How China will become a symbol of design, beauty and luxury
Monday, September 11th, 2006
As China continues to become a global economic powerhouse, “Made in China” is starting to lose some of its negative connotations. Twenty-year-old Shanghai beauty Du Juan (a former ballerina who only started modeling in 2002) has been turning heads at New York Fashion Week - and that could be good news for luxury goods makers in the Europe and the USA. As Vanessa O’Connell and Cui Rong of the Wall Street Journal explained on Friday (“Her Chinese Looks Make Du Juan a Star Everywhere but China”), the up-and-coming supermodel is being courted by the likes of Oscar de la Renta, Proenza Schouler and Carolina Herrera, all of whom see the young Du Juan as the new face of global beauty. Not only that, she’s appearing in magazine ads for Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, Roberto Cavalli and, yes, the Gap — a possible sign that Western consumers could be facing an onslaught of Chinese supermodels sometime soon:
“In Europe and the U.S., China, and all things Chinese, have suddenly become fashionable. “China is a trend,” says David Wolfe, a creative director at the Doneger Group in New York. “We’re on the brink of seeing our fascination with China move mainstream.” The buzz is growing as fashion industry executives see China as not only intriguing and mysterious to Westerners, but also a center of manufacturing and a promising market.”
Within ten years, experts predict that China will account for nearly 30% of all luxury goods sold worldwide. Not only that, but Western luxury goods makers are getting over their hesitation of using Chinese supermodels to promote their products: “It’s completely new ground for Europeans and Americans to feature a Chinese woman so prominently in fashion spreads and ads.”
