Consumption Downgrade Narrative Gets Slapped: Chinese Fashion Brands in the 1500-2000 Yuan Tier Are Growing Six Times Faster
Tmall data shows that Chinese domestic brands in the 1500-2000 yuan luxury-lite price tier are seeing transaction growth six times faster than the entire apparel e-commerce market this year, as consumers buy for aspiration rather than value.
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Double Eleven data exposes the consumption downgrade narrative as false
Sandunbansong (三顿半松) and Zhihe (之和) saw sales double year-on-year in the first stage of the Double Eleven shopping festival. Sandunbansong (三顿半松) ranked third in Tmall's apparel category, behind only Uniqlo and BOSIDENG, with growth nearly twice that of Yinglerfen (英乐芬). Looking more broadly, the number of brands with customer unit prices above 1500 yuan increased 50% year-on-year on Tmall from January through October. Within the 1500-2000 yuan luxury-lite segment, transaction growth is six times the apparel and footwear e-commerce market average. Industry average customer unit price rose from 1100 yuan last year to 1300 yuan this year, an increase of nearly 20%.
— Huang HaiSocial media shattered the myth that fashion brands must stay niche
Traditionally, a designer building a thousand loyal customers through offline channels and mass media was extraordinarily difficult, and word-of-mouth spread slowly with limited reach. Today, algorithms on platforms like Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) precisely distribute content matching user interests—if someone expresses interest in a certain design aesthetic, the platform continuously feeds related content, making it straightforward for a designer to accumulate tens of thousands of followers across platforms. This breaks what investors had repeatedly criticized as fashion's fundamental bottleneck: the belief that niche brands cannot scale.
— Leng YunPremium brands sell solutions, not specifications
Leng Yun described a real consulting case: a bedding company habitually led with technical parameters in titles—dimensions, warmth rating. She suggested reframing: if you have insomnia, perhaps examine the blanket you're using. Her principle: ordinary brands sell products, emphasizing fabric quality and specs; premium brands sell solutions. They use evocative language—‘wrapping warmth around yourself in icy wind’—to build imagination. Technical specifications alone cannot constitute evidence of premium positioning.
— Leng YunRepeat purchase rates approaching luxury levels dispel doubts about designer brands
Leng Yun had previously been skeptical about designer brand sustainability, but this year's data changed her view. Shanyixiayousong (山下有松) has repeat purchase rates exceeding 40%, while Zhihe (之和) reaches 68%—meaning nearly seven of every ten customers who bought Zhihe return for another purchase within the year. This loyalty level approaches luxury brands, proving these are not one-hit wonders riding trend cycles but have developed stable, repeat customer bases.
Kering's strategic investment in Zhihe marks a watershed for Chinese fashion
French luxury conglomerate Kering (owner of Gucci) made a strategic investment in Chinese womenswear brand Zhihe (之和) this year. Leng Yun recalls that a decade ago, industry consensus held it would take 20-30 more years before international luxury groups invested in Chinese brands. She views this not as an isolated transaction but as international groups extending the portfolio of mid-size brand investments and acquisitions that historically occurred in Europe and Japan to China for the first time. Behind this lies their recognition of the maturing life cycle of Chinese fashion brands moving upmarket.
— Leng YunFlagship stores build brand equity; livestream channels chase short-term sales
Huang Hai observed that Tmall flagship stores are evolving from pure transaction channels into digital brand showcases. They deploy lookbook-style photos of real customers and styling guidance in livestreams rather than discounts, compensating for the physical atmosphere that online can lack. Meanwhile, livestream e-commerce on information feeds and short-video platforms routinely sees 80% return rates, with sellers sending three units per order as standard practice. This impulse-driven commerce generates almost no brand equity. For mid-to-premium brands, true brand awareness appears when consumers actively search the brand name and purchase directly—not when recommendation algorithms push products at them.
— Huang HaiCapital markets have not repriced the upmarket fashion trend
Despite these mid-to-premium fashion brands posting strong operating data, capital markets have barely responded—related public companies' stock prices haven't been repriced, and China has seen almost no new fashion brand IPOs in the past decade, particularly on the A-share market. Huang Hai attributes this not to investor skepticism but to the prevailing narrative of consumption downgrade and trading-down crowding out investor attention. The story of fashion brand upgrades simply hasn't registered in most investors' field of vision.
— Huang HaiChinese fashion companies typically lack a dedicated creative director
Leng Yun identifies capital and talent as the two greatest bottlenecks for Chinese fashion brands moving upmarket. The talent problem's most acute symptom: China's fashion companies usually lack a creative director position—design directors do double duty, though these are fundamentally different roles. Design directors manage concrete execution; creative directors coordinate with marketing, retail environments, and product design to ensure brand concepts translate consistently across all channels with unified values and visual identity. Without this role, many brands end up disconnected between product, store display, employee presentation, and marketing narrative—they don't read as one company.
— Leng YunIn their own words · checked verbatim
There's a famous saying: what is fashion? Fashion is essentially a machine for manufacturing desire.
有一句名言 就是什么叫时尚 时尚其实就是制造欲望的机器
Leng Yun8:09
Premium brands are selling what we call solutions; ordinary brands are selling their products.
好的品牌它在销售我们叫解决方案 但是一般的它在卖什么 它就在卖它的产品
Leng Yun19:15
It's competing on culture, on intangible assets—quote-unquote—the immaterial elements need to outweigh the material ones.
他是拼文化的 拼一些intangible assets 这个需要打个引号 物需的东西要比物实的东西多
Leng Yun44:44
Nowadays on livestream e-commerce platforms, return rates reaching 80% are the norm.
现在在直播电商平台当中 退货率达到80%都是一个常态
Huang Hai58:54
Attacking from the top down is simple; attacking from the bottom up is extremely difficult.
你从上往下打是简单的 你从下往上打 那是非常困难的一件事情
Huang Hai1:12:12
Figures
| 1500-2000 yuan luxury-lite tier transaction growth | 6x the Tmall apparel e-commerce market average | 10:10 |
| Tmall industry average customer unit price growth | 1100 yuan to 1300 yuan, approximately 20% increase | 10:10 |
| Zhihe repeat purchase rate | 68% | 23:19 |
| Shanyixiayousong repeat purchase rate | Over 40% (42%) | 22:17 |
| Yinglerfen e-commerce gross margin | Close to 80% | 48:45 |
| Jiangnanbuyi (江南布衣) annual net profit and net margin | Approximately 10 billion yuan; 15% net margin | 26:22 |
Glossary
- lookbook
- A series of styled photographs showing real customers wearing the brand's pieces, used to establish lifestyle atmosphere and aesthetic positioning.
- intangible assets
- Brand culture and aesthetic values—like design philosophy and cultural positioning—that cannot be measured through direct quantitative metrics.
How to listen
Investors tracking consumption upgrade/downgrade trends, operators running mid-to-premium brand e-commerce, and readers interested in fashion business history.