1. Friday May 25, 2018
      Home > News > Economy
      Text:| Print|

      Luxury biz undermined by counterfeit goods

      2012-05-01 10:48 China Daily     Web Editor: Su Jie comment

      Along Shanghai's bustling shopping street of Nanjing Road, small but loud stores dot the thousand-meter-long stretch of road between the glass-and-steel Apple Inc store and sleek upscale malls.

      "Italian luxury items on sale. Final three days. Don't miss it!" yelled a voice over the loudspeaker at an entrance to one of the stores.

      Inside, tourists and middle-aged women are packed into the cramped store for T-shirts, leather wallets and belts that bear logos similar to those of LV and Gucci but cost a suspiciously low price.

      "Nobody really cares whether our wares are Italian or French," said the shop assistant, surnamed Zheng.

      "It's foreign and it's on sale. That's enough," she said impatiently. But both factors are questionable if not false, given that the sale has been in its "final three days" for years.

      Italian-born Pierre Cardin kicked off China's first fashion show in Beijing in 1979. The nation's appetite for foreign, colorful fashion was whetted and is still seemingly unlikely to be sated.

      While foreign fashion houses are aggressively expanding their presence in the world's largest consumer market, some Chinese businessmen are undermining their efforts by producing low-quality clothes, shoes and accessories and slapping on a foreign label.

      In March, the Italian Trade Commission produced a list of 30 Chinese brands that falsely claimed Italian origin.

      None of the 30 brands had ever been registered in Italy, nor could any part of their production process be traced to the country, according to the Italian commission's Beijing-based office.

      "It should be stopped, because we have spent hundreds of years building a strong image for Italian products," said Antonino Laspina, the commission's chief representative in China.

      Most of the 30 counterfeit Italian products are produced in Guangzhou or Wenzhou, according to an earlier report by China Youth Daily.

      "When people talk about Italian products, they know they are buying into the best quality in the world. But if the consumers find they have paid a high price for something that is totally not worth it, it will cause irreparable harm to (authentic) Italian brands," Laspina said.

      Whether consumers of counterfeit brands are truly unaware of the origin of their bargain luxury goods or simply wish to sample a lifestyle that they may not be able to afford, a look back into the history of Chinese fashion may help decipher the country's widespread mentality of brand-worshiping.

      "For people of my generation, a foreign brand means style, quality, and perhaps the only thing you need to be fashionable," said 58-year-old Lu Yongli.

      Following the fashion show by Pierre Cardin in the Cultural Palace of Nationality in Beijing decades ago, scores of brands, including Playboy, Montagut and Cartelo, quickly penetrated bigger cities such as Beijing and Shanghai in the late 1980s and became a symbol of status and wealth.

      Statistics from Southern Weekly showed that during the country's first international luxury exhibition in Shanghai in 2005, business transactions totaled 200 million yuan ($31.7 million) within three days.

      "A leather bag belonging to a dageda (the Chinese label for the first generation to use cell phones) previously could have any foreign logo on it and would have been considered a luxury item. Today, it would have to be LV, or perhaps Hermes," Lu said.

      Lu, a Shanghai housewife, remembered purchasing her first luxury bag—a red Playboy calfskin shoulder bag—in the early 1990s.

      She recalled the bag cost her 700 yuan, while the average monthly income at the time was around 200 yuan. It was not available in domestic stores and was brought by relatives from overseas.

      "Luxuries, then and now, may still be comparatively expensive, but unavailability made them more precious, just like the Hermes Birkins bags today," Lu said.

      Zhou Ting, an associate professor at University of International Business and Economics in Beijing and an expert on the luxury industry, said the problem partly stems from the limited supply of authentic luxury items. "Essentially, demand from the country's emerging middle class greatly outstrips the amount that brands can supply," said Zhou.

      But Giovanni Musacchi, chief executive officer of Italian Fashion Way China, explained the conundrum facing Italian workshops and brands that venture into China, "a market where three big cities "consume as much attire" as Italy.

      "Of course we don't need to tell our partners what a large market China is. The major concern for most of the companies would be, after arriving in the market, how to supply such a large nation while not lowering quality," he said.

      Musacchi's company currently works with about 300 Italian fashion brands, which often prefer to seek cooperation with Chinese companies.

      Comments (0)

      Copyright ©1999-2011 Chinanews.com. All rights reserved.
      Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.

      主站蜘蛛池模板: 一级毛片免费播放男男| 日韩亚洲综合精品国产| 三年片在线观看免费观看大全一 | 国产黄色片免费看| 亚洲一区二区三区在线视频| 亚洲大码熟女在线观看| 午夜国产羞羞视频免费网站| 黄床大片30分钟免费看| 亚洲性日韩精品国产一区二区| 一区二区三区在线观看免费| 国产aⅴ无码专区亚洲av| 久久久久成人精品免费播放动漫| 亚洲日韩区在线电影| 最近高清中文字幕无吗免费看| 亚洲av成人综合网| 日本v片免费一区二区三区| 麻豆va在线精品免费播放| 亚洲欧洲精品成人久久曰影片 | 亚洲人成www在线播放| 韩国二级毛片免费播放| 成在线人直播免费视频| 亚洲尤码不卡AV麻豆| 久久w5ww成w人免费| 亚洲资源最新版在线观看| 在线观看视频免费国语| 一区二区免费国产在线观看| 精品久久香蕉国产线看观看亚洲| 91精品国产免费入口| 亚洲av永久无码天堂网| 久久久久亚洲AV成人网人人网站 | 国产大片91精品免费看3| 免费国产va在线观看| 亚洲av无码不卡| 好先生在线观看免费播放| 免费看美女午夜大片| 亚洲AV区无码字幕中文色| 毛片a级三毛片免费播放| 中文字幕a∨在线乱码免费看 | 国产成人精品免费视频大| 国产天堂亚洲国产碰碰| 亚洲精品成人av在线|