Fashion is redefining what business means as Lunar New Year offerings evolve. Here, with the Year of the Dragon fast approaching, a look at the iconic Lunar New Year collections of the past and the new ones to know this 2024.
Chinese New Year-dedicated collections have shown a spurt of creativity in recent years, a development that can be traced to the Qixi festival, a Chinese event that has made its mark on the global fashion calendar.
In June 2018, I attended Bottega Veneta’s Autumn/Winter 2018 press presentation in Shanghai, where the Milanese maison unveiled a special China-exclusive capsule for Chinese Valentine’s Day, otherwise known as Qixi. That Bottega Veneta would create a collection specially for the occasion, the first of its kind for the brand, spoke volumes.
It goes without saying that Chinese shoppers’ voracious appetite for luxury goods was a motivation. But the move also recognised the growing importance of Qixi as a significant event that global brands cannot afford to miss out on, or simply try to cash in on with thoughtless compilations of red-coloured products. The same year recorded a jump in the number of luxury labels – including Louis Vuitton, Burberry and Givenchy – putting Qixi-dedicated merchandise forward.
Dare To Deviate
The Qixi festival celebrates the ancient love story of a cowherd and a weaver girl who could only meet once a year, on the seventh day of the seventh month on the Chinese lunisolar calendar, which usually falls in August of the Gregorian calendar.
With Qixi being an event unique to China, getting a piece of the pie means fashion houses have to set aside time and effort to produce focused collections.
Previously, it was not uncommon for brands to simply put together a gift guide for Valentine’s Day with red or pink offerings plucked from existing retail stocks. And with Chinese New Year usually falling around the same time, many brands would present capsule collections that they hoped could cover both events. After all, the aforementioned festive hues of reds and pinks can be used to convey auspicious symbolism besides love and affection.
In fashion, the start of the year is usually hectic, with January packed with the seasonal menswear shows, followed by Haute Couture Week in Paris. This could help to explain why major maisons turned to such marketing shortcuts – until, that is, Qixi became the lucrative game-changer that would push brands away from conveniently curated offerings to specially designed capsules that would whet appetites for Lunar New Year.
It was about time. Chinese luxury consumers have grown to become more discerning, with sophisticated tastes. They are vocal about their opinions, and are quick to call out the brands they feel have shallow depictions of Chinese culture.
Fendi was one of the maisons that boldly broke away from the predictability of reds for Lunar New Year. Following its zingy Qixi capsule collection in 2020 featuring London-based illustrator Mr Doodle’s characteristic all-over black scrawls, accentuated with FENDI and FF logos in yellow and flying hearts in red, its Spring Festival 2022 Capsule Collection honoured the Year of the Tiger by spotlighting the black and orange stripes of Siberian tigers in the north-eastern region of China. It also used the tiger’s eye gemstone as ornamentation for the exclusive capsule’s O’Lock jewellery and a Forever Fendi watch.
Once again opting for the unexpected this Chinese New Year, Fendi partners streetwear icon and Fragment founder Hiroshi Fujiwara spawning a FF Fragment logo composed of the letters FRGMT. The special-edition logo adorns Fendi’s signature bags such as the Baguette and Peekaboo ISeeU in the brand’s institutional brown and tobacco shades as well as a bright yellow. A special FENDI x FRGMT logo is emblazoned across the front of a unisex white T-shirt.
The collaboration with Fujiwara, long hailed as the godfather of streetwear, includes a fun highlight with Pokémon where Dratini, Dragonair and Dragonite star in this homage to the Year of the Dragon. Gracing a line-up encompassing bags, small leather goods, galvanised brass jewellery and casual wear, this cast of Pokémons are recreated from prints and inlays to 3D marquetry, bringing Fujiwara’s playful proposal to life with the heritage house’s savoir-faire in leather.
Animal Crossing
Honouring the Chinese zodiac animal sign of the year is another way for Western brands to ensure relevance. In 2014, the Year of the Horse, luxury houses with equestrian links, such as Ralph Lauren, Gucci and Longchamp, took the opportunity to partake in the festive occasion meaningfully. But as the horse is a universal symbol of strength and freedom, even brands without equine associations jumped on the bandwagon, reflecting China’s rise as a global player.
This led to partnerships that allowed luxury players to feature famous animal-based characters in their merchandise. The annual trend picked up in 2020. In celebration of the Year of the Rat, Gucci teamed up with Mickey Mouse, Moschino roped in Mickey Rat, and Kate Spade New York went for Tom & Jerry.
The number of such collaborations spiked in 2022, the Year of the Tiger. This time, Moschino sought Tony the Tiger as Saint Laurent chose Pink Panther and Etro invited Tigress from Dreamworks Animation’s Kung Fu Panda.
Valentino looked east, and found Panghu, a lovable Northeastern Chinese tiger figure that had become the popular comic creation of Chinese artist and toy designer Bu2ma.
However, such collaborations have dwindled. At the point of writing, there are only Fendi x FRGMT x Pokémon and Moschino x Bubble Bobble collections for 2024, which can be attributed to the lack of dragon figures in popular culture. It is likely that the soonest these playful partnerships will return will be in 2028, the Year of the Monkey.
Fresh Drops
The decline in character-based capsules has given way to a buffet of original offerings designed specially for Chinese New Year.
Among the collections that promise to please, a noteworthy one reunites MCM with Bape for a first-time new year capsule. Another is Nigo’s ingenious tribute that reinterprets a retro embroidered dragon in the form of the lucky number “8” for Kenzo.
And then, there is Loewe’s Jade Collection, which stands out for eschewing traditional auspicious colours. No sign of the dragon either. Yet, it earned praise from Chinese netizens on social media.
