The grand opening of the luxury interior decorating brand GOHO read like a who's who of local celebrities. In fact, it features diplomats, actors such as Tang Guoqiang, Pu Cunxin, Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Guoli, local politicians and even deputy Minister of Commerce Jiang Zengwei all turned up in April to inaugurate a pavilion store its owners hope will help certify Beijing's status as a world city.
To be quite honest, It's part of Beijing's plan to build, an international commercial and trade center. The government leaders came to show their support for introducing more quality international brands to Beijing and the country.
The embassy representatives came to prove our commodities are imported, not 'substituting raccoons for princes' [a reference to a famous Song Dynasty opera]," said GOHO manager Xing Zhenqiang. Xing hailed Easyhome, at the store's North Fourth Ring Road location, as the "CBD of home decoration," home to big brand stores such as Boluoni, Illinois, Markor, and Duxiana (makers of the 50,000- yuan mattress that once astonished Lifestyle).
"The age of buying luxury furniture brands in Milan is over," declared Easyhome president Zhang Xuewu. "GOHO will be number one in the Chinese home decoration market and the new landmark for luxurious furniture brands for Beijing and China. This makes [Easyhome] the destination for luxurious brands in Beijing."
The Top Names in Home Design Furnishings
Across seven levels totaling 30,000 square meters, GOHO carries home decoration goods from over 100 top brands from the US, Italy, France, Germany and Britain, among others, including furniture (basement to second floor), sofas, children's and outdoor furniture (third), beds and carpets (fourth), kitchen cabinets, appliances, and lighting (fifth) and curtains and fabrics on the top floor. All items are 10 to 20 percent more expensive than they would be abroad due to the hefty import taxes China slaps on such goods.
When flanking the entrance of GOHO are two French brands synonymous with swanky décor: Ligne Roset and Roche Bobois. The former one, was established in 1860, has had some of its work collected by Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and won Red Dots - the most highly regarded design award in the world - several times (a typical sofa of theirs might sell for around 150,000 yuan).
The latter has been patronized by national leaders and royal families throughout its century of history. Going around GOHO, short for Gorgeous Homes, you'll see some names that are mildly less elitist, such as Kenzo and Fendi furniture, Chateau d'Ax sofas (from Italy, strangely), Polar Deck, which sells fur-based furnishings and Simmons, the second biggest US mattress manufacturer and once a name synonymous with bedding in China. Next to it is Sealy, the US' biggest.
Fancy some Eastern mysticism? Bindiya has been the purveyor of exquisite furniture to Indian royalty for years, with hand-carved engravings that sometimes take months to complete and cost hundreds of thousands of yuan apiece. On the other side of the decorating spectrum is Kartell, which sells post-modern plastic furniture in a unique style, such as their 2,000-yuan transparent chairs.
For children, most of Flexa's goods are below the 10,000 mark, which is relatively similar to domestic brands of a similar quality. However, price tags in other areas make up the difference. We spoke to a family who'd just bought two lamps at 12,000 yuan each from Italian makers Flos: "I think the price is acceptable for the value," trade company manager Zhang Yan, 30, told us. Still, some of their chandeliers can run into the hundreds of thousands.
High Expectations for a Luxury Market
Even today, it still seems as though China's upper and middle classes can sustain such costs for their interiors. While global sales of luxury products went down 8 percent last year, China saw a 12 percent increase, according to analysts Bain & Company who also predicted a growth of 20 to 35 percent over the next half-decade.
Xing seemed to share their optimism: "That's the reason for opening the GOHO pavilion, for a differentiated marketing, not a price war. We just want to attract the small group of consumers at the top of the pyramid, who can afford hundreds of thousands of yuan for a set of sofas. Since opening, our purchasers, although not large in number, were almost all
Chinese people and included movie stars, company owners and other rich people. I hope people will come here to buy big brand home decorations the way they go to Shin Kong Place or China World Shopping Mall to get their Louis Vuitton luggage. "I believe more designers will join is in the future."
Address: No. 65 Beisihuan Donglu, Chaoyang District
朝阳区北四环东路65号
Tel: 8463-9988
