Conclusion

 Angle Chen Designer Angel Chen has been credited by many for igniting a global fire of bold, Chinese talent. With designs fusing East and West, the ANGEL CHEN label is stocked worldwide at 30 retailers, including Lane Crawford and Urban Outfitters (Smith, 2018). Her designs have a distinct degree of recognition, and she is good at using Chinese characteristics, such as flower and bird characters, dragon patterns, crane embroidery (Gwhite, 2020).

Image 3: Runway looks from the Angel Chen spring/summer 2019 collection (China Daily, 2020)

With the development of Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW), more and more Chinese independent designers have gained popularity and awareness. Shushu Tong, launched in 2015, successfully won over the Gen Z audience. Also, Ban Xiaoxue, Rui Zhou, Peng Tai, Feng Chenwang, and many new designers are shining on the stage. It's worth noting that two Chinese independent designers Rui Zhou and Shutting Qiu successfully entered the LVMH Young Designer Prize. This is the first time that Chinese have been shortlisted for the award (Jiang, 2021).

Chinese fashion designers are more confident in applying Chinese unique design elements now (Wang and Wu, 2021). They truly believe in what they are doing, and are not led by trend, established designers or even the market (Zhang, 2019).

4. Chinese independent fashion market

4.1 Market segmentation

Table 1: Segmentation of Chinese Independent Designer Market (Author's own, 2022).

Market segmentation helps companies target customers based on their characteristics and needs so enables their marketing efforts and resources to be used on the right audience (Lowe, 2020). The detailed market segmentation of the Chinese independent designer market is presented below table which also helps readers get the whole picture of Chinese independent brand consumers.

From a geographic and demographic perspective, the market is composed of the younger generation from who the majority comes from or lives in the bustling city. More notably, the consumer group shares unique consuming psychology and behaviors. They pursue fashion, self-identity, uniqueness and are willing to try new things, therefore giving the market a mass space to grow.

4.2 Consumer profile Consumer profiles can gather the insights needed to identify, segment, and define the target audience (GWI, 2022). According to the segmentation of the Chinese independent designer market, Cici Xiang Yejing is a typical representative consumer of Chinese independent designer brands.

Cici Xiang Yejing is a female model that has been in editorials for ELLE and Harper’s Bazaar. She is also an artist who is deeply involved in art promotion. Here are her details. She loves fashion, art history, sharing her life on social media, and indulging in sports activities. Her daily life includes gala events, press tours, or gallery openings. In addition, she is an art and exhibitions lover with graceful taste. Reading fashion books, watching movies, and discovering new stories are her hobbies. About her attitude towards fashion, she prefers strongly opinionated luxury brands, emphasizes trend, design, comfort, and innovation.

Image 4: Consumer Profile of Chinese independent brand (Author's own, 2022)

5. The development of Chinese independent designers

5.1 Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) as the industry leader In the development process of the first time held in 2003 to the present nearly 20 years, from the first introduction of the overseas high-level brand shows to the current focus on supporting local design forces, Shanghai Fashion Week has also witnessed the growth of

Chinese fashion (SHFW, 2021). Shanghai Fashion Week is transforming from a fashion exhibition platform to a service platform with comprehensive coordination ability, and help designers and brands to define their positioning, to achieve the transition from "show" to "market" (Shangtex, 2015). After two decades in existence, Shanghai Fashion Week (SHFW) is now beginning to inch ahead of the top fashion weeks.

Labelhood is an independent showcasing platform under Shanghai Fashion Week, and a fashion incubator for young Asian designers and new independent designers (SignalHire, 2021). Labelhood nurtured many young up-and-coming talents with little or no brand awareness, or breakthrough talents in the field of domestic design. And they even host and showcase for emerging designers at no extra cost aside from a start-up fee of 20,000 RMB (NewsDesk, 2020). Moreover, labelhood's strategic partnerships with other companies have not only allowed the brands to grow economically but have also provided more opportunities for Chinese independent brands to thrive outside of Shanghai Fashion Week (Jiang, 2021).

5.2 Diversification of retail channels

Shanghai Fashion Week supported a large number of local Chinese designers and gave birth to the development of domestic buyer shops. The number of buyer stores in China exploded in 2015 and 2016 (UnionPay Advisors, 2018).

Moreover, an increasing number of Chinese independent brands have operated Tmall or WeChat stores independently, such as Shushu Tong, Ming Ma, Ban Xiaoxue, and (Tmall, 2022; WeChat 2022). In 2021, one of the famous Chinese live-streamers Austin Li and Labelhood launched special live streaming on Tmall for Chinese independent brands, it's a new way to promote the whole industry (Li and Yao, 2021).

