Fashion Folding - An Interview with Chen Xing

Chen Xing: The original fashion brand - V-Founder. He graduated from the Department of Architecture of Tsinghua University and obtained a Master of Architecture degree from Milan Polytechnic Institute of Architecture.

Chen Xing at work

The 74th Hugo Prize winner, the well-known writer Ms. Hao Jingfang's “Folding in Beijing,” described three segments of Beijing: the most advanced people enjoy the most abundant sunlight in the day and their work routines are normal. Workers at the bottom of the hierarchy had to work late at night and assume all the grief and pain that kept the city running. The people in the middle, because it is difficult to complete class escalation, but also satisfied with the current life, so have passed. There is such a folding space in the Chinese fashion market. This time we interviewed Chen Xing, the founder of the company, about this unequal folded state.

Market/brand folding

"Our own people are fully capable of doing things in the top-level space. We can do luxury-level craftsmanship, price and positioning, and allow our own designers and workers to enjoy the value of the supply chain."

One fell in 2016 new autumn and winter. Carefully selected patterns, meticulous embroidery, high-end customized version. Low-key interpretation of atmospheric luxury.

When you previously invited Ms. Hao Jingfang to come and visit him, she talked about the “folding of the brand” similar to “Beijing Folding”. Can you talk specifically about what is a brand fold?

The current luxury brands in the Chinese market present such a system:

At the top of the pyramid, luxury goods are dominated by European and American value-added value chains. They provide design, use creativity, and use wisdom to work; at home, the earliest time was to be processed by the Chinese. Since the development to the present, in fact, China is also carrying out its own R&D and design. They (the big brands of luxury goods) just stick to sell. In fact, we have done enough, just lack a brand.

One V, Zhujia Hutong, Qianmen Street, where Chen Xing’s dream began

Now the bottom-line practitioners of the entire Chinese clothing industry are doing very low-end processing jobs and have low incomes. Coupled with a series of environmental changes such as rising rents, the pressure on their lives has become enormous.

Going to the next level, you can be your own brand. However, most of them use luxuries to copy, copy and produce, and then go to the mall to sell. They are doing this business as a business, to meet the needs of a large part of people who need clothes and fashion. This is the second floor space. They do not want to make high value-added, do not have to design.

As a result, a market condition of such a pyramidal three-tier space was formed. Comparing this kind of setting is similar to folding Beijing.

This is the status quo in China. What we want to do is get through this pyramid. Do not have this kind of embarrassing situation in which our own designs are designed to be processed by a luxury brand. This is mainly a question of positioning luxury goods. Luxury goods are oligopolists and they will inevitably use the value of this brand to make profits. In the end, they have to pay for such high added value. But in fact, we can do shuttles and open up these three spaces. Our own people are fully capable of doing top-level space. We can achieve luxury-level craftsmanship, price, and positioning to allow our own designers and workers to enjoy the value of the supply chain. What's more important is that we can give consumers discounts, thereby breaking the oligopolistic barriers of high-end markets in Europe and America.

Re-examining traditional aesthetics from a modern perspective is one of the deepest backings for the luxury industry.

Is this a long process?

And not. Since foreign luxury goods have already been realized in China from R&D, design to production and sales, we are fully capable of doing it ourselves, but we lack a brand. Moreover, their brand is based on their culture, so in fact we are spending a high price to consume other people's culture. We are not so confident in our own culture. We can say that we are still in a state of cultural deficiencies. This is the key to one's value.

Key to the value chain

“The value of the entire value chain is in your own hands, and it feeds back to everyone’s life in the entire supply chain, clothing. They can actually get better.”

The one-of-a-kind design has an ethereal Zen, relying on traditional Chinese aesthetics, and it is light weight.

Which stage did you go to?

At present, he can still compare with European and American luxury goods. We have got the recognition of luxury level in design and quality, and we have Chinese culture, Chinese aesthetics are inside.

Consumers will not treat one-off clothing the same as the fast-disposal brands on the market today, because they can feel our sincerity in design, fabrics, and workmanship.

After that, consumers will find that he has achieved the quality of luxury goods, but the price can be much cheaper. So this also shows that our brand positioning and brand image are relatively clear.

After this, we need to scale it up through commercial operations so that more people can buy our products, so that the entire value chain is in its own hands, so that feedback can be found everywhere in the entire supply chain. People's lives. They can be better.

Such as big windbreaker, one can buy more than 20,000, but the domestic OEM workers processing such a piece, may not even get two dollars, and the purchase of these trench coats is our Chinese. This intermediate value did not flow back to the Chinese clothing market. So we have to link the value chain on the one hand and benefit the consumer on the other.

In 2015, the former CEO of DIOR visited Pifu. After reading the works of Chen Xing, he said: “Fashion is always tough, but there is always room for talent.”

So this is the mission of Chinese brands?

A feeling of it. We pay for the value that our people have paid for so that their value can be realized. Although we are doing a consumer product, we must actually achieve social value. We hope to influence and change the current state of inequality.

