The first half of 2026 brought sobering data for the garment industry: exports declined under multiple pressures, investment contracted, and corporate profitability was severely squeezed. However, at the 2nd Session of the 8th Council of China National Garment Association held in Huizhou, Guangdong, industry leaders did not fall into a pessimistic narrative. Instead, the meeting sent a clear signal—the core proposition for the next five years is shifting from scale manufacturing to brand power, with digital intelligence technology and Eastern aesthetics emerging as the two engines driving this transition.
Divergence and Resilience Behind the Data
According to publicly disclosed information from the association, the garment industry in the first half of 2026 showed significant divergence. On the external demand side, weak international markets, intensified geopolitical conflicts, and disrupted supply chains dragged down export performance. Domestic demand, supported by consumption-boosting initiatives, maintained rapid growth with improving market activity. Production remained generally stable, but investment contracted noticeably, severely squeezing corporate profitability.
Behind this divergence lies an acceleration of structural adjustments. Diverse demand is fostering new growth poles: segments like guochao (national trend), outdoor sports, and silver economy are performing actively, with brands deepening their omni-channel layouts. Industry public data shows that growth in these areas is not a short-term pulse but a resonance between consumption upgrades and industrial innovation.
The '15th Five-Year' Brand Power Roadmap
The meeting clearly defined the '15th Five-Year Plan' period (2026-2030) as a critical five-year bridge. Chen Dapeng, President of China National Garment Association, pointed out that by 2035, when China basically achieves socialist modernization, the garment industry should have essentially built a brand power, cultivating a group of independent brands with global fashion discourse power. This means the next five years must complete the transition from an 'industrial manufacturing industry' to a 'technology-led, fashion-driven creative industry.'
Specifically, the association emphasized the four pillars of 'technology, fashion, green, and health.' On the technology front, generative AI, industrial simulation, and embodied intelligence are moving from point breakthroughs to systematic integration. At the design end, human-machine collaboration is drastically compressing new product development cycles; at the manufacturing end, factories are transforming into intelligent agents,沉淀ing tacit craftsmanship knowledge; at the supply chain end, linear models are breaking down into real-time collaborative networks among brands, factories, and consumers. Digital twins are becoming the new threshold for industrial collaboration.
Eastern Aesthetics: An Unreplicable Competitive Moat
In terms of brand differentiation, the meeting reached a consensus: Eastern aesthetics has become a unique cultural asset for local brands in the global fashion context. Participating companies believe that in the digital age, a brand's values, aesthetic system, and spiritual core constitute an unreplicable competitive barrier. Garments and accessories rooted in Eastern aesthetics are not only carriers of cultural dissemination but also key levers for the shift from 'Made in China' to 'Created in China.'
In practice, companies need to deeply explore the philosophical implications and life wisdom behind Eastern aesthetics, organically integrating traditional craftsmanship, color symbols, and artistic expressions with modern wearing scenarios. This involves not only design innovation but also a reconstruction of brand narrative capabilities. In overseas expansion, leveraging profound cultural heritage and high-value-added products to reshape foreign consumers' perception of Chinese brands is becoming a common strategy among leading companies.
Digital Intelligence Ecosystem: From Point Breakthroughs to Systemic Reconstruction
During the sharing session, the transformation case of Jeanswest, under the Sunrise Group, was representative. The company began building a digital brand ecosystem in 2018, focusing on three core capabilities: product development, precision operations, and supply chain integration. In 2025, it upgraded to a brand ecosystem digital intelligence, creating an enterprise-level AI agent matrix and collaborating with multiple universities to establish an industry-academia-research collaborative innovation system. This path from point digitalization to full-domain intelligence reflects the industry's deepening understanding of digital transformation—it cannot stop at point breakthroughs but requires a comprehensive top-level design to build an iterable and reusable digital infrastructure.
Sun Ruizhe, President of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, proposed five development mindsets in his summary: the intelligent economy requires an intelligence-native mindset; the science and innovation economy requires a future industry layout; the service economy requires enhanced experiential value; the responsible economy requires promoting green and adaptive fashion; and the global economy requires improved cross-border operations and cross-cultural narrative capabilities. These five mindsets essentially form a systematic framework for the industry's '15th Five-Year' transition path.