Introduction In the last decade, the luxury industry has witnessed strategic changes in its concept, essence and operation modes resulting from different factors and, in particular, digitalisation and democratisation in luxury fruition. As a result of those changes, luxury consumption has started to be perceived not simply in a conspicuous purchase perspective of goods or services, but as a 360 degrees experience, where cities - in particular in the emerging fast growing economies - have started being filled with luxury and fashion brands, invading every city area from streets to airports, from clinics to hotels and with concept stores, luxury flagship stores, sponsorships for events and urban artefacts, adding value to the symbolic production of an urban lived space (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2016). In this new dimension of luxury, the underlying hypothesis of this paper is that luxury product brands are enriched by and, hence, draw value from the synergy with city brands and diverse fashion and art city locations, activities and events. This statement is based on that luxury perspective seeing luxury more in its experiential dimension than in the one of a pure desire for an exclusive object purchase and ownership. Accordingly, to what extent is the relation between the luxury brand and the city brand functional to the boosting of luxury brand experiential content? From our point of view, this deserves more specific focus. Based on these premises and with respect to the current evolution of fashion luxury cities and the retailing scenario, this paper will specifically focus on the evolution and different forms of concept stores with particular attention to their interaction with the urban context. The case of concept stores is particularly relevant due to the crisis of this retailing model caused by the rise of luxury e-shops which are becoming dominant brand channels also for luxury segments. In the case of the concept stores we can, in fact, see if and to what extent the value of ―offline stores‖ is rooted in their physical presence in an urban environment that is rich in history and cultural heritage. Two case studies will be carried out, XXX in Shanghai and Luisa Via Roma in Florence, Italy, thus including two different urban contexts characterised by a different relation with fashion and luxury industries, historically and nowadays. Authentic luxury experiences in relevant city contexts (that is in city contexts with which fashion brands succeed in establishing a meaningful, credible and so valuable relation) may add value to luxury brands, in particular to those brands with no consolidated heritage and identity, as in the case of the new Chinese luxury brands. In general, for those luxury brands with a very limited identity and an almost absent heritage, in-store experience is likely to be of special relevance and of increasing importance (Atsmon et al, 2012). Without neglecting the rise of online brand channels and the vibrancy of virtual fashion spaces, the shopping location certainly still represents a crucial factor for the increasingly diverse and demanding luxury customers, for whom the shopping location is not just an instrument of purchase but also a value-adding experience on its own (Rintamaki et al, 2007). Fashion City: An Evolutionary Perspective Historically luxury and fashion have been linked to some specific cities in western countries such as Paris, London, Milan and New York, the so called capitals of luxury and fashion (Breward and Gilbert, 2006); those capitals are considered to be the places where luxury fashion production and consumption cross each other providing economic value for the sector and a unique experience for the consumers. More recently, the scenario has been changing. The ‗fashion city‘ has strated being one of the ‗brands‘ of economic development, seen as capable of strategically boosting attractiveness for the repositioning of a diverse set of cities across the world (Breward and Gilbert, 2006). Urban authorities, policy-makers, and various academic approaches have devoted attention to this phenomenon. The concept of the fashion city has started being part of urban plans and municipal promotional activities trying to reposition cities as attractive destinations for firms, human capital and especially for the ―creatives‖, investors, consumers, and tourists. An increasing number of developing and fast growing countries have achieved the status of ‗second-tier‘ cities of fashion (Larner et al., 2007) such as Antwerp, Shanghai, Beijing, Istanbul, Melbourne, Moscow, Vienna, as centres of reference of a highly diversified fashion context of culture, design, manufacturing and consumption. Although these cities have very different economic and cultural background and history, they indicate the evolution and the interaction between fashion and fashion players - including concept stores - and the urban context. Academia has started clarifying what a fashion city was, what constitutes a traditional fashion city and the interaction between luxury fashion and the fashion city. However, the interaction and evolution of luxury fashion cities and some of the urban players, such as concept stores, is far from being fully clarified and understood. The same can be said regarding the characteristics of the emerging luxury fashion cities. In particular, with respect to the differences characterising those new luxury fashion cities, there is still a very limited research. This article is aimed to make a contribution in this field by discussing the relation between fashion players (i.e. concept stores) and the urban landscape. This will also lead to define a set of characteristics of the contemporary luxury fashion city, based on their functional role in supporting luxury brands‘ value creation processes. In fact, it is certainly not possible to analyse the impact of the global luxury capitals on luxury brands without considering the evolution in city branding, i.e. the way in which cities are represented in