FT:Rich rewards where east meets west

Success stories in the world of luxury goods today tend to be companies with significant sales in China, while brands that still rely on their traditional European consumers find themselves laggards.

Salvatore Ferragamo, the Italian shoemaker to Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland, this month reported some of the strongest revenue growth in the industry with operating profit up 80 per cent. Chinese shoppers now account for 30 per cent of its business.

To appeal to these new consumers, Ferragamo has adapted shoe sizes and created brightly coloured clothes to suit Chinese tastes.

European luxury goods executives report that shoppers from China home in on goods labelled “Made in Italy”, “Made in France” or, for watches, “Made in Switzerland”.

While Hermès is trying to create homegrown Chinese luxury with its Shang Xia brand, other European companies are considering different ways to unify Chinese aesthetics with European manufacturing quality. One of these, a menswear luxury brand christened SheJi-Sorgere, which means “to rise” in Italian and “to design” in Chinese, will debut on March 30 at Beijing Fashion Week.

It is the result of a joint venture between China Garments, a Beijing group with about $300m of annual turnover which is part of the state-owned China Hengtian holding company, and Raffaele Caruso, an Italian retailer and manufacturer of top-of-the-range tailored men’s suits.

Umberto Angeloni, the luxury goods entrepreneur behind Parma-based Caruso, says the aim of the project is “to try to blend – at the highest level – the best of Chinese with the best of Italian”. Roughly 100 menswear designs, including accessories, will be shown to buyers and media at its inaugural runway show.

A store will also open in Beijing.

Yingie Zhan, China Garment’s chief executive, has told Italian media she is convinced “China has the capacity to create a luxury goods brand”.

Guo Chunning, the artist who created the logo for the Beijing Olympics, designed SheJi’s logo.

The brand’s designer is Francesco Fiordelli, an Italian who has worked at Gucci and Hugo Boss and has lived in China for the past 10 years.

The design and manufacturing mix means price may also be a pull for consumers. Suits are expected to cost less than Italian menswear brands such as Ermenegildo Zegna that are already popular with Chinese shoppers.