Cutest Taobao Clothing Brands for your China Trip

Decorated Savepoint’s five most recommended Taobao clothing brands

If you’ve recently been pursuing new items to add to your wardrobe, or considered going to China at all in the past few years, you’ve likely heard of Taobao, the e-commerce giant that effciently ships packages all over the country. Similar to the more internationally familiar Amazon, many different companies sell their products through Taobao. Taobao has recently become more well known worldwide for its large selection of reputable clothing brands, with great quality and affordable prices.

For beginners wanting to purchase from Taobao, it might feel difficult and overwhelming to search for a trusted item or brand, especially for those who don’t read Chinese. Thankfully, I learned a lot about Taobao in the past few months, and have five recommendations for feminine clothing brands that I found to be both stylish and good quality.

For these store recommendations, keep in mind that they may not be size inclusive. Many Taobao clothing brands tend to run quite small, and unfortunately may not fit every body. I am a 163 cm, 50 kg woman, and will include the size of clothing I bought from every brand for reference. That being said, I’ve heard that Taobao does have several size-inclusive brands. I plan to make another post about size-inclusive brands once I’ve done proper research on them.

All the photos used here are from official store pages, used for review purposes. Most of the photos are items I have purchased, and I will link to them in the captions!

𓆩❤︎𓆪 小花猪 (Xiao Hua Zhu) JK 𓆩❤︎𓆪

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Style: Colorful school uniform-inspired setups

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Bought: Large

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Price Range: 30-130¥

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Appearance: ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Range: ★ ★

Xiao Hua Zhu JK was one of the very first stores I bought from in China; the set pictured above instantly caught my attention while I was browsing on Taobao. If you like the look of a Japanese sailor uniform, but want a cuter, more cosplay-like twist, I definitely recommend trying out this brand.

It’s incredibly good quality for how affordable it is. The fabric is thick, and doesn’t break down at all after washing. Most accessories, such as neck ribbons, are removable, so they can be worn with other outfits as well. Skirts are usually adjustable, which can be helpful if your size changes over time.

That being said, most of the clothing at Xiao Hua Zhu is sold in sets, with no way to individually choose the sizes of the top and bottoms. I have a small waist but broad shoulders, so when I bought the set in size medium, the skirt fit me well but the top did not. When I later exchanged for a large, the set did fit well enough. However, the skirt was a little on the big side, and sagged slightly on my hips, even on the tightest setting. This is definitely an inconvenient aspect of this brand, especially considering that they have an extremely limited size range. If you like the style of Xiao Hua Zhu, I would recommend trying it out despite this, since they have free returns and size exchanges.

𓆩❤︎𓆪 泳抱小女心 (Otomekokoro) 𓆩❤︎𓆪

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Style: Cute and school-inspired swimwear

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Bought: Medium

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Price Range: 30-80¥

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Appearance: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Range: ★ ★ ★

If you want a simple but cute swimsuit with high coverage, take a look at Otomekokoro. Many of their swimsuits have school uniform elements, and their star product (which I ended up buying) is a lookalike of a Japanese school-issued swimsuit. This makes it suitable for not only swimming, but also cosplay. It’s my go-to swimsuit this summer thanks to its comfortable fit. The padded cups are especially helpful for people with smaller chests like myself. The size range of Otomekokoro is wider than Xiao Hua Zhu, but still not perfect, since even the extra large size is not intended to fit people who weigh over 75 kg. Since their size chart isn’t standard Chinese sizing, they recommend that you contact them with your measurements before ordering. If you don’t speak Chinese or don’t know how to contact the store, you can use a translation app to screenshot and type out a message.

