Space Over Place Yin Chin Casey Huang

Space Over Place: On Brand Identity Building and Brand Communities of Emerging Chinese Designers

Yin Chin Casey Huang

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements For the degree Masters of Arts in Fashion Studies MA Program in Fashion Studies Parsons The New School for Design 2022

©2022 Yin Chin Casey Huang All Rights Reserved

TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS……………………………………………………………….ii ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………………………..iii PART 1: INTRODUCTION I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………..1 II. Literature Review………………………………………………………………….9 III. Theoretical Framework…………………………………………………………..20 IV. Methodology……………………………………………………………………..24 PART 2: BACKGROUND & CONTEXT I. What is a community?.…………………………………………………………..26 II. Community within Chinese Cultural Values…………………………………….27 III. The Importance of Brand Identity and Community……………………………...30 IV. Predecessors: Brands, Concept Stores, and the Beginnings of Chinese Brand Community………………………………………………………………………35 PART 3: CASE STUDIES I. Case Study 1: YanYan Knits: Building Community through Material………….42 II. Case Study 2: Bobblehaus: From URL to IRL…………………………………..60 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………74 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………79

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LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1..Laza Cardigan in Boucle Jacquard E-Commerce photo, YanYan Knit’s Website Figure 2……………..Laza Shawl Cardigan E-Commerce photo, YanYan Knit’s Website Figure 3……..Sunblock Grandma Cardigan E-Commerce photo, YanYan Knit’s Website Figure 4……...June Bra in Cotton Jacquard E-Commerce Photo, YanYan Knit’s Website Figure 5…….June Shirt in Cotton Jacquard E-Commerce Photo, YanYan Knit’s Website Figure 6……………………………..Illustration by Ai Hayatsu, Instagram @yanyanknits Figure 7……………………..Illustration by lee dog illustration, Instagram @yanyanknits Figure 8………………………..Illustration by foxy illustration, Instagram @yanyanknits Figure 9…Bobblehaus Ramen Print Button Up E-Commerce photo, Bobblehaus Website Figure 10……………………Water Capsule Collection Launch, Instagram @bobblehaus Figure 11………………………Stop Asian Hate T-shirt Launch, Instagram @bobblehaus Figure 12…...BH x Mara Peralta Hair Barrettes E-Commerce Photo, Bobblehaus Website Figure 13………………...NUNAHAUS T-shirt E-commerce photo, Bobblehaus Website Figure 14…………………………..Illustration by Art of Dillon, Instagram @bobblehaus

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My sincerest gratitude to Dr. Hazel Clark for guiding me through this entire thesis process from my initial brainstorming process to the final, fully formed product that it is now. This thesis would not have been completed without your guidance and support in addition to the freedom you gave me to approach it the way I wanted to. Your advice has been essential throughout my entire writing process, and I can safely say that this thesis would not exist without your encouragement and suggestions. Thank you to Dr. Christina Moon for being my second reader, and for being kind and understanding. To all the professors that I have had the pleasure of learning from, thank you for teaching me everything I know about Fashion Studies.

Thank you to co-founders of YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus–Phyllis Chan, Suzzie Chung, Ophelia Chen, and Abi Lierheimer–for creating beautiful and thoughtful clothing and communities of which I could have based this thesis upon. Thank you to both Phyllis and Ophelia for speaking with and writing to me, and giving me encouragement for my little project. Special thanks to Ophelia, who not only created Bobblehaus but welcomed me into the family, which ultimately served as the inspiration for this entire thesis.

Thank you to my cohort for thoughtful suggestions and comments, and for learning with me. Special thanks to Meredith MacNicholas for sitting across the library cubbies from me, and to Alex Peifer for supportive texts, memes, and emails that kept my sanity.

Finally, thank you to my family for supporting me through these past two years in every single way.

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ABSTRACT Fashion can be symbolic of one’s personal and social identity, weaving together political, social, and even cultural factors within a piece of garment. Fashion can also be symbolic of a nation’s culture and history, reflecting the diversity of a nation’s heritage and culture. Within the Chinese fashion sphere, emerging and veteran designers alike have had to grapple with issues of their identities as seen in the Westernized system of fashion, in which they were frequently othered and flattened into stereotypes. However, due to the crucial value of community and kin in Chinese culture, emerging Chinese designers combate these views by seeking out their own identities, forming their own communities within the fashion system. This thesis seeks to understand how emerging Chinese designers embody the value of community within their brands through examination of their brand identities, marketing strategies, and brand communities. By analyzing two emerging Chinese brands, Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits, this paper investigates how they formulate their brand identities with the foundation of community as a key pillar in their ethos. By investigating the in-depth processes of brand creations of emerging designers, this thesis hopes to emphasize the value of community for emerging Chinese fashion brands in today’s globalizing and multicultural world.

KEYWORDS: emerging Chinese designers, community, brand identity, brand community

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION Introduction I started working for Bobblehaus in October 2019. They first posted a call for editorial contributors in a slack group called The Cosmos, a community for Asian American women to connect and support each other. The brand was pitched as both a blog and soon to be clothing label that centered around uplifting Asian diasporic and Asian American voices–a space that was built to be community driven and community led. Bobblehaus was still in its infancy stage at this point–they had yet to publish editorials or launch their clothing line, but were looking for those with similar backgrounds to share their voices.

The call, which is now lost in a collection of old postings, sought Asian American or Asian diasporic contributors to contribute articles that covered everything from pop culture events to personal essays. Focusing on youth perspectives, Bobblehaus sought to give space to voices that were underrepresented and overlooked, particularly in the Asian diaspora. I eagerly messaged the girl who posted, soon to learn that she was the editor-inchief, Leona Chen. An interview was held with her and Bobblehaus’ co-founder, Ophelia Chen, before a contributor agreement was quickly signed. I joined the team.

During our interview, Chen explained how she came to conceptualize Bobblehaus: it stemmed from her desire to create a community for bi-cultural Asians around the world. As someone who was raised with Chinese and American values all the while listening to K-pop and watching Japanese anime, Chen realized that there was a whole generation that shared the same mash up of cultures that she did.1 Bobblehaus

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Chen, Ophelia. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York, 17 October, 2021.

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grew from her longing to create a platform that allowed people to share similar stories and life experiences of being multicultural. Thus, the blogs were born.

Bobbleblogs are what they are called now–a platform for multicultural and diasporic voices to come together and share their experiences. It was, and is, as Chen had planned it to be–a community of Asians across different continents and backgrounds that all struggled with the idea of “fitting in” to a one specific cultural background. Chen’s experiences paralleled my own and a whole community of individuals who grew up under the same circumstances. The Bobbleblogs gave us a free space to express ourselves as we wanted. Through it all, Bobblehaus was more than supportive of my perspective– they truly valued their team and their unique perspectives, and encouraged us to highlight our own personal opinions while contributing to the greater conversation of the Asian diaspora. This of course would not have been possible if that was not the space they sought to create: one that was supportive, open, but most of all accepting and inclusive.

Bobblehaus’ clothing line was launched mid-pandemic in 2020, after several months of posting and pitching and writing articles about music, fashion, and relationships. With specific focus on streetwear, Bobblehaus wanted to create clothing that was unisex, bold, and functional for its customers. Clothing was always meant to be integral to Bobblehaus as another way to share multicultural voices through the habit of daily dress. With prior experience at Bloomingdale’s, Chen was drawn to clothing as a way to embody identity and community: “Everyday you wake up and choose what you wear based on how you feel or how you want to feel, and so it is naturally a part of your identity.”2 Community can then become key support in reaffirming these identities,

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Chen, Ophelia. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York, 17 October, 2021.

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particularly for those who grew up in the Asian diaspora and felt they existed in a space that never felt quite right. Fashion has the ability to create communities through shared aesthetics and objects, creating in-groups for those who are included within their sphere.

In the two years that I have worked for Bobblehaus, the core value of community always lingered in the back of my mind. It truly felt like they created a supportive community through their brand in a fundamental way that was so much more than just selling a product–the clothing and blogs were a form of invitation to join the community.

It is with this in mind that I began to think about the ways in which brands begin to concept their brand identities. The way clothing and communities fit together began to intrigue me: as a brand begins to consider and create their brand identity and ethos, what core values are they considering? What key pillars do they emphasize in their initial planning stage? With Bobblehaus, it is the value of community. Tracing Chen’s Chinese American background, it felt like the fundamental value of community, passed down generationally in Chinese culture, became the core of Bobblehaus. She was looking for a community of like-minded individuals who had similar experiences as she did, but also those who might just feel the way she does, caught in between cultures. She knew exactly what community she wanted to create. But the idea of creating a community through clothing and brand identity was not just unique to Bobblehaus, but other emerging brands as well. Brands such as 7115 by Szeki or Glossier were too creating brand communities by focusing and structuring their products around customer experiences and feedback, inviting them to participate in the brand rather than as a passive consumer.

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In general, the technological shift and political emphasis in the 21st century has led brands to build lifestyles and communities around their labels.3 No longer are brands just marketing products, but highlighting what their brands stand for. With sustainability, conservation, political, and social issues at the forefront of people’s minds, brands operating within the current society must take a stance from their companies to align with their customer’s values. While product and design are still crucial, they are not the only things a customer considers when purchasing a product. It is no longer enough to just sell the product–they need to embody their values transparently to connect with their customers. Brand identities are thus crucial to the success of a brand’s marketing, as it allows for brands to portray their views to their customers, thereby forming a brand identity surrounding similar values. Community is the next step–creating a group of likeminded individuals who not only buy from, but also participate and support the brand.

Bobblehaus, with their core values in community and Asian diasporic and American identity, highlight these values through their brand identity to communicate to their customers.

YanYan Knits is yet another brand that has a strong brand identity, attracting a specific customer base much like Bobblehaus. They first caught my eye due to the visibility of their Cantonese heritage on their products–something I had not seen interpreted in such a way until coming across their website. A knitwear brand, YanYan Knits creates unique, fun and eclectic pieces that are inspired by their lives in New York and Hong Kong. Drawing upon Cantonese aesthetics, each piece displays subtle nods to their Cantonese heritage in a way that is still cute and relatable. Though knitwear is not a

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Walker, Terilyn. “The Importance of Brand Community in 2020 & Beyond.” Aspire. July 23rd, 2020. https://aspire.io/blog/importance-of-brand-community-in-2020-and-beyond/

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typical medium used in traditional Chinese clothing, YanYan uses the material as another way to juxtapose modern and traditional elements in their clothing–something they wish to emphasize in their designs. By spotlighting their heritage, they also diversify the scope of Chinese design. While YanYan does not lead with community in the way Bobblehaus does, they put forth a unique brand identity that is immediately distinguishable to their consumers, drawing them to their designs and ethos. This organically attracts a certain community surrounding the brand, which centers around relation or appreciation of traditional and modern Chinese motifs and values.

Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits are both emerging Chinese designers, with the latter established in 2019 and the former in 2020. However, while they are established within close proximity with each other, their founders are part of different generations and therefore market to different clienteles. While Bobblehaus’s co-founders are more within the sphere of Generation Z, YanYan Knits considers themselves as part of the Millennial generation. Their approach, design and clientele are thus different as a result of this generational difference, but are not limited to them either.

Both of these brands showcase and embody community in different ways, but hold it as a core value within their ethos. The fashion system in the 21st century allows for digital communities to naturally form, but the traditional value of community has also been a core pillar of Chinese society. The ability for communities to encompass those who are not in physical proximity is notably important for those within diasporic communities, as it provides them a space of familiarity and comfort. With Confucianism as a foundational belief system, Chinese societies have historically built their culture around community as a traditional value, passing it down from generation to generation

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and emphasizing the collective over that of the individual.4 This foundation is where Chinese clothing brands, with Chinese heritage and values as part of the designers’ and owners’ personal identities, begin to build their brand and brand identities around the notion of community and kinship. Though the desire to build a community is not isolated to Chinese culture nor is community entirely culturally generated, their heritage makes up a large part of their personal identity and is thus seen reflected within their brand identities.

This thesis seeks to understand how two emerging Chinese brands–Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits–embody the value of community within their brands through examination of their brand conception, brand identity, marketing strategies and design.

Both of these brands maintain community as a key pillar in their brand ethos, extending it to their production, distribution, and consumption methods. The main research question asks: how do emerging Chinese designers embody community as a key pillar in their brand ethos? How much of a community is culturally based and generated, and how much of it relates to the greater fashion sphere? The situating of an individual and others reveals one’s social grouping and sense of belonging, forming a group of like-minded individuals who share particularities in common to become a community. Therefore it is only natural and fitting that, when building a fashion brand, one considers the community that they want to build through the material and symbolic meanings of clothing as identity. By analyzing brand identity formation and how Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits utilize different ideas to interact with their communities, this thesis hopes to establish brand communities as a crucial part of a brand’s identity and consciousness. Through

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Chen, Lai. “Historical and Cultural Features of Confucianism in East Asia.” Confucianisms for a Changing World Cultural Order. University of Hawai’i Press.

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analysis of brand elements such as social media, brand name, design and ethos of the considered brands, this thesis highlights community as a core value in the structures and foundations of emerging Chinese brands. Both of these brands draw from their personal lived experiences to create designs and images that attract their community, incorporating their Chinese heritage in organic ways to embody their histories and cultural values. The foundations of these brands naturally attract their community, allowing them to build it together.

