theceomagazine.com | 187“I described myself as a blogger, and they said,
‘Is that even a job?’”
Tao knows that his Bagfans love cuteness, but
he has “never really thought about why”. Might it,
I suggest, be to do with the currency of youth in
modern China? Here, after all, is a twentysomething
who, when I asked him how old he was, told me
he would sometimes shave a year off his age
because, “I always want to be young. I think
definitely, yes. Not just Chinese girls, but me, a
Chinese boy, I want to stay young for such a long
time. And the girls spend so much money on
products to make them look younger.” (Tao’s own
complexion appears to have been helped to its
snowy perfection by way of some product.)
But the Chinese luxury consumer base is also
fracturing, another development with which
western brands need help. Alongside the “cute
girls” are what Mr Bags calls “the punky and cool
girls”. Which is why Tao’s follow-up to his pink
Givenchy bag was a black and gold version –
“Really cool, really chic” – targeting them. Which
is why Vogue China launched the younger, cooler,
less western brand-obsessed Vogue Me. Some
younger women claim – horror! – not to be
interested in luxury at all, he says. “Some girls
who are 10 years younger than us don’t think luxury
is a big deal. They feel using a luxury bag is not
cool enough.”
What’s next for Mr Bags? In April, he launched
a WeChat account dedicated to educating his
followers about luxury watches and
jewellery and his lifestyle vlogs have
already been seen by between
500,000 to one million Weibo
viewers. And with the growing
sophistication and wealth of
Chinese luxury consumers,
it is only a matter of time
before luxury homegrown
brands are launched.
“That is the biggest dream
I have, to build a Chinese luxury
brand. We have super-good silk. Our
craftsmanship can be so exquisite. Lots of
luxury brands have factories in China. Yet when a
Chinese person thinks of a really good-quality bag,
the first five names are from the western world.”
Tao spent the previous day in Paris at the
Chanel boutique. “It’s really hard now for me to get
super-excited about a bag,” he says. “I have been
seeing the new Chanel Gabrielle for such a long
time that I thought, maybe I have seen it too much.
But then I tried it, and I’m like, ‘I just love this bag
so much. I need to have it.’”Next stop was studying
international relations at
Columbia in New York, an
unlikely but, it would transpire,
perfect preparation for a working life
spent bridging the gap between western
luxury producers and Chinese luxury consumers.
In the holidays he did the kind of internships his
parents approved of, meanwhile Mr Bagging his
way to an ever bigger online profile.
“On my final day working at BNP Paribas in
Hong Kong, I felt so free. I knew I didn’t like
finance. I knew between the two Fs, I was going
to choose fashion.” Now all he had to do was
convince US immigration to grant him a visa.
53
4“THAT
IS THE
BIGGEST
DREAM
I HAVE, TO
BUILD A
CHINESE
LUXURY
BRAND.”