On May 16, the Chinese designer brand Calvinluo issued a statement that it would suspend the brand business gradually from the first quarter of 2025.The founder and designer Luo Yucheng stated in the statement that the fashion industry is operating fast and stressful, leading to a lot of energy occupied by unexpected affairs.This is why he made a decision to stop transportation.
On social media, many netizens are not surprised that the news of Calvinluo’s stop operation is not surprised, and said that the daily traffic of its stores is small, and it is not prominent in the competition with other clothing brands.For a designer brand with a number of stores, in order to continue to develop, it is necessary to consider accepting external funds.
Luo Yucheng did not disclose the specific future whereabouts, but only expressed his hope of “jumping out of the state of work.”According to the Sky Eye Increasing App, Luo Yucheng is still the only controller of Calvinluo.In his shutdown statement, he said he did not want to deal with various numbers instead of designing the future.
This may be why the brand has not accepted external financing so far.However, according to the Tianyan check app, Luo Yucheng is currently a shareholder of Chongqing Jingyin Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and Net Royal Safety Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.On the pages of biotechnology in Chongqing Jingyin, Luo Yucheng is the second largest shareholder of the company with a shareholding ratio of 15.8155%.
At the same time, Luo Yucheng did not reveal in the statement in the statement for nearly a year, how Calvinluo will handle matters including commodity inventory, store operations, and employee contracts.In an interview with the fashion media “Gorgeous”, he said that brand sales exceeded 100 million yuan in 2022, and the suspension statement said that the number of employees currently hired more than 100 people.
Among the Chinese designer brands, this scale is considered large.Many designer brands still operate in the form of studio even after 5 years or 10 years.The designer brand has a strong personal style, and the designer leads creativity, and the production process of clothing is more complicated. This makes it difficult for it to form too large -scale whether it is sold or team.
Calvinluo was founded in 2013, when it was the beginning of the rise of the Chinese designer brand, and Luo Yucheng became famous for the title of “New York Fashion Week”.But for consumers in the Volkswagen market, it really begun to recognize this brand after nearly 10 years.
Since 2022, Calvinluo has suddenly accelerated the pace of offline market expansion.The brand’s first offline straight store opened on August 2022 in Yongjia Road, Shanghai, and then the store opened the Shanghai Mall, Chengdu IFS, Shenzhen Ping An Financial Center Shopping Mall, and Beijing Sanlitun Taikoo Li on Nanjing West Road.
Interface Fashion has reported that the Chinese designer brand has begun to enter the high -end shopping center to open stores in recent years.Shushu/Tong and Short Sentence entered Shanghai Jincang Wenhua Plaza to open a store, and Tube Showroom is also in Shanghai and ShanghaiThe second phase of Fashion opened a multi -brand retail space called “DIA Underground” to provide designer brands with offline sales shops.
But Calvinluo may be the most aggressive one.By April 2023, Calvinluo also announced that singer and actor Fan Ye served as spokesperson.For independent designer brands, the practice of appointing traffic stars as spokespersons is not common.Designer brands can bring the benefits of the stars, far less than the larger luxury brands and mass consumer brands.
Before pressing the launch key of the radical expansion, Calvinluo had achieved awareness in the mass market with the co -branding of ZARA, and the side sports shoes became small.However, it is not easy to support a designer brand in the expensive high -end shopping mall. It is not easy for the Chengdu IFS store to stop operating less than one year after opening.
For a designer brand, the annual sales revenue may already be called unusual achievements.However, to remove operating costs and use the real money to support the normal operation of the store, it is bound to be full of challenges. The designer himself needs more work.Many new consumer clothing brands with higher income years will not enter so many high -end shopping malls in a short time.Except for square sneakers, Calvinluo did not launch explosive products that can be compared with it.
Judging from the rapid growth of China’s high -end consumption at that time, it is difficult to say that Calvinluo’s radical expansion was wrong, but this will undoubtedly cause the brand to operate more pressure.When the designer brand of Calvinluo feels difficult, other smaller brands will obviously receive greater pressure.
In fact, the entire Chinese designer brand market is entering the development bottleneck period.
In the three years when overseas consumption return promotes the rapid development of the luxury market, many designer brands have become the target of real estate developers -introducing more second -tier brands and designer brands can highlight diversity and investment capabilities. With other heads, only the heads have heads.The difference between the well -known brands of shopping malls, and the consumer’s mentality is more open, and is willing to try the more niche style.
But now when consumers’ mentality tends to be cautious, the designer brand is first abandoned.As a response to market trends, many shopping malls have begun to reduce attention to such brands because they can bring passenger flow, exposure and performance.In the past, many designer brand -dependent buyers have also developed unfavorable development. For example, LOOKNOW, which has expanded rapidly, has now closed all Beijing stores.
On the whole, the designer brand is still a niche business.
With the extension of the development time, the sales of many designer brands have exceeded the 100 million yuan mark one after another, but it is always a very difficult thing to go to 500 million, 1 billion, or even 2 billion, like the Volkswagen brand.Many brands still need to rely on the names of the “Chinese designer brand” to talk about business. They need to fit the positioning of “national tide” and “tide luxury” in the mall. It is difficult for them to persuade the partner by their own reputation.
After nearly 10 years of development, many Chinese consumers are more picky about designer brands -less and less fresh, and more and more based on realistic considerations.Social media has a large number of criticism of designer brand prices and even the sound of “eating unsatisfactory”. Criticism for product creativity, quality and price is increasing.