Brands including Uma Wang, Xu Zhi, Jason Wu, and Angel Chen have not only joined domestic E-business but also cooperated with foreign platforms like Farfetch and Net-a-Porter.

6. Case study - Shushu Tong Shushu Tong was founded in 2015 by friends Liu Shulei and Jiang Yutong, which quickly rose to the status of industry respect in a short period (Davis, 2021). The brand design is inspired by the famous Japanese manga series "Aim for the Ace!" and combines a sweet girlish heart with the independent attitude of modern women (Jing Daily, 2021; Lau, 2018). Now, Shushu Tong is stocked at prestigious shopping destinations and has successfully won over the Gen Z audience (Davis, 2021). Shushu Tong's success holds lessons for other Chinese brands

Image 5: Runway looks from the SHUSHU/TONG spring/summer 2022 collection (Davis, 2021)

The support of local retailer Labelhood is integral to Shushu Tong's success (Nan, 2021). Before Shanghai Fashion Week, Shushu Tong had always hosted presentations and shows through Labelhood (Kurata, 2019). Shushu Tong attracts the customers they are targeted by Labelhood through active and on-brand marketing and retail practice both online and offline (Williams, 2022). At the same time, the development of multiple sales channels gives Shushu Tong new vitality. As part of navigating this dynamic retail environment, they opened a store on China’s biggest e-tail platform Tmall in 2019, although at that time, few Chinese independent brands joined Tmall (Williams, 2019). The brand is also getting global attention, giving evidence that the brand acquired a sizeable follower on Instagram (Knight, 2019).

Furthermore, Shushu Tong's aggressive marketing strategy is equally noteworthy. Shushu Tong's designers are invited to reimagine existing brands through collaboration, having released two in 2021 with Estée Lauder and Chinese streetwear brand Peacebird (Bargeron, 2022). Shushu Tong and Peacebird launched a collaboration collection with a more affordable price point, which helped this collaboration cultivate a group of potential customers (New Looks, 2021). At the same time, the crossover with Estée Lauder is a win-win deal for both parties. Shushu Tong helped Estée Lauder build a vibrant and bold brand image, and Estée Lauder's wide recognition among local beauty shoppers also helped Shushu Tong achieve a wider reach and higher visibility (Wu, 2021).

In the field of earning Millennials and Gen Z consumers, a well-built strong brand identity is crucial. Shushu Tong's iconic design and aesthetic, including bowknot and flower, has set a distinguished visual and identity for the brand (Frank, 2021). Besides, Shushu Tong has been also proactively working with media, models, and celebrities to further level up its volume. A recent example is that the brand launched its Spring 2021 campaign, starring supermodel Ju

Xiao Wen and shot by photographer Zeng Wu. The visual presentation and storytelling of the campaign have been greatly admired by fashionistas (Wu, 2021). Meanwhile, Shushu Tong seized key promotion moments, such as Valentine's day, by collaborating with other three Chinese independent brands from labelhood and photographers Leslie Zhang.

7.Potential and competitivenss Chinese independent designer brands will certainly continue to develop rapidly in the future. Although the history of Chinese independent brands is not long, it grows very quickly and has achieved certain results. Nowadays, more and more talents chose to study abroad for design and art education. At the same time, domestic fashion design education is becoming more and more mature. As more great local designers emerge, Chinese consumers' understanding and aesthetics towards fashion are also being influenced. They are more willing to pay for independent designs. In addition, the Chinese government and many fashion industries provide plentiful support to Chinese independent designers. Benefiting from the success of a group of pioneer Chinese designers, more and more overseas markets are paying attention to the rising of Chinese independent designers.

Chinese independent brands compose a quite competitive tier against rivals including foreign designer brands, fast-fashion retailers, and premium brands. According to a McKinsey report (2017), 62% of Chinese consumers prefer to choose local brands at the same cost-performance ratio.

8. Conclusion

Focusing on the development of Chinese independent designers, this study analyses the history, the present development, and future potentials of Chinese independent designers. The scale of the Chinese fashion market is very large, and many innovative changes have been made, which allows the Chinese fashion market to maintain vitality even facing the epidemic. Chinese independent designers show diverse design styles, distinctive design languages and powerful marketing strategies, making them shine on the international stage. Therefore, this essay evaluates the whole fashion market in China and then further studies the specific market of independent designer brands. A case study of shushutong also provides a successful and representative example among the growing Chinese independent designers.

Despite the great success and huge potential, there are still some problems and challenges that accompany them. One of the main problems facing them today is how to prevent their design from being plagiarized and diluted by the market. At the meantime, Chinese independent designers also need to maintain their own originality and uniqueness both in design and by marketing activations to strengthen their competitiveness among rivals from home and abroad.

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