The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
"Next to Burberry, a Monet" (The New York Times)
"As art and commerce mix in China, this art-retail concept has become a formidable trend in shopping-happy Shanghai. Here, art is used as a marketing tool to lure shoppers away from competitors. Those at the helm also see such exhibitions as viable forms of art education in a country where access to art can be limited to the rich and malls are destinations for young people and a new generation of wealthy women."
"A Chic Idea for China's Green-Minded Set" (The New York Times)
"A Hong Kong-based environmental movement to clean up the textile and apparel industry, one of the world's largest polluters, is recruiting young talent to make the concept of eco fashion more attractive to the urban middle class in China."
"If You Build It, Will They Come? China's Mall-Building Spree Could Prove Costly" (The Wall Street Journal)
"China is on a shopping-mall building spree of staggering proportions, and for developers the price could be high. Many Chinese consumers, frustrated with high retail prices, are now seeking bargains online and abroad. So will the massive development of all these shopping malls go to waste?"
"Hong Kong Rents Hurt by China Tourist Curbs" (Businessweek)
"Rising tensions between local residents and the tens of millions of tourists who flock across the border pulling rolling suitcases and fill the city's subway each year have prompted Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to consider limiting their arrivals. The move could cost Hong Kong as much as HK$25 billion ($3.2 billion) in retail sales, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc."
"Prada Dives as It Adjusts to 'New Norm' in Chinese Demand" (The Wall Street Journal)
"Prada's stock is down more than 22% so far in 2014 amidst an entrenched slowdown in luxury spending in China and an ongoing crackdown on graft and extravagance among Chinese government officials. Quarterly sales in Asia Pacific declined 2.6%, while sales in Greater China were nearly flat at EUR 200 million."
With consumers tightening their belts in China, the battle between global fast fashion brands and local high street giants has intensified.
Investors are bracing for a steep slowdown in luxury sales when luxury companies report their first quarter results, reflecting lacklustre Chinese demand.
The French beauty giant’s two latest deals are part of a wider M&A push by global players to capture a larger slice of the China market, targeting buzzy high-end brands that offer products with distinctive Chinese elements.
Post-Covid spend by US tourists in Europe has surged past 2019 levels. Chinese travellers, by contrast, have largely favoured domestic and regional destinations like Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.