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 Chinese shoppers are the
biggest buyers of luxury goods worldwide,
including those of big European players like
LVMH and Gucci owner Kering. But China also has
its own fashion companies that are growing fast
at home and are now targeting the global market.
Chinese-owned brands are looking to expand
abroad, sparking a trend of new labels being
established in the country with the goal of
international growth, said Yishu Wang,
co-founder of Half a World, a firm that offers
marketing advice to brands seeking to expand
overseas.
"The Chinese market is very saturated and it's
just become very, very expensive to grow," she
said, noting that it was easier to find backing
from investors when taking a global view.
But in fashion's upper echelons, Chinese
companies, including ones that have purchased
established European labels, have so far found
it hard to take off in Western markets.
Shang Xia, founded a decade ago by Jiang Qiong
Er and French luxury group Hermes International,
who both remain shareholders, started out as a
lifestyle brand focused on showcasing Chinese
craftsmanship and then expanded into
ready-to-wear fashion.
While the label is well-known in China, it has
yet to achieve the broader commercial success
that many in the industry had expected.
"Chinese luxury brands are still quite niche,"
Kathryn Parker, a luxury sector analyst with
Jefferies, said.
Shang Xia showed its commitment to Paris when it
held its first fashion show on Monday on the
official Paris Fashion Week schedule, sending a
lineup of models in polished suits in bright
colours along a circular runway.
With backing from a new majority shareholder,
the Agnelli family holding company Exor, the
label recently set up a design studio in Paris
to complement production in Shanghai.
“It’s a very bold move to do a show in Paris
Fashion Week,” said Exor managing director
Suzanne Heywood, who is also chairman of Shang
Xia.
FRENCH INFLUENCE
“We are being watched closely,” said Isabelle
Capron, international vice president at ICCF,
the owner of Chinese label Icicle, noting that
Chinese companies have so far had limited
success in building high-end fashion businesses
with an international reach.
The French luxury executive was recruited in
2013 by Shouzeng Ye and Tao Xiaoma, founders of
Icicle, which bought the historic French couture
house Carven in 2018 and in July created the
ICCF Group.
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 Icicle, with sales of 334
million euros in 2020, up 12% from 2019, has 270
stores in 100 cities in China. The brand caters
to urban professionals with earthy-toned
overcoats and suits in high quality materials,
often made with natural dyeing techniques.
Icicle's founders chose Paris over London, New
York and Milan for their investment, setting up
design studios, and recruiting talent from
French luxury labels.
"It’s in Paris where you can find the talent to
raise the level of the collections so that the
label can reach an international level,” Capron
said.
LANVIN REVIVAL
Fosun Fashion Group has been working to revive
the historic French label Lanvin with younger,
international consumers in mind, and hired Bruno
Sialelli French designer from LVMH-owned Loewe
label for the job.
For the spring 2022 ready-to-wear runway show in
Paris, the designer showed slim party dresses,
worn by models in towering platform shoes with
flared heels, along with an array of handbags
and a new pair of futuristic sneakers –
accessories are key to the label’s growth
strategy.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell closed the show,
sweeping the runway with a long cape.
Shang Xia executives said they are seeking to
broaden their customer base among younger
consumers, add new stores in Asia this year and
push into the digital realm beyond China next
year.
“We are seeking new means to embrace
digitalisation,” said Shang Xia founder Jiang
Qiong Er, who flew in from Shanghai for the
Paris show.
Shang Xia’s new creative director Yang Li said
he seeks to apply Asian and Eastern design
principles to the products, pointing out a bag
in the collection in the shape of a triangle.
“In our culture, when we define shapes, they’re
absolute and pure,” he said.
“What I want to do here is to say that China is
not just a market, but a creative force as
well," Yang Li added.
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer. Editing by Jane
Merriman)
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