Another day, another post about my love of China.
So a few months ago I was there for the opening of a clients latest venture.
You should all check it out because it’s a luxury fashion mall THAT LOOKS LIKE MARS!
Literally.
It was specifically designed to feel like you are on a space station on another planet.
It features everything from luna modules to robot sheep to video screens that look like skylights that show you in outer space.
It is utterly mad and yet truly amazing.
A place that is like no other I’ve seen anywhere else in the World.
But then, without wanting to sound a corporate toadie, the client is like no other I’ve met anywhere in the World … even when I was living in China, which tends to have a lot of brilliantly ambitious folks than anywhere else I’ve lived.
I have to do a post about him soon because not only is his influence on the fashion world almost unparalleled – and I am comparing him to people like Anna Wintour in that statement, let alone the heads of Gucci, Prada and countless others – but in the time I’ve worked with him, he has taught me to look at strategy in a completely new way.
Given I’ve literally been working in this discipline for more years than you care to mention, that’s pretty amazing … so I am sure you would find him pretty fascinating too.
Anyway, as part of the project, I was interviewed about what we have been doing for him and how we have worked together.
I talked about how much I love China and how much of an honour it is for me and us to be able to go there and help with a once-in-a-lifetime project. This may sound like I was a total crawler, but the fact is it’s all genuine.
We have been allowed to influence and shape at the highest level – strategically and creatively – and that’s been amazing, especially when there have been times you’ve disagreed with some of the things they wanted to do.
That’s hard for companies to hear at the best of time, but when it’s the billionaire founder of an international fashion group, that’s a whole other level of sensitivity and yet he has been nothing but open to us because he knows we’re not doing it for any other reason than wanting him to win better.
And when you’re talking about creating Mars on earth, ‘winning better’ is going to be crazy fun, whatever way you look at it.
But back to the interview.
So off we head to China for the opening.
It was packed with press and celebrities.
Billionaires mingled with paupers – errrrm, me – fashionistas rubbed shoulders with fashion disasters – errrrm, me again – so imagine their surprise when the start of the official opening included this …
Yep … that’s me.
Yep … that’s my interview.
Yep … no one understood why I was there or what I was saying.
I’d love to say I was all cool, calm and collected, but I – along with my colleagues – were pissing themselves laughing.
It was madness and awesome all at the same time.
I didn’t know whether it was like a remake of the classic 1984 Apple ad. or my attempt to be the leader of a Birkenstock cult … but it was like nothing I had experienced in my life.
Which is another reason I love this project and miss China.
Because when you are working with someone who believes anything is possible – and has the drive to make it happen – the journey is equally as much fun as the destination and I feel massively fortunate to be on it.
Even if there are people all around the World asking themselves …
“Who the fuck was that old guy in the camo Nike hoodie?”