China Caters to the Hip and Health Conscious
Psycho-social and economic factors drive Chinese lifestyle and fashion trends at home and abroad.
Trend Description
A booming Chinese economy and changes in the way Chinese perceive themselves are currently being reflected in lifestyle and fashion trends, both across China and further afield. In the next decade, as many Americans will visit China as will travel to Europe. As was the case 20 years ago, when they brought back a taste for things French and Italian from their travels, now they are just as likely to embrace “Asian chic”.
Already apparel and home décor brand Shanghai Tang, owned by Swiss luxury-goods conglomerate Richemont, aspires to take oriental fashion west, with each collection reflecting a China-related theme. Always on the hunt for the newest, the greatest, and the freshest looks, a French edition of Vogue recently featured a Chinese model on its cover for the first time.
Chinese medicine is gaining popular acceptance in the West, and as is now being incorporated into many beauty treatments. Leading hotels in Asia have recruited experts in Chinese medicine to design programs, and are offering these to their guests. During the next four years, these same hotels will start to offer similar experiences in Chicago, London, and Vancouver.
New Chinese hotels and resorts are now sporting spas that also blend traditions of East and West. Traditional Chinese medicine is on many spa menus alongside yoga and marine therapy. From new Mandarin Oriental hotels in Guangzhou and Shanghai, to the Westin in Beijing, and Shangri-La Resorts, couth is catching up with cash in the Middle Kingdom.
Case Studies
Banyan Tree
Banyan Tree offers an intimate retreat experience featuring its own signature blend of romance and Asian sensuality. The philosophy behind the hotels, resorts, spas and galleries is based on providing a place for rejuvenation of the body, mind and soul - a “Sanctuary for the Senses”.
Banyan Tree Holdings has recently signed contracts to manage three new hotels in China - the Banyan Tree Hotel Beijing, Angsana Hotel Beijing, and Banyan Tree Resort Hangzhou. The company already manages hotels, resorts and spas across Asia, and more are planned in Europe and North America.
In Beijing the contract is to design and manage an eleven-suite hotel and serviced apartment complex fronting renowned Wang Fu Jing Road, scheduled to open in the 4th quarter of 2009. Banyan Tree will also manage Angsana Beijing, a boutique hotel and the first Angsana city hotel in China. This will have 80 rooms plus a mix of high-end retail, entertainment and hospitality services. Located in the new Yan Sha diplomatic zone of Beijing, Angsana Beijing is expected to open in 2008.
Image source: Banyan Tree
Shanghai Tang
Revitalizing Chinese fashions from the 1920s and 30s is the foundation of Shanghai Tang’s clothing, while design inspiration flows from Chinese art and history rather than following the fashion dictates of the catwalk. Now that China possesses what economist Joseph Nye describes as “soft power”, a blend of economic and cultural cachet, Shanghai Tang is leveraging a newfound global awareness of Chinese style.
There are 19 Shanghai Tang stores, including four in Hong Kong and three in Shanghai. Another has joined the luxury fashion brand elite on Madison Avenue in New York, and there are also stores in Paris, London, Tokyo, Singapore and Hawaii. One more recently opened in Milan, and there are plans for 30 stores by the end of this year.
“Shanghai Tang is a Chinese label that set out to rejuvenate Chinese fashion which had effectively come to a stop in China,” said founder David Tang recently. “Never describe it as “East-meets-West” because it’s not, it’s Chinese. Many people make that mistake.”
Image source: Shanghai Tang
Healthy Eating
With deeper market penetration and growing consumer awareness, the Chinese health and wellness (HW) packaged food industry has experienced strong growth rates across the board, including organic, fortified and functional products. According to Euromonitor International, the retailing industry in China has developed rapidly over the last five years, boosting sales of HW packaged foods to nearly US$4.7 billion in 2006.
Modern retailing channels, including supermarkets and hypermarkets, have experienced robust progress and expansion in the review period, Euromonitor reports. These trends have been instrumental in enhancing the retail presence of a wide variety of HW products in China, as key players are able to leverage their broad product range to include HW variants alongside standard packaged foods.
BioFach China 2007, the first Sino-foreign fair for organic food, was recently held in Shanghai. A key objective of the event was to promote long-term cooperation between Chinese and overseas organic food enterprises, and create conditions for the market expansion of organic food in China and abroad. A forum focusing on development trends was held during the fair - food safety, food enterprises’ social responsibility and legislation relevant to the industry were major discussion topics.
China is a big producer of organic food. The sector has witnessed dramatic expansion in recent years, and the trend is set to continue. In the next three to five years, the value of China’s organic food sector is expected to increase 30 percent annually.
Image source: MOFGA
Trend Impact
Though rich Chinese are still learning to understand the word “luxury”, the huge sums they spend is easily enough to stir up social tension. Concerned by the widening gap between rich and poor, Chinese leaders are implementing more policies to reduce income inequalities, and higher import duties were imposed this year on a wide range of luxury goods. However, these efforts are doing little to curb the explosion in high-end consumption - from jewelry and fashionable clothing to expensive cars and spa treatments.
China had 250,000 US-dollar-millionaire households in 2005, ranking sixth in the world, according to a study by the Boston Consulting Group. According to analysts, the Chinese luxury goods market is expanding at an annual rate of between10 and 20 percent. Forecasts suggest that by 2015, China will become the second biggest luxury goods consumer market in the world, after the US. With the rise of China “cool”, how much of this market will be based on Chinese products remains to be seen.