In the remainder of Part 1, I provide background for the literature review, theoretical framework, and methodology of this thesis. In Part 2, I seek to explore the meanings and importance of community, brand identity, and specifically the formation of Chinese brand identity and community. The four sections are split up as follows: the value of community in general, the significance of community within Chinese cultural values, the importance of brand identity and community, and the predecessors of brands, concept stores, and brand communities for Chinese and Chinese American designers. The Chinese fashion sphere, as referred to in this thesis, encompasses designers who identify themselves as Chinese designers and connect with their Chinese heritage in any way they choose to. As brand identity becomes increasingly important in today’s growing market, the importance of distinction is crucial to maintaining a brand identity that positions a company as unique and different. The importance of distinction is valued within communities as well, separating one’s community from another. This section showcases how distinction helps translate brand identity into brand community, formulating a clear grouping. This section also highlights the value of community in Chinese cultures and fashion companies, leading them to formulate a close knit community akin to a family

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structure. Translating that to communities emerging Chinese brands seek to create, I examine the cultural heritage of Chinese designers and the importance of drawing from their personal lives and identities to create their brands. In the final section, I examine brands and stores that act as the predecessors to Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits. Brands and concept stores sought to create a community surrounding their creations, and while their communities were tied to the public spaces, such as a storefront or gallery space, this is less important in today’s globalizing and technologically advanced world. With the use of social media, emerging brands today like Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits have the ability to not only create a community in a physical space, but in the digital sphere as well. The ability to connect people across geographical locations who share the same cross-cultural interests allows brands to emphasize community and incorporate it within their brand strategies, building social connections beyond that of a physical sphere.

Marketing and brand identities become more and more apparent on social media, in which a glance at a brand’s feed can relay aesthetic values as well as political and social values. The time and place that Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits exist in is crucial to how they formulate their communities, as their communities are both culturally and socially generated.

Part 3 of this thesis utilizes in-depth case studies to understand the origins, design elements, and marketing techniques that Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits use to create their distinct brand identity. Case Study 1 looks closely at YanYan Knits: their name and ethos, their design elements and inspirations, as well as the way they collaborate with other artists and how they utilize social media. YanYan Knit’s use of traditional Chinese art and fashion creates a distinctively modernized Cantonese aesthetic that clearly

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separates their garments from others, making their Chinese and Cantonese identity immediately recognizable. Case Study 2 analyzes Bobblehaus’ growth from blogs as a foundation to the launch of their clothing line, and how they utilize collaborations, popup stores, and participation in social issues prevalent to their community to bring their group together. Attention will also be paid to its name and ethos, in addition to how they create social media and create images to make their designs understandable to their audience.

Literature Review Literature on Chinese Fashion Designers The majority of research on Chinese designers remains exoticized and Othered.5 Little research has been done on the contributions of traditional Chinese values as embodied within a Chinese designer without a Westernized viewpoint, namely due to China’s regard as a country of production rather than that of creativity, but an increasing amount of scholars are detailing the creative shift in the Chinese fashion landscape in the twenty-first century.6 As Asian fashion rose to become a noticeable trend worldwide in the 1990s, Chinese fashion too became embroiled in the global spotlight.7 Despite this, the self-orientalization of Chinese designers was still present in brands such as Shanghai

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Niessen, Sandra, Anne Marie Leshkowish and Carla Jones. Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2013.

6 Tsui, Christine, China Fashion: Conversations with Designers. New York: 2009, 1.

7 Niessen, Sandra, Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress, 18.

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Tang and Blanc de Chine who utilized their Chineseness to adapt to the Western gaze and world during this time period.8 Clark notes the design stereotypes that persist even in the 2010s: “the use of traditional Orientalist and Chinoiserie motifs, such as dragons or exotic birds, versus the loose body-modifying shapes introduced by the Japanese avantgarde designers in the 1980s.”9 Tsui (2013) adds that other favorite symbols include “dragons, lanterns, peonies, and ancient palaces or locations in China.”10 While Chinese designers were aided by the interest in the East, they were also hindered by this very same interest, reduced to the exoticized Orientalist views of the West in order to break into the Western market.11 Western expectations of what Chinese fashion should look like continue to be limited compared to the reality of the Chinese fashion sphere, despite globalization and China’s growing power.12 The production of such Asian ideals worked to reinforce its inferior position within the Western dominant hierarchy.13 Tu builds upon this idea in The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, tracking Asianness as a fashionable commodity within the Western sphere–a rich, diverse culture that is regarded as trendy and therefore holds fleeting interest for the West.14 Yet Tsui (2015) notes that increasingly, expressions of national identity have evolved from stereotypical or traditional Chinese symbols to the “invocation of an abstract Chinese spirit,” signaling an increasing number of and visibility for emerging

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Niessen, Sandra, Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress, 2.

Clark, Hazel. “Chinese Fashion Designers: Questions of Ethnicity and Place in the Twenty-First Century.” Fashion Practice, 4:1, 43.

10 Tsui, Christine, China Fashion: Conversations with Designers, 582.

11 Tu, Thuy Linh Nguyen. “Cultural Economy of Asian Chic.” The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010, 101.

12 Tsui, Christine. “From Symbols to Spirit: Changing Conceptions of National Identity in Chinese Fashion.” Fashion Theory, 17:5, 600.

13 Tu, 101; Niessen, Leshkowich and Jones, 6.

14 Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 6.

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Chinese designers, broadening the scope of what is considered Chinese.15 Cultural confidence, now a key word for China’s cultural development, can also be considered within this narrative.16 Pointing to the value of Chinese history and the merits of Confucian ideology, cultural confidence emphasizes the importance of continuing Chinese characteristics within their culture as well as the people-centered philosophy in ancient China.17 With China as a leading global power now, their cultural confidence has been growing within the current century. Within design, cultural confidence can be seen as a way of evoking their Chinese-ness whichever way they choose, allowing them to reclaim their power.

Nieseen, Leshkowich and Jones point out that the very diverse Asian cultures and histories are “reduced to mere stylistic flourishes and hence feminized as part of the preserve of fashion.”18 Even as Chinese designers rose within the fashion industry in the 1990s and 2000s, they continued to serve and exist within the global yet Western fashion regime to be classified as successful, hence why many designers felt the need to self orientalize in order to break into the Western market.19 Clark and Eisenberg consider this gap with the case studies of Ma Ke and Gosha Rubchinskiy, looking towards other designers who are working beyond the Orientalist and self-orientalizing tropes as they engage with different aspects of their own backgrounds.20

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Tsui, Fashion Theory, 600.

Cunnan, Li. “Culture Confidence becomes new buzzwords.” CCTV. July 21st, 2016 http://english.cctv.com/2016/07/21/ARTI8yXZ2iF1htJyqBskYBXs160721.shtml 17 Cao, Desheng. “President emphasizes cultural confidence.” China Daily. March 24, 2021. https://www.chinadailyhk.com/article/161313 18 Niessen, Sandra, Anne Marie Leshkowish and Carla Jones. Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2013, 18, 230.

19 Skov, Lise. “Fashion-Nation: A Japanese Globalization Experience and a Hong Kong Dilemma.” ReOrienting Fashion, 239.

20 Clark, Hazel and Alla Eisenberg. “Making the Ordinary Fashionable: New Sartorial Languages from Russia and China.” Rethinking Fashion Globalization, 2019.

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Clark notes that increasingly there are designers who stray away from incorporating Chinese elements into their designs, while others continue to focus on Chinese imagery and elements, such as Vivienne Tam’s self-exoticization through various Chinese cultural references.21 In America, even the early twenty-first century Asian American designers who do not emphasize their heritage in design such as Phlilip Lim and Jason Wu, remain identified as Asian designers within fashion media. Their Chinese heritage is constantly referred to and emphasized, reducing them once again to the Orientalized Other even without discernible Chinese elements in their designs.

Tension between reconnecting and drawing inspiration from one’s heritage and being labeled a Chinese designer is a key concern for emerging designers, and thus highlights the importance of diversifying the conversation around them. The landscape of Chinese designers is and has been diverse and varied, resulting from a varied and dispersed Chinese population across the world, as well as the 56 ethnic groups that make up the mainland.22 YanYan Knits is based in Hong Kong whereas Bobblehaus conducts production in Shanghai, leading to differing identities and approaches borne out of their respective locations. Ling emphasizes the importance of the inclusion of other China’s within the landscape of Chinese fashion–Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore, and Taiwan, where Chinese settlements are most widely populated.23 This then results in an inter-EastAsian cultural exchange that impacts fashion production, circulation, and consumption in these regions and beyond.24 While their joint Chinese heritage points to a unifying

21 Clark, Hazel. “Chinese Fashion Designers: Becoming International.” Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 2018, 203.

22 Tsui, China Fashion, 1.

23 Ling, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 8.

24 Ling, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 9.

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cultural foundation, mainland China itself is a diverse country with many distinct traditions and practices.25 China’s cultural makeup is thus complicated and diverse, and does not fit in any monolithic or singular view on the nation. The many nuances within China’s ethnic groups and other China’s necessitates closer examination of how brands are culturally influenced within the Chinese fashion landscape, both nationally and internationally. Chinese designers have to “negotiate their own work and recognition in the international world of fashion.”26 While research on China’s position within the fashion industry is rapidly expanding with its growth of up and coming fashion designers, diversified research and analysis on the subject remains sparse.

Global integration of fashion production, distribution, and consumption blur the boundaries that were previously used to differentiate Chinese from the West or other nonChinese populations.27 However, the development of mainland Chinese fashion designers are frequently divided into three categories: pre-liberation (before 1949), the fashion forbidden period (Chairman Mao era), and the post-Mao era (1980s).28 A fourth group is likely warranted nowadays: the 21st century digital age. Chinese society was relatively stable due to the welfare advances established between the 1940s to 1970s through the Communist party, allowing China to become the destination for foreign companies in the 1980s and 1990s.29 Since the early postwar period, “East Asian textiles and garment

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National Minorities Policy and its Practice in China. Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland. https://www.mfa.gov.cn/ce/cegv/eng/bjzl/t176942.htm#:~:text=So%20far%2C%20there%20are%2056,%2 C%20Daur%2C%20Mulam%2C%20Qiang%2C 26 Clark, Hazel. “Chinese Fashion Designers: Questions of Ethnicity and Place in the Twenty-First Century.” Fashion Practice, 4:1, 43.

27 Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 69.

28 Tsui, China Fashion, 3.

29 Moon, Christina H. “Fashion City: Diasporic Connections and Garment Industrial Histories Between the US and Asia.” Critical Sociology Vol. 44, No. 3, 524.

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industries have been oriented to exports to the West,” but the government soon imposed trade restrictions as East Asian products began to undercut local manufacturers.30 This continues to exist in form today. As China proclaimed an open door policy in the 1980s in the post-Mao government, Tsui argues that while China started its globalization from this time period, Chinese designers still utilize “strong hallmarks of nationalism that actively essentialize Chineseness.”31 The later periods of 1990s and 2000s saw a stronger increase in Asian designers, who explored heritage or traditions both for aesthetic input and as a resurgence of ethnic identity.32 Increasingly in the mid-2000s, China has further seen ‘creativity’ and ‘innovation’ as a way to attract investment and international prestige, incorporating the value of ‘creativity’ as a way to develop soft power and cultural economies around the globe.33 Fashion thus takes on a symbolic and economic role in nation building.34 Modern fashion in East Asia is closely connected with identity politics and nationalism.35 Kaiser and Ling and Reinach (2018) note that race and ethnicity cannot be separated from nation, therefore fashion, “an outcome of transnational exchange and encounter,” becomes one of the most representative tools to showcase a national identity.36 Fashion can be symbolic of a nation’s ideology and cultural heritage reflected within their design and inspirations, drawing from their own country’s complex culture

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Skov, Re-Orienting Fashion, 225.

Tsui, Fashion Theory, 581.

32 Skov, Re-Orienting Fashion, 218.

33 Moon, Critical Sociology, 529.

34 Clark, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 200.

35 Wu, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 15.

36 Wu, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 5.

Kaiser, Susan B. “Ethnicities and ‘Racial’ Formation.” Fashion and Cultural Studies. London, New York: Bloomsbury, 2012, 141.

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and history.37 Niessen, Leshkowich and Jones argue that traditional dress can be seen as modern or fashionable because it “often involved a distanced gaze or nostalgia for a precapitalist past.”38 Kaiser draws this connection as well, emphasizing that identities tied to cultural background reference both the past and the future.39 The resurgence of traditional clothing within the diaspora and dispersed Chinese people with the same cultural heritage can be read as a symbol of cultural pride, and Niessen, Leshkowich and Jones believe this is a form of re-orientalizing and re-structuring the orientalist Chinese narrative.40 They reclaim their history and heritage not purely as motifs to sell their works, but as embodiments of their personal cultural values and confidence. Meanings of cultural identity as represented through fashion are increasingly multilayered and expansive, and with China’s desire to push itself to the fashion center, designers are further reclaiming their power and reshaping the narrative of their cultural heritage.

Kaiser’s theory on subject formation for different ethnicities touches upon the importance of representation and identity formation in addition to the importance of time and space.41 Clark’s research on the role of Chinese designers within the Western world in the twenty-first century also expands upon this importance–as brands emerge and create a specialized identity, they must consider the space they occupy.42 The differing identities of emerging Chinese designers broadens the scope of what it means to be a Chinese designer and how different brand identity strategies can be in creating a community. Rather than mythologizing the individual star designer, this notion is being

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Clark, Hazel and Alla Eisenberg, Rethinking Fashion Globalization, 227.

Nieseen, Ann Marie Leshkowich and Carla Jones, Re-Orienting Fashion, 13.

39 Kaiser, Fashion and Cultural Studies, 144.

40 Nieseen, Ann Marie Leshkowich and Carla Jones, Re-Orienting Fashion, 1.

41 Kaiser, Fashion and Cultural Studies, 16.

42 Clark, Fashion Practice, 43.

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challenged as fashion production is indeed a collaboration process. The reality of fashion design, production, distribution is very much a collective, and emerging designers like Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits both recognize this collaborative effort, emphasizing the craft of their production teams. Rather than purely presenting their own traditions, these designers are now aware that they are already competitors and peers in the fashion market.43 Scholarly attention to Chinese fashion has drastically increased in the past decade with China’s economic rise.44 With the globalization of the 20th and 21st century, fashion was increasingly democratized and distributed at a wider capacity, allowing Chinese talent to become visible within the Western sphere and vice versa. The rise of the internet also aided this exchange–anyone with a digital device could disseminate and intake information. As mentioned previously, the notion of Chineseness was used to break into Western markets in the 1990s. Yet, Tu notes that for Asian American designers and Asian fashion workers, the performance of a cultural identity “cannot be divorced from the various material incentives that have made these identities useful.”45 Similarly to their predecessors, mentioning their Chinese heritage within the United States also allows them to break into international markets, highlighting the support China provides for designers that are of Chinese heritage. Tsui remarks that the “national is the international,” building upon the connection between Chinese fashion and nationalism.46 Formulating a national identity through dress allows Chinese designers to accelerate to the international sphere, yet not all designers in the twenty-first century reflect a

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Skov, Re-Orienting Fashion, 228.

