CHINA FASHION BUSINESS

Participant: LengYun Fashion Group 6

Date: December 18, 2021

Moderator: Lucia-Milan-Fashion PR

The current situation of Chinese fashion designer brands going abroad

1. What Chinese designer brands have gone abroad or have gained some influence from the international markets

Moderator: How much do you know Chinese designer brand? What Chinese designer brands have gone abroad or have gained some influence in the world? 

Kelly: UMA WANG.

Yvonne: ANNAKIKI. The brand shows at the stages of the Fashion Weeks every year, and nowthe brand operates well in the bricks-and-mortar stores, which is a relatively prominent designer brand. 

Aurora: SHUSHU TONG.

2. What do you know about these above-mentioned brands?

Kelly: I know that they present shows in Fashion Weeks.

Moderator: Yes. Many people get the information of these brands from the runway shows in Paris, New York, Milan, London and other overseas Fashion Weeks. 

Yvonne: Besides the runway shows presented at overseas Fashion Weeks, I also know these brands from their eye-catching decoration of physical stores and window display, and social media is another effective way to know them.

Moderator: In addition to the shows in overseas Fashion weeks, what else did the above-mentioned brands do for going abroad? For example, some brands have entered overseas showrooms, set up pop-up stores abroad or collaborate with foreign brands. 

Yvonne: Some brands also ask local celebrities and KOL(influencers) to wear their clothes forexposure. Many Chinese brands have set up overseas stores, but I have no idea what brands have gained recognition from local market.

Kelly: I also learn the brands from the journalist reports.

Moderator: The definition of designer brands may be too narrow and let’s expand to a wider spectrum, for example, JNBY, which can also be counted as a designer brand, have opened stores in Pacific Place in Seattle, and ICICLE has stores now in Paris. Moreover, some Chinese corporatesacquire overseas brands and promote their own brands through collaborations with the acquired brands.

3. What do you think of the overseas shows of Chinese designer brands?

Moderator: You’ve all mentioned that you watched overseas shows of Chinese designer brands, so what do you think of their shows?

Yvonne: In order to enhance their international status or popularity and attract local consumers,these Chinese brands recruit foreign designers and stage shows abroad. Some brands succeed, while most of them just achieved a transient success.

For instance, ANNAKIKI presented shows in Milan, and I was fond of the show. Li Ning gained the national recognition and enthusiasm after their show in NYC. Li Ning can be counted as one of the successful brands that have staged shows in overseas Fashion Weeks.

Moderator: Therefore, the current situation of Chinese designer brands going abroad is summarized as follows: 

(1) Brands whose designers have studied abroad. For example, the designer of UMA WANG studiedin Central Saint Martins. Also, TONGTONG(Jiang Yutong) and SHUSHU(Lei Liushu), the designers of SHUSHU TONG, are both graduates of London College of Fashion.

(2) Brands that have been well-known and achieved certain degree of success in China. For example, JNBY, Li Ning, and ICICLE, they all have entered overseas market by opening brick-and-mortar stores and presenting overseas shows. 

Yvonne: Is SheIn counted in this category??

Moderator: SheIn’s is mainly cross-border e-commerce, so they are not aiming at the Chinese market, I think SheIn’s success should be attribute to the powerful supply chain in China. In addition, overseas Chinese designers are not in the scope ofour discussion, because they are basically grown up in other countries, and their interpersonal connections and development mode are differentwith mainland Chinese ones. But I believe that the rise of many overseas Chinese designers has gradually made people to recognize more Asian designers.

Let’s continue, why designers and brands incubated in China choose to go abroad?

Yvonne: I think it has something to do with the ideology of Chinese consumers. First of all, consumers believe that brands opening storesabroad are “superior”. For brands, they can use designers who have exposure in overseas as narrative story for marketing in order to extendtheir scale of consumers.

Moderator: that the mass audience regard a brand that going abroad must own superior capacity in the market. If a Chinese designer brand has influence abroad or is recognized overseas, it will naturally bring more attention at home. The concept of fashion is imported from the West, and the West owns the discourse power in the fashion industry, thus any Chinese designer labels who win recognition overseas must be stronger in competition.

Meixian: Chinese market is indeed different from the Western market. Chinese consumers pay for thematerial aspect of clothing (such as good fabric)while Western consumers may just pay for good concept of the design.

Moderator: Yes, but the good news is that our consumers’ cognition of fashion and consumption level are both escalating. Now China has the leading supply chain in the world, which means our future is promising. 

