As a popular skirt style during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, the horse-face skirt, a hanfu clothing item, is gaining traction among the public these days. This follows the emergence of "new Chinese style" wear, which boasts a harmonious blend of urban and casual style, exquisite detailing and traditional charm.

Caoxian County in Heze, east China's Shandong Province is China's largest manufacturing hub of performance costumes and hanfu, a form of traditional Chinese clothing. Designers there have been integrating peony elements into the horse-face skirt design, as the city of Heze is also known as the "Peony Capital of China."

Official statistics show that the sales of hanfu in Caoxian County reached 1.98 billion yuan (about $273 million) in the first quarter, and the sales of horse-face skirts accounted for about 887 million yuan (about $122 million).

With the opening of the 2024 World Peony Conference and the 33rd Heze International Peony Cultural Tourism Festival on April 8 in Heze, many horse-face skirt manufacturers applied peony elements in their designs, hoping that more tourists will wear horse-face skirts embroidered with peony patterns during the peony festival and to add support to the popularity of the city and its culture.