More And More Independent Designers Are Emerging In China.

According to the world clothing shoes and hats net, today, China is new and independent.

More and more, the outside world has also had some subjective anticipation for this group: they are not always very young, but they are all very particular about personality. They are not necessarily introverted but not too bold and uninhibited.

Generally speaking, these or cold or lively characters are always reflected in appearance.

According to this standard, the two young designers graduating from Paris ESMOD higher fashion design college, Yao Yao Dong and Zhang Sisi, will probably be classified as "serious".

The first time I met them was a fashion exhibition held in W hotel in Beijing more than half a month ago. The LORD'S COLLAR introduced by Xiang Yaodong is a customized man.

Brand, Zhang Sisi's MISS MISSION does the Paris wind women's suit - when they all wear a suit dress and stand upright in their own.

Next to it is like the only two models in the hall.

After talking a few words, we will find that the career choices of the two people are not as good as those of Western-style clothes.

In 2014, they founded a company in Beijing, named VBS Guan design office.

As the name suggests, "office" is used to deal with client entrusted institutions.

In the fashion world, this concept is far less than that of lawyers, architects and other professions.

Looking at their peers, independent designer Liu Qingyang named the brand name as "Chictopia" and "Museum of Friendship" by Wang Tian mo.

We have learned not to understand the names of these brands literally, but are accustomed to seeing them as "one after another" concept.

However, VBS view design office is a real firm.

It identifies its main line of business on the official website, rather than designing fashion and pushing it to consumers. It provides brand management, product design and creative projects for businesses.

For example, the image design of Mercedes Benz's Mercedes Me living concept Pavilion in Sanlitun, Beijing, is based on the hand of VBS concept design office; in 2016, it also participated in the plot planning of the brand documentary.

Because of its good design, the office has a unique skill to customize personalized work clothes for the enterprise.

Everyone under this framework has the status of surpassing his profession.

Although Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi have independent brands, their positions are more creative planning for the firm. Among other partners, Zhang Bin, the brand PR director who served as senior customer director of Xuan Wei, Huambo, has been a multi-source combination of human resources, who has been the super girl of Hunan TV and the styling Consultant Chen Yuan of the artists' packaging modeling since 2005.

The whole layout sounds like an advertising company.

Although Mr. Yao emphasized the company's starting point, "it is precisely to eliminate the intermediate links and 4A" for the industry.

But their logic is actually not different.

In the VBS view design office, the creativity and productivity of designers are mostly used to work according to the needs of customers.

This runs counter to the mainstream fashion brand's operation process. The designers in the traditional fashion house have their works first, followed by orders, while Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi are on the contrary.

In any case, these attempts are rarely seen in the domestic fashion industry, at least not a mainstream.

Thanks to the upgrading of consumer demand for quality of life, China is now experiencing the spread of the concept of designers in various fields: electricity providers, hotels, vegetable markets and coffee shops all want to draw close distance between fashion and customers.

Even the clothing salesmen in Beijing have learned a new marketing language: "this is the designer of our family."

Whenever they say this sentence, you can hear the obvious intonation, which contains expectations, exhortations, and confidence hidden and hidden. It seems that "designer" is the killer of all elixir.

Xiang Yao Dong

Zhang Si Si

Like some of today's so-called independent music and movies, "independent designers" are also driven by the business environment into an almost overflowing concept.

The status of fashion designers has been unprecedentedly raised, and their names are crowned with market and capital.

Consumers who pursue individuality are also willing to pay, as if they represent a sense of uniqueness and wealth, but also have a sense of security that will not fall from the middle class or the high-class class.

As a concentrated force in the design of designer products, buyers' stores also have a better momentum in recent years.

The Chinese buyer's shop research report released by the real estate service firm Rui Yide pointed out that the structural adjustment of China's consumer market has made more and more consumers move from the pursuit of internationally famous brands to distinctive buyers.

The development of Chinese buyer shops is booming and the number is increasing rapidly. The distribution is also expanding from the first tier cities in Beijing and Shanghai to the two or three tier cities.

In this report, the top of the list of buying shops is Hongkong's Crawford.

At the end of 2016, the number of Chinese designer brands sold by Lian Crawford reached about 50.

Since 2015, the Hongkong retailer has started to plan the training plan for designers. From Hongkong to Shanghai, it openly recruited new designers in fashion, accessories and home furnishing industry. Nowadays, designers who are active in the market such as Angel Chen and Fengchen Wang are outstanding contestants.

