Why Is The World'S Most Important Men'S Wear Exhibition Popular Among Chinese Brands?

The traditional fashion schedule dominated by the four fashion week is constantly challenged and replaced by more dynamic new forms. PITTI UOMO, which is held twice a year in Florence, Italy, is one of the powerful deconstructive forces.

As we have constantly stressed, fashion is an attention economy. In the past two years, PITTI UOMO has attracted more and more attention from industry and consumers in Florence in recent two years. It has made the Milan men's wear week closely followed. The ninety-sixth PITTI UOMO, which just ended in June 14th, has ushered in the public opinion craze due to the endorsement of more luxury brands and the rich and varied activities.

French luxury brand Givenchy as guest brand, released the creative director Clare Waight Keller after the first independent men's wear show. Sterling Ruby, who has worked closely with Raf Simons, released the first show of its personal brand in PITTI UOMO. The Italy luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo and luxury electric business LuisaViaRoma, which are not on the official agenda, also held a fashion show in the four day exhibition, giving the PITTI UOMO much more than the men's wear exhibition.

According to official figures, there were 18500 buyers of PITTI UOMO, of which 8200 came from about 100 countries from outside Italy, meaning that nearly half of the buyers came from international markets other than Italy. Although the number of visitors declined by 3% compared with June 2018, the organizers of the exhibition expressed satisfaction that the PITTI UOMO still achieved great success in the difficult global economic environment.

According to Raffaello Napoleone, chief executive officer of PITTI UOMO, the growth of markets in France, Turkey, China, Belgium and Russia has been slight this year, while some other markets have declined slightly, such as Germany, Spain, Japan, the United States and Italy.

The Chinese men's wear market is indeed on the eve of the outbreak. According to the data released by the foresight Industry Research Institute, "China Men's clothing industry production and sales demand and investment forecast analysis report", during the 2016-2020 year forecast period, the Chinese men's wear market is expected to maintain a steady growth of a compound annual growth rate of 13.1%. By 2020, the retail market of men's wear market is expected to reach 979 billion 300 million yuan.

In addition, the majority of men's casual wear brands in China are occupied by the domestic market. Domestic men's clothing brands occupy more than 80% shares, and foreign brands are about 20%. Domestic menswear market concentration showed an upward trend, the top 100 brands of men's clothing increased from 44.6% in 2008 to 54.5% in 2017.

From the perspective of the entire clothing and consumer market, AI media consulting data show that in 2018, the retail value of clothing, shoes, hats, needles and textile products in China exceeded 1 trillion and 370 billion 650 million yuan, and the per capita clothing consumption expenditure of residents reached 1289 yuan, accounting for 6.5% of the total expenditure per capita, and the growth rate of clothing consumption per capita was 4.1%. Apparel consumer market has steadily increased.

Under such circumstances, China has played a more important role in the PITTI UOMO. Since 2010, PITTI UOMO has opened an international guest country project Guest Nation Project for all countries in the world. This year, China was first invited to become a guest country in the Guest Nation Project, leading the Chinese designer brand and commercial brand to show the largest guest nation project Guest Nation China to date.

11 Chinese designers and brands screened by the guest country project curator, avant garde Festival and independent designer development tiger tiger Labelhood show the works in the underground space of the Florence Exhibition Center, including 8ON8, DANSHAN, FFIXXED STUDIOS, PERCY LAU, PRIVATE POLICY, PRONOUNCE, Grotte, FFIXXED, and STUDIOS.

Among them, PRONOUNCE became the first Chinese brand to run independently in PITTI UOMO. PRONOUNCE's concept footwear based on CONVERSE Jack Purcell also appeared on the show, proving that the ability of Chinese creative power to interact with and integrate with international brands is rapidly improving.

At the same time, Tmall as an exclusive strategic partner, and GXG, mark Hua Fei FAIRWHALE and Hui Li and other domestic menswear brands also displayed in this space. The exhibition site also presents the photographer Zhang Jiacheng's works exhibition by Cui Dan, and the magazine GUEST NATION CHINA MAGAZINE, which was planned and edited by Cui Dan team.

In fact, the layout of the exhibition just outlined the current situation of China's fashion industry. On the one hand, a new generation of independent designers has gained more and more market recognition on the platform of consumer awareness and purchasing power, fashion week and so on. From the perspective of creativity, there are a number of designers who really have international perspectives and global culture. For example, the 8ON8 brand is inspired by the story of San Junipero in the black mirror of the British drama. The series of FFIXXED STUDIOS shows cooperation with Swiss artist Tobias Kaspar, and PRIVATE POLICY is inspired by the 50 year old New York Stonewall Riot stone wall event.

On the other hand, GXG, Mark Ed Faye and other domestic commercial men's wear brands are making use of the trend of Tmall led electricity supplier to carry out the second round of brand upgrading. On the basis of their huge volume and the mature operating mechanism under the line, they are looking for a variety of creative marketing ways, such as cross - border cooperation, to make the brand young and bring new sense to the consumers. At the same time, a number of emerging creative talents, such as photographers and media people, have emerged in China. To some extent, the guest country project is more like a miniature model of the current Chinese fashion industry.

If in the past two or three years, the overseas industry has been able to see the spanformation of Chinese fashion through the Chinese designers who show their heads on the international stage, this guest country project has focused on the outstanding achievements of Chinese fashion, providing a fast access to the Chinese fashion context for the global industry people who are curious about Chinese fashion.

