Why are there no luxury Asian brands?

[JR8]

Hmmm ...

[sundaymorningstaple]

Lexus?

[QRM]

Jimmy Choo, Kopi luwak, Melinda Looi Couture, shanghai tang, Comme des Garçons, Uniqlo ( Apparently the biggest fashion house in the world?!) Farah Khan, Issey Miyake, and Kokuryu Ishidaya sake, kobe beef and Koetsu Black to name a few?

[JR8]

I think a line has to be drawn between paying fairly for high quality, and paying an inflated price for the purposes of show and status.

I think a Lexus is probably the former. I.e. I don't think I'd consider it 'luxury' as such, just apparently very well engineered. Something like an Audi R8 might be indulgent and 'luxury' in that it is clearly overpriced.

Jimmy Choo is a Brit company. Not heard of the next two. Shanghai Tang and Comme des Garcons... I don't notice Asians carrying those bags, or wearing those clothes.


(Sorry am I being picky now )

[Splatted]

Jimmy Choo is a Brit company.

The man behind the name and company was born in Malaysia, though.

[JR8]

... and Santana are a Mexican band.

[zzm9980]

Jimmy Choo is a Brit company. Not heard of the next two. Shanghai Tang and Comme des Garcons... I don't notice Asians carrying those bags, or wearing those clothes.

I know more caucasians (myself included) in Shanghai Tang than Asians. I have a nice cashmere coat of theres I wear when I go to the US. Too bad it's useless in Singapore

For Lexus, I think the Asian car companies are playing catch-up to the Euro car companies. However, I'd take a Lexus LF-A over almost any European car (save two or three choice Italian models) any day of the week.

[zzm9980]

Uniqlo ( Apparently the biggest fashion house in the world?!)

Uniqlo is pretty big, but I'd put them somewhere inbetween Old Navy and Gap on the "Luxury" scale. (Or, just barely above Bossini/Giordano/G2000)

I think the problem is Asians are very into the big name brands just for the label, so that's what they buy. It's hard for a new Asian luxury label to take off since Asians won't buy them until they're big. Viscous cycle.

There are some quite popular Japanese brands that are very small and pricey, but not well known outside of a small circle of 'fashionistas'. I couldn't give you any of their names as I don't follow it much, except for the occasional shops I've seen LA, Tokyo, and Sf.

[x9200]

+1 ^ and not only for the high end and luxury products. This sort of inferiority complex is pretty well visible. What stroke me when I first arrived in Singapore was that majority of the adds showed Caucasians.
For electronics goods having everything made in Japan is another obsession.

[nakatago]

What stroke me when I first arrived in Singapore was that majority of the adds showed Caucasians.

There's a construction site between 313 and Orchard central where they pictures of people walking on the panels to cover the site at street level--all white people. Ditto with the now-finished mall/office building in Rochester.

[zzm9980]

For electronics goods having everything made in Japan is another obsession.

I love all of the super-crap electronics at Giant with Japanese names, but made locally...

[x9200]

The weird thing is that some of the local, Japanese-sounding brands are actually pretty good in terms of quality. I own one portable DVD player (Shinco if I remember correctly) bough a few years ago and before buying it I did some usual research and was surprised by overwhelmingly positive comments coming from all around the world. You never know.

[Splatted]

... and Santana are a Mexican band.

And therefore Apple must be a Chinese brand, if we are going to ignore the origins of where founders of a company trained and honed their skill and knowhow, .. right?

[JR8]

And therefore Apple must be a Chinese brand, if we are going to ignore the origins of where founders of a company trained and honed their skill and knowhow, .. right?

I can't say I know much about Apple (their marketing style makes me nauseous) but the founders are/were American and they are HQd in the US, and their image is American and that seems to be where they launch all their overpriced tat.

Jimmy Choo is a British company. Started 50/50 by a Malaysian guy and an Englishwoman (who owned her half for considerably longer than he did). Yes the company carried his name, but I'm not sure how it can be argued that that makes a British company a Malaysian brand.

As I suggested that is like saying Santana are a Mexican band (Carlos Santana was born there), whereas they are from CA, USA.

[Splatted]

And therefore Apple must be a Chinese brand, if we are going to ignore the origins of where founders of a company trained and honed their skill and knowhow, .. right?

I can't say I know much about Apple (their marketing style makes me nauseous) but the founders are/were American and they are HQd in the US, and their image is American and that seems to be where they launch all their overpriced tat.

Jimmy Choo is a British company. Started 50/50 by a Malaysian guy and an Englishwoman (who owned her half for considerably longer than he did). Yes the company carried his name, but I'm not sure how it can be argued that that makes a British company a Malaysian brand.

As I suggested that is like saying Santana are a Mexican band (Carlos Santana was born there), whereas they are from CA, USA.

i'm not sure the Santana example is a good one, as we're talking about brands, not nationalities of artists, or what country they call home.

Jimmi Choo, on the other hand is a luxury brand. Yes, company registered in UK - but so can anyone register a company there, right? The point is that the creativity and style behind the product is from a person born and bred in Malaysia, who comes from a long line of Malaysian born shoe makers.