Author | Yao Yuan
According to media reports, the suspension of the listing of Ant Group directly caused Jack Ma’s net asset value to shrink by US$3 billion.
However, Taobao and Tmall are not affected. The fierce "Double 11" is coming soon, and countless people will still provide "bankruptcy support" to Jack Ma.
For example, ask yourself this question: "Double 11", have you bought clothes?
In the "Double 11" 2019, there were 15 brands with a turnover of over 1 billion, and clothing brands accounted for 4 seats. You must have contributed to this achievement.
People are always buying clothes, but they are constantly standing in front of the mirror and complaining that there is no clothes to wear even though the closet is going to be broken.
"Always feel that there is still a piece of clothing missing in the closet" has become a common anxiety among young people. On the homepage of the "Double 11" event on the e-commerce platform, clothing accessories are eternally popular venues.
Have you ever wondered why this is?
1. Throw away clothes
I moved home once in July, packed out a large box of old clothes, and gave them to the recycling center.
If it weren't for the thorough finishing this time, I would never know I had so many clothes. A green skirt was bought three years ago, and even the label was not removed. It has been crumpled in the small storage space.
I regretted it and confirmed that I would not wear it again, so I put it in the recycling bin.
Pink jacket, plush sweater, shirt, tights... one by one, there is a reason to enter the recycling bin. When the recycling staff came to take them away, I took a long sigh of relief.
keeps buying, throwing, buying and throwing, throwing and buying, I am sure that I am not alone, but a common phenomenon. This fact is supported by data for
.
In 2017, an international NGO report-"After the Carnival: International Fashion Consumption Survey Report" stated that 60% of respondents in Mainland China, two-thirds of Hong Kong respondents and over 50% of respondents in Germany and Italy The interviewees all admitted that they have far more clothes than they actually need. The continuous shortening of the life cycle of
clothing is related to the rise of fast fashion brands. The
fast fashion brand aims to provide clothing that meets the latest fashion trends to the most consumers at the fastest speed and the lowest price.
Well-known fast fashion brands such as H&M, ZARA, Uniqlo, etc., which can be found everywhere in shopping malls, and domestic hot air, Peacebird, MJstyle, and emerging online fashion brand stores all have borrowed the concept of fast fashion.
traditional clothing brands are updated according to the season, while fast fashion brands are new 52 times a year. allows people to find some new styles whenever they enter a fast fashion store.
, such as ZARA, designs 18,000 new styles every year, and on average, new styles can be put on the shelves every 2-3 weeks, with 7 days of production, 14 days off the cabinet, and 30 days on the cabinet.
clothes are quickly put on and off the shelves, giving consumers the illusion that they can "catch fashion" with timely consumption. The
fast fashion brand brings extremely high profits to itself by constantly creating people's desire to consume fashionable clothing. According to statistics from the financial holding company CIT in 2017, within 5 years, the annual growth rate of fast fashion retailers was 9.7%, far exceeding the 6.8% of traditional clothing companies. Most people don’t realize that the natural environment is overwhelmed by our wardrobes. We bought a large amount of discount clothing on "Double 11", but in fact, it caused a serious harm to the environment.
is a shocking fact: fashion has become the world's second largest environmental pollution industry, second only to the petrochemical industry.
In the production process, 17% to 20% of the world’s industrial wastewater comes from the dyeing and finishing process of the textile industry, including nitrate, copper, arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel and other toxic heavy metals, posing a threat to the environment and human health . In the use of
, the McKinsey report of consulting agency pointed out that 100 billion pieces of clothing are manufactured globally every year, of which 3/5 will be abandoned within a year, or 60 billion pieces.
Don't think that sending to the clothing recycling station will not cause waste. In the actual recycling process, only 65% of the clothing can meet the recycling standard.
People do not care about the environment, but from the perspective of their own feelingsIn view of the degree, we have actually fallen into a trap: our pursuit of fashion is becoming more and more urgent, but our happiness index has not improved as a result, but has continuously deepened our anxiety.
2. Identity on the clothes
I reflected on my latest consumer behavior-in October, before participating in the music festival, I bought a new shirt online. The reason for
is that I saw a message from a participant when I searched for the music festival event information: "Everyone is so exquisite. Only I wore a jacket that I hadn't changed for three days on a business trip. I thought the festival was just for performances."
Le, then fell into inexplicable anxiety: I can't dress too casually, don't be incompatible with others.
's thinking about dressing lasted for two weeks, and I ordered new clothes. As a result, because it was too cold on the day of the music festival, that shirt was wrapped in my jacket and there was no chance to show it.
What to wear on what occasion is a social norm established by convention. Decent people don’t wear suits to listen to rock bands, nor do they wear hippies to important formal meetings. Clothes are a sign of people's identity and taste, and a silent business card when socializing with others.
On this business card, clothing has become a visual symbol. Through color, style, and collocation, it implies personal preference, taste, and social identity, forming a complete symbol system.
Looking back in the history of human development, in class society, clothing used to be a means of class segregation. Different classes wear clothing that conforms to their class status, otherwise they will be punished by law.
Europe in the 16th century was topless as its beauty. The neckline of high-end ladies' fashion was extremely low, but the fashion ban "prohibited non-aristocratic descent from using aristocratic clothing", depriving civilian women of the right to be topless.
The upper class women do not need to work, and they dress extremely gorgeous and sexy. The shabby gowns and wooden clogs worn by civilian women signify their social status as domestic workers.
