As the global fashion industry transitions into the Year of the Fire Horse, luxury conglomerates are moving beyond literal zodiac prints to embrace deep cultural narratives and experience-led engagement. Following a year where personal luxury sales reached $1.5 trillion, brands like Loewe and Dior are leveraging high-fidelity storytelling to capture a more discerning Gen Z demographic. Loewe’s collaboration with the Shanghai Animation Film Studio, featuring an animated short voiced by brand ambassador Wang Yibo, exemplifies this shift towards ‘emotional value’ over volume logic. This strategic pivot is essential as China’s luxury market shows signs of a cautious, uneven recovery, with a projected growth in the low single digits for 2026 following a 3 per cent to 5 per cent contraction in the previous fiscal year.
Performance data and the rise of ‘aspirational luxury’
Despite macroeconomic headwinds, the Lunar New Year remain a formidable commercial engine, with global consumer spending during this period estimated to exceed $1.5 trillion. While ultra-high-net-worth individuals continue to drive demand for ‘absolute luxury’ items -such as the Baccarat-decanted Martell Zodiac Edition - brands like Coach and Ralph Lauren are successfully capturing the ‘aspirational’ segment. These players are benefiting from a market correction where aggressive price escalation has stalled, allowing ‘affordable luxury’ to gain significant traction. Furthermore, digital-first initiatives, including Tencent and Baidu’s 1.5 billion yuan red envelope campaigns and interactive WeChat mini-programs from Kering Group, are bridging the gap between traditional festive gifting and modern e-commerce, ensuring brand visibility in a highly competitive ‘Red Ocean’ of seasonal advertising.
Lunar New Year retail dynamics
The Lunar New Year is a global commercial peak driving double-digit growth in goods and services across the Asia-Pacific region. Fashion brands utilize this window to launch exclusive capsule collections, often blending traditional motifs with modern silhouettes. With Gen Z’s global spending power nearing $400 billion, retailers are increasingly focusing on authenticity and local craftsmanship to maintain long-term consumer loyalty in a stabilizing Chinese market.
