Kering Launches KERING CRAFT Program to Mentor Sustainable Chinese Designers

Ten designers. More than 100 applications. One cross-continental residency that could reshape what a Chinese luxury brand looks like on the global stage.

Kering revealed its inaugural KERING CRAFT cohort during Shanghai Fashion Week, naming the ten emerging Chinese designers who will participate in its Creative Residency for Artisanship, Fashion and Technology program. The selected designers are Cai Jiaen, Hu Nan, Longhong Ziwei, Qi Yueqi, Wang Fengchen, Wei Donghui, Xia Rong, Xu Hao, Yu Gengyi and Zhong Zixin, all of whom will move through Milan, Paris and Shanghai as part of an immersive curriculum built around craft, business development and sustainable fashion.

The program was first unveiled last November by Kering CEO Luca de Meo at the China International Import Expo alongside Shanghai Fashion Week, and drew more than 100 applicants for its inaugural edition. Selection was handled by an advisory board that included Demna, the Georgian designer known for his tenure at Balenciaga; Cai Jinqing, president of Kering Greater China; Dennis Chan, founder of Chinese jewelry house Qeelin; sustainability advocate and filmmaker Susan Rockefeller; writer Hung Huang; and Simone Marchetti, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair Italy. That is a genuinely formidable room.

The residency is structured to combine hands-on mentorship with hard business skills, what Kering described as a program to "advance craftsmanship, innovation, business development, and a sustainable fashion ecosystem." The ambition is explicit: the group wants to help Chinese designers build what it calls "glocal" brands, labels rooted deeply in local culture but built for international resonance.

De Meo framed China's creative scene as a direct fit for what Kering is trying to build. "China is one of the world's most dynamic innovation hubs, impressing with its remarkable creativity and speed," he said at the program's launch. "This vibrant creative energy perfectly aligns with Kering's vision." Ji Shengjun, director of the Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee, cited the collaboration's guiding philosophy as "integration of local and international visions," with the goal of building "a platform that empowers local designers to engage globally, spark creativity, and strengthen brand-building capabilities."

For Kering, parent company of Gucci, Saint Laurent and Bottega Veneta, CRAFT represents a strategic investment in China's next creative generation rather than a marketing gesture. It builds on the Kering Generation Award, the group's existing talent initiative with Shanghai Fashion Week, but stretches considerably further in scope, committing to physical residency across three cities and sustained mentorship from some of the industry's most credible names.

For a generation of Chinese designers who have often had to choose between local cultural authority and global market access, KERING CRAFT is placing a serious bet that they do not have to pick.