Chinese Brands Rush To New York For Gilding For The Domestic Market?

At last Anta could not sit still.

In September 8th, ANTA KIDS will launch new products in the 2020 spring summer New York fashion week, and Anta's main domestic rival, Lining, has landed in New York fashion week as early as February 2018, and has taken this opportunity to promote the fashion transformation of the brand. (KIDS)

After Lining took the lead in eating crabs, more than a dozen Chinese brands went to New York for gilding. This year, there are 8 Chinese fashion brands coming to New York fashion week.

According to the alphabet, there are two Chinese theme events in New York fashion week this September. The China Day (China Japan) hosted by Centrino fashion is the fourth season this year. Tmall was the co sponsor and sponsor of the event. Tmall launched a new IP China Cool this year.

It must be pointed out that these two China thematic activities enter the agenda of New York Fashion Week:The Shows sponsored by IMG instead of New York Fashion Week:Women's schedule, and the two schedule is the official schedule of New York fashion week. Some familiar international brands often participate in the latter.

According to incomplete statistics of "magnificent ambition", Chinese fashion brands account for nearly 1/4 of the nearly 100 fashion shows this season.

Tencent is also involved in the New York fashion week this season. HOT NOW, CO sponsored by Tencent news and China Fashion Designers Association, has entered the official schedule of New York fashion week this season.

There are many brands "rubbing red carpet". In the spring and summer fashion week in New York in early 2019, Tmall made a national flash shop. The old brands such as old mama, Yunnan Baiyao, Shuang Mei, the Summer Palace, Kangshifu spring and so on, launched the fashion products with hat, sweater, round neck sweater and so on.

About the cost of Chinese brands to participate in the fashion week in New York, Centrino and Tmall both said it was not convenient to disclose the specific cost. Tmall said that the cost of brand participation in Tmall and Fashion Week theme activities is much lower than that of direct participation. Although it is necessary to pay a certain threshold fee, "it is only used for overall operation and dissemination, and Tmall is not profitable in the middle". In addition, Tmall also needs to pay a certain fee to New York fashion week.

A brand member who participated in the fashion week in New York revealed to the alphabet that the cost of brand participation is about millions of yuan.

One

The idea of taking the Chinese brand to the international fashion week is the birth of Xie Wei, the director of Tmall apparel marketing, in 2016.

There were also Chinese brands appearing in fashion week before, but in the form of public relations sponsorship, Lu you felt that the cost ratio of this model was too low, and the brand value and sales promotion were limited.

Tmall first launched a fashion training in China. In 2016, with the help of double 11, we will create a trend event, invite many fashion brands at home and abroad to participate, and try to live, watch and buy.

In 2017, Tmall Fashion Festival's planning operator and partner Centrino fashion became the exclusive strategic partner of the American Fashion Designers Association (hereinafter referred to as CFDA). CFDA is the sponsor of New York fashion week.

Under the action of Centrino, Tmall has established links with New York fashion week.

New York fashion week originated from World War II. In 1943, influenced by the war, the fashion industry in the United States could not go to Paris to watch the fashion show. So Eleanor Lambert, the public relations officer of the New York Clothing Institute, held a media release week in New York. The success of the event made the media that had been paying attention to French fashion design began to focus on the fashion industry in the United States.

Compared with other fashion week, Lu You said, "New York fashion week is very open and willing to talk with you about all kinds of possibilities."

Compared with Chinese design, the value of Chinese consumers was earlier recognized by New York fashion week. Deer swim believes that fashion week also needs to expand user scope and find more starting points at the consumer side.

After the first cooperation, New York fashion week told the deer tour that they think the biggest value of this cooperation is to let more young consumers in China know that "the original New York fashion week is like this."

Steven Kolb, chief executive of CFDA, has said that China's theme week in New York fashion week is part of CFDA's strategy of enhancing global influence, helping us fashion enhance its international influence.

