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Alternative Law Of Making Money: Fashion Philosophy In The Corner

2011/8/19 18:09:00 60

The name of the shop is "Water Stone".

Water stone

It was an unforgettable trip by Jiang Mingming, a shopkeeper. - until now, he could never forget the warm sunshine and aroma of the WATER STONE bookstore in Oxford, England.

Agreeable

Afternoon.

"Water" is beautiful, tenderness is like describing "she"; "stone" is rigid.

Be as solid as rocks

That is to say "he".

Both are the most common elements in nature, but at the same time they are ever-changing and difficult.

Pondering

...

Jiang Ming Ming

"I prefer a corner like Hutong to a busy business district. What we want to do is this low-key fashion."

Water Stone owner Jiang Mingming said.

A buyer is like a comic actor.

Reporter: a multi brand store like Water Stone is relatively small in China. How did it first establish this store?

Jiang Mingming (hereinafter referred to as J): the store's predecessor was a foreign trade store, founded in 2004.

stay

Accumulate

After a certain number of customers and funds, in 2008, we opened a brand collection store for foreign designers in Sanlitun, bringing together 6 men's clothing brands.

Because I had been in Japan for a few years before I met some excellent young Japanese designers, so when these people became independent designers, I naturally took their works.

Their clothing is more suitable for Chinese fashion groups in terms of culture, body shape and price.

Last year, we moved the Sanlitun store to 798. Now the products in the store are not only men's and Japanese brands, but also some European designer brands, plus some women's wear and excellent Chinese designers.

Reporter: where do your goods come from?

J: we all go to fashion week to find a good design. One is Tokyo fashion week, the other is Paris fashion week, and occasionally goes to London Fashion week.

Foreign fashion week is more mature, there will be many exhibitions, such as accessories exhibition, or a new exhibition of designers and students.

We are looking for some fresh brands that are different from the current market.

Interviewer: how do you work with designers?

J: the brand of foreign designers is now in the form of buying goods, and the brand of domestic designer is now in the form of consignment.

But we hope that it will become a form of purchase in the future.

Actually, every time we choose goods, it is very painful to delete everything.

Reporter: what criteria do you choose to brand?

J: mainly depends on their creativity.

Foreign designers usually observe 3-4 seasons, because young designers sometimes appear unstable.

We strive to select some very stable designers.

As retailers, we are very afraid to meet designers who are very beautiful and have a very ordinary season.

Most of the partners we are working with are new designers. Some of them are very famous abroad, but they also have different clothes from I.T and even Crawford.

Reporter: you can use fashion buyers to describe your identity.

What do you think of the job and job of the buyer?

J: a buyer should be like a comic actor, and be proficient in learning and singing.

A buyer must be familiar with the local cultural background, familiar with the local people's physical condition, be sensitive to fashion information and be predictable.

As a general buyer's shop, with its sales status, its internal brand has a replacement, which is more flexible and more fresh than the traditional department store with "rentals".

But it also has risks. It is necessary to choose brands like gambling. Once the judgment is wrong, the brand's investment in this season may not come back.

Reporter: what is the current sales situation of this store?

J: our monthly running time is about 150 thousand RMB.

Now the sales between brands are basically the same, because we are more cautious when buying goods, the calculation is more detailed, and strive to stock around 3%.

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Making fashion in China can make money.

Reporter: I have interviewed some designer brand stores before. They all say that business is not so good. What do you think?

J: although everyone has encountered difficulties, you see that the pillars have opened another one in Shanghai, and BNC is also expanding.

To tell you the truth, which industry is not easy, but every industry has done well.

I think so far, China's multi brand stores are not many, but very few.

Besides, our environment is not so bad. We can make money by doing it with our heart, but the era of "making big money" has not yet come.

Reporter: what kind of people are your customers? How do you promote them?

J: our foundation is relatively good because it used to be a foreign trade business with some fixed source of tourists.

It is better for a shop to do any modification than the kernel. The brand is better than the operator. The operator should understand that this is the best promotion.

Reporter: in the process of going abroad, what's the difference between China's fashion industry and foreign fashion industry?

J: for example, in Japan, a brand sells at different stores in Tokyo. The price will be very small. A garment will sell 20 thousand days in this store, and it may sell 21 thousand days in another store. Their pricing is more standard.

