China’s designers want to tell the fashion story without bamboo and pandas
China’s US$300 billion apparel market is a big draw to domestic and global brands, from luxury to fast fashion players
As some international fashion brands continue to adopt bamboo, panda and dragon motifs into their designs to appeal to Chinese consumers, their Chinese counterparts are telling the fashion story without such “superficial” elements.
One of them is Hong Kong-listed JNBY, short for “Just Naturally Be Yourself”, a Chinese fashion brand that has over 700 retail stores in China and overseas operations in 12 countries.
Frank Zhu, chief financial officer of the company said JNBY wanted to appeal to consumers with their designs, not with “Chinese elements”.
“I feel there is still a large number of people who see China only as a manufacturing hub,” said Zhu in an interview with the South China Morning Post.
“They don’t have the concept of ‘designed in China’ but only have the very old ‘made in China’ mentality.”
They don’t have the concept of ‘designed in China’ but only have the very old ‘made in China’ mentality
But Zhu said he had been encouraged by an encounter with a famous fashion designer who claimed to be a fan of Croquis, the company’s brand for men’s wear.