According to McKinsey's report, China is already the world's largest luxury market in 2017, and luxury goods account for nearly 1/3 of the total global luxury goods sales. In 2019, China will surpass the United States for the first time and become the world's largest fashion market.

Returning to fashion itself, European and American fashion circles still have a one-sided view of China.

Zhang Shiqi likes to sit with a foreign designer in a cafe on the roadside or stroll around a shop in the streets of Shanghai. "Fashion often happens on the road, and the dress of the passers-by can show the state of a country's fashion development most intuitively".

As the chief business officer of Centrino fashion, establishing the communication link between Chinese and American fashion industry is one of Zhang Shiqi's most important tasks in the past few years.

It's not easy. "When they chat, they think that China's fashion industry is still relatively backward in manufacturing industry," Zhang Shiqi told the alphabet.

One of the reasons for stereotype is that at that time, Chinese designers in the international stage were relatively limited. Foreign fashion industry could only learn about China's fashion industry with some fragmented information.

Compared with the fashion week in New York, the process of selecting brands is more difficult.

The sales and aesthetic styles of the two markets are quite different.

The clothing industry in North America and Europe often uses the buying system, and buyers go around the world, choose the right consumer products, and then export them to the retail outlets. In China, the distribution system is the main product. After ordering the goods, the dealers will get goods and distribute them to consumers through their respective channels.

The difference between sales methods will directly affect the structure and design of products. Under the distribution system, in order to increase the quantity of orders, manufacturers usually launch a large number of styles, most of which are basic funds, with guaranteed sales volume, but lack of design level innovation.

"The soul of many international fashion brands is the creative director, and the domestic is the head of commodity planning," explains Zhang Qi.

Zhang Shiqi told the alphabet reporters that buyers often interact closely with the media and have higher requirements for design concepts, which is one of the challenges of domestic brands' participation in fashion week.

Design concepts are often part of the cultural expression of a country or region.

"For example, expressing love, Europeans and Americans express love more often," I love you "," I will pay for you and change ". Chinese expression of love may take a certain thing of a beloved woman, often look at it, more introverted, hazy, graceful, "Feng Ye, general manager of Lining electric business division gave an example.

Feng Ye believes that the Chinese concept of design should be addressed to foreign fashion people, which needs to be more detailed about the story behind the concept. There may be some twists and turns in the process. "But as long as they think something looks good, they will not spare their praise, and the more graceful expression of China is more novel to them."

Deer tours are divided into three categories of brands that are interested in New York fashion week. One is that the company has a clear plan to upgrade its brand and "wants to work hard." The second is to realize the value of participating in the fashion week. "I want to understand, but I have no determination to die." The third category is inspired by the idea that "when we look at the other side, we find that we are not ready".

From the start of the first China theme week of the international fashion week, the situation of brand temporary withdrawal is common.

There are many reasons for leaving. Some preparations for several months, found that the quality of goods and supply chain can not meet the requirements, worried that "lose face and lose the door". Some worry that the changing relationship between China and the United States will produce uncertain risks.

"This kind of thing happens every time (Fashion Week). In the first few months, the creativity of the fashion show is basically fixed to the direction of the product. The other side suddenly says," sorry to be unable to take part in it. "Just last week, the news came out, and the brand quit." deer swim told the alphabet reporter that it was less than 2 months from the opening ceremony of the New York fashion week in September 2019.

According to Lu You, China's commercial brands will often encounter many unexpected situations at the executive level when they go abroad to make fashion shows. For example, budget overruns, because the cost of labor in the United States is relatively high.

The alphabet reporter searched a foreign recruitment website to find an advertisement for Anta children to recruit models for fashion week. The reward for each child was $750, and another $250 for trial loading.

In addition, the operation of foreign activities is often highly planned, and temporary conditions are hard to adjust. Domestic fashion show, a day after the dress rehearsal, and then temporarily change the way of work, almost impossible in foreign countries.

All these problems and cultural differences at the executive level require Chinese enterprises to solve and adapt them one by one.

