China Calling

In what seems to be an impenetrable and hostile landscape known as China, Malaysian designer Moto Guo seems to have cracked the code where most young foreign designers have failed to. We speak to the designer and his business partner, Jay Ang on what it takes to break into the retail scene in China.

- Ai Lim

China‘s continuous explosive growth and quest for dominance in global trade with the Belt and Road initiative has been a long time coming. And as one of the world’s fastest growing markets for luxury goods, China has gained a reputation for being a fruitful honeypot, with international fashion houses such as Dior and Burberry actively adapting to the market in a quest to have their slice of the cake — from having an official Chinese name to liaising with customers on WeChat. Interestingly, the first quarter of 2018 was met with news of Chinese entrepreneur and heiress-turned-investor Wendy Yu acquiring a minority stake in London-based womenswear label Mary Katrantzou and French house Lanvin being snapped up by Chinese conglomerate Fosun International Ltd. Most recently, online fashion luxury retailer Farfetch U.K. Ltd acquired Chinese digital marketing agency CuriosityChina in a bid to boost its presence on the mainland. The appeal of China is as obvious as it is daunting and this was a train ride that Moto Guo was fortunate enough to get onto.