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Ms. Chen must seem fairly “normal” compared to most of the people I find. She caught my eye mainly because she was the most simply dressed person in a huge field of bubble-gum pink, leopard boots, and sequins at Xidan. In that cacophony of fluorescent, overblown make-up and synthetics, someone can really stand out through not trying too hard and being gentle on the eye. She said she doesn’t care much about fashion.
These hair stylists stand outside the malls of Xidan all winter long, waylaying unsuspecting passersby, attempting to drag them in for a cut. They insist that the potential victim’s hair looks terrible and that they can do a better job – or perhaps it is just my hairdo that is particularly dreadful. Even if it is, I’m not sure that I would trust them to make it alright.
These guys are particularly aggressive with females. They will corner unattached girls, getting really close to them, and talk to them for as long as possible, even following them. I don’t think it is mean-spirited or with definite ill-intent, but it certainly would make me uncomfortable if I were one of the targets.
I like the rock and roll look of this guy. I think it is important to realize that Stylites is a record. Much of the time this is an anthropological exercise rather than an aesthetic one. I’m not deliberately attempting to provide style inspirations or examples of refined taste. The attempt is to document the development of style and fashion on the of Beijingers – to show the style landscape, as it were. So if the people photographed are rookies in the world of style or global fashion, then that is what will be here. I’m going to be putting up a full mission statement soon, that will pick up on these ideas.
This guy was trying to help me find other people to photograph, though that might have been yet another ploy to talk to girls.
After all of these pics of young bohemians and foreigners promenading down Nanluoguxiang, Beijing’s hippest traditional hutong, I decided to photograph one of the real residents. Mr. Li Shuming is a painting teacher and he has lived on the street for several decades.
I liked the hat and the nice fit of his Mao jacket, actually called a Zhongshan jacket in China after Sun Yatsen. The jacket is made out of a thick wool, unlike most of the Mao jackets I see which are made from a ratty poly-blend. This is great outerwear and I suggest that viewers consider having modernized versions tailor-made.
H&M is offering organic cotton, but it seems people are dubious regarding the ethical standards of factories that produce for H&M. Wouldn’t it be funny if you could walk into a store and see detailed production data for each rag right on the tag?
“This cashmere sweater was produced with prison labor in Jiangxi province, but the dyes are all natural.”
“This silk/rayon blend scarf was handmade, by a locally owned factory, in a Yunnanese village, but the chemical dyes run off into the nearby Xi brook. Birth defects are common downstream in Wu county.”
“This organic cotton wife beater was produced by workers treated fairly and ethically. The owner of the factory was just shot for bribing the local magistrate.”
But I don’t want to scare people away with my dark, and not very amusing, humor. I do have solutions. With the level of education of the average consumer, we deserve the maximum amount of transparency possible. I propose the following online trading site for handmade goods.
I’m sure you’ve heard of it, but it is a very interesting and strangely retro concept. One of the more interesting aspects of it is that you can see detailed information about the creators and even links to their sites. It is a much friendlier community than ebay. More on this later.
Some visiting HK girls walking down Nanluoguxiang. My eye was actually caught by the yogurt bottle in the hand of one. This sweetened yogurt, in a reusable bottle, sells at every street corner here in Beijing. I try to drink this rather than other sweetened beverages, because it saves packaging. This yogurt costs about one US quarter and has been on offer here for over a decade. Consumption of yogurt and other dairy products in China has skyrocketed, with support from government, because many experts have pointed to the advantages of consuming calcium. The amount of sweetened yogurt selling in grocery stores is astounding, though non-sweetened plain yogurt is impossible to find outside of stores catering to foreigners. Chinese find the flavor of our Middle Eastern yogurt to be too sour.
I saw this scarf from two hundreds meters away, even though I am near-sighted. Getting closer, I saw that it was quite a fabulous piece with a big herringbone and a woolly but soft-looking texture. This is perfect for the windy winters of Beijing. I wasn’t surprised to hear that the wearer is a Londoner – they often have a quirky but confident kind of style. She is here studying for a year.
I don’t know if I would call this “style” but he’s certainly a representative of the new youth of modern China. He is a middle school student who was outside Xidan yelling quite a lot. I wasn’t able to determine why.
From Chengdu, T. P. is an interpreter, fluent in English, Spanish, French and Mandarin. He was here to visit Daniel, a sportswear designer I photographed on another day.
The leather vest adds a somewhat Bavarian flavor to the ensemble. I don’t know that I’ve seen such a vest in Beijing. He seems ready for hiking in the alps, but the boots in jeans look also seems very appropriate for harsh climate of Beijing.
