Brand Recently Held "One Night Only In Beijing" Fashion Event#
This week, Giorgio Armani’s “One Night Only in Beijing” event took place at the New Tank in the Chinese capital's 798 Art District, the largest such fashion happening at that venue. The event centered around a runway show “presenting the world of Armani,” with couture looks “created specifically as a tribute to China” and a guest list of around 1,000 attendees.
Armani plans to kick up its China efforts to tap the middle class in second-, third- and fourth-tier inland cities, a large and highly segmented group whose spending is expected to continue rising even as the broader luxury market in China registers lower annual growth rates. As Fabio Mancone, director of licensing and communications, said this week, Armani plans to open 80 to 100 stores in mainland China within the next three years, many of which to be located in smaller cities.
Reflecting on Armani's strategy of tapping the Chinese middle class, the Wall Street Journal takes a look at how this indicates greater changes in the mainland China luxury market as a whole.