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.
Italian luxury house Tod’s has named Chinese actor and singer Xiao Zhan, perhaps most famous for his star turn in period bromance drama, The Untamed, as its new spokesperson.
Xiao boasts almost 30 million followers on social media platform Weibo and the hashtag associated with the appointment has been read more than 410 million times and discussed more than 1.91 million times on that platform in the hours since it was first released.
Last week, Tod’s said its sales rose 19 percent to 178 million euros ($217.38 million) in the three months ended March 31, with sales in Greater China up 136.7 percent to 62.8 million euros ($72.7 million), while sales revenue from Europe and the Americas fell.
According to Ruder Finn’s 2020 China Luxury Report, mainland Chinese consumers place more importance on KOL (or key opinion leader, the local term for influencer) and celebrity endorsements in their luxury spending decisions, with nearly 80 percent of respondents saying their influence is becoming more and more important.
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.
While travel to Europe remains muted, Chinese shoppers are flocking to Singapore, Thailand and other Southeast Asian destinations where fashion retailers are hoping Lunar New Year marketing investments will pay off.
Local fashion designers experimenting with puffers and other down clothing have scored collaborations with outerwear companies like Moncler and attracted the attention of prominent international retailers like H.Lorenzo.