The purpose of Lian Crawford is to excavate those designers who have commercial potential and guide them to improve their self-expression, so that they will have "how long you can finish weaving a piece of cloth" or "how long you can finish a wall".

But fortunately, there are always a few lucky ones in their eyes.

Xiang Yaodong feels that this is equivalent to a reform of welfare, so that a small number of people can enter the super fast rising channel.

To say this is strength? The answer is, of course, but not entirely. Every successful person has a bit of luck in his blessing. But few opportunities are seen by everyone.

This trend came to light in 2011, when Chinese designer training institutions entered the blowout season that year, in addition to accepting local students who were halfway through, they were also responsible for pporting talents to overseas universities.

In 2014, Kevin Macarthy, head of education and culture at the London Development Promotion Department under the London government, said: "in the past 5 years, the number of Chinese students in fashion and design has gone up by 158%."

{page_break}

By now, Chinese students have a clearer goal. Chen Liyilin, ROSSO of international art education, a group of training institutions, introduces that the choice of art majors is mainly focused on two directions of fashion and vision.

In Britain alone, more than 4000 fashion majors enter the workplace every year.

But the British media like to complain about the difficulty of finding jobs.

"Many of them can neither launch their own brands nor find designer posts in fashion houses."

But these two roads are the most important trends in fashion design. For this reason, Frances Corner, director of the London Fashion Institute, once told fashion business review Business of Fashion that "fashion businesses and related industries no longer need graduates who want fashion design degrees as before."

If not many industry bigwigs began to ask: "too many fashion designers?" this topic will appear a bit sour.

To some extent, it is contrary to the spirit of liberalism. In this era, no one can accuse others of their career choice.

Even the old Buddha Karl Lagerfeld was a little cautious in his interview with reporters in 2015. He only said, "if you are not a good matador, do not enter the arena.

Everyone is allowed to make a fashion show. Maybe there are too many of them, but this is not my problem. "

This may be the problem of the times.

American designer Chris Gelinas agreed with this statement because its independent brand began to fall into crisis in 2014, when Band of Outsiders (now restarted) and Kris Van Assche chose to stop for various reasons. "The current situation is too difficult for independent brands."

Gelinas said.

The environment in China is more complicated. On the one hand, the local designer brand has just started. On the one hand, the brand has started to aggravate and decline. Rui Yide's report says that the reason is that "the designer brand in China is confronted with multiple brands of luxury brand, light luxury and fast fashion, and the only way to survive is almost all the domestic designer's brand is to open Taobao."

But young people in hot blood never seem to be able to sort out the contradictions rooted in reality before encountering setbacks, until they are really dead, as professor Corner has said, they have killed two main roads.

Most of these young people belong to the type that does not hit the south wall.

Xiang Yaodong also belonged to this category.

In 2011, he graduated from the ESMOD campus of Beijing, and won the gold prize for his graduation work. The prize was signed by a senior media person, a buyer's shop, Hong Huang, the founder of peppermint glutinous rice onion. This made Xiang Yaodong very excited. "She wanted to help me, and I felt that her initial intention really wanted to support original design."

But soon, he couldn't help it.

6 years ago, there was no mature mechanism for Chinese buyer shops, even though peppermint glutinous rice scallion was a more comprehensive one, but Xiang Yaodong still had to do everything, from display to buyer to two year's show. "I think it's exercise, but it doesn't mean I'm professional in every field. Even so, no more professional person will guide me."

Then he decided to go to France, but after his return, market conditions were still below expectations.

In Xiang Yaodong's description, China's fashion industry is still in a disorderly stage of pformation, and it is not yet ready in all aspects.

Although the electricity suppliers and buyers shop are chasing designers and designer brands, most of them are not clear about the definition of the two. Rather than enjoying the design, they are enthusiastic about capital.

"The most frightening thing is that unprofessional people sometimes get more money.

In order to finance, many websites will first sign several designers to serve investors, but this is a cover. You will find that this website has only one home page, hanging photos of designers, and then there will be no more.

This embarrassment of China's independent design gave Xiang Yaodong a sense of exhaustion. He said that one quarter of a season's new industry rules, like reproduction, "half a year's birth, a pile of stocks will also be discounted, very painful, so hard to do for a half a year on the matter of failure."

He began to ponder over the long term preservation tips and time endurance of Muji and UNIQLO sales. "Originally, people's consumption is forgetful."

Zhang Sisi tried another possibility.

She has worked in several brands such as Rose House, Ella Luna (Paris), Yi Wen (Tai Chi Chan), and has been the design director.

