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Luxury Brands’ Celebrity Promotion in China

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Chinese actress Liu Yifei, also known as Crystal Liu, appeared at the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival opening ceremony in a white wool strapless dress with pink floral embroidered from Dior Haute Couture. It is not difficult to find that more and more Chinese movie stars were invited by luxury brands to attend the international film festivals such as the Venice or Cannes. As an ambassador for Dior Prestige skincare, Liu Yifei was thought can help to mold and sharp the brand’s identity in the Chinese market.

 The public seems to be highly influenced by celebrities, no matter in the U.S. or China. As Internet becoming an indispensable part of people’s daily life and the power of social media still growing rapidly, celebrities’ social media accounts became one of the most efficient ways for luxury brands to do advertising. Liu Yifei’s two posts on Weibo (Chinese Twitter) about Dior and the Cannes got over 100,000 retweets, 50,000 comments and 400,000 likes.

 In addition to the strong communications' power celebrities on social media platforms, people would like to imitate their style and buy what they wear, which will lead to an actual increase of the sales of the product and bring the brand more potential Chinese customers.

 For example, since Chinese luxury products purchasers started to get tired of logos, Louis Vuitton, as one of the widest-known luxury brands in China need new strategy to re-establish the brand’s image. The brand collaborated with Fan Bingbing, Chinese Kim kardashian, to promote its Alma handbag featuring a low-key style with an understated logo. Chinese customers got a new insight of Louis Vuitton along with the sales of the Alma handbag skyrocketing.

 Now we’ve all known that using Chinese celebrities as brand ambassadors is the key to success for luxury brands within the Chinese market, which can help to build the brand’s image and attract more customers. However, choosing a top star is not always get the result what the brand expects. Jackie Chan is the most recognized Chinese movie star who built the fame in the world by acting a lot of Kung Fu movies. Compared to the gloried he gained from the global stage, he acquired a bad reputation in China for his debauched private life and fighting lots of lawsuits. Thus, luxury brands should be careful and do as many as research on selecting their ambassadors.

 The most recent trend that luxury brands use to lure Chinese customers is leveraging Western celebrities and K-pop stars who are well known to the Chinese.

K-pop stars’ influence is growing dramatically in China, especially among the young generation, which also drives the luxury spending. Thanks to social media, luxury brands can easily gain the intuitive data and target the most potential spokesperson. G-Dragon is the leader of the most popular K-pop group, BigBang, and has more than 9 million followers on Instagram, over 11 million fans on Weibo. Many emerging luxury brands such as Thom Browne and Vetements obtained more visibility in China just because their products appeared on G-Dragon’s social media accounts. Some old luxury brands like Saint Laurent and Chanel became more famous than before and experienced a surge in sales since establishing connection with G-Dragon.

 Thus, it seems that celebrity promotion is complex and exists a lot of risks in China, but its power will be very strong if brands find the appropriate person.

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Digital Evolution within the Fashion Media

Our discussion with "the man who broke the Internet" @askmrmickey and the fabulous @larslala is underway! #academyufashion #fashionmediapanel #papermagazine #visionaireworld

A photo posted by School Of Fashion (@academyufashion) on May 11, 2016 at 9:41am PDT

San Francisco— Mickey Boardman, Editorial Director of Paper Magazine, and Lars Petersen, Digital Director of Visionaire took part in a special conversation about fashion media with Stephan Rabimovm, Fashion Journalism and Social Media Center Director of Academy of Art University at St. Brigid Church on Wednesday, May 11.

Courtesy of Ben Kulo

Boardman is one of the fashion’s most successful players and has named as one of the “Most Photographed Faces in New York” by New York Magazine. He broke the Internet with the fashion shoot “Break The Internet Kim Kardashian” featuring this famous TV show star naked and glistering. In addition to working with the most popular pop stars such as Nicki Minaj and Miley Cyrus, he also contributes to a lot of fashion publications like Vogue, i-D: Fashion & Style, and The New York Times Style.

Courtesy of Paper Magazine

Petersen is the digital force behind Visionaire, the most expensive publication in the world blending luxury art and fashion. For each limited edition, they cooperate with different artists and fashion designers to create fabulous editorials.

