By Yuan Xiaojie

On 11 March, 2026 China International Fashion Fair opened at National Exhibition and Convention Center(Shanghai). In the early morning, a lot of people gathered in front of the exhibition booth of ‘Zhangzhen Fabric’, a brand under Qidong Chengyuan Cultural Communication Co., Ltd. Traditional homespun cloth, blue calico, and lovely dolls attracted many merchants.

Joyce, a retailer from the United States bought a pair of delicate homespun tiger-head shoes, and praised over and over again, ‘Amazing!’ In front of the exhibition booth, Zhong Xiaoying, the person in charge of Chengyuan Cultural Communication, was busy talking with visitors from places all over the world.

How did traditional homespun cloth, which had gradually faded from people’s daily lives, regain its vitality from a young perspective?

In 2018, Ji Zijing, Zhong Xiaoying’s daughter, was studying in Australia. She sent an order —— fabric rose. Zhong Xiaoying and her husband chose yarn-dyed homespun fabric with a firm texture and delicate patterns. Surprisingly, Ji Zijing sold the batch of fabric roses through social network software. 10 roses sold for 180 Australian dollars.

Homespun cloth flower earned ‘the first pot of gold’. The family of three had a lot of ideas for developing new uses for homespun cloth. Ji Zijing successively designed many small items made of homespun cloth—from keychains costing a dozen yuan, bags and shoes costing less than a hundred yuan, to ornaments and handicrafts costing thousands to tens of thousands of yuan. Among them, homespun cloth dolls were the most popular. These products went from small-scale production to mass production, and were well received by the market as soon as they were launched.

‘Foreign Jellycat dolls can sell for hundreds of yuan each, but our homespun cloth dolls are all handmade, from the silk thread to the finished product,’ Zhong Xiaoying said.

China International Fashion Fair is the largest and most influential apparel trade fair in Asia. Zhangzhen Fabric has been participating in the fair since 2010. In the past few years, homespun cloth ‘Jellycat’ has been exhibited at professional exhibitions again and again, and has become more and more popular.

Homespun cloth ‘Jellycat’ has even gone global, participated in fairs including Foire de Paris. ‘We did not expect that our homespun cloth works are so popular with international friends that they were almost sold out within just a few days of the exhibition.’ Ji Zijing said.

【背景阅读】

用年轻方式赋予老手艺新生命

南通版土布“Jellycat”成文创宠儿

3月11日，2026年中国国际服装服饰博览会在上海国际展览中心开幕。一大早，启东承远文化传播有限公司旗下品牌“章镇布艺”的展位前便挤满了人。老土布、蓝印花布、可爱的玩偶，吸引了众多客商。

来自美国的零售商Joyce选购了精美的土布虎头鞋，连连称赞：“Amazing！”展位前，承远文化负责人钟小英正忙着与来自世界各地的观展商洽谈。

曾渐渐退出人们日常生活的老土布，是如何以年轻视角重获新生的？

2018年，钟小英的女儿季紫荆在澳大利亚留学，她发来了一个订单——布艺玫瑰花。钟小英和丈夫选了布料挺阔、花纹精致的色织土布。没想到，季紫荆将这批布艺玫瑰通过社交软件卖了出去，十支玫瑰卖了180元澳币。

土布花卉赚回“第一桶金”，一家三口开发土布新用途的思路大开。季紫荆陆续设计了很多用土布制作的小玩意儿——小到十几元的钥匙扣、百元内的包包、鞋子，大到数千至数万元的摆件、工艺品。其中，最受欢迎的是土布玩偶。这些产品从小打小闹到批量生产，一经推出便受到市场的认可。

“外国玩偶Jellycat一只要卖到数百元，我们的土布玩偶从丝线到成品全过程都是手工制作的。”钟小英说。

中国国际服装服饰博览会是亚洲规模最大、影响力最强的服装专业展会，章镇布艺自2010年起便坚持参会。这些年，土布“Jellycat”一次次走上专业展会，知名度越来越高。

土布“Jellycat”还走出国门，参加了法国巴黎博览会等，“没想到，我们的土布作品那么受国际友人欢迎，开展没几天就基本销售一空。”季紫荆说。