'New Chinese style' enriches brands, goods, life

Fashion signs

Fashion is always a major indicator of popular trends. China-Chic has been selected as one of the Top 10 lifestyle trends for 2022 in a compilation released by Xiaohongshu. According to 2022 Spring/Summer Women's Clothing Industry Trends, a trade report co-published by Alibaba's online marketing technology platform Alimama and Taobao, Alibaba's online marketplace, last year, the new Chinese style has emerged as one of the eight major trends.

It is a trend that is breathing new life into local brands and talented designers such as Yang Yingying. She rose to be an icon for the post-1980s generation after establishing new Chinese style brand Tuyue in 2008.

"Before 2019, the 'new Chinese style' was not a style label but just an idea that couldn't be summarized, but it still commanded a group of followers. As we often participated in Shanghai Fashion Week, the style and our brand became well-known among people," said Yang, who graduated from the Department of Art History at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. In 2019, she emerged with more qualifications from the School of Experimental Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts.

Yang said that at the beginning of the trend, people had a limited understanding of what the new Chinese style represented. Some people believed that elements with very distinct ethnic styles, like satin and Chinese knot buttons, signified the new Chinese style.