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。我问了他一些问题。

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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.

So pretty, they could easily be as attractive as the NYC ones if they only dressed a little better, but the looks that hit me the moment I exit the plane run the gambit from mediocre to heinous.

北京女孩这么漂亮。如果穿的稍微好点肯定会跟纽约的女孩子一样有吸引力。

The world – it was NYC this time – can’t get enough of him.  Is he a modern Des Esseintes, a slimmer Oscar Wilde, or a reincarnation of Emperor Hirohito? Stylelikeu interviewed this polymathic dandy in a charming little apartment in the East Village, not two blocks from where we were staying. This website – which features profiles of stylish individuals and is not unlike Stylites – will carry interviews of both Jeffrey and me.

Jeffrey Ying, the Arbiter of Elegance of LifeStyle Magazine, is positioned to take this narrow island that is always ripe for seizing.  If he can make it here, he can make it anywhere.

Here he is in Williamsburg with Nina, the scion of a Tang general that appeared here last summer.

He was also on the cover (with me) of the Monday 2/15 issue of AM New York. A woman came up to us in the charming subway station at Columbus Circle and gave us two copies, telling us that we had become celebrities.

This blog has featured him as has the New York Social Diary and Getty Images.  I am sure there are several more that we have not yet discovered.  His unique dandyism adds new colors to this isle of joy.

Of the shows I have seen, Y3 might be the most impressive, not so much for the clothing but for the lighting.

It ended with a rather charming fighting performance by the designer.

Here at Bryant Park is Clement, a stylist based in Shanghai and originally from Anhui. He and his partner founded the Clement & Chen Studio in 2007. He is covering New York fashion week for Chinese Madame Figaro. His Studio is involved in fashion shoots, artistic direction, etc. and they work with a range of Chinese publications.

This is the least fun and most commercial of fashion weeks, according to Clement.

At Band of Outsiders with Scott Schuman is Jeffrey Ying, an old associate of mine who appeared here in the same Mao suit. Jeffrey was featured on this extremely refined nyc blog. He seems more notable than most others on the blog.

Here is the Band of Outsiders women’s collection at Style.com. I can’t seem to find the men’s, but the reworked preppy classics were the most wearable and least conceptual stuff I have yet seen at fashion week.

The Guangzhou Daily conducted an interview with me and here is the result.  They are still using that dreadful picture that Sanlian took where I am with my cat.  However, the piece is quite nice.

<<广州日报>>不久之前采访了我，这是文章的链接。没有想到他们用了以前<<三联生活周刊>>采访我时拍的照片。虽然我女朋友的猫咪比我更上镜，但是这篇报道还是挺不错的。

What amazes me is how similar the fashion set here in NYC seems to be to the one in Beijing, both in dress and in personality. The styles are as global as the affectations. I think the surprising thing is less that the NYC people are the way they are, but that the Beijing people have so rapidly studied. I would imagine that just five years ago, Beijing had a much smaller fashion scene.

Duan Yanling is Editor-in-Chief of design magazine Case da Abitare and Atcasa.cn, an online design channel in collaboration with sina.com. She was also hosted CCTV 9 (English) program Travelogue.  She graduated from Stockholm University and completed advanced study at Pace University in NYC.

段妍玲是《居Case da Abitare》和新浪ATCASA设计频道主编，旅游卫视全球创意发现节目《创意生活》的设计行策划、撰稿兼主持，原CCTV9《旅游指南》英语节目主持人。她毕业于斯德哥尔摩大学，后在纽约佩斯大学深造国际广告研究生课程。

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