On the one hand, boosted by both the Winter Olympics and the Chinese New Year, consumers drove a boom in winter garment consumption. According to data released by Alibaba and Jingdong, two of China’s largest e-commerce platforms, garment consumption during the Chinese New Year holidays, which intersected with the Winter Olympics, showed a year-over-year increase of 180 percent, with a 300 percent rise in sales of skiing equipment and winter sports gear on Alibaba-owned Tmall from Jan. 31 to Feb.
Sun Ruizhe, chairman of the International Textile Manufacturers Association and president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, said, “The intensive release of policy dividends will effectively promote the vigorous development of the winter sports industry. A number of winter sports industry enterprises with high popularity, great influence and strong market competitiveness will see vigorous development through the implementation of the brand strategy.
The ice lanterns and mountains, Chinese knots and peace doves showed that “Chinese romance” was no longer the romance of mere imagery, but now involves digital technology and integration. For example, Chinese designer Chen Peng’s costume for children featuring snowflakes and the peace dove incorporated the culture of paper-cutting in Yuxian County, Hebei province. The design was created by Ren Zhiguo and Sun Qingming, practitioners of Hebei’s paper-cutting heritage.
Beyond the artistic elements, though, the technological prowess of the Chinese apparel industry also was meant to be on display via the Winter Olympics garments. The “Dragon Suits” for Chinese athletes used Blazing Heat Technology, enabling them to be light and thin yet still be warm in temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees Celsius. The technology also was applied to Anta’s “China Winter Sport Collection,” which was launched last November and includes Super Down jackets, skiwear and accessories, and children’s clothing.