Loewe’s creative director Jonathan Anderson’s Chinese New Year collections have always gone against the grain. This time, he proposes a tribute to the artistry of Chinese jade sculpture, commissioning master jade carvers Xiaojin Yin, Qijing Qiu and Lei Cheng to each create a series of five limited-edition pendants for a fine jewellery range.
While Yin’s Emerald Green pendant features a cricket perched atop a cabbage, a symbol of wealth and abundance, Cheng chose a pea pod adorned with a little snail for his Spring Jade pendant carved from a near-flawless piece of jade, to represent fertility, abundance and luck. Qiu drew inspiration from the eggplant that resembles the hats high-ranking officials wore, a sign of status and success, for his Light Mauve pendant.
Individually hand-carved and mounted on an 18-carat gold chain, these pendants are made even more special with their exclusivity; they are available only in selected stores in Mainland China. More easily accessible to the rest of the world, the new Flamenco Purse Mini bags in the Jade Collection don colours echoing the hues of ancient jade carvings that includes an incense burner, a snuff bottle and a figure in the form of a mantis in green jade from the Qing dynasty. Each bag contains a precious jade ring in a matching colour for good luck.
In Chinese culture, jade is considered more precious than gold. Anderson’s unusual focus revealed his in-depth knowledge, impressing Chinese consumers. Loewe’s direct contact with the three artisans demonstrated a commitment in maintaining the integrity of jade artistry. Rather than making dragon-themed pendants, the house gave the master jade carvers liberty to choose their subjects, implying respect for the art and the artists, and suggesting great cultural appreciation.
Telling Tales
Such compelling capsules have ignited fashion’s creativity in ways that go beyond products. Memorable campaigns are also on the rise, with Gucci being one of the key contributors towards this trend.
Since 2020, each of the Italian brand’s Lunar New Year collection has been accompanied by a campaign, with a particularly striking one created for the Gucci Tiger collection in 2022. Conceptualised by then creative director Alessandro Michele, and shot by photographer and director Angelo Pennetta, the campaign film had actual tigers join a group of friends for high tea in a grand, retro-style hotel.
Recently, there has been a growing shift in emphasis from collections to campaign films as luxury brands bank on nuanced storytelling to sell. Bottega Veneta started its streak in 2022 when newly minted creative director Matthieu Blazy commissioned Jess Jing Zou for the film Love In Motion for Qixi, starting a four-film collaboration with the Chinese director. He followed up with Reunion in Motion to mark the Chinese New Year of the Rabbit, then Towards You for Qixi 2023. Though he resumed the new year collections with a capsule of exclusive designs for the Year of the Dragon, The First Sunrise With You steals the limelight with Shu Qi in the lead role.
Balenciaga has caught the attention of Chinese consumers with a heartwarming campaign this year. It centres on Balenciaga’s name in Mandarin, phonetically translated as balishijia and reinterpreted as “Paris is home”.
The witty play on the Mandarin pronunciation of its name got a thumbs-up across Chinese social media. The film ditches representations of the dragon for the more relatable themes of home and reunion. The campaign is executed in the style of Polaroids showing people casually lounging in different rooms of a home, conveying a sense of nostalgia that is timeless and genuine (while wearing Balenciaga, of course).
These refreshing examples of emotional advertising demonstrate how fashion can keep up with the demand for the new while staying classy. Capturing hearts could be the winning way to loosen purse strings, compared to the insipid, uninspired hard sell. If this is the direction we’re heading, the next Lunar New Year will be something to look forward to.
Enter The Year of the Dragon: More Chinese New Year Collections For 2024
Highlights of Polo Ralph Lauren’s festive offerings include the Lunar New Year Classic Fit Overshirt, a men’s oxford shirt given an Oriental spin with frog buttons, as well as exclusively-designed knitwear for children.
A look from artist Jacky Tsai’s special line, in a tribute to Shanghai Tang’s 30th anniversary and the Year of the Dragon, which also marks the 10th anniversary since his first collaboration with the Hong Kong luxury house.
Chinese model He Cong in a silk shirt adorned with the seasonal rose print from Burberry’s Lunar New Year 2024 Collection in the streets of Chengdu.
Giorgio Armani celebrates Lunar New Year 2024 with a capsule collection featuring embroidered embellishments of the brand logo given a Year of the Dragon update, as seen on Chinese actor-singer and global image ambassador, Hu Ge.
Coach’s “Year of the Dragon” collection is a collaboration with Chinese artist Lian Yang, otherwise known as Lotulist, who gained popularity for reviving traditional painting techniques. Shown here on Chinese actress Wu Jinyan, the pieces show her expressive take of the dragon and the symbolic motifs, which are rendered in exquisite embroidery.
Marni rings in the new year with an original interpretation of the dragon for this limited-edition series comprising ready-to-wear and accessories.
Maison Margiela proposes the Snatched Hobo, the new-gen iteration of the signature asymmetric bag conceived by creative director John Galliano. Pre-launched exclusively in Hong Kong and Macau, the bag’s campaign stars Chinese model Ju Xiaowen yearning for home, love and peace.
Golden Goose’s iconic Ball Star and Super-Star sneakers gets a limited-edition lift in a white variant topped with Chinese symbols and the distinctive Golden Goose star and heeltab in a peach fuzz shade, in this dedicated Year of the Dragon collection that includes an antique-looking golden dragon brooch, worn here on multidimensional artist and global brand ambassador, William Chan.
London-based Chinese artist Lian Zhang’s reimagined dragon creates a playful twist on Acne Studios’ special selection of limited-edition products that includes jewellery and iconic fluffy scarf.
