Fashioning a stylish future

Retailer establishes foundation with the aim of putting Chinese designs on the global runway

Bailian Group, China's leading retailer by sales, announced during the recently concluded 2018 Fall/Winter Shanghai Fashion Week that it had established the Bailian Fashion Foundation, with an initial investment of 100 million yuan ($15.9 million; 12.8 million euros; ￡11.1 million).

Chen Yijun, the managing partner of the foundation, says this investment could grow to 500 million yuan by the end of this year.

The foundation's goals include providing financial and technical support to local designers and building a global team of fashion buyers. One of its major projects will be the establishment of a fashion school in partnership with the Italian Accademia Costume & Moda to bolster the quality of talent coming out of China.

"Chinese companies have already become major players in the global technology and internet industries. It is just a matter of time before a Chinese designer reaches that level in the global creative industry," says Chen.

During a forum co-organized by Business France and Bailian Group, which took place on the sidelines of the SFW, Pascal Morand, president of the French Federation de la Haute Couture, said Chinese designers must first find their identities if they are to succeed on the world stage.

As young consumers today are more motivated by unique styles that reflect their individuality instead of big name brands, working with independent Chinese designers could also help draw more traffic to physical stores and in turn revive the flagging brick and mortar retail segment, Chen says.

The designers sponsored by the foundation will be given an option to sell their creations at the thousands of stores across the country operated by Bailian Group. Chen says the group expects sales of fashion products by designers backed by the foundation to amount to about 4.5 billion yuan by 2022.

With more than 4,700 sales points, including department stores, outlets and supermarkets in 200 cities in China, the State-owned conglomerate operates nearly two-thirds of the shopping malls in Shanghai. Last year, sales by Bailian Group accounted for 28 percent of the total in Shanghai's retail industry.

"As a dominant player in the retail industry, we can help these designers showcase their creations at our stores, which are located in prime locations," he says.

"E-commerce has drawn many customers away from physical shops. It's time we brought them back."

As part of its efforts to wrest market share back from e-commerce competitors, the group is currently redesigning its shopping spaces to appeal to a younger clientele. In September, it launched The Balancing, a multibrand store similar in concept to Lane Crawford, a Hong Kong luxury chain, at one of its malls in Shanghai. In addition, the group has hired a small team of fashion buyers to source the latest creations by designers all over the world.

Zhuang Lyuyi, director of the buying team for The Balancing, says the store represents a groundbreaking milestone for China's fashion industry.

"This is the first time in China an all-Chinese buyers' team has been financed by a Chinese company," says Zhuang, who previously worked for Lane Crawford and Italian multibrand store chain 10 Corso Como in China as a buyer.

She says the store managed to hit the industry average for sales per square meter within just two months of opening.

"The biggest advantage we have over the big players is our intimate knowledge of local customers and their preferences," says Zhuang.

This success prompted the group to open a second store in Pudong after less than six months. A third store is expected to be launched in August. Zhuang says each store will stock a wide range of fashion and lifestyle products from up to 200 brands.

Established in 2002 as a stage for international luxury brands to host their debut shows in China, Shanghai Fashion Week has in recent years evolved into a multidimensional event incorporating not only runway shows, but also trade fairs, industry forums and a weekend-long party that is accessible to tens of thousands of visitors.

The event has also repositioned itself as a middleman to help connect domestic designers with buyers and retailers from around the world. Last year, Lyu Xiaolei, vice secretary-general of the SFW, vowed to build the event into "Asia's largest fashion season for buyers to place orders".

"Every project we plan and put on our already packed calendar is aimed at getting our designers more involved in the business world and boosting their sales," said Lyu.

This year, the SFW hosted upward of 100 shows - nearly double the number two years ago - inside the prominent white tent set up on Taiping Lake at the city's landmark Xintiandi area.

The opening show of the event saw Mickey Mouse celebrate his birthday alongside 15 local designers, including Wang Haizhen and Ban Xiaoxue, who were involved in helping to design a special collection that features the Disney character.

On the second day of the event, French luxury fashion house Dior held a showcase of its haute couture collection that debuted in Paris in January. The fashion house also prepared a special segment especially for the Chinese audience - a 12-piece capsule collection, inspired by Chinese folding fans, created by Dior's artistic director Maria Grazia Chiuri.

Two Hong Kong fashion divas, Carina Lau and Rosemund Kwan, also unveiled the latest collections from their own fashion lines.

One of the SFW's biggest partners this year was Chinese e-commerce giant Tmall, which hosted four shows that operated under the "see-now-buy-now" model.

Popularized on the global fashion stage about two years ago, this concept refers to how audiences - whether seated beside the runway or watching the event through a livestream - can instantly purchase fashion items they see on the catwalk via their mobile phones. Delivery of the products will take no longer than a few days, in stark contrast to the conventional process where a piece of clothing debuted at a fashion show can take up to six months to hit the shelves.

xujunqian@chinadaily.com.cn

( China Daily Africa Weekly 04/20/2018 page15)