Manuela Zoninsein investigates how Asia is influencing the designs of the world’s top labels

Perhaps no other figure better embodies Asia’s increasing influence on luxury labels than that of Chinese model Du Juan, who replaced blonde Brit Agyness Deyn as the face of perennial premier producer, Calvin Klein, in 2008.

Du has walked for Dries Van Noten, Diane Von Fürstenburg, Hermès and Givenchy; been photographed by Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier and Juergen Teller; and posed on par with Gemma Ward, Kate Moss and Raquel Zimmerman. Along with Korean-American Hye Park and Japanese Anna Watanabe, Du signals that the sun now also rises in the East for fashion, as well as for the rest of the world.

This wake-up call can also be seen in the localisation of designs from top-tier brands. Consider Roberto Cavalli’s Eastern efforts: the Florentine fashion house has begun working with local junior designers to provide insights regarding Asian tastes, explains chairman and CEO of Roberto Cavalli Asia Pacific Luca Maria Cosmai. He understands that Asian markets “have different cultures and values compared to Europe… For this reason, from now on the designs are moving closer to the Asian taste.”

More than just aesthetics

Even before the designers can start sketching patterns, however, it is the bottom line that is impelling the surge eastward. Business is banking on Asia for a pick-me-up: the opening paragraph of a McKinsey Quarterly Report released in September 2009 states that “Asia’s emerging economies are leading the world out of recession, and the region’s consumers are taking the baton from their overextended counterparts in developed countries.”

Whereas Europe and the US are seeing sales stagnate for high-end brands, Asia is seeing continued expansion. “In 2008 Asia, including Japan, accounted for around 40 per cent of the group’s total revenues,” explained Bulgari CEO Francesco Trapani. For Cavalli, “it will be the main investing area,” asserts Cosmai.

China, in particular, is making the industry hungry: the Wall Street Journal’s Wealth Report blog referenced the conclusion by Goldman Sachs Group that ranked China as the world’s second-largest luxury-goods market, after Japan, in October; it could even surpass Japan this year. No surprise then that top-end names are looking to the dragon.

Ferragamo intends to open 20 to 30 sale points this year, versus 49 last year, but in this mix, “Asia represents at least 50 per cent and China almost a third,” CEO Michele Norsa told Reuters. Versace expects China to become its second largest market, surpassing the US by 2009, according to a report produced by the China Market Research Group. “Cavalli would like to enter the China market and become the most important market for the brand,” asserted Cosmai.

With that, high-end purveyors are increasingly putting their money where their mouths are – or at least where their Chinese customers’ mouths are. French Chef Daniel Boulud, who just received a third Michelin star for his Manhattan-based eatery Daniel, expanded into Asia by opening Maison Boulud in Beijing’s Legation Quarter. When asked how he planned to incorporate elements of local cuisine into his menu, he explained: “the local Chinese cooks and chefs working with us here at the restaurant have influenced us significantly. Their expertise is clearly reflected on our menu.”

In other cases, it is the nose that needs to be pleased, as was true of Bulgari’s Omnia Crystalline, a fragrance created specifically for the Asian customer. The perfume’s “success induced us to distribute it all over the world,” explained Trapani, demonstrating one way in which Asia influences global tastes by the might of its buying preferences.

So what makes a collection more suitable for Chinese consumers? Bulgari found that Asian consumers “have a predilection for delicate and fruity essences not too ‘strong’ or spicy,” relayed Trapani. In other cases, “loud and proud” came hand-in-hand with conspicuous consumption.

Bling it up

For UK-based iQ, pleasing the Asian market comes in the form of customising top-end phones with rare gems: the Blackberry Bold comes encrusted with sapphires and rubies, and legally unlocked iPhone 3Gs are studded with white and black diamonds. The company’s inspiration was Asia, where “they like to bling up phones a bit, with charms and other things like stickers, different colour backs, snake skins,” noticed Jason Friedman, the company’s director. In Asian cities like Tokyo and Hong Kong, “they like to customise and make their phones look nicer.”

So while the West influences Chinese consumers, local elements are emerging, with Chinese consumers defining their own barometer for what is considered aesthetically acceptable and sophisticated. The result, according to consultants Radha Chadha and Paul Husband, authors of The Cult of the Luxury Brand: Inside Asia’s Love Affair with Luxury, is that “taste is not part of the equation – conspicuous consumption is an end in itself. The more you spend and the more you flash the cash, the higher your status in society.” As a result, products that clearly signal their pedigree, with shiny accoutrements or easily-identifiable logos, tend to do well. Even in the world of wines, Château Lafite and Louis XIII, the best-known brands for rare, and pricey, provenance, are the vintages of choice in China.

Certain traditional Asian values, like filial piety, are also beginning to shape brand aesthetics. Take a recent BMW ad campaign for the 5 Series LWB targeting Chinese consumers, in which the relationship between a father and his successful son play starring roles. The distribution of power between husband and wife – the man driving, demonstrating a dominant, stabilising effect, while his wife looks on gently and supportively – ascribes to traditional gender roles. The “LWB” stands for Long Wheel Base, alterations of the  successful BMW 5 Series, “specially developed for the particular demands and requirements of the Chinese automobile market, combining sporting driving characteristics with superior interior comfort,” writes World Car Fans. Passengers sitting in the back will enjoy greater space, a feature similarly noted in the Porsche Panamera, who stretched length is attributed to the desire of wealthy car buyers in China, who prefer to be driven by chauffeurs.

The Good Life

McKinsey estimates that by 2015, China will be home to the world’s fourth-largest population of wealthy households. And these consumers are unwilling to trade down from luxury brands: Publicis published a study in May showing that people are cutting back on basic day-to-day purchases in order to continue enjoying branded items, an expression of “the intense desire to keep up with the Good Life,” said Laurie Kwong, CEO of Publicis Greater China.

For a long time, this Good Life was defined by the West. But with Asia leading the charge in economic recovery, how that life is defined in the future will necessarily incorporate Eastern elements. Rather than another cup o’ Joe, it’s time to rise and shine with a mug of cha in your hand.

Originally published in the Winter 2009 issue of MillionaireAsia.