They are the future Chanel, YSL? Is the era of designer brands coming?

For the independent designer brand, is this the best era or the worst? Chen Anqi thought about it and chose the former.

Like many Chinese new generation costume designers, Chen Anqi's professional background is very international. After graduating from Central Saint Martin in London, internships at Alexander Wang and VeraWang, I got Lane Crawford’s order a year after graduation... But when she completely walked out of the ivory tower and the shadow of the big brand, and returned to China to build her own designer brand AngelChen, no Large and small difficulties, such as a stable supply chain, unpredictable production, and repeated delays, have surfaced.

Independent designer Chen Anqi

In the 2018 Shanghai Fashion Week show, these problems that plagued almost all independent designers seem to have a new solution. For a long time, major fashion shows have been the main sales channels for independent designers. Buyers from all over the world will arrive at the show, watch the designer's fashion show and showroom (showroom) to complete the order.

As the official partner of Shanghai Fashion Week, a new retail fashion zone opened by Tmall attracted the attention of many designers. The buyers who can't come to the scene can use the remote control Tmall's fashion buyer robot to travel freely in the show and Showroom.

Tmall buyer robot that moves freely in the show

However, Black Technology is not just the only tool that Tmall provides to designers. “We look forward to providing a stage for talented designers from the supply chain, the capital chain, and the entire retail side.” Meng Gu, deputy general manager of Tmall apparel, said that Tmall will continue to support Chinese independent designer brands this year. .

"The big names that everyone knows now, no one knows about the two or three years that have just come out." Like Chen Anqi, the same independent designer Guo Yirantian, who is 91 years old, is also optimistic about the development prospects of the designer brand. You know, when Chanel and YSL were originally founded, they all came to market as independent designer brands.

After the independent designer brands passed the difficult start-up period, they began to grow and develop and gradually move toward capitalization. Now the luxury goods group LVMH is using this idea to collect LV, Givenchy, Fendi, DonnaKaran, MarcJacobs and other designer brands from the market.

Only 1% survival rate

However, optimism alone cannot change the cruelty of reality.

There has been a saying in the market. In recent years, China has produced tens of thousands of independent designer brands, many of which have top returnees and family factory resources. Despite this, the mortality rate of independent designer brands is still as high as 99%.

“Independent designer brands generally have two major problems. On the one hand, the design is too exaggerated and not suitable for daily wear; in terms of pricing, due to the weak supply chain, the use of imported fabrics, high cost, the price is not close to the people.” Design Tasha, one of the founders of the branded store LABELHOOD, once summed up the common bottleneck faced by designers.

2018 autumn and winter series released by designer Guo Yirantian at Shanghai Fashion Week

However, the design style and fabric workmanship are precisely the most unwillingness of many designers to compromise. The new generation of designers who have just graduated from the top international art schools often retain a strong insistence and pursuit of brand uniqueness and artistry. If they encounter the "living" problem in reality, they can only fight with the factory.

“There are a lot of fabrics to be used for a piece of clothing, but the order quantity is not so much. Often after the cooperation, the factory does not cooperate with us unilaterally.” Since the establishment of the designer brand BABYGHOST in 2010, Huang quietly never heard of it. Factory complaints. In the eyes of the factory, the order of the designer brand is not worthwhile, the process is complicated, the order quantity is small, and it is difficult to bring real commercial benefits.

BABYGHOST founder Huang Quiran and JoshuaHupper

In order for the factory to take orders, the designers had to spend more or put more orders. Chen Anqi's approach is to pay the factory three times the wages. Guo Yiran's plan is to gather three or four designers to place orders at the same factory. Some designers have simply changed the calculation method of the work cost from the piece system to the hour system, so that the workers are willing to finely polish a piece of clothing.

“Actually, the production logic of the factory does not support these young designers, but it is still business-oriented.” Peng Yaodong, CEO of LABELHOOD, has worked with many young designers and clothing factories. He understands the practices of the factory. Know the designer's struggle. In his view, this is not a question of ambiguity, but a question of how to change the supply chain and business model.

Subverting the business model of the "cars"

In the face of this question, Huang quietly handed over a distinctive answer.

In 2010, Huang Quiran, who just graduated from Parsons School of Design, founded the brand BABYGHOST with American partner Joshua Hupper in the apartment kitchen in New York. At that time, Weibo has just emerged, and Tmall has not yet been born, and is in the stage of Taobao Mall.

The fledgling Huang quietly made a decision to let the people around him "snap" at the time - to open a Taobao shop for BABYGHOST. In the fashion industry, designer brands have long had an unwritten mature path, either to open a storefront to open a physical store, or to enter a boutique buyer's store. At that time, Huang quietly did e-commerce, and the move on Taobao was really a "heterogeneous" in the industry.

