Wishing on a Star: Promoting and Personifying Designer Collections and Fashion Brands

Abstract

This article examines two small-scale, contemporary fashion brands in Hong Kong and Beijing. By analyzing the literature and conducting grounded research, it intends to compare and contrast the ways in which they position fashion brands in their respective fashion centers as global commodities. Also, the article addresses how and why designers compete in the marketplace using a fashion storyline of “star” designer brand strategies imitating large-scale fashion brands by implementing a range of designer-focused promotional approaches. Additionally, it maps the evolution of the fashion industry market in both geographic localities from fashion garment producer to aspirational fashion design innovator from the perspective of a small-scale creative industries enterprise and the branding strategies that they use to achieve this.

KEYWORDS:

• fashion branding
• fashion brands
• brand narratives
• brand management
• Chinese fashion designers