Gong Girl — not to be confused with “Gone Girl” — can finally reconvene offline outside of Shanghai Fashion Week gatherings, as Mark Gong’s eponymous brand, known for its flirtatious portrayal of “that Sabrina Carpenter” kind of girl, recently opened its first stand-alone store at Shanghai‘s Iapm shopping mall.
Gong, who launched his label in 2019, has dressed the likes of Lisa of Blackpink to Rihanna to Jennie, who helped catapult the brand to global fame after being seen in a dog print T-shirt designed with two strands of pearls designed around the neckline.
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Working with Labelhood, the local retailer and designer platform, on retail and merchandising, the store came together in merely two months — a testament to the speed and agility of China‘s fast-evolving retail market.
Designed by Gong’s runway set designer Jiao Zi, the store is a subtle extension of the designer’s most recent fall 2026 runway setup, transforming the space into a purple dream house with metallic accents. A door installation has also been brought into the store, with mannequins striking fierce poses, that doubles as a visual focal point.
Inside the elongated space, which spans around 600 square feet, is the brand’s latest fall collection, priced around 300 renminbi, or $44, for a graphic tank top, to 2,500 renminbi, or $370, for a pair of denim trousers, with a limited selection of runway looks available made-to-order.
For Gong, opening a stand-alone store is a meaningful way to better understand his customers and expand the brand’s product range.
“There were actually quite a few options initially, including Plaza 66 and Jing An Kerry Centre, but personally, I only shop at Plaza 66 and Iapm. After analyzing the two, we noticed that Plaza 66 tends to attract single-brand destination shoppers, whereas Iapm invites more browsing. It has a cinema, a supermarket downstairs and a lot of dining options,” explained Gong, whose first Shanghai studio was also located in the Iapm neighborhood.
“As a new brand entering the market, we felt it was important to be close to diverse traffic and consumer profiles, where the spending level is on par with our target audience,” said Gong, who noted that a recent influx of international tourism in Shanghai was also visible at Iapm.
Located on the third floor, the Mark Gong store stands out as one of the first local labels to establish a presence at the luxury shopping mall, which counts Prada, Miu Miu, Balenciaga and Burberry among its tenants.
“We want to break away from the perception that we are a T-shirt brand,” Gong said. “We first gained mass market recognition because of a T seen on Jennie, which quickly drove single-item sales on Tmall and at multibrand boutiques.
“But we have spent so much time making cocktail dresses, cardigans and suiting, yet the performance of formalwear was not as strong as expected. Finally, Iapm is giving us the opportunity to branch out, which has been a pleasant surprise,” Gong added.
“Despite the broader economic environment, we see this moment as a chance to be more experimental and explore our potential. We are also using retail insights to plan and sharpen future collections,” the designer said.
Having gained retail independence, the plan is to increase the frequency of “drops” and host both market-facing and professional activations, including a post-runway showroom.
“We definitely want the landlord to give us a bigger space; the pressure is on,” Gong said.
