International Luxury Brands are Actively Cooperating with Chinese Fashion Brands in Co-branding Products

As China plays an increasingly important role in the global luxury goods market and China’s fashion industry grows by leaps and bounds, more and more international luxury brands have set out cooperating with Chinese fashion brands in co-branding their products or services.

Following is a review of Luxe. CO on five typical co-branding cases in 2021:

—— -   Luxury Brand X Chinese Independent Designer

• Canali x 8ON8 Gong Li
• Canada Goose x Angel Chen 

—— Luxury Brand X Chinese Avant-garde Brand

• Wolford x NEIWAI
• IWC x COMME MOI

—— Luxury Brand X Chinese Pop Culture and Entertainment Brand

• SHANG XIA x POP MART

Canali x 8ON8

Canali has 42 retail stores in China, 22 of which are direct-sale stores. Together with a flagship store on Tmall, Canali’s sales channels in China contribute about 20% of its revenue worldwide.

In Jan. 2021, Canali announced cooperation with Chinese designer brand 8ON8 in the launch of the autumn/winter 2021 menswear capsule collection. This is the second major initiative that Canali has implemented in China following its revocation of franchise of 10 retail stores.

8ON8 was founded in 2017, by Gong Li, a designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins and a recipient of the Grand Prix LVMH Scholarship. The brand is known for designs that bring together English tailoring style and street fashion, functional fabric and traditional craftsmanship, bespoke menswear and sportswear.

“As to the cooperation between international luxury brands and Chinese designers, there is still tremendous space for tapping into the full potential of Chinese designers and bringing their skills into full play,” remarked Stefano Canali, president and CEO of Canali.

Canada Goose x Angel Chen

In Jan. 2021, Canada Goose teamed up with Angel Chen to launch a co-branded capsule collection, which is the first co-branded product launched by Canada Goose in collaboration with a Chinese designer. Angel Chen is also the first guest designer of the brand.

Through ingenious zip design, pieces in this capsule can be worn in multiple deconstructed ways. When it was first broadcast live on the official WeChat applet, it received 120,000+ views in about one hour.

Angel Chen graduated from UAL: Central Saint Martins in 2014 and founded the fashion brand Angel Chen in the same year.

Angel Chen became the first Chinese designer cooperated with H&M in 2019. The other brands she has worked with include Sony, Mercedes-Benz, Adidas, ROMBAUT and TysGrocery.

Through co-branding products, Canada Goose and Canali sought to breathe new life into their traditional craftsmanship and classic style and give a new look to their brand image in the Chinese market.

Wolford x NEIWAI

Wolford and NEIWAI launched a co-branded collection in Sep. 2021.

Founded in 2012, NEIWAI has evolved into a leading underwear brand in China. It is known for well-designed and empathetic products, as well as deep emotional bond with female consumers. NEIWAI was born on the Internet and is good at building brand image. It has set out expanding into the U.S. and other overseas markets.

FOSUN, a fashion conglomerate in China, started to have a controlling interest in Wolford in 2018. According to the 2021 mid-term financial report of Wolford, the Chinese market contributed for 65% of the company’s sales worldwide and grew at the fastest pace. Wolford attributed the success to “cooperation with the local partners.”. The partnership with NEIWAI is one of the important measures it has taken to further its localization strategy.

IWC x COMME MOI Lv Yan

In Aug. 2021, IWC teamed up with Lv Yan, brand ambassador for IWC and the founder/creative director of Comme Moi, to launch the IWC Portofino Automatic 34 Special Edition, the first double-loop watch of the brand. The watch and the online gift box, which includes two COMME MOI silk scarves, are only available in China and are priced RMB 45,800.

In a questionnaire survey of Luxe. Co on female consumers of luxury watches, 71.7% of the interviewers held that more women they knew of were thinking of buying luxury watches. That’s why watchmakers that used to focus on the aesthetic taste of male consumers also turn to embrace female consumers. IWC, as one of them, is actively innovating the way it communicates with the younger generation of female consumers in China.

Lv Yan was once a famous model in China. She founded COMME MOI in 2013, a popular fashion brand with a number of loyal female customers. As an ex-model and a noted entrepreneur, Lv is influential in two ways in this co-branding movement.

SHANG XIA x POP MART

In Sep. 2021, SHANG XIA and POP MART jointly launched the DIMOO Dreamy Traveler Limited Edition. (Note: DIMOO is one of the five major IPs of POP MART. According to the 2021 Financial Report, DIMOO’s sales were RMB 205 million, accounting for 11.6% and ranking the first.)

Earlier on, SHANG XIA’s partners were mostly artists. The cooperation with POP MART marked SHANG XIA’s first attempt at a playful style which the brand is seldom involved in. The package of the gift box is made of futuristic laser leather. Macaron-colored Halma pieces are used as containers for the tea leaves. Through this work SHANG XIA expressed the intent to embrace pop culture and the younger generation.

This co-branded collection consists of three gift boxes. After they were released in limited quantities on the brand’s flagship store on Tmall, inventory for the pre-orders of two gift boxes were sold out within two weeks.