Hong Kong fashion label Shanghai Tang is using social media and a high profile street model walk to tease consumers about the location of its much anticipated new Central flagship.
The company was forced out of its iconic Pedder St flagship late last year after being trumped in a rent auction by US fashion house Abercrombie & Fitch which saw the annual rent more than double. It promised shocks fans of the store – and the Chinese Shanghai 930s era inspired fashions and homewares – that a new flagship would be double the size, brighter and better.
Its since stayed mum on the new store’s exact location, announcing only that it would be about 300 metres away and with a street frontage.
Now the brand has developed a Facebook app which features a video of identically-dressed models carrying small cases along the streets of Central to the bemusement of onlookers. The video concludes with the suitcases lined up to spell “from Pedder” leading to the assumption the next installment will reveal more about the address of the store, which opens this month.
Visitors have to ‘like’ the page before seeing the video and when InsideRetail Asia last looked mid morning Friday, it had attracted almost 10,000 followers.
At the time the old store closed, Raphael le Masne de Chermont, Shanghai Tang’s executive chairman told the South China Morning Post that losing the Pedder store “was not fun”.
“It was unexpected. But I hope people will realise Shanghai Tang is more than Pedder. We are a brand, not just a store.”
Now Swiss-owned, Shanghai Tang has 41 stores internationally, eight of them in Hong Kong.
