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Zilli’s French flair [Global Times](Global Times Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) The French fashion brand Zilli is providing luxury clothes and accessories to the Chinese market. Photo: Courtesy of Zilli Shanghai's vibrant fashion scene received one more luxury clothing outlet this year when the French fashion brand Zilli opened its flagship store in April. A brand known for its elegance and sophistication, Zilli's store was opened in typical French flair with the Consul General of France in Shanghai Emmanuel Lenain cutting the ribbon, followed by a runway show at Waldorf Astoria Shanghai.Zilli is a family-owned luxury brand, founded by Alain Schimel in 1970. Schimel has extended his brand's influence to the fashion capitals of Europe in the past 40 years, and is now targeting Asia's booming fashion market. Although Zilli entered China much later than other global fashion brands, its grandeur publicity events, such as the store opening in Shanghai, which coincided with the opening of another store in Hong Kong, has helped capture public attention. Despite Zilli already having a reputation in Europe as a brand of high repute, it is still a new name in China's luxury fashion scene, and therefore is considered by some as a "low-profile brand." In the French fashion industry, Zilli is one of the leading brands in terms of craftsmanship, design, and quality. In 2010, Zilli won the prestigious "Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (Living Heritage Company)" award for its high-end leather and fur processing techniques. It earned this award alongside other renowned luxury brands such as Chanel and Baccarat.During an interview with Alexandra Schimel-Fila, the marketing and communication director of Zilli, she confirmed that the company is an entirely family-run business, which relies solely on itself to generate its own financial revenue and designs. As a family brand, the common concerns like limited resources and slow development are what Zilli have embedded into the core of the business, and consequently makes the brand more pragmatic throughout its production process.The key to survival in the world's competitive fashion industries is quality craftsmanship, which is considered Zilli's cornerstone of its business, and will be guaranteed in all its products. Unlike other big luxury business groups, its primary focus has to be on quality rather than quantity in order to gain an edge in the market. Zilli's history in fine craftsmanship dates back to the 1970s, when Zilli's leather experts chose the top-end leather made from the white-lipped peccary animal found in South America. This was the first time that leather of this type was used in the making of clothes, which requires considerable skill from workers in cutting and shaping it. This leather was used as the material for making Zilli's trademark jackets, which today are still one of their most popular sales.Apart from clothing, Zilli also makes its own bags. One type of bag is made of kangaroo skin, which is processed to 0.3 millimeters thick during production. It is considered one of the toughest and the most durable bags on the market.Zilli's commitment to quality products have won popularity among celebrities including Mike Tyson, Vladimir Putin and the British royal family. As would be expected of such quality and luxury products, their price tag is overwhelmingly high. A shirt from Zilli can cost up to $600 with a formal suit costing thousands of dollars, and a jacket priced at tens of thousands of dollars.Although as many as 8,000 of Zilli's signature leather jackets are already being produced every year, the company has managed to expand its factory in France to meet the needs of the Chinese market. They now have stores in five cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.In the short time that Zilli has been operating in China, it has made significant gains over its counterparts in promoting its products to Chinese consumers. According to the company's statistics, 15 percent of the sales in their flagship stores in Paris are from Chinese tourists. Zilli believe that fine quality chasers all over the world will continue to find their brand, and as Schimel-Fila said when describing the brand's marketing strategy, "we let our products speak for themselves." (c) 2014 Global Times. All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info). |