Opportunity Is The Breakdown Of China's High-End Apparel Market.

Lv Yan's advertising photos for his own brand Comme Moi 2015 autumn winter series

With a close hairstylist and makeup artist, Lv Yan stepped into the interview room arranged by Lane Crawford. Her face was full of delicate makeup, her shoulder length black hair was meticulously bluntly, and the modeling team around her could ensure that she appeared all day in such an energetic manner. If it wasn't for her own brand Comme Moi 2016 spring and summer series of white beaded skirt, and we agreed to talk about Comme Moi, she was more like a star.

Lv Yan's more widely known identity is the international supermodel. She has an aesthetically controversial Eastern face, and she has many times in the world. Latest fashion Zhou is one of the most famous superstars in the world. She may be one of the first supermodels in China.

But it's hard for a model to become a lifelong profession. No matter how successful it has been, it is ultimately an industry that relies on youthful faces. So in 2013, Lv Yan founded. clothing brand Comme Moi.

Comme Moi 2014 autumn and winter advertising map, Lv Yan as hard shooting model

Opportunity is the breakdown of China's high-end apparel market.

"The sale of luxury goods is going backwards, but the Chinese market is big, and there must be a stratification. What are the people who are out there? Because of my model experience, my popularity and resources were collected over the past decade. The experience of brand and model is complementary to each other. Lv Yan said to the interface news.

Tang cream, a fashion critic, is one of the first to see the prototype of Comme Moi.

"To be honest, it is inevitable that I will presuppose this is another example of a model transformation designer, but when I first saw her design, I found something quite different," Tang told the interface reporter. "Although there were only 10 designs at that time, I saw the beginning of the mature commercial brand in Comme Moi, and I could see a complete set of brand development ideas and product planning."

Comme Moi 2015 autumn winter series advertising photos, the right model is Lv Yan.

Lv Yan is quite different from the many returnees designers we interviewed before. She did not learn systematically about design, plate making and fabric. However, she has much richer business experience than a young designer. She has been in touch with many first-rate luxury designers, fashion editors and retailers during her years as a model designer, which gave her a more practical and detailed plan for designing and making brands.

The most direct expression is that Lv Yan identified a light luxury brand positioning for Comme Moi, and planned the product line around this position, and established the retail price.

From the product line of Comme Moi, garment design is generally not exaggerated. It is based on the classic style of improving the profile, or adding the details of the season, the fabric is exquisite, and the wearability is high. And look at the price, its autumn and winter series has more than two thousand yuan coat, also has eight thousand yuan of wool long coat, down clothing; spring and summer series shirts and T-shirts are more than three thousand yuan up and down, part of the dress price can exceed four thousand yuan. Generally speaking, brand pricing takes the middle route, and lies between the mid-range commercial brand and the first-line brand.

"I have seen many stores and shopping malls, and I have made an understanding and comparison of the brands and prices on the market, and finally determined the brand positioning according to my own interests." Lv Yan said, "now my customer group is 25-35 years old, has the cognition to the society, has the strong idea to the fashion big woman. Most of them buy luxury goods, know fabrics, know what good things are, and know why some products are expensive.

Comme Moi 2016 spring and summer series publicity map, Lv Yan did not appear in the publicity map of the season.

Comme Moi's products and pricing can easily be reminiscent of French brands Sandro and Maje. The two brands also grasped the gap between luxury brand and fast fashion brand, and opened the market with products with design sense and practicality. Sandro, founded in 1984, now has 300 stores in the world, while Maje, which opened in 1998, has opened 150 stores around the world in 8 years.

In China, the market between fast fashion and luxury brands is not long before, but the growth rate of customers is often unexpected.

"This kind of brand is also missing in the current Chinese market. Now China's business brand has a high turnover, but its brand value is not high. The stability of the product and the overall image needs to be polished. But consumers have more stringent aesthetic standards, and they urgently need some brand new ideas. Tang Frost said.

