Interview: How Shang Xia is showing the world that ‘China is great’

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“We have great potential and it is a very beautiful brand but we still need to create more awareness.” – Tina Tam

Introduction: Hermès-controlled Shang Xia believes there is strong potential to expand in travel retail, a channel the Chinese brand sees as key to delivering its international ambitions.

The brand (its name means ‘up-down’ or more precisely ‘as above, so below’ in Mandarin) was founded in 2009 between the French luxury group and renowned Chinese designer Jiang Qiong Er. Its mission was to create a 21st century lifestyle founded on the finest of Chinese design traditions, in the process celebrating and reviving the country’s centuries-old tradition of craftsmanship. Its range includes furniture; homeware; decorative objects; jewellery and other accessories; and fashion for men and women, highlighted by an annual series of limited-edition ‘cultural objects’.

Weaving together East and West

Jiang Qiong Er acts both as Artistic Director and CEO of Shang Xia. After many years studying in Europe, she brings a bi-cultural experience to her designs. Respectful of tradition, she draws inspiration from a vast range of sources, an approach reflected in her versatile and diverse work, which is featured in a number of museums around the world.

Jiang sees Shang Xia as dedicated to bringing fine Chinese crafts to the world. The house infuses old crafts with contemporary design, weaving concepts from East and West to create a 21st century lifestyle brand.

Shang Xia means ‘as above, so below’, a concept that speaks of a fundamental harmony between the tradition and the present; East and West; human and nature, or as Jiang puts it, “a symmetrical, balanced beauty between seemingly diametric poles”.

In 2013, she was honoured with the ‘Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French Republic in recognition of her contribution to cultural exchange between China and France. Jiang was subsequently honoured in 2016 by the French Government as ‘Chevalier de L’Ordre National du Mérite’ in Shanghai.

In April this year the company appointed the much-respected Tina Tam as Vice President for Travel Retail & Wholesale in Asia Pacific, charging her with developing the brand in what have been identified as key growth channels. 

“My job is to develop Shang Xia outside China, both in travel retail and domestically,” says Ms Tam, speaking to The Moodie Davitt Report during the recent TFWA World Exhibition. She’s excited by the opportunity with Shang Xia and certainly has the credentials to develop it, having held several senior executive roles in the region with beauty, fashion and luxury houses, including The Estée Lauder Companies, Céline, La Prairie, Burberry, and her own consultancy Paccaya Resources.

The Hongqiao opening, serving domestic travellers, has convinced the company of the serious potential that travel retail offers. “In travel retail we’re already working on a project with Beijing Airport Terminal Two for a standalone store of around 95sq m,” says Ms Tam. T2, the domestic terminal, is being expanded and it is planned that the new store will open in the first quarter of 2017. It will offer a selected range of men’s and women’s accessories, mainly the latter, focused on gifting.

“We introduced the brand to travel retail at the TFWA World Exhibition in May,” says Ms Tam. “We have great potential and it is a very beautiful brand but we still need to create more awareness.” That awareness is being helped by listings onboard Cathay Pacific and Dragon Air for its 100×100 cm scarf, priced at HK$2,200/US$285.

Already the brand enjoys considerable popularity among wealthier Chinese travellers, particularly those from Beijing, Guangzhou and Chengdu, who appreciate the product and design quality as well as its emphasis on Chinese tradition. So what is the attitude of Chinese people towards a Chinese luxury brand, following two decades of conspicuous sometimes rampant consumption that has centered solely on international brands?

That’s a key question, Ms Tam replies, saying that it is critical to convey the innate quality that Shang Xia offers. “So many people have forgotten what China can do,” she says.  “Instead of just looking for luxury brands outside of China, we want them to also look inside. Qiong Er wants to capture all this beautiful craftsmanship we have, tracing back to the Tang Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, which are centuries old. But she also wants to create new designs and to show people that China has very beautiful contemporary products that deserve to be noticed.”

An antidote to sameness

‘Rocking in heaven and earth, words no more’

Those gently lyrical words introduce the Da Tian Di rocking chair, part of Shang Xia’s eclectic product offer that ranges from furniture to fashion; tea sets to travel bags; playing cards (of exquisite beauty) to puzzles; cufflinks to coasters; ladies’ and men’s jewellery to leathergoods.

Each item is elegantly designed; each combines modern usage with traditional craftsmanship. With the ‘Wish’ playing cards, for example, Chinese water colour paintings show a range of Chinese cultural symbols (Cloud of Ganoderma, Bodhi Leaf, Red Peach, Taihu Rock), each conveying a profound meaning. The cards, each design hand-painted, are presented in an exquisitely Zitan box, the collection limited to just 100 sets.

That focus on provenance, artistry and collectability surely earmarks Shang Xia as one of the more compelling recent entries into a travel retail universe so often compromised by sameness.

The house recently secured a breakthrough agreement with upscale Hong Kong retailer Lane Crawford, which will offer Shang Xia’s homeware and accessories range from January 2017. How upbeat is the company about further international growth? “We are very confident,” replies Ms Tam emphatically. “We’re just at the very beginning.  We have a beautiful brand to grow. We just need to get more awareness.”

In an interview with Beijing Time Out, Jiang Qiong Er related how some of the brand’s customers tell the sales staff, ‘I am proud to be Chinese again. I didn’t know China could do that.’ She commented: “It’s like a window; we’re not only showing the world, but also showing Chinese people that, ‘look, China is great’. It’s not only for Westerners to rediscover China, it’s also for Chinese people to rediscover our tradition in a contemporary way.”

Beautifully put. The name may literally translate as both up and down but it seems there is only one direction this brand is headed. And travel retail looks set to play a key role in that ascending momentum.

Shang Xia Maison – Shanghai
(Above and below) Shang Xia Maison in Shanghai

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Beijing China World boutique
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The Shang Xia boutique in Paris
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(Above and below) A pop-up store in Beijing

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(Above and below) The Shanghai Hongqiao Hong Airport boutique

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This Chinese language video underscores Shang Xia’s fusion of traditional and contemporary design
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