As soon as Luca de Meo took on the CEO role at Kering in September, he was convinced that luxury’s next chapter should include a strong dialogue between cultures. With a particular emphasis on Europe and China, this quickly evolved into the idea of a creative residency to support Chinese design talent through the Kering ecosystem.
Fast forward to early November, at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, de Meo signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Fashion Week to launch CRAFT (Creative Residency for Artisanship, Fashion and Technology), a program for promising Chinese designers taking place across Italy, Paris, and Shanghai. By February, the group had assembled an advisory board straddling industry leaders from both the East and the West: Gucci’s artistic director Demna, Kering Greater China president Cai Jinqing, Chinese couturier Guo Pei, Qeelin creative director Dennis Chan, Xiaohongshu founder Miranda Qu, Vanity Fair Europe editorial director Simone Marchetti, writer Camille Charrière, and more.
Kering unveiled its inaugural cohort of 10 designers in March, comprising Cai Jiaen, Hu Nan, Longhong Ziwei, Qi Yueqi, Wang Fengchen, Wei Donghui, Xia Rong, Xu Hao, Yu Gengyi and Zhong Zixin.
I shadowed the group for a few days during the final leg of its Italian residency in Florence, at the height of a sweltering heat wave. Fortunately, the 15th-century palazzo that houses the Gucci archives, as well as the state-of-the-art, air-conditioned building that houses Gucci ArtLab in Scandicci (home to the brand’s product development) and the Ginori 1735 manufacture in Sesto Fiorentino, provided a welcome respite from the Tuscan sun.
What the program provides
After being greeted by de Meo, the designers met with Gucci CEO Francesca Bellettini, Kering chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer Marie-Claire Daveu, as well as the CEOs of Pomellato, Brioni, Ginori 1735, and Kering Eyewear. Over the course of their month-long residency, they completed what felt like a full MBA’s worth of activities (plus some artisanal training), while receiving exclusive access to products from upcoming collections, sales data, and more, sometimes requiring NDAs. The designers visited Bottega Veneta’s atelier in Montebello Vicentino, Balenciaga’s leather goods factory — dubbed “The Plant”— in Cerreto Guidi, Brioni’s atelier in Penne in the Abruzzo mountains, Saint Laurent’s shoe factory in Vigonza, and Raselli Franco, a jewelry manufacturer in Valenza recently acquired by Kering.
Most of the cohort are in their 30s and studied in London (including at the Royal College of Art or Central Saint Martins) before returning to China to build their brands, which are between three and 10 years old. Now, the designers are focused on scaling their businesses. “The reasons for me to join the program? We face challenges about the next phase,” says Wang, founder of Shanghai and London-based menswear brand Feng Chen Wang. She was a semi-finalist of the LVMH Prize in 2016 and has been presenting on the official Paris Fashion Week Men’s calendar since 2022. “I haven’t opened my own retail store yet. To explore the retail part is another world.”
Out of the 10 designers, three operate in the jewelry space. The emphasis on jewelry in terms of designer representation and program activities is a reflection of Kering’s ambitions in the category. The group created a dedicated jewelry division earlier this year to scale its fast-growing jewelry maisons like Boucheron and develop the category within fashion houses like Gucci. Kering is familiar with Chinese jewelry, having purchased Qeelin in 2013.
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