China luxury fashion : brands and cultural heritage

China is the second larger luxury market in the world and it’s predicted to be the first one by 2015. The concept of luxury has gone through many changes since it first appeared in the Greek philosophical thinking as superfluity, excess and hedonism. It is in the seventeenth century that luxury got closer to its modern definition, related to goods and products which were available only for an elitist group. In the eighteenth century, after the Industrial Revolution and the global trade, luxury goods started to be “mass-produced” and luxury brands were born, enhancing the cultural heritage of the European countries. At this time in history, oriental luxury was made of handicraft products, which were largely appreciated in Europe, imported and imitated. From now on, China continued to produce its luxury “traditionally”, and kept its quality knowledge secret. In Europe, due to the contemporary economic and social changes, the concept of luxury started to be criticized. This process had two main consequences: luxury brands reinforced their strategies towards new markets, such as China, and tried to be more democratic by making their products available for a larger target; European consumers shaped the concept of “new luxury”, which is linked to rare, customized, self-expressive and experiential goods. Besides, the economic and social changes affecting China made Chinese consumers embrace the consumption of famous brands luxury goods. This spread had two main consequence as well: owning (or showing off) luxury goods helped Chinese in fulfilling their need to belong to a social group (collectivism) and maintain their reputation and face towards it; local brands started to grow and struggle to compete with the Western ones and enhanced the quality of the “Made in China”. This process created a paradox, according to which Chinese consumers are fulfilling their traditional social values buying products which are far away from their culture, meeting status and westernization. They are forgetting about their cultural heritage, which is the most important provider of luxury goods. This study is aimed at analyzing the Chinese consumers’ behavior towards luxury fashion goods along with the discussion on the extant literature. The expected result is to find a new target which could consider luxury as not necessarily linked to brands, but to quality and self-expression, meeting the current European trend of the “new luxury”. This sophisticated target, which is expected to be found among younger consumers, can be addressed to a market strategy enhancing local quality and production.