order to create an image of the place. Fashion and Luxury in the Urban Branscape As said, ‗fashion city‘ has evidently been considered as potential device to reposition ‗second tier‘ – either large or small - urban contexts. If on the one hand fashion design has been integrated into urban policies in order to boost local economies (Martinez 2007), on the other hand fashion marketing seems to have integrated its luxury fashion strategies into the ―urban brandscape‖ (Bellini and Pasquinelli 2016). Fashion branding has, then, gone clearly in the direction of actively pursuing an appropriation of the city image whose value is drawn by corporate brands (Tokatli 2013). This last aspect, however, has received rather limited attention in literature. In the last decade, the fashion city has enhanced its economic and cultural importance specifically thanks to the economic value generated by the creative process and cultural value of cities (DMCS, 2001; Scott, 2002; Power and Scott, 2004; Breward and Gilbert, 2006; Rantisi, 2011; Bellini and Rovai, 2018). Initially, fashion cities and their fashion design component had only been considered with respect to the creative industry in relation to the mix of physical and symbolic processes involved in the current fashion industry. This combined a highly globalised manufacturing chain with a designer fashion sector mostly concentrated in fashion‘s world cities, together with other image-producing activities that contribute to the creation of place-based symbolic narratives (Williams and Currid-Halkett, 2011). However, the evolution towards new luxury fashion cities has shown a diversification of their meaning and positioning (Martìnez 2007). The delocalisation of fashion manufacturing in offshore urban centres together with the digitalisation and IT component in the process have modified the fashion industry (Segre Reinach, 2005), in parallel with the changes in the economy of media, marketing and the symbols associated to them. Accordingly, it is important to stress how the geographical origin, connection or association of fashion brands to places is simply constructed and negotiated (Pike 2010, 2011), until becoming a pure matter of perception in some case (Thakor and Kohli 1996). Moreover, it is important to notice – and this paper is engaged with this issue – how the fashion brand connection to a city can be built through the creation and exploitation of ―a status market‖ in which the brand is located (Hauge et al. 2009): think, for instance, of how fashion brands capitalize on the presence of prestigious urban assets such as cultural heritage and fine arts (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2016). This is particularly relevant if thinking that fashion luxury‘s world cities also can count on valuable frameworks of cultural players such as museums, theatres, libraries, festivals, and academic institutions reinforcing their attractiveness (Volonté, 2012). Also relying on such mechanisms, a new wave of luxury and fashion capitals has emerged, i.e. the so called ‗not-so-global‘ cities of fashion, exemplifying new forms of symbolic economy and manufacturing that are not included in the usual classification of luxury fashion cities as New York, Milan, London and Paris (Rantisi and Leslie, 2006; Larner et al., 2007). Such ―not so global cities‖ largely contribute to reshaping the global geography of fashion capitals, which can be redefined as the result of the multiple and highly diverse typologies of links a city succeeds in establishing with products, firms, events and fashion stores, by drawing values and symbols from them (Jansson and Power 2010 ; Power and Jansson 2011). Research Design and Methodology The urban dimension of luxury and fashion brands characterising the emerging geography of fashion has not been extensively analysed. In this direction, this article will focus on the analysis of two international luxury fashion urban centres, i.e. Florence and Shanghai, which will be framed as brandscapes interacting with fashion players that are locally based. Particular attention will be drawn to concept stores by analysing their evolution and their changing relation with the surrounding urban contexts, notwithstanding a clear acknowledgement of the growing relevance of e-shops and digital platforms. A qualitative methodology, based on a review of internet sources, in-store visits and in-depth semi-structured interviews with store managers (to understand the concept store‘s strategy) and various local fashion players (to frame the urban brandscape and its relation with fashion), will be adopted to build a comparative framework. Reputable key players in the respective cities as concepts stores, i.e. Favotell in Shanghai and Luisaviaroma in Florence will be selected as case studies. That is, the study will highlight the synergies between fashion brands and city brands by focusing especially on concept stores, their interaction with the urban symbolic ecosystem and their evolution in the geography of contemporary emerging luxury fashion capitals. Expected Results Below the key propositions that we expect to discuss as a result of the presented study: ⦁ The urban brandscape is mirrored by the concept stores which tend to narrate the connection of their brand to the city ; ⦁ The concept store goes out into the city pushing its visible and distinctive presence in the urban symbolic ecosystem ; this mechanism is rich in symbolic content benefiting the fashion brands whose local, physical and tangile presence in specific urban settings has a strategic role in global value creation ; ⦁ The concept store has developed from a purely physical setting to including the online store ; also throughout such development, it maintains the physical location – its style, taste and connection to specific urban settings and local heritage – as reference and vividly alive ; ⦁ The global travelling of the concept store-city connection – also but not exclusively through digital platforms – make the city brand travel and evolve.