Back in tabis and full Area NYC glam giving out Visionaire 65 FREE NYC at NADA @visionaireworld #giveartnyc

A photo posted by Lars Byrresen Petersen (@larslala) on May 5, 2016 at 2:23pm PDT

The conversation started with talking what’s going on the current fashion media. “Is the print magazine dying?”  To be sure, there is a lag in the process of publishing, what’s on the newspapers can be easily found online. However, when it comes to the print magazine, Boardman and Petersen all thought the physical enjoyment print magazine brought to readers will make the print magazine stay forever.

They also talked about the balance of the picture, text and their interaction in a good story and suggested to have different content and highlight different key elements for different platforms.

In addition, they all expressed their attitude and gave advices on working in the fashion industry. “Compared to professional education, work experience is more important for a fashion job” Boardman told to audiences. “Doing internship the best way for you to go inside of the industry, get to know people and let people know you.” Besides of experiences, passion plays an equally important role in pursuing a fashion career.  “When you choose to work at fashion, it’s not really a job. It’s lifestyle” said by Petersen. “Once you lost the joy, this industry may no longer for you”.

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Vogue China Unveils First Cover of Vogue Me

Vogue China launched a new bimonthly magazine targeting Chinese teenager，“post-Nineties generation” ，on March 28. Its first issue covered Chinese singer and actor Lu Han, Japanese-American model and actor Kiko Mizuhara and American actress and musician Pyper America Smith. “Post-Nineties generation” has gradually become an enormous force in China’s fashion industry.  The influence of young idols will undoubtedly help Vogue China to get more readers and insight the further direction of Chinese fashion industry.

Read More

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China's Shandong Ruyi says it will take over French fashion firm SMCP

Chinese textile maker, Shandong Ruyi, announced to buy the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company’s 70% stake in the French fashion company SMCP Group. SMCP is the group behind contemporary fashion brands Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot, which are the most popular “accessible luxury” brands in China. This acquisition will probably lead to the further development of its Chinese market.

Read More

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WILL CHINA’S NEW FOREIGN MEDIA BAN CAUSE BIG PROBLEMS FOR FASHION MAGAZINES?

Chinese government has issued a new regulation that will ban all foreign media from publishing online in China. Foreign media has always limited in publishing in China. For example, The New York Times has been banned by China’s Great Firewall all the time and its Chinese site was shut down in 2012. Even if there won’t be a complete ban on foreign media, the digital distribution from foreign media will undoubtedly under heavier scrutiny by censors. What will happen to fashion media?

Read More

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China’s Cult of the Ordinary Commands Big Influence

China’s marketing landscape would be changed by the social media influencers, which offers not just fashion brands, but the whole retail industry a new chance to look for collaboration for obtaining more attentions. Most of young Chinese face a lot of pressure from work, parents and society. How to use internet-red and cultural resonance to build brands’ images is the next move marketers should take.

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When It Comes to Luxury, China Still Leads

China’s slowdown of the economic growth, weaker currency and a crackdown on gifting seem not affect Chinese luxury market. The rise of new global Chinese shoppers who are educated, well-traveled and tech-savvy give luxury brands and high-end department stores a confidence that China still has huge potential and will play a more important role in the global luxury market.

Read More

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How to Deal with Chinese Counterfeiting

Most counterfeit luxury products are made in China and sold to all over the world. One main cause of the situation is that China produced many products , so the percentage of goods leaving China is higher than other nations. In addition, the Chinese government has previously neglected to take action against counterfeiters and Chinese laws regarding intellectual property are not strictly enforced.

There is an article about a Chinese woman is being sued by major fashion houses for counterfeiting luxury goods worth millions of dollars, but still living the good life in U.S. Read it on http://www.businessinsider.com/chinese-woman-sued-for-counterfeiting-millions-worth-of-luxury-brands-2015-7

[go-east-cn]

How I’m making it - HYPEBEAST

HYPEBEAST was founded by Kevin Ma in Hong Kong in 2005 and expected to be a comprehensive men’s fashion website with other fashion-relevant content like art, music and design. It soon became one of the global leading online destinations for editorially driven commerce and news spanning a range of both fashion and lifestyle, from high-end brands to street wear and from established to well known. It also involved in the online retail industry and launched its print magazine in 2012.

Are you curious about how Kevin Ma made it? Read the interview on http://fashionista.com/2015/12/kevin-ma-hypebeast

Check Fashionista’s long-running series “How I’m making it” here: http://fashionista.com/tag/how-i-m-making-it

[go-east-cn]

2016, the Year of China for Opening Ceremony

To celebrate the beginning of the Chinese Lunar New Year, Opening Ceremony has announced China as its country of focus for 2016-2017. This year, Opening Ceremony will be collaborating with new designers, all of which are Chinese in some way or another like Anna Sui, Vivienne Tam, Huishan Zhang, Angel Chen and Xander Zhou. The whole collection will be sold at both their onsite and online stores. 