She’s lovely, but that’s almost boring for a girl here in Beijing. The modesty of her outfit, the sensitive fit of the garments, is what allures. In a city where 95% of females opt for flash and sequins combined with tight pants, this is refreshing; viewers might notice that eye-grabbing but gentle and natural styles tend to characterize the women and men appearing on stylites.net.
This clip reminded me of a pocket watch. If anything is played out, it’s jeans tucked into boots for women, but the loose jeans in more relaxed boots was something a little different.
Michelle is a fitting representative for Beijing’s most luxurious house of revitalization, Zen Spa, which is in a beautifully modernized Chinese style courtyard. Rose petal baths and masseuses from Thailand stood out.
Valery – I seemed to have misplaced his business card – runs a gallery nearby Dawang Road. It specializes in art by Europeans. I hope to make it out there some time. He is French himself. His scarf is dyed fur, but I’m not sure from which animal.
Wu Xiangdong is a model and designer – the coat is his own creation. He is also “artistic inspector” for www.bjfsgh.cn.
This trend is far bigger than dhoti pants. Every other fashionable man I see seems to have the jeans tucked into shortish boots thing going this winter. Somehow, I feel that the look must seem edgier in the US. There “pretentious” would be on the lips of every conservative, Brooks Brothersite. Traditionally, people in the States have always worried about appearing pretentious.
Lee Spears from Bloomberg showed up at the party. One doesn’t see English bench-made shoes and fully-canvassed suits much in Beijing, either on foreigners or locals. It is easy to forget about the existence of handmade articles and the sartorial traditions of the West.
One problem that remains here is the absence of quality handmade goods. Some people are surprised to hear this, considering labor is so cheap. Since I’ve never really been in the apparel industry I don’t understand all of the dynamics here, but I’ve identified three major causes, or perhaps “features” of this general situation.
First, goods produced for export are much higher quality than those for the domestic market. A whole range of well-known economic reasons cause this, particularly taxation policies and levels of domestic demand, but I prefer to focus on a cultural cause. Asian countries care about face. They want to make sure that what they send abroad to represent their country maintains that face. It’s ironic that Chinese goods are facing such scrutiny in the States when in fact what they export is very good, especially in comparison to what is available on the domestic market. I actually believe all of the Chinese government’s claims that they do maintain high quality and safety standards for the exports. The recent trouble was just the result of the media deciding to focus on the issue at a time of sensitivity related to the trade deficit. Japan and Korea are the same way. They take the quality of their exports extremely seriously and it is related to face, or at least that’s what people I know here in the government say.
Second, there is little domestic demand for high quality suits, shoes and other goods. Suits and cap toes aren’t really part of the tradition here, so you can forgive Chinese fashionistas for seeking inspiration elsewhere, such as Japan and Korea. For young people, who drive consumption of fashion here to a greater extent than they do in mature economies, hip-hop, skateboarding and other more casual styles that seem to express individuality are preferred to the Saville Row style that is undeniably tied to work and the office and sartorial rules. English is in though. Like in Japan, English mods are a major source of inspiration, and this style is related to the Saville Row tradition, though the inspiration was more directly Italian tailoring. More on local interpretations of mod in the future. There are several shops opening which purport to deliver the mod aesthetic. Older people who would prefer the formal style of Saville Row came onto the consumption scene a bit late.
Third, there has to be some mention of economic causes. China’s economy is geared toward economies of scale and raw material prices are high. Things work well here if they are produced in vast quantities with relatively cheap raw materials. Outside of cashmere and silk, the raw material for most high-end garments has to be imported, and faces taxes.
Back to Lee. The grandpa-esque v-neck is neutralized by the trendy bag. But who am I to jeer at v-necks, with my ubiquitous cardigan?
Last night at the Crowne Plaza on Wangfujing, LifeStyle magazine hosted their “Come Together” party with hundreds of guests from luxury brands, fashion magazines, the hospitality industry, charities, and the PR world. I would like to thank Richard Fu, the General Manager of LifeStyle, for inviting me to the party. It was great fun.
The attire was “casual elegant” and I will be posting pics of the guests interpretations of this style throughout the day, so check back frequently.
Ouou Lee is the designer and art director for Sweet 8 Studio. He was looking quite smart for a city as casual as Beijing. Slim black and gray ties are everywhere these days. They come in polyester as well as silk, but trendy guys wear them in just about every context. The slim tie and fitted puffy jacket look has also swept the ranks of Beijing fashionistas this fall, but the cap and brilliant scarf set Ouou apart.
Ana, from Moldova, has enjoyed watching the shopping options in Beijing expand exponentially in recently. She thinks Beijing women benefit tremendously from fashion mags, displaying style role models.