Your Guide to Creative China
China Fashion Collective
Published November 24, 2011
Contact the Author
If you move in fashion circles, you may already know of Timothy Parent, or at least seen him around – always, always stylishly dressed, he can generally be found hobnobbing with Shanghai fashion's movers and shakers, darting between studios and stores on his trusty scooter, or casting a critical, informed and generally shaded eye on catwalk shows across China. Fueled by a passion for fashion, he established China Fashion Collective earlier this year, an endeavor committed to giving a select group of Chinese designers their turn in the world's style spotlight.
"Our main focus is English language communications: we help them with branding too, but really communicating their brand identity to the rest of the world. Our second focus is distribution, mainly to the US and Canada, and helping designers find wholesale accounts. In China everything operates on consignment, which means designers not only pay to produce the goods, they then have the financial burden too – they don't get paid until their stuff sells, as well as stock pressures each season because the store will just send back items that don't sell. In the US, they just buy stuff out right".
Pari Chen
Parent currently works with some 25 Chinese designers and brands, citing an individual and unique aesthetic as the most important criteria in taking on projects. And judging by his website, he's managed to find just that, cooperating with the likes of fashion royalty Uma Wang, cutting edge label Content, and retro eye-wear brand ChairEYES. For each, he provides communications on a complimentary basis, taking on subsequent and varied projects – ranging from store openings to brand strategy – case by case, acting as a sort of middleman between the designers and potential retailers.
Citing a lack of government support, finances and momentum as hurdles, going global is a challenge for China's fashion industry, according to Parent – although not an insurmountable one. "There's a lot of interest in the Chinese creative industry right now – not the mass manufacturing, cheap labor and inevitably copying, but the real creative economy. Saying that, though, the fashion industry likes to watch designers for at least a couple of seasons, so in those terms timing and consistency are so important – if you skip a season it's really bad for a store because you don't have a presence. On and off doesn't work in retail! Timing is crucial too – everything in China is late – fashion week, everything! I'm trying to get the designers I work with to work to an international schedule – now, they're kind of marching to their own beat".
Xander Zhou
"All of the designers I work with are small teams – two to twelve people, whereas of course international brands have not only huge teams but also huge budgets. They also have history – a long tradition of producing goods that translates into heritage, quality, brand stories, recognizable logos – all these things that Chinese consumers like".
"But these Chinese designers are starting from nothing, so getting people to pay attention to them is a difficult task, so what I try to do is put them together – like a union of Chinese designers – and present them as a group and then that way I think it's more understandable and digestible for international consumers: 'Here's a group of people who are leading the Chinese fashion industry, who together define the Chinese aesthetic..."
Decoster Concept PHOTO: Pablo Morales
Parent's championing of Chinese designers doesn't only come from a personal passion; there's clear advantages to pushing lesser-known talents to compete with the big boys of retail. "Of course, I'm doing this partially from a practical point of view – there's really no one out there helping these designers so there's room for me to do this kind of work, but also I really believe in their work. I think they're genuinely creative and therefore deserve to be supported".
"More than that, though, it's about diversification of the industry. It helps at all sort of different levels – on the individual, it gives consumers more choice, which is of course a great thing – especially if those products reflect more closely who they are, what individuals want their personal style to say about them. At an industry level it really helps because it's better for the environment – a diversification of supply, people producing in smaller qualities, more handmade, not made in massive factories. Big brands produce on a huge scale, and that can be very wasteful in a lot of instances. On a wider level still, China has its own history, culture, sense of aesthetics and philosophy – fashion can help to protect and preserve cultural heritage in so much as it reinterprets it and makes it modern again. I love the minority dress and lots of designers use that as part of their inspiration, but you wouldn't know it unless you were told, unless it was communicated. That's where I can help".
Uma Wang
Before all that can happen abroad, though, it needs to start at home, and Parent cites two stores doing just that: Fumin Lu indie Chinese designer boutique Dong Liang, and Hong Huang's multi-brand emporium BNC in Beijing's Beijing. "The merchandizing in Dong Liang is very strong and importantly, both stores are in a unique position to be able to help local designers. They're able to take on some of the risks, specifically the financial ones in creating a platform for them."
A current and similarly local project sees Parent working on e-commerce site, ePin. Featuring exclusively Chinese designers and boasting international shipping, the endeavor aims to help local talents create a global client base, as well as act as a platform for future brand building. That's slated to go online somewhen next March, and we'll be sure to report back when it's up and running.
