What surprises did Richemont, Kering, and Fosun Fashion bring to the CIIE?

November 8,2020

From November 4 to 10, 2020, the third China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the CIIE) was held in Shanghai. Luxe.CO’s special report team went deep inside the CIIE to present you with the latest ingenuity and technological innovations from major fashion and luxury brands.

With a focus on three major luxury goods groups -- Switzerland’s Richemont, France’s Kering, and China’s Fosun Fashion Group -- let’s see what surprises audiences encountered in the Consumer Goods exhibition area at the CIIE.

Richemont Group

3D Hologram, VR, and Blockchain

This was the first time that Richemont Group participated in the CIIE. With the theme of "Ingenuity and Innovation", 11 of the group’s 20 luxury brands were present. These were:

Cartier, Chloé, Dunhill, IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Montblanc, Panerai, Piaget, Serapian, Vacheron Constantin, and Van Cleef & Arpels.

Cartier brought a variety of collections of high-end jewelry to Chinese visitors, invited high-end jewelry craftsmen to demonstrate the production process, and presented two special digital interactive experience projects:

A holographic interactive device showed the details of the brand's high-end jewelry series. Visitors could control the screen effects by sliding and telescopic gestures. According to the staff, this device was exclusively launched by Cartier China and has been widely used in the brand’s offline boutiques.
At the same time, Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain offered a VR experience, inviting visitors to view the brand's previous art exhibition held at TANK Shanghai online. By operating a handle, visitors could see the details and read the introduction to each exhibit, which was accompanied by audio interpretation.

Vacheron Constantin demonstrated a digital certificate based on blockchain technology. The digital certificate was developed by Arianee, which provides a strong guarantee of the authenticity and transparency of ownership and transaction record information. According to the on-site staff, this technology was initially applied to the antique timepieces by the brand Les Collectionneurs and will be widely used in the brand's full range of timepieces by the end of 2021.

Piaget brought the world's thinnest mechanical watch masterpiece, the Altiplano Ultimate Concept watch, to this year's CIIE. The thickness of this watch is only 2 mm, while the thickness of traditional mechanical watches is generally around 7-12 mm.

A luxury brand that started out as a stationery business, Montblanc continues to expand its lifestyle categories. Itbrought the smartwatch SUMMIT2+, which was first released in cooperation with China Unicom, to the exhibition.

The other two black technology products, an active noise reduction headset, and a virtual reality notebook that can transmit written notes to electronic devices in real-time, attracted the interest of many businessmen.

Kering Group

Sustainable and Digital

Kering Group brought all of its 12 luxury brands to the CIIE for the second consecutive year. The participating brands were as follows:

Gucci, Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Balenciaga, Alexander McQueen, Brioni, Boucheron, Pomellato, Qeelin, Ulysse Nardin, Girard-Perregaux, and Kering Wear.

Kering’s booth was designed by Büro Ole Scheeren. To fulfill its commitment to sustainability, the booth reused last year's materials, but updated, reorganized, and adjusted its semi-modular design. According to the staff, the weight of its recycled materials was 16 tons, accounting for two-thirds of the total.

Boucheron demonstrated its Goutte de Ciel necklace made of innovative material: aerogel. The dazzling luster is difficult to accurately record with a mobile phone. According to the staff, this magical material is composed of air and silicon dioxide, the least dense material in the world.

Ulysse Nardin cooperated with the CIIE for the first time to create an official limited edition watch whose dial adopts a "panda plate" design to pay tribute to China.

Balenciaga showcased a black couture gown treasured in the Paris brand’s archives. This piece was designed by the brand's founder, Cristobal Balenciaga, from their 1967 autumn/winter collection.

At the CIIE, Kering Group explained in detail that biodiversity is its new strategy for 2025. Its new goals include:

Regenerating and protecting an area equivalent to approximately six times the entire Kering supply chain
Converting millions of hectares of farms and pastures in the supply chain into land suitable for regenerative ecological agriculture
Protecting another million hectares of important habitat outside the scope of the supply chain

Kering also set up a "biodiversity immersive" exhibition hall to display the rich imagery provided by the environmental video media platform, The Explorers, and called on the public to raise awareness of biodiversity.

Also noteworthy is that Kering Group launched a special "Kering Virtual Exhibition at the CIIE" to provide a detailed display of itsexhibition content online for visitors who could not visit in person due to COVID-19.

Fosun Fashion Group

Global/Asia debut

Fosun Fashion Group participated in the CIIE for the first time. Its three luxury brands, French high-end fashion brand LANVIN, Austrian high-end skincare brand Wolford, and American luxury women's clothing brand ST. JOHN appeared in the FOSUN HAPPINESS exhibition area.