The Chinese have always been major consumers of international luxury brands, but it wasn’t until the Covid-19 pandemic that the demand for domestic brands began to flourish. While fashion labels were among the first to benefit from this new wave, shoppers began to broaden their horizons, driving growth in unexpected categories including outerwear, jewellery, leather goods, footwear, and fragrance.“I believe this evolution is fundamentally driven by a cultural awakening and a growing sense of cultural confidence. My generation grew up in a time when our aesthetic sensibilities were largely shaped by the West, but over the past decade, I’ve witnessed a significant shift,” says Shen Li, co-founder of the Chinese luxury fragrance and lifestyle brand To Summer. “People are no longer satisfied with being passive consumers of Western aesthetics; they are actively seeking out and embracing expressions that resonate with their own heritage.”
Chow Tai Fook Dawn collection. Photo: Handout
As a result, today’s Chinese brands have come a long way from predecessors like Shang Xia, Chow Tai Fook or Shanghai Tang. According to a recent report by Bain & Company, their success has been driven not only by innovative, desirable products but also by original branding and storytelling, strong cultural resonance, digital-first direct-to-consumer strategies and exceptional quality at lower price points than international brands.
Interestingly, these factors have also made these brands more appealing to a global audience, who have started to view their products as desirable and on par with their Western counterparts.
“Chinese brands today are no longer competing only on speed or value, but increasingly on relevance, design and cultural fluency,” says Judy Liu, co-founder of agency Trinity Asia. “Chinese founders are also bringing a much more sophisticated sense of taste and brand-building, thinking not just about product or price, but about design language, customer emotion, retail experience and long-term positioning in a much more integrated way.”
To Summer’s Shanghai flagship store. Post-pandemic, Chinese luxury brands have seen rising demand. Photo: Handout
Take the Chinese jewellery brand Laopu Gold, which is known as the “Hermès of gold” across social media. Its products blend Chinese history and traditional craftsmanship, including motifs such as gourds and Buddhist symbols transformed into pieces with modern details like precious stone embellishments and matte finishes.
Elsewhere, niche fragrance brands Documents and To Summer are making waves with their Eastern-inspired scents crafted using local botanicals and ingredients. These can be experienced in a series of retail spaces that mirror each brand’s philosophy while showcasing cool architectural and heritage design details.
Aesthetics aside, many of these brands are also winning when it comes to quality. Ready-to-wear label Icicle – which also has a presence in Paris – has amassed a cult following with its stealth wealth essentials such as hand-finished double-face cashmere coats and lightweight knits that are not just sustainable and luxe but also reasonably priced.
Minimalist leather goods brand Songmont has also gone viral thanks to its high-quality yet accessible designs, placing it alongside other international favourites like Polène.