Luxury brands jump into men's blue ocean advanced customization "day-to-day"

The 45-year-old Ciro Palestra is a gold tailor who has to fly around the world for a third of a year to customize senior suits for the bosses and riches there. Four years ago, Ciro’s itinerary had another destination, which was China.
Soon, this magical place became his normal place of visit.
In last month’s China trip, he visited intensively 15 places in Beijing, Hangzhou, Chengdu, Taiyuan, Shenyang, Xi’an and other six places. The Italian men’s brand Kiton, who served him, completed about 8 million. Order.
The weak economic environment and “knot of hurricane” do not seem to have a profound impact on China’s luxury men’s market. In other words, this business unit is also becoming a blue ocean for luxury brands to tap into the Chinese market.
Layout blue sea
“For us, there is still great potential for the future of China’s luxury menswear market,” said He Bin, director of Kiton China, in an interview. Kiton's performance in the Chinese market still achieved a 20% growth in 2012, which is still a good upward trend.
Just a week ago, the famous luxury store Lane Crawford announced that it officially launched a menswear shopping service in an online store to meet the increasing demand of luxury menswear brands from Chinese customers and plans to expand the online store's menswear brand next year. To more than 180.
"Men's clothing is now one of the most popular product categories in the Chinese market. With the growing maturity of customers' tastes, men's wear has become an important growth area for the Chinese market," said Andrew Keith, president of Lane Crawford.
In China, the luxury menswear market is a pre-judgment of the Blue Ocean, and many luxury brands are also launching new product lines in China, even when the overall external environment is not optimistic. The Italian brand Bottega Veneta, whose main product is luggage, is one of them.
In December 2012, Bottega Veneta opened its Menswear Store in Shanghai's Hang Lung Plaza. Marco Bizzarri, CEO and Chief Executive Officer of Bottega Veneta, said in an optimistic interview: “There is great potential in the field of Chinese men's luxury goods.”
According to our reporter's knowledge of German clothing luxury brand HUGO BOSS, the brand plans to introduce more menswear product lines to the Chinese market in the second half of this year, such as HUGO, which targets young people. Hugo Boss also plans to open two flagship stores in Shanghai this year, and accelerate the recovery of all distributors' agency rights by the end of the year and reintegrate them into self-employment.
Some people may ask, because of the special gift-giving culture in the Chinese market, the government's “knot of hurricane” and the fight against corruption will not adversely affect the men’s clothing luxury brands? “High-end business wear is generally more low-key, with emphasis on fabrics and tailoring. Only people who wear them can feel it. Others can't see which brand they come from. Unlike watches, these products are easily discerned. What's more, There are many bosses and wealthy customers.” Insiders commented on this reporter’s report.
Custom "daily"
Why is China's luxury menswear market so attractive? Marco Bizzarri found that once men's clothing customers are attracted, they will have a strong loyalty to the brand.
Ciro, after comparing the Chinese and foreign men's customers, said: "Men's foreign customers are already very mature. They know what they like and how to wear them, but Chinese men's customers are still learning quickly." The stage of learning progress is considered by the brand as an important development opportunity.
Ciro also spends more time communicating with Chinese customers when they want to customize services for Chinese customers. For example, they must first understand the customer's dressing situation to help them select fabrics, and secondly, they should understand the accessories and styles of clothing, and there is no need for personalization. The third is to understand the details, even including custom clothing and what accessories need to match.
"Faithfulness" is also what Ciro feels about its customers here. Kiton's loyal customers are usually in stores twice a year. These two visits basically solved their one-year "dressing task." "Some customers will call us at the beginning of the year to tell us their budget for this year's clothing. We will recommend it based on his preferences."
In March, Ciro ran through six cities to complete 8 million orders after completing “touring” customization. He Bin was obviously very satisfied.
According to the data, at present, 80% of the revenue of the Chinese market of Kiton comes from the custom business. Based on this, Kiton even proposed the concept of “daily” customization. This means that Ciro, who was originally flying twice a year in China, will be even more busy because he has to meet the customization needs that the Chinese market may have anywhere, anytime.
According to He Bin, the biggest difficulty in daily customization is the allocation of technical forces. With the growth of the Chinese market, not only does the Italian headquarters need to send professionals to stay in China, but also to cultivate its own technical strength in the local area.
Marco Bizzarri also plans to find suitable and feasible places in China to open more stores for male customers. The new stores will be tailored to each market to meet the different needs and desires of customers.