Fashion entrepreneur Carmen Busquets, who co-founded British luxury e-commerce site Net-a-Porter and worked with designers John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, has set her sights firmly on China.
Teaming up with long-time friend and Spanish businessman Ricardo Ferrer, Busquets co-founded TrustLuxe, a high-end e-commerce retailer that exclusively targets China?s rich with niche designer bags, accessories and jewellery.
?China has developed so much faster? than markets like Latin America, Busquets said in an interview. ?The Chinese want to be trailblazers and influencers setting the trends.?
The company runs a WeChat store and stocks pieces by emerging and independent designers such as handbag designer Tonya Hawkes and jewellery designer Fernando Jorge. TrustLuxe focused only on accessories because items like jewellery and handbags ?never go out of fashion?, Busquets said.
Jewellery and leather goods were among the fastest-growing categories in the luxury market today, according to an October report by Bain & Co. The Chinese luxury market was valued at US$17.3 billion last year, according to Bain?s data.
Ferrer, who lived and worked in Shanghai for more than a decade, said the duo saw the excellent business opportunity because China?s luxury market had not kept up with the tastes of the wealthy.
?The Chinese consumers have evolved so much faster than the market. They?re trying to look for new brands but they can?t find them in China. They?re tired of seeing the same br...