Are Chinese Brands Flocking To New York For Gold Plating?

Anta finally couldn't sit still.

On September 8, Anta kids will launch new products at New York Fashion Week in spring and summer 2020. Li Ning, Anta's main domestic competitor, has been in New York Fashion Week as early as February 2018, and has taken this opportunity to promote the fashion transformation of the brand.

After Li Ning took the lead in eating crabs, more than a dozen Chinese brands flocked to New York for gold plating. This year, eight Chinese fashion brands have come to New York Fashion Week, with the exception of Pacific bird, all of which have made their debut.

According to the alphabet, there were two Chinese themed events at the New York Fashion Week in September this year. The "China day" sponsored by Centrino fashion is already in the fourth quarter of this year. Before that, tmall was the co organizer and title sponsor of the event. This year, tmall launched a new IP "China cool".

It must be pointed out that the two China themed events entered the New York Fashion Week: the shows agenda sponsored by img, rather than the New York Fashion Week: Women's agenda. Both of the two schedules are the official agenda of New York Fashion Week, and some well-known international brands often attend the latter.

According to the incomplete statistics of gorgeous records, Chinese fashion brands account for nearly a quarter of the nearly 100 fashion shows this season.

Tencent has also participated in this season's New York Fashion week. Hot now, CO sponsored by Tencent News and China Fashion Designers Association, has entered the official agenda of this season's New York Fashion week..

There are also many brands "rub red carpet.". At the spring and summer New York Fashion Week in early 2019, tmall made a national trend flash store. Old brands such as Laoganma, Yunnan Baiyao, Shuangmei, the summer palace and Master Kang's self-cultivation spring launched fashionable items such as hooded sweater and round collar sweater.

It is not convenient for New York and tmall to participate in the fashion week. 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 needs to pay a certain threshold fee, "it is only used for the overall operation and communication, and tmall does not make money in the middle". In addition, tmall also needs to pay certain fees to New York Fashion week.

A brand related person who participated in the New York Fashion week told the alphabet that the cost of brand participation was about millions of yuan.

　 one

The idea of taking Chinese brands to the international fashion week was born in 2016 by Xie Wei, the marketing director of tmall apparel.

There were also Chinese brands appearing in fashion week before, but participated in it by way of public relations sponsorship. Luyou thinks that the cost-effectiveness of this mode is too low, and the promotion of brand value and sales volume is relatively limited. If you want to go, you have to "go to the highest point of fashion".

Tmall first conducted a fashion training in China. In 2016, with the help of double 11 time point, a fashion event was created, and many fashion brands at home and abroad were invited to participate, and tried to live broadcast, watch while buy and other forms.

In 2017, the planning operator and partner of tmall fashion event, Centrino fashion, became the exclusive strategic partner of the American Fashion Designers Association (CFDA), which is the organizer of New York Fashion week.

With the help of Xunchi, tmall has established contact with New York Fashion week.

New York Fashion Week dates back to World War II. In 1943, influenced by the war, American fashion industry couldn't go to Paris to watch fashion shows. Therefore, Eleanor Lambert, the public relations officer of the New York Institute of fashion, held a media week in New York. The success of this event made the media that had been focusing on French fashion design began to gradually shift their focus to the American fashion industry.

Compared with other fashion weeks, Luyou said, "New York Fashion Week is very open and willing to talk to you about all kinds of possibilities.".

Compared with Chinese design, the value of Chinese consumers was recognized earlier by New York Fashion week. Luyou believes that fashion week also needs to expand the range of users and find more hands on the consumer side.

After the first cooperation, New York Fashion week told Luyou that the greatest value of this cooperation is to let more young Chinese consumers know that "the original New York Fashion Week is like this".

CFDA CEO Steven colb once said that New York Fashion Week's China theme event is part of CFDA's strategy to enhance its global influence and help American fashion strengthen its international influence.

