Monday, January 9, 2006

The China Market

1/3 of the world population is Chinese. A Chinese company took over (part of) IBM and *gasp* Tommy Hilfiger as well (which is ironic seeing as he had discriminated against them some years back...)! It does seem like they're taking over the world doesn't it? LOL. Anyway, thats how the trend has been going for some time now. And thats how companies like LVMH and Prada has had such record high profits. As a results, there's been renovations and flagship stores opening all over the place. Now it seems that they're all taking it up a notch higher, and is catering specifically to the noveau rich Chinese out there.

As we all know, the Chinese loves to play mahjong. And they also love the monogrammed brands. Putting their two love together and viola-the brand named mahjong sets! Marketing genius. Here's the Gucci set. I've also seen the Vuitton set at the store. Isn't it cool that the Chinese culture is finally being taken into account by international giants of the fashion world?

But Prada, just so they don't miss out on the profit since they don't have a monogram, have taken to enlarging their name and emblazoning it oh-so-prominently onto their bags to compensate. At least thats what I think. I cannot find any other reason for a design that is so lacking in design. This design has been going on for a while now, when will it stop? Part of me takes pride by the fact that the Chinese are getting so influential that it can influence the design of Prada. But fashionably speaking, that is just not cool.