The Top And Bottom Brands Have Never Been Able To Make Profits.

< p > the two last time to postpone the opening plan of Paris, France, has finally decided the final opening date: September 2013.

The store is located at Rue de S vres, near Paris's Hermes store.

They first announced the decision in December 2012 and the second in 2013.

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Jiang Qionger, founder and art director of "P", said that this is another support from Hermes except money: time.

"We have not been prepared before."

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< p > up and down is usually referred to by media as the Chinese brand of Hermes, the world's top luxury group, but they always insist on being an independent company.

Hermes and Jiang Qionger jointly own shares, of which the former share is more than 75%.

In addition to Hermes, no one knows how much money has been invested by Hermes since its establishment in 2008, but the company has never been able to make profits.

"Up and down" opened a shop in Shanghai and Beijing in 2010 and 2012 respectively. Shops were < a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > designer < /a >, Japanese architect Kumake Go also hosted the design of Paris store.

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< p > Paris is regarded as a crucial link in the development of "up and down" development for five years. The Patrick Thomas, President of Hermes, said that the shop plan was established when it opened shop in Shanghai. Now it will be a proof of the international attraction of "up and down".

But Jiang Qionger is a little nervous. She thinks that "opening up and down" in Paris means combining "the new look of Chinese culture with the mature business system of the west".

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< p > shopping in "up and down" stores may be a special experience.

A white cloth made of special composite material in Shanghai shop creates a dreamy cave, while the Beijing design element is the Great Wall brick.

The shop assistants will serve the customers with the hot tea in the white porcelain cup, and explain the crafts and stories behind each product.

For example, when you introduce the thin porcelain, you close your eyes, then gently tap on your ear, and explain that it is the sound that inspired Dou Wei, a special shop music for "up and down".

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< p > "up and down" sale of < a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > clothing < /a > Jewelry, furniture, art, tea sets and other products, the common feature is from the special handicrafts of the people combined with the modern design of pragmatism.

The same product mix will also appear in Paris, but because France does not allow the use of rosewood furniture, sandalwood tables and chairs will be replaced by other timber.

Pricing is the same as product categories. The goods in the shop are affordable by ordinary people, and there are more than 500 thousand yuan rosewood rocking chairs.

On average, the price of "up and down" products is slightly lower than that of Hermes. The prices of products such as watches and leather bags are priced at several hundred thousand yuan.

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< p > "we are neither a luxury brand nor a fashion."

Jiang Qionger told reporters that this is also her insisting from the establishment of the brand so far: "we are trying to combine traditional elegant lifestyle with modern urban life."

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< p > at present, the designer brand that uses Chinese traditional elements is Taiwan's "Xia Zi Chen" and Hongkong's "Shanghai".

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< p > but "up and down" is not as well known to consumers as the former two.

When all designers are eager to plug their works into fashion week, Jiang Qionger never lets "up and down" participate in any shows and advertisements.

The store is the largest way to promote foreign publicity. In addition, "up and down" also held a 3 week exhibition in Shanghai and Beijing. Besides the graphic presentation of the production process, artisans were invited to give a live demonstration.

This strategy is considered to be more effective in moving "heavy quality, not heavy Logo" consumers.

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Chen Zhan, senior research director of TNS brand and communication department, who has long studied luxury goods consumption, said that Chinese consumers still like to use luxury goods as a symbol of status, but the demand for art investment and "reward themselves" is increasing constantly. P

"The first thing they buy is what other people approve of," he added, adding that consumers in other countries are more likely to pay for traditional Chinese elements.

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< p > the proportion of Chinese and foreign consumers in Shanghai stores is 3:2, while the number of Chinese consumers in Beijing stores is more than 85%.

These guests are described by Patrick Thomas as "people who have ideas about product quality and creativity, and are interested in specific styles."

"It's very interesting for us to know which guests are buying up and down."

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P, the Hermes CEO, announced in the summer of 2012 that he was about to give this position to the Thierry Hermes family's sixth generation successor, Pierre Alexis Dumas, expressing the greatest optimism for the prospect of "going up and down" into Europe.

"China has become the second largest economy, and Europeans want to know more about China.

You know, if something looks great, but you don't know it, it will be very attractive. "

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< p > if this "unconsciousness" dream comes true, "up and down" may be faced with the biggest test in 5 years -- how to maintain quality and capacity under the increase of stores.

