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.
"Why Global Recovery Could Depend On China's Taste for Luxury" (The Guardian)
"A World Bank-backed report has declared that the country's national currency, the yuan, will go further than previously thought in the hands of the Chinese consumer and that this supercharged purchasing power will push the world's second-largest economy ahead of the US this year. This could be the century of the Chinese consumer, now a figure of central importance for luxury goods companies."
"Chinese Giant Alibaba Will Go Public, Listing in U.S." (The New York Times)
"The Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group filed paperwork on Tuesday in the United States to sell stock to the public for the first time, in an embrace of the global capital markets that represents a coming-of-age for China's booming Internet industry."
"Masha Ma Talks About the Future of Fashion in China" (South China Morning Post)
"Ma is acknowledged among the new generation of Chinese contemporary fashion designers, often mentioned in the same breath as Qiu Hao, Zhang Huishan and Xander Zhou, who share a foreign education, modern style and prolific activities on the international stage."
"Selling to China's Coming Generation of (Wealthy) Seniors" (The Wall Street Journal)
"Much has been made about China's young big spenders. Some companies, though, see an even bigger business opportunity in the country's 40-somethings, and they are shaping their marketing to fit … While people in their 30s, the favorites of luxury brands, boast higher incomes, there are more people in their 40s who are considered rich."
"Traditional Luxury Markets Benefit as China Slows" (The Financial Times)
"Scilla Huang Sun, who runs the Julius Baer Luxury Brands Fund, points out that it is crucial to differentiate between the moderation of luxury sales in mainland China compared with the solid demand from Chinese tourists, especially in the US. The Chinese are the world's biggest tourist spenders and increased their spending by 28 per cent in 2013, according to the World Tourism Organisation."
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.