• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.1-22
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• 2013

This case focuses on Shanghai Tang, the first truly Chinese luxury brand that appeals to both Westerners and, more recently, to Chinese consumers worldwide. A visionary and wealthy businessman Sir David Tang created this company from scratch in 1994 in Hong Kong. Its story, spanned over almost two decades, has been fascinating. It went from what best a Chinese brand could be in the eyes of Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a nearly-bankrupted company in 1998, before being acquired by Richemont, the second largest luxury group in the world. Since then, its turnaround has been spectacular with a growing appeal among Chinese luxury consumers who represent the core segment of the luxury industry today. The main objective of this case study is to formally examine how Shanghai Tang overcame its downfall and re-emerged as one the very few well- known Chinese luxury brands. More specifically, this case highlights the ways with which Shanghai Tang made a transitional change from a brand for Westerners who love the Chinese culture, to a brand for both, Westerners who love the Chinese culture and Chinese who love luxury. A close examination reveals that Shanghai Tang has followed the brand identity concept that consists of two major components: functional and emotional. The functional component for developing a luxury brand concerns all product characteristics that will make a product 'luxurious' in the eyes of the consumer, such as premium quality of cachemire from Mongolia, Chinese silk, lacquer, finest leather, porcelain, and jade in the case of Shanghai Tang. The emotional component consists of non-functional symbolic meanings of a brand. The symbolic meaning marks the major difference between a premium and a luxury brand. In the case of Shanghai Tang, its symbolic meaning refers to the Chinese culture and the brand aims to represent the best of Chinese traditions and establish itself as "the ambassador of modern Chinese style". It touches the Chinese heritage and emotions. Shanghai Tang has reinvented the modern Chinese chic by drawing back to the stylish decadence of Shanghai in the 1930s, which was then called the "Paris of the East", and this is where the brand finds inspiration to create its own myth. Once the functional and emotional components assured, Shanghai Tang has gone through a four-stage development to become the first global Chinese luxury brand: introduction, deepening, expansion, and revitalization. Introduction: David Tang discovered a market gap and had a vision to launch the first Chinese luxury brand to the world. The key success drivers for the introduction and management of a Chinese luxury brand are a solid brand identity and, above all, a creative mind, an inspired person. This was David Tang then, and this is now Raphael Le Masne de Chermont, the current Executive Chairman. Shanghai Tang combines Chinese and Western elements, which it finds to be the most sustainable platform for drawing consumers. Deepening: A major objective of the next phase is to become recognized as a luxury brand and a fashion or design authority. For this purpose, Shanghai Tang has cooperated with other well-regarded luxury and lifestyle brands such as Puma and Swarovski. It also expanded its product lines from high-end custom-made garments to music CDs and restaurant. Expansion: After the opening of his first store in Hong Kong in 1994, David Tang went on to open his second store in New York City three years later. However this New York retail operation was a financial disaster. Barely nineteen months after the opening, the store was shut down and quietly relocated to a cheaper location of Madison Avenue. Despite this failure, Shanghai Tang products found numerous followers especially among Western tourists and became "souvenir-like" must-haves. However, despite its strong brand DNA, the brand did not generate enough repeated sales and over the years the company cumulated heavy debts and became unprofitable. Revitalizing: After its purchase by Richemont in 1998, Le Masne de Chermont was appointed to lead the company, reposition the brand and undertake some major strategic changes such as revising the "Shanghai Tang" designs to appeal not only to Westerners but also to Chinese consumers, and to open new stores around the world. Since then, Shanghai Tang has become synonymous to a modern Chinese luxury lifestyle brand.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.799-813
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• 2022

The environment has increasingly attracted attention and fashion brands need to use new growth models by developing eco-friendly products, along with the drastic climate change. This study drew design guidelines from the factors of clothing disposal and reuse to propose ways to extend the longevity of clothing. It sets the design goals for the longevity extension of clothing as flexibility, originality, durability, and adjustability and drew a specific design guideline. The design methods used to achieve such goals are as follows. First, the design that is flexible in terms of physical changes needs to increase its activity and to be changeable, by applying pleats, rubber bands and elastic materials to the parts with many physical changes and movements. Second, it is necessary to reinforce the brand identity, create design that is flexible in terms of fashion and design very rare and attractive products, for the goal of original design beyond fashion. Third, it is necessary to increase the quality of clothing and improve the durability which can be decreased by washing and wearing. Fourth, it is necessary to create the design that can produce various styles, preserve the state of clothing and maintain its hygienic conditions by using removable detailed designs, shape-transformation designs and the designs which can be adjusted to climate changes and states, for the goal of adjustable design with better functionality. The findings provide ideas for fashion experts to pay more attention to the extending the longevity of clothing products and to develop eco-friendly designs and strategies.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.185-203
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• 2021

The aim of this study was to reveal the modern succession and reinterpretation of brand identity through the case of Balenciaga design presented by Demna Gvasalia through a review of the literature, design collection, and design review analysis. The design collection analysis was conducted from 2016 F/W to 2020 F/W, when Demna Gvasalia commenced responsibility for the Balenciaga collection. A total of 12 articles from overseas fashion magazines and newspapers were analyzed. A modern reinterpretation of Demna Gvasalia's Balenciaga design is as follows. First, he introduced luxury mode to reflect a sense of the times and introduced luxury street looks based on street and sports sensibilities, showing various styles without specific concepts. Second, by sharing universal sensibilities based on pragmatism, he proposed an easy-to-wear outfit for daily life to demonstrate the everydayness of fashion. Third, as a new exploration of traditional structural beauty, the design of Cristobal Balenciaga was reinterpreted through the conversion of items, overlapping outfits, and the introduction of high-tech technologies. Fourth, by taking a conceptual approach to fashion, he has renewed the spirit of experimentation and modernity shown by Cristobal Balenciaga. Fifth, with the presentation of a new icon, new styles of sneakers such as Triple S and Speed Runner are presented as new icons. He inherited the original mindset and creative approach of the house's founder, Cristobal Balenciaga, and reinterpreted it from a contemporary street sensibility and pragmatic perspective.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.110-123
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• 2008

The objectives of this study are to define the fundamental notions of collaboration in design field. The results of this study are summarized as follows: Firstly, collaboration means a cooperative work which are cooperatively done by collabarator and collaboratee on the equal status within a certain period of time, based on core ability of each of them. This cooperative work is presented with a visual image based on the identity of participants, and it creates an added value. Collaboration is different from convergence and hybrid in the methodological aspects and from brand alliance and strategic alliance in the aspects of the subject of project. Secondly, collaboration has been developing through step of using the specific ability, step of sharing each core abilities, and step of fusing their identities, in a view of the sphere of cooperative work and the intimate relations in reciprocity. Thirdly, according to strategic purpose, collaboration can be classified into value ascending collaboration, image changing collaboration, business-field extension collaboration, and event collaboration. Fourthly, production methods of collaboration consist of limited edition method, premium line method, common line method, producing a collaborative product, and so on. Fifthly, differentiation effect, image upgrade effect, production of higher value-added products, sale increase, diversification of business, sharing the targets, and promotion effect are achievable through collaboration. Sixthly, to make progress in collaboration successfully, the compatibility of combination between collaborator and collaboratee, the superiority of collaboratee, definitude of collaboration, the fit method of collaboration, the novelty of collatoration, possibility of issuing of collaboration, and perfection of collabo-product must be the points which deserve our attention.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.125-137
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• 2014

This study aims to the recognize the importance of uniform design and provide empirical data to companies after getting the effects of uniform design in cosmetics companies on service quality perception and customer satisfaction. For this, a preliminary survey was conducted against 30 college women (aged 20s) from 'K' University, and effective samples were obtained from 250 people. In terms of a research method, collected data were coded and analyzed using SPSS. The respondents' characteristics were analyzed using descriptive statistics. For reliability analysis, Cronbach's ${\alpha}$ was used. For a validity test, factor analysis was performed. In addition, correlation analysis was carried out to examine multicollinearity among variables. The analysis results found that the characteristics of uniform design have a positive effect on service quality and customer satisfaction. Among the characteristic of uniform design, however, functionality wasn't confirmed in a relational test. This kind of result was obtained because the uniform was mostly analyzed from customers' perspective, not from the wearer's standpoint. It is expected that the study results would be helpful in establishing brand identity through the improvement of the importance of uniform design.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.25-36
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• 2006

This paper investigates recent trend and characteristic of sports casual ware. By literature review and case study, it compares active sports casual ware with sports ware and analyzes how the latter has been applied to the former. Further, it attempts to assess future design trend of sports casual ware The result of the analysis of 2004 F/W season's trend is the following. Most brands emphasize classic factors and, at the same time, adopts recent trends. They effectively use splendid colors to expose brand identity, and take advantage of sports games as a marketing tool of special lines. In addition, designs emphasizing women's sexy and healthy style are popular in sports casual ware. Recent trend is characterized by cross-over or hybrid. Active sports ware is expanded to a mixture with casual ware or casual ware featured sportive details and images.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.51-67
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to develop the high value-added cultural product design with local cultural resources, and to contribute to promoting cultural tourism festivals. To accomplish this study, first, a preliminary survey is carried out the investigation of cultural product stores and visitors' questionnaire survey. Next, based on these survey and prior study, this study established the development direction and concept of fashion cultural products and to developed fashion cultural products using local cultural resources. Adobe Photoshop 6.0, and Adobe Illustrator CS Program were used for the standardization of patterns, textile design and illustration. The results of this study were as follows; First, based on preliminary research results, the problems of the design of cultural tourism festival products were derived. As one solution to solve this problem, this study established the development direction and concept of fashion cultural products to develop fashion cultural products. The concept of the Andong Maskdance Festival was 'Tribal-Holic'; the Boryeong Mud Festival, 'Get away form it all'; the Gangjin Celadon Festival, 'Timeless Memories'; the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Festival, 'Lighting up the River'; the Chungju World Martial Arts Festival, 'Next Ergonomics Gym'; and the Muju Firefly Festival, 'Eco-Purity'. Second, based on the desired items of festival organizers and the survey of visitor's preference for cultural products, 4 items were selected by festival type. Then a total of 96 designs of 4 kinds each were developed using logos or characters, traditional patterns, special products, symbolizing region, or festival as a motif. Third, the strategy for development of cultural products design for promotion of cultural tourism festivals were 'Place identity design strategy', 'Market oriented design strategy', 'Buyer-Based pricing strategy', 'Regional brand strategy', and 'Distribution networks expansion strategy'.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.446-462
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• 2020

