Decoding fashion brands’ Chinese New Year strategies: Part 1

With Chinese New Year (CNY) just around the corner, consumers have been bombarded with festive messages and brand campaigns for China’s biggest annual celebration. Red clothing, shoes and accessories are practically a prerequisite, but beyond that, a good CNY campaign can work wonders and keep tongues wagging for months. Emotive films, localization, collaboration and traditional Chinese culture and crafts are all big trends this year, and global brands are increasingly under pressure to perform. In the first part of this series, Jing Daily covers star power, collaborations, dragon motifs, and almanacs. The second part, to be published tomorrow, focuses on crafting, sustainability, travel and VIP gifts. Celebrity campaigns shot in iconic Chinese locations Celebrity fandom is intense in China, and the biggest stars can draw millions of eyes. Signing the star du jour as ambassador is a costly, high-risk investment with potentially huge rewards – no wonder luxury is hiring the biggest Mandarin-speaking celebrities for mini films in famous settings around the nation. Prada tapped the recent popularity of Wong Kar Wai’s Blossom’s Shanghai TV series, by deploying Chinese supermodel Du Juan, who appears as a character in the show, and local celebrity director/photographer Leslie Zhang for a 1990s Shanghai-themed film that hinges on beauty and nostalgia. Actress Shu Qi is the superstar in Bottega Veneta’s CNY film, which evokes sunrises, and a new beginning. “The First Light” is an atmospheric film that follows a group of young friends through the urban jungle to a peaceful beach setting. Shu watches the sunrise and the New Year begins. Burberry had star photographer Ryan McGinley shoot a campaign in western China’s luxury hub of Chengdu, starring actors Tang Wei, Chen Kun and supermodels He Cong and Wang Xiangguo wearing outfits that feature the Burberry check motif in red. Chinese designer collaborations Collaborating with Chinese design talent has become a clever and common way to market CNY. With so many creative young fashion designers in the fray, this mashup of aesthetics and fashion cultures can be alluring, if done right. American fashion giant Tommy Hilfiger partnered with Hong Kong-based streetwear brand Clot for a cool, style-savvy collaboration that merges classic American college prep with contemporary Chinese cool. The campaign portrays members of the Chinese diaspora, including shots of Chinese aunties in New York’s Chinatown. Britain’s most famous luxury retailer Harrods again worked with Chinese fashion retailer and incubator Labelhood to offer a dim sum set tea (combining British high tea and Chinese dim sum), as well as an exhibition of Labelhood’s designers and a Chinese New Year-themed portrait booth. Following suit is Dover Street Market, which collaborated with Shanghai-based design duo Shushu/Tong for this year’s festivities, banking on their long-term relationship and the brand’s cult popularity among Chinese and international fashion fans. Perhaps because the collection was more about the duality of a femme fatale, rather than anything more closely associated with the New Year, this collab didn’t track high on social media. Dragon motifs design Perhaps the most obvious strategy is to play with the year’s zodiac animal as a motif. The Year of the Dragon is not only an auspicious one, but is represented by the only mystical animal and arguably the most majestic in the Chinese zodiac. There’s myriad ways to imagine this dynamic animal and brands are having more fun with the creature than last year’s cute, yet more limiting, Rabbit. Kenzo went bold with its colorful graphic dragon motifs in its festive collection, and truth be told, it fits Kenzo’s bold style. And because its CNY offering doesn’t deviate from the brand’s core aesthetic or style, it comes across as natural and has created buzz. Quiet luxury label Loro Piana, however, has delivered a lesson in subtlety when it comes to portraying the formidable dragon, rather offering up an intricately crafted knit pattern incorporating dragons and other symbols, in a pink (rather than bright red) and soft neutrals dominated collection that speaks to the label’s regular customer base. Then there’s Vivienne Westwood, which does mostly fashion, cleverly incorporating dragon designs onto its exceptionally popular (and more accessible) royal orb jewelry range — a Gen Z favorite in China and internationally. A dragon head in precious metal adorns the brand’s iconic pearl necklaces in the “Prosperity and Power” collection, which is being promoted in a pink-tinted video animation. Chinese lunar almanac For the Year of the Dragon, Givenchy went deep by tapping into Chinese culture and history. The French maison partnered with Wallpaper Store to release a yellow calendar (黄历), or almanac, for the Year of Dragon. The almanac was inspired by “dragon scale binding” (龙鳞装). Part of China’s cultural heritage, the special book-binding technique comprises pages that resemble dragon scales when readers scroll. Givenchy invited book artist Zhang Xiaodong and printmaking artist Liu Yichun to create the masterpiece. Inside the book, Zhang used a traditional ink and wood printmaking technique to create a print of 13 dragons. The yellow calendar holds an important meaning for locals. Similar to an everyday guide, it imparts advice on what to do and what not to do according to the Chinese horoscope. People regularly check the almanac to determine the most auspicious time to get married, open a store or move house, for instance. However, Givenchy’s almanac in 12 shades of yellow, a color that symbolizes royalty in Chinese tradition, is not for sale. By following Givenchy’s WeChat official account, users will get the chance to receive one. For part two read here: Additional reporting by William Zhou

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Decoding fashion brands’ Chinese New Year strategies: Part 1