Some mature brands have been occupying the market for many years. They have regular customers and have also been successful in business, such as relying on men's uniform and suits.

However, life has not become more ideal.

When the wave of consumption upgrading comes, traditional women's clothing is facing pformation, but after spending a lot of money and thinking a lot of ways, it still can't break through.

Chang Si Si is anxious, she thinks that the burden of traditional thought is the crux of the problem, but the designer's discourse power is too weak. He wants to turn around the situation and face too many difficulties. Most of the clothing companies in China are not born with clothing. They have limited understanding of design. "The only criterion for their operation is to look at sales performance. Even Karl (Lagerfeld) says they do not understand sales. The design is design, the market is the market, and there should be a professional division of labor."

In this way, traditional brands hesitate in the choice of new and old customers. The result is that in a single lot of goods, designers can only improve several of them. After they have been put into the market, the old customers are lost, and new customers are also found to be neither fish nor fowl.

"I know that designers can not rely on the environment, it is your own struggle."

Zhang Sisi said that she thought of her schoolmate who sold the house to design and began to feel that everything was like playing underground rock.

In short, she felt that her bundle of travel had come to the top. "We only see the bright colors of this profession, but we do not see that most people are below the poverty line, especially those who are self aware and independent.

Either the economy is not independent, or else it is aesthetic, but the market is not clear.

The vision of business and designer is the fashion designer's guns and roses. They struggle in compromise and self, but the balance between them is too hard to handle.

This is almost the consensus of the global designers, so some people turn around and leave the clothing industry completely.

For this reason, there is a folk data that can not be verified, which accounts for 50% of the total.

But Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi did not want to give up, and did not want to give up the profession that had been accumulated for many years.

When they create their own brands, they begin to wonder if there is a blank market, which is hidden between those two roads. "Sometimes, the boss of a traditional company is also very ungrateful. The company wants to pform and become fashionable. They do not understand. All the bosses are looking for consulting companies and advertising companies, but they pay a lot of money but they do not go to professional people."

Xiang Yaodong said.

I didn't want to have a chance.

More and more enterprises follow the upgrading of consumption, which has also strengthened the cultural remodeling and brand management within the company. In recent years, Jingdong, which has increased investment in clothing industry, will create a logistics team for VIP users because they want to get a share in the luxury industry.

At present, it has found the designer to develop the new uniform of the express little brother. It is understood that the final coat of tail coat and the scheme of the locomotive wind have won.

In this way, a boss occasionally saw LORD 'S COLLAR and MISS MISSION in the exhibition, and found this formal style quite suitable for her company.

They found Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi and asked if they could make some staff clothes.

On the premise of meeting the requirements, designers can have their own creative freedom.

{page_break}

"We need to meet the needs of the market."

Xiang Yaodong said.

Therefore, VBS concept design office was established.

Besides entering mature brands and self-supporting brands, they begin to explore the third way out. They need compromises and do not need so much; they need self and do not need so much.

It has to be said that this is a compromise line from the concept of survival or the business strategy. It is reminiscent of the discussion between macro-control and free economy in the last century. The British Conservative Party has put forward the idea of "the third way" and wants to find a mixture of intercultural needs between human concern and economic efficiency.

Companies that have rigid demands for their clothing have become major customers. Most of them need to face up to consumers, mostly in the financial industry, catering industry, or large enterprises with many branches.

In the past, the way they unified their brands was to print Logo on their handbags and notebooks, and now they should be differentiated, personalized and fashionable on clothing.

87 year old Taiwan young Zhuang Wei came to the door. His chain hairdressing house "star customer" is upgrading its brand.

In the past, the "quick clipping" of star customers emphasized the provision of 15 minutes' haircut service for the guests of all ages. This concept originated from Japan in 1990s, and there were no annoying links such as ironing, marketing and so on. People could enjoy the relaxed hairdressing experience.

In March 2015, star customers got more than $1 million in Angel round financing for innovative workshops, Ming capital and angel joint investments.

However, in the process of development, star customers have gradually found that compared to the fast, people also need good quality and other marketing vocabulary.

After listening to the proposal of Continuum, a design consultancy in Boston, Zhuang Wei decided to strengthen the internal cultural construction. He found a VBS design office through his friends to design a new uniform for his staff.

In order to grasp the hairdressing industry that is not known, Xiang Yaodong, Zhang Sisi and team members searched a lot of historical data, and made the whole creative process a planning proposal. They designed the new Logo, and chose light powder and light blue as the main colors of the uniform to create a more youthful, gentle and friendly service atmosphere.