As a result of the growing abandon of traditional advertising approaches, luxury brands are strategically focusing on social media marketing influencers for product and services’ endorsement through daily narratives (Abidin, 2016; De Veirman et al, 2017). Nowadays, social media are an integral part of marketing and advertising. The use of social media sites as twitter, facebook, instagram etc has started to be a part of the luxury fashion brands « advertising » campaign and has shown a valuable opportunity for luxury fashion brands to position themselves in new markets. Social media, in their being a two-way platforms for communication by allowing users to interact with each other (Kim and Ko, 2010) and share information but also with influencers, may represent a fundamental tool to increase customer awareness and improve customer relationship in particular in China. This study aims at exploring and analysing how a Chinese social media became the main trend setter for luxury fashion brands in China and how its influencers played a key role in reinforcing customer relationship for the luxury fashion market in China. The study focus will be on the main Chinese social media platform for luxury fashion, Wechat, and the role of influencers in increasing Chinese luxury customers’ brand awareness and relationship. Through the study of the social platform and its SMM – social media marketing – influencers’ and advertising followers, the article will analyse and provide the success factors for Wechat social media platform in positioning itself as the most influential SMM platform for luxury fashion brands in China.

It is certainly not possible to analyse the evolution of the global luxury consumers orientations for the new luxury Chinese brands without considering the essence and the impact of the “brandscape”. In the last decade, China has assisted to the surge of the “luxury lifestyle” for a multiplicity of consumer segments living in those coastal areas – and not only - filled with luxury and fashion brands, that invaded every city area from streets to airports from clinics to hotels where concept stores, luxury flagship stores, sponsorships for events and urban artefacts “add value to the symbolic production of an urban lived space” (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015). Luxury product brands are enriched by the synergy with the city brand and the diverse fashion and art city locations, activities and events. In the new luxury perspective that sees luxury in its experiential dimension and no longer only in desire of an exclusive object, the relation of luxury brands and city brand requires a specific focus, in particular in the new fast growing economies as China that sees the rise of the new experiential luxury lifestyle and new local luxury brands. In the fast growing luxury Chinese luxury market where new Chinese luxury brands are striving to acquire a brand identity and image first in the local market and then in the international one, city branding may be a conductive solutions for brand value and identity creation. Authentic luxury experiences in significant city contexts appear added value activities for luxury brands in particular for those with no consolidated heritage and identity as the new Chinese luxury brands. New retail formats such as pop-up stores, concept stores located in specific high value artistic or fashion related locations adds value (Bellaiche et al, 2012). For Chinese luxury brands with a very limited identity, a almost absent heritage and a ongoing value creation of the brand, in-store experience is increasingly important (Atsmon et al, 2012) and the shopping location certainly represent an important factor for the increasingly diverse and demanding luxury customers by being not only the instrument towards the desired subjects but also a value-adding experience on its own (Rintamaki et al, 2007, p. 628). The emergence of the Chinese luxury consumer did not mean the presence on a market where the consumers are gathered by the same tastes, desires and purchasing patterns. Reference to the global consumer culture and paradigm evidenced that consumers in diverse geographical contexts may have different and sometimes even conflicting opinions or shared desires and values expressed in similar behaviours or symbols towards a brand. Global brands sets the international standards and convey shared symbols (Holt, Quelch and Taylor 2004) and a myth of cosmopolitanism to which many consumers world-wide appreciate (Strizhacova, Coulter and Price 2008).Brands represent a form of culture and they relate to the way people live, think, eat and choose to wear as well, a form of seeing life and the world (Askegaard, Kjeldgaard and Arnould, 2009) . Luxury brands have become increasingly present