Frida Giannini: Gucci's Shanghai express As the demand for luxury brands in China grows exponentially, Gucci's Frida Giannini is well placed to feed the frenzy. The lobby of the Shanghai Peninsula hotel is busy with people eating dainty cucumber sandwiches and scones for afternoon tea, to the polite tinkling of a pianist playing gentle classics. Among the international clientele - a mix of European business travellers and Shanghainese ladies who have lunched in their neat pastel-coloured outfits - the louche figure of Bryan Ferry stands out. He arrived a few days ago with his son Isaac. His wife, Amanda Sheppard, has just flown in from London to join him. He is here with his band to perform at the post-show party for Gucci's first catwalk show in the city, where Isaac will also be dj-ing. Somehow, Shanghai suits Ferry. There is still something slightly decadent about the Paris of the East. I notice Ferry as I pass through the lobby on my way up to a suite to meet Frida Giannini, Gucci's creative director, who is causing a buzz in a city that is becoming increasingly familiar with the constant round of big-name fashion stars who are making a beeline for China. Shanghai alone has a population of 23.47 million (predicted to rise to 30 million by 2020), of which a small but significant percentage has developed quite a taste for luxury brands. It is estimated that China will account for about 20 per cent, or 180 billion yuan (£18 billion), of global luxury sales in 2015. IN PICTURES: Gucci spring/summer 2013 This is Giannini's second visit to Shanghai and, unusually, she has made time in her schedule to do some exploring, ahead of the preparations for her show. 'I came a couple of days earlier so I could see some of the city,' she says as she sits down in front of a window looking out to the futuristic skyline of Pudong opposite. Her blond hair is immaculately blow-dried, ready for her photograph, and also perhaps because she is being trailed by a small camera crew making a documentary with Giannini's friend the American actor James Franco. Giannini is wearing a black jacket, black leather trousers and black boots with a stiletto heel - all Gucci, of course. Very slick, very minimal, the embodiment of the brand she took over as the creative director in 2004. It seems Shanghai, even more than Beijing, is the spiritual home of fashion in China. It has long had a cosmopolitan outlook, and its mix of colonial and European-style architecture is the perfect environment for the Western brands that are building flagships here. 'There is a lot of competition,' Giannini says, 'but we were lucky in that we were pioneering in China so we are still doing a lot, opening more stores, but we are already a well-known brand here.' READ: Madonna cured Frida Giannini's shyness Gucci's first two shops on the Chinese mainland opened in Beijing and Shanghai in 1997, three years after Tom Ford started to transform the brand. Today there are 53 stores across 33 cities, and counting. So it is not surprising that Giannini has decided to spend some time getting to know Shanghai before continuing on to Seoul in South Korea for a store opening there. To me Shanghai is impressive, with a population of 20 million - the biggest city in Italy is two million. Twenty million is wow , it never ends. In July Gucci announced that it had moved its China HQ into a state-of-the-art new building in Shanghai city centre and appointed Carol Shen as the president of Gucci China to oversee a period of consolidation. Shen had previously worked as the managing director of Estée Lauder in China. 'Travel is part of my job,' Giannini says in her deep, earthy voice, her English carrying a strong Italian accent. 'It's not any more just being in the studio and being creative. It's really about observing different cultures, different countries. When we talk about an emerging country, sometimes we don't understand - it's already emerged. I would love to travel even more, but I can't because I have to do the collections with my team. But honestly, every time I've had the opportunity, it's a huge enrichment for me.' It has been a particularly busy year, she says. 'If I'm in a big hotel like this I will ask to pay someone to do the unpacking. I really hate it because I have to do it so often. She always packs an alternative to high heels ('something very comfortable, so I can explore a city when I have the chance') and will have a 'good pair of jeans' for the same reason. READ: Gucci prepare to stage first fashion show in China Gucci China employs about 1,500 people so the company has enough ears to the ground to give Giannini a real insider's guide to Shanghai. 