Chinese fashion magazines: Rouge Fashion Book and others

China is close. But above all China is a candidate to become the greatest superpower even in fields where the old world and Italy in particular continue to defend themselves only on the strength of old glories of the past. Among them, fashion.

From the 1980s onwards, with the death of Mao and the end of rigid statism, China and its billions of citizens, as it was well described a few years ago on D di Repubblica, in fashion they first saw an explosion of colors and eclectic chaos and today they are reaching noteworthy levels of maturity and self-determination. The 90s, those to be clear of the Chinese who came here to copy, the renewed condition of semi-liberty in a dictatorial regime and the desire for social redemption made a poor but totally colorful, bold, eclectic and questionable style explode in the great continent . The ostentation of Western freedom created a jumble of styles that certainly could not be envied by those who still dominated and dictated the trends of the sector. 

Today, the Chinese condition is more mature and a small part of that population has managed to enrich themselves so much that they can rightfully enter that slice of the globetrotter world that moves for a vernissage in Paris, a fashion show in New York and a dinner gala in Milan, something is changing. For some years, Chinese fashion has been creating its own style, more iconic and structured, able to draw on what happens in the great European or American houses, but to interpret trends according to its own specific style. The Chinese designer is a niche figure who was trained in academies around the world, but he wants to try to be recognized in that homeland that today represents the largest potential market in the world. 

Beyond the many fashion magazines that have been present for years and have their editorial products translated into Chinese, such as Vogue or Elle, even on the independent magazine scene there is a lot of excitement.

In this world, in our assortment we wanted and looked for an independent publishing product that could have its own recognition in this very particular market. And we found it in Rouge Fashion Book. Two-year product nearing the publication of its fourth edition, written in English and Mandarin Chinese but largely made up of photographs, and defined MOOK (Magazine is Book) by its own authors. In our video you can taste the very particular 3-door opening held together by an elastic band in edition number 3 currently available in our catalog.

Rouge, with 9,200 copies sold worldwide every 2 years (data provided from Rouge Fashion Book in its media kit), is also recognized by many international press as one of the cult products in Chinese fashion. As its own editors state, it took a trick to be able to publish it also in China, avoiding editorial censorship also applied by the current government. In particular, Rouge is published in Mandarin and American, with the international ISBN code, which allows the magazine to be distributed in China but only in some special points authorized for the sale of foreign editorial material. 

After the elastic band that closes it and opened the cover, inside there are 8 editorials and 2 cover stories on the theme of the edition. Additionally each release features two advertorial, or a presentation of products accompanied by a detailed journalistic examination of these. In this edition the advertorials were produced in collaboration with Gucci (the previous edition featured a collaboration with Chanel).

Rouge is a point of reference in the world of luxury fashion and aspires to become a cult object as well as in fashion and the art of fashion. Scrolling through the list of who is behind it, from the youngest New York Fashion Week designer Calvin Luo (Creative Director), to Dora Fung Market Director who previously held this role at Yahoo Style, up to the Editor in Chief Lily Chou, formed in various American fashion academies, there are the conditions for Rouge to become a real cult object in the world of fashion and beyond.