in the Chinese consumer market and lifestyle and the role of purchasing luxury goods experiencing a luxury lifestyle has taken an unexpected importance and meaning in the Chinese social context. China has started to experience the consumer culture only after China's opening up to the market economy as a result of the economic reforms post-1979 that have given to "aspirational" consumers more freedom to develop a consumer culture partially away from political limitations but still permeated in the Chinese culture and its characteristics. Those reforms have also given rise to the private businesses and the birth of a consumer middle class, "the new rich", in China. The birth of the Chinese middle class has fuelled the emergence of a highly diversified consumer class with different purchasing attitudes (Latham, 2006) and a new way to express their taste, their motivation for purchasing (Gillette, 2000) and in particular an increasing brand awareness, mode of purchasing and conceptualisation of luxury (Rambourg, 2014; Rovai, 2016). Distinctive aspects of luxury consumer culture have started to emerge in the late years, evidencing new desires for Chinese luxury consumers with respect to luxury brands, accompanied by the entrance in the market of Chinese luxury brands aspiring the capitalise on the increasing "Chinese luxury desire" but limited by their lack of specific characteristics of authentic luxury brands - heritage, identity and prestige amongst others. As a result, this research focuses on the analysis of Chinese luxury brands presence in the local Chinese urban context; specifically, it focuses on how the Chinese urban fashion context can help to support the creation of a luxury brand value and also reinforce a luxury brand identity and image in a Chinese luxury consumer culture that does not possess a luxury heritage. An analysis of two luxury Chinese brands and a local luxury and fashion concept store has been initiated together with further evidence from the Shanghai urban context, its activities, events and cultural specifics together with the following a qualitative method and in particular Yin (1989) case study approach. A series of 15 interviews have been held in late 2016 in Shanghai with the two Chinese luxury brands creative designers, owners and staff during one month together with observation and consulting of documents. Literature review has focused on the role of individual brands that, being somehow associated with the city become a collective brand (Pasquinelli, 2014), framing "the complex network of associations, linking products, spaces, organizations and people (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015). Initially, an important attention has been oriented towards the geographical associations to the country-of-origin effect (Bilkey and Nes, 1982; Johansson et al, 1985) later on evidencing that a defragmentation into of smaller geographical units may be appropriate at urban level (Bellini and Pasquinelli, 2015) to highlight the relevance of the "origin" not simply in relation to a broad geographical context where the brand manufactures a product but also „the place, region or country where a brand is perceived to belong‟ (Thakor and Kohli, 1996, p. 26). The origin being not only a matter of product production but more of product conceptualisation, perception or consumption going towards the "brand product usage context" (Gerr et al, 1999). Brand product usage happen in those spatial circuits whose cities are part of and whose role may be conductive to the „local origination‟ of product brands, adding value to the birth and internationalisation of locally originated brands (Pike, 2011). Those local brands are developed from an ecosystem composed by relations and ownerships involving a multiplicity of stakeholders whose customers are an integral part (Power and Hauge, 2008). In the literature, Fashion capitals is a unique case of those ecosystems with a specific relationship between industry and spacial circuits is based on the urban context instrumental to fashion creation and also to consumption (Breward and Gilbert, 2006). The city as a part of the consumer culture and in particular as part of the brand product experience (Thrift, 2004). As a result of the literature review and the conceptualisation of fashion capitals as ecosystems conductive to the fashion creation and consumption, an exploratory study of: Which context related variables affect new Chinese luxury brands identity and value and how the China fashion capital ecosystem affects Chinese luxury consumers brand perception. The paper will show an insight of the instrumental relation of the "brandscape" Shanghai and the impact on the Chinese luxury brands value and identity acquisition with respect to Chinese consumers.

