For global fashion and beauty executives, China’s five-year plans are more than domestic policy roadmaps but function as strategic signals — revealing how capital, innovation and consumption will be guided in the world’s second-largest economy.
Last year marked a pivotal inflection point: the final year of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan and the runway toward the 15th. Economic data released this month therefore offered not just a snapshot of current conditions but a preview of where growth is likely to come from over the next five years.
According to figures published by China’s National Bureau of Statistics, GDP grew 5 percent year-on-year in 2025, while CPI remained flat and PPI stood at minus 2.6 percent, an improvement from last year’s trough. Nominal GDP growth of 3.7 percent was largely driven by export-oriented, high-end manufacturing — new energy, 3D printing and advanced technologies — rather than domestic consumption.
As Xiangshuai Observatory, founded by economist Tang Ya, put it: “State power is rising, while private-sector dynamism has softened.” The divergence is visible across the economy. Manufacturing continues to upgrade, but consumption tied to everyday livelihoods remains in recovery mode. Total retail sales of consumer goods reached 50.12 trillion yuan, or approximately $7.26 trillion, last year, up 3.7 percent year-on-year — respectable growth, but still below expectations for a consumption-led rebound.
A Clear Pivot Toward Demand
Policymakers are well aware of the imbalance. On Jan. 20, China’s National Development and Reform Commission revealed plans to formulate a new Implementation Plan for Expanding Domestic Demand (2026 to 2030), signaling that boosting consumption will be a top priority in the next policy cycle.
How to do so remains debated. Monetary easing, consumption vouchers, fiscal subsidies and targeted credit support have all been deployed with mixed results. What is increasingly clear, however, is that China is shifting from short-term stimulus toward structural transformation.
That direction was formalized in October 2024, when the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee adopted the proposal for the 15th Five-Year Plan. Its message was explicit: high-quality development over headline growth, innovation as the core driver and improving quality of life as the ultimate goal.
Within this framework, consumption is no longer treated as a passive economic buffer. It is being repositioned as a strategic engine — one that supports industrial upgrading, cultural confidence and green transition.
According to Wang Wei, former director at the Development Research Center of the State Council, the next five years will see multiple new consumption engines worth hundreds of billions — and in some cases trillions — of yuan. Fashion, he argued, will be among the most important.
“Fashion is not only a cultural symbol,” Wang said. “It is also a powerful commercial engine that drives broader consumption and innovation.”
Three keywords help explain why.
1. Urban Renewal
Under the 15th Five-Year Plan, urban renewal has become a national priority, framed around the idea of the “people-centered city.” For fashion, this translates into a deeper integration with urban space —commercial districts, heritage architecture and cultural infrastructure.
The policy explicitly encourages the revitalization of industrial heritage and the upgrading of commercial blocks, creating new consumption scenarios that blend culture and commerce.
A look inside the new House of Dior Beijing at Taikoo Li Sanlitun.
21studio/WWD
Beijing’s Taikoo Li Sanlitun. is a case in point. Stand-alone flagships by Louis Vuitton, Dior and Tiffany & Co. — with architecture that borders on civic landmarks — have transformed luxury retail into an urban experience rather than a transactional one.
Shanghai tells a parallel story. In Jing’an and Suhewan, century-old industrial buildings along Suzhou Creek are being reimagined as fashion, art and lifestyle destinations. The former Bank of Communications warehouse, built in 1933, has been restored and repurposed into a cultural hub —illustrating how fashion is increasingly positioned as a catalyst for urban regeneration.
Bai Space·Guang’er Warehouse. In this model, fashion is no longer just a tenant in the city; it is part of the city’s renewal strategy.
2. New-quality Fashion
Another defining theme of the 15th Five-Year Plan is technological self-reliance, with a strong emphasis on AI, data infrastructure and intelligent manufacturing.
China’s push to build a national computing power network and accelerate “AI+” adoption is already reshaping fashion’s industrial logic. AI-driven design, precision R&D and digitally enabled supply chains are moving from experimentation to scale.
Chen Dapeng, president of the China National Garment Association, has described the coming period as a turning point — from being “large” to becoming “strong.” Supported by a complete industrial chain and rapid digitalization, China’s fashion sector is evolving from technology adoption to innovation origination, including advances in new materials and bio-manufacturing.
For global brands, this shift has implications not just for sourcing, but for speed, customization and long-term competitiveness.
3. The Silver Economy
Population aging is the third structural force reshaping fashion and beauty in China. The 15th Five-Year Plan calls for a full life-cycle population strategy, including age-friendly products and the expansion of the silver economy.
For fashion and beauty brands, this opens a major growth opportunity. Mature consumers are no longer positioned as niche or functional buyers, but as emotionally engaged, style-conscious customers.
L’Oréal’s “Beauty of Longevity” initiative exemplifies this shift, challenging age stereotypes and reframing beauty around vitality rather than youth. At a regional level, major economic clusters — from the Yangtze River Delta to the Greater Bay Area — are planning silver economy industrial parks, integrating health care, services and lifestyle consumption.
Silver fashion, in this context, is moving beyond necessity toward self-expression and identity.
Looking Ahead
Urban renewal, AI-driven industrial upgrading and the rise of the silver economy together form a new growth matrix for China’s fashion industry. Under the combined forces of policy guidance, technology and consumption upgrading, the industry is poised to move beyond scale-driven expansion.
With culture as its core, technology as its engine and sustainability as its baseline, fashion is emerging as one of China’s most powerful trillion-yuan growth stories for the next five years — and a market global players can no longer afford to view through a single lens.
Editor’s note: China Insight is a monthly column from WWD’s sister publication WWD China examining key trends in that all-important market.