Wu, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 71.

45 Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 180.

46 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 580.

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conscious or Asian or Chinese style.47 Rather, designers proclaim their own ties to their Chinese heritage and culture depending where they are located in their own unique ways.48 Emerging designers rather seek to free old images of Chinese fashion with a new form of Chinese culture–one that is modernized and as multifaceted as those who embody Chinese heritage are. Designers are creating “a new identity for Chinese fashion,” one that can be defined through “‘spirit,’ ‘philosophy’ and/or modern culture’” but is still about “Chineseness.”49 All of these contribute to building a new Chinese fashion identity that allows space for more diversified and new voices to emerge.

Literature on Brand Identities and Communities Tseëlon (2018) in “Fashion Tales: How we make up stories that construct brands, nation and gender” considers the importance of the individual and collective in how we want to come across and how we choose the community we belong to, linking this how brands utilize storytelling, purpose, and character of products to create their brand communities.50 Both the brand and its products take on symbolic meaning translated from the brand itself, giving significance to how we see ourselves represented in these brands and thus formulating a community. The core value of community can be related back to the nationalism and togetherness that Chinese designers continue to emphasize, sharpening the sentiments of “we-ness” and “they-ness” to differentiate their ethnicities from their Western counterparts.51 As Kaiser (2012) states, fashion involves becoming 47

Clark, Fashion Practice, 47.

Tsui, Fashion Theory, 582.

48 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 582.

49 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 586.

50 Tseëlon, Efrat. “Fashion Tales: How We Make up Stories That Construct Brands, Nations and Gender.”

Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty 9, No. 1. June 2018.

51 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 594.

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collectively with others.52 Simmel too argues that fashion is a continuous struggle between the need to belong and a drive for individualization, emphasizing the importance of agency within fashion but also the need for a community to belong to from a wearer’s perspective.53 This can be compared to Kaiser’s theory on fashioning the national subject as a custom that develops over time, in which nation building and identity formation intersect to formulate community identity in addition to personal identity. Chinese nationalism, then, is not only what is socially and educationally imbued within emerging designers as part of their personal identity but also a mechanism to distinguish them from the West in their brand identity.54 Utilizing inspiration from their heritage allows customers to see themselves as reflected within the brand, forming their community.

Coelho emphasizes three pillars in brand community: shared consciousness of kind, shared rituals and moral responsibilities, and obligations to society.55 Muniz and O’Guinn highlight similar values, claiming community is “marked by a shared consciousness, rituals and traditions, and a sense of moral responsibility.” Both note that each of these qualities are situated within a commercial sphere and therefore has its own particular expression unique to each brand, in addition to the idea that brand community functions differently than brand loyalty. However, this imagined intimacy can be significant beyond their use value, and can extend to social connection.56 Despite this, Clark notes that “fashion and social media together create a sense of fashion as

52

Kaiser, Susan, B. “Fashion and Culture: Cultural Studies, Fashion Studies.” Fashion and Cultural Studies. Bloomsbury Publishing: 2013, 13.

53 Simmel, George. “Fashion.” The Rise of Fashion. Minnesota: 2004.

54 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 594.

55 Pedro Simões Coelho, Paulo Rita, Zélia Raposo Santos. “On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty.” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 43.

2018.

56 Tu, Thuy Linh Nguyen. “All in the Family? Kin, Gifts, and the Networks of Fashion.” The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion. Duke University Press, 2010, 75.

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‘international,’ while obscuring the fact that authority in the field of fashion remains within the control of certain nations, brands, and individuals,” thereby necessitating communities for those who are marginalized.57 With the rise of social media and technology, social connections and online intimacies become a new way of forming connections and communities that can exist both digitally and physically. Krause and Bressan further build upon this idea, arguing that “families are tight knit despite being far flung,” able to establish “global households.”58 Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) further note that “community is arguably the fundamental social relationship, having its roots in the familial relationship,” extending the fundamental idea of community to brand communities.59 While Nguyen Tu and Moon’s research covers the kinship networks amongst Asian American designers, there is little research on the presence of cultural values within a greater brand community for emerging Chinese designers. Prominence of e-commerce and social media platforms have also accelerated and shifted the focus of the Chinese fashion industry, ushering in a new period that accelerated Chinese fashion production, distribution, and consumption.60 As a result of this, the need for a sharper brand identity was ingrained within emerging Chinese designers and all designers as a whole.

Literature on Chinese communities in Fashion

57

Clark, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 200.

Muniz and O’Gunn. Tight Knit, 10.

59 Muniz, Jr., Albert M., and Thomas C. O’Guinn. “Brand Community.” Journal of Consumer Research 27, No. 4 2001, 412.

60 Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 91.

58

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With focus on Asian societies, Ling suggests that the principal values of the Confucian system added to the growth of Asian fashion industry success.61 The “importance of harmonious human relationships, social structure and work ethics” center around the treatment of people, thereby relaying the value of amicable relationships and close ties as a way of providing foundations for community building.62 Exchanges between designers and sewers, customers and sellers can build beyond this relationship and become “like a family,” “performing a relationship of kin” that is intimate and tight knit.63 Moon adds that kin networks allow for “informal contracts built on mutual trust,” which makes it more flexible for professional disputes to be settled.64 Shared cultural heritage and past personal histories becomes a bonding factor for communities, where connections can be easily made and core values of cultural heritage are passed down and included within the fashion sphere. The Chinese businesses are thus built around familial concepts, whether locations are abroad in Italy or within the garment district of New York. The practice of gifting within Chinese immigrant workers and designers, as Tu highlights in “All in the Family, Kin, Gifts and the Networks of Fashion,” is significant beyond the use value and beyond the economic value, as it is a symbolic meaning.65 The familial narrative allows them to do this, forming a thick solidarity despite being unrelated–their shared heritage or language allows them to feel comfortable and familiar, formulating a bond that is like a family. This structure can also be described as guanxi, a largely kin-based cultural metaphor for “shoring up social

61

Ling, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 127.

Ling, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 127.

63 Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 65.

64 Moon, Critical Sociology, 525.

65 Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 93.

62

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relationships” and personal connections.66 With origins in Confucian times, the historical shifts of guanxi has caused it to become diverse and varied, a flexible tool that allowed people to create trustworthy, expansive business networks without contracts and legal guarantees.67 These personal connections operate on a chain of familiarity where one can expand their network but also retain a familial structure through a network of support.

This could be comparable to building a community in which mutual aid is encouraged and given, and therefore reciprocity naturally forms. Even amongst immigrants, some traditions still linger among most Chinese despite a shift in the traditional Chinese family system–“all seem to value personalism and familism.”68 Much like guanxi, they want to incorporate their friends into their kinship network and enlarge personal and kinship connections, seeking community.

Theoretical Framework The key theoretical frameworks of this thesis will be based on Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities, Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus and Stuart Hall’s work on representation. Anderson’s theory on imagined communities grounds itself in the idea that nations are socially constructed, thereby labeling a nation as “an imagined political community.”69 A nation is imagined because “the members of even the smallest nation will never know most of their fellow-members, meet them, or even hear of them, yet in the minds of each lives the image of their communion.”70 Closely tied to nationalism, 66

Krause, Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion, 112.

Krause, Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion, 112.

68 Wong, Bernard. “Fashion, Kinship, and the Ethnic Identity of Chinese in New York City, with Comparative Remarks on the Chinese in Lima, Peru, and Manila, Philippines.” Journal of Comparative Family Studies. University of Toronto Press, 1985, 252.

69 Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. New York: 1991, 6.

70 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6.

67

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community is thus formed through common interests and shared foundation beliefs, formulating a “deep, horizontal comradeship” with “profound emotional legitimacy” that stays rooted in each member of the community.71 An imagined community implies that there is a way to build and create.72 Brands are able to build communities much like nations by establishing foundational connections with their customers. For Chinese designers, whose works are frequently tied to their cultural heritage or values, they rather incorporate their heritage through their lived experiences into the designs and communities they want to build. By embodying their personal lived experiences, they organically connect with a customer base that seeks like-minded brands to support.

Through social media and other forms of digital community, fashion brands are able to build their communities through various outlets that could include or exclude physical stores. Community is no longer tied to location, and a digitized space becomes a way for those who are far in distance to connect with one another. Importantly, “communities are to be distinguished, not by falsity/genuineness, but by the style in which they are imagined.”73 As the two brands analyzed both began on the digital platform, it is crucial to apply imagined communities to the digital world. By grounding this thesis in Anderson’s theory, I argue that emerging Chinese designers formulate their own imagined communities through construction of social media, design, and other forms of marketing and communication tools that aid in building brand community.

Bourdieu’s habitus, referring to the way individuals perceive and react to the social world around them, represents the way cultural and personal history shape each

71

Anderson, Imagined Communities, 4.

Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7.

73 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6.

72

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individual’s identity and actions. It is what one has acquired but “has become durably incorporated in the body in the form of permanent dispositions.”74 As habitus refers to socialized norms or tendencies that guide individual behavior or thinking, communities arise out of similar groupings of these views, and minorities who exist in a dominant hegemonic culture then seek like minded individuals or groups, or adjust according to these dominant structures, emphasizing a need for communities like such to exist. Maton explains, “Habitus captures how we carry within us our history, how we bring this history into our present circumstances, and how we then make choices to act in certain ways and not others.”75 Habitus can be seen as a routine of cultural habits embodied in everyday life as related to time and place, linking “past, present and future, but also between the social and the individual, the objective and the subjective, the structure and agency.”76 As habitus is not fixed or permanent, and can be changed under unexpected situations or over a long historical period, emerging designers are constantly negotiating their identities within the Western world, both as individuals and as a brand community.77 Their position within the Westernized fashion sphere also affects their identity and habitus, sharpening their need for a clearer brand identity to reach their community. The notion of community as a foundation value in Chinese culture thus translates from generation to generation. Linking the social life of a community to the individual, habitus points to how one’s particular habitus and life contents can be shared with others of the same social class, gender, ethnicity, and so on, further building community and kinship.78

74

Bourdieu, Pierre. Sociology in Question, (Theory, Culture & Society), Vol. 18. Sage Publications: 1993, 55.

75 Maton, Karl. “Habitus.” Pierre Bourdieu: Key Concepts. Acumen: 2012, 51.

76 Maton, 2012, 52.

77 Navarro, Z. “In Search of Cultural Interpretation of Power.” IDS Bulletin 37(6), 2006, 11-22.

78 Maton, 2012, 52.

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Stuart Hall’s work on representation is utilized in conjunction with Anderson's imagined communities to argue for the importance of distinguishing one’s community from the other, both culturally and within brand identity. As both believe that community is “distinguished by the space they are imagined in,” I seek to understand how brand identity helps customers find their chosen community and why it is crucial for emerging Chinese brands to have a clear representation of their identity and ethos.79 For both Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits, their Chinese heritage and identities are visible in more subtle ways. Emphasizing cultural identity, Hall argues that “all identities must significantly mark their similarity to and difference from something else,” strengthening community ties while differentiating self from others.80 Hall too highlights the notion that nations are formed, thereby becoming a symbolic community of representation and thus forming national identities.81 Hall also argues that identity is under constant transformation and is both in the process of “being” and “becoming.”82 Identity is thus constantly shifting and broadening, and new emerging brands must adapt to the time and place they exist in to reflect the multicultural identities that exist in society today while retaining their chosen ethos. Now, we are more and more eager for representation of ourselves in every sense, and clothing embodies part of that identity.83 With an increasing number of multicultural individuals, our identities are evermore fluid and nonbinary, emphasizing the need for brands and communities that reflect that understanding.

Therefore, different emerging designers present themselves more specifically to their

79

Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: 1997, 80.

Hall, Stuart, and Henry Louis Gates. “Nations and Diasporas.” The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation, edited by Kobena Mercer. Harvard University Press, 2017, 128.

81 Hall, The Fateful Triangle: Race, Ethnicity, Nation, 137.

82 Hall, Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, 70.

83 Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 79.

80

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customers–highlighting political, social, or cultural views that were previously unwelcome in the industry. Now, these identities are further incorporated and necessary to a brand, allowing emerging Chinese designers to showcase their diversity beyond the monolithic Western representation. This broadens up the representation of Chinese designers that previously felt more singular and stereotyped, and allows for further smaller, distinctive communities to exist within the industry.

Methodology The following sections incorporate theoretical, historical, and visual analysis to examine the brand communities of Chinese designers with respect to their heritage. Indepth interviews with the designers and owners of the brands Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits are used as a primary resource to gain insight into the creation of the brands and their respective influences. This thesis investigates how both of these brands imbue their designs and brand strategies to embody their respective identities. For YanYan Knits, their identities are mainly visible through their design product, whereas for Bobblehaus it is more visible through the entire presentation of their collections on social media. As not all Chinese brands utilize traditional designs to highlight their heritage, it is important to analyze not only their final designs, but how they conceptualize each design and choose to market their brand to better establish their community.

Part 2 provides background information on brand communities and the importance of brand identity and community, in addition to specific details about Chinese brands and community building in general. For this section, theoretical and historical analysis are applied to contextualize the rise of brand identity within the twenty-first

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century and the importance of highlighting brand community and identity for Chinese designers within the current society. The distinction between brand community and brand loyalty are considered, as this thesis argues that brand community is much more fundamental and personal than brand loyalty, which is targeted to push products.

For Part 3, theoretical analysis based on community, identity formation, and representation are incorporated with Bobblehaus and YanYan Knit’s interview answers and marketing strategy analysis to better understand their brand identities. Design, brand name, ethos, social media, and collaborations with artists are examined in each brand’s case studies. Theoretical analysis is applied to understand the way brands decide their ethos based on their personal lived experience, communities and identities, and position within the industry. Analysis based on their respective marketing strategies, such as social media or collaborations, are used to understand how they attract their brand community.

