Coco is just 18 years old but she loves designer products and owns a Louis Vuitton backpack that retails for more than $2000.
It's not even the most expensive item Coco owns. That honour would go to the $20,000 Hermes limited edition handbag she bought with a friend as an investment and which she never wears.
"There are only a few in the world so it's worth it," Coco told news.com.au.
Coco doesn't buy everything designer, she gets her clothes from a variety of stores including Gap and her sunglasses are from South Korean brand Gentle Monster.
As a Chinese student studying in Australia, Coco's parents help her pay for some of the items but she also uses money she earns through some investments she has made.
"If I can buy something I can use for a lifetime, I think it's worth it," she said of her designer habit.
Coco is not the only one. She is part of a growing number of wealthy Chinese living in Australia who are spending big on designer items and fuelling a "significant uptake" in luxury shopping sales.
Australia has already seen the impact of Chinese buyers on the real estate market, now other businesses are starting to understand how impressive the buying power of the Chinese is.
Coco said most of her friends also bought designer goods and other Chinese students news.com.au spoke to agreed.
"Some Chinese students are really rich, they buy every kind of expensive product," Nico, 19, told news.com.au.
She said she only bought maybe one designer handbag a year, and her most expensive purchase was a $2000 Valentino bag.
Lexi, 20, also had friends who bought up big. "Every girl does," she said when asked if she liked designer brands. Her most expensive item is a $1000 Celine bag which her parents bought her in Paris.
While many buy their products overseas because it is cheaper, many purchase the items in Australia.
If I can buy something I can use for a lifetime, it's worth it.
Businesses are now waking up to the buying power of the Chinese, who tend to shop as a recreational activity and are willing to drop large amounts of money on luxury products.
It's something that luxury brands have noticed and designers such as Prada, Mui Mui, Gucci and Monards are increasingly setting up shop in Australia, lured by the spending power of cashed-up immigrants.
"We've never had a wealthy immigrant population come in like this," Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann told news.com.au.
In the past migrants may have been refugees or in the case of previous waves of Chinese immigration - those looking for a better way of life. But this has changed with the latest influx of wealthy Chinese who have sent their children to Australian universities. Many of these students have chosen to stay on after their studies, enjoying the laid-back lifestyle in Australia but also keeping their appetite for designer goods.
Gucci store on Auckland's Queen Street. Photo / Doug Sherring
In recent years they have fuelled a "significant uptake" in luxury shopping and are providing huge opportunities for Aussie businesses.
Initially, it was thought that Chinese tourists were driving an increase in the sale of designer goods but McCann said she realised the boom was partly being driven by expat Chinese living in Australia after meeting VIP shoppers at events hosted by luxury brands.
"We realised that the majority of them were not tourists driving this trade, they were Australians, many of whom had been to university here and had stayed on and got jobs and had families," she said.
Other expats are those who live Australia and have enrolled their children in local schools but who still commute back to China for their jobs.
"A lot of the Chinese we have met ... are coming here with an enormous amount of wealth" McCann said.
"We were hearing stories of students in Australia who were going in and spending $16,000 on a handbag and we had just never seen that before.
"We've never really had a student based population willing to spend that kind of money on luxury before."
We've never really had a student based population willing to spend that kind of money on luxury before.
Not all of the growth is coming from the Chinese, McCann said, and the Middle East and South East Asian shoppers had also contributed. But the Chinese expat market has become so lucrative that brands have started targeting their buying power.
Vogue Australia has been producing a twice-yearly Mandarin edition of its fashion magazine for five years, and always uses Chinese models on the cover.
McCann said there was no doubt big luxury players LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SE) and Kering (which includes luxury houses Gucci, Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga and Stella McCartney) had a focus on Australia now.
"We're seeing more luxury brands here ... we've seen a huge influx of fine jewellery stores: Van Cleef have come, Graff have come, these are not stores that I think would have come to Australia if not for this very significant purchasing power," she said of the Chinese expat market.
Unlike other Australians, who generally engage in a more subtle and lifestyle-driven consumption of luxury goods, the Chinese are more willing to spend big on designer items especially jewellery and watches.
Another luxury retailer told her their growth in Australia had been in the "double digits".
While Melbourne is also benefiting from the boom, Sydney is seeing a lot of activity.
