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Vera Wang's Chinese customers must pay to try on dresses
Customers at New York Fashion Week designer Vera Wang's new Shanghai store charged £320 to try on her designs.
BY Belinda White | 25 March 2013
Photo: PA
Customers at U.S. fashion designer Vera Wang's latest store in Shanghai are in for a shock if they think they can just pop in and try on a dress.
In a move aimed at protecting her exclusive designs being openly accessible to Chinese counterfeiters, patrons will be hit with a 3,000 Yuan (£320) bill for trying on gowns, and expected to book an appointment 'several weeks' in advance, Global Times reports.
The charge will buy potential customers a 90-minute slot in the changing room, and should they then purchase anything, the cost is deducted from the sale price - otherwise it is non-refundable.
This is the first time Wang, who has created wedding dresses for stars including Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez, Lily Aldridge (above) and Alicia Keys, and whose eveningwear designs are a firm fixture on the red carpet's of Hollywood, has imposed such a charge at any of her 17 global flagship stores, although the practice is said to be becoming more commonplace in China.
Born in New York to Chinese parents, Wang's gowns retail in Shanghai for between £3,000 and £30,000, and with over 80 designs on show, the struggle to protect her exclusive designs will also extend to a ban on customers taking photos or filming in store.
While the counterfeit business in China is a very real threat to creative industries however, we can totally see this system catching on in other locations. After all, what better to way keep all those time-wasting wedding fantasists who like nothing more than posing as a bride-to-be so they can slip on a meringue at bay?
Vera Wang cancels fitting fees following criticism
by Xu Junqian
Vera Wang called off the fitting fee policy at her Shanghai flagship store on Wednesday, less than two months after it was established at the newly opened store.
The policy triggered a wave of criticism on the Internet.
Wang's Chinese store, the largest in the world, was the only store to impose a surcharge of 3,000 yuan ($483) to try on an unrestricted number of dresses for one and a half hour, an attempt to prevent counterfeiters from copying models.
"Yes, the fee was abolished this morning, after we were told to do so by our American headquarters," a spokeswoman for Vera Wang China told China Daily, adding that the decision was to "unify global services standard."
Fittings of gowns costing $3,000 to $30,000 are still by appointment only at the China store, as elsewhere.
The company's spokeswoman predicted that the waiting days for fittings may become much longer as the store's reception capacity is "limited ".
