These hutongs are making her feel brand new.  And being somebody in the China City is almost as good as being somebody in the World City.  Sylvia is just in from Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province, and is planning to live here permanently perhaps working in a magazine.

Continuing to blog for Benetton’s “It’s My Time” campaign, I just wrote about the trend toward China retro and Bye Bye Disco, the shop on Nanluoguxiang started by the New Pants keyboardist Pang Kuan (庞宽) and girlfriend Pei Pei (孙配配), who was on Stylites earlier.

Here is the link to that Fashionista piece that I mentioned earlier.

It’s certainly an eye-catching color for IT girl Wang Xiaolei.

王小蕾(27)是IT公司职员。关于自己的穿衣风格，她说 “必须 this 让我任何时候都浑身自在的休闲随性不盲从的boyish风格”。

From Yunnan, Vivian Shi (23) appears the Chinese editions of men’s magazines like FHM and Maxim in very tantalizing poses.  She gave me an autographed copy of her latest, which is a cover shot on Chinese Maxim (风度).  Also an aspiring actress, she has a very provocative role in a new horror movie.  Here’s her blog, which has more lovely images of her and some movie clips.  She actually worked for a while at Beijing’s only Hooter’s.  Apparently the clients were less flirtatious than one might have expected.  Interestingly, she wears absolutely no makeup when she is not working.  Her skin needs to breath.

The Chinese edition of Grazia has just come off the press with some street style images shot by me (including this one of Vivian).  It is sold throughout China.  Check it out!

施柳屹是个演员。她的穿衣风格是“乱七八糟，舒服为主”。看她漂亮的图片在她个人网站。

《GRAZIA红秀》三月份的杂志刚出来了里面。里面有施柳屹和三个其他的我拍的照片。请去看看！

Okay, someone found a more stylish hobo than the one that started off this whole show.  Nicknamed sharp brother (“犀利哥”）by netizens, this fashionista of the Ningbo streets will hopefully influence the looks of his peers up here in Beijing.  More in Chinese and English.

These two girls in IT and design of some kind come from Nanjing, but are now working in Beijing.  Both had odd bags from elsewhere.

This one was purchased on a trip to London…

…and this one in Seoul.

Beautiful Stranger is a seriously commercialistic street style site.  They found me at Bryant Park.  Luckily for them, I was rather more label-adorned than usual.

我在纽约的时候被这个网站拍过。

Rustic is a big band at the moment.  They won the top title in the Global Battle of the Bands for China, just held in Hong Kong.

This is Ricky, the bassist.  He is from Shijiazhuang, Hebei.  Just before he took this photo, Ricky was pissing on the hutong wall.  He was on his way to getting a tattoo of his girlfriend’s face put on his back.  He describes her as “rich”.  He himself lives with four others in a flat in Tongzhou, where each roommate pays RMB 400.

This young lady from Jiangsu is studying shoe design.  This is her first trip to Beijing and she really enjoyed it, though she barely left the area around Gulou and Nanluoguxiang.  The rest of the city is rather revoltingly modern and homogeneous.

从江苏来的女孩在学鞋设计。这是她第一次来北京。她觉得很好-几乎没有离开南锣鼓巷和鼓楼那块。

For it’s casting campaign It’s My Time (in which Stylites is a partner), Benetton is doing a casting event on Mar 6 and 7 at the named-sans-irony  Shanghai Super Brand Mall.  If you are in Shanghai at the time, stop by.  More information in Chinese on douban.com. Or you can send an email with contact information and picture to this email: castingbenetton@googlemail.com.

BENETTON世界范围的选秀活动“It’s my time”在上海三月6，7号有个活动。更多的信息在douban.com.

The current issue of Beijing’s City Weekend has a two page spread on me in their “Fashionista” section.  Unfortunately, I am sporting paisley and polka dots of the same scale (on tie and pocket square) in the same outfit, which is something of an offense.  Also my overeager smile makes it seem like the can in my hand contains diet coke or red bull rather than sparkling rosé.  Anyway, have a look for yourself.

I encountered Ritchie right outside the tents at Bryant Park.  Born in Xiamen, he now lives in LA and reports on fashion week for the Chinese website called M.Style.  He also has a studio in LA called Triple Major. One project he has worked on recently is called Project White Tshirt, which brought 31 designers from 13 countries together to transform the basic white t-shirt. This is now on exhibition tour and will land in Beijing this fall and be at UCCA.  The pieces will be auctioned to support Designers Against Aids.

