China Fashion Trends

The importance of Asia’s fashion market was front and center Thursday night as Chanel presented its 2014 resort collection in Singapore. Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, told Women’s Wear Daily that Asia as a whole provides the label with ample “space to grow,” while China is the focus of a long-term, slow growth strategy for the company. He noted that Chanel is not in a rush to open stores, and that he is confident that the brand is “number one in ready-to-weary luxury sales in China.” His full comments are below:

Pressed about China, where slowing growth has been coupled with a government-driven clampdown on conspicuous consumption, he said that any blip would not affect Chanel’s bid to “still be there in 50 years.”

“China is a new business for us and we only have 10 boutiques there,” he said, adding that Chanel had only begun opening stores in second-tier cities like Shenyang in the last two years.

The executive said that the fashion house would be moving to encourage customers who had become familiar with the brand through accessories to purchase clothing, which typically commands higher prices. “We have a fashion spirit and don’t want to sell only accessories,” he said. “So we are communicating [reasons to purchase] ready-to-wear to customers. It is a bit more expensive, but there are a lot of people in China who can afford it.”

“I cannot communicate any figures,” he added, “but I am sure we are [already] number one in ready-to-wear luxury sales in China.”

This long-range thinking reiterates what Chanel Global CEO Maureen Chiquet previously expressed in a January talk at Asia Society about the company’s China plans. She said at the time:

“We don’t have the urgency to expand. We are an exclusive brand and we want to stay exclusive so it’s strategic to not be everywhere. What we are starting to learn is that like every developed market, the clients there want things other people can’t get. That’s what defines luxury in many ways so we’ve been careful, but in a very calculated way.”

Like Chanel, luxury fashion label Dior is pursuing similar slow growth strategy that involves a limited number of store openings and a focus on the high end of the luxury market.

Source: Jing Daily

Following its successful 2012 “Secret Garden” print and video campaign, Dior is rolling out a second installment, starting this weekend in the Chinese edition of Vogue. After its China debut, the print campaign will continue in Italian Elle and French Vogue.

Like last year’s campaign, the 2013 edition is centered on a short film by Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, starring model Daria Strokous. The first “Secret Garden” film, viewed some 24 million times to YouTube, featured Strokous running through the ornate salons of Versailles. This year the location is a misty forest near the Petit Trianon, a dreamlike setting inspired in part by Le déjeuner sur l’herbe, Édouard Manet’s 1863 painting of two men in suits picnicking on the grass with a nude woman. Along with Strokous, last year’s film featured Chinese model Ju Xiaowen (雎晓雯); at least one Chinese model appears in this year’s campaign as well.

Dior’s haute couture line and Dior Homme were both presented in China runway shows this spring as part of the company’s China expansion plan. Dior has been pursuing a high-end approach in order to appeal to Chinese clients who are increasingly favoring sophisticated, low-key styles over logo-heavy designs.

The campaign’s China launch follows the recent decision by Hugo Boss to globally debut its 2013 fall-winter collection with a fashion show in Shanghai later this month. These moves underscore a changing perception of China not only as a top consumer market but a significant influence on style and taste-making worldwide.

Source: Jing Daily

Taiwanese model and actress Lin Chi-ling in a still from Hugo Boss’s new video campaign to promote its upcoming Shanghai fashion show. (Hugo Boss)

German label Hugo Boss recently launched an online video campaign with a cosmopolitan flair to promote its upcoming May 30 Shanghai fashion show. The move demonstrates not only the brand’s fixed focus on the Chinese market, but also its view of China as an optimal location for debuting its designs on an international stage.

Rather than being intended solely for Chinese consumers, Hugo Boss’s runway show at the Shanghai Power Station of Art will unveil the winter 2013 collection to a world audience. Contrasted with Dior Homme’s recent China reprisal of a collection that was originally shown in Paris, the company’s choice of Shanghai to debut its new designs signals its view of China as not only a valuable market, but also a global taste-making center.

Hugo Boss’s Shanghai fashion show promotional website features two mini-webisodes entitled Shanghai Affairs, which contain elements intended to appeal to both Chinese and international audiences. The videos feature one Taiwanese and one European character (model and actress Lin Chi-ling and Spanish model Jon Kortajarena), both of whom show off the label’s collection with Shanghai’s city lights as the glamorous backdrop, in scenes targeting both local and foreign consumers.

The two episodes are intended to build global interest in the live webcast of the show, which will be available online to anyone in the world who wishes to watch. The label also incorporates social media and e-commerce strategies by marketing on several online platforms and advertising that two pieces of the collection will be available for purchase online immediately after the show’s conclusion.

After debuting its winter 2012 collection in Beijing last year in its first China show, Hugo Boss has been clear about its China-centered marketing strategies. Gerd von Podewils, senior vice president of the label, said of the choice of location, “Following our highly successful fashion show in Beijing in 2012, we are now focusing on Shanghai – and by doing so emphasizing the significance of the Asian market for Hugo Boss.”

After seeing only a four percent rise in China sales in 2012, the label has employed several strategies to catch the attention of the market, which have yielded a “gradual improvement” in sales, according to company CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs. Among them were the 2012 Beijing show — a high-tech, 3D event – expanded social marketing, and actor Chow Yun-Fat as a brand ambassador. In February 2013, the company embraced China’s burgeoning e-commerce market by opening its official Chinese online store.

Source: Jing Daily