Harry Wang | Source: Shiatzy Chen

PARIS, France — Long before the question arose about who would create the first Chinese luxury brand, Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia set up Shiatzy Chen to explore her tailoring skills and budding interest in serving the local luxury market in Taiwan.

Fast forward thirty years, and Ms. Wang now has a business with a turnover of more than $60m and growing, built through hard work, perseverance and — in the Chinese tradition — the support of her family, including husband Wang Yuan-hong, and their son Harry Wang, who now acts as the brand’s chief executive.

Mr. Wang believes the business can grow to $200m in revenues by 2020. But rather than focus on growing the business in the West as so many brands from emerging fashion markets tend to do, he has his sights set firmly on Asia. Extending from the brand’s home base in Taiwan to China and Japan is first on his list. Mr. Wang has also brought Shiatzy Chen’s fashion shows to Paris, forcing him to up his communications game and consider the brand’s role and customer targets in a global context.

I caught up with Mr. Wang during the last round of Paris shows to learn more about Shiatzy Chen and to benefit from his firsthand insights on the evolving nature of luxury in China.

… Continue Reading

Bryanboy | Illustration: Moises Quesada

Blogging from Manila to Milan (WSJ)
“Bryan Grey-Yambao, a 24-year-old Filipino based in Manila, began blogging from his parents’ home in Manila in 2004. He is one of the biggest names among a new, increasingly influential crop of fashion bloggers — with their own commercial contracts, front-row seats at fashion shows and multipage spreads in magazines.”

In Eco-Jeans, the Green Becomes Harder to Spot (New York Times)
“Two years ago, when going green was red-hot in the fashion industry, there were plenty of organic jeans to choose from. Today, none of the brands do. Which raises the question: Where has all the organic denim gone?”

Jiang Qiong Er, Shang Xia’s CEO & artistic director (Luxury Society)
“Beyond the industry’s collective marvel at the foresight of the firm to bolster its export of Hermès goods into China by inventing a domestic Chinese luxury brand to boot, there is much more that the Shang Xia brand is destined to achieve besides just filling the Hermès coffers. Shang Xia’s visionary co-founder, Jiang Qiong Er, explains why.”

Forecast 2011: Menswear’s e-commerce success story (Monocle)
“With sales having increased by 11.4 per cent over the first two weeks of November 2010 alone, e-commerce is one of the fastest growing sectors in retail. And, this year it’s the men’s market that will see the greatest change.”

eBay Takes a Page From the Glossies (New York Times)
“[Andrea] Linett began a new job this week as the creative director of eBay Fashion. One of her responsibilities is to enliven the experience of online shopping at a site that often feels more like a digital flea market.”

Shang Xia Cashmere | Source: Shang Xia

China’s homegrown luxury: Talking with Jiang Qiong Er (CIB)
“What does it mean to create a Chinese luxury brand from scratch? Jiang, artistic director and CEO of Shang Xia… does not bat an eye as she returns her answer: ‘I had a dream to bring about a renaissance of traditional Chinese craftsmanship.’”

New Luxury Frontier: A $5,600 Lotus Jacket (WSJ)
“Lotus jackets could further burnish the brand, which stresses textile innovation. As it competes with lower-cost production of wool and cashmere from China, Loro Piana has introduced other superluxury natural textiles, such as vicuña and so-called baby cashmere.”

Neiman Marcus Joins Borrowers Tapping Rally to Extend Loans (Bloomberg)
“Neiman Marcus Group Inc., the luxury retailer owned by private-equity firms, is offering to pay lenders more interest to extend maturities by three years on a term loan as it works to refinance $2.88 billion of debt.”

How luxury brands can move the needle with social marketing (Luxury Daily)
“No one-size-fits-all solution exists, but brand marketers need to sit down and think seriously about overall marketing strategies and which social media platforms would be the best complements.”

Katrantzou’s Crown (Vogue UK)
“[Mary Katrantzou was] named the winner of this year’s Swiss Textiles Award. The Greek-born designer… beat off stiff competition from fellow designers Jason Wu, Duro Olowu, Adam Kimmel, Juun J and Damir Doma.”

J.Crew Summer 2010 | Source: J Crew

Fashion Nation: What Retailers Know About Us (WSJ)
“By tracking customers’ spending habits, retailers get a bird’s-eye view of tastes as they ebb and flow. Online retailers, in particular, see every click we make. They know which brands we’ve peeked at, how long we pondered, and what we actually purchased.”

5 Things We Know About Hèrmes’ New China Brand, Shang Xia (Jing Daily)
“Everything from the design to the materials, manufacture, marketing and management will be local… It is a Chinese brand, developed in China with the Chinese team, based on Chinese craftsmanship and broadly made in China.”

Top 5 Mobile Commerce Trends for 2010 (Mashable)
“Mobile commerce, or m-commerce, is simply the ability to conduct business transactions through a mobile device. With smartphone sales rising 49% in the first quarter of 2010, never before has it been so easy to shop, anywhere, anytime from the palm of your hand.”

Twitter Fails to Click with Brand Marketers (Brand Channel)
“Twitter, which feels like it’s been around for eons but is only four years old, boasts more than 100 million registered users and 65 million tweets daily… despite its growth and all the buzz, it’s not yet clicking with brand marketers.”

Japanese Designers Head to India (WWD)
“Earlier this month, the designers behind three Tokyo-based labels- Matohu, Somarta and Motonari Ono- traveled to the country on a research trip. The five designers will be returning to India for the inaugural edition of India International Jewellery Week.”