French brand Maje 2016 spring and summer advertising map

French brand Sandro2016 spring and summer advertising map

Noting that this market vacancy is more than Lv Yan's Comme Moi, of course. China's independent designer brand, the second line of the international first-line brand and the light luxury brand abroad -- the SMCP SAS group of Sandro and Maje, which is mentioned before, will soon be opened in Tmall after being acquired by Ruyi group, Shandong, China - all want to fill the gap in the market.

But Lv Yan has great strength in this wave of competition.

Lv Yan has accumulated a lot of resources in modeling, which has contributed to brand promotion, early channel widening and production development. Since the establishment of Comme Moi, large and medium media have been exposed frequently at home and abroad, and star artists have been constantly supporting. Sales channels have been able to cover 6 brand collection shops and buyer shops including lac, Comme and so on at the early stage of development. Among them, Lian Crawford began buying money in the third quarter (2015 spring and summer) after the establishment of Comme Moi, and more importantly, the brand also has a partner with a weaving factory background, which provides nearly 60% products for Comme Moi.

Comme Moi Xinle Road store, Shanghai

Comme Moi Shanghai Xinle Road store shop aerial view

So far, the buyer's shop is still the main selling channel of Comme Moi, the only two independent stores are in Xinle Road, Shanghai, and the other one has just opened in Shanghai's Jiu Guang Department store. But in Lv Yan's plan, the future of Comme Moi in department stores will eventually become a brand with independent stores as its main channel.

"We haven't really entered the retail system yet. I opened a direct store. In my mind, I want to drive on the street shop. I don't want to open it. It's not a real sales system. I don't think there are more than 10 stores in the department store. You dare not say that you are a mature brand, "Lv Yan said." you should be able to cope with all kinds of rules in the system from the beginning to the end, the delivery period, the delivery area, quality assurance, sales promotion, customer complaints and so on.

The 10 stores in the Lv Yan plan refer to independent stores. According to her plan, the increase of independent stores will be accompanied by the reduction of cooperative buyer shops. "Finally, Comme Moi will only cooperate with some good quality buyer shops to cooperate with some capsule series", so that brand stores and buyer shops will be separated from each other in terms of goods and image.

Photographer Chen Man took an advertising photo for the Comme Moi 2015 spring summer series. The model is Lv Yan, the founder of the brand. It is also from this season that the brand integration store began to buy Comme Moi.

There may be some doubt that Comme Moi plans to enter the department store on a large scale. The younger generation's customers are far less interested in shopping department stores than their parents. If they are more dressy and have purchasing power, they are more willing to go shopping or buy clothes through online shopping.

Department stores also know that they are being abandoned quickly by young customers, and department stores need to fight against aging.

"Traditional department stores are not recognized by young consumer groups now. As the older generation of consumers is old, transformation is inevitable. This time, attracting new brands such as Comme Moi can be understood and accepted by young people will help them complete their transformation and help ordinary consumers to understand the formation of niche brands." Tang frost added.

Comme Moi 2016 spring and summer series publicity map

Lv Yan chose a road between Comme Moi and designer brand and commercial brand. If brand positioning, product mix and sales channels are all right, then the problem she wants to solve is how to make her own structure catch up with the speed of brand development.

At present, the team of Comme Moi has 24 people, who are responsible for design, sample making, plate making, marketing, finance, personnel, public relations and so on. "One person can't wait to be used by three people". Lv Yan's role in Comme Moi is more like a co ordinator. She doesn't draw pictures. She shares ideas and feelings with the rest of the 23 team members. The design takes up only 20% of her time. She puts more time on management, including how to read reports and how to open stores.

"The team is too small." Lv Yan said this sentence more than once in an interview, one of which is that she talked about selling brands in the North better than the south, but now she has no energy to design targeted products specifically for South market. "But it must be slowly expanded. It is just too much expansion. We are under great pressure. After all, the team is not mature enough, so I am afraid it is not good enough to manage."