Why millennials in China are rejecting luxury fashion brands

Obsessions

In Cathay, millennials are rejecting luxury fashion brands in favour of niche labels

Niche foreign labels take been gaining traction in Cathay for at to the lowest degree the past 5 years, but recently their appeal has accelerated. Here'south why.

In China, millennials are rejecting luxury fashion brands in favour of niche labels — A guest arriving to Shanghai Style Calendar week 2018. (Photograph: Johanes Eiselle/AFP)

Keira Kong, a millennial Shanghai-based agent for South Korean music artists, is trying to explicate her newfound love for French brand Coperni. "I detest looking similar a 1000000 dollars. I want to look independent and smart – like I'1000 different, just not too different."

Since designers Arnaud Vaillant and Sebastien Meyer relaunched the label in 2019, Kong has congenital a small wardrobe of Coperni staples, including two dresses, 2 tops, three jackets and a pair of trousers. She commends the brand's tailoring, its signature asymmetric cuts and its prices (T-shirts sell for virtually 839 yuan on farfetch.cn, or S$178).

"The fabrics are never going to be at Chanel's level merely their cut, their concept and the way they run across women is never too girly," continued Kong. "They like strong, independent women and that's who I am trying to exist."

Like Kong, a growing number of Chinese consumers, frequently function of the Gen Z and millennial cohorts, are using vesture and luxury purchases to differentiate themselves from their peers. Purchases are less motivated by the older generation'southward paradigm of "condition" and more influenced past elements such as "identity statement", says Federica Levato, partner at Bain & Company in Milan. This shift has opened the way for bottom-known and edgier brands to provide a signal of departure from the big luxury labels now ubiquitous in the country.

It's a trend that hasn't gone unnoticed by Wenyan Jiao, director of Shanghai and Wuxi-based multi-brand boutique Mushion, which stocks brands such as Cult Gaia, By Far and Nanushka. "[Young consumers] in starting time-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are showing increasingly personal characteristics in their fashion styles," she said. "The previous generations may not take such a high level of acceptance when it comes to trying things outside of their comfort zone."

Independent multi-make boutiques, which accept been expanding in the country since the late 2000s, have contributed to this shift. Their owners, such every bit Jiao, often studied away and are particularly attuned to international influences. Meimei Ding, chief executive of showroom DFO International, describes a new generation of buyers that are less attached to institutional logos and luxury brands and more interested in existence tastemakers. "They want to exist the selector of what's cool, rather than existence led by very big brands," she said.

"I desire to wait independent and smart – similar I'm different, just not likewise different." – Keira Kong

Niche foreign labels take been gaining traction in the land for at least the past v years, just recently their appeal has accelerated. The arrival of foreign e-commerce platforms hosting a wide diversity of smaller labels have fabricated these brands much more attainable beyond the state. Farfetch opened a digital storefront on Chinese e-commerce platform JD.com in 2019, and is now too bachelor on Tmall, and Ssense launched its Mandarin site in 2018.

Only a larger shift in consumer civilisation is also nether manner, says Adam Knight, co-founder of Mainland china-focused marketing agency Tong Digital. He points to how more nuanced ways of defining success are emerging in the state, beyond how much money 1 makes or what luxury brands i owns, and sees countercultural movements such every bit "lying flat", with young people pushing back against overwork and the country's gruelling "996" culture (working from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week), every bit a sign of changing priorities and values.

"Immature consumers are looking for more meaningful forms of creating self-identity through luxury purchases," he said. "It's an exciting fourth dimension for a lot of smaller brands to get in and showtime building reputable businesses from the ground up."

This was the case for London-based Yuzefi, which was founded in 2022 and is known for its sculptural handbags. The label makes xv per cent of its £five million (S$9.2 million) in almanac sales in China, just expects that share to grow to 25 per cent in the next 12 months on the back of its recent launches on due east-commerce platforms Tmall and JD.com, and on social platform Xiaohongshu.

Founder Naza Yousefi credits the label'southward Chinese success to a combination of product uniqueness and proficient timing, with a scrap of help from Atlanta-based Chinese blogger Savi of @savislook, who independently started to wear the brand in 2017, exposing the characterization to her four 1000000 Weibo followers.

"We do well in that territory considering our products look so different from other brands and that gives us an edge," said Yousefi. Similarly, Beste Manastir, co-founder of Turkish leather goods brand Manu Atelier, says Chinese consumers were attracted by the unusual blueprint and bright colours of her Pristine handbags.

The label launched in 2022 and quickly gained a following in the country, despite not having a direct presence in the market at that time (the brand is at present sold on Tmall and JD.com, as well every bit six offline retailers). China now represents 34 per cent of Manu Atelier'south wholesale sales and is head to head with the US every bit the brand's largest market.

"The previous generations may not accept such a high level of acceptance when it comes to trying things outside of their comfort zone." – Wenyan Jiao

To accept a shot with China's new savvy fashion consumers, uniqueness of design is paramount, but Ding of DFO Exhibit stresses that it needs to be combined with good fit, price point, brand awareness and availability.

Pascal Conte-Jodra, managing director of Mugler, seems to have followed this formula when he approached the Chinese market iii-and-a-half years ago as function of the larger relaunch of the brand under artistic director Casey Cadwallader. The brand partnered with six stockists in key locations and focused on building relationships with local talents, such as creative consultant Leaf Greener and singers Jike Junyi, Bibi Zhou and Cai Xukun.

"More than in other countries, in China is about taking the time to build relationships with local insiders to really become that indie fashion brand that everyone talks about on a very personal level," said Conte-Jodra.

Jamie Freed, global vice-president, private client, at Farfetch, says the e-commerce site's highest-spending clients, who spend at least 100,000 yuan a year, accept been especially interested in niche South Korean and western brands since the get-go of the pandemic.

"They are starting to abandon what was the hot genre of fashion pre-pandemic – luxury streetwear – and we are seeing more of a diversification of the fashion portfolio, shifting towards typically feminine brands like Alessandra Rich and subdued minimalistic brands like Rick Owens and The Row."

These changes in consumer behaviour are most axiomatic across beginning and 2nd-tier cities, where luxury consumption has already matured, but Danni Liu, managing director of iBlue Communications and a onetime media strategist at Chanel, says social media are breaking downwards barriers between city tiers, with trends seeping through more hands. "It'south not merely sophisticated groups, it'southward a wider trend," she said.

"I definitely think that at that place has been a very stiff trend going into this direction down to everyday consumers," added DFO'due south Ding, noticing how posts virtually niche brands on Xiaohongshu, a popular social commerce platform with more than 300 million users, are on the rise.

Similarly, Knight says that rather than trickling down from well-off, fashionable shoppers to a wider set of consumers, these changes are a generational shift happening across the board. Brands that rest on their laurels are set to suffer, he believes. "It's this generation and these consumers who are going to ability all consumption for the side by side decade," he said.