More and more trend-chasing young people are choosing children’s clothing, but while they are posting their trendy selfies to social media in the fitting room, the clothes they are wearing may be suffering irreversible damage.
Recently, the video column “Urgent Call” of “New Beijing News” exposed the phenomenon of some adult consumers trying on small-sized children’s clothes, which led to deformation of the clothes. In the video, when the reporter tried to take the small size children’s clothing to the fitting room, he was discouraged by a Uniqlo store clerk. The clerk pointed out that the size of the children’s clothes taken by the reporter did not match his body shape, and said that the deformed children’s clothes would eventually be sold at a special price.
After the video was sent out, the topic of “adults trying on Uniqlo children’s clothes” quickly hit the Weibo hot search.
A small red book blogger, Grizz, who claimed to have worked at Uniqlo, posted that the design of Uniqlo’s children’s clothing is usually more neck-stringing and sometimes not suitable for adults to wear; at the same time, because of the small size of children’s clothing, it is easy to be deformed by the adult body type, and also easy to stain the foundation and lipstick of the wearer in the process of trying on, which eventually becomes defective products.
But while many people are critical of adults trying on children’s clothing, some netizens also point out that for some women, plus-size children’s clothing is actually a more cost-effective option.
In fact, the choice of large children’s clothing has become a fashion trend in recent years. Interface fashion reporter searched on Little Red Book and found that children’s clothing, large children’s shoes, luxury children’s bags and other children’s clothing categories have a high degree of heat.
Product size is not much different from adult models but more cute elements, is one of the reasons why many adults choose children’s clothing. Gucci GUCCI a children’s 3D apple tote bag, for example, its height and width of 31.5 cm and 33.5 cm, respectively, can completely put down the laptop and documents, for commuter bags.
On the other hand, children’s clothing is less expensive than adult models, which gives some consumers the opportunity to enjoy fashionable, beautiful products at a lower price. For example, the largest Dior Dior slogan children’s T-shirt is priced at RMB 2,100, while the adult version with a similar graphic design is priced at RMB 6,400.
Some brands are taking advantage of this opportunity and trying to tap into a larger market in the “adult children’s wear” segment. According to Singaporean media outlet Asiaone, designer children’s brands are already flooding the market, targeting not only children, but also petite girls.
Previously, Interface Fashion also wrote that while Western brands often have larger sizes for the same size, Asian women have smaller bones, which makes it possible for them to choose children’s clothing.
Today many emerging children’s clothing brands have expanded their size ranges to cater to older children between the ages of 14 and 16. Sizes for clothing in that age range can be basically equivalent to an XS or S size in women’s clothing, which is perfectly suited for petite adults.
At the same time, the “BM trend”, which has been popular since 2020, has also made the choice of small size women’s clothing a trend. “BM” is an acronym for the Italian fashion brand Brandy Melville, whose style signature is to wear short tops with plunging necklines and short plaid skirts with small jackets.
This typical American West Coast dressing style is not uncommon in current domestic fashion brands. What really makes “BM style” popular is that all its clothes share a small size equivalent to Chinese S size and XS size.
On social media, a “BM girl height and weight chart” has been widely reposted, and many bloggers are proud of their bodies that can wear Brandy Melville clothes, making “BM style” a style that can provide a sense of psychological belonging.