Earlier this month, Chinese art collector Cherry Xu’s fashion-art foundation Cheruby — based in Shanghai — opened an exhibition and residency program with a show from fashion designer and artist Bárbara Sánchez-Kane. For the launch shoot at Cheruby House, Xu wore an oversized jacket from Korean label Open YY and a white tank from China brand Nodress to mark the occasion. “Relaxed and youthful, yet connected to the creative energy around us,” she recounts of the show.
A fan of esoteric luxury labels, the 31-year-old collector — who is on the board for Tate’s Asia-Pacific committee — supported fashion design-trained, Chinese diasporic artist Bruno Zhu’s solo show at London’s Chisenhale Gallery in 2024 dressed in an oversized Balenciaga bomber jacket and Avavav skirt; and hosted indie fashion magazine Viscose Journal’s launch at Paris Internationale last October in a men’s jacket from Enfants Riches Déprimés — tailored to fit her measurements. “For me, fashion is not just about what I wear; it’s a way of entering a space, communicating and building relationships in the art community,” Xu says. “At dinners, fairs or openings, people read your sensibility before they hear you speak. Dressing becomes a way to express curiosity, humor and respect for the context I’m stepping into.”
Xu is emblematic of a fast-expanding cohort of ultra-high-net-worth East Asian consumers deeply fluent in both art and luxury fashion. Indeed, look to any of the major art foundations, exhibition committees and museums across the globe, and you’ll immediately note that a substantial portion of listed benefactors happen to be well-clad collectors hailing from Greater China, South Korea and Japan. As the boundaries between fashion and art continue to dissolve and luxury brands double down on top-tier clientele amid a slowdown, this group represents a high-value, high-engagement consumer segment. But how can brands best meet their needs?
How brands are tapping in
Luxury houses are recognizing this consumer class as a strategic priority. In May, Zegna became global sponsor of the Art Basel fairs, including its Hong Kong outpost, to position the brand as a constant fixture. “East Asian clients value relationships built over time — a clienteling model based on trust, memory and continuity,” says Edoardo Zegna, the brand’s chief marketing officer. “When they travel between Hong Kong, Seoul [for Frieze] or Basel for art fairs and enter one of our spaces, they find a familiar sensibility.”
Art Basel chief artistic officer Vincenzo de Bellis sees East Asian collectors — from both the fashion and creative industries — as an essential part of the contemporary art ecosystem. “Their engagement not only supports artists and galleries, but also drives new forms of cultural expression and cross-disciplinary collaboration,” de Bellis says.
To this point, attendees of Art Basel Paris 2025 will have duly noted the “A-Poc Able Issey Miyake” exhibition running as a satellite event during the fair in October. It showcased a collaboration with Japanese artist Eugene Kangawa, featuring artworks made from paper and cloth. “The response exceeded our expectations,” says Yoshiyuki Miyamae, the designer behind the Issey Miyake sub-brand. “We do not set any special strategies in advance for the East Asian art community. That said, the fact remains that our brand’s practices and attitudes have resonated with many people, and as a result, members of the East Asian art community have been responding to what we do. In East Asia, in particular, there is a deep understanding of craft and textiles, and these values are rooted culturally both in art and in daily life.”
This appreciation for craft and quality beyond traditional branding or logos has crept into the art and fashion spaces over time. According to Ida Palombella, global fashion and luxury co-lead at Deloitte, many East Asian luxury consumers — after a rapid wealth spurt — have moved beyond more basic wealth accumulation into a phase where investment in art, architecture and philanthropy is a means of signaling taste, education and legacy. “To appeal to art-engaged East Asian luxury consumers, fashion and luxury brands need to present themselves less as fashion labels and more as cultural actors,” she says.
Xu, for example, favors more unconventional brands over heritage maisons. She says it’s due to her “belief in experimentation, cross-disciplinary thinking and aesthetic identities that extend beyond the garments themselves” — from Comme des Garçons (“for its intellectual rigor, structural experimentation and refusal to repeat established language”) to JW Anderson (“for the way he blends craft, image-making and cultural commentary with ease”).
Building trust
Art collectors travel frequently between art and fashion events (often by private jet) and have little time to peruse rail upon rail of clothing. So curation — in fashion as in art — is the MO. Lucrezia Seu, founder of Plush Consulting, a boutique brand strategy and marketing agency based in Shanghai, puts it simply: “Their lives are integrated ecosystems where international art fairs, private museum dinners and luxury acquisitions are interconnected facets of a single, rarefied lifestyle. Within this context, deep, trust-based relationships are paramount, making transactional interactions ineffective.”
Cherry Cheng, a Chinese art collector and founder of the Liberty-stocked perfume brand Jouissance, is a valued council member of South London art foundation Studio Voltaire — a frequent collaborator of the Loewe Foundation — and shops for fashion using a “few trusted advisors [personal shoppers from brands] who understand [her] tastes”. Cheng used to try to shop everything herself, but the sheer quantity of events — as a keen attendee of biennales and art fairs — made this difficult. “Fashion is part of how I move through these spaces,” she says. “It’s both a mode of self-expression and a tool for building relationships within the art world.”