This is because their fashion retailers are familiar with each other. They almost all live in the same hotel when they go abroad, though they are rivals, but there will be some communication in private, which is to make the industry a big cake.

Reporter: what is the future of fashion industry in China?

J: China is now reforming soccer, which may be fashionable after that.

The richest person in Japan is the boss of UNIQLO. The richest man in France is the boss of LV, and Spain's richest man is the owner of fast fashion brand Zara.

That is to say, from the economic point of view, making clothes can make money, and it can exceed our imagination of traditional industries.

Culturally speaking, it is also a manifestation of soft power, which is recyclable and inexhaustible forever.

So when China is improving and developing gradually, we will see that the fashion industry will have an unexpected harvest on our economic and cultural role in the future.

Our designers are no worse than foreign ones.

Reporter: when did you start to explore the cutting-edge designers in China?

J: not to mention, actually these designers were my good friends at the beginning, such as Zhang Chi and Liu Lu.

Since the establishment of this store last year, we have cooperated with domestic cutting-edge designers.

At first, we didn't focus on sales, but planned to do some PR work for designers.

Because we often take part in overseas fashion week and exhibition. We hope to take the good domestic design there and show it.

Later, I felt it was good to sell these designs. Now, this decision is correct. The works of domestic designers are selling well in our stores, exceeding our expectations.

Reporter: how do you think of the growth of domestic cutting-edge designers?

J: the talent reserve of Chinese designers has reached a critical point.

After so many years of circulation, there are already a large number of people, and it is time for Chinese designers to get a little harvest.

On design, I am not qualified to comment on anything. I just said that in addition to the media, if I give them more support on resources, for example, money and technology, I think they will be better than now.

In fact, the gap between domestic designers and foreign designers is not very large, and the gap between them is not so obvious.

If you put Ye Qian, Vega, Uma Wang designers in England and Paris, I believe they will never be inferior to local designers.

As for the specific support methods, I think China Fashion Week can single out a new designer's exhibition, even if it does not make money now, to provide some places for them.

Or set up a small fund to send some funds to their hands every year.

Reporter: what specific plans do Water Stone have in promoting the growth of designers?

J: actually, at the very beginning, we were planning to hang things of Chinese designers free of charge.

But later it was considered that it would affect the interests of other businesses in the industry.

It is certain that we will start the cooperation between the cutting-edge designers at home and abroad and the traditional Chinese brands, similar to the hundred years old brands such as Sheng Xifu and Nei Lian, so that they can do something interesting together.

Reporter: How did you feel after several years of fashion retailing?

J: I think in fashion industry, the most important thing is to stick to it.

Up to now, there are few people who have made costumes with me in 2004.

In fact, it is not difficult to make a shop according to this logic. As long as I entertain 300 customers, I spend 5000 yuan per person per week, and I will become a multimillionaire in one year.

But the reality is not so simple. We must have rigorous, rational and prudent judgement in our work.

Reporter's line of sight

Walking into the corner of the 798 Art District of Beijing, Water Stone, a pure and simple creative breath comes to us. What we can never forget is the symbolic deer head model in the Chen window and the tall and large fitting mirror in the shop.

Unlike the local original brand collections that we introduced before, the design in Water Stone is more alternative and international.

Here, you can see some famous works from Europe or Japan, such as nude in Japan, Daniel Palillo in Finland, Mary Katrantzou in the United Kingdom, MARIOS in Italy, etc.

Of course, there are also a series of clothes hangers that belong to the cutting-edge designers in China.

The name of this shop is "Water Stone" (Shui Shi), which is an unforgettable trip from shopkeeper Jiang Mingming. Until now, he could not forget the pleasant afternoon of the warm sunny and fragrant coffee that had passed through a bookstore named WATER STONE in Oxford street.

"Water" is beautiful, tender like water is to describe "she"; "stone" is rigid, firm as a rock is to describe "he".

The two are the most common elements in nature, but they are all changing and difficult to understand.

During the interview, Jiang Mingming repeated a word: rigor.

He has a unique understanding of fashion in his life.

In his philosophy, fashion is not a publicity, but a low-key content; fashion retailing is not a big sale, but a prudent and rational operation; fashion dreams are not temporary passions, but persistent choices.