Chinese luxury management company Redstone recently entered into a joint venture with Curiel, an Italian couture house with more than 100 years of history. Sun Yuanqing reports.
For a while now, Chinese magnates have been investing overseas in everything from castles to wineries. And now there is one more thing to add to that list: haute couture.
Following its success in luxury ready-to-wear, Chinese luxury-management company Redstone recently ventured into haute couture, forming a joint venture with Curiel, an Italian fashion house with more than 100 years of history.
Redstone will be a major stakeholder in the new company and provide managerial and financial support to help the brand grow on a global scale.

Raffaella Curiel and her daughter Gigliola Curiel, the third and fourth generation of the couture house, will remain at the creative helm of the brand.
Redstone will invest 5 million to 10 million euros ($5.6 million to $11 million) every year for the next few years to grow the business, says Zhao Yizheng, founder and president of the Redstone, after a news conference in Milan.
He did not disclose further financial details.
"It's as if I found a huge diamond on a mountain," he says of the deal.
"Now it is my job to cut it, polish it and make it valuable."
Zhao's confidence is not idle talk.

In the course of 10 years, Redstone has transformed Giada, a nascent Italian designer label, into a global brand that now sits across from Dior and Hermes in Milan's central luxury shopping district.
But compared with Giada, nurturing Curiel will be very different since it comes with a 100-year heritage, says Zhao.
Curiel's history began with Ortensia Curiel, who opened an atelier in Trieste in the late 18th century.
She was succeeded by her niece Gigliola Curiel, who opened an atelier in Milan in 1945 and signed up with both Bergdorf & Goodman in New York and Harrod's of London.
Following Gigliola Curiel's early death in 1969, her daughter Raffaella Curiel opened a boutique in Milan and blazed a new trail fusing art and fashion.

Raffaella Curiel's daughter Gigliola Curiel, who is named after her grandmother, joined the family atelier and created her own namesake pret-a-porter line.
Curiel's clients range from Italians and the English to Arabs and Russians.
Its oldest client has been with the house for more than 60 years.
Explaining why she chose Zhao to do a deal, Raffaella Curiel, 73, says: "Zhao is somebody who will take Curiel into the future. I wouldn't have sold to anybody else.
"He knows what he is dealing with. He knows fashion and appreciates our work. I'm very confident of him. I rely on him like a brother."

Curiel will hold an exhibition during Milan Fashion Week in September, showcasing both the history and future of the brand with archive dresses, sketches and a new collection.
It will also open a 500-square-meter showroom in central Milan by the end of this year.
New outlets will follow in Shanghai and New York.
Zhao says he will maintain the haute couture essence of the brand while giving it a modern makeover.
"It is time for haute couture since everything is getting individualized these days. And with haute couture, it's usually just one piece," says Zhao.
He is also planning to develop ready-to-wear lines, which will highlight evening dresses and a more accessible line of little black dresses inspired by Curiel's archive sketches.
Zhao started out as a journalist and photographer with the foreign affairs office of his native Sichuan province.
He later transferred to the Shenzhen Shekou Industrial Zone in Guangdong province. It was the first industrial zone in China to be opened to the outside world, bringing Western brands to China.
Zhao founded Redstone in 1995, introducing brands like Salvatore Ferragamo, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino to China.
Redstone, which has collaborated with Italian brand Giada since 2005, opened 55 stores for Giada in 28 cities in China by the end of 2015.

Redstone became a major shareholder of Giada in 2011, as the Chinese company planned a global expansion for the label.
Zhao, who was first introduced to Curiel through a mutual friend in Milan, says he had been pushing for the deal since he believes in the heritage and creativity of Curiel.
While Giada offers more daily wear, Curiel complements it by catering to glamorous evening wear, says Zhao.
Meanwhile, Zhao says Redstone will continue to seek new opportunities, looking for original Italian brands in the affordable-luxury sector.
"There are many Italian brands with a good history, but many of them are family businesses that are not open to outsiders. The Italian market is very small, so they don't have a good stage," says Zhao.
"Our model is to cooperate with small and medium-sized companies and develop them in China, where the market is bigger and where we have the expertise. After we succeed in China, we will develop them throughout the world."