Outrageous but popular, where does the off-season dressing content come from?

This article analyzes why off-season dressing content has become a trend recently, and also analyzes the mixed reactions of off-season content among users, reflecting consumers' reflection on "artificial hot spots". Recommended for students who are interested in hot spot marketing.

Recently, an unusual content trend has emerged on various platforms.

Although it is a hot summer now, some content related to autumn and winter is very popular, which is particularly evident in the field of dressing.

On Douyin, the topic "Sharing sweet sweatshirts for early autumn" not only made it to the top of the list, but also surpassed other summer fashion hotspots such as "Unboxing summer skirts" and "Simple and sexy hot girl outfits". On Xiaohongshu, the number of notes related to the topic "5G enters autumn" reached more than 420,000, and the topic was viewed 890 million times. Many fashion bloggers showed off their autumn and winter outfits.

Why has off-season dressing become a trend? Why is a seemingly outrageous phenomenon so popular? Who has benefited from the popularity of off-season dressing?

01 Off-season dressing is becoming a content trend

"I'm tired of summer and I'm looking forward to autumn and winter" is the opening line of many fashion bloggers when they share their clothes recently. Although such content seems a bit inappropriate, the "eyeball effect" makes similar content popular.

If you search for "5g enters autumn" on Xiaohongshu, you can see notes with thousands or even tens of thousands of likes everywhere. The autumn and winter themed dressing content has become the "traffic code" for fashion bloggers in the summer.

For example, the note "Off-season wear | Already looking forward to autumn and winter" published by fashion blogger @Nancy今日早睡吗 on June 18 received more than 5,000 likes. In comparison, although the title and cover of her summer wear notes also look very exquisite, the number of likes is far behind this "hot item", which is basically around a few hundred or a thousand.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

Another blogger who gained a hit note through off-season content is @沙上西红柿. Her many dressing notes have a relatively uniform style. The cover pictures all have a row of trees on the roadside as the background, and she is standing on the roadside in her well-matched clothes. The note "Looking forward to autumn and winter" published on June 28 still maintains the same style, but just changes the season, making this note much more popular than the others. Currently, this off-season dressing note has received 34,000 likes, the most liked one, while the likes of other notes are between a few hundred and a few thousand, and occasionally there are notes with tens of thousands of likes.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

@快乐泡泡 also followed this content trend. On July 29, she posted a note titled "Looking forward to a retro winter". The 16 mirror selfies of her winter outfits brought people into the winter scene. Currently, the note has received more than 6,000 likes, while the number of likes for her other notes is basically around 500. The notes on off-season outfits are particularly conspicuous among the notes.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

There are many off-season contents not only on Xiaohongshu, but also on Douyin. Under the topic of "5g enters autumn", many fashion bloggers such as @很懒不要想起来, @雪雪沒沒, @芋圆有点甜, @9end﹣, etc. have published off-season fashion content.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

Among them, @9end﹣ although she only has 22,000 followers, her work "I don't want to spend the summer anymore, go straight into the autumn with 5G" released on July 2 received 250,000 likes. Compared with many videos with only dozens of likes, this off-season dressing video obviously caught the "traffic express".

02 Why does off-season content arise?

In fact, anti-season content is not a new trend this year, but has been around for the past two years. In the field of fashion, in addition to "5g in autumn", similar anti-season topics such as "5g in summer" and "5g in winter" are also common.

From the user's perspective, the reason why off-season content is so popular is that the seasonal contrast brings a certain sense of freshness. For example, among the many summer outfits, the off-season autumn and winter outfits are somewhat inappropriate, but they carry the user's expectations for autumn and winter, so they have a certain appeal. Just like the copywriting commonly used by outfit bloggers, "I'm tired of summer", because in summer, we are experiencing the discomfort brought by the high temperature, and the convenience of summer is easily overlooked, so it is easier to look forward to the autumn and winter seasons that are somewhat distant.

In the comment sections of some bloggers, we can see that this kind of off-season content has indeed captured the psychology of users. Many users have begun to look forward to autumn and winter. Comments such as "I'm looking forward to the atmosphere of autumn and winter", "Is there any baby to discuss autumn outfits and lead the starting line", "Autumn is coming soon, I love my little sweatshirt so much" are everywhere.