Two

In the end, Lining, PEACEBIRD (Taiping bird), CHENPENG and Edison Chan's CLOT became the first Chinese brands to enter the international fashion week in February 2018.

New York fashion was held two times on Monday, February and September respectively. According to the first financial report, Tmall originally planned to take part in the fashion week in September and temporarily adjust it to February.

There was not much time left for the selected brands. Lining decided to take part in the end of 2017, and a few days later, the Pacific bird joined in.

In the early January 2018, it was decided that the day of the New York fashion week was the annual meeting of Taiping birds. This is the second time that the bird has received an invitation. When the invitation was received for the first time, the team did not immediately agree. The Taiping bird is a frequent visitor to the fashion week in China. It is no stranger to fashion week. The team is worried that the time is too short to achieve the best results. Finally, Zhang Jiang, the chairman of Taiping bird.

"When a brand develops to a certain stage, it has the idea of going out. We have never done this before, and always feel that the timing is not mature enough. In other words, a brand doing a show alone abroad is in fact very expensive, "Zhang Jiangping said in an interview with" ornate ambition ".

Lining became one of the four leading brands in the world.

After making the bill internally, Feng Ye encountered a series of questions.

"Why do sports brands take part in fashion week?"

"Is it enough to spend so much money in fashion week?"

"We are not marketing LED brands, product LED brands, so much investment, is it worth it?"

The question is reasonable. As early as 2010, Lining group put forward the concept of "post-90s Lining". The brand positioning is "fashionable, cool, global perspective", and the price of products has also been greatly improved, but the final effect is not ideal.

Feng Ye is also very insistent, in his view, sports fashion is becoming a major trend in the clothing industry. So he spent a lot of effort in communicating within the group and persuading all departments to participate.

"First, the domestic sports brand has never been to New York fashion week, we will be the first; second, from the point of view of revenue, the revenue growth of sports life and sports trend is growing faster and faster; third, the trend of goods and goods is necessary, but it also needs the pull of events", which has been said many times by Feng Ye.

In October 2017, Hong Yuru, vice president of Lining group, put forward the concept of "China Lining", which is mainly driven by fashion and fashion, with young people as the main target group. Then, after the introduction of the "sensible way" of the main tide shoes, it also won a good market reaction.

Lining's financial report shows that as of December 31, 2018, the retail sales of sports fashion category represented by China Lining series increased by 42% compared to the same period last year.

In order to seize the opportunity of New York fashion week's debut, the electronic business division first produced some money as the starting capital. In the end, Feng Ye persuaded Hong Yuru, "Hong always feels that if he wants to go abroad, he can do it well and not lose face," said Feng Ye.

Before departure, Zhang Shiqi was particularly disturbed by this collective activity. "What if we label a Chinese day in case of North America?" After the live show, the buyer came to inquire about how to order, and the big stone in her heart fell.

The effect of domestic communication is better. Deer swim even feel that there is no need to specifically mention specific data.

Even a new term, "chao chao", has been created to describe these Chinese brands on the world stage.

Three

After the fashion week, a new question is whether Chinese brands are really internationalized?

In September 2018, Bosideng joined the show in New York fashion week, attracting a lot of eyeballs.

As early as 2012, Bosideng began to expand overseas, invested tens of millions of pounds, and opened its only flagship store in London. The store was closed in early 2017. Landing international fashion week has no obvious boost to Bosideng's overseas expansion. A person familiar with the matter said that Bosideng participated in the fashion week in New York, mainly to spread and enhance influence in China.

Lining is considered to be one of the most successful brands in fashion week. In the first half of 2019, Lining's revenue structure was 97 million 500 thousand yuan from the international market, an increase of 32.4% over the same period last year, but only 1.6% of total revenue.

Chinese brand landing week is not necessarily to expand overseas markets. The more realistic goal is to use the New York fashion week's international fashion symbol to boost the domestic market.

Lai Yang, President of Beijing Jing Shang Circulation Strategy Research Institute, told the alphabet that Internet cross-border electricity providers are increasingly blurring the fashionable borders. Chinese consumers need to pay higher prices for foreign brands.

