A red bag by Fendi for its Chinese New Year capsule collection.
The Lunar New Year travel and shopping season is in full swing, and that means Chinese tourists are flocking abroad to take advantage of luxury prices much lower than what they can find at home. As a result, a legion of luxury brands now creates special-edition items every holiday season in order to attract this high-spending group of shoppers, and this year is no different with a massive array of sheep-themed luxury items out there.
It should be noted that not all high-end labels are jumping on the zodiac animal bandwagon—companies like Coach and Michael Kors are instead opting to curate collections of their red and gold items to be promoted for the holiday, while Fendi has created a Chinese New Year capsule collection featuring a sheep-free red bag (pictured above) that can be sold all year round.
Zodiac luxury goods are still abundant, however. From watches to chocolates, we’ve rounded up a list of this year’s top sheep, goat, and ram luxury goods to ring in Chinese New Year.
Diane Von Furstenberg Chinese New Year New Julian Two Silk Jersey Wrap Dress
Following last year’s equine pattern, the iconic DVF wrap dress gets the Chinese zodiac treatment again this year with a festive holiday sheep design. The dress can be paired with DVF’s Lucky Sheep Chinese New Year Envelope Clutch, which comes in an auspicious shade of red.
Kate Spade Chinese New Year Sheep Clutch
Feedback on Weibo for the American label’s fuzzy shearling sheep clutch has been positive on the whole, with many adoring users saying the item is “too cute!” or even meng (萌, a loan word from Japan meaning something like “cute and innocent”). For added squeal factor, the special-edition bag can be paired with the brand’s faux-shearling sheep keychain.
Salvatore Ferragamo Goat & Sheep Printed Scarf
Going all out again for Chinese New Year, the Italian label has unveiled a special-edition sheep and goat scarf that’s available in red or black. Gentlemen hoping to make a statement at their next business meeting can also pick up Ferragamo’s special-edition sheep printed tie, which comes in a range of colors.
Vivienne Westwood Chinese New Year Goat Pendant
With red orbs hanging from its horns, Westwood’s pendant features both of the holiday’s most auspicious colors.
Mulberry Limited-Edition Mini Cara Delevingne Bag
Embossed with a stamped ram for Chinese New Year, the British leather goods brand rolled out a limited-edition series of its best-selling bag. Buyers who snag one of the coveted items in select locations globally (including Harrods in London, Galeries Lafayette in Paris, the Kerry Center in Shanghai) will be especially lucky, since only 88 of them have been produced in total. WeChat fans of the brand can also score one of eight bags reserved especially for the platform.
Edie Parker Jean Envelope Glittered Acrylic Box Clutch
Designed exclusively for Net-a-Porter for Chinese New Year, this “red envelope” holiday clutch features marbled red and glittery gold.
Estée Lauder Limited-Edition Year of The Goat Compact
Following up on its horse compact from last year, Estée Lauder has created a gold-and-crystal compact likely to sell well abroad—Chinese travelers love to stock up easy-to-pack on cosmetics as gifts for friends and family back home.
Baccarat Zodiaque Ram
This decorative glass piece comes in clear and golden crystal, and would pair well with last year’s gilded horse.
Ulysse Nardin Classico Goat
With a design similar to last year’s horse watch, Ulysse Nardin used champlevé enamel to create 88 handmade pieces featuring a mother goat with two kids.
Jaquet Droz Petite Heure Minute Relief Goats
With just 28 models available, the watchmaker’s two intricate Chinese New Year designs each feature three hand-engraved goats on a plum blossom dial inspired by classical Chinese paper-cutting.
Vacheron Constantin Legend of the Chinese Zodiac Goat
Making only 12 pieces each, the Swiss watchmaker continues its Legend of the Chinese Zodiac series with its rose gold and platinum timepieces. Buyers certainly don’t have to worry too much about prosperity for the new year, since they likely already have quite a bit of it—the watches are selling for €85,700 (US$97,416) and €104,100 (US$118,332) respectively.
Arnold & Son HM Goats
Limited to an auspicious eight pieces, Arnold & Son’s family of goats painted on a mother-of-pearl background is inspired by traditional Chinese ink aquarelle painting.
Chopard LUC XP Urushi
Also continuing its zodiac watch series, Chopard has unveiled a goat watch made with the sap of the Japanese urushi tree, which is used for the watch’s varnish. The hand-decorated piece comes in an octagonal presentation box also decorated with urushi techniques.
Piaget Altiplano Enamelled Cloisonné Goat
The watchmaker continues its “Art & Excellence” collection celebrating the Chinese New Year with a 38-piece collection limited exclusively to Piaget boutiques. The artwork is made with the Grand Feu enameling process, in which the work is fired in a kiln at extremely high temperatures to preserve longevity and purity.
Chinese New Year Patrón Añejo
Hoping to convince Chinese buyers that golden tequila is just as auspicious as Scotch for a Chinese New Year gift, the company teamed up with Chinese artist Peach Tao to create a special-edition red holiday tin.
Godiva Year of the Goat Limited Edition 2015
The chocolatier continues its tradition of Chinese New Year gift boxes with a special series of ram-shaped chocolates flavored with traditional Chinese flowers and herbs, including jasmine, ginseng, chrysanthemum, and ginger.
Johnnie Walker Blue Label Chinese New Year Edition
Inspired by a classic Qing dynasty painting, the popular Scotch brand’s special-edition Blue Label bottle features an image of three majestic-looking rams. Word of advice: although pictured in a set of four, do not gift that number of bottles for Chinese New Year—four is considered inauspicious. A single bottle—or the luckier number eight if you want to go all out—will do instead.
Clarisonic Aria Year Of The Goat Special-Edition Cleansing Brush
Designed with a red-and-gold motif, the device is likely to appeal to Chinese consumers’ obsession will all things skincare-related.
Not all brands had holiday hits, however. Burberry faced a challenge this year when Weibo users attacked its scarf featuring the Chinese character for “prosperity” for looking cheap and not featuring the character displayed upside down, as is proper tradition for the holiday—although the brand has also tastefully curated a collection of other red and gold gifts that will be likely to sell better. Panerai, meanwhile, made its own mistake with the same character on its watch dial. Givenchy’s special-edition red-and-gold Chinese New Year star clutch has also been called out on social media for an entirely different reason: some say it closely resembles the Vietnamese flag—an especially egregious error considering the fact that Vietnam had massive anti-China riots less than a year ago.
