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.
China’s reputation as a land of superlatives precedes it. At this stage in its development, few would argue that what is now the world’s largest luxury market is anything but the world’s most important luxury market. According to McKinsey & Company, a third of global luxury spend in 2018 came from Chinese consumers, with more than half of that contributed by the Post-80s generation, which roughly corresponds with the western concept of Millennials. Hot on their heels is the Post-90s generation, contemporaries of Gen Z, who have yet to reach financial maturity in terms of earning power but are already big spenders on luxury.
Both cohorts are the among the most important for international luxury houses today, but their media habits, shaped by the powerful internet services that have sprung up behind the "Great Firewall of China," pose a challenge for these brands: the digital marketing strategies that work in the West don’t often translate well – or at all – in China.
As the luxury industry agonises over the best ways to engage with young, digitally native Chinese consumers, The Business of Fashion examines how Christian Dior, one of the sector’s biggest brands, plugged itself into China’s separate, opaque and rapidly evolving digital ecosystem.
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The Swiss watch sector’s slide appears to be more pronounced than the wider luxury slowdown, but industry insiders and analysts urge perspective.
The LVMH-linked firm is betting its $545 million stake in the Italian shoemaker will yield the double-digit returns private equity typically seeks.
The Coach owner’s results will provide another opportunity to stick up for its acquisition of rival Capri. And the Met Gala will do its best to ignore the TikTok ban and labour strife at Conde Nast.
The former CFDA president sat down with BoF founder and editor-in-chief Imran Amed to discuss his remarkable life and career and how big business has changed the fashion industry.