Written by Menswear Style in Stockists on the 23rd December 2019

Bailian Group and URF Group announce the launch of TX Huaihai | Youth Energy Center in Shanghai, China. A joint venture created by the two companies, it aims to join the dots between different worlds such as art and fashion. A pioneer in ‘CURETAIL’ – curated retail, TX Huaihai will opened its doors to public this month. Located on Shanghai’s iconic Huaihai Road, the space owes its design credentials to a team of designers like the architect who is specialising in open space, Shuhei Aoyama and the sustainable architect and designer, Authur Huang from Miniwiz. The team created a mindful space that provides a blank canvas for the brands and artists to showcase their work and products in a museum-like innovative space.

The first phase of the TX Huaihai’s design concept is 'DOUX', artworks integrating the four core elements of 'Digital, Oasis, Urban, X (Collaboration).' Artists and designers from across the world and different fields are working together, through digital aesthetics, intelligence and interactive forms to integrate the various areas of Huaihai TX. Some of the names whose works will be on display include the Rhizomatiks team, led by digital art master Daito Manabe, digital art studio FIELD (UK), fuse* (Italy), onformative (Germany) and GMUNK (USA) to list a few. Also, AMKK will also curate their own art shows. TX Huaihai will use the leading digital intelligent operation systems so that every consumer experiences something new and gets inspired by the surroundings. In addition to art installations, brands’ operations will also be fully supported by innovative digital intelligence.

McKinsey’s research on 'China digital consumer trends in 2019' shows that China’s major retailers are transforming into cultural destinations with cutting-edge digital features, and this shift is clearly driving traffic to physical stores. In other words, the integration of cultural experiences will be one of the important factors in attracting consumers to physical stores in the future and will also help the stability and growth of offline consumption. Based on such conditions and long-term thinking about the cultural source of revitalising the city's "youth energy", Dickson Sezto, Chairman of URBAN REVITALIZATION FORCE (URF), first proposed and described CURETAIL (Curation for Retail / Curated Retail) in depth at the 'Hi! Let’s Huaihai' Innovation Summit in Shanghai this fall. Dickson Sezto stated that "Retailing is no longer just a transaction between goods and consumers. The modern younger generation has hundreds of dynamic tags. TX Huaihai | Youth Energy Center has created a matching experience destination for them through community tagging."

Actor, musician, fashion designer and Chinese fashion icon, Edison Chen will participate in the creation of TX Huaihai's domestic youth energy trend as a cultural committee member of URF. His unique perspective on youth culture and creative ideas, together with TX, will promote the development and exchange of Chinese trends and youth culture. Arthur Huang, the founder and environmental design pioneer of MINIWIZ, will also be URF’s partner and environmental ambassador. With his unique insights and professional experience in sustainable business, he will work with TX Huaihai to integrate the concept of sustainable development into youth trendy fashion. Closely uniting like-minded partners and brands to jointly promote innovative curated retail and youth culture is TX Huaihai's core strategy. Carefully selected brands will showcase their latest collections imminently. INNERSECT, the world's first flagship store leading the cultural integration trend, will have its private session start on New Year Eve. The first Chinese store of world renowned creative visual agency Visionaire, a collector's art boutique, will be launched at the end of the year. Seiya Nakamura 2.24, which has outstanding fashion creativity and will introduce the well-known Korean brand We11done with a first pop-up store.

The leading fashion designer brand incubator and trading platform Ontimeshow will also show the new power of Chinese original fashion designers. CLOT’s Creative Director Edison Chen, a cultural committee member of URF, will bring new creative collaborative works. Finally, the Japanese coffee brand NO COFFEE and milk tea brand machi machi, which are popular among the youth, will have a presence. 

With collaboration with with URBAN REVITALIZATION FORCE and ambassadors Arthur Huang, Dickson Sezto, and Edison Chen, the TX Huaihai | Youth Energy Center Launches in China.