According to McKinsey's report, China was already the world's largest luxury market in 2017, with luxury consumption accounting for nearly one-third of the total global luxury market sales. In 2019, China will surpass the United States for the first time to become the world's largest fashion market.

Back to fashion itself, the European and American fashion circles still have a one-sided understanding of China.

The most popular fashion shop in Shanghai is to sit at the end of a street where fashion can be seen.

As the chief business officer of Centrino fashion, one of Zhang Shiqi's most important tasks in the past few years is to establish a communication link between China and the United States.

It's not easy. When Zhang Qi talks about the fashion industry, she tells them that they are backward in manufacturing.

One reason for the existence of stereotypes is that at that time, there were relatively few Chinese designers emerging on the international stage, and foreign fashion circles could only learn about China's fashion industry with the help of some fragmented information.

The process of brand selection is more difficult than communicating with New York Fashion week.

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

The clothing industry in North America and Europe is used to the buyer system. The buyer travels around the world, selects the goods suitable for consumers, and then exports them to the retail terminal. In China, the distribution system is the main system. After the production of goods, the order meeting is held. The dealers at all levels obtain the goods and then distribute them to consumers through their own channels.

The difference of sales mode reacts on production, which will directly affect the commodity structure and specific design. Under the distribution system, in order to increase the order quantity, manufacturers usually launch a large number of styles, most of which are basic ones, with guaranteed sales volume, but lack of design innovation.

"The soul of many international fashion brands is the creative director, while the domestic one is the person in charge of commodity planning," explains Zhang Shiqi.

Zhang Shiqi told the alphabet reporter that buyers often interact closely with the media and have high requirements for design concepts, which is one of the challenges for domestic brands to participate in fashion week.

Design concept is often a part of the cultural expression of a country or region.

"For example, to express love, European and American people tend to express love more directly," I love you "and" I will pay and change for you. ". When Chinese people express their love, they may take a look at something of their beloved woman from time to time, which is more introverted, hazy and graceful. "Feng Ye, general manager of Li Ning's e-commerce business department, gives an example.

Feng Ye believes that to tell the Chinese design concept to foreign fashion circles, it is necessary to elaborate the story behind the concept in more detail. There may be some twists and turns in the process, "but as long as they think something is good-looking, they will not grudge their praise. The more graceful expression of China is also relatively new to them.".

Luyou divides the brands interested in New York Fashion week into three categories. One is that the company has a clear brand upgrading plan, "want to do a big job.". The second category is to recognize the value of participating in fashion week, "I think I understand, but I have no determination to die". The third category is inspired by "watching and doing, when facing the door, I find that I am not ready".

Since the first Chinese theme event of international fashion week was organized, it is common for brands to withdraw temporarily.

There are many reasons to quit. After several months of preparation, some found that the quality of the goods and the supply chain could not meet the requirements, and they were worried about "losing face and leaving the country". Some worry about the risk of uncertainty arising from the rapidly changing Sino US relations.

"This kind of thing happens every time (Fashion Week). After several months of preparation, the creative idea of the fashion show and the direction of the product are basically determined. The other party suddenly said," sorry, I can't participate in it. "Just after receiving the news last week, another brand withdrew," Lu You told the alphabet reporter. When he said this, it was less than two months before the opening of New York Fashion Week in September 2019.

According to Luyou, when Chinese commercial brands go abroad to do fashion shows, they often encounter unexpected situations at the executive level. For example, the budget is overspending because the labor cost in the United States is relatively high.

Alphabet reporter searched foreign recruitment websites for an advertisement for Anta children to recruit models for fashion week. Each child was paid $750, and there was another $250 for trial fitting.

In addition, the operation of foreign activities is often planned, so it is difficult to adjust temporarily. For fashion shows in China, it is almost impossible to make temporary changes after rehearsal one day in advance.

These problems and cultural differences at the executive level need to be solved and adapted one by one.

two

In February of 2018, China's top brands, i.e., Chenning, Chenning, and chenhaideng, became the first batch of international fashion brands in China.

