<\/p>\n
\n\tLONDON \u2014 Gucci\u2019s latest retreat in China, capped by the closing of its flagship in Shanghai\u2019s iAPM mall last month \u2014 having shut two locations in the city a year before \u2014 is fast becoming the symbol of a market where the luxury recovery is not just uneven but starkly polarized.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe latest report from Barclays said China looks less like an emerging engine of growth and more like a mature, highly selective arena where those with clear positioning, disciplined execution and compelling local relevance are extending their lead, while laggards, Gucci most visibly among them, are struggling to re-ignite demand.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tRalph Lauren\u2018s spring 2025 runway show in Shanghai.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSu Shan Leong\/WWD<\/p>\n
\n\tCalling the luxury sector \u201can industry in churn,\u201d Bernstein\u2019s latest trackers across Chinese and Western social media also showed how quickly momentum can diverge.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn China, Ralph Lauren, Zegna and Chanel top the brand-momentum rankings, while in the West, Zegna, Chanel and Ferragamo lead, the tracker found.<\/p>\n
\n\tZegna, in particular, is the rare crossover winner, climbing to the top-two spot in China and top-one in the West, helped by a consistent, ambassador-led narrative fronted by Mads Mikkelsen and William Chan.<\/p>\n
\n\tChanel, meanwhile, is in the middle of a highly anticipated brand re-ignition story.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe Parisian fashion house has jumped five positions in China and 11 in the West, supported by the continued buzz around Matthieu Blazy\u2019s spring 2026 debut, the fall 2026 runway, and the arrival of the spring 2026 collections in stores, which dominated chatter among showgoers in Paris last month.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tModel on the runway at the Chanel spring 2026 fashion show.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSwan Gallet\/WWD<\/p>\n
\n\tBy contrast, Gucci was at the bottom of Bernstein\u2019s momentum rankings in both regions, and in Chinese retail, as Barclays pointed out, the brand is still posting double-digit declines although with \u201cmeaningful green shoots.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOther major players in the sector are hardly immune.<\/p>\n
\n\tBernstein observed the first quarter of broad-based deceleration at both Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton on social media, with Miu Miu failing out of the top 10 in both Chinese and Western trackers for the first time.<\/p>\n
\n\tLouis Vuitton\u2019s monogram mania 130th anniversary push has not matched the viral energy of earlier collaborations, including the Takashi Murakami revival and \u201cThe Louis\u201d in China. Barclays\u2019 report also suggested a softer start for Herm\u00e8s, although Louis Vuitton is broadly stable.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tThe Louis, a ship-shaped flagship of Louis Vuitton in Shanghai.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFuture Publishing via Getty Imag<\/p>\n
\n\tYet pockets of strength are clear on the ground. Barclays anticipated low- to midsingle-digit growth in luxury sales in mainland China for the first quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n
\n\tOutperformers such as Loro Piana, Brunello Cucinelli, Moncler and Burberry \u2014 as well as Miu Miu for now \u2014 according to Barclays, are offsetting brands still shrinking at a double-digit pace.<\/p>\n
\n\tDomestic players like Laopu Gold and aspirational global brands, including Longchamp and Coach, are also benefiting from a shift toward more accessible luxury and a shifting consumer sentiment toward quality and long-term value.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tBackstage at Zegna, fall 2026.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJonathan Daniel Pryce\/WWD<\/p>\n
\n\tZegna\u2019s ambassador strategy; Ferragamo\u2019s renewed focus on communication, assortment and store network, and Burberry\u2019s Forward plan \u2014 now pivoting from brand clean-up to driving store productivity across categories \u2014 were all cited by Bernstein as examples of self-help that are starting to take off.<\/p>\n
\n\tBoth reports also highlighted Richemont and Cucinelli as emblematic of a \u201cplain vanilla,\u201d high-quality core \u2014 jewelry-led in Richemont\u2019s case, quiet luxury in Cucinelli\u2019s \u2014 that feels well-suited to China behaving more like Europe or Japan.<\/p>\n
\n\tBarclays described China today as \u201cstructurally more selective, with growth driven less by macro expansion and more by market-share gains, execution, and brand strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn such an environment, double-digit market growth is unlikely to return in the medium term. Instead, relative winners will be those able to continuously refresh desire without overextending, the bank added.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tWu Lei stars in Burberry\u2019s anniversary campaign that focuses on the trench.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy<\/p>\n
\n\tLooking to the second half of 2026, luxury observers in China will be watching several fault lines: whether Gucci\u2019s reset can find a stronger footing in China before 2027, how far the current outperformance of Burberry and Moncler in China can extend, and whether revivals at Dior and Ferragamo can be translated from improved online buzz into meaningful growth.<\/p>\n
\n\tChanel\u2019s next move in the market can be seen as a key barometer. The house\u2019s Le19M program is headed to Shanghai this fall for a wide-ranging takeover at the Museum of Art Pudong, set to spotlight its network of specialist ateliers while placing them in dialogue with Chinese craftsmanship and contemporary creators from both China and France.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a market where depth, heritage and local resonance are increasingly decisive, the initiative looks like a blueprint for how global brands can speak to China as a mature audience.<\/p>\n
#Polarization #Deepens #Chinas #Road #Luxury #Recovery<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LONDON \u2014 Gucci\u2019s latest retreat in China, capped by the closing of its flagship in Shanghai\u2019s iAPM mall last month \u2014 having shut two locations in the city a year… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editors-pick"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock789.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}