Who’s really buying China’s clothes? Inside the domestic fashion boom

China’s garment, footwear, headwear and knitted textile retail sales topped 1.5 trillion yuan in 2025, up 3.2 per cent, as exports fell 2.4 per cent.
Domestic apparel brands raised share from 35.8 per cent in 2020 to 56.1 per cent by 2024, with guochao demand behind the shift.
Gen Z, social commerce, AI-personalised recommendations, athleisure and livestreams are reshaping apparel e-commerce.