These Brands Are Taking a Chance on China This Year – WWD
Tue 30 Aug
China remains a promised land for fast-growing fashion brands looking to expand their business on a global scale.
Despite a challenging retail climate due to the prolonged pandemic and rising tensions between China and the U.S., which led to brands like Off-White and Trussardi downsizing, a new cohort of players is gearing up to take their chances in the final quarter of 2022.
The Sequoia Capital China-backed brands, which include the South Korean fashion brand We11done, Alexandre Mattiussi’s Ami Paris, and Holzweiler from Norway, in particular, are very active in the market.
Angelica Cheung, venture partner at Sequoia Capital China and founding editor of Vogue China, revealed that We11done last month launched its Tmall flagship and it plans to open its first offline store in Shenzhen in September. Stores in Beijing, Chengdu, and Nanjing are also in the pipeline for 2022. By 2023, We11done plans to open another three to five stores focusing on other top-tier cities.
While Ami Paris plans to open in four new locations, bringing the store count to 14 by the end of 2022. The brand is also present in Hainan with two stores and one creative pop-up. The brand plans to open six to eight stores in China next year, focusing mainly on major regional cities.
Holzweiler, in the meantime, plans to open a Tmall store this fall and contemplates opening three to four retail stores in China’s tier-one cities in the second half of 2023.
A-Cold-Wall’s first stand-alone store in Beijing. Samuel Ross’ fashion venture A-Cold-Wall unveiled its first stand-alone store worldwide in Sanlitun Beijing the past July. He opened the store in partnership with brand-management specialist Power Rich and with Tomorrow, which acquired a minority stake in A-Cold-Wall in 2018.
According to Ross, China already represents a significant percentage of the brand’s annual revenues, which have tripled from 2019 to 2022, and “we are really keen to continue to grow that market.”
The other Tomorrow-backed retail project, Machine-A Shanghai,the London multibrand concept’s first international outpost, will soft launch at the beginning of September. The store will host Shanghai’s first Raf Simons shop-in-shop.