Tiffany is now planning to open a new look global flagship store in the harbour city that will be rolled out around the world. McCann said another luxury house had chosen Sydney as one of three cities around the world to celebrate its upcoming anniversary.
Sydney is also seen as an attractive place for global CEOs to base themselves in the region.
"There's an interest in coming to Sydney," McCann said.
"Schooling, lifestyle, safe banking, there's a lot of attractive things that really could make us a competitor to Singapore and Hong Kong in terms of being a regional centre for certain luxury (brands)," she said.
IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT LUXURY
While the luxury goods sector is benefiting from the influx of Chinese shoppers, other businesses are also sensing the opportunities.
This year Sydney resident Faith Smith launched a brand of fashion-forward sunglasses offering an "Asian fit".
Smith, whose family settled in Australia from Malaysia, is of Chinese heritage, and said sunglasses tended to slide down Asian noses and sit on cheekbones instead.
"I have put up with ill-fitting sunglasses all my life and that's why I started the brand," Smith told news.com.au.
Smith's brand Yay Sunshine has deeper nose pads and the frame sits further away from the face, making them more comfortable.
Brands like Rayban, Dolce & Gabbana and Marc Jacobs are already offering sunglasses with an Asian fit but Smith said they tend to be expensive and difficult to find.
We wanted to offer a different option that you could wear to festivals, which weren't super expensive if you lost them.
Just like Vogue Australia, Smith is targeting Asians living in Australia and while it's still early days for her brand, she believes there is a market for her speciality frames.
"Asian women make up about 6 per cent of the Australian population," she said.
These women also had Australian tastes and may not necessarily want to buy Asian brands.
"A person who lives in Asia is very different to an Asian person living in Australia," she said. "What they find interesting or fashionable is different to what appeals to us.
"We wanted to offer a different option that you could wear to festivals, which weren't super expensive if you lost them, unlike the $400-$500 you pay for a designer pair."
Vogue Australia editor-in-chief Edwina McCann said she thought there were definitely opportunities for Australian businesses to tap into the spending power of Chinese expats and create some of the country's own designer goods.
"We're the producer of the best wool in the world, the only pink diamonds, incredible yellow diamonds - so incredible that Tiffany actually co-own a mine in Australia - the best South Sea pearls in the world ... we produce some of the best cotton," she said.
McCann believes Australian designers could leverage this reputation for quality raw materials to produce the country's own luxury goods.
"Angelica Cheung, editor of Chinese Vogue, actually told me (that) Australia needs to work at its marketing pitch with fashion and luxury goods of our own," McCann said.
She said retailers were also responding.
"I think they're actively courting this consumer and listening to what they want in terms of experience," she said "Especially in this student population, there is a desire to go and have days in malls ... they're happy to do that in a recreational manner.
"That's probably new for Australia and yet we have very good mall retailers in Australia, very sophisticated ones. You see them really upping the ante ... the fit-outs, the quality, the layouts of the brands, the restaurants that are available, the popup installations."
This next generation could be incredible for Australia but it is coming from huge privilege.
There are challenges however. McCann said the Chinese government was already trying to keep more of its citizens' money at home, introducing a luxury tax on goods being brought back into China, and this had impacted sales.
Part of the reason why Chinese bought goods in Australian shops rather than ones in China, McCann said, seemed to be related to trust and concern that the goods would be authentic, even if they were bought in a Prada store, for example.
But it also seemed to be related to travelling and spending the money overseas.
"I think there is very much that holiday experience as well, (having) memorabilia of where you've been," she said.
Sadly, the terrorist attacks in Paris, which was the number one destination for Chinese tourists, has probably also seen more Chinese visit Australia instead and boosted spending here.
But incidents like the Paris attacks only impact the tourist market and the Chinese expat market is much more stable.
McCann sees Chinese expat consumers as very sophisticated with a deep understanding of what they're buying and an interest in learning why things are so highly valued.
She also believes that they had the ability to change Australia in ways that aren't fully understood yet.
"This next generation could be incredible for Australia but it is coming from huge privilege," McCann said.
"It's not just that we've had wealthy immigration, we've had billionaires move here."
Vogue Australia is owned by News Corp, which is also the owner of news.com.au.
