Mao Wenting
In recent years, China's fashion industry has risen rapidly, and the market's recognition and demand for Chinese designer brands has been continuously improved. With the domestic market taking the lead in recovering under the epidemic, many designers with overseas backgrounds have also returned to China to develop.
Harold fashion "bee" will be on the scene, Chen Anqi showed her latest series of works.
During the Spring/Summer 2022 Shanghai Fashion Week, Harold Fashion "Bee" will invite Chinese designers to discuss brand building with the theme of "Focus on China's Power". Independent fashion designer Angel Chen Anqi Chen shared her interpretation of "Made in China" and presented her latest collection of works on the spot.
Angela Chen is a post-90s designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art in London, and her design style reflects the fusion of Eastern and Western aesthetics.
As an independent designer, Chen Anqi feels that she has a lot of professional autonomy, such as when the order will conflict with the fashion show time, she will choose the big show and give up the order meeting.
Of course, autonomy is not the same as complete freedom, and Chen Angel says that every new product launch is a choice and balance: a balance between commercialization and independent creativity. "Over-commercial, the brand will be uncreative; over-obsessed with design ideas, the brand may not survive." Every brand is looking for its own balance. ”
A successful collection of pieces sometimes produces the brand's signature designs, such as the ANGEL CHEN dragon tooth shoes. But soon designers will continue to develop new products. How do you combine ideas with products? Chen Anqi believes that there is no shortcut to this, and it must continue to explore and develop.
In the current domestic market, the creative ability of many senior designers is still exuberant, and at the same time, emerging designers have mushroomed like mushrooms. In the face of a fierce competitive environment, if an independent designer brand fails to find a suitable positioning in the entire ecosystem, it will be eliminated quickly in the future.
SAMUEL GUÌ YANG SPRING/SUMMER2022 COLLECTION
The 2021 HFF (FASHION FORWARD Shanghai Fashion Award) Designer Award was won by designer SAMUEL GUÌ YANG Yang Guidong. According to official data, SAMUEL GUÌ YANG's sales ratio of LMDS, a well-known buyer's store in Shanghai, can reach more than 80% every quarter.
After the epidemic, the domestic fashion market has entered a period of rapid growth for 15 consecutive months, with a large number of new customers and new brands. According to the data of the 2022 spring and summer order meeting of Shitang, UOOYAA LAB, ZINGME and other brands have increased several times from the previous month. Several GEIJOENG and SELAH have gradually moved towards the development stage of convergence stores and independent stores with their own distinctive design characteristics.
The acceptance of the Chinese market is rapidly opening, Chen Anqi sighed, "The current living environment of independent designers in China is very good. ”
But does a good market inspire good ideas? UMA WANG is wary of this, "most people in the industry are too anxious". As one of the earliest Chinese designers to enter the international stage, UMA WANG believes that the Chinese market needs clearer professional standards and corresponding assessment mechanisms.
ANGEL CHEN2022 Spring/Summer Fashion Show
Emerging designers such as Chen Anqi and Yang Guidong have matured in many aspects, and their designs contain an international perspective and respect and interpretation of Chinese culture and culture. Sarah Myler, Director of International Business and Media at Harold International, spoke about the importance of supporting the brand's business development. With adequate guidance combined with the opportunity to showcase on international fashion platforms, these designer brands will likely enter the next stage of benign development.
However, under the lively scene, the sales data of designer brands seems to be somewhat calm.
Due to the recurrence of the epidemic, the retail market in the third quarter of this year was not satisfactory overall. Although the scale of the Spring/Summer 2022 exhibition has expanded by 67% month-on-month, the number of visitors and buyers has increased by only 30%. At this exhibition, although the number of newly registered buyers accounted for nearly 50% of the total number of buyers, the overall wait-and-see was more; and the orders placed by old customers tended to be conservative. Shitang believes that in the past year, the market has overheated, the expansion of retail terminals has been too fierce, and the homogenization of woven products has been severe. Today, the temporary setbacks have brought the market back to rationality.
One of the works of Marangoni (Shanghai) outstanding graduation designers, presenting the creativity of the new generation of Chinese people.
"The current level of the industry and development is very spectacular, but there may be less quality and rational inquiry." If the designer is not firm enough, it is very easy to be swayed by the market and affected by the industry atmosphere. Yang Xiao, founder of LMDS and initiator of the HFF Award, hopes that industry platforms, industry figures and media can convey more serious voices about fashion design, "Hoping to start from the original design intention to encourage designers who take their work seriously and make their way to the future more energetic." ”
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Hua
Proofreader: Ding Xiao