In the four days, Guest Nation China recorded more than 12000 visitors, including fashion commentator Suzy Menkes, 032C editor Joerg Koch, W chief editor Stefano Tonchi, chairman of the group of W, Chairman Mao, fashion consultant and so on.

The opinions of these authoritative leaders affect the international industry's understanding of China's fashion industry. For a long time and even today, the international industry still has some misunderstandings about Chinese fashion. They are not interested in Chinese fashion, or have established error understanding in the process of cross-cultural communication. However, over the past two or three years, as the voice of Chinese creative talents and consumers has expanded, and the European market has been sluggish, the international industry has begun to try to get out of the comfort zone and reexamine Chinese fashion.

Such changes are not only driven by the change of consciousness, but also by the support of industry and capital. At present, Chinese fashion is being further industrialized, and a complete interest chain has been constructed from display platform, sales channel, brand side, brand consulting company and public relations company. This is directly reflected in the large number of sponsorship teams in this guest country.

The Guest Nation China was jointly presented by the Fondazione Pitti Immagine Discovery excavation foundation jointly with Shanghai fashion week. It was jointly launched by Alibaba's Tmall and Lei Hu Labelhood and international brand consulting company V/Collective. Other major partners include CONVERSE Converse, Florence town's famous outlets Florentia Village, GXG, Hui Li Huili, kapok, Shi Xian Taibai and Neos.

This means that the initiative of the relevant industry chain links has been truly mobilized by the guest country project, which reflects the collective appearance of a country's fashion industry more truly. For example, the town of Florence has launched a series of "series of emerald green tours" with designers.

The right to speak in the industry is supported by solid commercial support, which is constantly being confirmed in France and Italy. The reason why fashion industry can become a pillar industry lies in its complete chain. The rise of fashion industry is not only related to the achievements of individual creative talents, but also a complete and systematic operation. The collective appearance of China as the main body of the country proved the success of China's fashion industrialization.

Of course, China's becoming a PITTI UOMO guest nation is not just a public relations act to fight for international fashion discourse and image, it has more practical commercial significance.

Unlike the traditional four fashion week, PITTI UOMO, which started with trade shows, carries commercial genes from the very beginning. The appearance of Chinese designers in PITTI UOMO will directly bring more foreign sales channels to them, expand the overseas resources of designer brands, and pave the way for the expansion and sale of brands in the European market. Especially in Italy, where the raw materials and technology are long, the designer brand has the opportunity to make contact with better quality fabric suppliers to further enhance the quality of the brand.

In the process, PITTI UOMO has become an opportunity for Chinese designer brands to correct themselves. PITTI UOMO has sped up a large number of professionals who are deeply involved in the fashion industry in four days. This means that Chinese designers are facing more than just the media of "off guard", but practitioners of the apparel industry. The latter will provide the most authentic market feedback for the brand, so that the brand correction will have a better understanding of the market and better connect with consumers.

China's independent designers undoubtedly usher in the best times to date, but people still feel vaguely that this fragile force needs stronger commercial support to cope with more challenges. The next step of cognitive spanformation is to turn cognition into consumption. The climate of independent designers in China is not only related to market perception, but also depends on whether they can find a strong business logic.

When people begin to realize that the design industry is a complete ecosystem composed of creativity, content and commerce, the way out for Chinese independent designers is not only the enhancement of creativity, but also the cooperation of the whole industry. The process of subverting innovation has gone further from the core of the problem. This exhibition in the form of state undoubtedly accelerated the process of Chinese fashion rising.

For commercial brands, it is equally important to get the right to fashion discourse with the help of professional display platform. Nowadays, when consumers buy commercial brand products, they need not only a garment, but also symbolic value. Therefore, the most urgent thing for a business brand is to be recognized by professional fashion advice.

Take the brand of sports shoes as an example, Chinese consumers' confidence in domestic products has risen sharply over the past few years. With this Dongfeng back to the public view of the 90 years of domestic brand shoes back force, also copied the current mode of burst out of the country. Over the past year, the brand of Chinese goods is undergoing careful fashion upgrading. Its goal is to create a resonance among the wider global consumers beyond the identity symbols of Chinese goods. But it is well known that apart from "feelings" and "exploding money", it is not so easy to rejuvenate Chinese brands without the fashion genes. They need to cut into the fashion industry more professionally and participate in fashion exhibitions.

It is worth emphasizing that Chinese brands have been able to appear on the PITTI UOMO platform more confidently. Last month, the men's clothing brand GXG Mu sang Group Holdings Limited has officially landed at the Hong Kong stock exchange. In 2016, the predecessor of LVMH's L Catterton and Crescent Point purchased nearly 70% of the brand shares with nearly 4 billion yuan.

Last year, double eleven, GXG over UNIQLO became the top eleven men's brand of double eleven sales, and 12 hours sales amounted to 335 million yuan, exceeding the total sales of double eleven in 2017, leading the industry for ten consecutive years. The brand also opened its first new retail experience store in November last year. As a strong clothing brand of Tmall's online ecology, GXG can bring new experience to China's advanced technology for a more conservative European market. This has also become the bottom line for Chinese brands to expand to a broader stage.

Whether it is talent, technology, manufacturing or market, China is beginning to master the key elements of fashion competition. Opportunities for global fashion in the future are in China.