See the series articles on https://www.openingceremony.com/entry.asp?sid=5&filed=year+of+china+2016

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Louis Vuitton’s Chinese Documentary Series

A five-part documentary series sponsored by Louis Vuitton, titled in Chinese Journey of a Muse and Craft a Destiny in English, has aired on China’s CCTV9. Each episode of the series follows one of five women including Liu Wen, Karen Blixen, Yayoi Kusama, Song Huaigui and Dadawa who have been key figures on the international stage of fine arts on the road to self-discovery.

Read More on http://jingdaily.com/66757-2/

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The First Fashion Exhibition in China: Yves Saint laurent - 25 Years of Design

After presenting his exhibition “Yves Saint Laurent-25 years of design” organized by Diana Vreeland  at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1983, Yves Saint Laurent traveled to China and brought his exhibition to Chinese public at the China National Museum of Fine Arts in Beijing. Although those designs are too edge and Avant-Guard to accept by Chinese people, it still has important significance in the fashion history of China.

Read More on http://cn.businessoffashion.com/2016/02/yves-saint-laurent-in-china-cn-2.html

[go-east-cn]

JD Hosts a Runway Show at NYFW

China’s e-commerce giant JD.com, Inc. ( JD) staged a stunning runway show during Fall/Winter 2016  New York Fashion Week on Wednesday, showing collections from leading up-and-coming Chinese designers and JD.com's growing strength in the Chinese apparel market. All the clothing runway presented can be purchased at JD.com.

Read more about JD.com and its runway on New York Fashion Week on 

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/jd-com-host-york-fashion-120000361.html

[go-east-cn]

Chinese New Year: A Chance or A Waste

Many Luxury brands launched a series collection with The Chinese New Year themed and take it as a chance to increase sales in China market during The Lunar New Year. However,  most of designers didn’t understand the true value of Chinese culture. They’re defrauding Chinese customers by selling their so-called ‘Chinese style’, which is definitely a waste and will not receive a result as expected. 

Read the whole article on http://www.forbes.com/sites/pegyochui/2016/02/06/year-of-the-monkey-marketing-flops-how-luxury-brands-got-it-wrong/#595ba2c11f6a

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Chinese Laundry bag: Cheap Chic

Demna Gvasalia infused Vetements’s street style into his first collection for Balenciaga. Beside of jackets and dresses, accessories, especially those huge market bags with colorful stripes pattern appearing at the end of the show are what people always see on the street. 

Detailed Bag Photo by Marcus Tondo, [vogue.com]

In china, almost every market is selling the similar nylon bags for people to transport the large quantity of stuff with a price under $10.

Chinese laundry bag producing factory. Photo by Stephanie Syjuco 

It’s not the first time this so-called Chinese laundry bag made its way up to high fashion. Back to Louis Vuitton Spring 2007 Collection, Marc Jacobs created the luxury vision of red-white-blue bag stamped with passport style Louis Vuitton logo ($595) and set up a new trend of this specific plaid pattern, which originates from China.

Handbag from the Louis Vuitton Spring 2007 Runway. Photo by Don Ashby & Olivier Claisse, [vogue.com]

Thom Browne took the shopping bag concept a step further in his 2013 S/S Collection. Not only transferred the recognizable pattern into the structural jackets and skirts, but also splashed more colors on it.

Thom Browne For Metal Magazine Summer/Spring 2013

Photographed by Charlie Engman, [styledo.se]

On the runway of 2013 A/W Collection, the influence of Chinese shopping bag pattern continued to expand. Two designers, Stella McCartney and Celine’s Phoebe Philo used these funny and cheap checks to make their coveted oversized coats.

Oversize coats from Stella McCartney 2013 A/W Collection. 

Photo by Yannis Vlamos, [vogue.com]

Jacquard coat and sweater in Chinese laundry bag inspired checks by Celine.

Photo by Monica Feudi, [vogue.com]

In the end of 2014,  Vans Syndicate’s collaboration with Los Angeles-based artist Alexis Ross gave the Chinese Laundry bag pattern and textile a new meaning to promote recycle and living a green life.

Source: vans.com

Do you like Chinese-laundry-bag-inspired fashion products? Are you willing to buy it or not? Share your thought with us in the comment area below.

