Exclusive Interview With Patrick Thomas: We Need Not Cater To The Trend.

In October, at the junction of Huaihai middle road and Songshan road in the center of Shanghai, in a red brick building at the beginning of twentieth Century, in the space designed by Japanese architect Ma Yan Wu, the flagship shop of the Chinese brand "upper and lower" of the Hermes group was completed. The 7 year old local brand sells handicrafts from Chinese craftsmen: from hundreds of dollars of silk passport bags to more than ten thousand yuan of bamboo woven cups, from twenty thousand yuan red sandalwood stool to hundreds of thousands of Ming style furniture.

This is the new Chinese style. extravagant Is it? Hermes global CEO Patrick Thomas doesn't think so. In this space full of Zen, he showed the confidence and ambition of Hermes to "up and down": "we do not need to cater to the trend. For me, the core goal is not to maximize the interests of the business, but to really create the quality of the "up and down" brand.

"Helping China regain the culture of handmade products"

Reporter: Hermes has so many stores in China. Why do you want to create the brand of "up and down"?

Patrick Thomas:, I wanted to start a company from a long time ago. The company's culture is centered on handicraft, innovation and fashion. Once, when I visited Shanghai, I met Ms. Joan. She told me that she had an idea of resurrecting Chinese handicrafts and mentioned the brand of "up and down". At that time, she was an architect, and we discussed many topics. She said handicrafts had been diluted in Chinese culture, so she wanted to create a Chinese handicraft brand. Then we discussed manual products. core The "up and down" brand helps China regain the culture of handicrafts because China has several thousand years of history. This is 7 years ago.

Reporter: how does "up and down" locate in business? How does it sell compared with Hermes?

Patrick Thomas: "up and down" is just a brand of Hermes, or a sister brand. It is just the beginning. At present, we have only 4 stores in the world, and each store has its own characteristics. But it is very different from Hermes. For Hermes's handicrafts, we employ the French artisans, while the "upper and lower" brand handicrafts are employed by Chinese handicraftsmen. We have compared the craftsmen and craftsmen of both countries. Of course, for me, the core goal is not to maximize the interests of the business, but to really create the quality of the brand, including the good quality of the merchandise in the store. We are now Shop The fashion quality is outstanding. With the efforts of Ms. Jones and her team, our store will get better and better.

"We never care about sales volume, we only care about quality."

Reporter: is "up and down" the same as Hermes customer base? Will there be competition?

Patrick Thomas: I really hope they have competition before. This is a very positive sign. And to be honest, we don't have a special target audience. Hermes's customers and customers are very good. They have their own opinions on fashion. If you look at the fashion we have designed in the store "up and down", you will find that the design before and after the brand is the current design, including the future design concept, maintaining good consistency. This consistency gives a clue to every new design. Through a step by step innovative design, the brand will continue to develop in a specific direction.

Reporter: how many stores are up and down?

Patrick Thomas:4 years ago, we opened our first store in Shanghai, and now we have 2 stores in mainland China. The storefront in Shanghai is a very large storefront store. In this shop, we display a lot of textured goods.

Reporter: what kind of scale do you hope to achieve in the future?

Patrick Thomas: my expectations for the "up and down" brand are very clear, that is, we never care about sales volume, but we only care about the quality of products. If "up and down" can succeed in China, it is actually an achievement of customers in their tastes. "Up and down" has a tendency to deviate from the fashion trend, because if you look at China from the outside, the taste of the actual Chinese consumers is improving a little bit, so we do not need to cater to the trend and blindly follow the trend. And China's craftsmen are highly skilled. We only need to make first-class quality products, and customers will be attracted by our quality. That is our goal. So I repeat that sales volume is not important, quality is all of this brand.

"Up and down is not just a Chinese concept."

Reporter: will the storefront store up and down be built into a way of life, or a unique place to reflect the Chinese way of life, or is it more like the one in Paris?

Patrick Thomas: No, no, no, it's not just a concept. It's a real goal. We have already considered this store in Shanghai now. At present, our store in Paris is very small, only about 19 square meters, so it looks very compact and rich. Shanghai needs a bigger store. If necessary, we will consider expanding the storefront of Shanghai, or even moving directly to a larger store, because now we are not in the same size as Shanghai four years ago.

Reporter: have you considered the cooperation with China's "first lady"? Because you also know that Mr. Xi Jinping once wore an Hermes tie in public.

Patrick Thomas: we have not yet discussed the cooperation with the first lady, but we would be very honored to have this opportunity. You know, if the "first lady" can wear the "up and down" brand someday, we will be very proud.