The design also involves some details. Considering the different grades of hairdressers, they deliberately blur the differentiation of power, and only think about the difference between creative director and apprenticeship from accessories. Recently, they have just come from the south to pick up some accessories for star customers.

In addition, the business of VBS view design office includes aesthetic training for P & G, OMEGA and other enterprises, or helping some companies develop outsourced clothing projects.

Xiang Yaodong disclosed that they are now launching a children's wear line for a non garment enterprise. As before, the company insists on drawing and designing drawings, communicating with them, and revising them when customers outside the company do not require them.

These businesses are not new, but most of the companies used to look for designers who know them alone. But a person who is not more formal than a company is bound to have a "helping hand" situation, which leads to wrangling, which makes it difficult for designers and companies to be guaranteed.

"We want to draw a picture, and the client will pay for it."

Xiang Yaodong felt that the way for the firm to develop healthfully is to standardize every process and sign an independent contract. "Only by drawing out can we communicate with customers what they really need, and what is confirmed can not be overturned.

If we skip the steps ahead, the final result may be that we have worked hard, but we have not done what the customers really want, and the customers are embarrassed to say that we can only deduct the final payment.

It sounds very impartial, but now, as a businessman, Zhuang Wei has approved this practice. "There are a lot of good designs in the market, but VBS can bring the business rationality, corporate culture and consumer perspective into the design. Startups and so on are expanding rapidly."

This is also the original intention of the concept of "firm".

In Xiang Yaodong's words, as a mature business model in architecture, architects and interior designers have a concept of "party a" from education to practitioners, but fashion designers do not think of others in their work and involve different values.

This judgment was also confirmed in PERFECT SIZE, a men's suit tailor shop in Beijing.

Li Zhiceng, who works in the Internet industry, has expanded the store to 3. In order to provide professional services to his guests, he came to Paris to learn the traditional Lexi of women's clothing, which is responsible for the design of the whole brand.

"People who learn fashions feel bad teamwork, ha ha."

Lexi laughed at himself.

Because the process can be done from design to fabric and then to production, fashion designers want to make a big difference, and architects involved in civil engineering are hard.

Therefore, it is difficult for fashion designers to achieve self value in big companies, to do their own brands and to be afraid of lack of experience. Lexi also has a dilemma. "So I applied for this company, which is moderate and comfortable."

However, she sometimes finds it difficult to learn women's clothing. After all, men's wear market is much smaller than that of women's clothing.

Therefore, even if we embark on the third road, the little flame of "independent designer" is still hard to erase in the bones of every designer.

Zhang Sisi has a plan, though it is still custom-made, but she hopes to be able to make MISS MISSION one day into a ready-made brand.

That's the pride of the fashion designer alone, Xiang Yaodong thought. It's the fashion designer's nature to feel that he can do anything.

Perhaps the big show at W Hotel on the night of April 12th proved that the show was born with the support of Fashion Next, the designer of Huambo Xuan Wei public relations company.

At the curtain call, Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi came to applause by hand. They knew that the show was different from the independent designer brand in one season and one season, just to prove their expertise in clothing, but didn't know whether they had flashed the figure of Valentino's double design group Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pier Paolo Piccioli at that moment.

Fortunately, VBS view design office has been relying on B2B business for its own profits and losses, and some investors have come up with it. But Mr. Yao's attitude is cautious. What he wants to do most is not to expand, but to put talented designers together and take them under VBS's command.

Alma mater ESMOD is the first entry. Xiang Yaodong and Zhang Sisi established Alumni Association. Now, there are 470 people. They plan to let foreign students join in, because there are many Chinese customers who want to find foreign designers. This wish can be realized in the future.

This model is very much like the designer alliance, more like an industry chamber of Commerce, with the aim of gathering all sides to enhance the influence of the organization.

In fact, the use of sex is obvious to all. Entrepreneurs such as Ma Yun and Wang Shi have served as leaders of various chambers of Commerce.

This is not only Xiang Yaodong's dream, but also the responsibility of Zhang Bin, his public relations director.

Although the target seems too far away now, Zhang Bin is willing to make a break. When asked why, Zhang Bin's answer is very interesting: "I think he is a Wenzhou man."

Everyone knows that where there are Wenshang, there are chambers of Commerce - Wenzhou chamber of commerce all over the world.

More interesting reports, please pay attention to the world clothing shoes and hats net.