Yvonne: The autonomy of Chinese designersworking for brands is very limited. I know somedesigners, and their work is just to copy /modify collections from the several luxury brands defined by the company.

How to enhance the international influence and commercial value of the brand through overseas publicity?

1. How to build up one’s own overseas expansionplan? For instance, social media, press office and website? What is the “must-do” list?

Meixian: The most ideal channel is branded specialty store. If the designer’s label successfully signs the contract with the buyers, it brings both endorsement and clients to the designer.

Yvonne: If ignoring the restrictions of funds and resources, first, Chinese brands can cross over with local Western brands; second, set up pop-up stores in commercial venues. Last but not the least, designers can promote themselves through partnership with celebrities and KOL(influencers).

Moderator: Yes, but we found very different experience when we expanded in Western markets

The branded specialty stores in Europe are very rigorous with the selection of emerging designer labels. They spend most of their budgets on sophisticated brands, which ensure the profit for the stores.

Meixian: So Chinese designer brands still need to improve themselves.

Moderator: Here are my suggestions:

Brands who plan to penetrate the overseas market should conduct a solid research and plan before they physically go opening stores in the new market, followed by defining the goal and objective of the expansion.

Meixian: Overseas markets are more sophisticated than Chinese market, so brands must be rigorous with the design and quality of the products. 

2. How to build up your international brand image step by step? How to narrate your brand concept from an international perspective?

Moderator: If it is a young brand who wants to expand in overseas, you need the solid backup from your backend – because it is a long-term ‘battle’ to expand the new market, otherwise you won’t sustain your business.

I met some novice designers who bring their collection and show to buyers in Europe. Even their collections were selected by the buyers, eventually designers found their supply chain and branding team are not strong enough to support their expansion in Europe.

Meixian: I think brands or designers who want to expand in overseas should set up their accounts on social media. Yvonne: I think it depends on theposition of brands. If the brand target at the younger generation, social media is a must. 

Moderator: INS, TIKTOK and FACEBOOK are ‘must-to-have’ social media if brands want to go overseas.

When I once attended the reality show of Chiara Ferragni, I saw a guest wearing the clothing designed by the Chinese designer that we work with, this brought traffic to us too on Instagram. The photographers, designers and artists around me prefer to find inspiration on Instagram. Therefore, creating an Instagram account give the brand more opportunities to be seen by professionals with a voice.

Yvonne: Instagram has already gained a large user base.

Kelly: It’s just like that LinkedIn can let more people know you in business.

Moderator: Designers /brands often overlook the importance of Press Office. Do you think the press office is necessary? If so, why?

The press office acts as a spokesperson for brands/designers, it is primarily accountable for media contacts and press conferences. Social media can narrow the distance between brands and consumers but meantime it makes speak on social media is an adventure, any inappropriate statement on social media may cause PR crisis, therefore it is important to speak through professional press office.

Meixian: So is it a further step after social media?

Moderator: Not exactly. The press office has more work to do. For example, how to convey the concept of the brand incubated and grown in Chinese context properly in a Europe style? When it comes to overseas promotion, the brand story should not be translated literally but should be translated freely, which needs a lot of explanations and lexical transformation. The professionalism of the press office also reflects the quality l of its brand. 

Yvonne: So each country has a different culture and a different context.

Moderator: Yes. We often see netizens poking fun at some formal documents released by some Chinese brands or artists because of their use of English in practice, we need to customize the Chinese articles according to the preferred writing style of different magazines. Therefore, the press office also requires certain skills in writing.

The official website is more straightforward, which can systematically show a full set of products, designer background and so on. In addition, if brands post their link of website on Instagram, it will bring more traffic to the website. But the daily operation and maintenance of the website also costs money, so I recommend Chinese brands build their official website after their business achieve certain scale, otherwise it will waste money with no return profits. 

3. How to create high-quality promotion in line with the brand positioning and suitable for overseas social media?

Brands should learn how to take advantage of overseas social media and platform after making anoverseas strategic plan. For example, Instagram prefers nice visual look and typesetting. If you just post the pictures of celebrities and artists on Instagram like on Weibo(Chinese version of Twitter), you will gain very little eventually.

4. How to make your brand included in the schedule of, for example, Milan Fashion Week?

It depends on the quality of the designer, for instance, whether he or she received any top awards? Or if he/she is recommended by some internationally well-known designers/artists/celebrities? Milan Fashion week also assess the sales revenue of the brand. In general their criteria level is quite high.

Translated by Gu Zhenheng