Ye Qizheng Talking About Chinese Designer Brand

There are more and more names of Chinese designers, and many of them have international fame. But how many Chinese consumers are willing to pay for the works of compatriot designers? How are Chinese designer brands in the rapidly growing domestic market in the face of the attack of international luxury brands and cheap Shanzhai goods? clothing A slice of the consumer market?

B= reporter

Y= Ye Qi Zheng

B: in the past, we are familiar with the brand designer Marco, who once brought the "high-end" line of "exception" to Paris's advanced custom fashion week. So how did the two originally co founded the brand?

Y: the exception is co founded by Mao Jihong and mark. It is one of the longest established designer brands in China. It has just completed 14 years. At first, the two founders were designers, and then they had division of labor. Mark was the artistic director and Mao Jihong was in charge of commercial operation.

B: what is the current profit status of "exceptions"? Do you think it is a successful example of Chinese designer brand?

Y: as far as I know, their company has been in sound development, and has not borrowed money from banks since its foundation, and has always been running on its own funds. "Useless" belongs to the company's experimental brand, so there is no profit requirement. The "exception" relies on design to get the brand premium, which is of guiding significance to China's garment industry and even to China's manufacturing industry. Of course, to let consumers or customers pay the bill, the design must meet or guide them, which most designers need to understand.

B: when it comes to "useless", it is easy to remind people of the "up and down" which was born only a few months ago. Their brand ideas and style positioning all coincide, and they can see some shadow of Japanese designer brand in 1980s. So, is this style really attractive to consumers in the domestic market?

Y: influenced by Japanese designers, there is no need to avoid it. After all, everyone's culture has something in common. Of course, if Chinese designer brand wants to be famous, it must create its own style. Now domestic consumers are becoming more and more knowledgeable, so they become more smart and savvy. A style can only meet the needs of some consumers. Designers should identify their customers according to their preferences and strengths.

B: "useless" has run shows in Paris, and "up and down" has Herm big S. Is international fame a shortcut for local designer brands?

Y: "up and down" is Herm's s investment, but it is a brand based entirely on the Chinese market. "Useless" is an attempt after the "exceptions" have taken a firm foothold. Designer brand, like all brands, should be rooted in the local market, not to mention that China is a fast-growing market with many immature places, and there will be barbaric growth opportunities. India designer Manish Arora, the Lebanese designer Elie Saab, went overseas after having enough business in China.

B: China. Designer brand In terms of market positioning and business strategy, what kinds of categories can you think of?

Y: as in foreign countries, there are basically two types of business operations: one is the designer brand that takes the customized route, such as Guo Pei, Lu Kun, Wang Peiyi, and the other is the designer brand for making garments, such as "exception", "Su ran" and "Jiangnan Bu Yi". In terms of market positioning, the price of customized products is definitely higher than that of garments. The price difference of customization class is bigger, the price of clothing class mostly concentrates on the two or three line brand, because the consumer base of this level is bigger, and there is the demand of stylistic differentiation.

B: street stores and shopping malls, which brands do you prefer?

Y: actually, the first group of designer brands took shopping malls as the main channel, and the middle and high-end shopping malls for the masses. At that time, these shopping malls were also open for a long time, such as mealong town square. With the maturity of shopping malls, the entry threshold is gradually improving. So the designer turned to choose a street store. Changle Road once became a designer's brand. Later, the rent of such a golden area began to rise sharply, and the crowd in the street shops could not compete with the shopping malls, and most stores took the way of deduction to replace the rent. So now designer brand has begun to turn to shopping malls, such as Xintiandi fashion. This is like a reincarnation, according to foreign experience, designer brand can independently open shop is always a minority, China is also very difficult to be different.

The best selling channel for designer brands is a multi brand fashion department store with buyers. But there are few domestic shops of this type. Hong Huang's new BNC concept store in Sanlitun, Beijing is an attempt.

B: so are local designers keen to shop online?

Y: there are few designer brands on the Internet. Because the price of the domestic online shopping market is still low, it is difficult for consumers to pay the bill if the designer's brand is not well known. However, some designers have begun to try, for example, 7D network has signed several 10 independent designers, including He Yan, Simon Wang and so on. Jiangnan Buyi opened flagship store in Taobao mall, but mainly sold over season products.

B: for designers, is it hard to get an investment? How much does it cost to make a designer brand in China?

Y: at the moment, it is very unlikely that designer brands will make big money in the short term, and it is hard for investors to earn much money. So designers are mostly well-off families. It's the easiest way to build brands by family support. To make a custom oriented designer brand five hundred thousand can start. If you make a clothing designer brand, you may need more than five million.

B: to be fair, do you think the price of Chinese designer clothes is not expensive? Is it worth the cost? In other words, what are the professional skills and qualities of young designers themselves?

Y: it's really expensive. There are many reasons. The main reason is that the sales volume is not enough, so we can't reduce the unit price to get enough profit. Like young designers who want to be independent, they need to constantly learn to enrich themselves, as well as professional skills and qualities, and to learn more business related knowledge. It's natural to be able to study abroad, but the most important thing is to know what you want to do. Most of the art schools in China are transferred to art classes because they are afraid of failing to go to university.

B: China's fashion market is more like the US, not Europe, because the domestic market is huge. Is this kind of soil more advantageous or unfavorable for designer brands? Are Chinese consumers ready to accept local designer brands?

Y: indeed, on the one hand, the domestic market is very large. On the other hand, Chinese fashion has not had any cultural accumulation before, or there is a fault, so the consumer is almost a blank sheet. I remember that in the past few years, just buying furniture and decorations from IKEA can make the shop a little bit designed to flicker consumers, or simply whitewash the walls and hang the clothes on the wall very "Antwerp". Of course, it is not possible to be so extensive, but generally speaking, consumers are not as mature as those in Europe and America. Therefore, as long as one or two steps ahead of the consumer, it should be said that this is very beneficial to the designer brand. Of course, with the entry of a large number of foreign brands, consumers are choosing more and more. Local designer brands can not wait for consumers to accept them. Instead, they should take the initiative to find their own position. Otherwise, when the time is up, it will be difficult for them to have a foothold.

B: so in China, should the "brand" and "designer" be marked ">" or "<"?

Y: for designers, it's just a measure of whether or not they have the ability to let customers rush to pay for you - just like the audience rushing to Ge You to buy movie tickets - if not, do the design first. If a man has no name, he will concentrate on practicing sword. In addition, we must remember Carle Lagrange in the documentary "fashion emperor" from the beginning, said: "fashion has never been a fair industry."