Shanghai LOFT's Madame Ma

LIFE & STYLE

Fashion
Thursday, 03 December 2009 06:12
Written by Xinlei Wang

Shanghai LOFT, located at 508 Jiashan Road, is a lifestyle center and urban landmark converted from old factories belonging to the Shanghai Three Gun Knitting Garment Company. Best known for hosting the Shanghai International Fashion Week, this new creative zone has become a focal point of the city’s fashion industry. In this issue, LOFT’s Madame Ma provides a peep over the factory wall.

Who is the major developer of LOFT?
Shanghai No. 1 Textile Group.

What is the design concept behind LOFT?
Our principal designer is Filippo Gabbian, the designer of Bund 18. The concept is to transform industrial heritage into a new urban fashion zone.

There seems to be a rising trend to use abandoned factory spaces for new urban development. What do you think is the major difference between LOFT and other creative zones, for instance 1933 or Taikang Lu?
Every creative zone has its own focus. For example, Taikang Lu is an old Lilong containing both residential housing and creative shops, that’s what makes it distinctive. For our part, we have a long history in China’s textile industry. This place used to host the famous national brand “Three Gun,” producing the highest-quality textile products in the country. That makes the place itself into something of a museum for Chinese textiles. So when we started to develop it in 2006, we already realized that this history was a very precious resource, and that we should build our image based on this distinctive background, which is to say, we were aiming to create a fashion hub based around textile products and their related side industries, such as photo studios, fashion design companies, PR consultants, branding companies, events planners, and others. We hope people understand that textile products are no longer the kind of things found in their grandmothers’ closets. They can be fashionable, too!

What proportion of the space has been rented so far?
So far, about 75% of the available space has been occupied by selected stores, while the office space is more than 90% occupied.

What’s your plan to “re-brand” textile products?
Currently, a 6,000-square-meter “Designer Community” is already under construction. This will serve as a platform for local designers to showcase their ideas. We also have a three-year plan with each design group. For the first two years, we offer a very favorable price and policies to help the design group grow. We also offer them multiple opportunities to showcase their products at various fashion events. In the meantime, the best designers are rewarded and the best design pieces given the chance to shine on the international stage, such as at Tokyo Fashion Week. You know, this can save designers a lot of time in their career development. By the third year, the best designers can stay in the community by signing another contract, while the bad ones exit. By encouraging competition, we are hoping that in the future LOFT will discover and hold onto a group of the best young fashion designers in Shanghai, as well as becoming a seedbed for China’s own fashion brands.