For both Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits, I utilize images from their collections to conduct visual analysis on how each brand utilizes their designs, graphic images, and styling to embody their respective identities. For both brands, a selection of three to four clothing items or images are selected for visual analysis. Historical analysis is applied to trace the sources of each respective brand’s inspirations and intentions. The role of dress in building a national identity for Chinese designers has been historically prevalent, and the utilization and reinterpretation of these specific elements in the designs of these emerging designers will be analyzed. For YanYan Knits, visual and historical analysis is applied to their print designs, which draw from their day-to-day lives in Hong Kong and traditional Chinese paintings such as bai zi tu. For Bobblehaus, visual analysis is applied

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to their overall presentation of their collection on social media, which includes design product, inspirations, and captions. Whereas analysis on YanYan Knits focuses more heavily on visual design elements, the case study on Bobblehaus further incorporates analysis based on their blogs and physical pop-up stores. Both utilize lived experiences as foundations for their design inspiration and highlight different forms of Chinese and Chinese American culture respectively.

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PART 2: BACKGROUND & CONTEXT What is a community?

Community is a key construct in social thought.84 Some are born into a community and some find their chosen one, but humans as social creatures seek out likeminded individuals to create social groupings with. The desire to seek or be a part of a community affects human behavior and consciousness, thus influencing our actions and social interactions. Community is a social group in which those who share similar values such as religion, customs, or identity gather together to form a collective. Core values of community relate around shared consciousness of kind, shared rituals and traditions, and moral responsibility. As Anderson notes that nationality and communities command profound “emotional legitimacy,” the ties that one feels towards their identity are deeply rooted.85 Cultural identity, then, is crucial in the formulation of nationhood and community in this sense. Community is important because it allows for a sense of belonging, but it also has boundaries between itself and other nations, formulating a distinctive identity of ‘us’ and ‘them.’86 According to habitus, people tend to gravitate towards those with similar background or identities as their own, naturally forming an identity.

For those with diasporic identities and those who can be classified with “third culture” identities (raised in a culture other than the culture of their family or nationality), seeking a like-minded community becomes a key value. The complex imaginings of “community” and “isolation” relates to ideas of “self” and “other,” creating distance

84

Muniz, Journal of Consumer Research 27, 412.

Anderson, Imagined Communities, 6.

86 Anderson, Imagined communities, 7.

85

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between those who are diasporic and those who are not.87 This further affects the construction of their social identities, motivating them towards their homeland or further distancing themselves from it. Diasporic movements are based in distance, but “also paradoxically reiterate closeness and return.”88 With an increase in multiculturalism and diasporic movements, representation is needed to seek out those who are like-minded. As Hall highlights, this differentiation is what forms communities and identities. Community becomes similar to a comradeship, making kinship and closeness possible within diasporic or multicultural individuals.89 Both YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus occupy bicultural viewpoints: with influence from America and China, their respective co-founders have felt the impact of both cultures. Through their experiences, they seek to build their own community of like-minded people.

Community within Chinese Cultural Values Anderson too notes that the foundation of imagined communities lie in cultural roots.90 Within Chinese culture, community is foundational to the makeup of its society.

As a key pillar of Chinese society, it is crucial to examine how Chinese cultural values extend its roots into the formulations of brand communities for Chinese designers. While communities may have previously been confined to physical locations, digital communities can easily be created nowadays. In the 21st century, “as transportation and communication technology has brought people and physical objects closer, the advances

87

Goh, Robbie B. H., and Wong, Shawn. Asian Diasporas : Cultures, Indentity, Representation. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2004, 11.

88 Ibid.

89 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7.

90 Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7.

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of media, characterized by the unprecedented presence of images, signs, and bodies, has created ‘communities with no ‘sense of place.’”91 No longer tied to a physical space, communities can exist virtually and hold the same presence and importance in the digital space. YanYan and Bobblehaus both exist within a time period that allows them to communicate with their customers directly and formulate a community not bound by space.

National communities are only a few of the examples of communities that exist in today’s globalized world. For the context of this thesis it is important to understand the core communal values within Chinese communities and those with Chinese heritage to evaluate how it translates to the conception and ethos of their brands. Regarded as a collectivist culture, Chinese culture emphasizes group relationships, valuing both what is best for personal relationships and for the wellbeing of the overall community.92 Yet this is only the surface of the value of community within Chinese culture, as what is truly foundational to community are familial relationships and kinship, which has its ties to the century old ideas of filial piety and social harmony.93 It is impossible to separate modern Chinese culture from Confucianism, as it is deeply integrated into Chinese societal values, forming the understructure of many East Asian societies.94 Though filial piety points specifically to obedience and care towards one’s parents and elder family members, the “emphasis on the close affinity of the clan, the neighborhood, tutorship,

91

Clark, Hazel and Alla Eisenberg, Rethinking Fashion Globalization, 241.

Gao, Mobo. “Collectivism.” Afterlives of Chinese Communism: Political Concepts from Mao to Xi. ANU Press, 2019. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvk3gng9.8.

93 Zhang, Lihua. “China’s Traditional Cultural Values and National Identity.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. November 13th, 2013.

94 Lai, Chen. “Historical and Cultural Features of Confucianism in East Asia.” 102.

92

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friendship, and other blood relationships also has its roots in filial piety.”95 Harmony, compassion and love all begin with the foundation of filial piety, and it is from there that one can begin to practice loving others.

Harmony refers to the “proper and balanced coordination between things,” and modern Chinese society seeks to maintain harmony between many moving parts of the world–between human beings and nature, individual and society, and mind and body.96 With valued Confucian sayings such as “Benevolence means to love and wisdom means to understand others,” compassion to others extends from familial ties to social relationships.97 Relying on one another for the overall community to thrive calls back to the cores of Chinese society, with harmony and compassion forming the foundation of both ethical and social principles of Chinese society. Mutual prosperity happens when one seeks to help and support both oneself and others.

It is no surprise, then, that Chinese designers continue to seek these familial networks and relationships within their businesses, building relationships that function “like a family.”98 With YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus, the core values of caring for the environment and their people are embedded as foundations of their brand. Diasporic networks in particular seek out those with similar values to re-establish their community, pursuing similar cultural values they may have left. Seen in cities like Los Angeles or New York, diasporic Chinese networks within the fashion industry formulate bonds beyond that of designers and producers based on their shared identity, creating a

95

Hsieh Yu-Wei. “Filial Piety and Chinese Society.” Philosophy East and West, Vol. 9, No ½. 1959, University of Hawai’i Press. 57.

96 Zhang, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2013.

97 Lai, 103.

Zhang, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2013.

98 Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 65.

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relationship of kin far more intimate than a purely professional one.99 Immigrant workers supporting the works of second generation designers contribute to the values of harmony and community, where they are willing to further assist designers in various ways such as giving discounted prices or accelerating production schedules.100 Even in cities like Hong Kong, kin networks continue to function within business ventures, where owners would build factories where relatives were located to continually establish familial and professional relationships.101 No matter where the Chinese immigrants went, whether it was within China or abroad, they effectively utilized their guanxi.102 Retaining these relationships and togetherness showcases the centrality of community and family in these Chinese designer’s brands and lives, in which they can continue to build upon their community in their professional lives, should they want to. This work model has led to “remarkable economic success in Confucian based Asian societies,” “pointing to the inter-relationship among harmonious human relationships, social structure and work ethics, and their intriguing link to economic growth.”103 Whether intentionally or inadvertently, Chinese designers extend Chinese cultural and social values into their brands by exercising a sense of community through their habitus. Chinese designers are thus able to create unique brand identities and communities tied to their own cultural heritage. However, the desire to create a community may not purely be culturally generated, but also a part of a shift within the larger fashion system in relation to social media and consumption habits.

99

Ibid.

Tu, The Beautiful Generation: Asian Americans and the Cultural Economy of Fashion, 80.

101 Moon, Fashion Cities, 525.

102 Krause, Tight Knit: Global Families and the Social Life of Fast Fashion, 79.

103 Ling, Wessie. “Beneath the co-created chinese fashion: translocal and transcultural exchange between China and Hong Kong.” Fashion in Multiple Chinas: Chinese Styles in the Transglobal Landscape. New York: 2018, 127 100

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The Importance of Brand Identity and Community With the rise of e-commerce, the importance of brand identities and communities are not happening through a vacuum but in relationship to the greater fashion sphere and society at large. Consumption has moved heavily towards the digital sphere, with ecommerce growing 30 times more quickly than the wider online ad market.104 The change in consumer behavior is crucially noted as having more than doubled during the COVID pandemic of 2020, though it was already on a rise prior to that as a result of increasing technological advancement.105 This shift in consumer behavior has led brands to increasingly cater to digital platforms as one of the main ways for consumption.

Due to the emphasis on e-commerce, branding is crucial in the modern age. With multitudes of products on the market today, the distinguishing factor relies on the messaging and branding of a company to be identifiable. Through the process of creating a strong and distinctive perception of a company, its messages and products are more effectively conveyed to its desired consumers, imbuing ideas and thoughts into objects. A distinctive brand identity, then, is key to creating a memorable and distinguishable product that appeals to one’s intended audience. Moving beyond physical products, in today’s market it is increasingly the messages or feelings of a product that persuade consumers to purchase a product–buying into a brand as a form of a lifestyle, seemingly as an approval of its messaging or even a desire to join its community. It is also important to emphasize that the fashion system too is shifting towards brands as a lifestyle as part of

104

Clapp, Rob. “COVID-19 causes digital consumption to rise by over 30%, forming new and lasting consumer habits.” WARC. April 30th, 2021. https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/covid-19causes-digital-consumption-to-rise-by-over-30-forming-new-and-lasting-consumer-habits/en-gb/4209 105 Ibid.

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a new branding and marketing strategy. This means that while emerging designers utilize communities as a foundation to their brands, the desire to be a part of a community is the general market desire. People want to feel like they can support a brand that is in line with their values, which is why community values of a brand and their brand identities are so important. Though Chinese emerging designers do begin with a foundation of community as part of their brands, it also is functioning in tandem with the greater fashion system at large. As Tseelon notes, “Brands derive their appeal from the story of origin, purpose, and character of the consumer products they create.”106 Connecting this to Anderson’s imagined communities, the relationship between ‘us’ and ‘them’ are thus made clear through a distinctive identity, further formulating a brand community in this case.107 In the cases of Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits, their emphasis on their Chinese heritage is imbued within the products they design and strategies they implement.

Though physical products remain important, more convincing are the emotional ties that one can feel towards a product or company. Branding thus conveys who the brand is and who they want to be, translating this to their audience in a myriad of ways.

Social media becomes a key way for brands to directly interact with their customers and build a relationship between the two, allowing the formulation of brand communities. Prior to social media, brands working in the market have not had a direct communication channel with their consumers–social media offers this opportunity for them to listen and talk to their consumers.108 YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus are both

106

Tseelon Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty 9, 3.

Anderson, Imagined Communities, 7.

108 Coelho, Pedro Simões, Paulo Rita, Zélia Raposo Santos. “On the relationship between consumer-brand identification, brand community, and brand loyalty.” Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Vol. 43.

2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2018.03.011.

107

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brands that began with an online, direct-to-customer shop, lending their overall social media presence and store a very digital feel. As a result of this ability, brands are able to create stronger brand communities by engaging directly with their users, and brands beyond fashion such as Glossier, Apple, and Soulcycle have all created brand communities strongly tied to their brand identities.109 By appealing to their targeted customers and emphasizing their brand as a lifestyle, they successfully curate brand communities of like-minded people. Digital communication allows them to engage directly with their consumers and operate based on a community model. With the use of social media in particular, they are able to directly reach their target audiences without a need for a physical location.

Importantly, this thesis makes a distinction between brand community and brand loyalty, as brand loyalty more heavily emphasizes sales and numbers, whereas brand community points to a deeper connection beyond transactional values. Coelho notes that researchers previously have focused on “community dynamics in predicting customer loyalty,”110 creating a distinction between brand loyalty and community and thereby highlighting the importance for examination into how the two differ. A brand community, according to Muniz and O’Guinn, can be described as a “specialized, non-geographically bound community based on a structured set of social relationships among admirers of a brand.”111 Reiterating the importance of social media, the way that a brand communicates and interacts with its members highlights brand ethos and identity, and therefore community. The visual nature of social media platforms such as Instagram makes their

109

Prater, Meg. “19 Brands with a Cult Following (And What You Can Learn From Them.” Hubspot.

January 11th, 2022. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/brands-with-cult-following 110 Coelho, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

111 Muniz, Journal of Consumer Research 27, 412.

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identity immediately recognizable to their customers. Customers are thus also able to interact with the brand, creating content for them or highlighting them on their personal pages. Social media allows relationships to further develop between consumers, inviting them to respond and connect with each other. Together, the value of community in Chinese culture and social media work to strengthen brand communities as well as brand identities.

Consumption is a social act, and therefore social identity relationships persist between company and customers within brand communities. According to social identity theory, people define their social identities based on their categorization of members in different social groups, and brands thus become a key component in an individual’s social identity.112 Social identities can be loosely tied to that of cultural identities and heritage, and customers thus choose brands they see themselves represented in, and by highlighting one’s identity or heritage, brands are able to better communicate their brand identities to formulate their communities. Sharing key values, for example, becomes a way for shared consciousness to form within a brand community that extends from personal to social. When highlighting shared cultural heritage as a foundation, shared consciousness and key values naturally formulate within brand communities. Shared consciousness of kind transcends geographic boundaries, formulating imagined communities that can be established digitally.113 Not only do people see objects and clothes as “shorthand summaries of the self,” but they are also aspirational props of what one hopes to be.114 Clear brand identity helps one find where they belong, which is

112

Coelho, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

Muniz and O’Guinn, Journal of Consumer Research 27, 419.

114 Tseelon, Critical Studies in Fashion & Beauty 9, 4.

113

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pivotal to diasporic communities. It also is important to Chinese communities within the Western fashion system for customers to see themselves in a form of recognizable representation, as Hall argues As a result, brand differentiation, identity, and community are all crucial to allow diverse customers to satisfy their social and personal identification needs.

