The Chinese-owned Italian luxury brand Giada presents its fall/winter collection of the year in Chongqing, Tan Yingzi reports.
On the evening of March 23, the Liberation Monument Square in downtown Chongqing served as the venue for the debut of Giada's 2019 fall/winter collection in China.
The Italian-born luxury brand is exploring the market in China's inland regions.
The open-air event, hosted by Giuseppe Silvestrin, curator and director of the brand's fashion shows, had some of the same models and the art team who appeared at the recent Milan Fashion Week. The China show held in a pedestrian shopping area hosted about 300 guests and drew thousands of spectators.
The brand's creative director, Gabriele Colangelo, sought inspiration for the collection from the works of painter and dancer Caroline Denervaud, Milanese modernist Agostino Bonalumi and Russian painter Vasilij Kandinsky.
[Photo provided to China Daily]
The clothes for women on display are aimed to cater to "soft dressing". The color palette is diverse－dark grey, charcoal and black, as well as warm notes of pumpkin, maple, vanilla and camel lit by touches of mint and lime. Cashmere, wool and silk highlight feminine movements.
Unlike some other big cities in China's coastal areas, the metropolis in the Southwest, with 30 million people, has not been a favorite spot for international fashion events.
"I think it is the first time that Chongqing has hosted such a top fashion show," Zhao Yizheng, founder and president of Chinese luxury brand management company Redstone Haute Couture, tells China Daily.
Giada was founded in Milan in 2001 by Italian designer Rosanna Daolio. It is now owned by Redstone, which introduced brands like Valentino, Ferragamo and Yves Saint Laurent to China.
Giada's design and production work remain in Milan, while the China team looks after retail and marketing. It was bought by the Chinese company in 2011.
About a month after Giada's 2019 fall/winter show in Milan, Redstone chose Chongqing to stage the presentation of the same collection in China.
The Liberation Monument Square in downtown Chongqing serves as the venue for the debut of Giada's 2019 fall/winter collection in China.[Photo provided to China Daily]
"Chongqing plays a critical role in the Belt and Road Initiative," Zhao says.
The city is situated at the connecting point of the Belt and Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It's a gateway to the country's inland areas. The Jialing River flows through the municipality.
Giada now has nearly 60 stores in China and a flagship store on Via Montenapoleone in Milan's central luxury-shopping area. The brand's first boutique in North America opened in Boston in February and it is looking to open stores in New York, London and Paris.
"Zhao (Yizheng) is fully aware of the great potential of the Chinese market," said Lorenzo Gonzo, a senior official at the Italian consulate in Chongqing, at the opening ceremony of a Giada boutique near the Liberation Monument ahead of the show.
The Chongqing boutique, designed by Italian architect and designer Claudio Silvestrin, features monolithic limestone totems and cast bronze pedestals.
[Photo provided to China Daily]
"Giada is a perfect business partnership between an Italian fashion brand and a Chinese company. That's why Giada is so successful in China," Silvestrin says.
China has long been a very important market for Italian fashion brands and contributed 41 percent to the growth of Italy's fashion industry last year.
Italy also signed up for the Belt and Road Initiative during President Xi Jinping's recent visit to Europe.
"It is a new chapter in our bilateral relations and we will strengthen the efforts to promote Italian fashion and culture in China," says Gonzo.
Zhao says he is dedicated to discovering small and medium-size brands in Italy, developing them in China and then making them global.
[Photo provided to China Daily]
Since Redstone acquired Giada, the brand's annual sales growth rate has been over 20 percent.
"Giada's elegant and minimalist designs with high-quality materials are embraced by successful career women in China," Zhao says. "It is a low-profile luxury brand and most of our clients are drawn by word of mouth."
About 70 percent of its clients are VIP customers. Usually the average VIP base of many luxury brands is 50 percent, Zhao says.
Wang Lina, a senior executive in the education industry in Chongqing, first saw Giada clothes during a business trip to Hangzhou in 2014 and immediately liked them.
"It is just my style－simple and elegant," she says. "I have bought many dresses for important occasions."
