British luxury brand Burberry celebrated the launch of its new Shanghai flagship store, Burberry Kerry Centre, by bringing the spirit, creativity and heritage of the brand from its hometown of London into the heart of Shanghai, China.
Celebrating with a global audience, over 1500 guests, including Jamie Campbell Bower, Chen Kun, Vicki Zhao, Guey Lun Mei, Xia Yu, Chen Ran, Dou Xiao, Huo Siyan, Angelababy, Carine Lau, Ke Zheng Dong, Lin Chilling and Du Juan, followed a paved London street flanked by city street lamps into the auditorium of a cinematic theatre style set.
On the banks of the Huangpu River, the custom-built venue in the Shanghai Shipyard features handcrafted elements inspired by the brand’s global flagship, 121 Regent Street, which was originally the site of one of the first cinemas in London.
The evocative space, a nod to the golden age of cinema, became the backdrop for an immersive journey through the Burberry worlds of Britishness, heritage, music and fashion and the brand’s story unfolded in a series of emotive, musical scenes, featuring the Burberry family of musicians, models and dancers, blurring the physical distance between London and Shanghai with digital technology.
The event is the start of a multi-year programme of investment activity in the city and wider region. In a year of transformation for Burberry in Shanghai, the brand opened four new stores in the city completed by the new Burberry Kerry Centre. The brand has stores in 36 cities in China.
The event also marked the start of a new collaboration with the Alibaba Group with the opening of the official Burberry Tmall.com store, offering the purest articulation of the Burberry brand on any of the Alibaba platforms to date. A luxury brand first, the collaboration reflects a shared commitment to offering Chinese consumers the best luxury experiences.