'What I like is they have preserved some of the architecture and history and didn't destroy everything. Here the skyscrapers are just 20 years old, all modern. But walking around, you understand the history of this place. In stark contrast to the Pudong, which was created in 1993 when the government designated the area a special economic zone and where the tallest building in China will be completed in 2014, the Bund opposite is a piece of Chinese history from the 1920s and 1930s, when Shanghai exploded as an international trading post. Much of the architecture is now being preserved and restored, and there are blue plaques dotted around. I love the mix of architecture you find here. My preference is the buildings on the Bund. I really love Art Deco. I like the sharp lines and sharp design. When Giannini and her design team took a walk along the Bund a few days earlier they caused quite a stir, and were stopped several times. 'Some people asked me if I was Frida from Gucci and could they have a picture,' she recalls. Like Milan, she says, Shanghai is a city of fashion, with loyal followers. Also with my guys, when we walk in the city we look like a rock band - a bit weird with strange shoes and colourful clothes. With her entourage she visited temples, markets and the French Concession with its network of quiet tree-lined streets and grand colonial houses (mostly split into flats these days), mixed with independent boutiques, bars and restaurants. 'I bought a very cheap ring with a panda design, and a lacquered box,' she says, both from the antiques market. She was also in search of a piece of jade. I found this beautiful butterfly pin, around 150 years old. After a long negotiation, she eventually bought it at, she says, 'a good price'. But while she was interested in doing a bit of shopping, what really caught Giannini's eye was the Shanghainese style. She had noticed a 'love for bright, vivid colours, so when they are wearing all black or white there is always a pop colour - strong yellow, fuchsia or purple in the shoes or a bag. This is something I need to address in the collection,' she says laughing, It is no coincidence, perhaps, that Gucci's collection for spring/summer 2013 was the most brightly coloured ever, with shades of hot pink, jade green, turquoise and mustard yellow all clashing vibrantly on the catwalk. Certainly the appetite for fashion in China is changing. Giannini says that over the past three years there has been a shift from a demand for the logo to more classic leather pieces. I am curious to see what will happen in the next few years. For the moment, of course, it is still a small percentage because we are selling a lot of fabric and interlocking Gs, but it's a sign of something moving in a new direction. You need to update frequently. Gucci's bestseller is the pale pink Soho tote, which retails at £820. But while she works closely with the CEO, Patrizio di Marco (the two have been romantically linked since 2009), on the demands of different markets, she does not try to second-guess the Chinese. 'Most of the time intuition is the best thing,' she says. When you propose something that is specific to that market it is not always 100 per cent well received. They want Gucci because it is an international brand, so if I designed something with a more Chinese attitude, I'm not sure they would appreciate it. Of course I can address, say, the size of the shoes because they have different bodies. But it's changing a lot - until about 10 years ago the Chinese were shorter, now we have a lot of very tall Chinese coming from other regions.' And while China is the land of endless possibilities for a brand such as Gucci, it is also - along with Taiwan and Thailand - the land of fakes. Two days before we met, an entire mall selling luxury fakes was closed down. 'We have made big steps in fighting this over the last five years,' she says. Unfortunately there is always another mushroom growing up somewhere else. It's a huge business, very complicated to fight.' Giannini is frank about the counterfeiting industry and how well some fakes are made. 'Sometimes it's difficult to fight someone who makes a Birkin bag with a Gucci pattern,' she says. You see such strange things. But the quality has improved a lot from, say, 10 years ago, when I could spot a fake bag a long way off. Today, sometimes I need to touch, to smell the leather. They learnt a lot from our craftsmanship. The challenge for us is to go higher and higher. But for the connoisseur, whatever her nationality, it is all about authenticity. For women such as the Chinese film star Li Bingbing, who features in the Chinese ad campaign for the brand and describes herself as a 'Gucci girl', owning a piece of Gucci is a dream that has become a reality. She saved up to buy her first bag when she was at drama school. 'I remember as a designer setting out 20 years ago,' Giannini says, 'we were only thinking about Europe and the US. I was never thinking about India or Asia. The future for young generations is no longer to learn English but Mandarin. She adds that she has just learnt to say thank you in Mandarin.  Shei shei! I wanted at least to be able to say thank you when we leave the stores. And with that, she is off to her next appointment of the day, obviously enjoying the whirlwind of her Shanghai moment.