A consumer’s relationship with the brand can further generate emotional connections with the brand network, which helps establish social bonds between the brand and its consumers, furthering allowing for a basis of trust between the two.115 Community can be more than a place–it can be the “common understanding of a shared identity.”116 For emerging Chinese designers, they may wish to draw upon their heritage or utilize a community-based model to create their stores. Regardless of which approach they take, they emphasize generating emotional connections with their customers as a form of inviting them into the community. YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus both do so with their branding, and within their brand communities, consumers are able to become an active part of creating the community they wish to be a part of. However, as mentioned previously, this is not an isolated occurrence within the fashion industry nor is it unique to these two emerging brands. Strategic brand directions are increasingly realizing that community-based models are effective and efficient in selling, and therefore many, apart from those with Chinese heritage, have been increasingly utilizing community-based models in their branding. Fashion is only one outlet for companies and branding based within communities, and there were many predecessors to Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits within the fashion sphere alone.

115 116

Coelho, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

Muniz and O’Guinn, Journal of Consumer Research 27, 413.

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Predecessors: Brands, Concept Stores, and the Beginnings of Chinese Brand Community Prior to digital direct-to-consumer platforms and pop-up stores, there were brick and mortar stores and concept stores. What these stores did is similar to that of the community building that Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits are trying to achieve, namely by utilizing specific brand strategies and marketing in order to appeal to customers. From concept stores to strategic marketing, the movement towards a more exclusive and community based approach was already setting its roots within the early 2000s.

Within the decade of the 2000s, Chinese designers had already begun to compete on creating a highly distinguishable brand image due to the accessibility of industrialized manufacturing.117 Efforts in product development, retail store design, and promotion all became coordinated to construct a memorable and cohesive brand image, yet a new shift on multichannel retailing was also progressing.118 As a result of this, Chinese brands and designers began to focus on how to appeal to their customers while retaining a unique brand image. Merchandising, service in store, the promotion of their goods and their retail store were all key within a brand’s conception, creating merchandising strategies that guided decisions on the development of a brand image.

Chinese designers at this point all had varied areas of visual interest for their brands, and the visual creation in addition with a unique brand philosophy “constituted the dual core of a designer label’s identity,” though many chose collaboration with the

117 118

Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 70.

Ibid.

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applied arts.119 In Shanghai, these designer boutiques congregated around Chang Le Road–which later became a landmark for original Chinese fashion. “Its unique culture, grown out of an entirely new retail format” drew media attention, highlighting the power of a collective in transforming a non-fashion street into a distinctly fashionable one.120 Opening Ceremony and Dover Street Market had similar effects on the locations they opened, creating a fashion community in a space that previously had not been classified as such.

Dover Street Market, created by Rei Kawakubo of Comme de Garçons and her husband Adrian Joffe, opened in 2004 at Dover Street in Mayfair, London, where they began experimenting with placing high fashion pieces next to multi-sensory art installations.121 Similarly, Opening Ceremony, created in 2002 by Carol Lim and Humberto Leon in New York, is a multi-brand retail store that stocked up-and-coming brands such as Dries van Noten to small designers from all over the globe, consolidating them in a way none other before them has done.122 Since then, Leon has also opened restaurant Chifa in Los Angeles with his family members, further extending the value of community beyond that of the fashion sphere.123 Lim and Leon noted that the store was a place for “the community to come together, not only to shop, but to discover.”124 Dover

119

Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 76.

Ibid.

121 Sisley, Dominique. ““A Fantastical Family”: The Inimitable Magic of Dover Street Market.” AnOther Magazine. August 17th, 2021. https://www.anothermag.com/fashion-beauty/13505/london-the-inimitablemagic-of-dover-street-market 122 Witte, Rae. “Opening Ceremony’s Store Closure is More than Just Another Retail Casualty.”

Fashionista. January 17th, 2020. https://fashionista.com/2020/01/opening-ceremony-closing-storesindustry-reactions 123 Mohney, Chris, and Humberto Leon. “LA’s Chifa: An Intercontinental Launch By Humberto Leon and Family.” Zagat. https://stories.zagat.com/posts/las-chifa-an-intercontinental-launch-by-humberto-leonand-family 124 Abad, Mario. “Opening Ceremony to Close All Stores.” Paper Magazine. January 14th, 2020.

120

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Street Market operated under a similar ideology, describing their staff as kin while highlighting a space that exposed its customers to a variety of brands and to create their own identities.

Both of these stores emphasized the key idea of family and community. At Dover Street Market, “a sense of camaraderie is felt most strongly among the current staff as well as the alumni, who often lovingly refer to DSM as a family.”125 Connie Wang, executive editor of Refinery29, notes that Opening Ceremony is “much more [of] a community, incubator or, as they called themselves, a family,” adding, “It really was just a physical space where [you could] support people who are just starting out, whether that was designers or photographers or young people who just got to the city and needed a job.”126 Despite being a physical retail store, these spaces accepted those who wanted to be a part of the fashion system and their community. Fashion is only one outlet for community gathering, as seen by Leon and Lim’s further explorations within the restaurant, virtual reality, and music world.127 Stores such as Colette in Paris or 10 Corso Como in Italy too imbued the essence of a greater community within their stores, with Colette blending an exhibition space, bookshop, and cafe in addition to its concept store and 10 Corso Como beginning with an art gallery and bookshop before establishing a design and fashion store, cafe, and small hotel.128 Connecting to various disciplines, these stores sought to build a wider community to reach a greater audience beyond fashion.

125

Sisley, AnOther Magazine.

Ibid.

127 Testa, Jessica. “ Where Fashion and Food Mingle and the Chopsticks Are for Sale.” The New York Times. February 10th, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/style/humberto-leon-chifamerch.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap 128 10 Corso Como. https://www.10corsocomo.com/ Cochrane, Lauren. “Paris’s Colette - ‘the trendiest store in the world’ - set to close.” The Guardian. July 12th, 2017. https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2017/jul/12/pariss-colette-the-trendiest-store-in-theworld-set-to-close 126

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While this seems like a natural progression for economic growth, it also highlights that these brands are no longer just brands but indeed blending lifestyle into their identities.

These concept stores also highlight the importance of getting customers interested and into their stores–many of whom were visitors and not shoppers. With heavy tourist traffic, Colette, 10 Corso Como, and even Opening Ceremony and Dover Street Market base their stores around the community to create tendencies that are more comfortable to the shopper before staging the next development. There is not necessarily pressure to purchase, but more so to enter and interact with the store. Brand community here is not necessarily about selling clothing, but rather about sharing the brand and its identity.

Entering an exclusive, beautiful and unique space is a way of spreading their community, wherein brand promotion naturally occurs.

For Opening Ceremony, it is crucial to note that both Lim and Leon, as children of immigrants, opened up a space that allowed those from various backgrounds and cultures to feel like they belonged.129 Despite it being a physical retail store, it nonetheless was a space that accepted those who wanted to be a part of the fashion system and their community, and “were pioneers of inclusivity during a time when advertisements believed having a redhead in a fashion campaign was considered ‘diverse.’”130 Previous to Opening Ceremony, there was not yet a retail store that embodied and extended community in this way, expanding the concept from its physical location to its brands, collaborations, and social events, which continually aided them in creating a community that was more than just a label. However, the closure of the

129

Ibid.

Wang, Connie. “RIP to Opening Ceremony, A Store That Taught Us How to Find Ourselves.”

Refinery29. January 15th, 2020. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/01/9209631/opening-ceremonystore-closing 130

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physical store and its move to a purely online strategy is a result of the change in which people shop–online shopping allowed for consumers to purchase directly from the global brands they were sourcing, thereby minimizing the need for a physical multi-brand store.

The closure of Opening Ceremony’s retail stores was announced in 2019. As a response to the COVID pandemic, the brand closed all its physical stores and moved to focus on its online platform, a loss mourned by many across the fashion industry. Colette too closed its doors in 2017, evoking similar sentiments within the industry as an “end of an era.”131 This is in part due to the e-commerce boom, which ushered in a new period of production, distribution and consumption. Chinese fashion accelerated with this newfound model, transforming the way fashion boutiques, designer showrooms and e-shops are created.132 It is within this boom that YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus launched their brands–both bringing in something new and different, and able to do so through a digitized sphere. The digital sphere as newfound space allows customers to feel comfortable as they browse their e-shops, but like their predecessors of Opening Ceremony or Colette, their brand community is not just about selling clothing–they are interested in creating a relationship with their customers. As a part of their brand identity and their methods, YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus first establish a foundation of trust with their customers, much like their predecessors, before inviting them into their community. A strong brand identity as a foundation attracts customers to a brand, but

131

Andelman, Sarah. Colette, Paris Fashion Destination, Is to Close in December. The New York Times.

July 12th, 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/12/fashion/colette-paris-sarah-andelman.html Ahmed, Osman. “The End of an Era: Colette to Close Its Doors.” Business of Fashion. July 12th, 2017. https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/retail/colette-to-close-after-20-years/ 132 Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 90.

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creating a lasting relationship requires much more effort and thought on part of the brands.

Brand membership operates from the basis of exclusivity and inclusivity–by being a part of a brand community, one enters into an exclusive space that is tailored to that group. Simultaneously, the exclusiveness of the brand also becomes a form of inclusivity for those invited, as one can be fully a part of the community and space. This gives the feeling of entering into an exclusive space, both physically and emotionally. Brand memberships or brand gifts are a part of this exclusivity/inclusivity idea, in which brands award members with gifts or discounts as part of thanking them for being a part of their community and to further encourage brand engagement. Loyalty programs, in which gifting, discounts, or point systems are utilized, have been shown to be particularly effective in the Chinese market for brand engagement.133 These programs are critical for brand engagement within China, with 89% of Chinese consumers stating that loyalty programs increase their spending.134 Luxury brands such as Coach or Gucci have longstanding loyalty programs in China, highlighting the importance of inclusion and deeper connection within Chinese designers and brands.135 For small scale designers, customers of the label sometimes become friends of the designers and give first hand feedback and services that are customized and individualized.136 It is not uncommon for a loyal customer to receive individualized treatment within a brand. As part of a brand’s membership, customers are expected to be treated as a part of the brand community and 133

Rapp, Jessica. “Study: 89% of Chinese Consumers Say Loyalty Programs Increase Their Spending.”

Jing Daily. May 18th, 2016. https://jingdaily.com/study-brands-targeting-asia-market-need-diversifyloyalty-programs-risk-left-behind/ 134 Ibid.

135 Ibid.

136 Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 64.

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therefore need to be heard within its sphere, highlighting the exclusive nature of a community and the necessity for them to be inclusive of their customers. A customer thus feels like an insider, which prompts them to be further involved in the brand.

As seen in the continuation of Opening Ceremony’s community beyond fashion, community acts as a base to various outlets, with fashion being one of many. Concept stores and multi-brand retail stores helped pave the way for not only community building but also various strategies for branding and engagement, allowing smaller, emerging designers to articulate their own sense of identity and community. While Chinese brand strategies do focus on the aspect of community and reciprocity, these strategic brand directions function beyond that of a purely cultural background but in step with the current digital sphere. With the boom of e-commerce and online communities, brands must heavily consider these outlets as part of their brand community. Virtual communication and the focus on social media becomes key within the time and space that YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus operate in.

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PART 3: CASE STUDIES The two case studies considered are of the labels Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits.

Though the co-founders and designers of the brands share their Chinese heritage in common, they have created vastly different brand identities and designs, showcasing the variation in emerging Chinese designers. As they are targeting different audiences, their approaches also vary.

The following section separates YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus as two case studies. Each highlights how the brand’s ethos, social media, design and collaborations contribute to building their brand identity and attracting their brand community. As both brands utilize different approaches to their marketing strategies and design processes, the case studies will vary in its content as well. While YanYan’s section is heavily design and product focused, the section for Bobblehaus focuses on social media and their popups. However, both utilize organic collaborations to connect with like-minded individuals to formulate their community.

Case Study 1: YanYan Knits: Building Community through Material YanYan Knits launched in 2019. Founded by long-time friends Phyllis Chan and Suzzie Chung, YanYan Knits is a knitwear brand that derives its name from the Cantonese phrase “YanYan,” which means “everyone” (人人).137 Their name highlights the brand ethos and foundation, emphasizing“thoughtful design-driven products,” while “thinking about people from sourcing to design to manufacturing to creating a connection with [their] customers.”138 Relying on mutual prosperity for the overall community to 137 138

“About YanYan.” YanYan Knits. https://yanyanknits.com/pages/about Ibid.

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thrive calls back to the cores of Chinese society, of which is naturally ingrained within YanYan’s core values. YanYan’s ethos begins with concern for people in general, whether that is using leftover yarn and material or connecting deeply with their production team. Chan notes that this is in part because they noted a misunderstanding of how precious resources and production efforts are in the creation of a clothing item, specifically pointing out the“misunderstanding [of] the worth of someone’s skill and effort because of the geographic location the worker/technician/designer is from.”139 As designers whose designs and productions are sourced in China, they are proving the value of China as a space that embodies creative value. They reflect the cultural confidence of their country, hoping to highlight the varied talents in China. She emphasizes, “As designers and makers, one of the things we felt was misunderstood in general is how much time it takes to concept, develop, and create things.”140 Highlighting Chinese elements that are not typically seen as Chinese motifs, the brand expands the view on what it means to create Chinese clothing with concern and gratitude to their makers. Coming from a background as the director of knitwear at Rag & Bone, Chan was familiar with the burnout and quick pace of fashion production. Chung too was experiencing it firsthand, studying and working in Hong Kong as a designer before she joined Chan. A reaction against this fast-paced calendar, the brand releases two collections a year, allowing Chan and Chung to design products that “celebrates the technique and quality [they] put into each item, whether it is the yarn [they] source from Italy or pushing [their] factory to do challenging stitches and yarn combinations.”141

139

Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

Ibid.

