Valentino Opening in Beijing
January 28th, 2008
Valentino Fashion Group S.p.A will be opening its first free standing Valentino boutique in Beijing this week. In the Peninsula Palace shopping arcade, this flagship boutique will carry the menswear and ladies wear collections as well as bags, shoes, sunglasses and watches. Despite a rather thin presence on the ground in China, the brand Valentino is already quite well-known and has been a frequent victim of trademark infringement. There are many clothing brands based in China that include the word “Valentino” in their name.
Entry Filed under: China Fashion News and Analysis
8 Comments Add your own
1. Jiang | January 28th, 2008 at 8:27 am
Why there are no body do Urban Outfitter, or GAP.
Let’s give regular people some reality.
People would say that Valentino looks cool, what’s that to do with me. I am not gonna spend 10000 RENMINBI on one jacket.
2. stylites | January 28th, 2008 at 10:33 am
An interesting point. How much of a market is there in China for high street shops like GAP and Urban? They’re coming, but later and more slowly than the luxury brands. I would really like for to be more consignment shops and thrift stores.
3. Macpod | January 28th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I would like to see more boutique brands like nudie jeans and swear shoes, things that can’t be replicated locally.
a suggestion:
Have you had a look at Herbal Heaven? it’s a local leather goods shop, last time i went they had some decent bags and accessories. I would particularly be interested in a nice belt with antique brass fittings.
4. stylites | January 29th, 2008 at 8:22 am
Yeah, Herbal Heaven is quite good. In fact, I did a column on leather bags in that’s Beijing in which I recommended them. I’m not so sure about their shoes though.
I think you are right about specialty brands, though I’m not sure how large the market would be for them.
5. YY | January 31st, 2008 at 10:31 am
On high street shops, actually GAP and Banana Republic opened shops in Beijing three years ago, but they “misteriously” disappeared after one or two years of operation. Of the times I passed their shops, the business didn’t look very promising. There are tons of fakes of these two brands in China (or at least in Beijing), I’d assume that’s one of the main reasons why they decided to leave Beijing market.
6. Jiang | February 2nd, 2008 at 8:59 am
Really, GAP Banana Republic had been to Beijing? I didn’t know it
7. b. cheng | February 3rd, 2008 at 4:11 am
that’s part of why they failed, nobody knew they were there…I didn’t even know Gap opened, though I know Banana and Old Navy had small spaces in Times Square back in the days before it went high end. I’m only now discovering how amazing Taobao is, you don’t really see banana or j. crew fakes around the shops, but they’re all over Taobao. Anyways, why did Banana fail here? Besides the fact that they had a tiny retail space that was advertised poorly, prices were outrageous (this was back in 2003-04, before Banana started ramping up its prices in the States). The same shirt that was US$50-60 in the States was RMB700-800 here. At those prices, who is going to buy Banana?
Gap would struggle here, I think, due to its price point, which would probably be close to Zara. Gap lacks the stylish nature of Zara and what Gap does best, the basics, people can get at Uniqlo or H&M for a lot less. Urban is unique and I’d think it would be very successful here, but I don’t expect to see it opening here anytime soon.
8. am | February 3rd, 2008 at 7:16 pm
I’d be happy to see Topshop/Topman and Next on Chinese highstreets.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed