Decoding fashion brands’ CNY strategies: Part 2

As Chinese New Year (CNY) approaches, the market is being flooded with festive messages and brand campaigns, amplifying anticipation surrounding China’s grandest annual celebration. While traditions remain important, brands are now being challenged to craft innovative CNY campaigns that resonate long after the festivities.

In this article, the second of a two-part series charting fashion’s eight major Lunar New Year campaign strategies, Jing Daily focuses on craftsmanship, sustainability, travel and VIP gifts.

Traditional Chinese crafts

Perhaps because it is the year of the dragon, one of the most important and auspicious signs, brands are doing their homework to create the most creative and culturally relevant CNY collections to offer to local shoppers.

Tod’s co-created an animated short film with Wang Yuheng, a friend of the house, featuring hand-painted artwork in the shadow puppet style. Set to original folk music, the film explains the story of the Dragon’s nine children and the virtue each of them symbolizes. Although it doesn’t exhibit the CNY collection, the short video showcases the brand’s understanding of Chinese mythology and its effort to spread awareness.

As quiet luxury dictates, Tod’s dragon motifs on the collection are subtle and nearly hidden. The double dragons appear only in the inner sole.

Meanwhile, Boss collaborated with novelist and calligrapher Feng Tang on exclusive Year of the Dragon pieces. Drawing inspiration from Chinese traditional calligraphy, Tang’s modern and minimalist calligraphy style of the dragon character is printed and embroidered on Boss’s jackets, sweatshirts, T-shirts, and knitwear.

Another example is Loewe, which collaborated with master jade carvers Cheng Lei, Qiu Qijing, and Yin Xiaojin to craft five exclusive jade pendants. Each pendant, intricately hand-carved and accompanied by an 18K gold chain, is a testament to the brand’s unwavering commitment to craftsmanship around the globe.

A sustainable new year

Globally, sustainability is a key decision-making factor in a consumer’s purchasing journey. The same goes for China. In first- and second-tier cities, young generations of shoppers are paying more attention to environmental health. As such, brands are conveying sustainability messaging through their special CNY editions.

In celebration of Chinese New Year, Miu Miu set its sights on recycled denim. The brand introduces the first upcycled handbags made from leather remnants and denim, preserving the outer seams before handcrafting. Miu Miu launched its Upcycle Denim in 2020 to give new life to old but precious clothing and encourage upcycling designs.

Meanwhile, Luisaviaroma partnered with Sean Wu, a Chinese contemporary artist and designer with a distinctive focus on sustainability and Eastern aesthetics, to create an immersive CNY in-store installation.

To set up the main in-store installation, the artist transformed bamboo sticks, an extremely symbolic material in Chinese culture representing toughness, grace, and harmony, into undulating, abstract dragon shapes illuminated by lights, allowing visitors to immerse themselves in the ambiance of the store.

Adidas also collaborated with a Chinese sustainable designer, Samuel Gui Yang, who designed an eco-friendly sneaker for the brand. Utilizing Chinese tailoring and contour, the sneaker includes hand-woven detailing that emulates the dragon’s spine, echoing the Year of the Dragon theme.

Traveling in spirit

Although China’s borders have been reopened for over a year, most locals are still traveling domestically. As a result, many Chinese destinations, like Harbin, Henan, and Chengdu, have boomed in recent years. In light of the inbound travel phenomenon, luxury houses are taking their campaigns across China to showcase the beauty of the country and engage with domestic shoppers.

Rimowa invites audiences to explore the breathtaking landscapes of Sichuan province through the short film, The Dragon Roams Far and Wide, but It Never Leaves Our Minds, directed by Chinese director Song Huang. The film captures a family’s adventure through picturesque locations including the East Gate of Old Chengdu, Dujiangyan’s Anlan Suspension Bridge, and the snowy mountains of western Chengdu.

L’Oréal Paris made waves with an ambitious Lunar New Year celebration in Yangshuo, Guangxi province. The brand unveiled a striking pink dragon along the Yulong River, partnering with artist Chen Fenwan to showcase her work, “Infinite,” a paper-cut dragon sculpture with intricate scales and endless variations. The event featured a dragon raft parade traveling downriver in the scenic Chinese vacation spot — a giant spectacle that was even covered by CCTV, making for impactful marketing.

Exclusive VIP gifts

The Spring Festival is a major occasion for brands to enhance their relationship with their most loyal customers through thoughtful gifts. Many gift boxes are in high demand this year, with online netizens asking how much one needs to spend at each luxury store to get them.

Prada and Louis Vuitton’s VIP red box are perhaps the most popular ones on Chinese social media.

During the Lunar New Year, it’s customary to have oranges at home to offer guests. The fruit’s name, ju (橘), sounds like auspicious or lucky ji (吉) in Chinese; hence it is viewed as a blessing.

Prada created a red fruit box with four drawers, each containing oranges, kumquats, dragon eyes, sweets, and a blessing card with the fruit’s respective meaning. Xiaohongshu user @miniyuyu expressed her appreciation for the gift online, praising it as “thoughtful and functional.”

Louis Vuitton’s red gift box, adorned with a golden circle motif, contains even more surprises. Inside the red package, there are six mini boxes, including red couplets, red pockets, a dragon-shaped candle, and the Chinese character fu (福), symbolizing fortune — along with anything else one would need to celebrate the festival.

Additional reporting by William Zhou