by stylites -

Dragon Tales

To coincide with the Dragon’s onslaught, here are some tasty morsels from the global press and the China fashion blogosphere.

At WWD, Hong Huang (THE Hong Huang, I imagine) complains of schlepping through Europe’s fashion weeks while her family is home enjoying dumplings and conviviality. She attributes scheduling that ignores Spring Festival to a paucity of Chinese buyers and multibrand department stores. Despite the purchasing power of consumers, Chinese brands stores and brands still lack clout.

Originality or its absence is related, Huang thinks. She cites the amusing predilection of Chinese for naming their brands after animals. Northeast Tiger, Baoxiniao (Happy Bird in Chinese) and Sept Wolves are major players who observed the early success of crocodile jerseys and concluded that animals sell.

Fashion-wise, she recommends red belts for all those born in the Year of the Dragon. As most will know, one must wear red in one’s birth year to avert ill fortune.

The Year of the Dragon is bound to bring good things for Chinese Vogue, as one can surmise from this Irish Times interview with EIC Angelica Cheung. In 2011, China was third among the 15 international editions in revenue. One might have guessed first, given the magazine’s almost dangerous heft and the frothiness of the market. I will have to ask friends how local editions of Bazaar and Cosmo compare.

Over at agglomerator China Fashion Bloggers, we see Hurun Report‘s list of the top ten gifting brands. Unsurprisingly, Louis Vuitton, Chanel and Hermès dominate. The only local brand is Moutai, that exceedingly mild white spirit.

AnyWearStyle runs through the highlights of 2011, including Burberry, Prada, Louis Vuitton, and Bulgari events, and makes predictions for 2012. These include that much-lauded Uma Wang will be Designer of the Year and young Xiao Wen, Model of the Year. Sister site, AnyShopStyle, is also offering a special Chinese New Year discount. This is the spot for buying designers like Xander Zhou, Leo Kong, and others online.

Jing Daily speaks of eight recent trends and suggests the indignation toward high luxury taxes will intensify with little happening, conspicuous consumption will continue its “gradual death” – or what I might call a transition to manifestations considered less vulgar, and the luxury e-commerce market, now led by players like Xiu.com, Shangpin.com and 5LUX.com will undergo a weeding out process. Meanwhile, this piece at Jing forecasts a continued skyrocketing in Chinese luxury consumption abroad, including during the current New Year holiday.

Timothy Coghlan of The Maosuit gives us some great images of recent advertising campaigns with Chinese themes and all the special editions released for the Dragon Year. Huge events in 2012 will include Louis Vuitton celebrating year 20 in China by re-opening their Shanghai Plaza 66 Flagship, which will be the brand’s largest China outlet. LVMH will also commence a luxury mall project in Shanghai, with Macao Casino magnate Stanley Ho. The L’Avenue project in West Shanghai to host the complete stable of LVMH brands as well as a fancy office building. Colossal but oft-forgotten cities like Shenyang, Hangzhou and Tianjin will also see droves of new luxury brand malls opening.

So, just a lot more exuberance in the Year of the Dragon.

by stylites -

Christmas in China

Does China embrace Christmas with greater vigor? Every year, articles like this describe the ballooning popularity of the birthday of Jesus in China as a time for partying and shopping. Is this phenomena different from what happens in South Korea and Japan, for example? I mean, is China exceptional in this aside from its being the country that produces all of those cheap baubles we use around the world?

The numbers in China are naturally the most impressive. The Chinese customs agency reports estimated that 30 percent of the Christmas products manufactured in China are sold domestically and sales at shopping centers is thought to spike by up to 30 percent in this period. Perhaps one motivation for celebrating the day is the inexpensive decorations.

The unapologetic embrace of the most materialistic aspects of this religious event day be because there are not enough of traditional Chinese days that can be used for partying with friends. Home-grown holidays may be too solemn or official. The adoration of this foreign holiday might also highlight the cosmopolitanism and openness of contemporary China. However, at the end of that stylish yuletide dinner at a five-star hotel, Christmas in China is all about fashion – having an international, hip, lifestyle.