As the "Cinderella" story metaphors, Hindrella took off the shabby and gloomy skirt, put on a luxurious dress, crystal high heels, and got on the pumpkin carriage. Only then was she able to participate in the prom, fall in love with the prince, and escape the misery. The carp turns into a dragon. Costume has become an important turning point for the heroine's destiny. It is entangled with social identity and regulates social order. It has existed for thousands of years. The subtle relationship between
clothing and class status is now not obvious, but it still affects people's fashion choices subtly, and clothing merchants cleverly use this attribute.
British clothing in the mid-16th century
On the one hand, luxury brands have gained a foothold. By creating a high-end and excellent brand image,
convinces consumers that branded apparel can demonstrate the social status and taste of the wearer, thereby generating a brand premium that is higher than cost. Some time ago, the celebrities put together a single, which is actually an "upper symbol" attached to luxury goods.
On the one hand, cheap clothing brands on Taobao have also captured this psychology.
I have observed the words used by dozens of Taobao anchors to promote clothing products during Double Eleven. "Texture", "temperament" and "concealing body defects" are the three most commonly used features to describe products. Combining these three words,
is a universal formula for selling clothing: this piece of clothing is very textured, which can conceal certain body defects and make you more temperamental. The illusion created by
's similar words will be crushed by the brutal contrast between the buyer show and the seller show. After the clothes are in hand, you realize that the completion of fashion mainly depends on the figure and face. The important thing is not the clothes, but who is wearing them. The almost comical difference between
buyer show and seller show reveals a common reality: desire is the same material, clothes are the same material, but people are not.
However, this does not prevent people from being continuously attracted by the same desire.
movie "Confessions of a Shopaholic"
clothes are no longer just the fabric itself, but also the symbolic meaning it is endowed with: fashion, trend, nobility, self-cultivation... and consumer behavior is packaged as "pursuit", spending money It is pursuing a distinctive personal style, a higher quality of life, and a sense of happiness and success.
Although what you get is not happiness and success, it's just the "feeling" given to you at the moment of confirmation of payment. But this is enough to help businesses sell things.
Three, effectiveZ2z
asked "Why do you always want to buy new clothes on'Double 11'" in the comment section, and the answer with the highest praise was stunned: "Because last year's clothes are no longer worthy of me this year."
's most reasonable explanation Yes, this is the answer given by the merchant pretending to be a consumer. Business knows best what consumers are thinking. If it is really the consumer's answer, it also shows that the psychological guidance of the business has really worked.
's external discourse and behavior are aesthetic changes and fashion changes.
I remember that the most popular thing ten years ago was the leopard print. The trendy men and women almost handed a single product with leopard print elements. Later, it was the stars and stripes, retro floral, polka dots, portrait printing, tie-dye...This year’s "Double 11" ", and vaguely found that Grid is very popular.
The fashion wave came surgingly, and then hurriedly ebbed away, unpredictable. I want to know, who defines "fashion"? How did it become popular?
I threw this question to a friend who is studying brand management at the University of the Arts in London. She told me that fashion week is the vane of the fashion industry and represents the latest fashion trends.
herself is a loyal fan of fashion, buying clothes almost every day when she was in college, and she knows the fashion clothing brands on Taobao very well. After consumption and comparison, she found that most of the clothing, shoes and hats in these stores were modeled after the designs of the branded products in Fashion Week.
She also said that many times people want to buy a certain style of clothes because they see celebrities and fashion bloggers wearing them, so they want to catch up with the trend. She has several popular Internet celebrity friends. After they have accumulated a certain amount of fans and network influence, they have all been sponsored by the brand.
A chain of how fashion has become popular emerges: the brand designs products, cooperates with celebrities and Internet celebrities, and provides clothing sponsorship. People see that popular people are dressed like this, hoping to become a member of the trend, so they actively Purchase the same amount.
opened Taobao, "Double 11" real-time trend wear list, "Have you learned the style of Hong Kong style", "How is the autumn and winter scarf more fashionable", "I want to reach into the Nabi plush bag", "Liu Wen teaches you how to match autumn and winter suits" "The scheming sweater of fashion bloggers", the store's strategy of using the same styles of celebrities and internet celebrities for publicity, can not justify this logic.
I think of a scene in the movie "The Queen Wearing Prada". When the designers were choosing belts, the heroine couldn't help but laugh. In her eyes, the two belts were almost identical. The smile of
made the editor-in-chief of the fashion magazine extremely angry, and said to her a very classic line:
"Actually you don’t know, the sky blue dress appeared for the first time since the Oscar de la Rent conference in 2002, and then , Yves Saint-Langlow also showed the sky blue military uniform series. Soon, sky blue appeared in the subsequent press conferences of eight designers, and then it became popular in major high-end stores all over the world. In the end, it became popular on the streets in large areas, and then you saw that you bought it in cheap stores.
…… Do you think the dress you wear is your own choice, thinking that your choice is in the fashion industry Outside, but it’s actually not like that. The clothes you wear are actually the people in this room, and you choose them for you, from this bunch of things.”
movie "Queen Wearing Prada" stills
this profoundly reveals It also explains how fashion dominates ordinary people, and also explains why you can't help but buy the latest clothes on shopping discount festivals such as "Double 11".
Fashion comes fast, and goes fast. People think that if they catch the trend, they have grasped a certain status symbol. As everyone knows, the trend is designed, packaged into a certain symbol and put on the shelf, being eliminated and updated more and more frequently, all for one purpose-to make you always feel that you are missing a piece of clothing, and then spend more money .
I bet that after reading this article, your shopping desire will not be affected.
"Double 11" is coming soon, next, Huabei should pay it back!
editor | Dong Kexin
typesetting | Qiao Bajin
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