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In the early days of the "up and down" style, Jiang Qionger abandoned the direct use of traditional Chinese elements and tried to integrate P into modern design.

This means that even if she finds the right craftsmen, she will have to spend a considerable amount of communication time with them to explore how to make "up and down" products - Jiang Qionger generalizes it as "exquisite and casual" design style.

At present, the application of traditional handicrafts in China is very limited. Most of the highly skilled entertainers are in the production of tourist souvenirs or special collections of works of art.

An example often quoted is that an elephant is made of the same material before the handicraft master who made bamboo thread buckled porcelain tea for "up and down".

Bamboo silk is only 0.45 millimeter thick and thin. "Buckle porcelain" refers to a technology that uses bamboo glue tightly wrapped in the outer layer of tea cups almost by no means of viscose, just by hand weaving, so that it can form a decorative thermal insulation layer on the outer layer of the tea cup.

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< p > another coat made of "Cashmere felt" comes from Jiang Qionger's own creation.

In Inner Mongolia, she found local people using wool felt for warmth, but for people living in the city, woollen felt made less than a target= "_blank" href= "http://www.91se91.com/" > clothing > /a > too thick and hard. So she considered using cashmere instead of wool, so the overcoat made to make it soft enough to fit the body, but the cost was repeated over the past few years to test the reasonable production process.

Even now technology is mature, some styles of coats are still in short supply, and the waiting time of customers is usually about half a year.

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< p > to find high-quality technology, Jiang Qionger expanded his search scope through museums and crafts associations.

Under normal circumstances, "up and down" will reach a strategic cooperative relationship with handicraft workshop: not only discuss the production and design of products, but also help improve the management of workshop itself, including improving the lighting conditions of workshops and training new people.

Some workshops have a scale of about 40 people, some less than 5 people, and their locations scattered from Qinghai to Zhejiang.

On average, every 10 days, designers of "up and down" visit a workshop. The advantage of frequent visits is to find problems in time and develop a stronger trust relationship, because no one has ever done anything like that, and everything has to start from scratch.

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In the first 3 years of P, Jiang Qionger was doing similar things.

She describes the process of dealing with traditional artisans as "apprenticeship", and "learning" is based on a lot of communication and emotional support.

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< p > up to now, there are similar cooperative relationships with more than ten workshops, while the number of companies engaged in R & D is over 20.

Even so, the actual production cycle of "up and down" is still longer, about half a year.

But this is not the same as the designer's new series in general sense. It's more like picking out the most mature and quality items from a bunch of projects, and the rest of the time is not easy to say.

Some of the technology that was developed 4 years ago is still in the experimental stage. Generally speaking, the research and development of furniture products will take at least two years.

As for those mature projects, the artificial labor hours are only hundreds of hours. For example, a set of tea sets will take more than half a month, and the whole workshop will have only a dozen sets of capacity a month.

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< p > if the price is taken into consideration, "up and down" does not seem to plate this time cost into it.

"Up and down" current annual sales account for 8% to 10% of the total of Hermes China.

According to the Hermes 2012 annual report, the overall sales volume in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Japan) is 1 billion 100 million euros (about 8 billion 780 million yuan).

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< p > Jiang Qionger admits that there is commercial pressure on "up and down", but she still stresses "developing slowly and rhythmically".

"The cottage is different from the 100 story building.

We need to have very thick and thick foundations.

My assumption is that even if our generation dies, the brand will still exist.

This is the reason why she refused the fashion week, but another realistic factor is: with the production capacity of "up and down", I am afraid I can not afford to compete for several series of competitions in the two quarter of a year or even in the four seasons.

But "up and down" does not seem to want to do so.

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< p > even if "up and down" does not pursue sales volume, and even always does not care about business indicators, Hermes has promised Patrick Thomas "at least 10 years of investment", and he estimates that "up and down" may make money in the next 3 years, though he said so two years ago.

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< p > Hermes still has hope for this brand.

And Jiang Qionger and her love for "up and down" - although she carefully avoided measuring the results with indicators, objected to the full exposure to the world with the show, in a sense it was protected - but with the opening of shops in Paris, the "up and down" idealistic brand really has to face the market and profit test.

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