LUXURY
THE FUTURE 100 161
During China’s 2021 National Day holiday, a market in Shanghai became
the center of a social media frenzy. Thousands descended on the Wuzhong wet market in the former French Concession to buy fruit, vegetables and
eggs—but these basic foodstuffs were encased in Prada-branded wrapping and carrier bags.
The high-low pop-up celebrated the launch of Prada’s fall/winter 2021
campaign “Feels Like Prada.” This could be seen as a successful marketing
campaign—selfies abounded and stallholders ran out of bags and wrap—or a sign of gentrification, or, as Zhu Tianhua, an assistant researcher at Shanghai
Academy of Social Sciences, told Sixth Tone, “a kind of consumerism of daily
Austere luxe
Luxury brands are recalibrating in the face of China’s “common prosperity” policy.
life.” However it is viewed, the campaign struck an appropriately austere chord at a time when the world continues to grapple with crises from COVID-19 to climate change to yawning economic inequity.
In mid-2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping, after a months-long crackdown on the country’s biggest technology firms, announced a new “common prosperity” policy, urging businesses and entrepreneurs to narrow the country’s wealth gap.