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The New Balenciaga

Demna Gvasalia’s first collection for Balenciaga at Fall 2016 Paris Fashion Week was debuted on Sunday. Only a year, his revolutionary label Vetements featuring a style of deconstruction has swept the fashion world and made him as one of the most topical fashion designers right now.

Source: SSAW Magazine

Demna Gvasalla presented a return to Cristóbal Balenciaga and reimagined Cristóbal’s play with proportion and exaggerated silhouette. “My first priority was to understand the methodology of Cristóbal, his work around the body, and how to do it today, in 2016,” he told to WWD. By showing some button-down jackets with curved shoulders and padded hips, three-quarter-length skirts with a kick pleat in the front and Balenciaga’s iconic cocoon-shaped coats, Demna Gvasalla proved his ability to design Balenciaga’s classic architectural garments for elegant women.

History inference looks, Photo by Monica Feudi, [vogue.com]

Beside of looking back, Demna Gvasalla embraced what he did at Vetements, upgrading streetwear, to make this collection more unique, modern and sharp. The off-shoulder trench coat with a rounded shape on the shelves is a Vetements classic. The multi-print paisley and floral collage dress with sexy flashes of candy-striped legs beneath also echoed the styles shown on Vetements runway.

Street Reference Looks, Photo by Monica Feudi, [vogue.com]

The twist of past and present Demna Gvasalla offered is completely different with Alexander Wang and even Nicolas Ghesquière, which opened a new chapter for Balenciaga.

[go-east-cn]

Gucci's Oriental Exploration

Photographed by Jamie Hawkesworth, [Vogue.com]

Alessandro Michele started to make waves with his romantic and eclectic aesthetics since he took the job as Gucci’s creative director. Just a year, he has not only become the most-copied fashion designer and set up a new trend in the fashion world, but also reinvigorated Gucci in both creative and commercial parts.

A highlight from the #GucciFW16 fashion show: an ivory silk duchesse skirt with the GG motif created by #GucciGhost aka #troubleandrew and a merino knit with jeweled and pearl embroidery. #AlessandroMichele #MFW

A photo posted by Gucci (@gucci) on Feb 28, 2016 at 11:33am PST

For Gucci’s Fall 2016 Collection, Michele did more of the same- infusing a variety of trends like 70's redux designs, Renaissance and street style into one collection. Things are so geek like puffy shoulders trench, pussy bows blouse, multilayered dress, platform sandals and marvelous mixed decorations include ruffles, fur trims and pearl accessories. People seem to have become accustomed and thought, that’s Gucci. Natural-inspired patterns still can be found in almost every piece. The colors there were as rich and bold as before.

However, what attracted me most is a series of Chinese-inspired pieces. This is not the first time Michele tried to present his imagination and obsession to eastern culture. In his earlier Men’s 2016 Fall Collection, the animal-inspired (it’s tiger, actually) chullo hat, completed with ears, is one of the most eye-catching items, which is influenced by the traditional Chinese hat for children. Almost everyone in China has the exactly same hat in his or her childhood.

Hat detailed Photos all by Yannis Vlamos, [vogue.com]

Chinese traditional tiger hats for children

Source: textile museum of Canada

Beside of the hat, which reappeared in the runway of Women’s 2016 Fall Collection, there are some dresses that obviously referenced the most iconic dress in China- cheongsam (qipao). It features a body-hugging silhouette in order to highlight the waistline and a unique type of collar. Cheongsam started to become the most common and popular dress in China, especially in Shanghai and Hong Kong, since the 1920s. Michele deeply understands the essence of Cheongsam and superbly balances its fabrics’ opulence and embroideries’ complexity.

He even considers the consumers’ need and designed clothing for a wild age. For instance, there is a silk mini cheongsam dress with exotic printing and fur trims that looks lovely and is suitable for young consumers. Another silk cheongsam dress embellished with throughout-the-body sequins, Chinoiserie embroidered flowers and tassels is more feminine and attractive to middle-aged women.

Cheongsam-inspired dresses on the Gucci’s runway

Photo: Yannis Vlamos, [Vogue.com]

Above (Left to Right): McCalls Cheongsam inspired pattern c. The late 50s – early 60s, Cheongsam inspired dress c. 1960s

Source: WGSN

No matter whether Gucci’s strategy of blending in more Chinese elements is to increase sales or just Michele’s personal interest, this fusion is successful and will have the expected result.

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