As the only listed designer brand in Chinese mainland, Jiangnan Cloth has always been loved by users who pursue simple and high-quality styles, and never expected that this domestic excellent student would even overturn because of design.
Recently, a parent of a 4-year-old child posted on the social platform, saying that he found that the Jiangnan cloth children's clothes worn by the children were written in English such as "WELCOME TO HELL", "LET ME TOUCH YOU (let me touch you)", and also printed with satan, limbs and other dark patterns, which are very unsuitable for children.
The parent said that the clothes were bought by the elderly at the mall counter, because they did not understand English, they only thought that the version was good and bought directly, and they did not expect that it was so inappropriate for children.
Welcome to Hell
Let me touch you
With the continuous fermentation of the topic, more netizens began to post articles accusing the children's clothing of Jiangnan clothing with similar design problems, not only this one, but also the inappropriate content of violence, blood, racial discrimination and even soft pornography printed on many products before. In addition, the latest season of promotional poster shooting style is also very strange.
For a time, Jiangnan cloth became the target of public criticism and was questioned.
Subsequently, jnby by JNBY released a "letter to consumers" through the official Weibo, in which it said that "the product series involved has been completely removed from the shelves for the first time, the relevant publicity materials have been revoked, and a special team has been set up to start self-examination, which will establish a stricter internal audit mechanism to improve the consumer experience." ”
Skirt pattern
Propaganda posters
As a children's clothing sub-brand of Jiangnan clothing, jnby by JNBY's products also continue the design aesthetics of adult clothes, with "freedom, imagination, happiness and authenticity" as the core concept, hoping that children can also wear their own style.
So, why would such a brand that pays so much attention to "design" overturn because of "design"?
In fact, the pattern prints that appeared in the controversy this time are not original to the company's designers, but are based on some foreign classical paintings and comics. For example, the nude figure on the dress comes from Hieronymis Bosch's Paradise on Earth; the villain motif of the middle arrow comes from the American comic strip "The Adventures of Little Nemo Dreamland".
If we keep taking meanings, there is nothing wrong with the work itself from the perspective of purely artistic appreciation. However, the practice of intercepting these local patterns and printing them on children's clothing is indeed inappropriate. In particular, the children's minds are not yet mature, and it is easy to imitate behavior, resulting in adverse consequences.
Individual design is not the same as applying artistic elements to all products without scale, and it is no longer the era of "foreign moons are rounder". A homegrown Chinese brand, not only abandoning the elements of national style, but also directly taking many elements representing evil in the West as the core of the design, has to make people question the values that the 24-year-old brand wants to promote.
It can only be said that no matter which designer these children's clothing comes from, they are contrary to the brand's original beautiful concept, which destroys both famous paintings and children's clothing, making Jiangnan clothing not "Jiangnan" at all.
Paradise on Earth
The Adventures of Little Nemo Dreamland
In fact, in addition to the design of this overturn, Jiangnan Cloth has been deeply involved in the storm of plagiarism in recent years.
In February 2018, in a collaborative series between the menswear brand Sketch and artist Xu Zhen, a bag was forced to take down the shelves for allegedly plagiarizing the original work of Saint Martin's emerging designer River Renjie Wang; in September of the same year, the video taken by its women's clothing brand Less was accused of copying Rookie Combo's creativity; in November, independent designer Chen Peng posted on Weibo that a down jacket of the JNBY brand of Jiangnan Clothing Group was suspected of plagiarizing its work released before August In May 2020, netizens pointed out that the new spring and summer 2020 sandals launched by JNBY were suspected of plagiarizing the 2019 spring and summer sandals of a Korean brand...
And so on, all of which make people doubt the "original designer concept" advertised by its brand. The reduction of enterprise product research and development expenses year by year also explains why there is a lack of design innovation. The data shows that the clothing design cost of Jiangnan Cloth in the past five years has suffered a waist cut, down 57.8%, and the designers of children's clothing brands have been reduced to only four.
At the same time, brand marketing expenses are constantly increasing.
In order to cooperate with the so-called "fan economy", Jiangnan Buyi has signed superstar models such as Zhou Xun, Liu Yaren, Ju Xiaowen as brand spokespersons, and also invested heavily in live broadcasting, KOL planting and other aspects, playing more and more "internet celebrities".
However, enterprises seem to ignore an important premise, that is, good products are the cornerstone of everything, the core of the fan economy is brand value and influence, when a designer brand begins to embark on the road of "light design, heavy operation", how to retain fans?
Jiangnan Buyi said in a previous statement, "As a local brand rooted in the Chinese market, our original intention was to deliver better and more unique ideas, and we know that the most important thing is to pass on beautiful values." ”
As for whether it will be possible to do as promised in the future, we can only put a question mark on it for the time being.
Edit: Ju Jun