French connection

Wang Likun attends the opening ceremony of Christian Dior's new flagship boutique in Shanghai. [Photo provided to China Daily]

He said that although Dior is not regarded as a youth brand, he hopes it is a brand that young people will aspire to. "Angelababy is not a young girl. She is a mother and a sophisticated lady with charisma," says the CEO.

"We've been in the business for years. I've witnessed the evolution of our Japanese and American customers, and our customers in Eastern Europe, and it's interesting to see how fast our Chinese customers understand fashion and luxury," Toledano says.

"They started less than 20 years ago and the past decade has been impressive. They demand high quality and innovation, and the digital generation wants even more. Chinese customers are the most advanced in the digital world."

Toledano said that his Chinese teams recommended that he use WeChat about two years ago, and he was initially reluctant to do so. But after they launched a pop-up store on WeChat, they found that their products sold out almost immediately.

When fans of the brand saw celebrities and fashion bloggers posing in certain Dior products on social media, they first checked the online pop-up store for stock, before turning to local stores. Within a few weeks, these products were sold out across Europe too, as people traveled abroad to buy them.