb of Caoxian County, Yao Chixing, the owner of the enterprise, is looking forward to the early launch of Haier's "Caos" flexible intelligent production line in its Hanfu base, so as to optimize the production capacity of horse dress and quickly fill the market gap. The base integrates design, production, display and sales, and focuses on promoting the original "full" horse face skirt with cultural flavor at home and abroad. It starts with more than five pleats of skirt pleats and deepens the high-end market. This is also an example of Caoxian County promoting the combination of traditional culture and economic development, and turning the Han clothing industry into the park economy.

"People in different countries have different shapes, so we need to make a targeted version." At present, Yao Chixing is investigating overseas markets such as France, Britain, the United States, Japan, Singapore and Dubai, and will increase overseas promotion of horse dress with the help of various associations and Chinese circles. She predicted that the recovery version of the horse dress would become a new trend.

The picture shows Caoxian E-commerce Logistics Public Service Center. Horse face skirts produced and sold locally are sent from here to all parts of the country. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

Caoxian e-commerce logistics public service center across the street from Yaochixing Hanfu Base sent more than 8 million Hanfu packages in the first two months of this year. Jiang Qiang, the person in charge of the center, said that the opening of the center in 2021 has driven the employment of the surrounding people and improved the level of automation and intelligence of logistics at the county level. In recent three years, the average annual growth rate of Caoxian e-commerce express package volume has exceeded 40%.

The hot sale of the "super single" horse face skirt has promoted the change of the design direction, production mode and display idea of local hanfu. In the view of Liu Xia, deputy director of Caoxian E-commerce Service Center, this has also led to the development of e-commerce, logistics, textile, cosmetics and other industries, "one thriving, one thriving".

The workers will fold the cut cloth. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

Zhou Jin, president of Shandong Fashion Design Association, said in an interview that Caoxian started with e-commerce, its sales channels are stable, and the transformation from performance clothes, hanfu to horse dress industry is smooth, but there is still much room to improve the production environment and the originality of works. From the perspective of investment, "don't follow the trend blindly".

Hanfu bears a profound Chinese culture. It seems that there is "heaven and earth" in it, including ritual and music civilization, yin and yang, five elements, heaven and earth branches, etc. Zhou Jin suggested that the horse face skirt should start from the cultural perspective, strengthen the shape research and design, and at the same time improve the designer's understanding of the historical origin of Chinese culture, so that everyone can "understand" the elegance of Chinese aesthetics in clothing, and at the same time, combine with the world's sustainable green, low-carbon and environmental protection to create a popular trend that belongs to Chinese fashion and Chinese lifestyle.

The picture shows a professional book about horse dress, which is the only book in China that specializes in horse dress. Photographed by Zhou Jin

Li Tiegang, a professor at the School of Economics of Shandong University, believes that the Internet economy is incomparable. Once it has the value generally recognized by the society, it will become popular in a large scale, which will expose the shortcomings of related raw materials, industrial chains, supporting facilities, etc., and can not keep up with the surging market demand. This is also a manifestation of the Internet economy and economic development and upgrading.

"The hot sale of horse face skirt proves that the market demand is strong, so it is necessary to study the market carefully and upgrade the integration of products and culture at the same time." Li Tiegang suggested that while maximizing the competition of market resources, we should calmly analyze whether the product is a temporary phenomenon or a long-term demand, and then reasonably plan the market and build an industrial chain.

The worker is ironing the horse dress. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

As for the "achievements" created by 2283 Han clothing enterprises in Caoxian, Li Tiegang believes that it is crucial for private enterprises to adjust their production modes quickly according to market demand and adapt to market changes in economic development. The development of county economy should grasp its own advantages, use the Internet and other forces to deeply cultivate characteristic industries, and drive the sustainable development of natural industries in a wider range.

At present, Caoxian County is introducing a brocade project with an investment of 600 million yuan. In the future, it will cooperate deeply with clothing design, engineering and performance colleges to improve the design, production and performance capabilities of horse dress, and further encourage Han clothing enterprises to lock in overseas markets, flexibly use foreign trade and e-commerce platforms, and continue to expand their overseas market share.

In the Yuncang Base of Love Hanfu in Caoxian County, Shandong Province, customers are choosing Hanfu. Photographed by reporter Liang Ben

At the end of March this year, Caoxian will hold the second Hanfu Culture Festival and the Spring New Product Release Conference, inviting guests from all over the world to show the "beauty of China". "Give Cao County some time, and you will see a more beautiful side," said Yao Chixing.

(Source: China News Network)