141 Ibid.

140

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Utilizing sustainable yarn was also the foundation for the brand, as they garnered factory knit that was about to expire in order to create entirely new designs.142 Not only their producer’s work, but they also share an office with the factory’s owner in Hong Kong.143 Operating off of kinship values, this deepens their relationship and creates a familial bond between designer and producers. This shared location builds community and camaraderie between YanYan and their producers–part of the reason it is non-negotiable to them that their workers are paid fairly and work in safe conditions. This pace and practice allows the brand to create thoughtful design-driven slow fashion, giving due respect to the design and manufacturing process and how they affect all those involved.

Paying tribute to their Cantonese roots is integral to YanYan. Though the brand began with bases in both New York and Hong Kong, Chan and Chung chose to fully relocate back to Hong Kong for operations. “It is here we feel safe and inspired to build our aesthetic,” Chan explains, “Hong Kong provides much of the inspiration for our work, as well as the diaspora of ‘Chinese’ people and their culture in the West, and our own experiences in travel and working in this industry.” Based on Bourdieu’s habitus, they chose where they were most comfortable and most inspired to create the foundations of their brand–their habitus. Inspired by Hong Kong streets, by grandparents who populate it, and the colors and aesthetics of the city, YanYan Knits builds upon its own unique view of Hong Kong and shares it with the world. Avoiding typical Chinese motifs, the brand selects inspiration from their everyday experience in the city– spotlighting old advertising and colors in the city that are almost vintage-looking.144

142

Bobila, Maria. “Newly Launched Yan Yan is a Hong Kong-Based Knitwear Label to Watch.”

Fashionista. March 18th, 2019. https://fashionista.com/2019/03/yan-yan-knitwear 143 Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

144 Ibid.

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Avoiding traditional Chinese symbols such as dragons or peonies, they are subtle in their inspirations.145 Similar to Goods of Desire (GOD), a lifestyle, homeware and clothing brand founded in Hong Kong that stocks egg tart socks and waves of cloud scarves, YanYan utilizes everyday objects as inspiration for their designs.146 By taking inspiration from their everyday lives, YanYan challenges preconceived notions of a monolithic Chinese design. The inspiration comes organically from their lived experiences, both past and present, and from their lives YanYan communicates a distinctive and personal Cantonese point of view.

As many of YanYan’s pieces draw inspiration from their Chinese roots, they stem from a honest and personal place that focuses on their experiences rather an a specific motif, “including parts of [their] cultural heritage that [they] think [are] cute or special or different from [what] the West thinks is typical of Chinese culture.”147 Despite drawing from traditional prints and their daily experiences, YanYan does not strive to be historically accurate, but focuses on small references or inside jokes that others in the community may relate to.148 Through this practice, YanYan decolonizes the Western gaze, forming a community through the visibility of their Chinese heritage as printed on their designs. By opening up the space for their experiences to be woven into their clothing and highlighting traditional art and heritage in a modern way, they showcase the diversity of what it means to be Chinese–specifically Cantonese. Whether it is from their youth or looking at photos of their moms, aunts, or grandmothers, YanYan Knits designs to reimagine something, and to explore something they are nostalgic for. However, as

145

Tsui, China Fashion: Conversations with Designers, 1.

Goods of Desire. https://god.com.hk/ 147 Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

148 Ibid.

146

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they intend to be inclusive of all, those who do not relate to the symbols are still welcome to freely participate and engage with their clothing. Even though neither Chan nor Chung particularly planned on creating a specific community around their clothing, through their ethos, designs, and sustainable practices, they create a feeling of community that celebrates a modern and Chinese culture. Through their designs, YanYan embodies what Tseëlon argues about brand communities–customers are able to see their heritage and culture represented, thereby forming a community.149 This natural formation also reiterates Anderson’s notion of imagined communities, in which others can recognize others in their community despite not having met.

Figure 1 The Laza print is one that is continually featured within YanYan’s collections.

Drawing inspiration from bai zi tu, which translates to ‘drawing of a hundred children,’

149

Tseelon, Critical Studies in Fashion and Beauty 9.

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YanYan took this symbol of luck and prosperity and incorporated it into cardigans and knit pants. An image with rich cultural history, the myth of bai zi tu dates back to Emperor Zhou in the year 1056, in which he was said to have had 100 sons.150 While this image has been utilized multiple times within Chinese traditional art, ceramics, or wall hangings, it had not yet found its way into knitwear until YanYan. As children signaled a flourishing and happy family, bai zi tu has historically been noted as joyful and auspicious.151 Though this image is easily recognizable to those with an understanding of Chinese art and culture, it is almost unrecognizable as a motif to Western audiences. Side stepping the typically stereotypical Chinese motifs, YanYan formulates its own interpretation of their Chinese culture and heritage. Figure 1 shows the Laza cardigan in boucle jacquard, a fitted piece that is connected “with pineapple closers and peekaboo details at the center front.”152 Utilizing leftover yarn spun in Japan, the fit of the garment creates a modernized take on traditional Chinese art and fashion, highlighting the celebration of happiness, prosperity and peace within the product description.153 Even within the image itself, the model sits with her eyes closed, slightly pouted with curls wrapped around her forehead, reminiscent of Chinese hairstyles of the 1920s and 30s, which were influenced by Western flapper hairstyles.154 YanYan highlights different eras

150

“姬昌（周朝奠基者).” Baidu. 2015. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%99%BE%E5%AD%90%E5%9B%BE/8977677 “百子图.” Baidu. 2015. https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%A7%AC%E6%98%8C/1314863?fromtitle=%E5%91%A8%E6%96%8 7%E7%8E%8B&fromid=525708 151 “Private Life.” Washington University. https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/painting/tptgdoms.htm#:~:text=ANSWER%3A%20The%20%22one %20hundred%20children,the%20full%20complement%20of%20subjects.

152 “Laza Cardigan in Boucle Jacquard.” YanYan Knits. https://yanyanknits.com/products/laza-cardigan-1 153 Ibid.

154 Jansen, Chiu-Ti. “In the Mood for Cheongsam: New Women in Old Shanghai Glamour at MoCa.” Sotheby’s. May 1, 2013. https://www.sothebys.com/en/articles/in-the-mood-for-cheongsam-new-womenin-old-shanghai-glamour-at-moca

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of Chinese history through the interweaving of traditional art and aesthetics to feature a new form of Chinese design. By choosing children and nature to highlight in their clothing, they return to popular motifs that are frequently showcased within traditional Chinese art while modernizing it and maintaining the joyful nature of their brand. “It’s also pretty cute,” Chan notes, “We chose [children] as a motif because we were looking for something that could be as iconic as a floral print or a ditzy for the West, but is still fundamentally “Chinese.””155 In Figure 2, YanYan showcases the bai zi tu in a different way–featuring only several children rather than utilizing it as print. Even with one source material, YanYan creates a multitude of ways to interpret it, highlighting various ways one can portray Chinese heritage and culture as well as how fashion can be symbolic of their nation’s cultural heritage in subtle ways.156 Updating and reinterpreting the traditional gives it a new meaning that still embodies their Chinese-ness, which seems fitting with the modern sphere that YanYan currently exists in, in which media and globalization allows historical material to become easily accessible and rewritten.

155 156

Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

Clark, Hazel and Alla Eisenberg. Rethinking Fashion Globalization, 227.

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Figure 2 While giving a nod to historical art, YanYan highlights Hong Kong as a key source of inspiration for their designs and thus formulates a uniquely Cantonese aesthetic.

Bourdieu’s habitus references the way cultural and personal histories shape an individual or community’s identity and actions, and YanYan’s close connection to Hong Kong embodies the way their heritage continues to be crucial to their day-to-day lives and design. Their sunblock grandma cardigan, for example, is another interpretation of their love and inspiration of Sham Shui Po, “a shopping district in Hong kong that specializes in arts and crafts, and houses a large eldery population.”157 With a cardigan made of color blocks of green, yellow, blue, and pink and colorful embroidery (Figure 3), this piece spotlights the colorful nature of Sham Shui Po and the residents within it. The colorful

157

Huber, Eliza. “This Grandma-Inspired Knitwear Is About To Be Everywhere.” Refinery29. January 21, 2020. https://www.refinery29.com/en-us/2020/01/9244991/yan-yan-knitwear-lunar-new-year-collection2020

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stitches and floral adornments also give an understated nod to the craft district that is Sham Shui Po, and the bright colors homage to the elders who dress with contrasting colors. Taking inspiration from the everyday fashions of elders in Hong Kong, Chan and Chung note the brightness of their outfits from mixing and matching bright colors, prints and textures to creating “a head to toe floral look in completely different colors and flowers, or just clashing prints all together.”158 More importantly, they are inspired by the joy and comfort with which these older ladies dress themselves, a sentiment that YanYan incorporates into their designs. Chan and Chung’s grandparents are too a big influence on their own relationship to fashion, teaching them to “embrace [their] own individual sense of style, be fearless and wear what makes [them] happy,” the ethos of the brand159 The familial connection forms a foundation to their approach to the brand, incorporating lessons from their own grandmothers and the inspirations from the elders on the streets.

Chan and Chung’s Chinese heritage and personal identities are embodied, showcasing the way they value family connections and community can be a foundation of the brand and a form of inspiration as well. Jointly inspired by the classic motif of ‘rainbow clouds’ (彩 雲), YanYan integrates their playful ethos with respect to their hometown, featuring their identity in subtle ways. As opposed to their Laza print, the sunblock grandma cardigan holds a different type of cultural sentiment–one that is tied to the everyday experiences of living in Hong Kong. It may be a small connection to those who know and understand it, but can also be understandable even to those beyond the sphere.

158 159

Ibid.

“About YanYan.” YanYan Knits. https://yanyanknits.com/pages/about

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Figure 3 YanYan’s June print similarly takes its inspiration from Hong Kong, highlighting the mid-century window frames and tile work of the city. Often referred to as “bathroom tiles,” these ceramic tiles were the most common materials used to finish exterior walls in Hong Kong in the 70s and 80s.160 Commonly found on the cafe floors and building walls of Hong Kong, these tiles point to a uniquely Cantonese aesthetic that Chan and Chung drew from their experiences growing up and living in the city. In Figure 4, the June print can be seen on a bra and pants set in cotton jacquard, modernizing the traditional elements of Hong Kong and the typical presentation of knitwear. Their cultural heritage and inspiration are at the forefront of their designs, subtly reminiscent of Hong Kong to customers who have the same cultural background. The final piece pulling the set

160

Gaskell, Viola. “Design Trust, Design Criticism: Why Hong Kong’s Buildings are Clad in Bathroom Tiles.” Zolima City Mag. September 26th, 2019. https://zolimacitymag.com/design-trust-design-criticismwhy-hong-kongs-buildings-are-clad-in-bathroom-tiles/

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together is the June work jacket, as seen in Figure 5, which is covered in the tile print and adorned with knot buttons. Frequently inspired by samfu, cheongsams and traditional Chinese opera costumes, YanYan interprets these ideas both literally and conceptually in their designs.161 While this seems to weave together a clearly Chinese motif within the garment, Chan questions whether having “knot buttons really make[s] the clothing more ethnic than normal buttons.”162 To them, they are simply a part of their culture and they present it as such–without orientalized claims or ideas, invoking the “abstract Chinese spirit” to broaden what is termed as Chinese.163 Niessen notes that the classification of dress as traditional is a tool used to preserve both the fashion and anti-fashion and West vs. rest dichotomy, protecting the West’s position of power and ensuring the placing of the “other.”164 However, YanYan subverts this by making traditional art modern–the ethnic is not the past, but modernized and a part of the future. As Chan and Chung want to create a “point of view where Western wear or aesthetic is not always the ‘neutral’ or ‘the norm,’” the integration of what would be considered traditionally Chinese motifs or symbols is rather a way to normalize their viewpoint, usage of Chinese cultural inspiration, and “Chineseness.” This can easily be seen as a way of cultural representation, but YanYan’s intention is to broaden the fashion narrative and sphere beyond that of a Western viewpoint and to stay true to what they like. Though their designs highlight their Chinese heritage, this is not a form of self-orientalization but a portrayal of their experiences within both the Eastern and Western worlds. Hall’s notion

161

Hawkins, Laura and Tilly Macalister Smith. “Colorful knitwear brands for amping up an autumn wardrobe.” Wallpaper. October 26th, 2021. https://www.wallpaper.com/fashion/colourful-knitwear-brands 162 Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

163 Tsui, Fashion Theory, 600.

164 Niessen, Sandra. “Afterword: Re-Orienting Fashion Theory.” Re-Orienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress.

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that identity as tied to representation can be seen here, as through YanYan’s honest portrayal of their relationship with Hong Kong, they allow others to see their own identities as reflected too. Noting what was missing in the fashion sphere in knitwear, sustainability, and cultural representation, YanYan fills its own interpretation of this gap and creates their own narrative. Basing their designs on their personal experiences and what they know, Chan and Chung attempt to relay a combination of Hong Kong and Chinese culture with a bit of their Western influence.165 It is through this combination that Chan and Chung feel authentic in the design approach to their brand, and this authenticity and honesty runs throughout their ethos and brand identity, including their dedication to sustainability both for the environment and their workers. Their designs, Chinese at heart, and production practices naturally draw in their like-minded customers and community.

165

Riley-Smith, Alice. “Designer Spotlight: YanYan Knits.” Vogue. August 28th, 2019. https://www.voguehk.com/en/article/fashion/yanyan-knits/

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Figure 4

Figure 5

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Without a physical location, the internet and social media was YanYan’s primary way of marketing and showcasing their brand, like many other emerging designers starting their brands in the 21st century. Chan claims they are considered “older millennials [who] are not particularly savvy with social media,” and Instagram was the application of choice simply because it was the platform that they used the most. YanYan began to gain a strong following through its social media presence and its public relations, much of which they credit to their PR teams in Japan and New York since they moved their operations back to Hong Kong.166 Instagram is still their primary source of social media, and they spend much of their time working on how to communicate YanYan’s designs through photos. While mainly due to YanYan’s location, the travel restrictions amongst the COVID pandemic necessitates they express themselves through photos. However, Chan notes that “what is most important is that the customers receive something that is even more beautiful and special than the photo they saw.”167 A quick glance at YanYan Knit’s Instagram would showcase a myriad of images–product images, cat memes, cute illustrations, behind the scenes of its co-founders, and customer photographs. It is not a page that is heavily curated with one singular aesthetic, but the page still reads as reflective of YanYan’s personality: fun, sustainable, and proudly Chinese. In their Instagram biography, they explicitly state, “Founded in 2019; Design in Hong Kong; Proudly knitted in China.”168 Culturally confident of their heritage, the importance of their influences is always present and clearly communicated to their audience.