Cha Gang
To find out more about China Fashion Collective, check the website here, and for more of Parent's musings on fashion, style and China, take a look at his blog here.
"Our main focus is English language communications: we help them with branding too, but really communicating their brand identity to the rest of the world. Our second focus is distribution, mainly to the US and Canada, and helping designers find wholesale accounts. In China everything operates on consignment, which means designers not only pay to produce the goods, they then have the financial burden too – they don't get paid until their stuff sells, as well as stock pressures each season because the store will just send back items that don't sell. In the US, they just buy stuff out right".
Pari Chen
Parent currently works with some 25 Chinese designers and brands, citing an individual and unique aesthetic as the most important criteria in taking on projects. And judging by his website, he's managed to find just that, cooperating with the likes of fashion royalty Uma Wang, cutting edge label Content, and retro eye-wear brand ChairEYES. For each, he provides communications on a complimentary basis, taking on subsequent and varied projects – ranging from store openings to brand strategy – case by case, acting as a sort of middleman between the designers and potential retailers.
Citing a lack of government support, finances and momentum as hurdles, going global is a challenge for China's fashion industry, according to Parent – although not an insurmountable one. "There's a lot of interest in the Chinese creative industry right now – not the mass manufacturing, cheap labor and inevitably copying, but the real creative economy. Saying that, though, the fashion industry likes to watch designers for at least a couple of seasons, so in those terms timing and consistency are so important – if you skip a season it's really bad for a store because you don't have a presence. On and off doesn't work in retail! Timing is crucial too – everything in China is late – fashion week, everything! I'm trying to get the designers I work with to work to an international schedule – now, they're kind of marching to their own beat".
Xander Zhou
"All of the designers I work with are small teams – two to twelve people, whereas of course international brands have not only huge teams but also huge budgets. They also have history – a long tradition of producing goods that translates into heritage, quality, brand stories, recognizable logos – all these things that Chinese consumers like".
"But these Chinese designers are starting from nothing, so getting people to pay attention to them is a difficult task, so what I try to do is put them together – like a union of Chinese designers – and present them as a group and then that way I think it's more understandable and digestible for international consumers: 'Here's a group of people who are leading the Chinese fashion industry, who together define the Chinese aesthetic..."
Decoster Concept PHOTO: Pablo Morales
Parent's championing of Chinese designers doesn't only come from a personal passion; there's clear advantages to pushing lesser-known talents to compete with the big boys of retail. "Of course, I'm doing this partially from a practical point of view – there's really no one out there helping these designers so there's room for me to do this kind of work, but also I really believe in their work. I think they're genuinely creative and therefore deserve to be supported".
"More than that, though, it's about diversification of the industry. It helps at all sort of different levels – on the individual, it gives consumers more choice, which is of course a great thing – especially if those products reflect more closely who they are, what individuals want their personal style to say about them. At an industry level it really helps because it's better for the environment – a diversification of supply, people producing in smaller qualities, more handmade, not made in massive factories. Big brands produce on a huge scale, and that can be very wasteful in a lot of instances. On a wider level still, China has its own history, culture, sense of aesthetics and philosophy – fashion can help to protect and preserve cultural heritage in so much as it reinterprets it and makes it modern again. I love the minority dress and lots of designers use that as part of their inspiration, but you wouldn't know it unless you were told, unless it was communicated. That's where I can help".
Uma Wang
Before all that can happen abroad, though, it needs to start at home, and Parent cites two stores doing just that: Fumin Lu indie Chinese designer boutique Dong Liang, and Hong Huang's multi-brand emporium BNC in Beijing's Beijing. "The merchandizing in Dong Liang is very strong and importantly, both stores are in a unique position to be able to help local designers. They're able to take on some of the risks, specifically the financial ones in creating a platform for them."
A current and similarly local project sees Parent working on e-commerce site, ePin. Featuring exclusively Chinese designers and boasting international shipping, the endeavor aims to help local talents create a global client base, as well as act as a platform for future brand building. That's slated to go online somewhen next March, and we'll be sure to report back when it's up and running.
Cha Gang
To find out more about China Fashion Collective, check the website here, and for more of Parent's musings on fashion, style and China, take a look at his blog here.
