The sector, which started with menswear, has expanded to cover womenswear, children and outdoor clothing. Several local brands of womenswear have made their way to the New York and London fashion weeks.

Online sales of Ningbo brands have been rising for years, especially during the Nov 11 shopping festival, Yang says.

Ningbo's fashion industry has also become less labor-intensive, according to Fang. 

To counter rising labor costs, many garment companies have shifted their factories to inland and border regions or to Southeast Asian countries.

The trend toward automated and intelligent production systems is also growing. The Youngor Group-a Ningbo-based top-500 Chinese private enterprise with a sales revenue of 87.9 billion yuan in 2018-has built a smart workshop that has increased its production efficiency by around 25 percent, according to chairman Li Rucheng. 

The factory uses a system of suspended pipelines to automatically transport, distribute and match clothes made in different sections of the workshop.

Each of the 400 workers are guided by an interactive system that keeps track of every piece of fabric in the process and helps to optimize production efficiency, especially during peak orders.

The use of automated technology has shortened the time needed for cutting fabrics by one-third.

The firm has also been introducing industrial hemp fiber into its clothes and household textiles.