Oh yes, and Merry Christmas to all of my viewers wherever they are!

by stylites -

Magazines, Shares and Chocolate

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.

by stylites -

Peacockish China

According to this piece on the Jing Daily, menswear occupies a larger percentage of the fashion market here in China than in other countries. Needless to say, sales in the area, like every other, are booming. Another factor bolstering this segment could be that Chinese men are less inclined to perceive an interest in fashion as sissified than their American counterparts. There is less of a notion that slim-fitting trousers and pink shirts are too feminine. That said, I wonder how many of the purchasing decisions are actually made by men, who often entrust the task of fashion shopping to the women in their lives.

by stylites -

Over to Web Commerce

Who would have thought? Well-known photographer Gao Yuan is now in a creative directorial-type role at ihavu.com, a frenetically growing online commerce site that is the official web retailer for Rimowa and a growing roster of brands. Many respected media people have recently moved over to this site. I believe this is something of a mini-trend and suspect the other players in this arena have been attracting top editors and probably sales and marketing staff. Expect to hear more about this here.

Other rising flash sale, discounting and other sites in the fashion realm include VIPstore, xiu.com, 5lux, and Shangpin. They have all done major advertising campaigns in the subways, on TV and in magazines. Investment is clearly flowing in this direction.

 

by stylites -

The Homely and the Heavenly

Here at hypervocal.com is an obnoxious piece about the fashion crimes of Beijingers. Perhaps the number of pretty women here has caused the author to have sour grapes. Of course there is a bit of rural dowdiness and sacharine glitz to behold, especially on the subways and near tourist sights. But the bunny ears, overabundant lace, and pop socks are charming in their way. Anyway, she’s evidently more caught up on plebes and provincials than the people appearing here on Stylites or at the Dolce & Gabbana party described here. That dynamic duo are a bit more positive about the local girls, describing them as “the most beautiful women in the world”.

by suzy -

Xander Zhou and China Fashion Week

Photos: Suzy

One can either compare last week’s Xander Zhou show to those of other Chinese fashion designers at Mercedes Benz China Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012. Xander himself would probably prefer to have his show evaluated for its own merits or alongside foreign designers like Rick Owens and Christopher Kane. However, since I am not doing all that much coverage of Fashion Week here, I thought would use Xander’s show as a sort of foil for the other things I saw during this most historic week.

Of course, the first thing to point out is that Xander’s show is not part of the official schedule of Mercedes Benz China Fashion Week Spring/Summer 2012. He put on his own event in an off-site location, D-Lounge, and the sponsorship and production were not connected to the official Week.

At least one consultant who will be working on upcoming China Fashion Weeks has suggested that there may be an effort to incorporate younger, hipper, more sophisticated, designers like Xander Zhou in the regular program of the Week.

by stylites -

Xander Zhou


Photo: Suzy
Xander Zhou. What comes to mind? A young, partying, larger-than-life sort of designer who gets a great deal of publicity. Fashion events and bottles of champagne. The cover photo of the October 2010 “Gay China” issue of Hong Huang’s Ilook Magazine. For me, the main memory is of that time I bumped into him on the streets of Paris.

In short, the hype around the man sometimes overshadows his fashion collections. He may be young and not too many retail points actually carry his brands, but Xander Zhou is already a big name in China fashion – especially for foreigners watching this space. Often, he is the only Mainland fashion designer that people from outside of Beijing have even heard of.

Due to scheduling conflicts, I had not actually been to one of his shows before and had only had the opportunity to see his creations hanging in BNC and on the man himself on one of the countless parties that we both attended. Given how much he seems to be out and the time he must take being interviewed by fashion magazines, I was not sure how he ever had time to design.

We will have more on his show last night later this week.

by stylites -

Go See Chinese Stuff!

I’ve used to travel everywhere with a bottle like that.

Beijing Design Week might be over, but Chinese Stuff, a compendium of quintessentially local objects that designers Lyndon Neri and Tom Dixon and I call a must-see is on for two more days. Hurry over to the new LD Design Center, just east of the Zhangzizhonglu subway station, on the south side of the street (No.94 Dongsishitiao Street).

by stylites -

More Info on Bulgari

Due to time constraints, I don’t always get to fully introduce all of the various events I attend here. Fortunately, I scored invitations for my colleagues over at the Jing Daily. Their site now offers a nice overview of the Bulgari Retrospective at the National Museum.

by stylites -

In Newsweek提到了我在Newsweek

Newsweek Beijing Bureau chief Melinda Liu mentioned Stylites and me in her latest piece called “Chinese Fashion Empire”, which gives a nice overview of the development from Mao Suits to Diane Von Furstenberg.

Thanks to CHART Contemporary for putting me in touch with Melinda.Melinda Liu这偏文章“Chinese Fashion Kingdom”在美国Newsweek 提到我。 她采访我的时候我讲了关于中国时尚界最近的个性化。我的意思是现在中国时尚消费者现在已经不是名牌簇拥者。非常感谢Chart Contemporary的安排。