In one short period of three years, he developed to such a scale, and it can be said that it has become stronger. How far does he go on the road to realize this value?

One-volt is still not strong, but it already has a certain degree of recognition. We still need to work hard to continuously enrich its content, so that this portrait can become three-dimensional. One-fifth of the mission genes have been set. As for what to grow into, it needs to be grasped and adjusted according to external factors.

This may be a matter of decades.

Yes, originally we had to do this thing, that is, we must continue to do it. We do not think this is an entrepreneurial project. I can do such a small thing for many years.

We are not in a hurry to market ourselves. And now he has been pushed away by some positive feedback. One-by-one has already emerged. This is what many people feel. Since there is such a sign, we can still go on, even if it is a very simple thing.

He is persistent in every detail, adhering to the craftsmanship and moving slowly in this anxious era.

Brand, timeless

“We can build a pluralistic system based on tradition and history, using current and future visions. So we never reject and contradict modern technology and modern life style. We have always embraced modern times with a very open attitude. ."

One of the most touching points about Viva is that it has never launched any viral marketing.

Yes, I'm not really optimistic about viral marketing. It is similar to the speculative behavior in stocks. Through some operations, the brand value fluctuates in a short period of time, and then it arbitrates in the process of fluctuations to achieve economic and other returns. Marketers themselves do not love the brand much, but use it as a profit tool, like a fishing net.

One by one, this room is a place to abandon the noise and calm down to carefully taste the delicate beauty contained in a dress.

We hope to make the brand a strong enough core, so we certainly won't dress it up and sell it—we have never had such a mentality. One V is a manifestation of our founders, or of my own personal spirit, so I respect and love. We are reluctant to pack it with something insignificant in order to sell it. Although many people on the road told you that you can do that and do so, telling you many successful examples, but you can very intuitively determine that these are not with the core of the same thing.

The era is developing. There are too many different marketing methods. But in my eyes, I have not been deceived. I still have my own values.

The one-of-a-kind attitude determines that every step in her path is more solid. Ebb Tide, sinking down eventually will be recognized by the world, blooming.

Although this kind of "folding" in the apparel market is in urgent need of change, he still thinks that it will slowly settle out over time.

Of course. This is a bit like "Rome was not built in one day." However, I already have a feeling that this process is faster than I thought. In fact, you don't need to think about where you want to go. You just have to pay attention to your status. As long as you are, it must be faster than you think. When you don't want too much, it's the fastest. Too many distractions are easy to suffer from, and are easily affected by other things. When you think of a myriad of possibilities, you may take a lot of detours and compete with yourself. So still pay attention to a point. My point is that as long as one can concentrate on doing one thing, the fastest one can be done, regardless of others. People will always surpass themselves.

Chen Xing at the conference site

The brand's development needs to look at the era. It is certainly not the same as Chanel's era. So what kind of opportunities do you think you have for now?

I think this is a particularly interesting thing. What we are currently living in is a multidimensional era. CHANEL, Gucci luxury products such as linear development. Produced at a certain moment, it has been done from the workshop, and now it has reached such a scale through modern packaging and commercial operations. And we may be multi-line parallel. Our base is zero, but we can use the advantage of late to make up for their time difference. Based on history and traditions, we can construct a pluralistic system with current and future visions. So we never reject modern technology and modern lifestyles. We embrace modernity with a very open attitude.

Here, tradition and modernity are blended here. Under the blue tiles of the bricks and mortars of the Gyung Shing Courtyard is the cultural core of Nirvana.

So my understanding is because we can go in multiple lines, so the brand will have more thickness?

The word thickness may not be a proper description. The nutrition of our fathers may not be very good, but in our generation, nutrition can keep up and we can grow healthier. The characteristics of this era are rich in nutrition and more opportunities. So we have the opportunity to make him very healthy and full

Then we will find that the one-of-a-kind charm lies in its urgency and urgency. It is still moving forward in the conflict and quick success. An atmospheric brand is more than this: When fashion becomes a fast-moving consumer goods, when the classics are continuously copied, one can still believe that the ancient power of time can make a section of history a story that has been passed down for a long time and become a designer's understanding and persistence. Behind the mysterious charm.

BIFU by XINCHEN was founded in 2013. It is a designer brand covering men's wear, women's wear and accessory design, and is positioned as a high-knowledge, independent, confident Chinese urban consumer group. The V-Fashion combines traditional Chinese cultural aesthetics of restrained elegance with simple and modern international design. The elegant fabrics emphasize the proportion and shape of the garments to modify the human body structure. It is a detail-based designer brand. Within one year after its founding, Bu Vance has been on the Beijing International Fashion Show and has more than 200 VIP members, including Olympic champion Bao Chunlai and AIRBNB founder Joe Gebbia. The Viva Fashion Space hosted the former CEO of Dior Asia Pacific, Celline Global CEO Patrice de Place, the former Harvard School of Design’s Dean Peter Rowe, and Singapore’s National Treasure Master William Lim.