European Luxury Goods Risk Cachet With China Focus, Brule Says
Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) — European luxury brands are risking their cachet and alienating Western shoppers by changing designs to appeal to the Chinese market, according to Tyler Brule, the London-based design consultant and editor of Monocle magazine.
Many brands “added a little bit of jingle-jangle to their bags and a few shiny zippers and buckles to their shoes, which was not core to their aesthetic before,” during the past seven years, Brule said by phone from London. “Some of these companies now are putting out products that Europeans wouldn’t touch.”
Brule, whose most recent Monocle boasts advertising from Louis Vuitton and Cartier, declined to specify the brands he believes have made mistakes in China. Vuitton and its main rival in luxury apparel, PPR SA’s Gucci Group, have sold more handbags in China as U.S. and Japanese demand stagnates or shrinks. Gucci Group Chief Executive Officer Robert Polet said in September that expansion will focus on Asia for a “long time to come.”
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