Around the National Day holiday, cheap travel clothing known as "single-wear clothing" — designed to be worn once for photos and then discarded — surged in popularity among young consumers. Most of these garments are priced between ten-plus yuan and under 50 yuan, used mainly for travel photos, and after use are either left idle, thrown away, or resold at low prices on second-hand platforms. E-commerce shop owners reveal that monthly sales can steadily exceed 10,000 items, but the repurchase rate is below 10%, and the industry return rate generally ranges from 30% to 50%.

Key Points

  • Orders rose noticeably in the two weeks before the National Day holiday, with core buyers being young women aged 18 to 30, and best-selling items priced mainly between 20 and 50 yuan.
  • Merchants use short videos and livestream traffic投放 to acquire new customers, rely on extremely low pricing to drive volume, and restrict "seven-day no-reason returns" to control costs from high return rates.
  • Cai Shangwei, director of the Cultural Industry Research Center at Sichuan University, warns that if close-fitting clothing has excessive dye, formaldehyde residue, or unqualified pH levels, it may cause contact dermatitis and allergies, and suggests preventing merchants from using the "single-wear" label to evade quality inspections.

Consumer Behavior: Travel photo demand drives bulk purchases, items left idle or resold after use

According to a Cover News report on October 5, so-called "single-wear clothing" refers to cheap clothes worn only once or twice before being discarded or resold, distinct from traditional fast fashion and clothing rental platform garments. Their styles are trendy with bright colors, suited for photos and specific occasions, and for young people they have a low purchase threshold and are not painful to discard.

Lin Xiao, a post-95s woman who traveled to Dali, Yunnan, during the National Day holiday, said she ordered three vacation dresses on an e-commerce platform a week before departure for less than 80 yuan total, and after taking photos left some directly in the guesthouse wardrobe. She noted that most of these fabrics are thin and light, pilling and deforming after one wash, with dry cleaning costs approaching the price of the garment. On social platforms, posts like "collection of travel single-wear clothing links averaging 30 yuan" and "vacation long dresses you can get for 19 yuan" are not uncommon; purchase channels cover e-commerce platforms, clearance channels, and low-priced offline stores, and some people choose to buy worn leftover items from others on platforms like Xianyu. There is a clear correspondence between regional scenes and style choices: islands favor high-saturation beach dresses and printed tube tops, ethnic-style areas favor shawls and hollow-out cover-up dresses, while theme parks and city check-in spots respectively feature cartoon T-shirts, sequined puffy skirts, bubble-sleeve dresses, and vintage polka-dot shirts.

Products and Channels: Mainly polyester and chiffon, high in both reputation and return rate

From e-commerce product information and netizen feedback, single-wear clothing fabrics are mainly polyester (chemically known as polyethylene terephthalate fiber), chiffon, denim, and lace, with relatively rough stitching, issues such as irregularity, easy damage, and deformation after washing, and some products have a pungent odor upon opening.

Zhou Ming, a shop owner who has operated in the "photo dress" category for years, says the shop's monthly sales steadily exceed 10,000 items, with 20 to 50 yuan as the main price range, and explosive orders rely heavily on short video and livestream traffic. Styles update extremely quickly, most customers do not return after taking photos, and the repurchase rate is below 10%. In terms of buyer structure, young women aged 18 to 30 are the core group, covering students in third- and fourth-tier cities and workplace newcomers in first-tier cities; the two weeks before long holidays are the order peak, and some buyers order multiple items at once and later decide what to keep or return. Alongside sales is an industry return rate of 30% to 50%, concentrated in inaccurate sizing, actual color differences, and poor fabric texture. To cope, merchants mostly rely on extremely low pricing to drive volume and protect profits, or mark on the page that seven-day no-reason returns are not supported and only exchanges are allowed, to reduce after-sales disputes.

Expert Warning: Low value is not a reason for exemption from inspection

Cai Shangwei, director of the Cultural Industry Research Center at Sichuan University and a member of the Decision Consulting Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, believes that single-wear clothing is essentially a disposable consumer product in the apparel sector, with an underlying logic similar to other disposable consumer goods, focusing on cleanliness, low cost, and short-term use. He points out that traditional garment-making processes are complicated and finished clothing costs are relatively high, and the industry has long been oriented toward durability; modern industrial chains are well-developed, and demand for travel photography, gatherings, and social check-ins has spawned a large number of distinctive outfits, giving rise to the single-wear clothing business format.

Cai Shangwei also says that the negative issues netizens care about are mostly common problems in the textile industry and should not be one-sidedly blamed on single-wear clothing, but clothing directly contacts the skin, and if dyes exceed standards, formaldehyde remains, or pH levels are unqualified, it can easily cause contact dermatitis, allergies, and other health problems. He suggests strictly investigating merchants who refurbish defective clothing and pass off old items as new, improving disinfection labeling standards for second-hand clothing, preventing merchants from using the "single-wear" label to evade quality inspections, ensuring that clothing on sale uniformly complies with national textile safety standards, and strengthening safety spot checks on close-fitting clothing.

Industry Significance

The single-wear clothing phenomenon reflects rigid demand for ultra-low-priced clothing in tourism and social photography scenarios, as well as a fast-return supply model driven by traffic投放; at the same time, the operating characteristics of high sales combined with high return rates and low repurchase, along with the disposal chain of idle resale and eventual discard, push issues such as quality compliance, second-hand disinfection labeling, and textile waste reduction to the forefront. In the cycle of being discarded and resold, this portion of ultra-low-priced clothing is becoming an increment source that cannot be ignored in second-hand circulation and textile recycling.

Source: "Single-wear clothing" goes viral, prices as low as ten-plus yuan; experts remind: beware of "disposable beauty" harming the skin · Originally published on 2026-10-06