China Fashion Industry Statistics

Think of China's fashion market as a fast-moving, culturally driven marketplace where Gen Z consumers, though only 15 percent of the population, account for 25 percent of brand spending, shoppers favor Guochao and fabric quality over mere logos, millennials and the wealthy will pay premiums for sustainability and exclusivity, men and single-person households are spending more, lower-tier cities and the over‑60s are rapidly expanding demand, social badging fuels luxury purchases even as online research dominates and sizing-related returns bite, and any brand that ignores political sensitivity, child-safety perceptions, body positivity or the surging appetite for gender-neutral and blind-box fashion does so at its commercial peril.

China’s fashion market has become a mobile-first, social and livestream-fueled powerhouse, with over half of apparel sales occurring online, livestreaming generating more than $60 billion annually even as returns can reach 50 percent, platforms from Tmall and Douyin to Little Red Book and WeChat mini programs delivering outsized conversions and influencer-driven buying, and rapid C2M production pushing digital penetration toward an estimated 60 percent by 2025, where clicks buy as fast as factories can stitch and brands must balance explosive growth with new operational and reputational risks.

China has become the world’s luxury proving ground where Louis Vuitton and Hermes can raise prices without flinching while domestic challengers from Anta to Li‑Ning and Bosideng sprint ahead, high‑end streetwear and resale platforms like Poizon rocket growth, sport and outdoor categories surged around the Olympics, Hainan duty‑free and mass luxury chains like Chow Tai Fook anchor broad demand, and paradoxes abound as sustainability tags drive searches but conversions and logo recognition lag, with second‑hand and rental still tiny even as China is set to account for a quarter of the global luxury market by 2025.

China still runs the world's wardrobe, producing nearly 65% of global clothing, exporting roughly $175 billion in 2022 and directly employing over 20 million people, but rising labor and dyeing costs, modest recycling rates, regional concentration and geopolitical scrutiny, growing automation and smart manufacturing, and a partial shift of capacity to Southeast Asia mean the industry now has to juggle unprecedented scale, a seven day design to product tempo and the hard business of becoming sustainable.

China’s fashion industry is a colossal and fast-evolving market, showing that fashion is not just about looks but also about economic muscle, generating about US$319 billion in 2023 and roughly one-fifth of global apparel revenue, with almost 60 garments per person, a US$165 billion women’s segment and sizable niches including about US$80 billion in footwear, roughly US$90 billion in men’s apparel by 2024, more than US$48 billion in sportswear, 500 billion renminbi in accessories, 266 billion yuan in children’s wear, over 10 billion yuan in Hanfu, intimate wear growing at about 9 percent annually and gold jewelry sales up over 12 percent in 2023, while domestic brands have markedly increased their presence as foreign brands ceded ground, cross border e-commerce exports rose over 20 percent in 2022, Tier 1 cities account for about 20 percent of retail despite their small population share, the sector’s gross merchandise value was around 3 percent of GDP in 2022, and the industry remains tightly linked to macro trends since a one percent GDP rise typically lifts fashion retail by about 1.3 percent.