At Chinese handbag brand Songmont’s first overseas store, a pop-up in Bangkok’s CentralWorld shopping center, Nathan from India was buying for his girlfriend back home. The 29-year-old stood out from the crowd with his bright yellow suede trainers from Shanghai-based designer Pane.
It took a lot to get those shoes to India: Nathan said he had to use a transshipment service to deliver them via London. But the effort was worth it: “They are the most comfortable pair of shoes I’ve ever owned. And they just look really good.”
His willingness to tap into emerging brands from China is exactly what those companies are hoping for as they step up growth overseas. A young and trend-conscious consumer base is setting up Southeast Asia to be a testing ground for Chinese premium and luxury brands’ international expansion.
The global luxury sector, with China being the second largest market after the US, has only recently recovered from a yearslong downturn driven almost entirely by collapsing demand in China. Personal spending on luxury goods there shrank 20.1% in 2024 and another 7.3% in 2025, according to Bain & Company.
Persistent weakness in domestic consumer demand has pushed Chinese companies to look for growth abroad, with their overseas profit contribution doubling in the past decade to 16% in 2025. International markets also accounted for 26% of their total revenue last year, according to HSBC.
Just as it did with cars and consumer electronics such as TVs, China is using its decades of experience manufacturing for foreign brands to help it conquer overseas markets with its own luxury goods.
“Lots of luxury goods are made or assembled in China, but they’re not designed in China. The idea of Chinese brands drawing on the talent and skills of Chinese people to actually design and make in China, that’s quite an interesting story,” said Liam Bailey, global head of real estate consultancy Knight Frank’s research department, adding, “The luxury sector is as ripe for disruption as any other.”
Southeast Asia offers a growing market for luxury goods, with the number of ultra rich in the region projected to jump in the coming years.
Five of the 20 global economies set to see the largest increase in the number of people with a net worth of over USD 30 million by 2031 are in Southeast Asia, according to research by Knight Frank. Indonesia ranked top of the list with a projected 82% increase, while Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand also made the top 20.
Geographic and cultural proximity also help. Hong Kong-headquartered jewelry group Chow Tai Fook said countries in the region share similar cultures and it aims to increase its overseas stores from 55 to 100 by 2030.
“Southeast Asia represents huge growth potential for our brand, driven by its deep cultural affinity for gold and jewelry, strong overseas Chinese communities and robust tourist flows,” said Gabriela Ferreira, Chow Tai Fook’s general manager. She also noted a large youthful population and rapidly growing middle class as adding to the region’s appeal.
The company opened its first boutique in Thailand in May, at the Siam Paragon luxury mall in the heart of Bangkok, launching its new Dawn jewelry collection at an event attended by Chinese and Thai celebrities.
Meanwhile, US tariffs have made some Chinese companies turn to Southeast Asia as another option. Cosmetics maker Florasis said it has diversified international investments as market conditions evolved. Founded in the Chinese tech hub of Hangzhou, Florasis makes cosmetics incorporating traditional Chinese medicine ingredients and uses designs inspired by ancient Chinese mythology.
The brand’s foray into the US in 2021 has made that market a major source of overseas revenue, while entering Southeast Asia last year has proved successful, with Vietnam becoming its fastest-growing market.
Sales volume grew 20 times in Vietnam from 2024 to 2025, according to Gabby Chen, president of global markets at Florasis.
The brand’s first flagship store in Vietnam is now “in the pipeline,” but its approach is always e-commerce first, she said. Its intricately designed makeup containers helped make it a hit among beauty bloggers on TikTok.
“We are one of the top 10 e-commerce brands for Vietnam TikTok, Vietnam Shopee, and we just established our Vietnam official website. We also have a Vietnamese-language Facebook as well. This is all localized service,” she said.
Chinese brands are generally well-versed at building up a following overseas through social media platforms such as ByteDance’s TikTok, and this can prime the pump for an official launch in a new market.
To Summer, a perfumer founded in Beijing which uses Asian herbal elements as the basis of many of its scents, opened its first branch in Hong Kong last September. Around 60–70% of customers are from overseas, including Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan, according to the Hong Kong store manager.
“Many of our overseas customers found out about us through TikTok,” he said. “Some are tourists who have marked our store as one of their must-visits in the city.”
For cognoscenti, Chinese brands often bring a freshness and new creativity to their products. Until recently, high-end winemaking in China was dominated by major foreign vintners who made a product that was of good quality but a little predictable, according to Ottara Pyne, portfolio manager at Thailand-based wine importer Wine Garage.
Newer Chinese-managed vineyards often offer something more interesting. Wine Garage stocks bottles from Silver Heights, a winery in Ningxia that uses well-known grape varieties. “But done in China, where you have a unique terroir, a unique climate … they’re a little bit unexpected,” said Pyne.
Bold innovation also draws in buyers. At Red Army Watches, an independent watch retailer in Singapore, up to one-third of its products are Chinese brands.
These “generate a disproportionately high level of customer interest relative to their numbers” through “pushing boundaries in design, storytelling and mechanical creativity”, said Sugiharto Kusumadi, Red Army’s founder.
He attributed this to Chinese brands having “fewer historical constraints” than established Western ones.
Still, for traditional watchmaking, most associated with Western craftsmanship, gaining recognition can be a challenge.
Atelier Wen describes itself as an independent Franco-Chinese watch brand that celebrates Chinese culture and craftsmanship at the highest level. But many first-time customers have a tough time understanding that the watches are fully made in China, according to co-founder Robin Tallendier.
Atelier Wen’s Perception model sells for USD 4,850 and uses an ancient engraving technique to create meticulous patterns on the dial. “The manual technique is almost extinct. When we tell customers it’s one of those dials, they would say, ‘Okay sure. But that’s made in Switzerland, right?'” Tallendier said.
Knight Frank’s Bailey argues that luxury brands need to create a backstory about their heritage and provenance to justify top-end prices. In China, domestic brands have been building cultural cachet for years, capitalizing on consumers’ desire for them to resonate with Chinese culture and aesthetics.
Social media can proliferate that sentiment globally. This year, some Americans have taken to “China-maxxing”—praising Chinese products and lifestyles.
However, companies often find they still need to adjust what they offer to consumers abroad. Chow Tai Fook’s recently launched Dawn collection is centered on the traditional Chinese motif of the four-petal flower. But it is also more restrained in its design than the company’s mainstay, the deliberately traditional Hua collection.
Traditional Chinese design lacks appeal to young people or consumers outside China, with more understated, contemporary designs preferred, according to the company.
For others, there is no longer any need to compromise.
“When my father and I released our first 10 barrels in 2007, we faced widespread skepticism. Domestic consumers favored imported French grand cru, and international critics were doubtful. Today, that mindset has completely shifted,” said Silver Heights winery owner Emma Gao.
“People are no longer asking if China can make great wine; they are asking what makes our high-desert terroir unique.”
This article first appeared on Nikkei Asia. It has been republished here as part of 36Kr’s ongoing partnership with Nikkei.