The box for a wine refrigerator reads "Made in China" at a Costco store in Everett, Massachusetts. Reuters/Brian Snyder Sales of international luxury goods in China have fallen over the last 12 months. This is the first time the high-end market has seen a downturn and comes at an especially damaging time now that the Asian market has become a sort of lifebelt for the most exclusive brands, offsetting the economic slowdown in the developed world of recent years.

Such has been the enthusiastic reception for the West’s conspicuously luxurious consumer goods that China has today more designer stores than any other country in the world.

Upscale clothes, jewelry, limousines and sports cars… they are all feeling the pinch in China, Hong-Kong and Macau. with a few notable exceptions. One such is the French couturier Hermès which has established its own pioneering Chinese brand Shang Xia: a range of menswear, women’s wear, accessories and homeware all designed and made in China. This combination is proving to be very successful and CEO Jiang Qiong Er says sales rose 77% in the first half of 2015 compared with the previous year.



China’s growth rate is slowing down – with a predicted 2016 expansion below 5%, compared with 14.2% in 2007 – but it is still going up. Wealthy Chinese citizens haven’t stopped desiring expensive treats; they have only changed their tastes. They don’t want to have to travel to Paris, Milano, London or New York to find the most exquisite goods. Moreover, they are tired of Western firms replicating their commercial domestic strategies in Chinese clone stores. They want to feel companies make the effort and try to charm the Asian public with a customised approach.

“We’re connecting consumers with China’s craft heritage, while also using modern design to project the art of living into the future,” Jiang Qiong Er told The Sunday Times Style Magazine. She underlined that it was the moment for China to reframe its national luxury market-place.

If she is right, the future for luxury sales in China, which leads the world with its demand in this sector, could well lie in the art of rebranding with a new ‘Made in China’ label.