
Shanghai Tang () is a
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...
luxury fashion house founded in 1994 by Hong Kong businessman
David Tang. The brand is known for its luxury homeware collection and fine
bone china
Bone china is a type of ceramic that is composed of bone ash, feldspathic material, and kaolin. It has been defined as "ware with a translucent body" containing a minimum of 30% of phosphate derived from animal bone and calculated calcium phos ...
. In 1998,
Richemont acquired David Tang's controlling stake in the business.
David Tang stated that Shanghai Tang is a Chinese label that set out to rejuvenate Chinese fashion of the 1920s and 1930s. The fundamental design concept is inspired by 1920s
Cheongsam combined with the modernity of the 21st century. Shanghai Tang is noted for its use of Chinese culture and heritage in its product styling, branding and marketing.
History
Early years
Shanghai Tang was partially inspired by Tang's desire to create a global brand that represented
China, stating, "as
Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atla ...
is American, as
Mercedes
Mercedes may refer to:
People
* Mercedes (name), a Spanish feminine name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or last name
Automobile-related
* Mercedes (marque), the pre-1926 brand name of German automobile m ...
is German, I think there should be something that is quintessentially Chinese". After founding the
China Club in 1991, Tang moved to incorporate his tastes of fusing
Shanghainese design with modern style by forming Shanghai Tang in 1994.
Its flagship location is on the ground floor of
Pedder Building
The Pedder Building, located at No. 12 Pedder Street, in Central, Hong Kong, is a historic commercial building built in the Beaux-Arts style. Built in 1923 ,
Central, Hong Kong
Central (also Central District) is the central business district of Hong Kong. It is located in Central and Western District, on the north shore of Hong Kong Island, across Victoria Harbour from Tsim Sha Tsui, the southernmost point of Kow ...
.
Initially, Shanghai Tang was a fashion house for custom high-end tailoring, employing tailors from Shanghai who left during the
Communist Revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution often, but not necessarily, inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism. Depending on the type of government, socialism can be used as an intermediate stag ...
. Tang expanded his business to sell
ready-to-wear
Ready-to-wear (or ''prêt-à-porter''; abbreviated RTW; "off-the-rack" or "off-the-peg" in casual use) is the term for ready-made garments, sold in finished condition in standardized sizes, as distinct from made-to-measure or bespoke clothi ...
items in 1996.
Expansion into a global brand, and resulting change
The late 1990s and early 2000s were marked by change for Shanghai Tang. Tang wanted to turn the company into a global brand, and so his Hong Kong location was followed by 24 outlets worldwide over the years, including
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populatio ...
,
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
,
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the islan ...
,
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
,
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
,
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), an ...
,
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
,
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
,
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
and
Macau
Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...
. They are often located in well-known areas such as Singapore's
Orchard Road, Bangkok's
Sukhumvit Road, and Shanghai's
Xintiandi.
Shanghai Tang's first American store was opened in New York on November 21, 1997,
and in 1998, the Swiss company Richemont bought a controlling stake in the fashion house. However, the New York store, located on
Madison Avenue, closed in less than two years due to lower-than-expected sales, relative to the high rent.
The store was moved to a smaller venue in 2001.
In 2001, Raphael le Masne de Chermont, from the parent company Richemont, was appointed CEO of Shanghai Tang. In addition,
Joanne Ooi
Joanne Ooi (born December 13, 1967) is a Singaporean American environmentalist, art dealer, marketing expert, founder & CEO of Plukka.
Early life and education
Ooi is the eldest child of two doctors, who are both Chinese Singaporean. She was bor ...
joined the company as
creative director the same year. As the chief executive, Le Masne de Chermont wanted to figure out a way to cater to both the Chinese and international market, remarking, "
hanghai Tang wastoo dependent on Western people visiting Hong Kong, and we needed to transform the brand into something mainland Chinese wanted to buy".
As part of the strategy to revitalize Shanghai Tang, Ooi traveled across the country, taking notes on Chinese culture. She then picked themes based on her notes that formed the basis of the company's seasonal collections.
Le Masne de Chermont and Ooi opted to transform the brand from 1930s Shanghai, into a more contemporary style that retained its vibrant colours from previous designs .