Huang quietly believes in his instincts. As early as Parsons was studying, a exchange course at Columbia University opened up the idea of ​​Huang quietly. Standing on the podium are executives from major fashion brands who share the challenges and changes that the entire fashion industry faces in the classroom.

BABYGHOST Tmall flagship store

“Apparel design is an old industry. There is a business model in the era when horse-drawn carriages are popular. Nowadays, people’s transportation methods have changed a lot, but the business model of many fashion brands is as old as a horse-drawn carriage.” It is clearly remembered that the predecessors of the fashion circle shared that as early as 2010, European and American fashion brands began to explore the road of digital transformation.

After starting a business, Huang quietly traveled to and from New York and Shanghai. When she passed by her alma mater, Donghua University, she found that there was a express parcel that piled up the mountain at the school gate. One by one, Huang quietly knows that these are the spoils that the schoolmates bought from a website called “Taobao”.

"Young people like Taobao so much, why doesn't BABYGHOST open a Taobao shop?" Without any hesitation, BABYGHOST's Taobao shop opened like this. In 2012, “Taobao Mall” was renamed Tmall, and BABYGHOST became the first independent designer brand to join Tmall.

Sharing the experience of e-commerce at Shanghai Fashion Week

After 8 years of deep cultivation on the line, Huang quietly used a set of data to prove that his original decision was not ridiculous, but advanced. The performance of BABYGHOST Tmall flagship store has been rising year after year, and has accumulated more than 250,000 fans. The sales of Tmall platform accounted for 80% of total sales. Last year, the performance of the store increased by 121% year-on-year and the repurchase rate reached 49%.

If eight years ago, many people could not accept designer brands with an average price of 1,000 yuan or even tens of thousands. Then, today's highly-purchasing 80s and 90s have already proved the consumption upgrade on Tmall with action. According to Luo Guangping, vice president of Baiqiu E-Commerce, the French luxury brands Sandro and Maje, which operate on behalf of the company, have an annual growth rate of 200% on Tmall. This year's target is set to break through 100 million.

French luxury brand sandro Tmall flagship store

Luo Guangping said that during this Shanghai Fashion Week, one of her tasks was to search for potential designer brands to help them succeed in Tmall.

Black technology is in the fashion industry

Fortunately, Huang quietly caught up with the early days of e-commerce. Today, as the new retail booms, the entire fashion industry seems to experience another “baptism”.

“The traditional clothing industry is a pyramid.” Peng Yaodong, CEO of LABELHOOD, a designer brand collection store, said that since 2014, LABELHOOD has launched a fashion show called “Dongliang Day” with Shanghai Fashion Week. At that time, Peng Yaodong's most troublesome thing was that he was sitting in the first row. Whoever sat with whom he was sitting was very particular, which also made him feel the strict hierarchy of the traditional clothing industry.

In the traditional fashion week, the role of the buyer is particularly important. They are like half a designer, half a businessman, holding an order, traveling through a big show and a showroom. At present, orders from buyers are still the most important sales channel for most designer brands. This also means that buyers with a high degree of voice can influence the final production of ready-to-wear.

This year, Shanghai Fashion Week, filled with Tmall's new retail elements, provides buyers with more convenience. From the 360-degree panoramic view of the main show, you can buy the black technology tools, the second generation of "Trying Mirror" in Showroom, and the Tmall fashion buyer robot that can "slip up" to walk and talk. Even if you can't come to the scene, the buyers can make the first order.

It’s not just the show that Tmall wants to change. In the picture of Menggu's deputy general manager Menggu planning, Tmall will also play the role of a resource integrator, in the supply chain for the designer brand to dock the quality factory. “We don’t want the designer brand to be hurt, nor do we want the factory to find us saying that the cooperation is not pleasant.” Meng Gu said that the best solution at present is to assemble several designer brands as mentioned by designer Guo Yirantian. The order spurred the factory resources.

In addition, Tmall will also provide big data tools to help the designer brand accurately match the user population. At the same time, the designer brand can also use the data deposited on Tmall, and push back to the earliest commodity planning, so that fashion control no longer depends solely on past experience and designer's good taste, but also from real Consumer data support.

“Designers often have some ideas that are unconstrained. In the past, if the buyer didn’t approve it, there was no way to sell it.” Huang quietly said that after owning her own Tmall store, she would hand over the voting rights directly to the terminal. Consumer. “A lot of ideas that people think the market can't accept, consumers are willing to pay, which also allows the brand to retain its personality to the fullest extent.”

From talking about e-commerce "color change" to actively trying new retail, we can't predict the future of Chinese designer brands. But what is certain is that a group of young people with ideas are on the road that the predecessors have never walked.

Editor in charge: Gao Wei