FRENCH CONNECTION
Christian Dior is reaching for the stars with its stylish new Shanghai flagship boutique
French fashion house Christian Dior opened its new flagship boutique at Plaza 66 in downtown Shanghai on Oct 18, its first flagship store in China that combines womenswear with menswear.
The three-floor boutique in Shanghai is very similar in style to the renowned Dior fashion house on 30 Avenue Montaigne, Paris, which showcases art, design and creativity. Each floor features installations and pieces by world-famous artists and designers.
Women’s collections are located on the first and second floors, while Dior Homme occupies the lower ground floor featuring a window decorated with mirrors. There are also VIP rooms for their custom-tailor service.
“I’m very happy to connect women’s and men’s fashion in one store and to be able to display all our product ranges from fine jewelry, shoes, ready-to-wear, leather goods and accessories,” Sidney Toledano, Dior’s CEO tells China Daily in Shanghai.
He is especially satisfied with the huge space that “should make clients feel comfortable.”
“And with the women’s and men’s sections connected, you can buy gifts for boyfriends or husbands as you shop for yourself,” Toledano says.
With the opening of the boutique, Dior also launched exclusive products for China including handbags, scarves, earrings, watches and a series of men’s products.
This year marks the 70th anniversary of Christian Dior. In 2017, Dior ranked 234 on the Fortune Global 500, and remains the only luxury fashion company still making the list. It is also the second event the French fashion house has undertaken in Shanghai this year. In June, they launched the “I Feel Blue” event to promote the 2017 autumn/ winter ready-to-wear collection by womenswear artistic director, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
“Since 1994 (when Dior opened their first boutique in Shanghai), we have believed from the very beginning that China was going to be not only an important market, but a super-high-quality market, so we needed to show excellence in our boutiques, their location, and the teams,” says the CEO.
“The market is really good. I’m always optimistic about China, even when people say China is slowing down in terms of economic growth. But you are still growing faster than Europe. It’s a growing market, and it’s kind of dynamic. People like to spend.”
“It is not only in China. Chinese people travel around the world. In their home country, we must provide the best experience in our boutiques. This is the key market for me.”
According to a Shanghai-based RTG Consulting Group, China’s millennials choose Dior as their most loved luxury brand.
The brand named Chinese actresses Angelababy and Zhao Liy- ing as their ambassador in China in May and September this year respectively, which raised heated debate on social media.
Many Chinese don’t think that Angelababy, who has 84 million fans on her Sina Weibo account and 5 million on Instagram, and Zhao, with 56 million fans on Sina Weibo matched the brand’s image of elegance, sophistication and luxury. Some said Dior compromised itself to attract young Chinese customers. But Toledano does not agree. He said that although Dior is not regarded as a youth brand, he hopes it is a brand that young people will aspire to. “Angelababy is not a young girl. She is a mother and a sophisticated lady with charisma,” says the CEO.
“We’ve been in the business for years. I’ve witnessed the evolution of our Japanese and American customers, and our customers in Eastern Europe, and it’s interesting to see how fast our Chinese customers understand fashion and luxury,” Toledano says.
“They started less than 20 years ago and the past decade has been impressive. They demand high quality and innovation, and the digital generation wants even more. Chinese customers are the most advanced in the digital world.”
Toledano said that his Chinese teams recommended that he use WeChat about two years ago, and he was initially reluctant to do so. But after they launched a pop-up store on WeChat, they found that their products sold out almost immediately.
When fans of the brand saw celebrities and fashion bloggers posing in certain Dior products on social media, they first checked the online pop-up store for stock, before turning to local stores. Within a few weeks, these products were sold out across Europe too, as people traveled abroad to buy them.
However, Toledano maintains that social media is tool for communication, and it was not Christian Dior’s intention to sell their products online at this point.
“The message we communicate is the values. We don’t change the content of what we say, we just use a new media. The message of value, excellence and history continues.”
“We must be unique in everything we do. We will not use e-commerce as others think it should be done. If you want to order a product, that continues the design and dream behind Dior. It’s not about technology, it’s about architecture. Future e-commerce stores must mirror our boutiques in every detail,” he said.
Toledano emphasizes that Dior will be opening stores in a “very careful” manner and when only there is a sound business plan in place. Next year, the luxury brand plans to open a boutique in Xi’an, Shaanxi province and Changsha, Hunan province.
We have believed from the very beginning that China was going to be not only an important market, but a super-high-quality market, so we needed to show excellence in our boutiques.” Sidney Toledano, Dior’s CEO