Chow Tai Fook Jewelry’s new flagship retailer, which opened in Hong Kong’s Central neighborhood in September, has a refined design, as does a lot of the jewellery bought inside. The identify above the door doesn’t sport the Chinese language characters for “Chow Tai Fook” proven prominently atop the retailer’s 1000’s of different shops. And inside, the shop’s design hearkens to among the conventional pictures of Hong Kong; the metallic grille that covers the columns is a reference to the Chinese language metropolis’s ubiquitous bamboo scaffolding.
The jewellery, too, is extra understated, like a diamond-studded pendant constituted of gold and purple enamel, designed to emulate the Chinese language characters that make up the identify of the shop and of Cheng Yu Tung, who expanded the jewellery chain into one in all Hong Kong’s main conglomerates.
In April, Chow Tai Fook charged Nicholas Lieou, the retailer’s artistic director for top jewellery, with the duty of refreshing and revamping the 95-year-old model.
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“In Chinese language jewellery, [the craftsmen] attempt to overload a whole lot of cultural significance on one piece, which makes it very heavy,” Lieou stated in an interview in mid-November. “Simply utilizing one idea, one concept, into a bit of knickknack is already a really trendy tackle what they historically would do.”
Luxurious downturn
A luxurious downturn is placing extra stress on Chow Tai Fook’s rebrand. The retailer reported 39.4 billion Hong Kong {dollars} ($5.1 billion) in income for the six months ending Sep. 30, 2024, the primary half of the jewellery firm’s fiscal yr. That represents a 20.4% drop year-on-year, the most important since 2016.
Chow Tai Fook depends closely on mainland China. Virtually the entire retailer’s round 7,000 shops are in mainland China. The corporate’s second-largest footprint is in Hong Kong, the place tourism numbers have stayed stubbornly low.
Luxurious manufacturers have all reported sharp slowdowns of their China gross sales over the previous yr, as Chinese language customers pull again on their spending amid a sluggish financial system. Bain estimates that China’s private luxurious market will drop by 22% in 2024, in comparison with a 3% enhance in Europe.
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
Lieou, who spoke to Fortune earlier than the earnings launch, stated he was conscious of how troublesome it could possibly be to promote excessive jewellery in a troublesome financial system—partly as a result of Chow Tai Fook may be very open with its gross sales knowledge. “Persons are not going to purchase one thing they don’t like,” he famous. “We do must put [the economy] in consideration.”
That financial knowledge, in addition to modifications in how individuals take pleasure in themselves post-COVID, is why his modernizing push focuses on “wearability” and “excessive jewellery for on a regular basis put on,” to enchantment to a youthful shopper. “Right this moment, everyone seems to be much more informal. You have got quite a bit fewer galas and issues to go to, particularly after COVID.”
“Quite than these huge gala necklaces, you would possibly create one thing slightly bit softer, a bit smaller in scale, however nonetheless fantastically made,” he stated.
Invigorating a 95-year-old model
Lieou joined Chow Tai Fook round 4 years in the past, after years working within the U.S., together with a stint with Tiffany’s because the retailer’s design director for top jewellery. He received a private pitch from Sonia Cheng, the retailer’s vice-chairman, to leap throughout the Pacific to take a job on the China-based retailer.
“I actually understood what she needed to do,” he stated. “She needed to invigorate and refresh the model. Being from Hong Kong, we all know what the model traditionally represents, what it signifies.”
Chow Tai Fook’s first retailer opened in Guangzhou in 1929, however shifted operations through the Second World Struggle to the Portuguese colony of Macau and British Hong Kong. Cheng Yu Tung, the son-in-law of Chow Tai Fook’s founder, Chow Chi-yuen, took over the enterprise within the ’50s, and expanded the corporate into an enormous conglomerate with pursuits together with actual property (by means of developer New World), hospitality, and power.
Cheng’s granddaughter, Sonia Cheng, is now the vice-chairman and govt director of the jewellery enterprise; she’s additionally the CEO of the Rosewood Resort Group, owned by the household conglomerate (additionally named Chow Tai Fook).
Lieou sees Chow Tai Fook’s lengthy report as an asset as he thinks about modernizing the model. “There’s a lot historical past. It’s very simple to extrapolate cultural components and use it within the design.”
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“To create one thing new is more durable; to create from one thing—to reference one thing that’s culturally important—is simpler,” he continued.
A current instance is the retailer’s “Gate” assortment, which trades on among the iconography of the standard doorways present in historic Chinese language buildings. However combining cultural particulars with trendy kinds will be tough: One diamond bangle within the assortment requires 26 totally different components to be put collectively, Lieou defined.
“[The craftsmen] weren’t fairly completely happy about that,” he admitted. Chow Tai Fook depends on human craftsmen utilizing conventional strategies to place collectively each bit of knickknack. (Although there may be additionally a job for brand new expertise, like “5D gold,” a course of that hardens pure gold to make it extra sturdy.)
That results in a continuing negotiation between designers and craftsmen to show ideas right into a workable actuality: “We actually rely closely on the generational data of the craftsmen.”
However, for Lieou, that back-and-forth is a part of the enchantment of design. “Design, for me, is drawback fixing,” he stated. “How can we resolve this design problem in an aesthetic means?”
The size of the rebrand is clearly seen from Chow Tai Fook’s new flagship retailer. Two different shops—nonetheless sporting the outdated branding—are actually steps away, alongside the identical similar 500 foot stretch of street.
“It doesn’t hassle me,” Lieou stated. “Persons are creatures of behavior, particularly if you purchase jewellery. You usually go to the identical [store] the place you acquire your first engagement ring, your first essential watch.”
“These are very significant realtionships we have now with prospects.”
Fortune’s Brainstorm Design convention is returning on Dec. 5 on the MGM Cotai in Macau. Panelists and attendees will debate and focus on “Experiments in Expertise,” designs that blur the road between the bodily and digital worlds to captivate customers and foster lasting connections. Register right here!