For many East Asian high-net-worth (HNW) and ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) consumers, especially those active in art circles, relationships and trust are central, says Deloitte’s Palombella, citing the Deloitte Brand Connection survey. Per the study, East Asian consumers express high levels of trust in both big brands (64.9%) and niche brands (45.9%), but, importantly, long-term, personal connections with brand sales advisors — “those who understand their tastes, family context, social calendar and public image”.
To cater to these clients, brands can produce highly curated art-adjacent shopping experiences. Taiwanese Korean curator and strategist Evangeline Li frequently organizes art and fashion salons — where, say, 12 people attend — in Bond Street boutiques. Over the past few years, she has orchestrated a private shopping experience in the Gucci flagship art salon (which features rotating exhibitions); a Chanel fine jewelry showcase with Chinese-art focused 3812 Gallery; and a Roberto Cavalli London Fashion Week event with artist and designer Suki Wang. Li previously worked for Harrods as a fine jewelry and watch specialist in Chanel’s concession, which allowed her to build a substantial network. “I believe in Asian women in London,” she says. “We are a very small group that have the heart of entrepreneurs.”
Li — who now works as an exhibition director for London’s Upsilon Gallery — is herself a loyal Chanel shopper who understands the importance of experience on both sides. She points to East Asian gifting culture, relevant across fashion and art consumption. “For example, my clients from Asia, if they come to visit me in the gallery, they’ll bring me a bubble tea,” she says, comparing this with her Chanel sales strategy at Harrods, where she would buy a high-tier shopper a limited-edition Harrods teddy bear for their child’s birthday. “You end up becoming more like friends.”
Resonant design and positioning
Hong Kong-based art collector Jonathan Cheung co-founded art collection advisory Art-Bureau with Ed Tang in 2021. Cheung previously co-ran Hong Kong’s go-to PR agency for fashion and lifestyle events, Buzz Agency, where he built up a roster of clients, such as Prada, Miu Miu and Dior. He, too, sits on Tate’s Asia-Pacific committee. Over the past decade, Cheung has built fruitful relationships with luxury labels, notably Saint Laurent, where he buys roughly 90% of his clothes and attends runway shows as a VIC. “Going to an art fair, it’s kind of work for us,” he says. “When you’re going to these [fashion] shows as a client or as a friend, it’s really quite fun.”
Despite his penchant for Saint Laurent, Cheung highlights the Lady Dior artist collaboration handbag series as a strong example of luxury smartly engaging with the segment. The ninth project in the series aired early this year with collaborations from Chinese artists Liang Yuanwei and Huang Yuxing, Vietnamese artist Duy Anh Nhan Duc, and South Korean artist Woo Kukwon. Claudia Cheng, a curator and collector based between Hong Kong and London, also mentions the Lady Dior artist collaboration as a particular branding exercise she engages with. “I love Dior because it aligns with my interest in art and feminist storytelling,” she says, specifically highlighting the work of the previous creative director, Maria Grazia Chiuri and her approach to collaborations, in particular. “I shop in the same way I collect art: slowly, intentionally and with a deep appreciation for story, craftsmanship and emotional resonance.”
In fact, Deloitte’s Palombella also pinpoints the importance of “emotional resonance” for this consumer group. She reports that in the fashion and luxury sector, over half of East Asian consumers expect tailored products, services and communications from brands. In granular terms, this means that content and services must align with their interests — in this case, art. Seizing that opportunity could consist of simply appointing specialist advisors for art-collecting clients, as well as building relationships through art, as seen in salon-style events.
South Korean designer Rejina Pyo has smartly tapped this gap with her London-based label. She collects art, too, and is well acquainted with this important consumer group. “I feel there is a mutual understanding that comes from appreciating their lifestyles and the moments they are dressing for — whether gallery openings, dinners or art fairs,” she says. “We feel very proud that such a large part of our customer base is made up of artists, gallery owners and art lovers.”
Seoul-based collector power couple Kyungha Song and Julie Hongji Seok know the terrain well, and recognize a set of best-in-class brands that lead the charge in engaging their unique caliber of taste. “Chanel’s calendar is particularly interesting because of its 10 annual collections; the Métiers d’Art shows, in particular, resonate with me,” says Seok. “They operate almost like cultural commissions, rooted in a city, celebrating local craft traditions and spotlighting exceptional artisanship.”
Song confirms that this cultural hunger holds the potential for ROI. “For many collectors, shopping is another ritual woven into an art week — almost like visiting satellite exhibitions,” he says. “We enjoy discovering seasonal or region-exclusive capsules. Cross-brand collaborations, especially when aligned with artistic sensibilities, often feel like limited-edition releases in the art world.”
As brands continue to explore more personalized clienteling for specific kinds of VICs, alignment with art goes way beyond marketing at fairs. It’s about long-standing relationships, design alignment and intimate, art-adjacent retail. If you can make it worth this consumer group’s while, they are, as Song sees it, “hard to pass up”.
