Location Slated For Rue de Sèvres
Shang Xia's first boutique in Shanghai
One of the standouts in China’s nascent home-grown luxury industry and a Jing Daily favorite, Shanghai-based Shang Xia is currently at work preparing its first international location (and second overall) in Paris. Slated to open about 200 meters away from the mammoth Rue De Sèvres Hermès location — which Suzy Menkes of the New York Times described in 2010 as “a way station on a new Silk Road, designed as a destination for shopping tourists, who increasingly come from China” — preparations for the space are still in their early stages, and as such no opening date has been set.
As Shang Xia brand manager, Shu Shu Chen, told Jing Daily this week, the brand is taking its time to open the new Paris location. As Chen put it, “We are willing to invest enough time inquired.” It’s not entirely surprising Shang Xia is taking the long view of its Paris expansion, since CEO and artistic director Jiang Qiong’er told us last September, “I think time is the most precious thing in the luxury business. If you look at the old existing luxury brands, in some cases they’ve taken centuries to get where they are today. 100 years ago, we might not have called them a luxury brand. We’d call them a family workshop, an atelier. If we want to create a high-quality brand today, we can’t push this baby to grow up in two years, five years.”
In other Shang Xia news, the brand will launch its second Culture Object exhibition, two years in the making, in Shanghai in Beijing this April. Long-time Jing Daily readers may remember that the last Culture Object exhibition, entitled “Pass It On,” debuted in February 2011 in Shanghai. Released at and after the exhibition, the first Culture Object box set, only 3,000 of which were made, included a 322-page book, two pamphlets in English and French, one aluminum model aircraft, a Chinese Young Pioneer’s League scarf, a classic tin ring, four crystal beads, a vintage train ticket, and a letter from a 21-year-old girl to her earlier self.
Unfortunately, when asked to give us some clues about what this year’s box might contain, Jiang Qiong’er kept mum. We’ll be sure to update this April, though.
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