𓆩❤︎𓆪 SNBL 𓆩❤︎𓆪

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Style: Colorful casual wear with cute motifs, e.g. animals and flowers

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Bought: Medium

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Price Range: 60-300¥

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Appearance: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Range: ★ ★ ★ ★

SNBL is my personal favorite on this list, and also the store I bought the most from. It’s been a trusted brand on Taobao for decades. Many of my Chinese friends remember its period of popularity in the early 2000s, not long after Taobao’s initial launch. If you want to build simple, comfy outfits that are also cute and eye-catching, SNBL is a perfect choice. A lot of their clothing centers around certain motifs, such as animals, flowers, or specific color schemes, like their “guava” color series (which the dress pictured above is a part of).

One item that I found myself buying from SNBL was shorts. I always struggle to find shorts with a lot of coverage, so I don’t often wear them. SNBL has shorts in many colors and designs that are on the longer side, with a crotch seam that sits a little lower so it doesn’t pinch when you sit down. The fabric of all SNBL clothing is soft but also durable; the quality reflects the higher price.

The size range of SNBL is slightly better than the prior two brands, but the largest size still only can fit people who weigh 80 kg or under. SNBL has free returns and size exchanges, so there’s no harm in trying things on.

𓆩❤︎𓆪 Saotome 𓆩❤︎𓆪

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Style: Unique, oversized streetwear in earth tones

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Bought: N/A

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Price Range: 70-300¥

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Quality: N/A

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Appearance: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Range: ★ ★ ★ ★

Saotome is the only store on this list that I haven’t personally bought from, but I met some people in China who like and wear this brand a lot. Because of this, and its high reviews on Taobao, I thought it was worth mentioning. Saotome’s style can be best described as a combination of boho and streetwear. It’s baggy and casual, while also being stylish enough to make you look put together anywhere you go.

Denim is one of Saotome’s popular items. If you are looking for oversized jeans that make a statement, this store is definitely the place to find them. Recently, Saotome released a collaboration series with Mann, a little girl character. The collaboration items are cute, and different from Saotome’s usual style. I’d recommend checking them out first if you’re interested in the store’s new releases. Mann merch, such as stickers and can badges, also come as a free gift with any apparel purchase.

Since I haven’t tried on the clothing myself, I’m not entirely sure how the sizing is, but the store page says that the largest size can fit people up to 80 kg. I would recommend checking the sizing charts and asking which size the shop suggests for you, since additional measurements, such as height and bust, may affect how the clothing fits you.

𓆩❤︎𓆪 山川 (Shanchuan) JK 𓆩❤︎𓆪

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Style: Realistic, classic, school uniform sets

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Bought: Large

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Price Range: 35-105¥

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Quality: ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Appearance: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

𓊆ྀི❤︎𓊇ྀི Size Range: ★ ★ ★ ★

Shanchuan JK’s school uniform sets are both affordable and customizable to your tastes. They have more stylized, cosplay-like sets similar to Xiao Hua Zhu, but their star products are their realistic school uniforms. They’re comfortable to wear out, and great for pairing with uwabaki or loafers. Customization options include skirt length, tie style, sleeve length, and buttons or a zipper on the blouse. The picture of the sailor uniform above includes all the customization options I chose for my own purchase: short sleeves, sailor tie, 60 cm skirt, and zippered blouse. Although you can’t choose separate sizes for the blouse and skirt, the skirt is adjustable.

Shanchuan has a larger size range than some of the other brands listed here; I bought a large, but there is also an XL and XXL option. If you’re worried about the entire set fitting you, Shanchuan also sells some items like blouses, skirts, outerwear, and accessories seperately.

Due to the nature of the material of Shanchuan’s clothing, the dark colors tend to collect dust. If you buy a set or item in a dark color, you may have to brush it off or use a lint roller before wearing.

𓆩❤︎𓆪 Conclusion 𓆩❤︎𓆪

These recommendations are just a few of the many fashionable brands available on Taobao. Since this list is mainly about items that I’ve bought, it’s naturally more biased towards my personal style. However, Taobao has clothes in just about any style you may be interested in. I plan to write another post in the following weeks with a guide on how to find whether a Taobao brand is reputable, so you can find the store that most suits your tastes.

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