New York fashion is held twice a year in February and September. According to first finance and economics, tmall's original plan to attend the fashion week in September was temporarily changed to February.

There is not much time left for the preparation of the selected brands. Li Ning decided to participate at the end of 2017. A few days later, taipingniao also joined in.

At the beginning of January 2018, the day when you are sure to attend New York Fashion Week is the annual meeting of Pacific bird. This is the second time that tianpingniao has received the invitation. When it received the invitation for the first time, the team did not immediately agree. Taipingniao is a frequent visitor of domestic fashion week and is no stranger to the fashion week. The team is worried that the time is too short to achieve the best effect. Finally, Zhang Jiangping, chairman of taipingniao, made the decision.

When there is a certain stage of brand development. We didn't do this before, and we always felt that the timing was not mature enough. In other words, the cost of a brand to do such a show abroad alone is very high, "Zhang Jiangping said in an interview with huahuazhi.

The process of Li Ning becoming one of the four first show brands has been more twists and turns.

After putting forward the motion internally, Feng Ye met with a series of questions.

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

"Is there enough commercial reward for spending so much money on fashion week?"

"Our leading brand is worth investing in, isn't it?"

The question is reasonable. However, Li Ning did not put forward the concept of "global vision" and "fashion brand" in 2010, but Li Ning did not put forward the concept of "global brand" in the end.

Feng Ye is also very persistent, in his view, sports fashion is becoming a major trend in the clothing industry. As a result, he spent a lot of energy communicating within the group and persuading various departments to participate.

"First, domestic sports brands have never been to New York Fashion Week, and we will be the first; second, from the perspective of revenue, the revenue of sports life and sports trends is growing faster and faster; third, fashion goods and good goods are necessary, but they also need to be driven by events," Feng Ye said many times.

In October 2017, Hong Yuru, vice president of Li Ning group, put forward the concept of "China's Li Ning", focusing on trends and fashion, with young people as the main target group. After that, the main fashion shoes "Wudao" was launched, which also got a good market response.

According to Li Ning's financial report, as of December 31, 2018, the retail flow of sports and fashion categories represented by China's Li Ning series increased by 42% year-on-year.

In order to start the first week of fashion business in New York, I took the opportunity to start my own e-commerce business. In the end, Feng Ye convinced Hong Yuru that "since he wants to go abroad, he should do it well and not lose face," Feng said.

Before departure, Zhang Shiqi was particularly worried about the collective activity, "under the label of China day, what should we do if North America swears?". After the live show, when the buyers who came to watch began to ask how to order, the big stone in her heart fell to the ground.

The effect of domestic communication is better. Luyou even feels that it is not necessary to provide specific data to "blow up the circle of friends". This indicator is enough.

A new term "Guochao" has even been born to describe these Chinese brands who have stepped onto the world's fashion stage.

　 three

After the bustle of fashion week, a new question is: is Chinese brand really internationalized?

In September 2018, bosden also participated in the catwalk show at New York Fashion Week, which attracted a lot of attention for a time.

As early as 2012, bosden began to expand overseas, investing tens of millions of pounds to open the only overseas flagship store in London. The store closed in early 2017. Landing in the international fashion week has no obvious boosting effect on bosden's overseas expansion. A person familiar with the matter said that bosden's participation in the New York Fashion Week was mainly to promote its influence in China.

Li Ning is considered one of the most successful brands to participate in fashion week. In the first half of 2019, Li Ning's revenue accounted for only 1.2% of the total revenue in the first half of 2019, accounting for only 1.26% of the total revenue in the first half of 2019.

Chinese brands landing in fashion week may not be to explore overseas markets, but the more realistic goal is to use the blessing of New York Fashion Week, an international fashion symbol, to market the domestic market.

