As soon as Luca de Meo took on the CEO role at Kering in September, he was convinced that luxury’s next chapter should include a strong dialogue between cultures. With a particular emphasis on Europe and China, this quickly evolved into the idea of a creative residency to support Chinese design talent through the Kering ecosystem.
Fast forward to early November, at the 8th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai, de Meo signed a memorandum of understanding with Shanghai Fashion Week to launch CRAFT (Creative Residency for Artisanship, Fashion and Technology), a program for promising Chinese designers taking place across Italy, Paris, and Shanghai. By February, the group had assembled an advisory board straddling industry leaders from both the East and the West: Gucci’s artistic director Demna, Kering Greater China president Cai Jinqing, Chinese couturier Guo Pei, Qeelin creative director Dennis Chan, Xiaohongshu founder Miranda Qu, Vanity Fair Europe editorial director Simone Marchetti, writer Camille Charrière, and more.
Kering unveiled its inaugural cohort of 10 designers in March, comprising Cai Jiaen, Hu Nan, Longhong Ziwei, Qi Yueqi, Wang Fengchen, Wei Donghui, Xia Rong, Xu Hao, Yu Gengyi and Zhong Zixin.
I shadowed the group for a few days during the final leg of its Italian residency in Florence, at the height of a sweltering heat wave. Fortunately, the 15th-century palazzo that houses the Gucci archives, as well as the state-of-the-art, air-conditioned building that houses Gucci ArtLab in Scandicci (home to the brand’s product development) and the Ginori 1735 manufacture in Sesto Fiorentino, provided a welcome respite from the Tuscan sun.
What the program provides
After being greeted by de Meo, the designers met with Gucci CEO Francesca Bellettini, Kering chief sustainability and institutional affairs officer Marie-Claire Daveu, as well as the CEOs of Pomellato, Brioni, Ginori 1735, and Kering Eyewear. Over the course of their month-long residency, they completed what felt like a full MBA’s worth of activities (plus some artisanal training), while receiving exclusive access to products from upcoming collections, sales data, and more, sometimes requiring NDAs. The designers visited Bottega Veneta’s atelier in Montebello Vicentino, Balenciaga’s leather goods factory — dubbed “The Plant”— in Cerreto Guidi, Brioni’s atelier in Penne in the Abruzzo mountains, Saint Laurent’s shoe factory in Vigonza, and Raselli Franco, a jewelry manufacturer in Valenza recently acquired by Kering.
Most of the cohort are in their 30s and studied in London (including at the Royal College of Art or Central Saint Martins) before returning to China to build their brands, which are between three and 10 years old. Now, the designers are focused on scaling their businesses. “The reasons for me to join the program? We face challenges about the next phase,” says Wang, founder of Shanghai and London-based menswear brand Feng Chen Wang. She was a semi-finalist of the LVMH Prize in 2016 and has been presenting on the official Paris Fashion Week Men’s calendar since 2022. “I haven’t opened my own retail store yet. To explore the retail part is another world.”
Xu, who co-founded jewelry brand Qiqi in 2021 with his wife Zhou Haojun, says: “We’re both very interested in traditional Chinese cultural relics such as Buddhist beads, bamboo fans, and small artefacts. I have been collecting and researching this aspect for 10 years. That’s why I chose jewelry as my career. We decided to build a brand around this topic, using the traditional materials but we make it more contemporary and wearable.”
Ziwei is from the Yi ethnic minority of southwest China’s Yunnan province, which is also where artisans of her Soft Mountains jewelry label are from. For Ziwei, the main takeaway from the program is how houses like Gucci, Brioni, Bottega Veneta, and Ginori 1735 engage with their heritage. “What I found particularly interesting was that heritage wasn’t treated as something static or purely archival,” she says. “Each house seemed to reinterpret its history in a different way, making it relevant to contemporary audiences, while preserving authenticity. It resonated with me, because, in my own work, I’m also exploring how traditional craftsmanship can be translated into a contemporary language. Seeing how different maisons approach that challenge was incredibly inspiring.”
During the visit to the Gucci archives, the archivist pulled out the 2003 reversible silk bomber jacket by Tom Ford that featured Kama Sutra embroidery on one side and a nature-inspired design on the other. “One side for the day, one for the night,” one designer joked. One designer noted that the bamboo, one of Gucci’s iconic codes often found on its bag handles, heels and jewelry, is closely linked to Chinese culture and is therefore a point of connection for local consumers. Despite working remotely on their brands before and after the sessions, the designers made time to check out the Gucci flagship store in Florence that recently got a face lift (one designer bought a bag), and try some of the city’s best lasagna.
The Chinese connection
Coming from the automotive industry, de Meo experienced firsthand what it means to underestimate China’s capacity for innovation. At the group’s Capital Markets Day in April, the CEO referred to the fact that China has taken the lead in the global electric vehicle race.
De Meo joined the luxury sector at a time when China’s luxury market is yet to meaningfully recover for Western brands, while Chinese consumers are showing greater willingness to support domestic labels with local resonance — a trend known as “guochao”. “I have the feeling that, in the Chinese market, there is a sense of pride in Chinese culture that will lead many local brands to grow and thrive there,” he told shareholders at the Kering Annual General Meeting (AGM) in May. “The move we have done with our investment in Chinese brand Icicle and CRAFT, where we invite young Chinese designers to understand how luxury is made on the ‘Old Continent’, is also a way of giving back to that market, because we have received a great deal from it, and it greatly enhances Kering’s credibility within the local ecosystem.”
On the investment in Icicle, de Meo told shareholders: “It opens a window onto the Chinese ecosystem. It helps us to understand through them the mindset of Chinese customers and what we need to do so we are more friendly than we were a few weeks back and it’s helping our business in China.”
He also noted that the Chinese market has previously accounted for as much as 30-40% of Kering’s business. (The exposure to China for most luxury brands has dropped from over 30% pre-Covid to around 20-25% today.) “It will remain a super important market,” he said.
De Meo highlighted the special regard in which the Chinese people hold Kering. In 2013, the Pinault family returned the bronze animal heads to China that had been looted from Beijing’s Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces in 1860. “Everyone remembers that,” de Meo said. “We need to be able to return things.”
Key Takeaways from Kering’s Annual General Meeting
CEO Luca de Meo talked about Gucci’s new store concept, its F1 partnership, smart glasses and more.
Mario Ortelli, managing director of Ortelli & Co, praises the CRAFT initiative. “I think it’s smart as it’s a different way to understand the Chinese market and engage with it,” he says. “In the long term, it can create opportunities for Kering to work with these Chinese design talents or invest in their brands through its House of Wonders platform.”
“Our teams welcomed them with great generosity. I think that’s important because it also sends a signal that we are close to the culture,” de Meo said. Participants will regroup in Europe come September for the Paris segment of the program. This next phase will be hosted at Kering HQ and will include masterclasses with C-suite members, alongside engagement with the houses in the lead up to Paris Fashion Week. They will have mentorship sessions in Shanghai with Chinese members of the CRAFT advisory boards, as well as local Kering executives and experts. Finally, in the last week of March, coinciding with Shanghai Fashion Week, they will present a creative project linked to their residency experiences.
