Interview: Giambattista Valli
#TBT to the last SS Shanghai Fashion Week when Giambattista Valli came to town to re-show his collection and stuck around after the show to speak with me a little about his brand’s future in China.
How has your brand been received in China?
Our brand has a name among a selected group of customers. I really like it this way because I work in luxury and I like proposing very honest luxury and not proposing something that is more like duty free or people queuing outside the boutique. The people who experience it get to know what real luxury is. It’s about the privilege to have something very special and unique, not something that has been all over the magazines and everywhere.
What is the feedback you have received from local customers?
These events have confirmed that my vision of beauty and femininity suits the customers here perfectly. It was extremely interesting because fashion isn’t always about meeting the customers, so it’s been a great experience for me to be in touch with these women and to understand them, to share, to explain, to listen and to digest.
What are your impressions of Shanghai?
I think Shanghai now is like New York 20 years back, it’s new and arty and exciting and energetic.
I saw Francesco Clemente in New York recently and he was just back from Shanghai, he said, ‘Oh my god it’s absolutely the energetic place.”
We need that. We need the energy, the enthusiasm of the people. The vision of customers here is so new. It’s very exciting.
What are your ambitions for this market?
I have a very nice business, mostly in Hong Kong, but a little bit in Shanghai and Beijing; I would like that to grow. But grow in a very human way. To keep it still with the idea of quality that will appeal to a very high level group.
Everything you do needs to have a meaning, even a fashion show isn’t about showing clothes, it’s about a point of view, an expression, an emotion.
This interview was originally part of a story written by me for WWD.
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