Burberry Prorsum, YSL Rive Gauche, Dries Van Noten, Viktor and Rolf – boyz you can finally get their latest pieces right here in Beijing! For the more conservative types, there is a better selection of Pal Zileri, Armani, and Zegna than is even available in their rather patronizingly edited boutiques.
Ample champagne, beautiful clothes, and more stylish people than I have ever seen in one place – the Lane Crawford opening party was great fun and the pictures I will add over the next week will highlight this. Stay tuned for my review of the new store in the next That’s Beijing.
Before that, let me proclaim: the arrival of this store here is a revolution. Beijing at last hosts a well-curated treasury of global fashion’s top designs. China’s cultural center deserved a fashion emporium that matched its artistic spirit. It is here. Other retailers and many retail consultants underestimated the maturity of the market, thinking that designers could get away with offering a selection combining re-runs of old seasons, loud branded dross, and a whole load of Hugo Boss and Dunhill. The Beijing fashion consumer is more sophisticated than that, as Lane Crawford astutely realized. Should I be their chief of PR?
The men’s selection maximizes time and taste, two values essential to the global cognitive elite. Men can now find the most stylish pieces pieces on offer in the city on just two floors. It is better than anything in any of the single-brand boutiques or department stores here before.
Lane Crawford fills a gap and the nouveaus with the cash to shop there and not enough time to find a good tailor will have a big advantage. The problem in Beijing is that if you want off-the-rack apparel that combines quality with style, you can only turn to the expensive stuff or a tailor. There is no decent high-street, no consignment shops, and no discount shops like Filene’s Basement.
Much more on this to come.
