Made in China Hasn’t Disappeared. It Has a New Author.
For decades, the label suggested volume, imitation and low cost. Today, a new generation of Chinese creatives is rewriting it: what matters is no longer only where something is made, but who imagines it and which story it tells. This is the shift from Made in China to Designed in China.
New York, 7 February 2018. Li-Ning takes to the runway at Skylight Modern. Founded by Olympic gymnast Li Ning, the sportswear brand is still relatively unknown to the wider Western public. The collection combines streetwear, martial arts and Taoist philosophy; the words 中国李宁, “China Li-Ning”, appear across its sweatshirts. Images circulate across Chinese social media: a national brand, displaying Chinese characters, on the runway of a Western fashion week.
Photo courtesy of Li-Ning Photo courtesy of Li-Ning Photo courtesy of Li-Ning
From the World’s Factory to Brand Building
To understand the significance of that moment, we need to step back. Until the 1990s, “Made in China” was often associated in the Western imagination with mass production, poor materials and imitation. The reforms launched by Deng Xiaoping in 1978 had transformed the country into the world’s factory, prioritising volume over quality and leaving design with a marginal role in the international narrative surrounding Chinese manufacturing.
The shift happened in stages. In 2015, the Made in China 2025 plan aimed to move Chinese manufacturing further up the value chain by strengthening innovation, quality and high-technology production. In 2017, the State Council established Chinese Brands Day (中国品牌日), held on 10 May, institutionalising the promotion of domestic brands.
The figures reflect the outcome. According to MDRi’s China Luxury Consumer Forecast 2025, based on data collected in 2024, 33% of surveyed luxury consumers in mainland China selected Chinese brands as their first choice by country of origin, compared with 29% for French brands. Ten years earlier, this would have seemed unthinkable.
It reverses what economists call the country-of-origin effect: for decades, a Chinese label reduced a product’s perceived value; today, for many consumers, it can increase it.
Li-Ning and the Rise of Guochao
This brings us back to the New York show. That collection gave a visible form to Guochao (国潮), literally “national wave”.
Unlike chinoiserie, in which the West reinterpreted China, Guochao reverses the perspective. China itself redefines its symbolic heritage within the global fashion system.
Gen Z is the driving force. Raised during a period of rapid economic expansion, it is the first generation able to look at the past not out of necessity, but by choice. According to McKinsey, almost 70% of Chinese consumers born in the 1990s say they buy luxury to “feel different, rather than fit in with society”.
Consumption stops being merely imitative and becomes a question of identity: choosing Li-Ning, Anta or Florasis can also be an expression of belonging.
Photo courtesy of Florasis Photo courtesy of Florasis Photo courtesy of Florasis
In the second half of 2021, posts related to New Chinese Style (新中式) on Xiaohongshu increased more than 26-fold compared with the previous six months. The trend is already evolving. In December 2025, PwC described “Guochao 2.0” as the transition from a preference for “Made in China” to confidence in “Well-made in China”.
Three Ways of Being Chinese in Fashion
Guochao is not simply a dragon printed on a sweatshirt. Over time, the phenomenon has become more layered, and at least three different ways of being “Chinese” in fashion now coexist.
The first is explicit. Li-Ning combines national symbols with global languages, making identity immediately recognisable. This is the Guochao of its early phase, centred on the logo.
The second is conceptual. Brands such as Icicle translate values connected to harmony (he, 和) and nature into a minimalist language. Tradition is not necessarily seen, but felt: in the fluidity of silhouettes that recall the flat form of traditional clothing, “like a line in Chinese painting, free and without boundaries”, as Christine Tsui writes. In October 2018, Icicle acquired the struggling Parisian fashion house Carven: a Chinese group taking ownership of a piece of French fashion, rather than the other way around.
The third is implicit. Independent designers such as SHUSHU/TONG create a feminine aesthetic through retro references and Western silhouettes. Cultural identity is communicated through sensibility and narrative, rather than symbols.
It is in this movement from symbol to principle that “Made” begins to give way to “Designed”.
When Culture Is More Than a Reference
For European brands, the lesson is that Chinese culture cannot simply be quoted. It must be understood. The boundaries of cultural ownership are also being watched more closely.
In 2022, a group of students wearing hanfu protested outside Dior’s Champs-Élysées boutique against a skirt presented as an “iconic silhouette” of the fashion house, but closely resembling the traditional mamianqun.
In July 2026, news of Louis Vuitton’s court victory against the Molly Tea chain over a four-petal logo reignited the debate. The case reached approximately 400 million views on Weibo, where many users pointed to similar motifs in art from the Tang dynasty.
Photo courtesy of SHUSHU/TONG Photo courtesy of SHUSHU/TONG Photo courtesy of SHUSHU/TONG
Others have chosen a different path.
Through the restoration and cultural programming of Rong Zhai in Shanghai, Prada has invested in a long-term relationship with art, history and cinema in China, moving beyond seasonal references to the zodiac. For consumers who have learned to recognise themselves in domestic brands, cultural relevance has become part of perceived value, alongside manufacturing quality.
Yet the nationalism of Chinese Gen Z is not a rejection of the world. The same young people who wear New Chinese Style continue to follow international luxury. Local brands carry identity value, while global brands retain aspirational value. These consumers do not necessarily choose between the two; they inhabit both.
From Made in China to Designed in China
The parallel with Made in Italy is clear. Italian fashion also built its value through territory and skills passed down across generations.
“Designed in China” describes this transition: not a return to an ancient and unchanging identity, but its construction in the present, using real historical materials within a process that remains open.
Stuart Hall described cultural identity not only as a matter of being, but also of becoming. Applied to Chinese fashion today, this interpretation suggests that clothing does not simply testify to an identity. It helps produce it.
Follow CZMOS Magazine to explore Asian fashion through the cultural shifts redefining its language.
Comments