2024 is the 100th anniversary of the iconic Meisterstück pen by German luxury brand Montblanc, known for its pens, watches, leather goods and more. The brand, part of the Richemont group from Switzerland, celebrated its 100th year in style with campaigns such as the short film made by and starring American film auteur Wes Anderson. In China, the brand brought an offline celebration: a Montblanc concept store in Chengdu, Sichuan.
On 22 November it opened its first concept store in China at the Sino-Ocean Taikoo Li Chengdu. For the grand opening, the brand not only brought its China regional CEO Matthieu Dupont, the global artistic director, Marco Tomasetta, who designed the space, but also invited their global brand ambassadors’ actress Xin Zhilei and actors Jing Boran and Neo Hou Minghao to the ribbon cutting ceremony. On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the post co-created between Montblanc and Hou earned a staggering 950,831 reposts, with 35,517 comments and 25,951 likes.
The store itself pays tribute to Chinese culture and innovatively uses “paper” as its theme while using a classic palette of black, white and gold. There is “The Montblanc Desk”, “The Journey” with leather goods and accessories, a “Masterpiece” area with limited edition writing instruments and a piece of artwork by artist Chen Xin, as well as a “Calligraphy Chamber” which hosts a display of handwriting by famous individuals.
The luxury brand also produced a capsule collection exclusively for the store opening. Dubbed City Edition Chengdu by Montblanc, the collection takes inspiration from the Southwest China city, especially panda and bamboo. A short promotional film has also been created for the opening, with established shots filmed in the style of Wes Anderson.
Not only does the historical yet creative and youthful city, fit the image of Montblanc and the 100-year-old Meisterstück, the hyper-localised campaign can also help harness the unique “coolness” of the city when viewed by its audiences across China.
