How Far Is China's Advanced Garment From Luxury?

Lu Xiaoming, former president of China MontBlanc [micro-blog], has consistently stressed that "clothing and jewellery are the two most likely categories of luxury goods in China." But in the industry, another argument is the two major areas of imitation and luxury. The gap between China and the world is very large.

In the field of luxury goods, Western brands are constantly trying to "Sinicization" in order to cater to Chinese consumers. Similarly, many brands in China are constantly internationalized. Global Market.

In October 25th, the seventeenth China International Fashion Week opened in Beijing. The NE / TIGER "Ming Li" custom dress became the first big show to open. In the field of advanced garment customization, many of the world's top designers come from China, and there are many famous fashion designers such as mark, Marry Ma and Guo Pei in China.

However, China's advanced garment customization has yet to achieve a "qualitative breakthrough". Why? In the field of garment making, what are the western brands worthy of our learning? Where are the opportunities for China's advanced garment customization?

　 Process inheritance

Many fashion brands are doing light assets business, firmly holding brand and design, and other products such as production, logistics, channels, sales, almost all "outsourcing" to agents, and this mode can maximize brand benefits.

But the only special industry in the fashion industry is the fashion industry, or the production of advanced garments. Almost all major brands are tightly controlled in their own hands from the source of the industrial chain to the consumer side. Italy's famous men's wear brand Canali is such a brand. Global business director Paolo Canali told the China business newspaper that Canali has been doing industrial chain integration for many years, starting from the source material, to the main parts, sewing and then to channel sales, all in Italy production.

And similar to Canali, in the field of industry chain integration, NE TIGER has firmly clenched these fields in its own hands, and even worked harder than western brands.

On the debut of fashion week, NE TIGER was unveiled in a series of Chinese dress. With natural silk as its carrier, Chinese traditional silk, brocade, and gold embroidery were applied to the traditional Chinese classics.

"Use is the best protection." Zhang Zhifeng, chairman and artistic director of NE TIGER, said that in the field of traditional Chinese clothing, four famous embroidery and silk crafts were almost lost, and the state is protecting them in the form of intangible cultural heritage. For thousands of years, China's clothing technology has been able to continuously innovate.

In the series of garments of NE TIGER, embroidery is the most widely used. The most brilliant part of a garment is almost finished by the four most famous embroidered "Suxiu" in China. It is reported that NE TIGER invited dozens of elderly people over 70 years old to complete the embroidery process in Suzhou, but also helped the brand develop new strength.

In fact, in the field of fashion, the training of technicians is even more energy consuming than designers. Paolo also told reporters that in Italy, Canali has a special training school for technicians, specially trained and trained excellent technicians for Canali to inherit traditional handicrafts.

In the field of fashion making, Liu Yuan, a fashion industry investor, has seen almost the same path between China and the West. "Brand can train designers, but also can hunt" from the market ", but craftsmen are very difficult, and need to inherit, this has to start from scratch. Fortunately, not only is NE TIGER, but also many Chinese brands are quietly starting to make clothes by making garments, restoring traditional Chinese handicrafts and training new people.

Liu Yuan told reporters that in the field of investment in the fashion industry, capital is also gradually investing in this field. "Although the effect is slow, the brand insists." Long-term In terms of capital, there will be big returns. "

　 Consumption maturity

In the past two years, China's luxury industry has changed greatly. Zhou Ting, President of the Institute of wealth and quality research, said that from "de LOGO" to "customization", Chinese consumers took only two years to complete. This means that the core consumers of luxury goods in China are getting more and more mature and "know what is the most suitable for me".

Zhou Ting believes that such a change is not a good opportunity for many Chinese brands, because the Chinese know best about Chinese consumers. Zhang Zhifeng also has such a judgement, in his view, luxury is not a complex thing, is "culture, art and fashion three integration".

Therefore, in addition to making clothes, NE TIGER spent more energy on creating cultural experience, such as Qin, chess, books, paintings, poetry, wine, flowers and tea, and used these to gather the core consumers. "Westerners are learning oriental culture, we must return. The most powerful era in China is Tang, which is strong in culture. I believe China's strength in the future must also depend on culture. " Zhang Zhifeng said he did not ask others to do just like him. Own What should be done.

The maturity of consumers has given NE TIGER more opportunities. Zhang Zhifeng told reporters that over the past 5 years, China's commercial real estate has mushroomed, attracting more and more international luxury brands to open new stores. "This gives Chinese consumers more knowledge, broader vision, more global buying and deeper understanding of fashion." Zhang Zhifeng said.

Paolo also holds the same view: "the change in China's men's wear market is a reflection of the maturity of Chinese consumers, who used to buy brands, and now those genuine products sell better, not just for pure cashmere suits."

Paolo believes that with the increasingly fierce competition, Chinese consumers are more and more professionalism, and are constantly treating every brand and commodity with a critical eye. Canali used to sell clothes in China, but now it is slowly turning to customization. "The biggest challenge for us is how to make consumers who buy products in China enjoy the luxury of being consistent with Italy."

Liu Yuan believes that the maturity of consumers will release greater vitality and purchasing power to the market, and with the power of capital, a group of designer brands or advanced custom brands will come into the lives of consumers. But the biggest risk is that with the help of capital, some "short-sighted" brands will sacrifice their quality to replace the quantity, so that this newly started industry will be "lost".

Large scale production of clothing, accessories and so on, with the power of capital, brings brand awareness and sales volume, but clothing advanced customization is not able to win by volume. Consumers must have the feeling of "hard to find". In addition, advanced customization tests designers and engineers' deep understanding of their brands, and can seize the needs of consumers to achieve the "three party balance".

It is for this reason that in order to make the brand scarce, Zhang Zhifeng was doing "close shop" when he opened shop in a big way. He only opened a boutique to lead consumers locally.

"The field of advanced customization in China's clothing industry is moving towards the direction of luxury goods. However, whether it is brand awareness or internationalization, there is a certain gap between the international brand and the international brand. Liu Yuanru said.