Brand Director for LOUIS XIII in Greater China, Cheryl Chong, shares more about how the high-end French cognac brand managed to upkeep its exclusive image while going on e-commerce marketplaces in China.
[Video] LS Keynote 2019: How To Maintain Exclusivity in Omnichannel Retail
Over the last decade, collaborations between luxury brands and contemporary artists have gone beyond mere artistic partnerships towards a new kind of luxury branding.
PARIS – Art and fashion have always developed side by side, for fashion, like art, often gives visual expression to the cultural zeitgeist. During the 1920s, Salvador Dalí created dresses for Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiapparelli. In the 1930s, Ferragamo’s shoes commissioned designs for advertisements from Futurist painter Lucio Venna, while Gianni Versace commissioned works from artists such as Alighiero Boetti and Roy Lichtenstein for the launch of his collections. Yves Saint Laurent’s vast art collection, recently auctioned at Christie’s in Paris, testified to his great love of art and revealed the influence of a variety of artists on his own designs.
In the 1980s, relationships between luxury brands and artists were advanced when Alain Dominique Perrin created the Fondation Cartier. In the Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, a book marking the foundation’s 20th anniversary, Perrin says he makes “a connection between all the different sorts of arts, and luxury goods are a kind of art. Luxury goods are handicrafts of art, applied art.”
The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemparain building in Paris
Brand Director for LOUIS XIII in Greater China, Cheryl Chong, shares more about how the high-end French cognac brand managed to upkeep its exclusive image while going on e-commerce marketplaces in China.
While some luxury brands continue to grapple with the notion of retailing on Chinese e-commerce marketplaces due to concerns about image and exclusivity, others like LOUIS XIII have already acknowledged the importance of such a move and embraced it wholly. “You have to be where your clients are,” said Cheryl Chong, Brand Director for LOUIS XIII in Greater China, simply.
With online retail sales totaling about USD $1.33 trillion in 2018 – an almost 24 percent increase from the previous year – being present on e-commerce platforms in China is no longer an option but a necessity for brands. While luxury consumers might not actually purchase ultra-high-end products on these platforms, having that form of digital real estate ensures that such products are searchable and discoverable online.
Chong shared more of her thoughts and opinions on the matter with the Business of Fashion’s Asia Correspondent Casey Hall at the recent Luxury Society Keynote in Shanghai.
Watch the video below for the full interview.
Editor, China, Luxury Society
Previously based in Singapore at luxury lifestyle publication Prestige, Lydianne now creates China-related content across a broad range of topics. Experienced in dealing with both brands and consumers in the luxury industry, Lydianne is also Marketing & Communications Director at DLG China.