For a long time it has been a rather one-sided exchange, but could European consumers finally be starting to embrace Chinese luxury? “There’s a growing audience for Chinese brands – it’s more lifestyle and homeware products at the moment, but that could change,” says HSBC analyst Antoine Belge.
At the Eyes On Talent awards in Trieste, Italy, which aims to connect labels with new designers, two of the main category winners were young and Chinese: Xiao Li, a student at the Royal College of Art and Percy Lau of St Martins. This is just the latest example of a trend for China cultivating its own design talent.
Designer Huishan Zhang, who splits his time between China and London, received British Fashion Council “Newgen” backing to show at February’s London Fashion Week. Zhang’s collection is stocked in Browns Fashion in London and Joyce in Hong Kong, and has just been taken on by Neiman Marcus. “His clothes are beautiful,” says Ken Downing, the store’s senior vice-president and fashion director, adding that he is scouting for more Chinese designers for Neiman Marcus’s new Chinese ecommerce site.