The JC Plaza mall in Jing’an District of Shanghai has once again become the main trending photo spot in the city for local fashion fans. Last week, four luxury clothing and accessory houses – all owned by fashion powerhouse OTB – opened their doors in the mall to customers, bringing crowds of happy selfie-addicted Millennials and Gen-Zers, along with large numbers of shoppers with more mature tastes, flocking to the showpiece destination on Nanjing Road W.



The four new flagship stores all bring their own special style to Shanghai’s most discerning shoppers. A tour around the Marni store feels like a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Amiri (ready to wear, shoes, leather goods and accessories), Jil Sander (minimalist German bags and shoes), and house of Haute couture-inspired artisanal and ready-to-wear collections Maison Margiela have all made their own special mark on the mall.



Room for originality



Marni, an Italian brand hosts a “playful space,” masterminded by creative director Francesco Risso. These latest developments have made JC Mall the fashion group’s most important retail development project in the city and China beyond and include a womb-like art location designed by The Wilson Brothers and Brinkworth. Untreated concrete ceilings, lustrous silver display areas, and a relentless onslaught of red, the brand’s “emblematic shade,” take the breath away.







The Maison Margiela flagship store is a truly splendid location, continuing the brand’s collaboration with Dutch architect Anne Holtrop to match the vision of Margiela’s creative director John Galliano. The 500-square-meter space, the eighth Margiela store in mainland China, makes use of the idea of “appropriating the inappropriate,” according to a statement from the Paris-based brand. The ground floor is home to men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections and exclusive products such as limited-edition patchwork sneakers. The upper floor hosts a VIC salon, accessed only through an immersive installation space dedicated to The Glam Slam, the brand’s signature handbag, along with two “selfie rooms.”







As the brand’s first store outside the US, the Amiri store has a white and stainless-steel interior with marble features and wooden fittings. Large mirrors gather natural light into the space which also features expressive paintings by artist Li Zhongshi.



Justly famed for use of innovative materials, the Jil Sander designers worked with London’s John Pawson on a spare, airy space filled with floral arrangements by local florist Absolute. Chinese granite flooring is the brand’s understated way to include some local character in a world-class design.



Unlimited space for growth



According to the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, more than 360 international and local brands have opened flagship stores in Shanghai in the first half of 2022. This news comes in the face of the well-documented impact of the pandemic and extended lockdown. Among these stores, 167 were the brand’s first in China. This expansion during the most difficult of times reflects the huge consumption potential of the city, and the confidence of leading brands in Shangai’s rock-solid brick-and-mortar retail environment.



Data suggests that the import turnover in Shanghai last year was 524 billion yuan (US$78 billion). That amounts to around a third of the entire country’s import trade and shows just what a world center of luxury goods Shanghai has become. The total retail sales of consumer goods of Shanghai last year reached 1.8 trillion yuan, far ahead of any other Chinese city, but still with great potential to increase.



Source: Jiemian