Shanghai Tang helped design costumes for the 2004
Yonfan film ''
Colour Blossoms
''Colour Blossoms'' ( zh, t=桃色, j=Toh sik) is a 2004 Hong Kong art film written and directed by Yonfan, and the third in an informal trilogy of films inspired by Tang Xianzu's ''The Peony Pavilion''. The original Chinese title of ''Colour Bl ...
'', starring
Teresa Cheung.
As part of their focus on the Chinese market, Shanghai Tang created the Mandarin Collar Society in 2007. It is an invitation-only club to promote shirts with a
mandarin collar as standard work attire in Asia. Ooi left Shanghai Tang by the end of the following year to work for a biotech company.
Present
After 17 years, in October 2011, the company's 6,300-square-foot flagship store in Hong Kong's Pedder Building closed, with rising rents being cited as the main reason.
Shanghai Tang lost the space to American retailer
Abercrombie & Fitch
Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F) is an American lifestyle store, lifestyle retailer that focuses on casual wear. Its headquarters are in New Albany, Ohio. The company operates three other offshoot brands: Abercrombie Kids, Hollister Co., and Gilly Hick ...
, who were prepared to pay two-and-a-half times the original rent. In the meantime, the company set up several project units to continue its presence in Central, namely "A New Journey as a Nomad of Central", in a series of
Mongolian gers on the roof of
Central Pier 1 from 4 November to 31 December 2011. This was followed by "Shanghai Tang Loft" in Pedder Building, upstairs to the old store, from 23 October to 20 February 2012. As of 2018, there are eight stores across Hong Kong as well as stores in Shanghai, Beijing and other Asian cities, along with a string of Shanghai Tang cafes and restaurants in China.
In April 2012, a new flagship store was opened on
Duddell Street in Central, called "Shanghai Tang Mansion".
At nearly 1,400 square metres, it is Shanghai Tang's largest branch, and was designed by Shanghai-based Design MVW. Shanghai Tang also brought in designer Raffaele Borriello as creative director the same year.
In 2013, Shanghai Tang announced a 12-year partnership with Inter Parfums to create fragrances under the Shanghai Tang name.
In 2014 Shanghai Tang celebrated its 20th anniversary in Shanghai.
In July 2017, Swiss luxury group
Richemont announced that it had sold Shanghai Tang to a group of investors headed by Italian entrepreneur Alessandro Bastagli.
Bastagli bought the business believing there was potential in Shanghai Tang to grow and attract a younger generation of customers who wanted a Chinese brand. The new owner enlisted his son to assist with product development and marketing. Le Masne de Chermont exited the company that year.
On 4 July 2017, Shanghai Tang creative director Raffaele Borriello died from surgery complications. Founder David Tang died the next month on August 29, 2017. Designer
Massimiliano Giornetti
Massimiliano Giornetti (born 29 October 1971 in Carrara) is an Italian fashion designer. He has been the creative director of the luxury goods company Salvatore Ferragamo from 2004 to 2016, and the creative director at the Hong Kong luxury fashion ...
was appointed creative director in December 2017.
In December 2018, after disagreements between Bastagli and Hong Kong-based investment partner Cassia Investments, the controlling stake in Shanghai Tang was sold to Chinese group Lunar Capital.
Giornetti left Shanghai Tang that month, and Tang's eldest daughter, Victoria Tang, was appointed as creative director.
In 2019, Shanghai Tang celebrated its
silver jubilee by collaborating with Chinese artist
Xu Bing on calligraphic artwork inspired by Shanghai Tang's vision.
2020 was marked by change for Shanghai Tang: according to ''
Women's Wear Daily'', CEO Maurizio de Gasperis left the company in April of that year, with Shirley Tai taking his place. Victoria Tang also announced in November that she would be leaving her creative director role.
See also
*
Shopping in Hong Kong
Shopping is a popular social activity in Hong Kong, where basic items for sale do not draw any duties, sales taxation, or import taxation. Only specific import goods such as alcohol, tobacco, perfumes, cosmetics, cars and petroleum products ...
References
Further reading
*
*Wu, Zhiyan., Borgerson, Janet and Schroeder, Jonathan (2013), ''From Chinese Brand Culture to Global Brands: Insights from Aesthetics, Fashion and History,'' Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan
.
External links
*
{{Richemont
1994 establishments in Hong Kong
Clothing brands of Hong Kong
Clothing retailers of Hong Kong
Clothing companies established in 1994
High fashion brands
Hong Kong brands
Privately held companies of China
Richemont brands