ENG Expands Into Beijing With Downtown Flagship
ENG, a popular designer fashion retail concept with stores in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing, this week unveiled its latest branch in The Box, a regenerated shopping mall targeting Beijing’s young and affluent consumers in the bustling Chaoyang district.
Laura Darmon, head of buying and business development at ENG, said the opening of the 1,500-square-foot Beijing flagship holds “immense strategic importance” for the relatively young but fast-growing retailer.
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With regard to the choice of location for its minimalistic space, Darmon said the decision was based on the success ENG saw with its partnership with Shanghai’s experiential retail hot spot TX Huaihai.
Once a sleepy mall in downtown Shanghai, TX Huaihai was transformed into a buzzy hangout spot in 2019 for the city’s trendy crowd.
ENG’s second Shanghai location takes over a sizable chunk of TX Huaihai’s ground-floor space and carries some of the buzziest brands in the global fashion scene that are not necessarily well-known in China.
Billed as “a hub for Beijing and China’s young professional population, The Box, created last year by Dickson Szeto, the same man behind the inception of TX Huaihai, is expected replicate that success in the same area that hosts China’s top luxury retailer, SKP.
For the Beijing store, ENG incorporated the use of translucent paper to pay homage to the city’s architectural history.
In terms of brand curation, Darmon said the Beijing flagship offers a mix of established and emerging brands such as Blumarine, Courrèges, Juntae Kim, Mugler, Knwls, Mowalola, Rick Owens and Charlie Constantinou.
Rick Owens, Diesel and Blumarine are some of the bestselling brands at the moment.
“We will also present exclusive items curated by some brands exclusively for ENG. This project is truly exciting, and we eagerly anticipate the customer response to these unique offerings,” added Darmon.
ENG is a subsidiary of the leading Chinese jacket maker K-Boxing, which operates more than 2,000 stores across the country and has done two shows in Milan for its high-end line Kb Hong.
Over the past four years, the retailer has managed to stand out from China’s competitive concept store boom with bold interiors and an exciting brand mix.
It’s the first Chinese retailer to stock young talents such as Mowalola, Greg Ross, Charlie Constantinou and Juntae Kim, as well as Blumarine, as the brand is having a revival moment thanks to the rise of Y2K trends. ENG is also Ludovic de Saint Sernin’s only stockist in China.
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