Wednesday, February 13, 2013

China Targets Corruption, Luxury Brands Mourn


It’s become an annual tradition for luxury-market beat reporters to round up the latest ways that Western brands are clamoring for a piece of the Chinese New Year shopping frenzy. And, indeed, approaching the Year of the Snake, which begins on Sunday, the Wall Street Journal has curated an admirable collection of snake-themed bracelets from Bulgari, and snakeskin sneakers from Adidas. But don’t let the luxury industry’s aggressive grin fool you. These are trying times for their well-clad ranks. From Beijing to Geneva to Paris, a pall hangs over the men and women of fine linens and exquisite timepieces: alas, the Chinese government is trying to get rid of corruption.

Global luxury sales and epic Chinese political corruption have become so inextricably intertwined over the last decade that the recent kerfuffles in Chinese politics—the investigations and convictions and pledges of propriety—have been nothing but trouble for the privileged few. That became clear last fall, when political disorder in Beijing made it difficult to know which faction would end up on top, and one luxury-brand representative told the Journal that sales were down because “no one knows who to bribe.”

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2013/02/china-targets-corruption-geneva-mourns.html#ixzz2KEUbiKQK