Changjiang Daily’s Greater Wuhan App, August 29: Worried that formaldehyde in new clothes may irritate the skin, or that garments may shrink or fade after washing? Clothes may look fashionable in a livestream, only for the product received to be completely different from what was shown. Some garments are marketed as featuring Chu or traditional Chinese cultural styles, yet cultural elements are used indiscriminately and without verifiable sources.
On the evening of August 28, the 2026 Hanzheng Street International Fashion Week opened at the Hanzheng Street Brand Apparel Wholesale Plaza, where three group standards for Wuhan-style fashion were officially released to the public. Hanzheng Street, known as the “No. 1 Commercial Street under Heaven” and with a commercial history spanning 500 years, now has a complete set of quality benchmarks tailored to the characteristics of its own industry, helping to significantly improve the quality of Wuhan-style fashion.
Hanzheng Street has more than 1.8 million square metres of commercial space, around 15,000 merchants, and an annual transaction volume exceeding RMB 100 billion. It is a major textile and apparel commercial district in central China with an annual trading scale of over RMB 100 billion. Wuhan-style fashion has formed a three-way competitive landscape alongside Guangdong-style and Hangzhou-style fashion.
Wuhan-style fashion has long been known for its rapid style updates and strong value for money, but it has also faced the long-standing disadvantage of being “large in scale but lacking standards, and extensive but not strong.”
At the beginning of 2026, with coordination by the Qiaokou District Administration for Market Regulation, the Hanzheng Street Market Chamber of Commerce, Wuhan Inspection, Testing and Certification Development Group, and several other organisations formed a quality and technological innovation consortium. The group carried out extensive field research in major markets including Yunshang, Jinzhengmao and Longteng, gaining a detailed understanding of merchants’ actual production practices and benchmarking against advanced domestic standards.
After extensive development and refinement, three group standards were introduced: General Requirements for Product Quality of “Hanzheng Street Wuhan-Style Fashion”, Management Specification for the Regional Public Brand of “Hanzheng Street Wuhan-Style Fashion”, and Management and Service Specification for the Hanzheng Street Wuhan-Style Fashion Market. Together, these standards establish comprehensive requirements covering quality, services and branding.
Safety Requirements Stricter Than National Standards, Providing Greater Confidence for Clothing Worn Close to the Skin
Clothing safety is an issue that directly affects consumers. The newly introduced standards raise requirements beyond the minimum thresholds set by mandatory national standards. Three key safety indicators—formaldehyde content, pH value and colour fastness—are all stricter than the corresponding national standards.
For example, for Category B garments that come into direct contact with the skin, the permitted formaldehyde content has been tightened from the national standard of no more than 75 mg/kg to no more than 60 mg/kg. These stricter requirements significantly reduce the risks of colour fading and skin-related problems caused by clothing.
Lu Wenhao, General Manager of Wuhan Shenghai Pirate Ship Clothing Co., Ltd., said that the standards would improve the overall quality of Wuhan-style clothing produced and sold on Hanzheng Street, rather than benefiting only individual companies.
Zhan Shide, General Manager of Wuhan Haoqiwei Clothing Co., Ltd., said the standards provide clear requirements for clothing across different price ranges. “There is nothing wrong with a product costing RMB 9.9, but if it costs RMB 9.9, the fabric composition should be labelled accordingly. A low-priced product cannot be passed off as a high-end product. Even low-priced products must meet the required quality standards.”
A National First: Incorporating Wuhan-Style Cultural Elements into Clothing Standards
One of the most notable breakthroughs of the new standards is the formal inclusion of “the expression of cultural elements” in regional group standards for the clothing industry for the first time. This addresses the previous situation in which garments could be casually labelled as “traditional Chinese style” while cultural elements were used indiscriminately or without clear sources.
The standards specify that Wuhan-style traditional Chinese clothing should incorporate cultural elements associated with Chu and Han traditions, such as Chu embroidery patterns and decorative motifs from Chu-Han lacquerware. The standards also encourage the use of traditional craftsmanship characteristic of Hubei and the Chu region, including Han embroidery and traditional knotted buttons, filling a gap in existing clothing standards concerning the expression of cultural characteristics.
The standards further specify that if particular cultural elements, such as Chu embroidery motifs, are identified on garment tags or in product descriptions, their use should respect the original historical form and must not involve distortion or alteration. Enterprises are encouraged to retain documentation for cultural traceability, intellectual property certificates, or authorisation documents relating to intangible cultural heritage for reference and inspection.
Zhou Hu, a standards expert at Wuhan Inspection, Testing and Certification Development Group, explained that Wuhan-style traditional Chinese clothing refers to clothing products based on Wuhan-style fashion while integrating elements of traditional Chinese clothing culture, thereby reflecting both outstanding traditional Chinese culture and the regional cultural characteristics of Jingchu.
According to Zhou, this is the first time that the “expression of cultural elements” has been explicitly included in a regional group standard for clothing brand management in China.
Rules Introduced for Livestream E-Commerce: What Consumers See Online Must Match What They Receive
Hanzheng Street is an A-level livestream e-commerce cluster in Wuhan, and livestream selling has become an important sales channel for Wuhan-style fashion.
In response to frequent consumer complaints about the disparity between products displayed attractively in livestreams and the goods actually received, the newly released standards introduce specific requirements for livestream e-commerce.
The standards state that clothing products sold online should clearly display product photographs, size charts, material composition, washing instructions, applicable standards and other relevant information on e-commerce product pages or during livestreams.
Merchants capable of conducting livestream sales are also encouraged to establish product quality traceability records to ensure consistency between the products displayed online and the products actually shipped to consumers.
(Reporter: Liu Ruiche; Correspondent: Gong Zhuoran; Intern: Xiang Yifan)
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