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.
Louis Vuitton has named actress Liu Yifei as its new brand ambassador. She is only the second current Chinese brand ambassador for luxury’s largest brand, joining superstar Kris Wu.
Liu is best known to Western audiences for playing Mulan in the 2020 Disney adaption of the traditional Chinese tale about a female warrior who saves the empire and is a hugely popular figure in her native China, where she boasts 68 million followers on Weibo.
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.