Is It Real Or Fake, C&A Alive And Well

An out-of-the-blue call, led to an out-of-the-blue experience. Our friend Nikki (who you may remember was the New Years Day wedding which Lezil performed at), was on the other end of the phone cheerful recounting her recent trip to her husband’s hometown, Wuhan, in Hubei province. “I have some gifts for you. Can you meet me today?” she asked.

Lezil and I had a pretty packed afternoon of errands but she insisted it wouldn’t take long. I agreed a 2pm meet up at the nearby Starbucks. Grabbing a quick lunch beforehand, we pondered what gifts Nikki might give us. As we were nearing Chinese New Year, we were expecting something red, with a good luck slogan in Chinese characters. My phone rang, it was Nikki again to say that she had already arrived and was waiting for us. Racing through the remainder of our food, we power walked to the corner Starbucks.

Nikki and I with my Burberry cashmere scarf gift.

Apologising for our tardiness (even though she had got there 20 minutes earlier than expected), we threw about the usual small talk questions. Barely into our conversational stride, and Nikki reached from under her wooden chair and placed a very bright Hermés shopping bag on the table. “This one’s for you and this one’s for you,” she said as she handed Lezil a Hermés flat box in the same bright orange as the shopping bag it came out of. And in my hands was a beige box with a reflective silver logo which read Burberry.

She motioned us to open the packaging. Lezil’s gift was out first – a beautiful light woollen pink shawl with a safari giraffe theme on it. Mine was a purple and grey cashmere scarf. Perfect items, matching our tastes in style and colours. The garments had a surprisingly high-quality finish to it. Now this being China, you don’t have to go far to see both terrible and exceptionally good copies of many of the top international clothing brands. Nikki must have found a great outlet which could match the real deal with remarkable likeness.

I thanked Nikki again for her kind gesture whilst I tried to place the scarf neatly back into its plastic cover. A piece of paper inside the bag was jamming the scarf from going in completely. I took the paper out to re-organise the scarf back in its plastic holder. I was about to throw the paper away when I noticed it was a receipt. And curiosity led me to the price. “How much?” I thought, bewildered. This was no fake. At the top was the fashion brand’s logo and address which clearly indicated it was directly from the Burberry store. I wasn’t sure if it was unintentionally left in there and so I declined from mentioning it.

Meanwhile, Lezil was busy draping her bright shawl around her, when I noticed that in her box also lay a receipt. Thank God for all those carrots I eat. What with my ability to see even the smallest thing from afar – I managed to catch how much her Hermés shawl had cost.

Nikki and Lezil with her boxed up Hermés shawl.

Lezil's Hermés safari-themed giraffe shawl.

It was nearly three times the amount of my Burberry cashmere scarf. I was bursting to tell Lezil but I’d had to wait a few more minutes before I could divulge the true value of our gifts to her.

Shanghai, like a number of other Chinese cities, doesn’t hide its hunger for expensive brands. So much so that China has now taken over the US as the number one market in the world for luxury goods.

Even the shops themselves seem a cut above the rest with their eye-catching glittering gold and silver finishes. Those were definitely ones that I would go as far as peep from the outside. I never had an incline to go inside purely for the fact that even the most miniscule of accessory was out of my league.

And now, we were proud owners of two of the most expensive piece of fashion items that we personally have ever owned. Some of you may be scoffing at the tinge of naivety I am displaying here, but what can I say – I love my fashion, but I won’t spend a huge chunk of my savings on one sole item.

Nikki ended our rendezvous telling us she was off to the Apple store to buy a new iPad. We bid her farewell and I immediately grabbed the Hermés bag off Lezil. “I’m holding this!” I announced.

My luxurious 100% cashmere scarf by Burberry.

At double speed I told Lezil that in the bag was practically a month’s salary worth of goods. She couldn’t believe it either.

Shanghai's flagship C&A store on Huai Hai Road.

It was time to pay attention to our list of errands which needed seeing to. Almost like an obvious contradiction, we headed to Shanghai’s flagship C&A store on Huai Hai Road. Those of you in the UK may remember the clothing high street retailer before it closed its doors to the British market more than 10 years ago. Here in China, the Dutch fashion chain is going strong with eight new stores recently opened in cities like Harbin, Qingdao and Xi’an. Currently there are 47 stores on the mainland with the aim to have 120 opened by 2015. C&A may have died a death in the UK, but in China, the chain is alive and well.

In a similar bracket to H&M and Zara, it’s fashion’s answer to a relatively low-cost store like Primark which has yet to land in China. Hundreds of square metres of men’s, women’s and children’s clothing is spread over three floors whilst Euro-centric vocal dance music plays – just like any other global retailer of its kind.

It was the tail end of the sale season and they were literally giving away their end-of-line winter goodies to make way for the up-coming spring collection.

So there was I holding an overly loud orange Hermés bag as I rummaged in the bargain section. Moments later, a felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around thinking someone was going to ask me why I was in C&A when I can clearly afford to shop at more high-end stores. (OK, my imagination was milking it there a bit!) Yet, another surprise.

Inside the men's section in C&A.

With my English student Daisy, who is also a store manager at C&A.

It was a student of mine, Daisy. And she just happened to be one of the managers at the main C&A store. I introduced her to Lezil. They hugged and Daisy said, “I love him…” pointing at me. Awkward. “I love him,” she stated again. Oh boy, was this going to be one of those lost in translation moments?

“He is a great teacher, he makes his classes fun,” she ended. Phew! That so could have been taken the wrong way. Seeing some of the items we were holding, Daisy pulled out her staff card and told us that she would give us her substantial staff discount on our purchases.

Nice! Another unexpected treat for the day. Despite the extremities in cost, both our uber-pricey Nikki gifts and our dirt cheap Daisy discounts made us appreciative of the kind generosity of people we know in Shanghai.

A C&A sign cleverly using a snake to mark '2013' - the new Year of the Snake in the Chinese calendar.

C&A's in-house youth brand 'Clockhouse'.