"If the brand is not in the international arena, the shrinking of the Chinese market is also obvious. Consumers are more likely to choose an international brand when prices are similar," added Lai.

McKinsey's 2017 report on China's fashion consumers shows that 64% of consumers regard international brands as a way of self expression.

Ma Gang, an apparel industry analyst, said that the Chinese market is experiencing a big escalation of consumption, from having more to better, from functional satisfaction to emotional satisfaction, from physical high price to psychological premium consumption. Against this background, stepping onto the stage of fashion week is the first step to change the minds of consumers.

McKinsey's 2019 China luxury report shows that more than 7 of the 80's and 90's have regarded fashion shows as the most favorite luxury brand organizers.

Judging from the results, the fashion week really boosted sales of some brands in China. Tmall data show that in 2018 double eleven all day, Bosideng total brand online and offline total channel sales total 740 million yuan.

According to Lai Yang, fashion week is helpful to the upgrading of clothing brand, but the strategic transformation of enterprises is still more about the change of cognition and idea of the enterprise's decision makers for the development trend of clothing. In fact, the transformation of a better company is a reconstruction of the past, such as Lining, which has reshaped the whole brand image.

A person engaged in the study of clothing history said to the alphabet that the Chinese clothing brand wants to become a truly international brand. It must integrate its own dress language system with the western system, not only trying to succeed in the western system. The concept of "chao chao" itself is still trying to gain a place in the "tide culture" constructed in the West.

"How can people really admit you? Cheongsam in the period of the Republic of China is a product of the typical combination of Chinese and Western cultures, which is a truly cosmopolitan language, "the source said.

An example of closer integration between China and Western countries is leaps and bounds.

In the late 50s of last century, the leap brand was born in Shanghai Dafu rubber factory. In the first year, it entered the market and gained 1 million 616 thousand of its sales volume. In the prime period, its annual sales volume exceeded 10 million pairs.

In 2005, French Patrice Bastian noticed a leap. After the authorization of the "FEIYUE" trademark, the brand positioning, design, shoemaking and marketing strategies were successfully adopted to promote the leap to the international market. The leap has not only entered the storefront of Champs Elysees in Paris, but also has been affirmed by many fashion and entertainment circles in Europe and America.

According to Lai, integrating into the international community, sales scale is only one aspect, and more importantly, it is the pursuit of opinion leaders of the international high-end consumer groups.

Those who are engaged in the study of clothing history believe that with the diversification of public demand and the stratification of consumption, even in the west, it is very difficult to have the brand of Chanel and Dior. China has not even produced a big international brand.

The current development of Chinese clothing brands is trying to enter the market of Western discourse power, similar to that of Japan in the 70s of last century.

After the Second World War, the Japanese garment industry started as an overseas production base in Europe and the United States.

In the early 70s of twentieth Century, with the total volume of GDP rising to the third place in the world, with the improvement of mass consumption ability, many international brands poured into the Japanese market. At the same time, unwilling to develop at home, a group of designers born and educated in Japan began to actively enter the western fashion context and participate in international competition. Since then, brands such as KENZO, Lssey Miyake, Wakubo Rei and Mori Yinghui have gradually become famous internationally.

Once upon a time, Japan was still the largest consumer of luxury goods, and now this location is in China.

Compared with Japan, the advantage of Chinese clothing brands to the sea is that besides local designers, there are more large companies, both garment enterprises and Internet companies.

When Japanese designers were famous in Paris, Japanese consumers' interest in local designer brands was not as high as that of the French. Without the recognition of domestic consumers, it will eventually hinder the development of designers.

Some of China's clothing brands have enough public base and financial strength, as well as various kinds of resources from Internet head enterprises. In a big era with a rising national sentiment, hard power is not bad. Nowadays, the soft power at design level is urgently needed to be improved.

When the tide of the country is no longer fashionable, it may be the time when the "national tide" really comes into being.