Women to be ‘manlier’ than men in 10 years: report

China's e-commerce giant Taobao published a report about the Chinese fashion trend, indicating that Chinese women would dress manlier while men's fashion would be more delicate.

The report triggered heated debate among Chinese netizens on whether it should label males as feminine and females as masculine based on their clothing. They said a person should be judged based on their character.

The online shopping platform under Alibaba published the fashion trend report on Monday, saying that the number of women buying suits on the platform surpassed the number of men on January 27, according to the Weibo account of Taobao.

The report predicted that each Chinese woman will own a business suit 10 years from now, and, combined with the sales of other kinds of clothes, women would be more masculine while men would be more fashionable.

Platform data shows more male consumers searched for products like lace, see-through clothing and earrings in 2019.

The number of men who searched for lace on the platform increased by 119 percent from January to March compared to the same period last year. Those who searched for earrings rose by 69 percent.

The hashtag of women becoming more masculine than men 10 years from now on Sina Weibo has been viewed 420 million times as of press time.

Some netizens disapproved of the report's conclusions, saying there are no rules as to what men and women should wear. "Fashion style is an individual choice. Others should not regulate what a delicate style and what manly style is," a netizen wrote.

"Instead of judging people by their clothing, pay more attention to their sense of responsibility and other qualities," another netizen said.

A 25-year-old woman living in Beijing surnamed Meng told the Global Times on Tuesday that she prefers shirts and jeans, "but that does not mean that I am masculine. I prefer them only because they are convenient," she said.