How Luxury Brands are Celebrating Chinese New Year 2020

Luxury fashion items launches for the Year of the Rat

Jan 20, 2020

Hello readers!

This week, millions of people will be celebrating Chinese New Year, also known as “Spring Festival” and “Lunar New Year”, starting on January 25th and lasting until February 8th.

For many luxury brands, Chinese New Year has become an essential part of their marketing calendar. As Jing Daily states:

Chinese buyers are now dictating trends and influencing collections, and companies hoping to get their attention now design products exclusively for those consumers. This can be seen in luxury retailers’ yearly appeal to Chinese luxury fans with new collections that honor China’s Lunar New Year. […]
Since 2020 is the Year of the Rat, luxury retailers will be proposing a wide range of rat-inspired luxury objects, from high-end watches, expensive jewelry, and top-quality bags to leather accessories and cigars. Unlike many past luxury holiday offerings that lacked cultural sensitivity, the 2020 capsule collection products highlighted for this Lunar New Year are classy and offer high sales potential.

Here is the list of 5 Chinese New Year rat-inspired product launches by luxury fashion brands:

Disney x Gucci

Gucci teamed up with Disney to release a co-branded capsule collection, featuring Gucci’s GG logo with images of Mickey Mouse. The official campaign was directed by Harmony Korine and starred Gucci’s brand ambassador Chinese actress Ni Ni, British actor Earl Cave and American actress Zoë Bleu. While the campaign was released worldwide, Gucci has also released a China-focused campaign on Weibo, starring top Asian KOLs, among which Mr. Bags, Yoyo Cao, Fiona Xu and Fil Xiaobai (click here to view the video campaign).

Miu Miu

Miu Miu created a capsule collection, featuring Mickey's female partner Minnie, however, the release was not actively promoted on the brand’s social media, instead mainly covered by fashion magazines.

Moschino

To celebrate the Year of the Rat, Moschino’s creative director Jeremy Scott together with Chinese fashion stylist Mia Kong created a collection, inspired by the Mickey Rat cartoon. The campaign was released on Western and Asian social media channels.

Etro x TomAndJerry

Etro in collaboration with Warner Brothers released a limited edition unisex collection, featuring Etro’s signature paisley print and the mischievous Jerry from the “Tom & Jerry” cartoon. The collection received an active social media promotion, especially on Instagram in early December, when a group of Santa Clauses visited various influencers, bringing the Etro’s gifts well ahead of Christmas.

Burberry

Burberry’s Chinese New Year 2020 campaign starred brand ambassador Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu, along with models He Cong and Liang Jiyuan. The collection includes ready-to-wear pieces in vivid red, Union sneakers, the Lola bag, featuring a limited-edition Thomas Burberry Monogram motif.

In order to attract and engage with a younger audience, Burberry released an online mobile game, named Ratberry, as reported by Fashion United:

In the game, which is available on Burberry’s website, players control a central character, Ratberry, who is inspired by the limited-edition Thomas Burberry Monogram motif in honour of the Year of the Rat. They bounce the character upwards between platforms, aiming to get as high as possible while collecting gold coins and catching Chinese lanterns as they go.

Honourable mentions

Dior

Dior reimagined its classic styles in a capsule collection, featuring red floral motifs and images of a rising phoenix. The campaign starred brand’s Chinese ambassadors: actress Sophie Zhang, and singer and actress Yang Caiyu.

Fendi

Fendi celebrated the start of the Year of the Rat with capsule collection, which included iconic styles of Peekaboo and Baguette bags in a glamorous rose-gold tone (symbolizing good fortune and blessings) and a special rat motif in red and gold printed on a selection of small leather goods.

Longchamp

Launched in early December, the third collaboration of Chinese KOL Mr. Bags with French luxury brand Longchamp included seven handbags and a T-shirt, featuring bright yellow cheese pattern.

Bonus: Luxury Red Envelopes for the Year of the Rat

In addition to releasing special-edition Chinese New Year luxury products, for the past few years, luxury brands have been putting their own spin on the Chinese tradition of gifting red envelopes or hongbao 红包.

Brands sent out them to VIP clients and influencers, who then share them on social media, sparking a lot of online discussions. This year Gucci has put Mickey Mouse print all over not only on its fashion pieces but also on its packaging, including red envelopes.

Taking inspiration from Chinese art of paper folding "zhezhi", Hermes created envelopes, which can be folded into cute paper mouse finger puppets.

Chinese culture is unique, and it seems luxury companies have finally learned to understand their Chinese clientele better, however, it’s yet to be seen whether all the CNY-related marketing efforts will pay out to bring a prosperous 2020 for luxury business.

Thanks for reading and Happy Lunar New Year!

新年快乐!

Assiya Assanbayeva

Follow me on Linkedin for more news and articles on Fashion & Luxury industry

Fashion. Business. Reader.

Discussion about this post