Dolce & Gabbana lost its flagship store again, and the giant IFS shop along the street in Chengdu was replaced by Fendi

Recently, some netizens posted on platforms such as Weibo and WeChat public accounts, saying that the Italian luxury brand Dolceamp; Gabbana’s street store in Chengdu International Financial Center IFS (hereinafter referred to as Chengdu IFS) has Closing, Fendi, a brand of LVMH Group, will enter the vacant store.

Interface Fashion We asked Chengdu IFS for confirmation, but received no reply. However, according to people familiar with the matter, the above-mentioned news is not entirely accurate. Fendi has indeed enclosed and renovated the original Dolce & Gabbana store location, but Dolce & Gabbana did not evacuate Chengdu IFS, but only changed the location of the store.

Currently, there are many luxury stores opened in Chengdu IFS, some of which are regional and national first stores.

Chanel, Balenciaga, and Moncler have opened their first stores in this shopping mall in central and western China. Piaget PIAGET, a luxury jewelry brand owned by Richemont Group, also opened its largest flagship store in China at Chengdu IFS.

For luxury brands, settling in Chengdu IFS or the nearby Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu is an important step in entering the market in central and western China. These two commercial places have also promoted the growth of luxury goods consumption and the development of consumption concepts in Chengdu, making it the "third fashion city" after Beijing and Shanghai. The significance of the landmarks is self-evident.

These two commercial real estate projects also attach great importance to investment promotion, especially investment promotion for key shops. How to present the project itself, and even the image of the entire business district, needs to be taken into consideration.

Therefore, Dolce & Gabbana’s move away from street stores where it can gain more exposure reflects its current embarrassing situation in the Chinese luxury market.

Affected by co-founder Stefano Gabbana’s allegedly insulting remarks about China, Dolce & Gabbana’s reputation in the Chinese market has plummeted. The fashion show originally scheduled to be held in Shanghai on November 21, 2018 was temporarily canceled. E-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD.com, and Secoo have also removed Dolce & Gabbana products from their shelves.

Subsequently, Dolce & Gabbana entered a period of silence. It was not until March 8, 2019 that the brand resumed its Weibo operations on Women’s Day, while the WeChat official account was suspended for nearly 8 months. Months passed, and I didn’t post again until Chinese Valentine’s Day.

It is worth noting that when brands such as Coach, Givenchy, and Versace were criticized by netizens in August of the same year for misrepresenting the scope of China’s territory in their clothing slogans, Dolce & Gabbana was also frequently mentioned. It has become a typical case of Western luxury brands’ operational mistakes in the Chinese market.

Chinese consumers have not completely forgiven Dolce & Gabbana, and fashion magazines and fashion bloggers are not willing to give it much exposure. The "Insult to China Scandal" has affected real estate developers who intend to or have already leased shops to Dolce & Gabbana, and Dolce & Gabbana's store opening in the country has also slowed down.

In April 2020, Dolce & Gabbana’s flagship store in Yintai Center, East Third Ring Road, Beijing, was officially closed, and the brand is no longer in the mall’s official brand directory. Dolce & Gabbana's store in Beijing Intime opened in 2011 and is one of the brand's largest flagship stores in Beijing. Prior to this, Dolce & Gabbana's store on Nanjing East Road in Shanghai was also closed, and the large logo outside the wall was removed.

However, with a series of personnel and strategic changes within the brand, Dolce & Gabbana is also trying to revive its performance in the Chinese market.

In October 2019, Dolce & Gabbana announced the appointment of Carlo Gariglio as president and CEO of the Asia-Pacific region, with Shanghai and Hong Kong as its main work bases. The two brand founders, Stefano Gabbana and Domenico Dolce, also expressed their expectations for the recovery of sales in the Chinese market in interviews with the media.

Data show that Dolce & Gabbana’s revenue in the fiscal year ending March 2019 was 1.38 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 4.9%. Europe is still the main market for the brand, and the proportion of sales contributed by the Asian market has increased from above. The 25 for the year dropped to 22.