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 hundreds of different shops. And inside, the shop’s design hearkens to among the conventional pictures of Hong Kong; the steel 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 made out of gold and crimson 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 certainly one of Hong Kong’s main conglomerates.
In April, Chow Tai Fook charged Nicholas Lieou, the retailer’s artistic director for prime jewellery, with the duty of refreshing and revamping the 95-year-old model.
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“In Chinese jewelry, [the craftsmen] try to overload a lot of cultural significance on one piece, which makes it very heavy,” Lieou mentioned in an interview in mid-November. “Just using one concept, one idea, into a piece of jewelry is already a very modern take on what they traditionally 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 12 months. That represents a 20.4% drop year-on-year, the biggest since 2016.
Chow Tai Fook depends closely on mainland China. Virtually all the 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 12 months, as Chinese language consumers 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, mentioned he was conscious of how troublesome it could possibly be to promote excessive jewellery in a troublesome financial system—partially as a result of Chow Tai Fook may be very open with its gross sales information. “People are not going to buy something they don’t like,” he famous. “We do have to put [the economy] in consideration.”
That financial information, in addition to modifications in how individuals take pleasure in themselves post-COVID, is why his modernizing push focuses on “wearability” and “high jewelry for everyday wear,” to enchantment to a youthful client. “Today, everyone is a lot more casual. You have a lot fewer galas and things to go to, especially after COVID.”
“Rather than these big gala necklaces, you might create something a little bit softer, a bit smaller in scale, but still beautifully made,” he mentioned.
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 prime 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 really understood what she wanted to do,” he mentioned. “She wanted to invigorate and refresh the brand. Being from Hong Kong, we know what the brand historically represents, what it signifies.”
Chow Tai Fook’s first retailer opened in Guangzhou in 1929, however shifted operations throughout the Second World Warfare 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 way of developer New World), hospitality, and power.
Cheng’s granddaughter, Sonia Cheng, is now the vice-chairman and government 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 document as an asset as he thinks about modernizing the model. “There’s so much history. It’s very easy to extrapolate cultural elements and use it in the design.”
Courtesy of Chow Tai Fook
“To create something new is harder; to create from something—to reference something that is culturally significant—is easier,” 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 may be difficult: One diamond bangle within the assortment requires 26 completely different elements to be put collectively, Lieou defined.
“[The craftsmen] weren’t quite happy about that,” he admitted. Chow Tai Fook depends on human craftsmen utilizing conventional strategies to place collectively each bit of bijou. (Although there may be additionally a task for brand spanking new know-how, like “5D gold,” a course of that hardens pure gold to make it extra sturdy.)
That results in a relentless negotiation between designers and craftsmen to show ideas right into a workable actuality: “We really rely heavily on the generational knowledge of the craftsmen.”
However, for Lieou, that back-and-forth is a part of the enchantment of design. “Design, for me, is problem solving,” he mentioned. “How do we solve this design challenge in an aesthetic way?”
The dimensions of the rebrand is clearly seen from Chow Tai Fook’s new flagship retailer. Two different shops—nonetheless sporting the previous branding—are actually steps away, alongside the identical identical 500 foot stretch of street.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Lieou mentioned. “People are creatures of habit, especially when you buy jewelry. You generally go to the same [store] where you bought your first engagement ring, your first important watch.”
“These are very meaningful realtionships we have with customers.”
Fortune’s Brainstorm Design convention is returning on Dec. 5 on the MGM Cotai in Macau. Panelists and attendees will debate and talk about “Experiments in Experience,” designs that blur the road between the bodily and digital worlds to captivate customers and foster lasting connections. Register right here!