From the perspective of fashion bloggers, following hot topics and publishing off-season content is on the one hand for traffic considerations, and on the other hand for merchants to explore the way in advance and predict the best-selling items in autumn and winter.

A fashion blogger once mentioned that he didn’t really understand off-season dressing, but off-season content is easy to get high traffic, so he will follow the trend. Crowley observed that many fashion bloggers, in order to catch up with the popularity of off-season dressing, moved out last year’s inventory and took users to review the atmosphere of autumn and winter.

In fact, many users have questioned the logic of off-season content, and said, "I just want to know why people look forward to winter in summer and summer in winter. Isn't it good to enjoy the current season?", "Seeing new products in the store and bloggers promoting them, it seems as if it will snow tomorrow", "I saw it a few days ago and was brainwashed into thinking it was autumn and I could wear it. After a while, I realized it is midsummer now." In response to this situation, a blogger said that she saw other fashion bloggers posting off-season content and felt that she would not be able to keep up with the trend if she didn't post.

In the "5G in Autumn" craze, many users have indeed been attracted to it, and many netizens in the comment area have asked for product links, which is also one of the reasons why many fashion bloggers publish off-season outfits. Content comes first in order to predict hot products and then feed back information to merchants.

Image source: Xiaohongshu screenshot

In the comment section, we can see that in response to users’ inquiries for links, many fashion bloggers said that they were new product previews, and some bloggers would place links to pre-sale products in the comment section.

03 Off-season business in the live broadcast room

Corresponding to the popularity of off-season content, live broadcast rooms for off-season clothing have been launched one after another.

Currently on Douyin, multiple accounts including @喜凡妮高定女装 (Treasure Factory), @点瓜瓜, @南陈轻奢自装, and @简简来了 are broadcasting autumn and winter clothing. Brand accounts such as Xue Zhongfei and Semir have also started off-season business.

Some people in the clothing industry said, "June and July are the off-season for clothing. Summer clothes are no longer selling well, so autumn clothes are coming out to boost consumption." Another industry insider said, "All brands want to seize the market. Being first to market means a longer sales period, so more customers will browse and choose them."

However, in the eyes of more users, the reason why off-season live broadcasts are becoming more and more popular is ultimately due to the pre-sale system. "According to the current pre-sale time, autumn is just the right time to wear them." And observing the product links in the live broadcast room, the pre-sale phenomenon is indeed very common.

For example, most of the product links in the live broadcast room of @喜凡妮高定女装 (Treasure Factory) are in pre-sale status, with delivery time ranging from 5 to 15 days. The number of online viewers in the live broadcast room is around 2,000. From the comment area of ​​the product link, it can be seen that some users have already received the product.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

In @简简来了 live broadcast room, multiple product links such as "2023 New Autumn and Winter Wool Coat" and "Small Slim Loose Wool Coat" are in pre-sale status, and the delivery time is basically within 15 days. Although the number of online viewers in the live broadcast room is less than 100, it can be seen from the product purchase page that a certain number of them have been sold.

Image source: Tik Tok screenshot

However, netizens have different attitudes towards the live broadcast room of off-season autumn and winter outfits. Netizens who have already bought autumn and winter clothes in advance said, "I have been overwhelmed. I started buying autumn and winter clothes in April, but I am still rational. I bought a down jacket, two coats, a fur coat, and a parka." Others said, "I don't want to buy it, but I really like it."

Some netizens are cautious. "Based on my past experience, the first batch of autumn clothes I buy now will most likely not be worn later, and I will lose money, so I'd better stay calm. Good things are worth waiting for." "There is no guarantee that you will like them in the fall if you haven't worn them for too long. This is the case with me, so I will never buy off-season clothes."

Judging from the situation in off-season live broadcast rooms, there is a certain market for off-season clothing sales. As the trend of off-season content has become increasingly obvious in the past two years, live broadcasts of off-season clothing may become more common.

In general, the popularity of off-season content is the result of many bloggers following hot topics, and consumers are interested in buying them in advance, which to some extent affects the traffic of stores and off-season clothing live broadcast rooms. In addition to users seeking fresh content, it is worth thinking about whether consumers really need this "artificial hot spot".

Author: Aries

Source: WeChat public account "TopKlout (ID: TopKlout)"