166

Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

Ibid.

168 “YanYan Knits.” Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/YANYANKNITS/ 167

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Notably on their Instagram are the illustrators and creators than YanYan highlights. From doodles of their designs on fish people (Figure 6), dogs in YanYan Knits clothing (Figure 7), to comic strips of girls in knit sets (Figure 8), YanYan continually highlights creators who make fun digital works that reference their brand–one of their favorite things is discovering these unplanned works.169 Showcasing these creators on their Instagram gives them space within their community, inviting them in as insiders while maintaining the fun and joyful message of the brand. By spotlighting creators who are fans of the brand, YanYan Knits creates a nurturing and inviting relationship between the two. They are not just customers, but part of the YanYan Knits family. Within digital communities such as this, these actions can facilitate greater trust between the brand and its consumers. These community connections and collaborations are built around acts of mutual support and respect.

Figure 6 169

Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

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Figure 7

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Figure 8 YanYan has had several collaborations with other brands and artists, from spotlighting antique exhibitions in Nan Fung Place to working with Baz bagels on a special YanYan Bagel. YanYan’s website currently houses a men’s capsule in collaboration with Tokyo Keyboard Club along with a shop-in-shop for Felix House, a smaller clothing label that repurposes clothing with patchwork and other techniques.170 YanYan’s collaborations have centered around reaching out to those who were of one mind, creating an organic community. Their collaboration with Japanese hair and makeup artists Yuya Nara bases itself in a capsule of hair accessories inspired by fan favorite items, creating knit scrunchies and lurex twist headbands.171 Rather than specifically seeking out general events to participate in, YanYan utilizes a more natural approach.

“Usually we work with our friends, and are thankful they include us,” Chan relays, but they also rely on their PR team to reach out to like-minded people interested in wearing their designs.172 Wing On Wo & Co, one of the oldest operating stores in Manhattan’s Chinatown focusing on porcelain and Chinese cultural goods, is one such collaborator who can be seen sporting YanYan Knits in their wardrobes. With its location in New York, Wing On Wo & Co share the same goals as YanYan: to share their heritage. These common goals allow for the community to grow, and these collaborations are not focused purely on monetary gain, but also the participatory aspect of community and support. By supporting one another, they mutually benefit from joining each other’s communities and introducing their respective consumers to another brand that may have similar values–

170

“Felix House.” YanYan Knits. https://yanyanknits.com/pages/felix-house “Felix House.” Felix House. https://www.imfelixhouse.com/ 171 Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

172 Ibid.

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once again highlighting Anderson’s imagined communities. Importantly, while YanYan’s collaborations are mostly virtual, they continue to facilitate digital community and collaborations. Collaborating with those with similar backgrounds or understanding of their ethos allows YanYan to spread their brand community to the right people–those who will appreciate what their brand is about, allowing them to naturally share the brand.

As Coelho highlights that a clear brand community helps one find where they belong and where they feel seen, customers share the brand organically as part of their discovery.

Chan questions whether or not there even is a community surrounding their brand.

It is not something Chan nor Chung planned on, yet they are aware of the way their designs can be relatable to a large number of people, regardless of their cultural heritage.173 As self-proclaimed “weird teenage girls growing up,” Chan and Chung always felt like outsiders and now enjoy creating pieces and connecting with people who may have a similar aesthetic.174 With many elements of their designs and brand drawn from their own personal life experiences, YanYan Knits seems to be a rebirth of Chan and Chung’s past experiences. Aware of how their designs can be relatable to people due to their sense of nostalgia, Chan believes this feeling exists regardless of where one is from or what their ethnicity is–“Sometimes our designs remind them of their grandmothers, or visiting their relatives in Hong Kong or Asia. Sometimes it’s just a general sense of nostalgia.”175 Their location in Hong Kong is crucial to their design practices and where they feel the most at home, a sentiment that is embodied in their design. Hoping to connect

173

Ibid.

Ibid.

175 Ibid.

174

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with like-minded individuals and create a more sustainable fashion cycle, YanYan Knits seeks out its community through their authentic and honest portrayal of their production methods, sourcing, and inspiration. All of these not only translate to their design but are clear from the ethos of their brand, hoping to create “fun, eclectic pieces that juxtapose modern and traditional elements.”176 With their experiences in both Hong Kong and America, they draw from their personal experience to create pieces that are emotional and thoughtful, echoing their inspiration from grandmas and grandpas. Based on their habitus, they create a community through their own experiences, seeking those who are likeminded. They emphasize the way their elders affect and influence them, reiterating the foundational value of filial piety of Chinese society. Their connection to their elders and to Hong Kong is embodied through the notably Cantonese elements in their design, allowing their customers to easily identify and distinguish them from other brands. Their community is further highlighted through their branding on social media, particularly that of Instagram, and their careful choices in collaborators.

When YanYan Knits first started in 2019, Chan and Chung were quite worried about being too ethnic–“In the current political climate, do people really want to wear their ethnicity on their sleeve?”177 This fear, like much of their predecessors and likely their successors, continues to plague emerging Chinese designers.178 While Chan and Chung believe there is no right or wrong answer to this question, they did not want their brand to be a gimmick or a trend, but maintain that creators should feel the freedom to create and that Western aesthetic does not always have to be the norm.179 By doing so,

176

“About YanYan.” YanYan Knits. https://yanyanknits.com/pages/about Chan, Phyllis. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York (Remote), January 10th, 2022.

178 Ibid.

179 Ibid.

177

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they broadened the space for Chinese designers to experiment and express themselves in the way that they see fit to their personal lives and upbringing, regardless of whether or not that is immediately recognizable as Chinese. Through their design practice, YanYan extends the practice and expands the ability of Chinese designers to be diverse and multifaceted, destabilizing the Western dominated sphere of fashion. Though YanYan highlights their heritage in several of their pieces and prints, that is not the only thing that draws people into their designs and community–they rather want to create clothing that is “fun, cute, quirky, and emotional” as reflective of their own experiences and personal stories.180 Chan and Chung emphasize the fact that it is not up to someone else, no matter who in the fashion sphere, to decide whether or not their Chinese heritage and culture is “cool” or not.181 Despite not intentionally setting out to build a community around their brand, YanYan naturally creates their brand community by staying transparent and honest throughout their production and creation processes, drawing customers and creators who see themselves reflected within the brand’s ethos and designs. By doing so, they actualize Coelho’s pillars of brand community by highlighting a shared consciousness of kind and committing to their morals and obligations to society.182

Case Study 2: Bobblehaus: From URL to IRL Though YanYan Knits did not intentionally set out to build a community, Bobblehaus was created with a community in mind. When Ophelia Chen, Bobblehaus’ co-founder and CEO, first began to conceptualize the brand, she knew that she wanted it

180

Ibid.

Ibid.

182 Coelho, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services.

181

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to serve the Asian American and Asian diasporic community. Chen found her partner in Abi Lierheimer, who studied fashion design at the Savannah College of Art and Design before working as an associate designer at streetwear brands like Kith. After being introduced through mutual friends, they quickly became a team with Chen as CEO (Chief Executive Officer) and Lierheimer as CCO (Chief Creative Officer). Both believed in community-based and community-led spaces for the new generation, and hoped to focus on “collaborations from multicultural and multidisciplinary creatives.”183 Bobblehaus, derived from the combination of the words “Bobblehead” and “Bauhaus,” references Bauhaus design movement and the fun object of a Bobblehead.184 Hoping to imbue the sense of entertainment and joy with that of practical design, Bobblehaus not only hopes to create clothing that could be integral and embodied in everyday lives, but also a safe space for future generations to share their voices. The word “haus” too is intentional–phonetically similar to the word “house,” from which Chan and Lieheimer hoped to “build the community the founder’s craved for at a younger age, and still crave now.”185 Bobblehaus debuted with BobbleBogs–a digital journal aimed at sharing personal stories and experiences from multicultural individuals in art, music, fashion, entertainment, lifestyle and people. BobbleBlogs formed the initial foundation of Bobblehaus, uplifting “global youth perspectives on issues and cultural moments important to them.”186 As Anderson notes, a community begins its foundations with the 183

“About.” Bobblehaus. https://bobblehaus.com/about/ Chen, Ophelia. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York, October 17th, 2021.

185 Press Club. “Genderless Brand BOBBLEHAUS Debuts with Elevated, Sustainable Streetwear Line.”

Fashion United. May 13th, 2020. https://fashionunited.com/press/fashion/genderless-brand-bobblehausdebuts-with-elevated-sustainable-streetwear-line/2020051333528 186 “Spring Stories: Meet Bobblehaus.” Spring Place NY. https://springplaceny.spaces.nexudus.com/en/blog/read/1333988693/spring-stories--meet-bobblehaus 184

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written word, uniting them under common language and therefore common culture, making the first communal imaginings possible.187 With contributors from London to Jakarta to San Francisco, the journal invites “experiences and feelings that might have been hidden from the public to be in the spotlight for the world to read.”188 This foundation also allows them to form a shared consciousness, in which they would be able reach their community of like-minded individuals. The stories that resonated are of those who lived in between cultures and apces–those who were multicultural, diasporic, and struggling to juggle their multiple identities: Bobblehaus’ target audience. While each contributor provides something unique and unreplicable, they formulate the basis of a diasporic group of voices, creating their own community in which all are and can be accepted. Bobbleblogs gave a foundation for people to participate in the community even before clothing was introduced. As a building block to the community, the written blogs allowed Bobblehaus to formulate the voices and identities that they wanted to showcase while highlighting their community-based approach.

Bobblehaus officially launched its clothing line in 2020, which was designed in New York and produced in Shanghai. A genderless brand “dedicated to expressing our inner absurdities through elevated, sustainable streetwear,” Bobblehaus wishes to build a space that encouraged the “world to see the beauty in its opposites, creating a space for unity.”189 Chen only found a manufacturer and fabric sourcing agent in Shanghai in September of 2019, making a connection with a small production studio over

187

Anderson, Imagined Communities, 197.

Spring Place NY. 189 Press Club, Fashion United.

188

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Instagram.190 The production room focuses on emerging designers with no minimum fee and works under ethical production standards. Finding the right producers for Bobblehaus was crucial to their ethos as, much like YanYan, sustainability is a core part of their brand, highlighting the importance of caring for their producers and sourcing the right fabrics. Sustainability is a non-negotiable for Bobblehaus, as Chen and Lieheimer both value sustainability as a personal value. Translating their personal values to their brand ethos, Bobblehaus too cares for both people and the environment in their production to consumption process as well as their material. This too forms their obligations and duties to society that they want to imbue in their community.

The first Bobblehaus collection dropped in mid-March in 2020, just as New York went into lockdown due to the COVID pandemic. Bobblehaus stems from a desire for change: for “more inclusivity, more empowerment, more positivity, more sustainability, as well as an ec-conscious mindset into the industry.”191 With care for the environment and sustainability as key pillars of their brand identity, the majority of Bobblehaus’ designs utilize deadstock fabric, recycled cotton, or Tencel, their signature fabric made from recycled wood chips.192 While Bobblehaus initially planned to create a physical pop-up in Soho for their launch, this was quickly switched to a digital-only launch that debuted on their website.193 The ability to switch quickly to the digital realm is one that is possible due to the digital landscape of both the world and the fashion sphere, which allows for flexibility in location for current emerging brands. Compared to their 190

Prant, Dara. “Bobblehaus Makes the Colorful Comfy Clothes that Our Quarantine Closets Crave.”

Fashionista. August 11th, 2020. https://fashionista.com/2020/08/bobblehaus-genderless-label 191 Ibid.

192 “Bobblehaus is a regenerative clothing brand that sources from excess fabric around the world.” In the Know by Yahoo. October 19, 2021. https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/bobblehaus-regenerative-clothingbrand-sources-164503385.html 193 Prant, Fashionista.

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predecessors like Opening Ceremony, the necessity to maintain a brick and mortar store is not necessarily needed for a store that has a strong e-commerce base. YanYan Knits too opted for this strategy for its launch, and despite having had pop-ups in Japan and stock at Nordstorm, their website remains a main feature for customers to purchase from.

With websites, Instagram and online retail stores, selling platforms not tied to place are where many designers now start their brands without the pressure of a physical store.

This also enables their customer base to grow in various ways, allowing for a more diverse and worldly community.

Bobblehaus’ collection features hoodies, cotton shorts, and a large amount of matching sets. Though Lieheimer’s background is in streetwear, she does not want Bobblehaus to only be categorized as such–“We’re more thoughtful than that; we use all of the sustainable fabrics and we also have a lot of technical utility details.”194 Streetwear aesthetics tend to follow a safe formula rather than being the more colorful or inclusive, and as co-founders of Chinese-American descent, they want the brand to reflect who they are in a sphere where even they are not always welcome.195

194

Ibid.

Newsdesk. “This Women Owned Brand is Disrupting Streetwear.” Tittle Press. July 13th, 2021. https://tittlepress.com/fashion/949398/ 195

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Figure 9 One of Bobblehaus’s most popular prints is the ramen print: reminiscent of the ubiquitous Nissin instant cup noodle packaging with “BH” as the key logo (Figure 9).

Designed during quarantine, the print is inspired from eating lots of ramen during lockdown as well as a reference to their Asian American heritage.196 Nissin’s cup noodles are perhaps one of the most recognizable instant ramens in America, with its roots in Japan, becoming Americanized as “Cup O’Noodles” and before quickly finding its way within the American pantry as a staple.197 The blend of Asia and America within Nissin’s cup noodle made it a suitable object to utilize as a print, but also its integration within American lives as an object of nostalgia.198 Blending their personal experience during the

196

In the Know by Yahoo.

