Made in China

Images of H&M's contractor in Beijing taken from Modes China by Erik Bernhardsson

Over the course of the last few years, there has been an increasing amount of focus on the nation of China. Why? China has the largest luxury market. I've stressed this before in my posts and while sales may fall occasionally in China, the reality is that there are no luxury consumers in the world compared to the luxury consumers in China.

Recently I had the pleasure of reading a publication called Modes China, sent to me by it's author Erik Bernhardsson. Modes China promotes and highlights the social context surrounding the fashion industry within China through its interviews with internationally recognised designers such as ffiXXed as well as  students who are studying fashion design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) located in Beijing. It also gives a fascinating insight into H&M's contractor for their DIVIDED label.

While reading the book it became increasingly obvious that the politics in China do have an influence over the  fashion industry. If you didn't know, China is a communist country and from my understanding, they are a big believer in censorship and control - Facebook is blocked in China, only accessible by using proxy servers. When I attended an exchange program in 2011, upon meeting the principle of the school, one of the first things that we were told was that we were not allowed to speak about was politics - I felt as though this was extremely strange as it directly threatened the freedom of speech. Another example, is controversial Chinese artist who is notoriously critical of the Chinese government Ai Wei Wei, who was arrested in 2011 for no apparent reason. This censorship and conservative attitude displayed by the government would naturally extend to the education that aspiring designers would receive from schools such as CAFA.

The fashion industry as it exists in China today is branded by a white label with 3 words imprinted in black; Made in China. This is, perhaps, a metaphor for the industry itself. After all, the majority of China's infrastructure is built upon its ability to manufacture goods both within and outside of the fashion industry. It is an extremely clinical, precise, regulated and uniform environment and most of all, it's what western society and culture has made China out to be - one big factory. Think about it, many western companies outsource their production to China because it is far cheaper for their products to be produced there and an added bonus is that they have no direct liability for the workers welfare. So, if this is true, is there really room for designers in China to break this western mentality and become successful not only domestically but also internationally?

I am certainly not denying the fact that China has luxury designers who have attracted a niche of consumers, however the fact remains that these labels are simply nowhere near as popular as the western luxury labels. These western luxury labels will only stunt the growth of the fashion industry in China as shoppers choose to buy into the western luxury. Brands such as Christian Dior (who regularly now holds haute couture shows in China) hold a sense of tailored individuality brought about by the liberal and democratic values of traditional western society and that is something that the Chinese fashion industry cannot offer right now.




Also, thanks to Erik for sending me a copy of Modes China! I really did enjoy reading it!