As brands scramble to define the colour of the summer, hoping to crack the code and find this year’s equivalent of Dopamine Dressing, the platform that brought us Dopamine Dressing and Maillard Style has come out of the green fuzz of Mint Mambo into a purple haze. On 19 July, Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok teamed up with Vogue to present their trend of the summer – the French Violet (法式尤莱特).
Coinciding with the 2024 Paris Olympics which is taking place in under a week, the new trend forecast incorporates several well-known French elements. Apart from the purple–violet–lavender colourways, the trend also puts emphasis on the “effortless chic” of the French. With a light violet colour and relaxed fit, the trend tries to bring out the calm and relaxed “songchigan” of the French lifestyle. Vogue also suggests that the style include sub-styles such as quiet luxury, modern romance, vintage style, as well as creative styling from influencers.
Douyin and Vogue brought together fashion influencers on the platform such as Fang Yuan (方圆), Alibae (阿里北杯), Zhao Yuanyuan (赵圆媛) and Baizhou Xiaoxiong (白昼小熊), the influencer who popularised the Dopamine Dressing trend in summer 2023. Each were dressed in a French-style outfit in a lilac hue, with props such as baguettes in hand, against photoshopped backgrounds of iconic landmarks including the Eiffel Tower or the Seine. Violet-related topics such as “French effortlessness is violet” (法式松弛就是尤莱特) reached number 2 on Douyin’s Hot Search list with over 7.66 million views.
With over 500 brands’ sales growing over 100% YoY, the past 618 shopping festival showed that Douyin’s potential as an e-commerce platform continues to grow. By combining social topics and the “seeding” (种草) stage with sales, social platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou and Xiaohongshu (RED) are becoming increasingly important for e-commerce merchants. The microtrends Douyin has been pushing, such as the French Violet and Mint Mambo, can be seen as its way of competing against Xiaohongshu, the established lifestyle platform.