Freedman, Alisa. “How Cup Noodles became one of the biggest transpacific business success stories of all time.” The Conversation. December 8th, 2021. https://theconversation.com/how-cup-noodles-becameone-of-the-biggest-transpacific-business-success-stories-of-all-time-167691 198 “Ramen Noodles Serve Up a Bowl of Nostalgia.” NPR. November 13th, 2009. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120360464 197

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pandemic with their cultural heritage, Lieheimer and Chen drew from their own lived experiences and habitus to showcase the symbols that are recognizable to their community. The cup noodle becomes a symbol much like the June or Laza print from YanYan–recognizable and embodying a deeper meaning to those who understand it, but still fun and accessible to those who may not connect with it. Through both the inspiration and the design of the piece, Bobblehaus markets itself clearly to its community through the ramen print while representing their own identities.

Figure 10 While the ramen print has a clear and identifiable cultural linkage, not every piece in Bobblehaus’ collection incorporates such direct design elements immediately recognizable to its customers. Their capsule collections feature pieces that draw inspiration from nature’s four elements of earth, fire, air, and water, highlighting their

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core value of sustainability. Reiterating the basis of Chinese harmony, sustainability to Bobblehaus points to balance between human beings and nature, individual and society, and mind and body.199 Their graphics highlight elements that may not be so transparent in their design, as seen in Figure 10 in the water capsule, in which the model is water bending. The capsule itself features lime green mesh shirts and turquoise sweat sets, which may not be immediately associated with water. This provides a contrast to YanYan Knits, in which their cultural heritage is immediately visible in their designs. However, the way that Bobblehaus markets their products on social media clearly features its inspiration, with an Instagram post announcing the capsule with the caption, “Water 水 is the element of change.”200 Each of the elements are presented in this way on their ecommerce site and social media: the fire capsule shows the models encased in projection of flames, the earth capsule features Chen amongst a digitally created island filled with palm trees and foliage, and the air capsule, created with 3D animation, presents a girl skydiving in the collection. Much like YanYan, they curate images carefully in order to connect to their customers. By highlighting their inspirations within the images they present on social media and e-commerce, they invite their customers into their world and provide context for their designs, making them more understandable to their audience.

Rather than keeping their inspirations and processes a myth, they publically showcase their inspirations and values, putting their identities on view and embodying Hall’s representation. They showcase that their creation is a collaborative effort rather than a singular designer or creator. This also creates transparency in their work, allowing their customers to understand both the brand’s identity and perspective, relating nature back to 199 200

Zhang, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2013.

“Bobblehaus.” Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/bobblehaus/

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their core pillar of sustainability. At the same time, this emphasizes their ethos: sustainability is not “a brand’s key selling point” but rather something that should be fundamental within a brand.201 Sustainability, to Bobblehaus as much as YanYan Knits, is not a gimmick or a selling point but rather a foundational value within their brand ethos, and they present this clearly to their audience to attract those who share similar values. While this can be related back to the Chinese communal ideals of caring for the environment as much as living beings, the drive to sustainability is also felt in the fashion industry in general as clothing waste has become a huge problem and contention within the 21st century.202 As it becomes increasingly clear that fashion’s effects on the environment are dire, more and more brands within the currency sphere of fashion are focused on sustainable clothing and practices. Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits are no exception, but they embody it as a core value.

Bobblehaus also routinely interacts with the social issues that are happening within their community, particularly those in America and New York, where they are partly based. The fire capsule, designed with white mesh shirts and sweat shorts are all colorways of bold orange, yellow, and red.203 These colors reference their inspiration of fire, and the caption for the release of the fire capsule directly calls out the wildfires raging through California in August 2021 and points to resources for more understanding on climate change. Bobblehaus continually interacts with its community and social issues

201

Newsdesk, Tittle Press.

Prant, Fashionista.

202 McFall-Johnsen, Morgan. “The fashion industry emits more carbon than international flights and maritime shipping combined. Here are the biggest ways it impacts the planet.” Business Insider. October 21st, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/fast-fashion-environmental-impact-pollution-emissionswaste-water-2019-10 203 B., Adriano. “Bobblehaus Set to Release Third Summer Capsule.” Fucking Young. August 19th, 2021. https://fuckingyoung.es/bobblehaus-set-to-release-third-summer-capsule-fire-%E7%81%AB/

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surrounding it through its designs and social media, highlighting their brand’s social consciousness and reiterating their obligations to society publicly to unite their community. From sharing the UN climate report in their socials to creating Stop Asian Hate t-shirts, Bobblehaus continually thinks of ways to utilize design and clothing to connect to greater issues within their community. The Stop Asian Hate t-shirts were released in April of 2021 when anti-Asian hate related to the COVID pandemic in New York was on a rise, and Bobblehaus donated all proceeds to UA3 in Chinatown to support the Stop Asian Hate effort (Figure 11). As Chen believes clothing is a part of your personality and identity, Bobblehaus incorporates both the written word and fashion to spotlight hidden or unheard voices, and this is also why they continually support and participate in these social issues. Similar to their core value of sustainability, Bobblehaus’ involvement with social issues does not feel inauthentic or at surface value, but an embodiment of their personal and community identities and a desire to highlight these voices.

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Figure 11

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Figure 12 In addition to supporting social issues, Bobblehaus also frequently collaborates with creatives in support of their events or clothing launches. One of Bobblehaus’ first launches was also in collaboration with jewelry designer Mara Peralta, in which they created chunky earrings, barrettes, and belts that blended both of their aesthetics (Figure 12). Nunahaus, their collaboration with R&B singer and rapper Audrey Nuna, is another capsule collection that showcases Bobblehaus’ desire to uplift multidisciplinary creatives.

Working closely with Nuna, highlighting her aesthetic within the collection and its following creative images, the collection features a track jacket and pants set along with a recycled cotton graphic t-shirt. Bobblehaus developed the exclusive Nunahaus and tooth print featured on the items (Figure 13), choosing a dentist office for the creative shoot to complement the tooth print. This type of close collaboration is not new to the fashion world, but it stands by Bobblehaus’ ethos to collaborate with their community and uplift Chinese American voices. Bobblehaus too actualizes what Tsui argues by broadening the landscape of Chinese designers, in which their cultural heritage does not need to take center stage. Frequent collaborations with artists such as Art of Dillon to draw digitized versions of their collection for stickers or event invitations are also a key part of their marketing and branding (Figure 14). It is crucial to note that these collaborations continue to be active, and these creatives are thus a part of Bobblehaus’ community once they have worked together. Art of Dillon has drawn for numerous of Bobblehaus’ capsules, Audrey Nuna continually wears Bobblehaus to her performances, and Mara Peralta is continually used within Bobblehaus’ photoshoots. Their imagined community continues to extend invitations, and even those who are tangentially related to Bobblehaus can feel an affinity

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towards its members despite not meeting. Even if there was one collaboration, Bobblehaus invites multidisciplinary creatives to be a part of their community regardless of purchase.

Figure 13

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Figure 14 Since Bobblehaus’ launch, they have held three physical pop-up stores in New York’s Lower East Side. Running for around three months each, the physical pop-up stores are both a way to build community and to bridge Bobblehaus’ digital and physical spaces. Chen has always wanted to create experiences, particularly in physical spaces, and incorporated various events sprinkled throughout the openings of their pop-up store.204 From holding launch parties to DIY lounges, Bobblehaus creates events that allow the community to gather. Chen and Lieheimer also act as sales associates within the store, as young designers running small businesses often do, interacting with their customers on a daily basis. The pop-ups allow for customers to finally experience and touch Bobblehaus’ garments in person rather than browsing online, forming a different relationship to the clothes and brand. The tactile nature of the pop-up shop lets customers

204

Chen, Ophelia. Interview by Yin Chin Casey Huang. New York, October 17th, 2021.

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experience the brand in person while meeting its designers and founders, creating a deeper connection to the brand. Pop-ups also enable customers to meet and connect with each other, which allows the bridging of digital and physical communities. For young emerging designers, pop-ups are more financially feasible, hence why many begin with a digital community before gaining enough visibility and financial grounding to move to a physical store.

Though Instagram is Bobblehaus’ main form of social media, they also have a presence on TikTok and hope to expand further within the virtual world. With a “virtual Bobbleworld” as a goal, Chen hopes to introduce more interactive virtual realities in which participants can have virtual avatars and 3D characters.205 Bobblehaus’ digital community cannot be separated from its Bobbleblogs, as it also gives voices to those who were previously unheard. As Bobblehaus’ target audience is a young, multicultural crowd, it creates images and worlds that appeal to customers that are more based within the digital realm. The decision to utilize TikTok also falls in line with the current trend and popularity of the social media app amongst Generation Z users, of whom make up 60% of TikTok’s demographic.206 With a variety of outlets for their audience to find their preferred voice and alignment, Bobblehaus gives a multitude of ways for their consumers to further participate within their community. Though clothing is a central pillar of their brand, they also emphasize many other outlets to outreach to a bigger community. Their customers are further able to experiment within the world at their own desire, selecting how they want to interact with the brand naturally without pressure to necessarily

205

Ibid.

“TikTok Statistics - Updated March 2022.” Wallaroo. March 8th, 2022. https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/

206

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purchase a garment. The brand community thus forms organically with its user’s desires, even forming little pockets of sub-communities within the greater community for those interacting with their blogs, clothes, community events, or all of its aspects.

Bobblehaus holds the same goals as YanYan–to create an inclusive and positive brand that accepts all those who wish to come to it. They also seek to be positive and to create a change within the industry–Lierheimer and Chen are “two people who have a really deep heritage and deep cultural knowledge of what [they] want to do different[ly],” and firmly believe that the community is where their ultimate strength it, as “the right people will grow the brand where it belongs.”207 Much like YanYan, they have faith that their community will come to them naturally and understand their perspective. As Chen and Lieheimer had a clear focus on community from the inception of Bobblehaus, the design, social media, blogs, and collaborations of the brand all aid in creating a common space that centered on inclusion and uplifting diverse voices. Their collaborations with musicians and artists also continually help them create a community that is more than just a label. By opening space for their community, they provide a new platform for their users to share their voices in a myriad of ways.

207

Newsdesk, Tittle Press.

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CONCLUSION This thesis aims to understand how two emerging Chinese brands embody the value of community within their brand conception, brand identity, design products and other forms of social media or marketing. YanYan modernizes traditional Chinese elements and draws from their personal lives to showcase that their culture is an integral part of their lives and not to be exoticized, decolonizing the Western gaze and reinterpreting what it means to be a modern Chinese knitwear brand. Bobblehaus opens up the dialogue both through the written word and clothing to highlight Asian diasporic and Asian American voices, giving them a space to share and grapple with their thoughts and identities while seeking their community. With their Chinese heritage as a core to the brands that they are building, both YanYan Knits and Bobblehaus organically form their brand community through their designs and identity. Incorporating their own personal values and lived experiences into their brand identities, both brands display their production and development process honestly to its customers, allowing their customers to decide if this is a brand they feel their values and identities reflected. Through this process, they also showcase the collaborative nature of fashion, of which production, distribution, and marketing are all part of. With brands becoming increasingly more ingrained within lifestyle and political views, YanYan and Bobblehaus clearly display what they stand for whether it is on their designs or on their social media. This incorporation of the digital sphere within their community parallels the rise of technology within fashion, as more and more brands integrate not only social media but virtual worlds and livestream shopping into their fashion experience.

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By building their brand ethos and products around what is most authentic to the founders and designers, both Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits create transparent and unique brand identities that stem organically from their lived experiences. Whether it is YanYan’s strong tie to their home of Hong Kong or Bobblehaus’ inspiration and experience from their own multicultural identity experiences, both brands create based on what they know and wish to see changed in the industry. They hope that their customers relate to them and feel the same as they do in some way, and this practice organically attracts a community of like-minded people. While YanYan’s community is central through its design elements and collaborations, Bobblehaus’ highlights their community through its blogs and pop-up stores. For both, collaborations with artists or friends are not just a part of their cultural background but also the current sphere of fashion, in which all are looking to connect and reach out to each other especially following the pandemic period. Both utilize social media as a way to attract and interact with their community, but their community values are fundamental within the brand. Though the two approaches vary, this very notion showcases how diverse Chinese designers can be in terms of showcasing design, heritage, and community.

Increasingly, Chinese designers are decolonizing and reinterpreting what it means to be a Chinese designer within the Western generated and dominated fashion sphere. By taking up space and creating their community, they show that they too have a rightful place within the fashion system that does not need to center Western design. Their community values are fundamental within their brand, as is their dedication to sustainability and transparency, which is increasingly necessary in today’s fashion system. Reflective of the world at large, fashion’s move towards the digital sphere is

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directly related to the integral part of technology within our lives. As e-commerce has become a staple within fashion and cemented into our daily lives, this opens up opportunities for young emerging designers to form foundations of their brand and reach a larger customer base, thereby allowing more diverse up and coming designers to showcase their perspectives. As designers have diverse backgrounds and approaches to design and retail, it is indeed unrealistic to apply a collective identity to them.208 Fashion can be symbolic of a nation’s complex culture and history, and with a nation that is as diverse as China, this can be embodied in a myriad of ways. Much like Bobblehaus and YanYan Knits, new designers wish to bring something new and different to the industry, and the shift towards community points to the desire to not only purchase clothing based on appearance but also based upon a brand’s identity, community, and stance on social and personal issues. Branding reflects and embodies the personal identities of its designers and consumers, translating them to clothing and lifestyle. Choosing what to sell, make or consume all provides an opportunity to display oneself to others in a specific identity or preference, “performing difference or alliance through dress simultaneously [as] an act of politics and of self-making.”209

208

Wu, Juanjuan, Yue Hu, Lei Xu, and Marilyn R. DeLong, Fashion in Multiple Chinas, 90.

Niessen, Sandra, Anne Marie Leshkowish and Carla Jones. “Globalization of Asian Dress.” ReOrienting Fashion: The Globalization of Asian Dress. New York: Berg, 2013, 22.

209

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