Following the Shanghai Bankruptcy Court's "Double 11" special tweet titled "Shangpo·yunpai", hot searches for "womenswear brand Etam went bankrupt" swept social media.
Afterwards, Iger responded: Hot search mentioned that the store is a women's clothing line sold by the group in China, which is not in the current business scope of Etam Group. Etam is a 104-year-old French underwear brand. It has now returned to focus on the underwear business and has begun to develop an Asian version. Iger witnessed the youthful memories of most girls born in the 80s and 90s, and the news of bankruptcy triggered a collective "memory killing" among netizens. But in fact, Iger is not the first brand to leave. Over the years, a large number of brands in memory are gradually declining. "Iger girls" all sighed-where did the youth go! Where did the brand
in the memories of
go?
Iger
Iger entered China in January 1995 and opened its first store in Shanghai. It has a brilliant record in the Chinese market.
From 1999 to 2007, the performance of Iger China has maintained double-digit growth. In 2009, Iger Group founder Pierre Pilchior said publicly: “The demand for the Chinese apparel market is still very strong, and we will increase more investment.” Data from
shows that as of June 30, 2014, Iger has 4246 stores worldwide, of which 3083 are in China.
However, the rapid expansion has not caught the hearts of more Chinese consumers. Starting in 2013, Iger's sales in China had to close, and Iger had to close stores. In the first half of 2017, Iger closed 154 stores. Until today, all Iger stores in China have been closed.
Daphne
How many girls once looked at the pink high heels in the transparent window of Daphne, hoping to be their own when they grow up.
In 1990, foreseeing the huge potential of the high-quality footwear market in China, Yongen International Group Co., Ltd. established its own brand "Daphne", and has been ranked as the number one brand of women's shoes in the mainland for 5 consecutive years, claiming that every five pairs are sold There is a pair of Daphne in Chinese women's shoes, and there were nearly 7,000 domestic sales stores at one time.
But since 2012, Daphne has started to decline. Last year, it accelerated the speed of closing stores, from 2,820 at the beginning of the year to 425 at the end of the year, closing 6 stores on average every day.
On August 25, Daphne International announced that its turnover in the first half of 2020 will decrease by 85% year-on-year to HK$2.12. It also announced that it will completely withdraw from the physical retail business of mid-to-high-end brands in Mainland China and Taiwan.
ESPRIT
, the US clothing giant Esprit, which was once ranked among the top three Chinese clothing retailers with Iger, also announced earlier that it would close its stores on May 31 and withdraw from the Chinese and Asian markets. As a fashion brand,
Esprit has been sought after by fashionistas since it entered mainland China in 1992. Some people even describe it as “any shopping mall attracts investment without Esprit, no one else will enter.”
But since 2011, Esprit has been There has been a continuous decline in revenue and losses. In February of this year, Esprit carried out a 1% discount on products on its Chinese stores and official websites. In April, Tmall flagship store also joined the discount camp. After that, its online flagship store also announced that it would bid farewell for some time.
FOREVER 21
Many people attribute the decline of these traditional clothing brands to the rise of fast-fashion brands in China. Fast-fashion brand styles are updated at a rapid rate, even twice a week based on user preferences, which makes traditional clothing brands gradually lose their competitiveness.
But in fact, fast fashion brands have not been able to stand alone in the fierce competition. Since the famous American fast fashion brand FOREVER 21 entered China in 2008, although it has been sought after by the Chinese for a period of time, it also announced its official withdrawal from the Chinese market in May 2019, closing its online flagship stores and offline stores.
Top Shop, New Look, La Chapelle, Jeanswest...There are still many brands in my memories that have had news in the past few years, or got into trouble, or withdrew from the Chinese market, or simply declared bankruptcy.
What happened to the
brand in these memories?
The fashion apparel market is changing rapidly. With more and more foreign brands entering China, and the rise of many national fashion brands, competition in the apparel industry has become increasingly fierce. However, these gradually being eliminated brands stick to their original design styles. Failed to keep up with market hotspots in time, and the marketing strategy remained unchanged all year round, which could not satisfy the young consumers who pursued the trend and individual fashion style, and was gradually left behind. The development of
Internet e-commerce has given these brands a fatal blow. The clothing industry is one of the most thoroughly e-commerce industries. Brands such as Iger and Daphne mainly rely on traditional offline store sales, select good locations, carefully furnish them, and wait for customers to come. However, factors such as rising rents and labor costs lead to their production. The cost continues to rise. In order to compete with Internet clothing brands, these brands have begun to reduce prices. High production costs and low prices have dragged these brands into a vicious circle, and lower and lower prices have brought lower brands. Positioning has gradually made inherent consumers feel inconsistent with themselves and no longer support these brands.
As we grow older, we no longer look at the windows of these brands secretly dreaming about when we can have the new clothes and shoes that we have been fancy for a long time. Just as we slowly forget these brands, they have become "old" one by one, and the scenery is no longer. Maybe we can only sigh "Ye Qingjie".
text/Zhang Bo
editor/Li Zichen
vision/Guo Xiaoxi
review/Wang Xuan
