Fashion Style and Information Source in Hangzhou, China

Abstract

Hangzhou, as one of the famous eight ancient capitals in Chinese history, has a long historical standing. Under the influence of Jiangnan culture – complimenting the delicate, soft and feminine temperament, Hangzhou has generated Hangpai fashion brands with girlish, and pastoral style, and always stays in a fresh, graceful, sweet tone since the 1990s. The thesis aims to study the Hangzhou fashion in the context of globalization and localization. Thus the research was to determine to study the change of fashion style and information source through the influence of social cultural factors. Through literature and in-depth interviews of qualitative research, the historical background and feature of Hangzhou fashion from the 1990s to 2010s were explored in this study. A total of 16 interviewees, 8 of each group who aged from 18-25 and 38-45 years old, have accepted the in-depth interview in March 2014. It was concluded as follows: Hangzhou young females with the weak concept of fashion style in the 1990s, have given many adjectives that were interpreted as feminine style, casual style and sports style, which derived from regional culture, introduced fashion brands and aerobics movement, respectively. While in the 2010s, young females concept regarding fashion have changed from fashionable(时髦) to stylish(有型), leading to a variety of different fashion styles. The popular Korean-style, European style, and minimalist style are mostly come from foreign dramas and Internet fashion information. Young females of 2010s are using diversified sources of fashion information (especially SNS, on line shopping mall) in a significantly higher frequency than those of 1990s. As the representatives of social factors, regional culture, economy, fashion industry and mass media, have affected Hangzhou female fashion styles and information source profoundly. The research verified that there was a diminishing of a sense of locality and cultural identity in Hangzhou females fashion, while the impact of a kind of global-cultural eclecticism and mass media imagery becomes larger on young females fashion in the city, especially the role of Internet. It makes Hangzhou fashion no longer lag behind it of Guangzhou, Shanghai and other cities like in the 1990s, but synchronized with domestic cities and even international fashion trends.