Compare How
Luxury Brands are
Influenced by
Women from Shanghai and Beijing

YIRU DING

Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
References

Introduction:
Fashion is a concept with complex meanings; each may have a different view of fashion (Wu. & Delon. 2010). The definition of fashion is used to describe a popular or the latest style of clothing, hair and decoration as well as behaviour. Fashion is an objective which is considered as personal. As a result, it varies from person to person and city to city. Since each city has formed its unique style, a detailed comparison of how fashion is influenced by Shanghai and Beijing----two main significant cities in China, is going to be discussed.
China has experienced huge changes in recent years. Since it has been a member of the World Trade Organization in 2001, the world has facilitated it with much more globalization and modernization. (Bopeng, 2013) Guoxin (2012) mentioned that the fast growing speed of luxury brands in the emerging economies of China has contributed to the prosperity of luxury market in the last decade. Moreover, Beijing as the capital city, Shanghai as the international financial centre, they have the greatest purchasing ability and motivation than other Chinese regions.
Also, women in modern Chinese society are the ‘holders of half of Chinese economy’, who are claimed as more financially independent and can achieve agreements on their own. (Tai, 2005) In addition, Wang Weiming (1996) argued that women who run all around the world with their cheap sandals thus create a fashion ‘statement’. Also, since China is a large and complex society, the consumers’ likely are different mind-sets and have various values in different regions of China (Ralston et al., 1996). It is a widely held view that there remains a huge gap between women who live in the same period but with different historical, economy, geography and cultural background cities. In recent times they have already become the main consuming force of luxury brands market. Based on the data given by reliable institutions from the fashion markets of China, the complete analysis between women from Shanghai and Beijing will be given in the following aspects: economy situations, traditional culture difference and weather conditions.

Main body
There are many factors which influence fashion women in Shanghai and Beijing. In present world, economy plays an important role in fashion industry. The fashion economy can be defined in the following description.

In the developed world today, economic survival is contingent on selling newer and ever more perfect(ed) customized (individualized) goods and services to niche markets- that is, to groups of people who come to define and change their identities by the sorts of goods and services they consume…
(Gee et al. 1996:26)

China is fast becoming one of the most important markets in the world. (Cui & Liu. 2000) Recent research suggest that since Shanghai has successfully turned itself from a traditional manufacturing-based city into an international economic centre, the income and spending of women from Shanghai became the top in China. (Li. & Xiao. 1999) Furthermore, Beijing women are behind Shanghai in the income and spending category. In Chinese luxury brands market, take Louis Vuitton as an example, as soon as it obtained the permission of Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT), it extended its Chinese market at the speed of opening 2-3 exclusive shops each year in Shanghai. Another example of what is meant by researchers is when compared Shanghai with Beijing, it is easy to find that most luxury brands prefer Shanghai than Beijing. There is some research which was conducted in 2003 suggested that luxury brands constituted the majority of brands available in Shanghai. More than 95 per cent of them have launched exclusive-owned shops in Shanghai.

In addition to the economy background, traditional culture also influences fashion