China has become a key market for the luxury fashion industry. Yet the relationship with the role of digital marketing is still mostly unexplored. The increase of Internet in China has been Impressive. A report from CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center) indicated that Chinese netizens increased to around 0.632 billion. Internet has a deep impact on people’s life, changing their lifestyles and consuming behaviours. For luxury brands entering Chinese market, the competition becomes fiercer. Despite the traditional marketing model, an increasing number of luxury companies are orienting their strategy towards the blue ocean—on-line market. On-line luxury fashion commerce has become a creative joint of Internet technology and business operations. Despite the fact that the Chinese market is regarded as potentially the fastest growing market for the luxury industry, many challenges exist nowadays since China is a young player in both luxury industry and e-commerce field. Some experts in the field believe that the limitation of customers’ experience is the most essential problem, and some others assert it would be difficult to do on-line marketing for luxury products. Besides, there is still an ongoing debate on the key factors that determine the success of on-line sales in luxury industry. Luxury Fashion customers are mainly composed by elder segment, while luxury consumers are increasingly becoming a younger segment (about under 40 years old) in China. In particular, their consumption concept is very different from that of traditional customers. A survey from McKinsey & Company indicates that there are almost 90% of Chinese Internet users living in tier1, tier2 and tier 3 cities have enrolled in a social-media site. Moreover, Chinese people are regarded as the world’s most active social-media population, around 91% of respondents telling they visited a social-media site in the previous six months, followed by 70% in South Korea, 67% in the United States and 30% in Japan (Chiu, Lin, & Silverman, 2012). This article is based on an exploratory study analysing the current situation of Chinese online market and the online shopping websites. Through interviews with customers who already had online luxury shopping experience and a questionnaire to about 150 potential customers of online luxury shopping websites, this paper tries to identify some of the key factors affecting the purchasing behaviour of Chinese customers of luxury fashion products. Based on the understanding of the current situation and the innovative role played by the digital orientation of purchasing behaviours in luxury, this article will introduce some hypotheses in order to verify the assumptions associated to key challenges and success factors in the Chinese market which can be the reference for luxury companies to fix their on-line marketing – pricing, distribution network, fashion brands variety. The exploratory study in the field has already showed specific results. With respect to pricing strategy for online purchasing, results showed clearly that besides the fact that traditional luxury purchasers are not price-sensitive also in relation to the fact that luxury products high price is a symbol of exclusivity; the modern luxury fashion Chinese customers, mainly composed by people younger than 30-years old, enjoying the wealth accumulated by their parents and other family members, have better education backgrounds which makes them have little conceptions about the purchasing power of currency. Logistics, which contain the products’ packaging, delivery mode and time and comprehensive quality of it appeared to be the one of the most important way to present the e-retailers’ services for online luxury customers. Through customers purchase luxury products online, the majority of them are still expected to enjoy the luxury experience and services just like in the traditional luxury boutiques. Based on the knowledge and the previous studies of luxury consumers and Chinese e-commerce two hypotheses will be proposed and verified in the empirical study. Furthermore, Supply channel for online luxury shopping websites have also shown to be also particularly relevant as the product quality and the modes are the most attractive factor for customers. A qualified supply channel will guarantee the products’ quality and variety for customers. Chinese market has its own characters and Chinese citizen shopping habits are also distinct, obviously, the current situation in China has indicated that luxury brands and e-commerce still in the run-in period. Through there are some successful cases in western countries which can partly provide some key factors for Chinese market, it is impracticable for luxury brands and some retailing websites copy their experience and follow those “rules” in China. It is quite critical for both luxury brands and e-commerce companies recognize the difference existed in this market, understand the real situation and then modify their marketing policies. This study has only analysed some of the key issues affecting the purchasing patterns of luxury fashion customers. Consequently more quantitative and qualitative research in the field that analyses it from different perspectives it is suggested.