Lai Yang, President of Beijing Jingshang Circulation Strategy Research Institute, told alphabet that Internet cross-border e-commerce has blurred the boundaries of fashion. Chinese consumers do not have to pay higher prices for clothes of foreign brands.

"If the brand is not based in the international market, the shrinkage of the Chinese market is also obvious, and consumers are more likely to choose international brands with similar prices," Lai added.

According to McKinsey's 2017 report on Chinese fashion consumers, 64% of consumers regard owning an international brand as a way to express themselves.

Ma Gang, an analyst in the clothing industry, said that China's market is experiencing a big upgrade of consumption, from having more to having better, from functional satisfaction to emotional satisfaction, from physical high price to psychological premium consumption. In such a context, it is the first step to change the minds of consumers to step onto the stage of fashion week.

According to McKinsey's China luxury report in 2019, more than 70% of the post-80s and 90s generation regard fashion shows as their favorite events hosted by luxury brands.

From the results, the fashion week has indeed boosted the domestic sales of some brands. According to the data of tmall, in the whole day of double 11 in 2018, the total sales of bosden all brand online and offline were 740 million yuan.

Lai Yang believes that fashion week is helpful for the upgrading of clothing brands, but the strategic transformation of enterprises lies more in the change of enterprise decision-making level's cognition and concept of clothing development trend. Enterprises with better transformation actually reconstruct the past, such as Li Ning, which has reshaped the whole brand image.

A person who is engaged in the study of fashion brand history in the west is not trying to integrate themselves into the Western clothing brand system. However, the concept of "Guochao" is still trying to gain a place in the "tide" culture constructed in the West.

"If you learn from others, how can they really admit you. In the period of the Republic of China, Qipao was a typical product of the world.

A more recent example of the combination of Chinese and western is leap.

In the late 1950s, Feiyue brand was born in Shanghai Dafu rubber factory. In the first year of entering the market, it obtained 1.616 million sales volume, and in its heyday, its annual sales volume exceeded 10 million pairs.

In 2005, French Patrice Bastian noticed the leap. After obtaining the "Feiyue" trademark authorization, it adopted brand-new brand positioning, design, shoemaking technology, marketing strategy, etc., and successfully promoted the leap to the international market. Leap not only entered the store of the Champs Elysees in Paris, but also won the affirmation of many European and American fashion and entertainment circles.

Lai Yang believes that the scale of sales is only one aspect of integrating into the international community. More importantly, it is sought after by opinion leaders in the hearts of international high-end consumers.

The above-mentioned people 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 difficult to create brands of the same era as Chanel and Dior. And China has not even created an international brand, even if it is relatively small.

The current development of Chinese clothing brands is trying to enter the market of Western discourse power, which is very similar to Japan in the 1970s.

Japan's clothing industry, which started after World War II, was only used as the overseas production base of European and American clothing industry at first, and mainly focused on garment processing.

At the beginning of the 20th century, with the increase of the total consumption capacity of Japanese brands to the third place in the global market, Japan's consumption capacity rose to the third place in the global market in the early 1970s. At the same time, unwilling to develop in China, a group of Japanese born and educated designers began to actively enter the western fashion context and participate in international competition. Since then, Kenzo Takada, Issey Miyake, Kawabata, Mori and other designers have gradually established famous brands in the world.

When was Japan the number one luxury consumer.

Compared with Japan, the advantage of Chinese clothing brand going abroad is that in addition to local designers, there are more large companies, including clothing enterprises and Internet enterprises.

When Japanese designers were famous in Paris, Japanese consumers' interest in local designer brands was not as high as that in France. If it is not recognized by domestic consumers, it will hinder the development of designers.

Some of China's clothing brands have a large enough mass base and financial strength, as well as various resources from Internet leading enterprises. In an era of more national sentiment, hard power is not bad. Now, what needs to be improved is the soft power at the design level.

When the "national tide" is no longer fashionable, perhaps it is the moment when the "national tide" is really born.