Interestingly, Ritchie was profiled by the site Stylelikeu that just interviewed Jeffrey and me.  I interviewed Ritchie in Chinese:

在纽约时装周采访了Ritchie。他是创意机构Triple-Major的创办人，也在M世代杂志写专栏。他在厦门出生，香港长大，现在在洛杉矶居住。
Stylites: 这次纽约时装周你比较喜欢哪些设计师的作品？
Ritchie: 这次时装周我最欣赏Patrik Ervell和Thom Browne的作品。Patrik Ervell是因为他这季用的像雨衣一样的物料很特别，整个展览的音乐和场景也配合得很好。而Thom Browne则是因为他的剪裁和突出得整体效果。

S:从时尚和穿着来说美国和中国有什么区别？美国年轻人面对潮流，名牌等会跟中国年轻人有区别吗？
R: 两地本身的年轻人之间就有很大的区别，所以很难一概而论。但真的要比较的话，中国年轻人普遍对品牌的追求比较大，但有部分穿着挺大胆的。而在美国，服装的整体感觉比名牌重要，但除了纽约以外，其他城市的时装相对保守。

S: 你觉得哪些大陆的服装设计师在国外会最受欢迎？
R: 王一杨的茶缸吧。这个品牌的设计感很强，同时又有很浓厚的中国元素，所以在国外应该会很受欢迎。

S: 哪些中国现代文化作品（电影，音乐，等等）应该被国外的人-尤其是美国人-关注？
R: 我很欣赏山林概念这对创作组合。他们其中一件叫“触墨”的作品把汉字的偏旁部首改造成软垫，围巾等，非常创新，同时可以让外国人了解中国的文字结构。

S: 经常来北京吗？你对这个城市的潮流，穿着，等等有什么影响？你最喜欢北京哪些商店，餐厅，酒吧等等？
R: 不常来，但我很喜欢张旺胡同床吧的感觉，另外鼓楼东一些像RAW一样的小店也是很有特色的。

S: 你以后想长期住在美国，香港还是中国大陆？为什么？
R: 香港和美国我都住过一阵子，所以在不久的将来我应该会来北京居住和工作几年。现在中国的时装正刚起步，时装的发展会相当有趣，所以想体验一下和成为当中的一部分。

I’m blogging now for the Benetton It’s My Time Campaign, which seems in line with what I do on Stylites. Like them, my focus may begin with fashion, but the broader goal is always about telling stories of people here in Beijing.

My blogging with them over the next month or so will give some of the people appearing on Stylites a new place to express their styles, viewpoints and aspirations. However, my first entry is on something a bit different.  I decided to discuss the top ten trends for 2010 and beyond.  Everyone has to try their hand at the whole forecasting thing once in a while.  Among my trends are “hip holidays” and “iconoclastic simplicity” but please check out the rest here.

For the last year, I have been getting contacted by parties looking to advertise nearly every week. I rejected these requests every time, responding that this was a non-commercial site or that their products didn’t match the image of Stylites. Now, I have decided to allow advertising. There are costs involved with running the site; the biggest one is, of course, my time.

Please click here or on the panel above to find out more about advertising on Stylites. Consulting services are also available.

Amidst calls to “just stop buying” to save the environment, Vivienne Westwood announced that her brand will be opening 20 boutiques in China.  She currently has one in Shanghai.  Japan is apparently plastered with this ever-subversive brand.

Vivienne Westwood说了她要在国内开20个新的店。

I sort of doubt it, but the oversized plaid does have a certain drama.  The coat and boots are actually both from Xidan.

Calvin Klein plans to whip up its presence on the Mainland.

Ralph Lauren is also slated to bring all its major lines here, perhaps even opening a Madison Ave-style Mansion somewhere in the French Concession.  I hope the brand has not become too diluted already on the Mainland.  It will be interesting to see how locals respond to the Purple and Black labels.

Apparently, the evil Abercrombie and Bitch is also expected, after their antics received only a lukewarm reception in Tokyo.  Hopefully the government will force them to tone it down a bit for China.  It was quite a travesty when they opened a shop on Savile Row.

She had several lackeys photographing her on Nanluoguxiang.  I joined in.  She is a makeup artist.

Jeffrey Ying, who – as you might be gathering – was my companion during New York Fashion Week, masterfully brings the monsters to life on his blog, leisure class.

After reading his entry, you will see the NYC fashion elite as a bunch of ahistorical red necks. Choice venom is saved for luminaries Tim Blanks and Hamish Bowles, men who seem to have narrowly escaped working as mechanics or farm hands.