A few interesting happenings:
– Conde Nast China Managing Director Cao Weiming discusses the rise of Vogue, GQ, AD, and Self in the most important rapidly growing market for print media. Vogue China now has the third highest revenue among the 15 international editions of the publication. I also heard recently that GQ China is expected to surpass the UK one to become the top grossing GQ, right after the US version. More from China Daily on Conde Nast in China.
– Not all is as buoyant as what fashion industry watchers were promised though. Shares in HK-listed Prada have slumped 34% from their price at listing in July. With 42% of its sales in Asia, Prada enjoyed 25% growth in the first nine months of the year and 39% in Asia (outside Japan). Like everyone, investors are worried about slower than utterly exuberant growth in 2012, though Prada in China must still be a very good bet in the medium to long term. The world’s largest listed jeweler, HK’s Chow Tai Fook, also saw its share price drop 8%. Both of these are probably more cases of investors accepting that growth in the Chinese luxury market will be merely strong, rather than overwhelming, at least in 2012.
– On a lighter, or hopefully darker, note, a new chocolate theme park north of Beijing hosted a show with fashions made from chocolate.
