KUALA LUMPUR (April 22): Robert Kuok's daughter, Yen Kuok, is bringing the new-fangled fad of selling vintage luxury clothing to Asia with the launch of her own site Guiltless International Ltd. Expect to shell out US$20,000 (about RM78,071) for one second-hand designer handbag there.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the junior Kuok said she believed the market for second-hand luxury clothing has room to grow with the boom in aspirational shoppers and Hong Kong's escalating property prices despite the old stigma in Asia over used personal goods.
"No matter how wealthy she is, no woman turns down a good deal," said Yen Kuok, the youngest of Robert Kuok's children, as quoted by the international publication.
"My papa isn't tech savvy at all. But because of the boom of Alibaba, Tencent and other technology companies, he became more open to the idea of 'e-something'," she added.
According to WSJ, the niche market has germinated competition in Asia. In 2014, auction house Christie's offered pre-owned handbags in Hong Kong. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd in March said it will spend a minimum of 100 million yuan (about RM60 million) on the development of a digital flea market in China this year, given the growing interest in its used-goods mobile app Xianyu, or Idle Fish in English.
Second-hand luxury clothing's popularity in the US could probably be credited to Sophia Amoruso, the creator of Nasty Gal page on eBay, and marketed through social media MySpace and Facebook.
A 2013 report by The New York Times said Nasty Gal in 2012 sold nearly US$100 million (about RM390 million) worth of vintage clothes, ranging from "cheap shrunken motorcycle jackets to high-end vintage Versace clothing", just six years into establishment.
Nowadays, competition in the space becomes keener with other players such as What Goes Around Comes Around (WCAGA), which counts pop star Rihanna as a client.
Yen Kuok herself developed a liking for shopping for vintage clothing when she was living in the US, the WSJ report said. When she returned to Hong Kong, she found a lot of second-hand luxury websites do not send orders to Asia, which opened her eyes to an opportunity to fill in the void. She said she had discussed Guiltless' concept with Alibaba chairman Jack Ma two years ago.
In Guiltless office and showroom at Kerry Properties Ltd's Hong Kong headquarters, one could see "dozens of Hermes bags, rows of designer clothing, and even special-edition items, such as Dolce & Gabbana porcelain dolls selling for about US$1,500 (about RM5,858) each and a World Cup limited-edition football made by Louis Vuitton".
Yen Kuok sells designer brand items and leather goods that are 20% to 60% of their original prices, procured from friends and brands. The WSJ report said that in some cases, she provides a marketplace for the buyer and seller.
When the publication asked whether she may one day sell Guiltless to Alibaba, Yen Kuok said the business was self-funded and has no plans so far to bring in outside investments or of selling the company.
When she was in kindergarten, she told her teacher that she wanted to be her dad's boss because in her young eyes, her father represented the ultimate pinnacle of achievement and success. "What could be even better than that? His boss," she said, having a view that Guiltless is the first step toward becoming someone her father would be proud of.