Cool moves from fashion's Follies

He stopped and watched her for a few minutes. The Chinese lady was staring into the windows, slowly eating her ice-cream and gazing at a large poster of Gaile Lai carrying a handbag the same as hers.

"I saw that she really enjoyed her ice-cream. I saw that she was experiencing the feel-good factor for having purchased the bag.

"I thought, this lady probably comes from a mainland city in China, where we had planted a seed in her mind with the Folli Follie brand. She became a customer of ours, and eventually planned this visit to Greece. As a part of the trip, she came to the department store of Folli Follie to experience the result of the seed we planted."

Despite Folli Follie's success in China, the company is not complacent about its achievements and is constantly on the lookout for ways to address changing market demands, Voutsas says.

One recent initiative has been an advertising campaign featuring an Asian model and a Western model wearing Folli Follie accessories launched this spring.

Voutsas says the new campaign depicts an "East meets West" theme, so the brand will make Chinese consumers feel connected to the world.

"We realized that international travel is increasingly popular with Chinese consumers."

In the poster campaign, the models are sunbathing, riding a motorcycle, taking photos, walking on Santorini island's tiny whitewashed alleys and stairways - and enjoying ice-cream cones.

Looking ahead, Voutsas says he is confident about Folli Follie's growth prospects in the Chinese market. One long-term goal is to introduce Links of London, a British jewelry brand that the Folli Follie Group acquired in 2006.

Contact the writers at

cecily.liu@chinadaily.com.cn and zhangchunyan@chinadaily.com.cn