The objectives of this study are to explore the information source, assessment, and preferred styles of 3D virtual influencers(VI), to investigate the expected impact of advertisements with 3D VIs on brands, and to explore ways of expanding the use of 3D VIs. In-depth interviews with 40 males and females in their 20s and 30s were conducted and qualitative data were analyzed. The study results are summarized as follows. First, the information source of the 3D VI was SNS, acquaintances, and broadcasting. Second, 3D VIs were considered positively due to their attractive appearance, wide utilization, innovative use, freshness, separation from private identity, and time and cost savings, while considered negatively due to their unrealistic appearance and antipathy against replacing a person's role. Third, the preferred appearance styles of the 3D VI differed according to the level of virtuality although the majority of interviewees preferred similar looks to real people with low virtuality. Fourth, diverse image qualities such as innovative, differentiated, trendy, high-value, professional, and future-oriented were considered as transferred to the brand advertised by 3D VIs. Fifth, advertisements with 3D VIs may help build positive perceptions of advertised brands that may lead to purchase behaviors for some consumers. Lastly, to expand the use of 3D VIs, the specific advantages of virtual models should be maximized with consideration of how to implement a variety of body types and images of models. Findings present an important foundation to generate strategies to better apply 3D VIs to the fashion market.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.205-215
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• 2002

The purpose of this study was to identity the relationship of clothing involvement, consumer characteristics, and clothing buying behavior of college female students in China. A questionnaire was developed to measure clothing involvement, materialism, conspicuous consumption, reference group influence, clothing purchasing modes, fashion information sources. The questionnaire was administered to 390 college female students in Dandong of china. The data were analyzed using percentage, frequency, factor analysis, and t-test. The results of the study were as follows: 1. Subjects were divided into low clothing involved and high clothing involved groups according to the level of clothing involvement. 2. Three dimensions of materialism were derived by factor analysis such as Happiness-pursuing, Life-centered, and Sucess-symbolic. And three dimensions of conspicuous consumption and reference group influence were derived by factor analysis such as luxury oriented, Status symbolic, Brand-name oriented, and Comparative, Informational, Normative exactly. Clothing purchasing motives and fashion information sources were factor analysed as Social and Individual mole, and Printed & Electric-wave media, Marketer managed, Personal exactly. 3. There were significant differences between high involved and low involved consumers in consumer characteristics and clothing purchasing behavior. The high involved consumers showed more importance than low involved consumers about materialism especially in Happiness-pursuing about conspicuous consumption in status symbolic and about influence of reference group in comparative. The high involved consumers put more importance than low involved consumer individual motive as clothing purchasing motive, and marketer managed in clothing fashion information. The high invoked consumers showed more importance than low invoked consumers about evaluating attributes of product, and about store patronage criterion.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.83-98
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• 2012

In 2009, two national universities were integrated into one and the following was newly named Gangneung- Wonju National University. Therefore, this university requires consolidation and promotion of UI(University Identity) as a college brand in order to secure and enhance its competitiveness. The purpose of this study was to design and develop campus-wear, ultimately, it can be used as a part of the Gangeung-Wonju University's UIP policy. A qualitative approach of searching==incorporating books, dissertations, and web-based information==was taken to investigate theoretical backgrounds. The campus-wears were collected from the selected universities in Korea and abroad for the distinct design development. The result of the research are as follows. The concept for the design planning was "wit, exciting & challenge for campus life". The developed UI had focused on expressing positive images of the University. Six items were chosen for the campus-wear design. The goal was to demonstrate practicality and fashion trend. The color arrangement primarily focused on the University's official color and pursued a bright, breeze look. The detailed techniques used for the actual production were printing, embroidery, and accessories. The UI products may not only instill the members of the university with the spirit and pride by strengthening the sense of belonging, but also create a synergistic effect in education by boosting the university promotion and by newly establishing standing as the integrated university.